The start of the school year marks the arrival of a procession of minor inconveniences, including the loss of form acquired throughout the summer. Or even the autumnal hair loss, or sometimes even depression, or weight gain.
In the aisles of pharmacies, you have definitely seen these little capsules, gummies or tablets packed with vitamins and minerals adapted to each problem. Are you tempted? We would be less so given the enticing advertising promises and the plethora of offers in the sector. So is the solution to using these products?
What is the point of food supplements?
First of all, you should know that food supplements are sold in pharmacies (sometimes in organic or specialized stores) without being medicines, even if they concern our health. And in this area, caution is required. Let’s also recall their definition.
The European Directive (2002/46/EC) defines food supplements as “ foodstuffs intended to supplement a normal diet and which constitute a concentrated source of nutrients or other substances having a nutritional or physiological effect, alone or in combination, marketed in dosage form, namely in forms of presentation such as capsules, lozenges, tablets, pills and other similar forms, as well as sachets of powder, ampoules of liquid, bottles with droppers and other similar forms of liquid or powder preparations intended to be taken in measured units of small quantities ».
When is taking a dietary supplement justified?
According to Aymeric Dopter, head of the Nutrition Risk Assessment Unit at ANSES“the normal diet can be understood as a diet that conforms to a standard, as the diet of the majority or as the usual diet of an individual. There are of course no standards in terms of diet as each individual has different needs from those of his neighbor. As for the notion of usual diet, it should be remembered that habits are not necessarily good. More than “normality”, it is rather a question of balance. However, for an individual, a balanced diet consists of covering his nutritional needs. In this context, a food supplement will only have the benefit of providing nutrients whose needs would not be covered by the diet.”
If you eat a balanced diet, you get the nutrients you need.
The justification for the use of a food supplement therefore obeys a precise imperative. It must be justified by a nutritional need that cannot be covered by a normal diet. For example, if you exclude a certain category of foods. Which is strongly discouraged because the secret to health lies in a varied and balanced diet. Specific example: you want to supplement with vitamin C because you feel tired. If you regularly eat fruits and vegetables that are rich in it (kiwis, citrus fruits, peppers, parsley, etc.), you will get enough.
We can therefore ask ourselves what is the point of increasing our intake, with products that may contain adjuvants, unnatural vitamins, etc. Taking these products may be recommended at certain times of life (pregnancy, menopause, etc.) but only after medical advice. Apart from these particularities, if you eat a balanced and varied diet, you will absorb all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. And that is enough.
With all due respect to marketing experts who are bombarded with messages that go in other directions, it should be noted that the repeated and abusive use of these products is not insignificant. Even if they are not medications, an excess of certain vitamins or minerals may be strongly discouraged depending on your state of health. It is therefore advisable to be particularly vigilant and not to take cures lightly.
Thanks to Aymeric Dopter, head of the Nutrition Risk Assessment Unit at ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety).
Source: www.topsante.com
