Dietary supplement users make healthier diet choices

The data in this article comes from a recent study entitled "Health Habits and Other Characteristics of Supplement Users" published by the well-respected US Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN). Contrary to some popular negative beliefs, it concludes that dietary supplement users are more likely to receive necessary food nutrients and make healthier diet decisions than those who do not take supplements.

Contribution To Healthy Living
CRN conducted a large study of 20 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and found that "Overall, the evidence suggests that users of dietary supplements are seeking wellness and are consciously adopting a variety of lifestyle habits that they consider to contribute to healthy living.”

100 Million Intelligent Choices
Other recent data suggests that about 68% of the US population regularly take dietary supplements - that’s over 200 million people!! CRN noted that the journal articles they reviewed in this survey covered more than half of all those users - well over 100 million people. In contrast to the negative attitudes of those who unreasonably oppose supplements, most of those millions of users surveyed used intelligent supplement based strategies to improve their food choices. This directly contradicts the erroneous negative belief that they use those choices to replace nutritional voids left by poor food choices and sedentary lifestyles.

Informed Nutrition Choices
This evidence suggests that they were not ignoring food specifically required for good nutrition but were actually making informed and beneficial food choices in conjunction with their supplement intake to help improve their overall wellbeing. This contrasts with those who did not take supplements who were often found to make poor food choices. The study revealed that foods that are good for us with high nutritional values are, of course, excellent for health on their own but that their value can be enriched by the addition of dietary supplements.

Taking Responsibility
This study appears to demonstrate that regular dietary supplements users were consciously concerned about their health and were taking positive control of it with their responsible food and supplement choices. It is encouraging to see that this seems to contradict what some of the negative dogma associated with supplements would have us believe.

One Of The Safest Options
Other recent reputable US data has shown that no deaths have been directly attributed to dietary supplements at any intake level, whereas tens of thousands of deaths have been attributed to the “as directed” use of prescription products. It is reasonable to infer that similar figures will be found in other countries and this data together with the CRN survey conclusions continue to suggest that dietary supplements are what they have always been - one of the safest foods available anywhere on the planet!

Acknowledgement to the US Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN)