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Vitamins and antioxidants are covered elsewhere in this Section. "Dietary supplement," also called a nutritional or food supplement, is a more vague designation that frequently incorporates vitamins and antioxidants along with minerals, herbs, spices, concentrates, extracts, metabolites, botanicals, if not melamine and God knows what else.
While none of these substances is a substitute for actual food, the FDA, astoundingly, regulates dietary supplements as foods and not drugs. Be sure you understand: Safety and effectiveness do not need to be proven before marketing such chemicals made to be ingested. Manufacturing standards, contamination, dosages, and potencies are not monitored by anyone but the producer.
If you're still hoping that such supplements are proven life extenders because they cost so much and come with a fancy name and colorful package, you've been very cleverly fooled.
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There are some meager limits to permissible claims. For instance, a dietary supplement may not be marketed as a treatment or cure for a specific disease or condition, but this rarely enforced guideline is routinely skirted by the clever use of wording, for instance, "miracle compound Z supports the structure and function of your immune system."
In Europe, regulations aren't so lax. Supplements must be demonstrated to be safe in quality and quantity. In the United States, it's more like "anything goes."
So while fish oil and grape seed extract are recommended by many doctors, many (if not most) dietary supplements are produced only to take your money and hopefully pass through your body without causing harm.
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