Plant-based dietary supplements have grown in popularity in recent years. Most people believe they are harmless since they are advertised as being "natural", but there are several hidden dangers.
Food supplements are meant to complement daily diets to maintain a certain number of nutrients or correct any nutritional deficiencies. Usually made from plants, they are sometimes even the same ones used in medicines. The difference between a medicine and a supplement is the dosage of the active ingredient: in food supplements, this is insufficient to treat diseases.
More and more people are taking such pills, often without receiving medical advice from doctors first. However, unbeknownst to many people, food supplements made with herbs or plant extracts can also have side effects.
They can also interfere with the workings of certain pharmaceutical drugs, consumer rights organisation Test Achats warned. This is because plant-based food supplements can be marketed without proven efficacy. Finally, quality and safety are also much less controlled than with medicines.
Testing dangers
To point out these risks, Test Achats sent researchers to 19 pharmacies and 20 health food shops and drugstores.to buy the dietary supplement St John's wort, promoted for "treating" depression, menopausal symptoms and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), among others. It also reduces the effectiveness of contraceptive pills.
In theory, consumers should be warned about this on the packaging, on the website if the sale is online or by a seller. But Test Achats found three pharmacies and more than half of the health food shops and drugstores failed to do so. Analysis of 30 online shops showed that only 16% of over-the-counter preparations containing St John's wort explicitly mentioned this effect, despite the fact this can increase the chances of unwanted pregnancies.
The organisation also discovered that there are many problems around labelling and composition, with some preparations exceeding the permitted amount, highlighting that the food supplement market is not adequately regulated.
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"Current legislation is insufficient to properly inform or protect consumers who want to take dietary supplements," said Laura Clays, spokesperson for Test Achats.
"Like medicines, food supplements are not sweets, and we call for a stricter framework. We insist on stricter requirements regarding efficacy, safety and quality, as well as more checks on this by our authorities. In any case, we advise consumers to use food supplements only after consulting their GP or pharmacist."
