Dietary Supplement Use is "Mainstream"

More Americans might be taking dietary supplements than previously thought, according to a new study that investigated adult supplement use in the United States.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, detailed an overarching review of market research studies on supplement use conducted over five consecutive years.

According to the study, the majority of this study data came from online surveys launched by the global market research company Ipsos Public Affairs at the bidding of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN).

According to the authors of the study, what made this study more comprehensive than past studies of a similar nature is that it analyzed data concerning even occasional and seasonal dietary supplement use, not just regularly taken supplements.

According to the study, the surveys were taken between 2007 and 2011 and were completed by approximately 2000 adults online each year. These answers from these participants was designed to serve as a national representation of supplemental use within the U.S. and came from a wide variety of regions and health backgrounds.

Following an analysis of the five-year data, researchers from Ipsos and the CRN were able to conclude that between 2007 and 2011  64 to nearly 70 percent of all Americans used supplements. Regular use -- such as multivitamin use -- remained around 50 percent.

Interestingly, when regular users were asked if they took more than just a multivitamin, the number of affirmative answers increased from 28 to 36 percent over the five years.

Researcher also asked survey participants to justify their supplement use habits with a reason.

"What the data tells us is that dietary supplement usage is a mainstream practice," CRN consultant and author of the study,  Dr. Annette Dickinson, said in a CRN press release. "[C]ontrary to some assertions, supplement users do not use these products as a license to slack off on eating right or exercising, but instead are health conscious individuals trying to do all the right things to be healthy,"

Still, not all supplements are good for you. An alarming "fat burning" dietary supplements have recently come under Food and Drug Administration scrutiny after dangerous undeclared ingredients were discovered in their capsules. Even "legitimate" dietary supplements have recently been experiencing contamination and counterfeiting problems not seen with simple multivitamins.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition on April 14.