Nutrition and the current state of affairs…what does this mean to the consumer of nutritional products? Much has been happening behind the scenes’ that most of the citizens of the United States are unaware. New laws are in effect, or are soon to be so, that will regulate every aspect of nutritional supplements including your right to purchase or have in your possession items that you have purchased in the past. Things like herbal remedies, good quality multi-vitamins, Vitamin E, mineral complexes, and even Vitamin C (I’ll cover more about this in the following paragraphs). I urge all readers to research the words—Codex Alimentarius—and to start educating yourself on these coming issues. The Codex was a set of rules and laws developed in 1963 by the World Health Organization an arm of the United Nations. The stated purpose was “to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in the international food trade.”
Many of you might ask—what does this have to do with me? Any country that is a member of the United Nations signs on with one simple understanding—if you are a member state than you are bound by the rules and laws adopted by the United Nations. Welcome United States citizens to the Gestapo mentality that seems to have somehow invaded the freest nation in the world. The New World Order is here. The right you have to get these items is soon to be taken away from you. You might all do some research and find out how the European euro translates into dollar amounts because that is the next step.
Read the following text taken verbatim from Wikipedia:
“The Codex Alimentarius officially covers all foods, whether processed, semi-processed or raw, but far more attention has been given to foods that are marketed directly to consumers. In addition to standards for specific foods, the Codex Alimentarius contains general standards covering matters such as food labeling, food hygiene, food additives and pesticide residues, and procedures for assessing the safety of foods derived from modern biotechnology. It also contains guidelines for the management of official (i.e., governmental) import and export inspection and certification systems for foods.”
This doesn’t seem to be bad in the context that it is written. As many of you know, and I believe that most that do supplements and procure their own are well educated in finding decent and reliable products. And I have no qualms that the consumer should get what they pay for. There are some scalawags out there that will cheat there own mother to make a buck. I spent much of my time educating the patient in how to assess products, the manufacturers of those products, and to also educate them in the proper use and safety of the products that they consume. That is my job and I am well trained to do so. In fact, the word doctor comes from the Latin word ‘docere’ which literally means ‘to teach’. I have no qualms that we need to weed out the few that would take advantage of those that can get caught up with the hype and low grade sales pitches. Yet, we will always have these types of greedy people amongst us. Adopting laws to control less than 10 % (if it even that) that negatively affect the rest of us 90% is akin to burning the house down to get rid of a few rats. Most of us would agree that procuring a couple of cats would have worked without negatively affecting everything else.
The proponents of the Codex insist that these rules are voluntary. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Please note that the European Union has adopted these rules and laws. “In 1996”, as related in Wikipedia and other site locations, “a German delegation put forward a proposal that no herb, Vitamin, or mineral should be sold for preventive or therapeutic reasons, and that all supplements should be reclassified as drugs.” And the absolutely amazing part of this—the proposal was agreed to by the delegates that were there at the conference! Implementation wasn’t carried out because of vigorous protests. But in the following paragraphs you will see that the government of the United States, via the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the process of adopting these rules and laws. What this means is clear—remember that Vitamin C you bought a short while ago—the one with the 500 milligram caps—the one you paid probably less than $20.00 dollars for—it will be made unavailable to you because it is above the recommended daily allowance (RDA). This Vitamin C, will have to be made by a major pharmaceutical company—will have to be scripted to you by your doctor—and will probably cost you in the neighborhood of ten times as much—that’s right $200.00 dollars. In fact it will be a crime to have it in your possession without a script. This has already happened in Europe.
