Supplementary evidence
Hannah Berry rattles some of the main brands of
vitamin and mineral supplements available in health stores, supermarkets and chemists.
Around ten million people in the UK
take dietary supplements - a third of
women and a quarter of men.(1) Opinion differs on the wisdom of this, ranging
from those who believe they are an expensive placebo for the 'worried well', to those
who attribute real health benefits to high potency doses of specific vitamins, chosen to
suit their particular age, ailment or lifestyle.
In the UK, the food supplements market is dominated by a few big
pharmaceutical or consumer health companies: Roche, Boots, Wyeth, NBTY and Omega
Pharma, along with supermarket own-brands. Then there is a raft of small,
independent British companies, often set up and run by dedicated enthusiasts,
which tend have a strong commitment to natural health and to avoiding additives.
There is only space to cover a handful of them here.
Do we need them?
According to the British Nutrition Foundation (www.nutrition.org.uk), regular
consumption of a healthy balanced diet is better than trying to plug gaps with vitamin
supplements. However, where busy lifestyles lead to skipped meals and a reliance on
low-nutrient convenience foods, supplements may well help us meet dietary needs. A
multivitamin and/or mineral product delivers nutrients in the right balance to maintain
general health, but specific supplements may be useful at times of increased nutritional
requirement, such as folic acid for women in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, B12 for
vegans who aren't getting enough through eating fortified food or iron for women who
bleed heavily during menstruation. People with deficiency diseases or absorption
disorders may need therapeutic doses of nutrients, although this should be undertaken
with medical guidance.
Packaging
The majority of vitamins and minerals are now packaged in plastic; some on sheets of
foil-backed plastic, like painkillers. Brands which use glass, which is preferable because
it can be easily recycled, include Nature's Own, Vega and Viridian. Only Viridian
operates a re-use scheme, giving a 25p refund on bottles returned to the place of
purchase. Viridian also avoids using plastic or styrofoam packaging materials during
transportation, employing instead 90% recycled cardboard cartons to deliver its goods
round the country.
Decent pills?
It is worth studying the list of ingredients before swallowing food supplements,
especially those produced by the mainstream brands for children. Many continue to
include artificial flavourings and controversial sweeteners such as aspartame (E951),
acesulfame-K (E950) and sorbitol (E420), which is controlled in foods for young children
due to its laxative properties. Vegetarians and vegans will want to avoid products
encapsulated in gelatin, which comes from boiled-down animal bones and connective
tissue, as well as tablets finished with shellac (E904) or coloured with cochineal (E120),
both of which are derived from insects. There are various other food supplements from
marine or animal sources - some obvious, like cod liver oil, and others less so, such as
glucosamine and chondroitin. Sage Organic is the only company on the table whose
entire range is suitable for vegetarians.
Animal testing and environmental policies
The big pharmaceutical companies test on animals - as drug companies they are obliged
to by law. Most of the smaller companies covered in this report have never
commissioned animal tests, although some feel they may be forced down that route in
their attempts to prevent certain products from being outlawed by the Food
Supplements Directive. Viridian appears to be the only company in the report which has
set a strict cut-off date - the year the company was founded - beyond which it will not
use any ingredient developed using animal tests.
EU Legislation
The Food Supplements Directive is a controversial piece of European legislation which
was initially welcomed by the health food trade, which thought it would increase its
credibility, but which has in fact left many small companies fearing for their survival. In
an attempt to harmonise standards across Europe, a 'Positive List' of safe compounds
and doses was drawn up, and anything not on it - any supplement developed since 1971
- is required to go through trials costing between ?80,000 and ?250,000 per nutrient.
The list of what is acceptable appears to have been compiled in response to lobbying
from, and to take account of the needs of, large pharmaceutical companies across
Europe. If not overturned next year at the Hague, the company table is likely to look
very different when Ethical Consumer next covers vitamins and minerals. According to
David Barrie of Nature's Own, the cap on potency was arrived at without consulting
nutritionists, and the Positive List assembled, irrelevantly, in consultation with the food
fortifying industry. The UK Government ignored a petition signed by a million members
of the public asking them to throw out the new law, and has been accused of rigging the
Committee which took the final decision on the legislation after it had been defeated in
the House of Lords.(2)
References
1 James Meikle, Guardian 10/5/03,
2 Nature's Own press release, 20/8/03