Policy Brief. Nutritional supplement research: is it really telling us the truth?

Abstract

Nutritional supplementation is the administration of substances necessary for life when there is a nutrient deficiency (Arribas Hortigüela, 2018). Nutritional supplements are easily accessible to the general population, which is why it is important that the information disclosed about them is truly the result of rigorous scientific studies. Unfortunately, in these investigations, conflicts of interest may be present, which do not allow the findings to be reported correctly. Thus, the strategies that the government develops to regulate and certify the quality of research with nutritional supplements would help the general population and the final consumer of these supplements to have complete and real information about the content of these products and the effects of their long-term consumption. In this sense, some recommendations are: - Surveillance and regulation of research that works with nutritional supplements by external agents. - Ethics committees that emphasize the conflict of interest when conducting studies with specific brands of nutritional supplements. - Development of research that reports the long-term consequences of chronic consumption of nutritional supplements, as well as the dissemination of the results of these to the general population. - Constant studies by COFEPRIS on nutritional supplements. - Clear and concise dissemination of the findings found in the quality studies carried out by COFEPRIS on nutritional supplements.