Supplement regulation: who's behind it and why should you oppose it?

Let’s make sure that all vitamin and herbal supplements are clinically proven to do what they claim, and that they’re safe, before they reach the consumer. Let’s ensure that their ingredients are closely monitored, and that their labels and advertisements tell the truth and nothing but, so that their consumption can be based on informed and confident decisions.

What pretty ideals. Pretty enough, in fact, for a host of politicians and governments, and the pharmaceutical corporations that control them, to hide a considerably more ugly agenda behind.

Right now a war is being fought over the regulation of supplements, with the various battles at different stages in countries across the globe. The European Union already passed its Food Supplements Directive in July of 2002, framing it on the principle that supplements should be proven safe and effective in the same manner as pharmaceuticals. The UK did not immediately implement this directive, but will do so come the end of this month. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a host of other nations are involved in their own battles, and here in the U.S. Senator Dick Durbin’s proposed “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003,” one of the first shots in what will undoubtedly become a mounting campaign.

In general, the claim behind these bills and directives supporting tighter (and tighter and tighter) restrictions on supplements is that they will make the world a safer place for us, the consumers. Yeah, and so would military occupation of our towns and cities. In reality, it will have a polar effect on our health and safety. And it will be chilling.

Keeping You on the Motherland

On a routine basis, Cubans attempt to escape their homeland on boats bound for U.S. shores. The ocean waters are certainly not safe, and there are rarely any guarantees waiting for them here. Nonetheless, the potential, the possibilities, are a far better option than the dangerously flawed regime they are trying to leave behind.

This is an apt metaphor in this situation. Because if one thing is certain it is this: the conventional healthcare system, our Cuba, is seriously diseased. It is dominated by industries who are motivated by profit and who therefore foster whatever will most increase their profits, your health be damned. For example, processed food is far cheaper to produce, deliver and store than much healthier whole foods, and so it’s processed foods that are dumped en masse into our supermarkets, restaurants and brains. And prescription drugs that merely treat symptoms versus prevent or cure the underlying causes are a whole lot more profitable because, well, when they keep you coming back for more and more treatment, they’ve made a customer for life.

Most people, meanwhile, have been brainwashed by this conventional healthcare regime. They don’t even realize their daily habits like eating are the primary part of their healthcare, and so it’s quite easy for their habits and assumptions to be manipulated by the regime. Only when they get sick or overweight does their perception of healthcare, fostered by the pharmaceutical companies and others on that side of the regime, kick in: they will go to the doctor to get a prescription to “save” them. And these days, in almost 70% of all patient visits, physicians do indeed give them the drugs they crave. But if that doesn’t work, if things get serious or seriously inconvenient, they move on to surgery. Of course, most prescription drugs and surgeries, reflecting conventional healthcare as a whole, have nothing to do with prevention and addressing the causes of illness -- they’re all about merely treating symptoms so people can move on with their unhealthy lifestyles and get more symptoms that need treating. It’s great for repeat business.

Some people, however, are aware of the deadly downward spiral of the conventional healthcare system. They are refugees from an oppressive system, to be blunt about it, seeking better alternatives to prevent and cure illness, and live longer. And here is the key point of the matter that’s caused this recent surge in opposition to supplements: their numbers are increasing dramatically, and they are finding those better alternatives.

Between 1997 and 2001, there was a 15% increase in sales of vitamin/mineral supplements. In 2002, the overall market for the alternatives to prescription drugs, processed and fast food, and surgery -- that is, natural/organic foods, dietary supplements and other natural products -- was $37 billion.

Those numbers, that attempt to escape from conventional healthcare’s stranglehold, is what is behind the recent worldwide war being waged on the leader among alternatives at over $17 read more