The Fast Rise of Whole-Food Supplements

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Slideshow
Nutritional OutlookNutritional Outlook Vol. 19 No. 3
Volume 19
Issue 3

What makes a supplement genuinely “whole food”? And why is this category growing twice as fast as traditional supplements?

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Look no further than the food industry’s local, organic, and sustainable movement for proof that consumers care about where their products originate. It was only a matter of time until this curiosity extended to the supplement aisle. And when it comes to whole-food supplements, the questions are clear, says Erin Stokes, ND, medical director at Food State, makers of MegaFood (Derry, NH): “Whole-food supplements have an increased level of awareness surrounding them because people want to know the answer to the question: Where does the whole food actually come from?”
The answer, however, is sometimes a bit muddier. Like the term natural, the term whole food suffers from a lack of regulation, leaving the definitions up to each company entering the market, and clouding it with confusing terminology.
One such buzz-term is food-based supplement, which, according to Stokes, is a conventional supplement ingredient with a food ingredient added in later. “So, in this case, the nutrient isn’t being delivered in the whole food,” she explains, “but rather it’s being delivered side-by-side with a food powder.”
Whole-food supplements and ingredients, on the other hand, offer manufacturers and consumers nutrients delivered right in the whole-food ingredient as it exists in nature. And it’s resonating with shoppers.
According to Karren Jeske, corporate communications manager at Standard Process Inc. (Palmyra, WI), the whole-food supplement market grew 12% in 2012 to reach $1.2 billion, “which was twice the rate of the overall supplement industry,” she adds. “And industry experts expect the whole-food supplements category to continue to outpace growth of the total supplement industry for the foreseeable future.”
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