Effects of Food Supplements on Human Health
Outline the effects on food supplements on the human health in the United States
Outline
Introduction (150) words
Introduce what you intend to discuss in this paper
Background to food supplements concept (2pages).
Conduct some background research on this topic
Examples of food supplements (1page)
Enumerate a number of food supplements used in the US.
Need for food supplements (2 pages)
Explain why food supplements are needed
Health risk of food supplements (3 pages)
State and explain a number of health risks from food supplement
Behavior risks of food supplements (2 pages)
State and explain a number of behavior risks from food supplement
Ethical and Legal factors on food supplements (1 page)
What are ethical and legal factors concerning food supplement in the US
Personal critique (1page)
Develop a one page critique from your opinion concerning food supplements
Conclusion (150)
Summarize all that you have discussed in the paper.
Introduction
The consumption of food supplements in the United States has increased steadily in the 21st century. Study indicates that at least one or more dietary supplements are included in the food of both adults and children. A food supplement is a product reinforced in the diet containing vitamins, minerals, organ tissues, and herbs, metabolic or other dietary ingredients. Supplements come in the form of energy bars, drinks, powders, capsules, and tablets. Supplements have various benefits to the body and also negative effects. However, supplements cannot be substituted for a normal diet. The products sold as supplements are always labeled with Supplement Facts listing the active ingredients The purpose of this essay is to discuss the effects of food supplements on human health in the United States. Examples, ethical and legal factors of food supplements are also featured in the paper. The paper also discusses the need for and behavior risks of food supplements.
Background to Food Supplements Concept
Dietary supplements are defined as products intended to complement a food diet. They contain a single or multiple dietary ingredients such as vitamins, herbs, amino acids, and others. Supplements are mainly manufactured in the forms of liquids, pills, tablets, or capsules and have labels to indicate they are dietary supplements. An increasing caution for self-care and healthy living in American society has ignited the need for food supplements (Sirico et al., 2018). As people get more enlightened on the essentials for healthy living, they feel the need to have food supplements. According to a report by the national surveys such as National Health Interview Surveys, about 43% of Americans take at least one mineral or vitamin supplement in a day (Bailey et al., 2013). Some people take supplements with the aim to curb a certain disease such as obesity, and breast cancer. High-alcohol-consuming individuals also use supplements to deplete the harmful ingredients in alcoholic drinks from the body. Also, as strong drugs evolve to combat various diseases, people are encouraged to use supplements that ensure enough supply of nutrients in the body during medication.
The other frequent reason for taking supplements is the belief that the products can promote the health condition of an individual. Reports from teenagers indicated that supplements are preferred for other reasons such as losing weight, enhancing athletic performance, and boosting mental sharpness (Codrington, 2016). Other people just feel they should have supplements to complement any possible deficiency of a certain nutrient. The U.S Congress passed the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994 which led to increased marketing of supplement products (Dwyer, Coates & Smith, 2018). According to the Food and Drug Act (FDA), about 29,000 different dietary supplements are available for purchase by consumers. An estimated 1,000 supplement products are also produced annually. According to Dwyer, Coates & Smith (2018), the sales of food supplements in 2002 amounted to approximately $18 billion per year with an estimated $4 billion sales of botanical supplements. Despite the research-based recommendations that eating a variety of foods is the best source of nutrients to achieve optimal health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases, the use of vitamins and mineral supplements has seen an increasing trend in the last decades which indicates a positive receptive to this idea.
