Dietary Supplementation — Who Should Use Dietary Supplements
Katarzyna Mazur
2026-03-19
4 min. read
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According to research by the Market and Social Research Institute, 22% of Poles used at least one dietary supplement in a year. Among them, dietary supplements were used more frequently by women than men. Among those who used these supplements, 29% used them daily or almost daily throughout the year. These figures are very large, and the market for dietary supplements is still growing and reaching an even greater reach, influencing the increase in demand. Millions of us have already decided to augment our diets with dietary supplements, but who should actually use them? Are they suitable for everyone, and how can we determine when and which supplements we should use?
What are Dietary Supplements?
According to the Food and Nutrition Safety Act of 25 August 2006, dietary supplements are food products intended to supplement a normal diet, providing a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals or other substances that exhibit a nutritional or physiological effect (.). In short, supplements deliver to the body what is not found in a regular diet. Unlike medications, they are not designed to restore health during illness. However, they can act preventatively and health-promoting if they work well with the diet. Some supplements are also formulated with athletes in mind – they work ergogenically, directly improving performance. Other substances, especially popular among people, aim to improve body shape by contributing to both fat reduction and muscle mass development. It is always advisable to consult a specialist before starting to take supplements. A doctor or dietitian can help individually select the required vitamins and minerals, while an experienced trainer can provide advice on which supplements to choose to look better and not waste money.
Nutritional deficiencies
Determining the exact deficiencies in the diet can be time-consuming and not always an easy task, but sometimes the diagnosis can be quicker. Nothing betrays a bad diet like an extreme approach - the all-or-nothing principle. The best example is low-calorie diets, ranging around 1000 kcal. It is very likely that by eating so little food, we don't get some of the essential nutrients. Other potential culprits are diets that involve excluding a wide variety of foods from the daily menu. Avoiding sweets is a good test, but when you eat a plate of ingredients that contain all the carbohydrates in our body, as in all foods or supplements, it's only a problem if you don't eat much of it. People who eat a lot of low-quality food, which is usually devoid of nutrients, will have a similar problem. Unfortunately, taking supplements is not a solution in this case, but only a desperate attempt to maintain bad habits.
Issues with absorption
There are instances where the diet is fundamentally well-designed, but the body does not receive everything it needs. Typically, the issue lies in the digestive system, which is incapable of extracting all the essential vitamins and minerals from food. Individuals with intolerances to specific components or allergies to certain food items often experience problems with the small intestine. The most prevalent constituents of this group include lactose, gluten, or lectins. In addition to consuming dietary supplements, it is recommended to eliminate problematic food items from the diet. In certain cases, disease states or alterations in the body's physiology can hinder the synthesis of certain components. For example - older individuals exposed to sunlight produce significantly less vitamin D than younger people. It is also possible that an excess of specific nutrients in the diet limits the absorption of others. This is feasible since certain transport proteins in the small intestine are responsible for the transport of multiple components simultaneously, such as iron, zinc, and calcium. This was precisely demonstrated in Dr. Noel Solomons' 1981 study, where a dose of zinc was administered along with increasing doses of iron, leading to a gradual decrease in the absorption of the first component.
Heightened body requirements
Not always is the intake of concentrated vitamins and nutrients a result of an inadequate diet or absorption disorders, but rather of an increased body requirement. This group of heightened needs includes professional athletes, individuals who do not get enough sleep, shift workers, and all those who experience significant levels of psychological and physiological stress. In these cases, the source of the problem is not always easily removable, however, suitable supplements can significantly reduce the extent of negative changes.
