Demystifying Food, Vitamins/ Supplements, and Medications/ Medicines – What Every Consumer Should Know

Before We Step Into the Mist

Food, vitamins/supplements, and medications/medicines are essential part of our daily life, especially regarding our health.

Everything we eat, drink, or take into your body is made of chemical molecules — whether it’s natural or synthetic.

Before we lose ourselves in the mist that weaves together food, vitamins/ supplements, and medications/ medicines, let’s first understand where each one begins.

This is how we see them at Truth Full Health:

Category	What It Is
Food	What we eat and drink daily to support health and maintain quality of life.
Vitamins/ supplements	Products consumed in addition to food that support health and quality of life
Medications/ medicines	Products used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent a disease

 

Note: While we may sometimes use the term “vitamins” and “supplements” interchangeably, formally, vitamins are a type of supplement. Supplements are officially called “dietary supplements.” We will be referring to vitamins/ supplements as “supplements” hereafter. We will also be referring to medications/ medicines as “medications” hereafter.

 

The Legal Side: How Food, Supplements, and Medications Are Defined in the U.S.[1]

Category	Definition	Source of Law
Food	Articles used for food or drink for man or other animals, chewing gum, and articles used for components of any such article	21 U.S.C. § 321(f)
Dietary supplements	1. A product (other than tobacco) intended to supplement the diet that bears or contains one or more of the following dietary ingredients: a. a vitamin b. a mineral c. an herb or other botanical d. an amino acid e. a dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake or f. a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any ingredient described in clause a, b, c, d, or e   2. A product that: a. is intended for ingestion b. is not represented for use as a conventional food or as a sole item of a meal or the diet; and c. is labeled as a dietary supplement; and   3. Does not include: a. an article that is approved as a new drug, [or] certified as an antibiotic [or] licensed as a biologic   Except for purposes of paragraph g [defining drugs] and section 350f [defining reportable foods for which there is a reasonable probability that use or exposure will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals], a dietary supplement shall be deemed to be a food.	21 U.S.C. § 321(ff)
Medications	Meeting one or more of the following four rules: 1. Articles recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them; 2. Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals; 3. Articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals; or 4. Articles intended for use as a component of any article specified in clause 1, 2, or 3   A food or dietary supplement [that makes nutritional or health related claims that comply with FDA’s regulations at 21 U.S.C. § 353(r)] is not a drug solely because the label or the labeling contains such a claim. A food, dietary ingredient, or dietary supplement for which a truthful and not misleading statement is made in accordance with [21 U.S.C. § 353(r)(6), which requires manufacturers of dietary supplements to substantiate claims and provide certain disclosures to customers] is not a drug.	21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)

 

 

The Role of Supplements – Where the Mist Deepens

You may have seen this statement used in many supplement products:

“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

This mandatory disclaimer highlights that supplements do not undergo the same rigorous FDA review and approval process as medications.

In addition, supplements are categorized under the broad umbrella of "food."[2]

Despite so, their regulatory oversight is also distinct from conventional foods.

We'll dive deeper into regulatory differences in a separate post.

 

Where the Common Ground Lies

Regardless of whether it’s food, supplements or medications, the following realities exist:

• We use them to support our health
• Their use comes with potential risks and benefits
• Health impact depends not just on “what” we consume but also “how much” and “for how long”
• Pooled scientific evidence forms the foundation for understanding risks and benefits

FDA oversight exists across all three categories, but the extent of regulation differs.

Why emphasize scientific evidence?

Scientific studies offer structured insights into the real risks and benefits of health products.

Unlike anecdotal evidence or word of mouth, scientific research minimizes bias and offers consistent, reliable findings.

For food and supplements, scientific data provides evidence on how these products support general health and wellness.

For medications, it establishes how they are used to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.

Consumers and healthcare providers alike rely on this data to judge whether a health product is likely to deliver real value to the end user.

Why emphasize pooled scientific evidence?

The amount of scientific evidence can vary widely – from none at all to a substantial body of research.

Little or no evidence is a clear red flag for consumers. When abundant evidence exists, two factors become important:

1. Reviewing the full body of evidence, and
2. Assessing the weight and consistency of the findings

• Larger studies typically carry more weight (for example, 100 participants vs. 10 participants)
• Consistent positive findings across studies carry more weight than mixed results (for instance, five studies where three show benefit and two do not, versus all five showing consistent benefit)

In future posts, we will dive deeper into the types of scientific data and studies, and how to interpret them as informed supplement consumers.