Nonetheless, questions have emerged regarding the safety of some supplements sold to the consumers following an increasing demand for these products. As such, the FDA demands a strategy from the manufacturers to evaluate and review the safety of these ingredients. Such a scenario has caused a substantial challenge in determining which ingredients are safe for human consumption following the high trend of consumption and availability of supplements (Lee, Lim & Yong, 2016). Again, the range of ingredients that qualify as dietary supplements as required by the DSHEA legislation has heightened and hence, fostering more challenges. Even so, unlike the normal drugs which are taken under prescriptions by the doctor, people taking supplements tend to use the over-the-counter (OTC) method to acquire them (Sirico et al., 2018). In this regard, studies indicate that the obstinate feeling about the potential health benefits from supplements by the consumers poses little chances to cease from them even when scientific research proves them ineffective. Studies also indicate that public support is on the increase regarding government regulations of these products. In this regard, the government is prompted to ensure that the advertising information concerning the health benefits in the supplements is true to avoid misleading the consumers.
Examples of Food Supplements
Different kinds of supplements are consumed depending on the intended purpose by the consumer or the results to be achieved. In this regard, there are various examples of food supplements as discussed below.
- Vitamins –Vitamins are essential for fighting off diseases. Taking vitamin supplements prevents people from falling sick easily by boosting their immune system.
- Minerals – These are grouped as trace and major minerals and need to be balanced to obtain the maximum benefit to the body. Some food sources for minerals may have the two classes in imbalanced portions and hence reducing the health condition of an individual. Major minerals such as calcium and phosphorous help to retain healthy nails, hair, and skin (Langella, Guarner & Martín, 2019). Trace minerals like iron and zinc prevent tooth decay, aid blood clotting, and support the immune system.
- Protein – proteins are needed in every body cell for body functioning. Deficiency may lead to poor muscle and bone development. While some people may have allergies to the natural sources of proteins such as red meat and eggs, supplements play an essential role to ensure enough proteins such as people’s bodies (Sirico et al., 2018).
- Carbohydrates –These are essential for providing energy to the tissues and cells of the body. People who do strenuous jobs require carbohydrate supplements to keep them energized for their activities. These are mostly found in terms of drinks and energy bars.
- Fats – essential for body energy and other functions. While unhealthy fats such as saturated fats cause serious health issues to the body, fat supplements are vital. In this regard, fat supplements play a great role to ensure that the bodies are not starved of the essential amounts of fats.
Need for Food Supplements
There are various reasons as to why food supplements are essential in one’s body. For instance, people need supplements to fill the nutritional gap. Various studies indicate that the current busy world where everyone is on the look to capture new opportunities for minting money, people have resolved to eat fast and inexpensive processed foods. Most people do not have time to prepare the standard three meals from their homes because they are in the rush to carry out businesses and do traveling (Bailey et al., 2013). Such fast foods lack the proper dietary standards and as a result, our bodies are left to struggle in milking the necessary nutrients from these foods. Therefore, food supplements should be considered as a ‘must take’ by everyone. Indeed, the incredible reliance on fast foods reduces appetite for food leading to poor diet.
Another need for food supplements is that nutrient absorption deteriorates with age. As people grow old, the absorption ability for nutrients decreases because they become weak and unable to crack down and absorb them as before. The digestive enzymes which are responsible for breaking down the nutrients and absorb are produced at a deteriorating rate. Further, older people tend to fall sick easily and hence necessitating the need to take drugs regularly (Sirico et al., 2018). Some medications deplete the essential nutrients and hence the body becomes starved. In this regard, diet supplements become an essential factor to restore and complement such deficiency. Further, in the modern world of industrialization, people are exposed to toxic substances such as herbicides and pesticides used in farming food. Exposure to chemicals found in drinking water and other environmental pollutions initiate a need to take extra minerals and vitamins. The harmful chemicals initiate the development of free radicals in the bodies that fight our immune and digestive systems (Sirico et al., 2018). As such, taking in antioxidants helps to fight the radicals.
Additionally, eating healthily does not guarantee an efficient supply of nutrients to the body because consuming certain foods needs a proper balance. In this regard, taking supplements is a critical aspect. For instance, people who are allergic to red meat have the option of eating white meat such as chicken and fish. Indeed, chicken meat and fish are considered quite expensive and some people may rarely afford them. As a result, their bodies end up lacking sufficient amounts of B12 found in animal products (Peacock et al., 2019). In this consideration, an individual becomes susceptible to certain kinds of diseases. Base on this fact, taking in supplements that are rarely associated with allergies becomes very important to ensure that the body still gets enough of the nutrients. Taking vitamin B12 supplements promotes the development of DNA, healthy nerves, and blood cells.
