Currently meal plans do not take vitamin and mineral content into account, Berry says, but the future will include more nutritional analysis.

"Looking at what students want to eat is certainly our number one priority," Berry says. "Right now, we don't sit down and analyze the nutritional content of the food."

Dining Services recently purchased the Computrition software program, which traces more than 100 nutrients, including elements in minute amounts, in foods. As a part of the effort for increasing food quality, 10 cooks are currently attending a culinary school, and during spring break the crew will gather to focus on quality, including nutrition, Berry says.

"We want to define what light and healthy mean to the students and what they want," Berry says. "We want to enhance the menu and redirect our menu management."

Those students who suspect their usual diet of chickwiches and french fries may be low in certain nutrients can find vitamins and minerals in the form of pill supplements on store shelves But Sonnenberg emphasizes the diet as the main supplier

"As we continue to learn about the diet, there is more we've been finding out about what the food can do for our bodies that vitamin and mineral supplements can't, Sonnenberg says

Sonnenberg recommends a daily multivitamin only for backup purposes, not to exceed the RDA. "If people want to take vitamin and mineral supplements as backup. I would recommend one that provides up to 100% of U.S. recommended daily allowance," Sonnenberg says.

According to Diane Bleday, a nutritionist Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, vitamin deficiency is very rare in the United States "because there are so many varieties of food."

Walter C. Willett, chair of the Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Nutrition, disagrees. focusing on an increasing portion of the population that may be lacking certain vitamins and minerals.

"It's probably more common than we thought," Willett says. "Birth defects suggest that there is a substantial number of women who don't get enough folic acid."

Whatever the prevalence of nutrient deficiency Johanna T. Dwyer, director of the Frances Stern Nutrition Center at New England Medical Center Hospital, stands firmly against consuming supplements.

"If you eat according to the recommended allowance, you can get all the nutrients you need," Dwyer says. "Sometimes people tend to think that if they take the supplements, they don't have to eat the food."

The only exceptions, Dwyer says, should be strict vegetarians, who can benefit from iron supplements. Dwyer also recommends specific vitamin and mineral supplements to compensate for those that individuals lack, rather than a multivitamin.

"It used to be that nutritionists though people were getting enough nutrition from food, but I think a number of people are starting to rethink that," he says. "There probably is a large number of people who are not getting the optimal amount and we are finding ourselves broadening the number of people whom we think might benefit from a daily multivitamin."

women, says Katz-Cohen, can especially derive advantages from supplements of iron, which is important for the formation of the blood's oxygen-carrying molecule, hemoglobin.