Survey: Older Americans Are Adding Whole-Food Nutrition Back Into the Daily Routine

New consumer survey data show most supplement users would reach for nutrition before an over-the-counter or prescription option when appropriate, and rising drug costs and documented nutrient gaps help explain why.

PROVO, Utah. July 27, 2026. About 75 percent of American adults take dietary supplements, and nearly 80 percent of those users say they would choose a supplement over an over-the-counter or prescription option when appropriate, according to the 2024 Consumer Survey from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, conducted by Ipsos. Read alongside federal data on drug costs and nutrition, the finding describes a food-first shift in everyday American wellness, and it is most visible among older adults.

The preference figure is the striking one. A generation that grew up treating the pharmacy aisle as the default answer now reports reaching for nutrition first when it fits the need, a pattern the survey's publisher has tracked year over year.

Inside the survey numbers

The survey was conducted by the polling firm Ipsos for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the nutrition industry's trade association, which has fielded the annual study for years and reports steady usage over time.

• About 75 percent of American adults take dietary supplements (CRN 2024 Consumer Survey, Ipsos)
• Nearly 80 percent of users say they prefer a supplement over an over-the-counter or prescription option when appropriate (CRN 2024 Consumer Survey, Ipsos)
• The global market is projected to reach about $393.56 billion by 2033, growing near 8.1 percent a year (Grand View Research)

The cost calculation behind the preference

The preference does not happen in a vacuum. It sits on top of a well-documented affordability problem:

• US prescription drug prices average 2.78 times those in 33 other high-income countries, and 4.22 times for brand-name drugs (RAND, 2024)
• 59 percent of US adults say they are worried about affording prescription drugs, the largest share since KFF began asking in 2018 (KFF, 2026)
• 43 percent of adults did not take a medication as prescribed in the past year because of cost, including 31 percent who used an over-the-counter product instead of filling a prescription (KFF, 2026)

For everyday wellness goals, a familiar, food-based option reads to many consumers as a smaller financial bet than the pharmacy counter, in the cases where it is an appropriate fit.

The nutrient gaps behind food-first choices

Federal nutrition data helps explain the pull toward nutrient-dense, whole-food sources. Drawing on NHANES data, the Linus Pauling Institute reports that 43.0 percent of Americans fall below the estimated average requirement for vitamin A, and 91.7 percent fall below the adequate intake for choline. Both nutrients are concentrated in liver, one of the foods most associated with traditional, nose-to-tail eating and one that has largely left the modern American plate.

That gap between what older diets supplied and what modern diets deliver is much of why ancestral eating, the return to whole-food sources such as organ meats, has moved from a niche interest toward the mainstream of the nutrition conversation.

Not a rejection of the pharmacy

The data does not describe people abandoning conventional care. The preference finding is conditional, applying when a supplement is appropriate for the need, and the broader pattern is both-and: food-based nutrition taken up alongside, not instead of, medical care. Nutrition is not a substitute for a doctor's advice or for prescribed treatment, and no one should change a treatment plan on their own.

Whole-food brands have grown up alongside those numbers. Lonvera, a grass-fed beef organ nutrition company, serves the buyer the survey keeps describing: adults who, when it fits the need, would rather start with food.

"The people we hear from grew up being told that both real nutrition and real care started at the pharmacy counter, and they are the ones rethinking that order most carefully," said a spokesperson for Lonvera. "What the data describes is not a rejection of modern medicine, it is a generation adding the pantry back into the picture."

About Lonvera

Based in Provo, Utah, Lonvera is a grass-fed beef organ nutrition company focused on whole-food products made from grass-fed, pasture-raised beef and freeze-dried to preserve nutrients. Its lineup includes grass-fed beef liver and men's and women's organ blends.

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