They would help improve the nutritional intake of consumers, lose weight or have beautiful hair, without its real efficiency being proven. Anses animate this Tuesday, March 25, a round table in the Cité des Sciences in Paris on Tuesday, March 25 to “deconstruct popular ideas about these products”, while 37% of the French mistakenly think that food supplements “compensate poor food”, according to Barometer 2025 of the critical spirit.
Health authorities also alert about the greater and excessive consumption of these nutritional supplements. According to a study published at the end of January by the Nères Association, which represents the pharmaceutical laboratories, the food supplements market has increased by 56% since 2019, with an increase of 6.3% only by 2024. A dynamic that accelerated with the COVID crisis.
The most important consumers are women, individuals between 18 and 44 years old with a high level of study. These products, mainly bought in pharmacies when they are not medications, are consumed mainly in winter.
Five cases were the subject of an alert in 2024
If consumption is increasingly important, health authorities warn about “a risk of exceeding security limits” particularly “when enriched foods enter the daily diet.” ANSES reports the case of consumption of several nutritional supplements at the same time, up to 15 in the most extreme case.
Everything can lead to allergies. In 2024, five cases were subject to an alert or a signal due to high responsibility. But the total number of cases, “analyzable” courts by the authorities, was lower in 2024 in France than in the previous years, with 270 made against 524 in 2024.
There are many types of nutritional supplements, designed with plants, vitamins and minerals, or other concentrates of nutritional and physiological substances.
One of the dangers is the “intrinsic toxicity of certain ingredients” such as genotoxic compounds found in essential oils. Another risk, “pharmacological interactions”, caused by certain nutritional supplements that can cause hallucinations, mental confusion or a decrease in the effectiveness of certain molecules.
“A Struts” Incorrectly Consumption “
Certain food supplements, often bought online, are remarkably too dosed. These purchases on the Internet have developed “strongly in adults since 2015, which go from 1% to 11%,” according to authorities.
“The consumption of nutritional supplements is wrongly trivialized, this is the problem,” explains AFP Irène, assistant of the risk assessment director. Since 2009, ANSES has established a nutrivimate system to monitor undesirable effects.
Only in 2024, the agency, which has no police health powers, received more than 500 reports. After the analysis, it issues on average seventeen alerts every year on hazardous products of public authorities. Zinc can create, for example, copper deficiencies, Aloe Vera is contraindicated in case of intestinal or equinaceous occlusion in case of immune system pathology.
As for vitamin D, the ANS had alerted in 2023 on overdose in babies linked to taking food supplements. Recently, the Health Agency also took the alarm from the “appetite suppressor” based on the Garcinia Cambogia plant, after several cases of liver damage, including a mortal.
Discuss with a health professional
Risks around food consumption are also particularly important because “they do not require marketing authorization.” “In other words, no efficiency or security study is required before your marketing,” Anses said. The agency refers to the industrial responsibility for the fulfillment of the product, “both in terms of security and consumer information.”
ANSS remembers that it is not necessary to consume nutritional supplements, noting that “contribution deficits and fortacioni nutrient deficiencies are very rare in the general population and care mainly about vitamin D”.
To deal with him, ANSS created the Nutrivigilance System in 2009 that allows “monitoring the undesirable effects linked to the consumption of nutritional supplements.” If a report is considered admissible, then a collective of experts is responsible for defining a link between the product and the unwanted effect informed.
Advice should be requested from a health professional before taking food supplements and then following the conditions of use of the product. “Whether due to fatigue or lack of tone, you should not try to solve the problem only by throwing themselves into food supplements,” is pleaded with the AYMO DOPTER AFP, head of the Risk Assessment Unit linked to nutrition in ANSES. “Behind, there can always be something more serious and, therefore, a delay in attention.”
Source: BFM TV
