Recommendations from Dr. Google
Polish people they are quite a specific nation in terms of preventive health care. They prefer to rely on recommendations from the Internet or advice from your loved ones rather than go to specialist and tell you about your ailments. Therefore, more and more of Our attention is directed to dietary supplements, believing that it will be a panacea for all unpleasant symptoms – from dry skin, fatigue, through chronic pain, to serious diseases such as diabetes, obesity or diseases thyroid gland. Dietary supplements are special measures associated with medicines, and thus with attention to quality and health-promoting features.
according to with the definition specified in the Food Safety and Nutrition Act of 25 August 2006, the dietary supplement is: “a foodstuff with the purpose of being supplementing a normal diet, being a concentrated source of vitamins or minerals or other substances with a nutritional effect, or other physiological, single or complex, marketed in a form permitting dosing (…), excluding products with properties of a medicinal product within the meaning of pharmaceutical law ”.
Influx supplements on the market
Committee The European summed up a few years ago that the substances used for production of dietary supplements amounts to approx. 400, of which 50% of the dietary supplements market in the European Union European are vitamins and minerals. So it would seem that consumer expectations are reasonable – vitamins and minerals it after all, products with a beneficial effect on health.
Pose vitamins and minerals, other supplements can be classified in six categories:
amino acids (L-arginine);
enzymes – lactase, papain;
prebiotics and probiotics – inulin, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium species, yeast;
essential fatty acids – acid gamma-linolenic, fish oil (DHA / EPA), linseed oil (Linum usitatissimum), oil from borage seeds (Borago officinalis);
ingredients vegetable – aloe (Aloe vera), ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), ginseng (Panax ginseng), garlic (Allium sativum), green tea extract (Camellia sinensis), extract Garcinia cambogia, extract guarany (Paullinia cupana);
other substances such as: lycopene, lutein, coenzyme Q10, taurine, carnitine, inositol, glucosamine, chitosan, spirulina, soy isoflavones.
All the above-mentioned substances in appropriate doses show different impact on individual systems and organs of the human body, co confirmed by many studies. They support the immune system, they affect organs of movement, delay the aging process, support slimming, affect cardiovascular system, support the digestive system, have a positive effect on the body in states of increased physical effort, support the proper vision process, affect the condition of the skin, hair and nails.
Supplement it’s not a drug!
Unfortunately, the information contained in the legal requirements for dietary supplements is still unclear and very truncated. Although there are several documents regulating the issue supplements, producers can still use some legal loopholes and market low-quality products. For example, there is a ban assigning properties to a food (dietary supplement) disease prevention or treatment. The manufacturer also cannot reference to such properties. Examples of phrases that we can find on dietary supplement labels that may suggest medicinal properties of the product can be:
soothes dry cough;
w in the case of fever and in the recovery period;
na throat and cough;
w naturally reduces the likelihood of atherosclerotic changes, supports the heart and circulatory system;
it works antibacterial and antifungal;
to natural antibiotic;
jest effective in the early stages of periodontitis and gum disease.
Rules the aforementioned applies not only to the packaging and information on contained therein, but also to advertising and the environment in which the product is presented. So let’s consider what the packaging of dietary supplements looks like, how they are presented in advertisements and where we can buy them. Thread no wonder the product is packed like a medicine, presented as a miracle healer on advertising and appearing in pharmacies next to the antibiotic, it is seen as a healing agent for most of us.
Each may place the supplement on the market
Another one Another pressing problem with dietary supplements is the lack of regulation legal regulations regarding the placing of supplements on the market. Unfortunately, according to It is not required by the applicable law to introduce a dietary supplement to the market obtaining an authorization, as is the case with medicines. The NIK report itself says that in the current legal state, anyone can introduce the supplement to the market, declaring only its composition to sanitary authorities by the so-called notification, that is, a simple notification. Theoretically, chances are you will have the product that goes to the market will be tested, but in practice the scale of the market exceeds current control capabilities of the Sanitary Inspection. The controls it carries out The inspections concern only a part of the market, and the procedures themselves may take some time – as shown by the audit of the Supreme Audit Office – even several years. In many cases dietary supplements sold are not tested …
Amphetamine in supplements
Last year’s the control of dietary supplements by the Supreme Chamber of Control showed many weaknesses of the law in consumer safety issues. On sale next to reliable preparations there were adulterated dietary supplements. Inadequate quality has been demonstrated samples in terms of the declared composition – the samples showed no characteristics declared by the producers, and the dietary supplement was also harmful for one’s health. Namely, the results of laboratory tests of the dietary supplement of the group the so-called “Fat burners”, indicated the adulteration of the product with stimulants, structurally similar to amphetamines!
While on 11 tested probiotics samples, 4 samples of supplements were found to be present microbial strains not included in the composition. Also in 4 samples of the subjects tested were found to have a lower number than that declared on the packaging probiotic bacteria. Moreover, contamination was detected in one sample product – presence of pathogenic bacteria from the Enterococcus faecium group, i.e. the so-called fecal bacteria. Their presence in products intended for consumption poses a serious threat to health and even life!
About of probiotics yet, it has been shown that over time (but still in during the shelf life declared on the packaging), followed dynamic decrease in the number of live bacteria cells. I mean, it really is we are never sure how effective the product will work because it may turn out that there are almost no living organisms left in the capsules bacterial. Let me ignore the fact that a similar statement can be made over any other supplements, such as those containing vitamins or minerals.
Jak find yourself in it?
Above everything: follow a varied, healthy diet. Any ingredients we can provide the body with nutrients from natural food – maybe for except for vitamin D, which we must supplement obligatorily. Then it’s worth it however, seek medical attention and obtain a prescription for the tested product curative, and not rely on the supplement “hit and miss” at the point pharmacy.
Źródła:
www.nik.gov.pl/plik/id,13978,vp,16418.pdf [accessed on May 17.05.2018, XNUMX]
www.nik.gov.pl/aktualnosci/nik-o-dopuszczaniu-do-obrotu-suplementow-diety.html [accessed on May 17.05.2018, XNUMX]
Commission staff working document „Characteristics and perspectives of the market for food supplements containing substances other than vitamins and minerals” – Bruksela, 5.12.2008 SEC(2008) 2976
Ordinance (EC) No 258/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 1997. on novel foods and novel food ingredients. Journal Of WE L 43, p. 1, 1997 / 02 / 14.
Krasnowska G., Sikora T .: Diet supplements and consumer safety. FOOD. Science. Technology. Quality, 2011, 4 (77), 5 – 23.
Photos:
1. https://www.pexels.com/photo/drink-girl-glass-hands-576831/
2. https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-beige-medicine-47073/
3. https://www.pexels.com/photo/colors-colours-health-medicine-143654/