Most people have heard of nutritional supplements and prescription drugs. But, there is a class defined by the FDA known as "medical foods" that most people have not heard of. Medical foods are prescription nutrients prescribed only under the supervision of a physician. Medical foods are specifically formulated to meet unique nutrient needs found in disease states or condition that can not be met by dietary modification. In general medical food are designed by medical doctors with an in depth knowledge of nutrition to meet the unique nutrition needs of their patients.

   Most nutritional supplements are formulated by people with no medical license and no experience providing medical care for patients. Most nutritional supplements are formulated under the philosophy, "throw it in the bottle because it sounds good" very few nutritional supplements are based on first hand data analysis. Unlike nutrition supplements the medical foods of CHK Nutrition were invented by licensed medical doctors as they cared for their patients in medical clinics. In the course of caring for patients the medical treatment results were data based in order to define optimal nutrient dosing protocols in treatment of neurotransmitter dysfunction diseases. This is the real deal, FDA registered medical foods specifically designed to address the unique nutritional needs in treatment.

DISCUSSION OF THE MEDICAL FOODS DEFINITION

• Medical foods prescribed and sold only under the supervision of a physician.

• Starting a patient on a medical food requires an initial visit in clinic with examination.

• Patients taking medical foods must be seen in clinic for follow up visits on a regular basis. The primary stated reason for this by the FDA is to insure that the patient understands and is taking the medical food properly.

•  Medical foods do not have nutritional facts on the label. This form of labeling is required of nutritional supplements medical foods are specifically exempted by the FDA.

• Nutrition supplements can not make medical treatment claims other than the limited number of claims approved by the FDA. Medical foods are required under FDA guidelines to make medical treatment claims based on recognized scientific evidence. In general recognized scientific evidence is defined as peer reviewed literature.

• With regards to item number 3 of the FDA definition above medical foods are intended for use when there is a unique nutritional need associated with treatment that can not be met by dietary modification. For example, we know that even on level 1 starting dose of amino acids a diet can not be designed to give the nutritional equivalency of the level 1 dosing. The associated calories load is too great with any normal food to facilitate this.

• The FDA has adopted the following from the National Academy of Sciences which recognizes that different or distinctive physiologic requirements may exist for certain patients with illness who have ``special nutritional needs arising from metabolic disorders, chronic diseases, injuries, premature birth, other medical conditions, and drug therapies''. These distinctive nutritional requirements may be greater than, less than, or in a narrower range of tolerance than for an otherwise healthy individual.