Post by kickingfrog on Mar 13, 2014 9:09:02 GMT
What are dietary supplements?
Posted by Lily on 13/3/2014
GF board
NHS Choices
...What are dietary supplements?
As their name implies, dietary or nutritional
supplements include any consumed products that
aim to supplement the diet and provide additional
nutrients that may be missing from it, or aren’t
being consumed in sufficient quantities.
Today’s
supplements contain not just vitamins and
minerals, but herbs, amino acids, enzymes, fibre
and fatty acids. They also come in a variety of
forms, including traditional tablets, capsules,
powders, drinks and supplement bars.
They can
be found in supermarkets, pharmacies, health
food shops and, of course, on the internet.
Many
supplements are actually classified as foods rather
than medicines and so don’t have to go through
the usual checks and regulations a medicine would
go through for safety and efficacy (how well it
works) before being put on the market. They are
covered by the Food Safety Act and should not be
harmful to health.
Other supplements are classified and regulated as
medicines because of their reported effects and
methods of use. This means that different products
that contain the same main ‘active’ ingredient may
actually have different classifications, with
some classed as foods and others as medicines.....
...in the UK certain
supplements are considered to be foods and will
therefore be regulated under general food laws
by the Food Standards Agency and Department of
Health. Others will be regulated as a medicine by
the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency
(MHRA).
Before a medicinal product can be marketed it must be
approved by the MHRA, which makes its decision
based on the product’s safety, quality and efficacy6
....
If a supplement is considered to be a food, that
does not mean it is unregulated, rather that it
is subject to food safety laws, which are not as
stringent as those for medicines.
There is also EU legislation that dictates which
vitamins and minerals can be included in
supplements...
www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Documents/BtH_supplements.pdf
Posted by Lily on 13/3/2014
GF board
NHS Choices
...What are dietary supplements?
As their name implies, dietary or nutritional
supplements include any consumed products that
aim to supplement the diet and provide additional
nutrients that may be missing from it, or aren’t
being consumed in sufficient quantities.
Today’s
supplements contain not just vitamins and
minerals, but herbs, amino acids, enzymes, fibre
and fatty acids. They also come in a variety of
forms, including traditional tablets, capsules,
powders, drinks and supplement bars.
They can
be found in supermarkets, pharmacies, health
food shops and, of course, on the internet.
Many
supplements are actually classified as foods rather
than medicines and so don’t have to go through
the usual checks and regulations a medicine would
go through for safety and efficacy (how well it
works) before being put on the market. They are
covered by the Food Safety Act and should not be
harmful to health.
Other supplements are classified and regulated as
medicines because of their reported effects and
methods of use. This means that different products
that contain the same main ‘active’ ingredient may
actually have different classifications, with
some classed as foods and others as medicines.....
...in the UK certain
supplements are considered to be foods and will
therefore be regulated under general food laws
by the Food Standards Agency and Department of
Health. Others will be regulated as a medicine by
the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency
(MHRA).
Before a medicinal product can be marketed it must be
approved by the MHRA, which makes its decision
based on the product’s safety, quality and efficacy6
....
If a supplement is considered to be a food, that
does not mean it is unregulated, rather that it
is subject to food safety laws, which are not as
stringent as those for medicines.
There is also EU legislation that dictates which
vitamins and minerals can be included in
supplements...
www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Documents/BtH_supplements.pdf