Dietary supplements, also referred to as diet supplements, are food items or manufactured products (like pills, capsules, tablets or powder) containing extracted or synthetic nutrients from food sources that provide any number of health benefits. Dietary supplements can be taken for any health purpose worldwide and international societies recommend that infants begin receiving them around six months.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic compounds found in our bodies that play an essential role in various metabolic processes. We cannot synthesize vitamins ourselves and must obtain them through diet.
There are 13 recognized vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) can be stored in fat tissues and the liver until needed; while water-soluble ones (vitamin C and the B complex) cannot be stored and any excess is excreted via urine.
Vitamin A can be found in animal foods like whole milk, salmon, liver and eggs as well as plant foods like leafy vegetables, carrots and cantaloupe. Vitamin A plays an essential role in maintaining healthy skin, mucus membranes and cell growth & immune function as well as providing powerful antioxidant protection and helping with iron absorption. Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin pantothenic acid folate/folic acid and biotin are among its family of B-complex vitamins.
Minerals
Minerals are naturally-occurring solid substances made up of inorganic elements that form crystal structures. Each mineral has a distinct recipe for its formation and arrangement of its atoms; some varieties can even be soft or hard, with translucent or opaque properties.
Minerals, like vitamins, are an integral component of good health and should be obtained through food sources. Some common minerals we need include calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, iron and zinc; additionally, we require trace minerals like copper, iodine and selenium in smaller amounts.
Some minerals are polymorphs, meaning that their chemical makeup remains constant but their physical structures vary dramatically. Carbon can be arranged in various ways to form either soft graphite used in pencils or harder diamonds depending on its atomic arrangements and bonding behavior.
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are necessary components of life. Unfortunately, they are all abundantly present in food sources, although there may be supplements with them as well.
Dietary Supplements
Dietary supplements are products designed to supplement your daily diet — such as vitamins, minerals, herbs or enzymes — available in tablets, capsules, gelcaps, powders or drinks. Multivitamins are by far the most widely consumed dietary supplements.
Over half of Americans take dietary supplements regularly and these can help fill in gaps in your diet, particularly if health conditions dictate eating patterns differently than usual. Calcium and vitamin D supplements may help strengthen bones while folic acid and fish oil supplements may prevent deficiencies caused by certain conditions.
FDA regulates dietary supplements and requires their manufacturers to abide by “good manufacturing practices”, in order to guarantee they contain their identity, purity, quality, strength and composition as stated on their label. You can learn more about dietary supplements – such as how to identify fraudulent and unsafe products – on FDA’s website as well as National Institutes of Health’s Medline Plus platform.
