http://www.NutritionNewsFocus.com

June 27, 2003

Today's Topic: Characteristics of Healthy Supplement Users

A study of healthy adults in Hawaii and Los Angeles surveyed use of
eight dietary supplements in the mid-1990s.  Over 100,000 people in
5 ethnic groups were surveyed: whites, African-Americans, Native
Hawaiians, Latinos and Japanese-Americans.

White women and Japanese-American men took supplements more than other
groups with 75 percent of these respondents reporting their use.
Multivitamins were the most common supplements with over half the
participants taking these.  Vitamins C and E were the next most
commonly used supplements, with about one-third taking these.  The
study was published in the May 15, 2003 issue of the American Journal
of Epidemiology.
< http://aje.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/157/10/888 >

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The use of supplements
increased with age, education, physical activity, fruit intake, and
dietary fiber intake.  In other words, the people who need supplements
less are more likely to take them.  This makes it very difficult, if
not impossible, to separate effects of supplement use from other
lifestyle factors in observational studies.  Yet these studies seem to
get the most attention from the news media.