Malaysians are not taking proper dietary supplements to complement their diet, even when they know its importance.

Why? Because the lack of knowledge about the nutrients they need cause them to get the wrong ones.

This is according to findings from The Malaysian Dietary Supplements Industry Status and Outlook report 2019-2020 by the Malaysian Dietary Supplement Association (Madsa).

What supplement do you take?
According to The Star which quoted the report, calcium supplements only accounted for 12.2 per cent or RM62.8mil of the local vitamins and mineral supplements market last year, while iron supplements accounted for 4.3 per cent of the total market worth about RM514mil.

The report also found that Malaysians love Vitamin C and multi vitamins as Vitamin C products accounted for 32.8 per cent or RM168.6mil in sales, while multi-vitamins made up 18.6 per cent of the market at RM95.4mil.

Eigis led and conducted the study as Madsa’s research partner.

Eigis Consulting managing partner Henry Law said the lack of certain nutrients and a poor diet could lead to serious non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart disease, diabetes and anaemia.

“We need to have more conversations about nutrition and also raise the awareness for proper nutrition intake. However, this effort may be hindered by Malaysians’ love for food.

“We need to understand that we are poor eaters and we have a nutrition problem,” he said when presenting the report.

Do you have any supplement apart from your daily diet, other than Vitamin C?