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Nutrition & Dietetics vocabulary · Vitamins and Minerals

Supplement

Meaning in nutrition & dietetics, with examples

/ˈsʌplɪmənt/nounCore term

In nutrition & dietetics, supplement means: A product such as a tablet, capsule, powder or drink that adds nutrients or other substances to the diet, for example vitamin D drops, iron tablets or protein powder.

In Turkish: takviye, gıda takviyesi, besin desteği

How it is used

Common in clinics, pharmacies and sport. People 'take' supplements; doctors 'prescribe' or 'recommend' them. Common phrases are dietary supplement, vitamin supplement and oral nutritional supplement (ONS), a drink given to patients at risk of malnutrition. 'Supplementation' is the more formal noun.

Example sentences

  1. The patient was started on an oral nutritional supplement twice a day.

  2. Please bring all your supplements to the next appointment so we can check them.

Common collocations

  • take a supplement
  • dietary supplement
  • vitamin D supplement
  • oral nutritional supplement
  • supplementation
  • deficiencyA lack of a nutrient in the body that is serious enough to affect health or cause specific signs, such as anemia caused by too little iron.
  • vitaminAn organic substance that the body needs in small amounts for growth, immunity and normal metabolism. Most vitamins must come from food because the body cannot make enough of them.
  • fortifiedDescribing a food to which vitamins or minerals have been added, often ones not naturally present, to improve nutrition, such as flour with folic acid or salt with iodine.
  • malnutritionA condition caused by a diet that does not match the body's needs. It usually means undernutrition, but in global health it also covers overweight, obesity and micronutrient deficiencies.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Vitamins and Minerals

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.