Supplements & Nutrition – Are supplements really necessary?
There are several reasons why dietary supplementation is necessary. First, the typical American does not eat nutritious food; most “food” eaten is high-carbohydrate, high saturated-fat fast-food, like hamburgers, fries and chips, deep-fried junk food, or, equally unhealthy processed or packaged food. Because a food is labeled “diet”, “low-fat” or even “low-carb” does not mean it’s healthy. Most of these foods are laden with trans-fats, sugar or refined flour foods. Even those touting 100% of daily vitamins are almost always completely non-nutritious. The 100% of daily vitamins they refer to is the government’s Minimum Daily Requirement – the least you can get and still avoid vitamin deficiency symptoms. The vitamins are not naturally occurring in the food product and are added. No representation is made of the purity, potency or quality of these added vitamins, for good reason. Ask yourself, when was the last time you went out to eat and got a meal low in sugary carbohydrates and blessed with an abundance of fresh vegetables and lean protein? How many times does the evening meal come out of a container, ready to heat?
Second, if you want to get your nutrients from your diet, eat only fresh from the farm organic foods. Commercial food production is big business now, and corporate earnings drive all decisions regarding how our food is planted, grown, harvested, processed, transported and distributed. Nutrition is of no interest to food producers who answer only to profit seeking stockholders. Food production plays a key role in depriving our bodies of important nutrients. The fairly recent introduction of inorganic fertilizers decreases the nutritional value of plant life and weakens the plants’ immune systems by depriving them of the nutrients they need to remain strong. The result is food that is susceptible to destruction by insects, creating crops that may not be able to survive without being sprayed with cancer-causing and soil-depleting pesticides. Genetic engineering is used to grow crops that are fast growing, disease and insect resistant, attractive and high-yield to overcome the nutrient deficiency. Over-farming, acid rain and other factors cause shortages of several essential elements in soil. Iodine-deficient soils lead to goiter epidemics, zinc-deficient soils lead to stunted growth and poor immune function, and most important, selenium-deficient soils lead to premature aging, cancer and heart disease.
Third, while the nutritional value of our foods is declining, toxins in our environment are becoming much more abundant. Our body’s defense against these toxins requires much higher levels of anti-oxidants and immune boosters from food; instead there is less. The only option is to take in these missing nutrients from supplements.
Fourth, because of the nature of modern food production and the allegiance of federal regulatory agencies to both the food and drug industries, the information we get about nutrition in our food is inadequate and in some cases simply inaccurate.
While the FDA refuses to evaluate supplements or permit supplements to carry benefit statements, the food industry is largely unregulated in its use of the words “healthy”, “diet”, “natural” and other descriptions that would invite the consumer to believe health benefits are conveyed by nutritionally useless foods.
To understand why the FDA acts very much in the disinterest of the consumer, you must consider its dual role. The FDA and other government agencies are charged with both protecting and promoting the food and drug industries AND protecting the consumer. What is wrong with this picture? Since many government employees get jobs in the industries they promote, guess whose side the FDA comes down on? To this add the fact that the FDA has a limited budget that they could spend on research for the consumer or promotion of the industries; once again, guess where the money goes.
It is a widely known fact that the FDA gets the information the consumer is given from those very industries. Guess who pays for and runs those clinical tests of prescription drugs? Not the government. Guess who comes up with the data included on those nutritional labels on food? The industry!
Sadly not only is nutritional information on food unreliable, the same can be said of inexpensive mass-marketed supplements as well. So why doesn’t the FDA evaluate supplements? They claim they are not allowed to do so. Rubbish. The FDA has the power to regulate the manufacturing, labeling and safety of dietary supplements. It has the authority to approve “nutrient content claims” for supplements. It requires the approval of “health claims”. The FDA establishes Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and inspects manufacturing plants to ensure that provisions are followed. FDA notification is required on the safety of new ingredients, with the authority to disapprove. It has the legal authority to take immediate enforcement action against a dietary supplement that is adulterated (unsafe). The FDA regulates the advertising of dietary supplements. Read all about the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) at: the Council for Responsible Nutrition [http://www.crnusa.org/about_pubs_DSHEA_facts.html]
So why is virtually every benefit claim on any supplement accompanied by “these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”? FDA evaluation and approval of dietary supplements would have two results. First poor quality supplements would be identified and soon disappear from the market leaving only effective, high quality dietary supplements, and second, the prescription drug industry would lose billions of dollars, when consumers could rely on natural, inexpensive, effective and far safer dietary supplements instead of expensive presciption drugs. Sure, there are miracle drugs that have saved lives and effective treat disease symtoms, but you will never find a prescription drug produced that will keep you healthy and render prescription drugs no longer necessary.
