Diet & Fitness 

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The pursuit of well being coupled with 21st century food phobia has fuelled a booming dietary supplement industry. But just how healthy are all these pills we're popping? Louise Manson investigates

As our awareness of healthy eating has grown, so has our consumption of dietary supplements. We now live in a culture obsessed with health, with 42 per cent of us taking some form of herbal preparation or vitamin, resulting in an industry that is currently worth £400 million a year.

While we are all familiar with the wide range of manufactured vitamins on the market, herbal supplements, which come from plant extracts, have only recently entered the mainstream health industry. We are now constantly bombarded with the merits of Evening Primrose, Ginseng, Echinacea and Gingko biloba to make us fitter, less stressed and ultimately happier and sexier. And with celebrities everywhere claiming they can't live without their daily dose, supplements have become extremely fashionable.

The problem with all these so-called health tonics is that we don't know exactly what is in them or indeed if they are harmful in the long term. It is all too easy to wander into your nearest health food shop for a lemonade 'pick-me-up' and find you are knocking back a drink laced with an untested 'jungle herb'.

The British Dietetic Association, representing the UK's state registered dieticians, argues that supplements should come under tighter regulations and be classed as medicines rather than foods. This would legally oblige a manufacturer to prove that its products were safe, and all products would have to undergo full clinical trials before their launch. Preparations would also have to contain exactly the same dose/ingredient, which at the moment can vary with no upper limit. They are currently unregulated, with no disclaimers and very little information on the labels.

Some nutritionists believe that the supplement industry is preying on our insecurities about health for considerable commercial gain. Catherine Collins, chief dietitian at St George's Hospital in Tooting, London, says, 'certain adverts for dietary supplements very cleverly imply that your diet is likely to be inadequate without them, generating the fear that you can't possibly get what you need from food alone. However, the people who are putting forward the concept of supplements of any kind are those who stand to make money from them.'

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