Believe it or not: Why 64% of Danes take supplements

Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark’s (DTU) National Food Institute conducted interviews with 12 botanical users picked from the Danish National Surveys on Diet and Physical Activity.

“We found that the users of the supplements have very little knowledge on dietary supplements in general and of the recommendations on dietary supplements,”​ senior researcher at the institute, Sisse Fagt, told us.

“Also the knowledge of the specific plant-based dietary supplements is low and many choose to believe in a benefit of using the products rather than feeling a benefit.”​

Most botanical users started taking the plant-based supplements in response to a specific health problem – either because they were already suffering from the problem or they were concerned about suffering from it in the future.

Those who believe in the benefit continue to take them as a kind of “insurance”​ strategy, the researchers said.

Seeing is believing, believing is seeing ​

“The users of the plant based supplements explain that they believe in the effect of the products. The users do not know how healthy they would feel without taking plant-based dietary supplements and they have therefore chosen to believe that plant based dietary supplements have a beneficial effect on their health,”​ the report​​ said.  

What little knowledge the respondents did have was often “​undocumented” ​and came from magazines or retailer advertisements.

No harm done ​

Some botanical users felt that if the products did not cause the expected beneficial effect, the worst thing that could happen is they waste their money. 

“The users consider natural ingredients [to be] less dangerous than ingredients in medicinal products. In general, the users do not consider plant-based dietary supplements as harmful, which also maybe contributes to a sustained use,”​ the DTU researchers wrote.

“Some participants emphasise that they would consider stopping with the dietary supplements if a harmful effects was shown and published. ​

“The knowledge will however not necessarily result in users stopping taking the supplements as the effect is considered individual and therefore a supplement can be harmful or with no effect for others but still beneficial for one's self.”​

Asked if she saw the consumption of botanical supplements as a problem, Fagt said: “If people take too many supplements at the same time it might cause problems.”​

Six in ten ​

Commissioned by the Danish National Veterinary and Food Administration (NVFA), the researchers have already looked at the intake of food supplements in Denmark as well as the potential risk of exceeding recommendations of certain nutrients.

This previous phase of the DTU’s research​​ – which saw nearly 4,000 people surveyed – found six out of 10 Danes take at least one vitamin or mineral supplement despite them getting enough from their diet alone.

At the time the researchers urged consumers to buy supplements that contained less than 100% of RDAs to avoid the risk of overdosing on certain micronutrients and also called on manufacturers to change products to offer no more than 50% of the daily recommendations.

Fagt said future dietary surveys would focus on risk assessment of nutrients, contaminants, pesticides and additives.