Overview of Nutritional Supplements

Series Summary

People take nutritional supplements for a variety of reasons. Supplements are designed to supply nutrients which might be depleted or missing from a person’s diet. Nutritional supplements are regulated by the FDA as food, not drugs. By definition of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, supplements should be taken only in addition to a food diet, and must contain a vitamin, mineral, herb or botanical, amino acid, or some combination of these ingredients. Nutritional supplements can be taken in pill, capsule or liquid form.

In this series of free video clips you’ll learn essential information on nutritional supplements. Expert nutrition consultant Lisa Ann Jones gives an overview of nutritional supplements, including information on the supplement industry and how to read the labels when buying supplements. She also explains the dangers of supplement overdosing and offers information on the best nutritional supplements available.

Video Transcript

"Hi I’m Lisa Jones on behalf of Expert Village. Today we will be talking about what are nutrition supplements. Feel free to visit my website at www.healthwisewithlisajones.com. What are nutrition supplements? Supplements are anything taken to seemingly enhance a person’s regular diet. A supplement may take the form of a multiple vitamin such as this, a protein drink that looks like this, a fiber powder - this will be an example of a fiber powder, or an herbal concoction, and all three of these things are specifically not whole food. A supplement cannot substitute for a whole food. "