WHAT EXACTLY ARE DIET SUPPLEMENTS?

A diet supplement is any product that you take orally that adds to the content of your ordinary diet. Not all supplements are intended to promote weight loss; a supplement may provide valuable nutritional replacement for consumers who don’t get enough of a specific ingredient in their daily meals. A dietary supplement may contain:

Vitamins

Minerals

Amino acids (Building blocks of protein)

Enzymes

Botanical products/herbs

Glandular extracts

Organ products

People take diet supplements for many different reasons: to lose or gain weight, to restore lost nutrients, to build muscle tissue, to support physical functions like eyesight, to improve sleep, or to boost energy.

Just because a diet pill or supplement is sold in attractive packaging at a local drugstore or through an online vendor doesn’t mean that it’s safe. Many consumers aren’t aware that products marketed as diet supplements aren’t subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unless the product contains a new ingredient. According to the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, it’s the manufacturer’s responsibility to prove that a supplement is safe, and not all manufacturers comply with this requirement. Many manufacturers have been accused of making false claims about their products, adding pharmaceutical ingredients to their supplements or producing their supplements under unsafe circumstances.