Healthy Foundation gives Vitamin Relief
Gail Montgomery, president and CEO of Nutrition 21, who has been
made president of the body, which will henceforth be known as
Vitamin Relief USA.
Since the foundation was formed to aid in the distribution of vitamins to those living on or below the poverty line, the number of people being served by it has increased by 17 percent, meaning some 20 000 people across the US daily receive a multivitamin.
"The organization was created with the idea that vitamin supplements are a key and inexpensive way for improving the quality of life of economically challenged children," Gail Montgomery told NutraIngredientsUSA
She explained that as well as increasing the number of people it serves and boosting its funds - the body is paid for primarily by private donations and the vitamins donated by supplement companies at a cost of $35 a year per person - the foundation is pressing for more research to be carried out to prove the necessity of multivitamins.
At the moment the organization is working with Rutgers University to document the impact of a daily multivitamin on a child's health and school performance, and is hoping congress will award it $2 million to fund research into how supplements can affect older people's quality of life.
However, Montgomery does not think that supplements can sure all ills and thinks that there should be more emphasis in general on health and nutrition. She agrees that in an ideal world everybody would eat a balanced diet containing the right amount of nutrients, but notes that even people who eat well have off-days and should therefore take a multi-vitamin to stay healthy.
"It is even more difficult for people with less money, who have less choice, to eat an ideal diet," she said.
Moreover, rather than concentrating on the potential problems associated with supplements, Montgomery believes the US should be putting its energies into stopping obesity and investigating the long-term effects of prescription drugs on chronically ill patients.
"There should be more emphasis on nutrition and less hysteria around supplements," she said. "Rather than concentrating on the effects of taking calcium for thirty years, we should be looking at what happens if you take statin drugs for thirty years."
It is to this end that she would like the group to be able to fund further research, proving that supplementation increases the well-being of children and gives them a healthier platform for the future.
