SO WHO WANTS TO "WATER DOWN" YOUR VITAMINS? by Bill Sardi Guess who is soon going to dictate the dosage of vitamins and minerals you can purchase? How about foreign dictocrats at the United Nations and the World Health Organization? Yes, and it's all being done under the name of free trade "harmonization," in a so-called attempt to preserve U.S. vitamin manufacturers sales to foreign countries.
According to guidelines just released by the U.S. CODEX delegation, as part of treaties under the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which would be binding upon all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), foreign "experts" would dictate to American companies the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals that can be placed in food supplements. Foreign manufacturers could challenge the WTO that more potent U.S.-made brands represent unfair competition. Since many foreign countries already restrict the dosage of vitamins and minerals in food supplements, the new guidelines are likely to be used to water down the dosage of U.S-made brands so that foreign companies can compete with U.S. manufacturers. Currently, many foreign travelers seek U.S.-made food supplements and bring them back to their native lands because of their high quality and maximum dosage. This would all change. U.S. food supplement manufacturers would likely lose their prime position in the world marketplace. Oddly, CODEX claims its guidelines have been drafted to protect U.S. manufacturers and consumers. CODEX Guidelines Legally Binding Some three years ago The Center for Science In The Public Interest (CSPI) ["International Harmonization of Food Safety and Labeling Standards," June 1997] cited numerous international trade agreements and codes which could be used to enforce standards upon U.S. manufacturers of food products and now on food supplements. The WTO's Dispute Settlement Body could impose trade sanctions on industries unrelated to food supplements which could cause Congress to buckle and give in to restrictions on food supplements. Upper Limits Being Established CODEX guidelines attempt to establish upper limits on the dosage of food supplements. While the upper limit on vitamins appears to be established to protect consumers from potential side effects from over-dosage, the very establishment of maximum dosage would likely be misunderstood by the public. Printing upper limits on food supplement labels would likely scare many consumers away from these products. CODEX guidelines make the false assumption that there are thousands of cases of serious side effects emanating from over-dosage of food supplements and that the public needs immediate protection. Vitamin and mineral supplements are far safer than aspirin and ibuprofen (which cause thousands of cases of stomach ulcers and death from hemorrhage annually), acetaminophen (causes 70,000+ cases of liver toxicity annually and a few hundred deaths yearly), chlorinated tap water (causes 20,000+ new cases of bladder and kidney cancer annually), table salt (contributes to millions of cases of hypertension that can lead to strokes), and aspartame artificial sweetener (produces thousands of reports of adverse effects annually), all which are over-the-counter items like food supplements. Just Who Are the Experts? Another guideline proposed by the U.S. CODEX delegation is to require labeling that would urge consumers to take supplements only on the advice of a physician, dietician and nutritionist. The CODEX Draft continued to spread the mistaken idea that all the public needs to maintain health is a good diet. While food supplements do not replace meals, still less than 1 in 5 Americans consume the recommended five to seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. An estimated 8 in 10 Americans are short on magnesium, 4 in 10 are deficient in vitamin D and vitamin B12, and all humans suffer from a genetic mutation that blocks the natural conversion of blood sugars into vitamin C that most animals exhibit. Costs Would Rise If upper limits on food supplements are established then consumers who still want to consume higher doses of certain supplemental vitamins or minerals would be required to take more pills which would of course raise the cost to consumers. CODEX Disregards Congress Congress has explicitly forbidden the FDA from limiting potency or availability of supplements. Instead, the FDA and the U.S. CODEX delegation disregarded the wishes of Congress and moved ahead with the CODEX guidelines which still contain provisions for upper limits and other restrictions. Vitamins have been a hot political issue in the past. More letters have been received by Congress on vitamins than any other issue on Capitol Hill. It's time to the public to pull out their pens once again. (Bill Sardi ( [email protected] ) is a health journalist and author. His website is www.askbillsardi.com. Copyright © 2002 Bill Sardi Word of Knowledge Agency, San Dimas, California. Edited and reprinted with permission of the author.) -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
