NEWS: Vitamins Soon to be Classified as Drugs?

POLITICS: Vitamins Soon to be Classified as Drugs?

Many of us try to delay the inevitable by fizzing a vitamin C packet or popping an herbal capsule. But certain advocacy groups are warning that soon our favorite supplements will be illegal. The source of that supposed threat is a global trade commission sponsored by the UN. Its name: Codex Alimentarius.

Codex Alimentarius ("food code" in Latin) establishes a set of global food standards administered by World Health Organization, a subsidiary of the UN. According to Dr. Rima Laibow MD of HealthFreedomUSA.org, here are some things to look forward to if Codex is ever fully implemented:

No need fill your basement with boxes of B-12 just yet. In 1994 Congress passed DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) which currently protects American’s unlimited access to vitamins, minerals and other alternative health products (referred to as Complementary and Alternative Medicine or CAM products by the FDA) But now DSHEA is under attack in Congress with several pieces of draft legislation that alternative health advocates claim will endanger DSHEA if not amended.

A related event in 1994 was the creation of the World Trade Organization (whose yearly meetings always seem to spawn street riots). Needing a system of standards to regulate global food trade. the WTO adopted Codex Alimentarius. More and more countries are conforming to WTO/Codex regulations in order to gain favor in international trade disputes. That’s why it is currently illegal in Europe to purchase benign herbs like St. Johns Wort without a prescription.

Why would our government ever deny us access to the vitamin aisle? The answer may lie within the origins of Codex itself. Codex Alimentarius was founded in 1962 by Nazi war criminal Fritz ter Meer, former executive at IG Farben (the German industrial giant responsible for the death camp gas chambers among other things). After serving his Nuremberg term, ter Meer used his contacts to start Codex.

According to Dr Laibow, Codex doesn’t serve people’s health and well-being. Codex serves what she calls the 5 Bigs: “Big Pharma, Big Chema, Big Biochema, Big Agribiz and Big Medica” Judging by the sheer volume of pharmaceutical ads on TV these days there’s no doubt sick people serve as cash cows for drug companies. If the US ever becomes fully Codex compliant those cash cows are gonna get a big dose of bovine growth hormone.

"Judging by the sheer volume of pharmaceutical ads on TV these days there's no doubt sick people serve as cash cows for drug companies..."

Jesus, ain't THAT the truth!?!?

Jesus Fucking Christ!

FUCK that! I'm starting a commune in the third world. Perscription for St. John's Wort my ass.

while i will grant you that Codex Alimentarius sounds like a scary secret society a la DaVinci Code, i'm not convinced that it's really all that bad.

setting a limit on the amount of pesticide residue that can be left on produce doesn't sound like an evil conspiracy to me. here are some other things they do. see the actual vitamin regulations here.

my understanding is that vitamins and herbal supplements are wholly unregulated in the united states. it is possible to get too much of a number of vitamins and minerals. if what's in the bottle is not what's on the label, people can get hurt. the UN will not be seizing your One-A-Days at gunpoint.

DAMN
Just from the title I thought this meant vitamins and supplements would be regulated by the FDA; and that my friends would be outstanding..

what is actually going on; not so outstanding

If you have been reading any of the newer studies about anti-oxidants, you will see that most are ineffective and not even benign. Some are thought to actually provide an environment that enhances tumor growth for instance.

The feeling is that suplements isolate compounds that need the presence of other compounds - found in the foods that the suplements are isolated from - in order to provide the beneficial effect they are credited with.

The simple fact is that a diet rich in fresh foods, preferably raised within 50 miles of your home, provides all the healthy nutrition, vitamins and minerals that you will ever need.

If you don't want to be subject to big business, you have to learn to live beneath the radar.

Can you provide a link to where anyone aside from HealthFreedomUSA.org says that anyone's mandating the bovine growth hormone for all dairy cattle? I can't see through their agenda clearly enough to make out any sources whatsoever.

(EDIT: Oh! And who could have guessed that that site might feature a really large all-natural uber-organic super-duper-earth-based health supplements online store? Huh.)

If there seemed to be more of an attempt in this article to tell anyone what the Codex Alimentarius actually is before trying to get them really freaked out about it, I'd be a lot more comfortable with the word "news" being anywhere near it.

For those looking to read a little bit more on what it is that we might be talking about here, here are some more links with potentially more info:

Link One

Link Two (Yes, a link to the actual Codex Alimentarius website might be useful, whether you buy what they're arguing or not)

Link Three

Link Four

I have conducted radio interviews with Dr. Laibow (who doesn't really know her Codex properly) and left with the feeling that this person is a crackpot. Having read the Codex, I can tell you that the individual countries themselves must change the definition of Vitamins in order for them to be affected by the Codex. Here is the wording from the Codex itself about WHERE the regs will apply: 1.3 These Guidelines apply only in those jurisdictions where products defined in 2.1 are regulated as foods.

