Legislative Note

An important statement flew under the radar in October 2006:

President Bush signed the Older Americans Act Amendment. In doing so, for the first time, Congress recognized the benefits of multivitamin use in a statute.

Section 318 of the Amendment states: "While diet is the preferred source of nutrition, evidence suggests that use of a single daily multivitamin-mineral supplement may be an effective way to address nutritional gaps that exist among the elderly population, especially among the poor; and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans state that multivitamin-mineral supplements may be useful when they fill a specific identified nutrient gap that cannot be or is not otherwise being met by the individual's intake of food.