Complementary and alternative therapies are not intrinsically better or worse than conventional treatments, they're just different. Use of such therapies does not absolve one of the responsibility to be a thoughtful, informed consumer. One of the many challenges facing caregivers today is finding and interpreting information that will permit them to decide the proper role for these popular, sometimes heavily advertised and lucrative, products. The U.S. Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 established a framework for labeling and providing information about nutrition-related products, herbs and other botanicals. The act permits labels to contain a statement describing how the product affects structure and function or general well-being in humans, but not to make specific health claims.
Consistency can be a significant problem with natural product-based products.
Companies may not have rigid quality control standards to ensure the purity and reliability of the product. Clients expect foods to have important healing properties for a variety of reasons. Foods have indispensable life giving properties, and many well-recognized deficiency diseases exist. In addition to their physiological role as containers of nutrients, foods have important effects on psychological well being. They provide comfort during stressful times, enhance the pleasure of social gatherings, holidays and meetings, and serve powerful religious and cultural functions.