 

Real-Life Examples: How Food Intake Affects Health*

• Dairy Consumption & Stroke Risk (2016 Study):[3] Among 600,000+ participants, each additional 200ml of milk per day correlated with a 7% lower stroke risk. However, high-fat milk showed a 4% increased stroke risk.
• Sugar-Sweetened Beverages & Diabetes (2015 Study):[4] Data from over 10 million person-years** revealed that each additional daily serving of sugary drinks increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 13%.
• Red Meat & Heart Disease (2023 Study):[5] Among 1,000+ participants, processed red meat consumption increased heart disease risk by 26%, and unprocessed red meat by 11%.

These examples illustrate that amount matters — a principle that applies equally to supplement and medication use.

For medications, FDA review of scientific evidence – along with approvals or rejections by clinical and data expert reviewers – ensures that benefits and risks are clearly quantified and documented.

Oversight for foods and supplements is lighter, and there are likely good reasons for this:

• The sheer number of food and supplement products is substantially greater than that of medications, making intensive review far more burdensome
• The risk associated with foods and supplements are generally (though not always) lower,[6][7] and their purpose is to support health and wellbeing.

This lighter oversight makes it even more important for us to stay closely connected with our healthcare providers and to equip ourselves with the right tools.

By doing so, we can focus on the right priorities and make informed choices to benefit from appropriate food intake and supplement use and minimize any risks.

*The highlighted examples are for illustrative purposes and not meant to represent the comprehensive risks and benefits of the cited food items 

**Person-years: this means the total number of years study to which each participant contributed. This is more important than simply understanding the number of participants, as the occurrence of a disease is a factor of both number of people, and how long each person has been tracked – a person followed up for 10 years will contribute more data and information than a person followed up for 1 year.

 

Key Similarities and Differences in a Nutshell

Concept	Food	Supplements	Medications
Made up of chemical molecules	Yes	Yes	Yes
FDA oversight	Yes	Yes	Yes
FDA review before marketing	Sometimes (such as certain food additives, GMOs[8])	Sometimes (such as New Dietary Ingredients)	Yes
Formal FDA approval before marketing	Sometimes (e.g. certain food additives)	No	Yes
May support health	Yes	Yes	Yes
May pose health risks	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ease of quantifying risks/ benefits	Harder	Harder	Easier
Intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease	No	No	Yes

 

Our Recommendations for Supplement Consumers

As supplement consumers, what can we do to optimize our supplement use?

• Understand our overall diet, supplement and medication use. They each play complementary roles in our health
• Familiarize ourselves with the science behind each ingredient
• Mind the dosage
  • Too little:*** not supported by data, might as well not take it
  • Too much:*** not supported by data, may cause harm
• Read and compare recommended use and warnings
  • These are developed by each supplement company and can vary substantially across products
• Stay consistent with supplement use
  • The cumulative dose over time matters more than occasional missed doses
• Consult your supplement company and healthcare providers. Save time and stay safe by tapping into their expertise

***Based on pooled scientific evidence

These recommendations are designed with the sole purpose to help each of us maximize our health while preserve every hard-earned penny spent on supplements.

 

Wishing you the best in your health journey!

Sincerely,

Derek Tang, PhD, MS, BSPharm

Truth Full Health

Your Trusted Supplement Partner

 

*Disclaimer: all blogged content is for informational purposes only and does not replace professional medical advice.

 

[1] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Appendix D, Congressionally Defined Product Categories That the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Regulates. In: Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2017. Accessed October 5, 2025. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK442209/

[2] U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Questions and Answers on Dietary Supplements. Updated February 21, 2024. Accessed October 5, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/food/information-consumers-using-dietary-supplements/questions-and-answers-dietary-supplements

[3] Title: Dairy Consumption and Risk of Stroke: A Systematic Review and Updated Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. First author: J. de Goede. Journal: Journal of the American Heart Association. Year of publication: 2016.

[4] Title: Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and fruit juice and incidence of type 2 diabetes: Systematic review, meta-analysis, and estimation of population attributable fraction. First author: F Imamura. Journal: BMJ. Year of publication: 2015.

[5] Title: Red Meat Consumption, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. First author: W Shi. Journal: European Heart Journal. Year of publication: 2023.

[6] Title: Dietary Supplement Adverse Event Report Data From the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Adverse Event Reporting System (CAERS), 2004–2013. First author: BB Timbo. Journal: Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Year of publication: 2018.

[7] Title: Prevalence of Adverse Drug Events in Ambulatory Care: A Systematic Review. First author: SV Taché. Journal: Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Year of publication: 2011.

[8] U.S. Food and Drug Administration. How GMOs Are Regulated in the United States. Updated March 5, 2024. Accessed October 5, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/how-gmos-are-regulated-united-states