ADA Updates Supplement Guidelines

CHICAGOHealthDay is reporting that The American Dietetic Association recently updated its guidelines on nutrient supplementation to encourage eating a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods to get needed nutrients and reduce the risk of chronic disease, according to HealthDay.

While the ADAs new guideline promote food over supplements, dieticians acknowledge that the use of supplements, such as vitamin D, calcium, iron and folate, are necessary to fill dietary gaps; however, they caution individuals to be careful not overuse or megadose certain supplements.

Andrea P. Boyar, a co-author of the position paper and an associate professor of dietetic foods and nutrition at Lehman College of the City University of New York, said whole foods are ideal because they are not processed or are as minimally processed as possible. Foods are complex, and the nutrients within them interact in different and more beneficial ways than they would in supplements, she added.