Food Supplements Directive - Head of Irish Nutrition Institute warns of Health Harm
In accordance with the requirements of a European directive, the European Commission is about to pass restrictions on formulating food supplements that contain vitamins and minerals integrating daily nutrient intake.
Richard Burton, the head of the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health has written to members of the European Parliament that approved a directive mandating such restrictions, to warn that the directive, if implemented as planned, will harm the health of Europe's citizens.
The food supplement directive requires that ingredients supplying vitamins or minerals be approved and added to a published list this year, or they can no longer be used. Data required for adding those ingredients to the list are similar to those needed for approval of a medicine. The Commission is also looking at dosage restrictions that, in some cases, could make the products useless for the prevention of common degenerative ailments.
The letter by Institute Director Burton outlines the likely consequences of such restrictions and warns that many of Europe's more health conscious citizens are on the verge of losing faith in the idea of a united Europe.
La Leva has argued in similar terms during the time leading up to the passage of the directive - however to no avail.
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Dear Irish MEP,
I am founder and director of the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health. By profession I am a Nutritionist, Nutritional Therapist and Acupuncturist.
In my estimation, if the FSD is adopted in or close to its current form, it will have the following impacts:
1) Harm the health status of EU citizens
Much of the preventable disease burden across Europe is caused or compounded by intake deficiencies of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. None of it is caused by excessive intakes of these essential micronutrients. An increasingly nutrition-aware European population is consuming more supplements than ever. Decades of widespread use across Europe and N America have proven nutrient supplements to have an enviable safety record, so this is a positive trend. The FSD in its current form will severely limit forms and dosages of micronutrient supplements and will thus have the effect of harming the health of European citizens.
2) Damage the Nutritional Therapy (NT) profession
Nutritional therapists have an effective and growing role in promoting healthy eating and lifestyles in society. The use of therapeutic supplement doses is a important part of the NT tool kit, and abolishing access to them will damage the profession for no health gain whatsoever.
3) Undermine the importance of good science in policy making
Because of the total lack of evidence of their harm, justification for banning therapeutic doses is necessarily based purely on speculation (e.g. 'somebody could overdose', 'a harmful interaction with medication could occur'). Yes, anything is possible, but in the absence of a serious adverse event due to nutrient supplementation in Ireland in over 40 years of accumulated use the actual, data-based risk is too small to calculate. (The equivalent safety data from USA are even more impressive).
4) Fuel cynicism about the EU's motives, priorities and integrity
When Irish supplement consumers are made aware of the FSD and its implications, and the true safety situation, the majority spontaneously interpret this as the EU placing business/trade/corporate interests before its citizens' health.
5) Damage the chance of a 'Yes' vote in Lisbon 2
Again, the implications of the FSD strengthen doubts about Europe's direction, governance and integrity. Very many people, myself included, who have long supported the EU in much of its excellent work now worry deeply about the direction Brussels seems to be heading. The FSD, along with other upcoming directives that will effectively emaciate several complementary health care disciplines, are setting Europe on a very troubling path that will surely represent the last straw for numerous wavering voters.
6) Complicate the re-election of MEPs
At the next EU elections, many voters will be asking if you support or oppose the FSD and likeminded directives. How will you respond?
In summary - Many informed people recognize that the EU is implementing a deliberate, long-term strategy to weaken or destroy certain natural health behaviours, approaches and disciplines by outlawing their therapeutic tools. The FSD is the current concern. Justifying the need for draconian restrictions on micronutrient intakes using bogus safety fears is an all-too-obvious red-herring that places the EU in a very bad light.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Burton
Director
Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health
6 Carlton Terrace
BRAY
Co Wicklow
www.iinh.net
PS I wonder if Brussels has anything to say about the huge black market in therapeutic supplement doses that is destined to emerge if the FSD is adopted. What price safety when that takes off?...
Comments
February 23, 2009 4:10 PM | Posted by: Sharrhan
Oops!-- wrong link for New Earth Project. This should work:
http://newearthproject.ning.com/
February 23, 2009 4:03 PM | Posted by: Sharrhan
America is clearly next in line for these drastic changes. This is extremely disturbing, and plays right into the hands of Codex Alimentarius. It looks like in the near future toxic medicines will be people's only recourse, and to compound the problem, our food supply is getting more and more severely compromised. So what can we do? I've been following these developments a long time, and it appears grassroots movements will have little impact on Codex, FDA and Congress-- they are too firmly in the hip pocket of the powerful pharmaceutical and agri-business companies to respond to our protests. We have to realize that we are now living in corporate fascist countries, not democracies. But what we can do is take our lives into our own hands and adopt better diets, high in raw produce and low in animal protein and fats; cleanse and detoxify our bodies on a regular basis; create our own gardens in our yards, community plots or kitchens; make our own sprouts; practice calorie restriction; exercise regularly and generally live very healthy lifestyles; maybe even become liquidarians. I know one fellow who's a healthy, very fit body-builder who is a breatharian-- our possibilities are humans are greater than we realize! We can also form our own cooperatives to purchase organic food. We can urge our cities to create farms (my city of Cambridge is already considering this, and we have numerous community gardens throughout the city.) There's much that we can do, but it means being self-reliant.
It's undeniably hard to be self-sustaining and self-reliant when you are saddened and filled with sadness by these draconian and unjust machinations of the world government, but this is exactly what we must do: power up, strengthen our inner resources and spiritual resolve, and never give up. We are more powerful than we have dreamed, and now is the time to get off 'their' grid and create our own. We must not forget the power of our positive intentions, too: I believe that real change will happen when enough people decide that our positive collective vision is more powerful than 'their' manipulative business model, and begin to exercise the power of our intention to heal the planet.
I'm just in the very beginning stages of setting up a website on ning.com to address these issues, where people can come to gather together using the power of our collective consciousness (not unlike Lynne McTaggart's Intention Experiment) to create clean water, food and air, and begin to heal the massive fear and suffering that permeates the mass mind at this time. Here is the link, and I'd love to have like-minded people visit and share your ideas with me about how you would like to see the power of intention used in this way:
http://newearthproject.ning.com/profile/Sharrhan