Danish Health Authorities have issued a proposed national "Guidance on Supplements" for public discussion which, according to MayDay, an association campaigning for freedom of choice in health matters, "is worse than any legislation we have ever seen before, as it will erase the concept of supplements, this actually means that Denmark is about to be the most totalitarian state experiment in Europe concerning health."

The Danes refer to the new definition of a "medicinal product" recently passed in the EU legislature, which declares any substance presented for preventing disease as well as substances which may be administered to human beings with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions to be a medicinal product.

A substance could be anything from human blood to animals and their products, vegetables, micro-organisms, plants, parts of plants and even chemicals, whether natural or synthetic.
Source: The Community code relating to medicinal products for human use.

Pretty comprehensive, you say? Well, it seems like we Europeans have just declared our food supply, practically anything we'd ever want to swallow to stay healthy, to be medicinal and therefore subject to pharmaceutical control.

It's as simple as that. Anything we eat - if we eat well as the health authorities admonish us to - will serve to prevent one illness or the other, won't it? Why else would we be admonished to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables per day? But beyond that, any food and drink we consume will restore some type of physiological function in our bodies. Practically, everything we ever want to swallow to stay healthy, is potentially a pharmaceutical medicine if we are to give credence to that legal definition.

But that's crazy, you might say, no one ever will seriously assert that an apple is a medicine just because one a day keeps the doctor away. Agreed, but there are many products such as supplements and herbs that pharmaceutical manufacturers eye with great envy. They help people stay healthy without side effects. They actually prevent, like simple vitamin C in gram dosages, major killer diseases. More than we can say for the majority of drugs, which, on the contrary, have become a factor in increasing death rates as shown by statistical evidence.

Nutrients and plants, extracts and concentrates from natural food sources, unlike the apple, will certainly be called a medicine and put under pharma monopolistic control, if shown to be "effective", that is, if they take business away from the sickness industry that the pharmaceutical manufacturers have built.

The phenomenon is by no means isolated to tiny Denmark. Other European countries such as Germany and Finland are reasoning along similar lines - protect pharmaceutical production - it is an important "industry". But what about our health? That industry thrives only when we are sick. Should we go so far as to lose our health in order to support an industry?

You might say no, but what can you do about it?

Alert your friends to this and other sites that write about health freedom. Make your view known to your favorite newspaper, magazine or your legislative representative. If you like to be healthy and are using nutrition and other natural means to stay so, it's time to defend your rights. One of these rights is certainly the ability to use food and nutrition to stay healthy, without pharmaceutical interference.

If you are an "operator", someone in industry or in natural health consulting, please support the Alliance for Natural Health, the only group that is taking effective steps to prevent a pharmaceutical takeover of the natural health field.

If you are a legislator or a "regulator", think about the concept of non-exclusivity of the definition of a medicine. Let me explain: We define medicine in a very wide way, so as to catch all products that should have registration. There is however considerable overlap into other - equally important - areas of products, such as foods and supplements, many of which do have the same properties as medicines. They prevent disease and they restore or correct physiological functions. (Hippocrates already said "let food be thy medicine...").

When there is a conflict between the legal concept of food and that of a medicine requiring registration, the latter is destined to win out if we consider current EU legislation. This is not correct. Food should definitely have MORE importance than medicine, unless we want to drown in a sea of sickness. Addressing only sickness and "treating" only the symptoms, pharmaceutical medicine is taking us in that direction...

See here below MayDay's alert from Denmark

HEALTH FREEDOM UNDER SERIOUS THREAT IN THE

TOTALITARIAN STATE OF DENMARK
 

Another paternalistic assault on free choice and liberty using "consumer safety" as an excuse.

The Danish Veterinary and food Administration has sent out a Guidance on dietary supplements (and herbs) as a public hearing notice, in short stating that any substance with a physiological effect is to be regarded as a medicine in the future.

This means that the concept of "dietary supplements" will soon no longer exist and that a lot of widely used and harmless dietary supplements and herbs will be disappearing from Danish health shops shelves by November 2004. Gone is the freedom of choice for the many seeking to maintain and restore good health and life quality and prevent sickness.

Such nannyism is totally unacceptable!

MayDay has long been concerned that such legislative restrictions can be expected throughout EUrope in the time to come.

MayDay invites all health freedom loving people to support our work to inform about unjust measures from government authorities and ensure free personal choice in health matters.

Danes are requested to protest against these serious restrictions writing to their favorite newspaper and/or politician and/or the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (fvm@fvm.dk) plus the Danish Veterinary and food Administration (fdir@fdir.dk).

Tamara Theresa Mosegaard
MayDay, Civil Health Rights Movement
Secretariat:
Rundforbivej 2, Troeroed
DK - 2960 Vedbaek
Denmark