By Borge Eliassen President, Fritt Helsevalg January 2009
Norwegians are becoming increasingly aware of the imminent health-freedom threat represented by restrictive national legislation, European Union (EU) bureaucratic directives, and Codex Alimentarius. Our organization, Fritt Helsevalg ("Free Health Choice" in Norwegian), has grown an incredible 400% since 2007, and we see the trend continuing for a long time to come.
Our organization is of course a member of the National Health Federation. The health-freedom movement is global, and we must all work together. You are an inspiration to us, and we hope our growing success is mirrored as well with and within NHF.
Norway is not a member of the EU, although our government often does not seem to understand this fact when it comes to natural supplements and the upcoming EU directives. As others have shown, the directives are unnecessarily restrictive and Norwegian authorities seem to be clearly influenced by interests that welcome such restrictions. So, our organization has many challenges that we are working on. Scott Tips described the efforts of our Food "Safety" Authorities during Codex sessions in a good way: "Supplement-hating Norway." For the record, these "Norwegian" authorities do not represent the will of the Norwegian people; rather, they represent a minority of bureaucracy-loving, nutrition-paranoid people who seemingly enjoy restricting the rights of their fellow citizens.
Fritt Helsevalg focuses on Norwegian bureaucracy and the illogical consequences it has on our health freedom. We publish informative articles on our website (www.fritthelsevalg.org), give well-attended seminars, e-mail our many members, contact politicians and media, and more. Fritt Helsevalg is becoming increasingly more professional and will, during the years to follow, become a highly-respected and influential driving force in Norwegian health politics. The American Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) is our ideal, and true freedom is the only acceptable outcome of our efforts.
