Use of dietary supplements

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: May 06, 2015 | Revision accepted: July 14, 2015

Is there a risk of an excessive intake of vitamins and minerals?

The results summarized here are taken from several original publications [1–3]. In addition, some of the results were presented in two posters (P 1-2, P 9-7) during the 52nd Scientific Congress of the German Society for Nutrition from 11.–13.03.2015 in Halle-Wittenberg [4, 5].

Introduction

Several surveys have found that about 18–50 % of adults in Germany use food supplements (FS) [6–10]. Aside from the potential benefits of micronutrient supplementation, possible risks to the consumer are discussed [11, 12]. The principle question is whether the use of food supplements leads to excessive vitamin or mineral intake and whether tolerable upper intake levels are then exceeded.

Question

The results presented here are taken from a consumer survey which was conducted in collaboration with the Association of Consumer Research (GfK), Nürnberg, and in which qualitative and quantitative data on the use of food supplements were collected. The objective was to calculate the actual individual intake of vitamins, minerals and other substances from food supplements and to evaluate the results.

Summary

Vitamins and minerals are consumed with conventional or enriched foods as well as with food supplements. A differentiated analysis of the vitamin and mineral intake from food supplements shows that – under consideration of the normal nutrition – excessive intake of these substances may only occur in rare and exceptional cases.

Keywords: food supplements, vitamins, minerals, tolerable maximum amounts, risk 

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