Dietary supplements : sorting fact from fiction

Abstract

Early scientific research into food and nutrition was directed towards identifying the essential nutrients1. Indeed, several of the Nobel prizes in Physiology and Medicine at the beginning of the last decade were awarded for work on discoveries related to vitamins and the recognition of their ability to cure deficiency diseases. The public and medical enthusiasm which resulted is reflected even today in the ‘magic bullet’ image of nutrition. It is also reflected in the consumption of ‘vitamin products’ in the belief that these provide essential or desirable supplementation even to a healthy diet.