Herbal support usage among consultants who apply to nutrition and dietetics department of a special hospital in Istanbul to lose weight

According to World Health Organization usage of herbal products is 70-80% of all over the world. In Turkey 32-72% of the population are using herbal products for medical issues. In general, herbal products seem to be natural and harmless. For this reason this study was designed to evaluate knowledge, conscious, preference and usage of consultants among 10 herbal products which are selected and placed in the survey (green tea, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, white tea, black seed, flaxseed, charry stalk, mate tea, corn silk). Socio-demographic information (age, sex, education, etc.) of the participants were questioned and waist measurements were taken with a tape measure. Of the 133 people who completed the study, 75% were women and 25% were men. The age range of the participants is 22-66. When the waist circumference measurements of the participants were evaluated in terms of men and women, a significant relationship was found between the height of the waist circumference and herbal product usage in both groups (for women p: 0,000≤0,05, for men p: 0,041≤0,05). When the education levels of the participants were compared, no significant relationship was found with the usage of herbal products (p: 0.143> 0.05). The main reasons for the use of herbal supplements by participants are weight loss. It was observed that participants who had difficulty in weight gain more use of herbal supplements. As far as human health is concerned, it is necessary to make people more aware of herbal supports, and to oversee the production, sales and usage of herbal products by the ministries.