Why do we worry about food additives but have so few issues with supplements? We’re talking about why it might be a case of misplaced vigilance, regulatory differences, and the money made on convincing us we could be “better.”
Topics:
• Defining “misplaced vigilance” and the “worried well”
• Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 and regulating supplements as food
• Supplements vs. additives or pharmaceutical drugs and where the FDA exerts control (post-market or pre-market)
• Disparity in regulations between supplements and drugs, growth of markets, and profit motives
• Supplement claims (e.g., structure-function claims), measuring effectiveness, and optimizing well
• Supplement safety concerns: toxicity, purity, strength
• Certification of supplements like USP or NSF (purity vs. efficacy)
• Conventional medicine and the worried well
Referenced Articles
Bailey, 2020. Review of regulatory guidelines for supplements.
Supplement contamination examples: aflatoxins in milk thistle, heavy metals in Ayurvedic medicines, THC in CBD supplements, and selenium toxicity.
Referenced Podcasts:
On Food Additives and Artificial Sweeteners
On Biohacking, Optimization, and Other Shades of Grey
On Exercise as an Anti-Inflammatory
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