Federal lawmakers are considering tighter regulations on the makers of dietary supplements to curtail false claims being made about the safety or effectiveness of their products.

A law enacted in 1994 removed these products from the Food and Drug Administration's jurisdiction. Under that law, manufacturers of herbal remedies and nutritional supplements are not required to prove that their products are safe and effective and are permitted to make general health claims about them.

Since then, the US market for dietary supplements has grown to more than $15 billion a year. The US Senate Special Committee on Aging is investigating companies that sell unproved "anti-aging" products and may expand that investigation to all companies in the dietary supplement market. The chairman of that committee, Sen. John Breaux, recently called supplement makers "21st century snake oil salesmen" who prey on elderly people, putting their health and finances at risk.

In addition to unproved claims, another issue is the accuracy of labeling. An official with the Council for Responsible Nutrition charges that 20 to 40% of dietary supplement products fail to match their labeled content.

Consumerlab.com, a private company that analyzes supplement content, recently reported that the majority of the 30 nutrition bars they tested failed to match their labeled contents. Half of the bars contained more carbohydrates, more calories, and more fat - components that people who are dieting are trying to avoid. Seven of the bars had significantly more sodium than labeled, which is a concern for people with high blood pressure who need to restrict their sodium intake.

Products that met their labeled contents included: MET-Rx Food Bar, Balance Complete Nutritional Food Bar, EAS Myoplex Lite Nutrition Bar, Nutrilite Positrim Food Bar, Precision Engineered Symetry, and A Better Nutritional Ratio Bar.

Related information: Lifestyle changes: Manage weight | Eating well

Sources:

• Landers SJ. Certification of vitamins seen as way to fill regulatory void. AMNews, Nov. 5, 2001.
• Consumerlab.com. Nutritional analysis of bars reveals discrepancies. Reported in Los Angeles Times, Nov. 12, 2001.
• Josefson D. US moves to tighten law on health supplements. British Medical Journal, Sept. 22, 2001;323:654.