Does it seem like the supplement section of your grocery store gets bigger every time you go in? Or that all television commercials these days seem to be advertising dietary supplements that promise to improve your concentration, help you lose weight, make you happier, healthier, smarter, stronger, cooler, poop better or some mix of those? You’re not imagining things. The explosion of the US dietary supplement industry over the past few years is very real, and when you’re inundated with ads for supplements everywhere you turn, it can be very difficult to navigate whether these things actually do what they say and how much they’re allowed to say without actually doing anything. That’s where this episode comes in. We take you through what supplements actually are, how their regulation in the US has changed over the past century, what dietary supplements can and cannot claim on their label, and how the supplement market has fared since the Covid pandemic (spoilers: it’s thriving).
| History | Biology |
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| Arora, Ishaan, Shecoya White, and Rahel Mathews. “Global dietary and herbal supplement use during COVID-19—a scoping review.” Nutrients 15.3 (2023): 771. | US Food and Drug Administration, 2019. Questions and answers on dietary supplements. Silver Spring, MD: Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/food/information-consumers-using-dietary-supplements/questions-and-answers-dietary-supplements |
| Barkan, Ilyse D. “Industry invites regulation: the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.” American Journal of Public Health 75.1 (1985): 18-26. | US Food and Drug Administration, 2014. Label Claims for Conventional Foods and Dietary Supplements.”. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition/label-claims-conventional-foods-and-dietary-supplements |
| Bekker, Jessie L., Alex Flores, and Michael S. Sinha. “Re-Regulating Dietary Supplements.” Journal of Food Law and Policy 19 (2023). | Health Canada, 2012. Pathway for Licensing Natural Health Products Making Modern Health Claims https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/natural-non-prescription/legislation-guidelines/guidance-documents/pathway-licensing-making-modern-health-claims.html |
| Binns, Colin W., Mi Kyung Lee, and Andy H. Lee. “Problems and prospects: public health regulation of dietary supplements.” Annual review of public health 39 (2018): 403-420. | European Medicines Agency: Herbal Medicinal products. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory-overview/herbal-medicinal-products |
| Broniatowski, David A., et al. “Measuring the monetization strategies of websites with application to pro-and anti-vaccine communities.” Scientific reports 13.1 (2023): 15964. | Bailey, R.L., Gahche, J.J., Lentino, C.V., Dwyer, J.T., Engel, J.S., Thomas, P.R., Betz, J.M., Sempos, C.T. and Picciano, M.F., 2011. Dietary supplement use in the United States, 2003–2006. The Journal of nutrition, 141(2), pp.261-266. |
| Cassileth, Barrie R., Marjet Heitzer, and Kathleen Wesa. “The public health impact of herbs and nutritional supplements.” Pharmaceutical biology 47.8 (2009): 761-767. | Bailey, R.L., Gahche, J.J., Miller, P.E., Thomas, P.R. and Dwyer, J.T., 2013. Why US adults use dietary supplements. JAMA internal medicine, 173(5), pp.355-361. |
| Center for Countering Digital Hate. “The Anti-Vaxx Industry. How Big Tech powers and profits from vaccine misinformation.” (2020). | Rautiainen, S., Manson, J.E., Lichtenstein, A.H. and Sesso, H.D., 2016. Dietary supplements and disease prevention—a global overview. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 12(7), pp.407-420. |
| Denham, Bryan E. “Dietary supplements in the USA: problematic trends.” Public Health Nutrition 24.9 (2021): 2771-2775. | Starr, R.R., 2015. Too little, too late: ineffective regulation of dietary supplements in the United States. American journal of public health, 105(3), pp.478-485. |
| Djaoudene, Ouarda, et al. “A global overview of dietary supplements: regulation, market trends, usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, and health effects.” Nutrients 15.15 (2023): 3320. | Binns, C.W., Lee, M.K. and Lee, A.H., 2018. Problems and prospects: public health regulation of dietary supplements. Annual review of public health, 39, pp.403-420. |
| Herasimenka, Aliaksandr, et al. “The political economy of digital profiteering: communication resource mobilization by anti-vaccination actors.” Journal of Communication 73.2 (2023): 126-137. | Wheatley, V.M. and Spink, J., 2013. Defining the public health threat of dietary supplement fraud. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 12(6), pp.599-613. |
| Jordan, Chevon R., et al. “Labeling compliance and online claims for Ayurvedic herbal supplements on the US market associated with the purported treatment of COVID-19.” Food control 148 (2023): 109673. | Brown, A.C., 2017. An overview of herb and dietary supplement efficacy, safety and government regulations in the United States with suggested improvements. Part 1 of 5 series. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 107, pp.449-471. |
| Kassel, Mark A. “From a history of near misses: the future of dietary supplement regulation.” Food and Drug Law Journal 49.1 (1994): 237-269. | Thakkar, S., Anklam, E., Xu, A., Ulberth, F., Li, J., Li, B., Hugas, M., Sarma, N., Crerar, S., Swift, S. and Hakamatsuka, T., 2020. Regulatory landscape of dietary supplements and herbal medicines from a global perspective. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 114, p.104647. |
| Larsen, Larissa L., and Judith A. Berry. “The regulation of dietary supplements.” Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners 15.9 (2003): 410-414. | |
| Moran, Rachel E., Anna L. Swan, and Taylor Agajanian. “Vaccine Misinformation for Profit: Conspiratorial Wellness Influencers and the Monetization of Alternative Health.” International Journal of Communication 18 (2024): 23. | |
| Pray, W. Steven. “Orrin Hatch and the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act: Pandora’s Box Revisited.” Journal of Child Neurology 27.5 (2012): 561-563. | |
| Rider, Cynthia V. “Dietary supplements.” History of Food and Nutrition Toxicology. Academic Press, 2023. 157-182. | |
| Shneeman, B. O., et al. “Dietary supplements: a framework for evaluating safety.” Review of Liver-Related Risks for Chaparral (2005). | |
| Starr, Ranjani R. “Too little, too late: ineffective regulation of dietary supplements in the United States.” American journal of public health 105.3 (2015): 478-485. | |
| Swann, John P. “The history of efforts to regulate dietary supplements in the USA.” Drug testing and analysis 8.3-4 (2016): 271-282. | |
| Tokojima Machado, Dayane Fumiyo, Alexandre Fioravante de Siqueira, and Leda Gitahy. “Natural stings: Selling distrust about vaccines on Brazilian YouTube.” Frontiers in Communication 5 (2020): 577941. | |
| Wax, Paul M. “Elixirs, diluents, and the passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.” Annals of internal medicine 122.6 (1995): 456-461. | |
| Woolf, Alan D. “Sulfanilamide (diethylene glycol) disaster—United States, 1937.” History of Modern Clinical Toxicology. Academic Press, 2022. 139-148. | |
| Ziker, Dana. “What lies beneath: an examination of the underpinnings of dietary supplement safety regulation.” American Journal of Law & Medicine 31.2-3 (2005): 269-284. | |
| https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-dietary-supplements-market-report | |
| https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-dietary-supplements-market | |
| https://dsld.od.nih.gov/ | |
| https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-hatch-20180105-story.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email | |
| https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1922-01-08/ed-1/seq-61/ |
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