Another need for supplements results from doing vigorous exercises. Athletes and sports are generally known to engage in vigorous exercises which leads to a high rate of energy and nutrients consumption. While after an extreme workout, the appetite to eat may not match the need for nutrients already depleted, taking in protein powder ensures intake of the necessary calories (Peacock et al., 2019). Other people choose to intentionally skip meals just to lose weight or for religious practices. The fact is that the bodies exhaust all the nutrients during such moments and this necessitates supplements. Stress and medical complications also lead to a greater need for certain minerals and nutrients. Generally, everyone is in need of supplements for some reason.
Health Risk of Food Supplements
Dietary supplements are meant to yield health benefits to consumers. Nonetheless, recent studies indicate that some supplements induce more harm than benefits to the health of the consumers. Research by the FDA between 2004 and 2016 indicated that about 40% of young adults had health issues linked with dietary supplements. Importantly to note, some supplements are deemed more dangerous than others. Accordingly, colon cleansing, sexual-boosters, and weight loss products are likely to cause health hazards than vitamin supplements (Anders & Schroeter, 2017). While most of the products have tainted information regarding the contained ingredients, they pose great health risks to the consumers. A report in 2015 revealed that weight loss products had amphetamine-like stimulant and was not indicated on the label which poses misleading information to consumers. About 23,000 patients in the emergency departments are linked with supplement-related health issues.
Another major health risk of food supplements concerns their safety to consumers. Most of the manufacturers advertise their products and consumers are lured to purchase them even without safety consideration. It is unfortunate that the Food and Drug Act (FDA) does not approve any dietary supplement and only relies on the safety information provided by the manufacturers. The manufacturers only provide a basis for concluding a product to be safe and notify the FDA that such claims will be made to the public. On this note, the manufacturers have resolved to only consider the DSHEA regulations and neglect the safety of their products. The advertisement of supplements only state the potential health benefits as allowed by the DSHEA, and fail to mention the side effects such as insomnia and dementia diseases. In this regard, while most supplements meet the criteria provided by the DSHEA, the agency needs to be amended to demand the efficacy of evidence from the manufactures for the proposed improvement in wellbeing by the products. In this way, consumers will be able to make informed decisions while their safety is regarded.
Cardiovascular Attacks – Overdosage cases are rampant among the US supplement consumers which pose health risks such as cardiovascular attacks. Taking some supplements in excess caused by the lack of relevant prescriptions increases the need for other nutrients to match those supplemented (Peacock et al., 2019). While the consumer may continue overdosing and hence suppressing other nutrients, this leads to heart attacks and other chronic diseases. Further, when supplements are taken alongside medication, they pose the risk of heart attacks. Also, when vitamins A and D are taken in larger doses, they cause an accumulation of toxic substances. These act as a poison in the body and can lead to mortality if not corrected in good time and appropriately. Notably, calories supplements taken in inappropriate dosages cause an imbalance in blood sugar leading to diabetes diseases.
Further, inappropriate nutrient supply in the body leads to diseases associated with a lack of particular nutrients. Most of the supplements are purchased over the counter without the doctor’s recommendations and prescriptions (Rucker & Rucker, 2016). As such, consumers may take inappropriate dosages of supplements unnecessarily. Inappropriate dosages lead to inappropriate proportions of critical nutrients in the body. As a result, some nutrients may be supplied in excess while others in deficiency. Such a case leads to the diseases associated with deficiency of the specific nutrients. For instance, excess fats in the body lead to obesity while Vitamin D deficiency will lead to marasmus. It is for this reason that people should be encouraged to take supplements only under doctors’ conditions after a body check-up to investigate the kind of nutrients in deficiency (Rucker & Rucker, 2016). Otherwise, people will be taking supplements for the nutrients they already have and neglecting the ones they have a deficiency.
