Diet, food beliefs and dietary supplementation

A random population survey, administered by mail, was completed by 730 adults in Adelaide, South Australia (a response rate of 78.5%). The aim of the study was the description of the respondents’ dietary supplementation practices, food and vitamin beliefs and dietary habits.

Over one third of the men (37.8%) and half of the women (51.3%) took supplements regularly. A further 13.9% of men and 9.4% of women took supplements at irregular intervals. The most popular regularly‐used supplements were multivitamins (used by 20.6%); bran (17.7%); vitamin C (15.5%); B‐complex vitamins (11.9%) and wheatgerm (10.0%).

Regular supplementers exhibited greater distrust of the conventional food supply than other respondents. They also believed more in the specific and general health benefits of vitamins and minerals. Regular supplementers’ diets contained more fruits, wholegrain bread, and more vitamins but less fat (in the case of women) than those of the other respondents. Irregular supplementers had more optimistic views of food quality and were more skeptical of the supposed general health benefits of vitamins and minerals than were regular supplementers. Their diets were less nutritious than those of the regular supplementers.

Several misconceptions about dietary supplements were shared by both supplementers and non‐supplementers. Finally canonical correlation analysis revealed statistically significant relationships between food and vitamin beliefs and dietary intake.

The findings are discussed with respect to previous findings concerning the poorer health experience of regular supplementers, and directions for future research are indicated.

Key words:

• Vitamin and mineral supplements
• food supplements
• food beliefs
• random population survey
• dietary assessment