Nutritional Supplements: Putting Profits Ahead of People

Legislation to drastically restrict the availability of supplements has already pervaded European countries and is on a march to take over healthcare and food systems throughout the world. In Europe, there is a serious risk that the amount of beta-carotene present in two carrots or the selenium in three Brazil nuts will soon be regarded as medicinal and therefore only available by prescription from a doctor.

In my opinion, the agenda behind this lunacy is not scientific but political: to suppress all beneficial, high-potency nutrients and limit the alternative health marketplace to low-quality, low-dose (and therefore ineffective) products. In our opinion the drug industry, recognizing the growing preference for natural remedies over pharmaceutical ones, wants these supplements either forbidden or under its control. Some fear that once this legislation has run its full course, the only supplements left will be synthetically made by 'Big Pharma'.

In the early 1960's, two United Nations organizations - the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Trade Organization - established the Codex Alimentarius (Latin for 'food code') Commission. In recent years this set of guidelines has moved from a voluntary ideology to a mandated rule affecting any and all members of the World Trade Organization. This little-known international body wields immense power over the global food market. Its alleged goals are to uphold international standards for food quality and safety, to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in international food trade. But trade, as you must know, is about profit, not people. Today, you can peruse the pages of the United Nations publication on this issue and be made to believe that Codex is on a do-good lifesaving mission. The reality is it has been working for years to regulate or outlaw herbs and nutritional supplements and it is seemingly putting profits in front of health on many other fronts too.

Codex consists of around 300 official food standards, some of which have been in effect since as long ago as 1966. The one attracting most concern currently is the European Union's Food Supplements Directive, scheduled to go into full effect in the region on December 31, 2009 and likely to spread apace to all Codex member states, including the US. Health-conscious Europeans have already observed the removal of important nutrients from the shelves of their local health stores but some suggest they should be taking photos of those shelves now, as things are about to get a lot worse. The next step is to reduce any available nutrients to an almost immeasurable amount so that they have little to no effect on the consumer. Behind this looms the fact that pharmaceutical drugs are not under the jurisdiction of Codex. Additionally, all new food supplements could be banned unless tested and approved in a drug-like manner. Since drug testing costs millions and is normally the sole domain of the cash-rich pharmaceutical giants, this legislation, if enforced, would inevitably present a serious obstacle to the small and medium sized companies that predominate in the natural supplements market.