Further, some supplements meant to instill a certain nutrient to the body may be an obstacle to the absorption ability of other nutrients. In this case, some nutrients become deficient in the body and the consumers fall at risk of contracting related diseases. For instance, amino acid supplements that are meant to boost muscle development may damage the kidneys (Viscecchia et al., 2016). As a result, the need to treat kidney disease is initiated by a supplement consumption. Remarkably, it is probable that treating the resultant health defect will be more expensive than the cost of obtaining the causative factor – supplements. In other words, some forms of supplements act as a remedy for some deficiency while instilling other health problems to the body.
According to Viscecchia et al. (2016), about 80% of supplements contain a pharmaceutical ingredient, and such information is not displayed on the label. In this consideration, such supplements pose health risks to individuals because they end up imposing treatment for an illness they are not suffering from through such ingredients. As such, if consumers of such supplements suffer from a disease that requires the ‘already consumed’ pharmaceutical ingredients, obtaining appropriate medication becomes a challenge (Viscecchia et al., 2016). Such is because the immune system is weakened by the unnecessary consumption of ingredients which leads to the development of resistance. Hence, when the consumer is treated using medication whose active ingredients are resisted by the body and cannot be sustained by the immune system, the patient outcomes are suppressed.
Behavior Risks of Food Supplements
The increasing availability and preference of food supplements following common beliefs that they boost health status have initiated some behavioral changes to the consumers. Some of these behavioral changes are risky to the individuals’ health and include over-reliance on supplements posing threats to one’s health. Research indicates that while most of these supplements are expensive, only a few people afford them (Lee, Lim & Yong, 2016). Following this fact, most of those who consume the supplements are the ones least likely to need them. In other words, some consumers are driven to purchase them by appealing advertisements and their purchasing power. The tendency to consume them is, therefore, driven by the wrong force. In this regard, those with purchasing power make it a habit to consume supplements even when their bodies have enough of them (Lee, Lim & Yong, 2016). As it is said, excess of everything is dangerous, such individuals are exposed to serious health challenges.
Poor Eating Habits – Frequent supplement consumers tend to develop poor dieting especially those whose objective is to lose weight. Losing weight is associated with cutting down of the availability of the fat in the bodies. As such, some consumers who are addicted to taking food supplements tend to assume that it is okay to skip meals, as long as they obtain the relevant nutrients from supplements (Viscecchia et al., 2016). Critical to note, supplements should not be used to replace normal food intakes. However, this is the notion with most consumers who resolve to skip meals in the quest to avoid excess consumption of nutrients from food intakes. In this regard, reliance on supplements creates poor eating habits.
Irresponsible Supplement Consumption – According to the research, only 50% of supplement consumers have been directed by medical practitioners (Peacock et al., 2019). Such follows a medical check-up which indicates a need to supplement some nutrients which are insufficient in the body. The other 50% take supplements under the influence of their peers, sports coaches, the media, and the internet (Oostdijk et al., 2019). In this case, some individuals are just lured into using some supplements without even analyzing the idea of what specific intentions they are meant to meet. Such influence leads to wrong motives of taking the supplements and hence posing threats to the health of an individual.
Another behavioral risk is that consumers have taken charge of their health according to studies regarding healthcare expenditures. According to Viscecchia et al. (2016), America made approximately $10 billion from the sale of diet supplements and unconventional medicine. The high number of Americans taking supplements and herbal medications also indicates that they take charge of their health. Such a change in demographics poses threats to the general health of the population because the trend to perceive supplements as remedies for health challenges lacks evidence-based research. Additionally, the role of medical practitioners in society is challenged and the consumers may pose challenges in their treatment methodologies when they fall sick.
