Nutrition 21 Appoints Pam McWilliams, Vice President – General Manager of Direct Response

PURCHASE, N.Y., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nutrition 21, Inc., today announced the appointment of Pam McWilliams as vice president and general manager of the Company’s Direct Response Group, effective October 27, 2008. Mrs. McWilliams has more than 22 years of experience in sales, marketing, management and business development within the direct response industry. Mrs. McWilliams’ responsibilities include new business development, sales strategy, vendor operations and management of the Direct Response Group.

Mrs. McWilliams will be based out of Nutrition 21’s headquarters in Purchase, NY and will report to Michael A. Zeher, president and CEO of Nutrition 21, who said, “I am very pleased that Pam McWilliams is joining the Nutrition 21 management team. Her excellent experience, broad background, and relationships in the direct response industry will be valuable assets to our company. I am looking forward to the combination of Pam’s leadership skills, high integrity, and business acumen being an energizing force in leading Nutrition’s 21’s Direct Response Group to even higher levels of performance.”

“I am extremely pleased to join the leadership team at Nutrition 21,” said Mrs. McWilliams. The value the company places on integrity, industry leadership, and supporting high quality brands in the bioscience industry is what attracted me to Nutrition 21. These values create an exciting opportunity to differentiate Nutrition 21 from its competitors, increase market share, and achieve unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction and long term brand loyalty. By drawing from my professional experience and collaborating with the leadership team, Nutrition 21 will continue to implement a direct marketing strategy to deliver cutting edge, high quality nutritional supplements with a demonstrated commitment towards best-in-class customer service.”

For the past two years Mrs. McWilliams was a direct marketing consultant for Propeller Consulting. Prior to that Mrs. McWilliams served for 21 years at Bee Alive, Inc., a direct marketing health and beauty company, most recently as executive vice president. Beginning as a three-person operation, Mrs. McWilliams helped grow the Bee Alive organization to 150 employees while achieving millions in annual sales. Mrs. McWilliams’ responsibilities included management and business development, return on investment (ROI) analysis, marketing and promotion, product development, profit and loss (P&L), expense management, and systems implementation.

About Nutrition 21

Nutrition 21, Inc. , headquartered in Purchase, NY, is a nutritional bioscience company and the maker of chromium picolinate-based and omega-3 fish oil-based supplements with health benefits substantiated by clinical research. Nutrition 21 holds more than 30 patents for nutrition products and uses. Nutrition 21’s portfolio of health and wellness products include: Iceland Health Chromax(R), Iceland Health Advanced Memory Formula(TM), Diabetes Essentials(R), Iceland Health(R) Maximum Strength Omega-3 and Iceland Health(R) Joint Relief. The company also manufactures private label supplements and ingredients for third parties. Nutrition 21 distributes its products nationally through more than 29,000 major food, drug and super center stores throughout the United States and internationally. For more information please visit http://www.nutrition21.com/.

Safe Harbor Provision

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements. The words “believe,””expect,””anticipate” and other similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the Company’s current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation: the effect of the expiration of patents; regulatory issues; uncertainty in the outcomes of clinical trials; changes in external market factors; changes in the Company’s business or growth strategy or an inability to execute its strategy due to changes in its industry or the economy generally; the emergence of new or growing competitors; various other competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Form 10-K/A for the year ended June 30, 2008. Actual results could differ materially from the results referred to in the forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the results referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release will in fact occur. Additionally, the Company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward-looking statements, or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that may bear upon forward-looking statements.

    Company Contact:               Investor Contact:    Alan Kirschbaum                Lytham Partners, LLC    Chief Financial Officer        Joe Diaz, Joe Dorame, Robert Blum    914-701-4500                   602-889-9700  

Nutrition 21, Inc.

CONTACT: company, Alan Kirschbaum, Chief Financial Officer of Nutrition21, Inc., +1-914-701-4500; or investors, Joe Diaz, Joe Dorame, or Robert Blum,all of Lytham Partners, LLC, +1-602-889-9700, for Nutrition 21, Inc.

Web site: http://www.nutrition21.com/