Diets serve different purposes, from helping with weight loss to addressing diseases or conditions such as diabetes or high cholesterol. Dietary supplements are products that attempt to promote health by providing you with specific vitamins, minerals, amino acids or other nutrients. Depending on your diet, you may want to look at adding dietary supplements to provide you with all the nutrients you need.
Role in Healing
Diets and dietary supplements serve different purposes, based on your needs. You may use them as part of a treatment or as preventive medicine. Some diets are part of a holistic treatment plan prescribed by a practitioner of homeopathy or holistic medicine. Traditional medical doctors may prescribe dietary changes in conjunction with commercial drugs or surgery. You may take dietary supplements as part of a regular regimen to prevent certain diseases and conditions, or to try to treat and remedy conditions after they occur.
Specific Purposes
Diets attempt to address a variety of specific health issues, with many aimed at helping you lose weight. Others target cancer prevention by adding more fiber, or help you reduce cholesterol by lowering cholesterol and emphasizing healthy fatty acids. Dietary supplements may also target specific conditions. For example, many people take fish oil to help lower triglycerides levels in blood cholesterol.
Contents
Supplements may contain synthetic forms of nutrients, such as vitamins, or consist of natural foods, such as herbs. You may see products made from natural ingredients referred to as botanicals, herbal products and phytomedicines. To qualify as a dietary supplement under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, products must be intended to supplement the diet; contain at least one dietary ingredient, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids or herbs; be used orally in pill, tablet, capsule or liquid form; and be labeled on the front of the packaging as a dietary supplement.
Diet Concepts
Among diets, promoters emphasize unique methods to achieve specific results. One weight loss diet may recommend higher amounts of protein while another has you eating fewer carbohydrates. Some diets emphasize less fat or cholesterol, while others focus on the number of calories you eat.
Regulations
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not classify dietary supplements as drugs, and does not regulate them in the same way it regulates food and drugs. In 1994, Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. The act makes supplement manufacturers responsible for bringing safe products to market without FDA approval, and gives the FDA the ability to take action against manufacturers who don't.
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