Nutrition Shortfalls Presented at Caucus Briefing

WASHINGTON—The congressional Dietary Supplement Caucus (DSC), in cooperation with the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the Natural Products Association (NPA) and the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), held an educational briefing for Capitol Hill staffers this week. The briefing, " Widespread Nutrient Shortfalls: A Public Health Crisis?" was presented by Victor Fulgoni, Ph.D., senior vice president of Nutrition Impact, LLC.

Fulgoni presented key data from the U.S. government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that shows nutrient shortfalls for several vitamins and minerals and why this could negatively impact the population's health. He also discussed how the nutritional gaps could be filled.

“Government data has confirmed that our population is not getting all the key nutrients we need from food alone," said Steve Mister, president and CEO, CRN. “We seem to be generally well- fed, but not necessarily well-nourished. Dietary supplements play the important role of filling nutrient gaps, and our industry is armed to support efforts to get our population’s nutrition to where it should be."

This was the fourth DSC educational briefing for the 113th Congress and the 19th briefing since the DSC was formed in 2006.