Further, reliance on a certain supplement brand or product to obtain nutrients may be difficult to change in case a better product is revealed. A consumer who has become used to a certain supplement finds it difficult to shift to another even when it is declared ineffective, and an alternative provided (Viscecchia et al., 2016). In this consideration, the consumer will continue spending money to purchase an invalid product as long as it is in stock without gaining any benefit, just because of the strong attachment developed.
Ethical and Legal Factors on Food Supplements
Various legal and ethical factors concern the concept of food supplements. Such factors impose bioethical concerns since numerous people are led to take the wrong supplements for wrong purposes. One of the ethical factors is that supplements have been associated with mislabeling and missing active ingredients (Peacock et al., 2019). The failure to label all the active ingredients complicates the intention of a consumer who may have some allergic reactions. Again, these complementary nutrient sources lack scientific research and hence little or no information is known about therapeutic effects they may impose on certain populations such as children and lactating mothers (Oostdijk et al., 2019). Most of the supplement providers also lack medical training which induces health risks to the consumers. As such, any claims of the supplements to curb a particular health condition are nullified by the variability in samples (Rucker & Rucker, 2016). Such variability makes it difficult for doctors to recommend the right proportions to be taken within a certain duration. On this note, the value of these supplements remains uncorroborated.
Legally, food supplements are regulated under the Food and Drug Act. In this regard, the manufacturers are bestowed with the responsibility to comply with the legislation in the production of supplements. As suppliers advertise food supplements, they have to make claims based on the regulations by DSHEA. Further, the U.S. Food and Drug Act controls the quality and safety of supplements sold to consumers (Binns, Lee & Lee, 2018). The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was also implemented in 1994 to regulate the effectiveness and safety of supplements. This act collaborates with FDA to regulate supplements as foods and not drugs. In this regard, dietary supplements are exempted from efficiency and safety testing requirements, unlike drugs.
Personal Critique
Proper nutrition is essential to ensure a long and healthy living. With the appealing motive to lead a healthy life, more people find it hard to resist taking these supplements. On this note, it is important that scientific research is carried out to investigate the efficacy and safety of the ingredients included in food supplements. Policies should also be implemented by the states to regulate the safety requirements of supplements, which the manufactures should adhere to (Dwyer, Coates & Smith, 2018). This is to ensure that as people resolve to take supplements for various reasons, they are assured of their safety.
Notably, a life free from diseases is a desire by every individual. However, while maintaining a healthy body requires eating a balanced diet, this has become a challenge for most people. Most of the foods we eat on a daily basis lack one or two nutrients and in the recommended proportions. Some factors are attached to these phenomena including lack of time to prepare meals properly, due to busy work schedules. Another reason is the lack of access to some foods due to poverty or scarce supply. In this consideration, dietary supplements are of great importance to ensure that our bodies remain nourished.
The irresistible evolving lifestyles have been said to initiate some kinds of diseases such as cancer, stroke, and high blood pressure (Peacock et al., 2019). On this note, food supplements play a great role in inhibiting common disease attacks by enhancing the immune system. Therefore, supplements are good for healthy living but should be taken under instructions by the doctors. Such is because supplements play the role of instituting a deficient nutrient in the body, and hence an individual requires a body examination to prove the need.
Conclusion
Generally, the use of dietary supplements has become the norm in modern society. The paper has analyzed various aspects associated with the concept of dietary supplements. The research behind supplements-use and the increasing trend to use food supplements in the American population has been noted. The paper highlighted examples of supplements including vitamins, proteins, and fats. Various reasons why people need supplements such as boosting the deficient ones have been discussed. Other people are influenced to take supplements by the kind of activities they engage in such as sports. Some health and behavioral risks of supplements include loss of appetite and an increase in cardiovascular attacks. Supplements also induce resistance to medical drugs which creates challenges in case of disease treatment. A major ethical issue with supplement-use concerns safety and impacts on the consumers. The policies that regulate production and consumption is the greatest legal concern about dietary supplements.
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