The RDA was established in 1941 and the question that they wanted an answer to was this: WHAT WAS THE MINIMUM AMOUNT NEEDED, ON A DAILY BASIS, TO KEEP AN AVERAGE HEALTHY PERSON FROM SHOWING THE CLINICAL SIGNS OF DISEASE. Our RDA for Vitamin C is somewhere between 60-100 mg depending on who you ask. Dogs and Cats make about 1000 milligrams of Vitamin C in their livers everyday. Human beings, great apes, and guinea pigs can’t make it in the liver. We have to get it from our food. Make any sense to anyone out there that 60 mg is enough for us? Then when the dogs and cats were stressed out, via cold water baths, it was found that their livers produced about twice as much Vitamin C. Simply because Vitamin C is necessary to deal with stress though the production of adrenalin, the neurotransmitter that helps us adapt and to meet the challenges of the stressor.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have stated that the guidelines are to, “[keep you] from overdosing on vitamin and mineral supplements.” I have been a physician for almost 10 years focusing on nutritional treatments and I have never sent anyone to the hospital for an overdose of a vitamin or mineral. I have never seen an article in the paper that states anyone has…although it does happen on a rare occasion. And because of this rare occasion they insist on taking your freedom away from you. What they are really saying is that the majority of the population is so ignorant—so stupid—that they can’t possibly do this right. What pure unadulterated insanity! Now this makes me angry as hell and it should make you angry. In fact most of my patients, and in fact most of you, understand more about nutrition than most modern day physicians. Read the following statement carefully—mull it over:
More than two-thirds of the medical schools in the United States still do not have a specific nutrition course in their curriculum. This ongoing failure to teach nutrition and practice nutritional medicine is embedded in the idea that we get our recommended daily allowance (RDA) of nutrients if we eat within certain defined parameters. There is a clear understanding now that even RDA’s of these nutrients, established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1941, may keep subclinical disease states subclinical. Because the RDA’s for vitamins are minimum amounts that will only prevent the signs and symptoms of deficiency diseases, the daily intake should often be higher than recommended. Furthermore, however well RDA’s work as a guideline, for any given person, they may be an underestimate or overestimate of the amounts actually needed for any specific health problem.
Further research indicates that less than 5% of the medical doctors and osteopathic doctors in this country have any meaningful nutritional education in medical school. In fact, chiropractors know more about nutrition than standard medical doctors. Now ask yourself this question—who are the people writing these rules– politicians? What the heck does a politician know about nutrition? So what would be their incentive to do this? What once was an idea to help consumers receive quality has now gravitated itself into big business. This is now about big money. It is also a well known fact amongst us professionals that the FDA is principally run by big Pharmacy. And how would we know that?
The FDA banned the herb Ephedra which they blamed for some 70-100 deaths in this country in one year. In fact, used appropriately, it is a wonderful herb for allergies and other related conditions. 95% of you know how to do this appropriately. Now when Viagra, the erectile dysfunction medication, came out there were some 1400 deaths in the first year related directly to the use of the drug—did they take this off the market? No they didn’t. Do you really think big pharmacy cares about the people? Viagra–NAMCS data on new drugs show an estimated 2.6 million mentions of Viagra at physician office visits in 1999. These requests have gone up considerably in the last ten years. Viagra is easily a billion dollars a year to the pharmaceutical company that makes it. So the old saying comes to mind—“Money talks and honesty walks.” Even your soft drinks are under attack. Soon to be banned is the addition of things like ginkgo biloba, ginseng, chromium picolinate, guarana and goto kola. You will find these in assorted teas and soft drinks. Now another question—do you see people dying like flies while drinking these drinks? We are talking bout herbs and nutrients countless societies through the ages have done with little if any side effects…had they been harmful to us we would have quit doing them long ago.
For almost ten years I have treated depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol dependency with specific amino acid formulas and vitamin therapy. I do have the rights in the State of Arizona to prescribe antidepressants although it is extremely rare for me to have to do so. Several facts and truths about psychotropics are never told to the patient. This information is readily available to the doctor. First, we have no clear understanding how these drugs actually work in the brain. As one example, if we review the drug Prozac in the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) we’ll see under the listing—mechanism of action—“UNKNOWN…but is thought to be…” This is true for of all psychotropics used today including the anti-anxiety meds. Secondly, research on these medications, for approval from the FDA, rarely have study groups larger than 400-600 patients and rarely exceed 4 months in length. In fact, if one looks at the PDR, the manufacturer of these drugs rarely approves their use beyond 4-6 months. Yet when the patient goes to the doctor they are commonly told that they may have to be on these medications the rest of their lives. Thirdly, medical professionals have absolutely no idea of the long term affects of these medications and it is interesting that there is some research that indicates that the suicide rate in the US has risen consistently since the advent of Prozac in the early 1990’s.
More comments in Part Two
With Respect
Dr Dave
The Source Naturopathic Medical Clinic 