And here is 2.1: 2.1 Vitamin and mineral food supplements for the purpose of these guidelines derive their nutritional relevance primarily from the minerals and/or vitamins they contain. Vitamin and mineral food supplements are sources in concentrated forms of those nutrients alone or in combinations, marketed in forms such as capsules, tablets, powders, solutions etc., that are designed to be taken in measured small-unit quantities1 but are not in a conventional food form and whose purpose is to supplement the intake of vitamins and/or minerals from the normal diet.

SInce, as Taban pointed out, we don't currently regulate those things as food (that's why the FDA doesn't deal with them) we have nothing to worry about. When I tried to reasonably ask Dr. Laibow about these things (back in September of 2005, so it's not a NEW issue at all) she was unable to discuss them with me and refused to answer any of my questions. She's just a nut with an agenda. Please do some fact checking before spreading falsehoods or partial truths.

Oh, and a little regulation may be a good thing. That way people won't shove enormous amounts of fat soluble vitamins into pills (like A, D, E, and K) resulting in serious injuries to people who don't know better (like my grandmother, who had kidney failure from too much Vitamin D).

Too bad if that became law, it would be impossible to get organic milk.

I love Canada.

Is this urban legend making the rounds again?

Yeah, this will never ever happen.

Urban legend? PHEW! I was really worried for a second there!

you can't take my vitamin water away from me!

even when said jokingly, that still stings a bit.

So now we're publishing urban legends on the newswire?

not a lot of thinking going on here

Absolutely!!!! seasonal, locally grown, organic fresh foods is where it is at.

edit: and lots and lots of water! well, not too much water. that could be bad for you. beer then!!!

yeah...sounds like an urban legend to me.

Reminds me of an e-mail my mom forwarded to me claiming that traditional store-bought toothpaste actually causes damage to the enamel of your teeth and that dentists were working with the toothpaste companies to defraud you or something along those lines. Big long spiel. lots of pseudo-scientific stuff. Then towards the end they mentioned this lovely all-natural tooth-cleaning powder (or something very similar, I forget what it was exactly) that they happen to sell and you can do a free trial now!

Needless to say, I was not convinced.

(Incidentally, evanharos is sure off to a promising start here on the newswire: recommending the flakiest presidential nominees to us based on their record on one single issue, and a scare story about draconian anti-vitamin organizations being pushed by a health-supplement store. Yay. What's next, a thrilling expose of the real story behind 9/11?)

Incidentally, it's actually all true. Fluoride used in toothpaste may be good for teeth enamel in small amounts, but if you actually manage to ingest some (were not talking very much here folks), over time you could develop acute fluoride toxicity and could suffer from a series of ailments including abdominal pain, diarrhea, cramps, vomiting, cardiac arrhythmia and even coma or death. Fluoride also can inhibit the body's production of ATP, effecting metabolism and causing cellular damage. It also induces dental and skeletal fluorosis which weakens teeth and bones, making them brittle. Considering that toothpaste is only one of many ways in which you can introduce fluoride into your body, you may wish to think about what products you use eat and drink. Many foods and drinks (and even salt) have fluoride in them as may your municipal water supply. Since the body retains fluoride, it is entirely possible to exceed the minimum safe intake of the poison (yes, it is one).

But don't take my word for it, you can easily find information on fluoridation on the web, here are a few sites I encourage interested persons to visit:
RE-EXAMINATION OF ACUTE TOXICITY OF FLUORIDE
International Society For Fluoride Research
hypertexted .pdf linking to research articles

For the less research savvy:
Australian Fluoridation News
Fluoride Action Network
(Please try to ignore the video on the home page (it's a local Fox news report).

Maybe you should consider the alternative your mom suggests. I hear Tom's of Maine makes a good product, but I've been using the devil's brand instead:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Sod all the talk about vitamin suppliments. I don't take them so that's of no concern to me. What does concern me is the following;

I'm sorry, but that's just not right. Irradiate my steak? What they goona do? Bang it in the reactor at Sellafield for 30mins at Radiation Mark 5.

And don't even get me started on #2. Does anyone know what effects this Monsanto bov.GH has on humans?

When an article calls St. John's Wart a benign herb, I have to stop reading and ask myself, "Is this sarcasm, or are they incompetent?" Even the provided link has a section of precautions.

SG's HR department has a poorer track record than Bush Administration appointees.

this is off the chart!