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Health Claims and Dubious Media Articles in Europe
by Paul Anthony Taylor |
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“Do not let either the medical authorities or the politicians mislead you. Find out what the facts are, and make your own decisions about how to live a happy life and how to work for a better world.” (Linus Pauling).
Living in the European Union, as I do, I have been aware for some time now that there is a concerted attempt underway to convince us that there are no such things as good or bad foods, only good or bad diets, and that in a long-term varied diet, all foods can be included. In recent years, even press releases issued by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, have begun to subscribe to this most disingenuous, and even dangerous, of ideologies./1
Disturbingly, therefore, the European media now appears to be becoming increasingly complicit in the spreading of this type of propaganda and is replete with examples of dubious, scientific-sounding claims, masquerading as articles, being used as a means of influencing our food purchases.
One recent report on the Nutraingredients website, for example, even went so far as to claim that “cheeseburgers are good for the gut,” arguing that rather than clog up the arteries, high-fat foods “can actually soothe inflammation.”/2
Another recent Nutraingredients report, meanwhile, trumpeted the claim that walnuts are a source of melatonin./3 This one really made me sit up and take notice, as over-the-counter sales of melatonin were banned some years ago in the UK, where I live, on the dubious grounds that melatonin wasn’t safe. Upon reading down the article, however, one discovers that the amount of melatonin in walnuts was found to be between 2.5 and 4.5 nanograms per gram.
Now, a nanogram is 1 millionth of a milligram, which means that the amount of melatonin in walnuts is very, very small indeed. Bearing in mind therefore that the average walnut weighs around 5 grams,/4 and that even the very lowest-dose melatonin capsule generally contains at least 1 milligram of melatonin, this suggests one would have to consume well over 44,000 walnuts (each containing an average 4.5 nanograms of melatonin per gram) to achieve an intake of just 1 milligram. And guess what? The research was supported by a grant from the California Walnut Industry. Hmmm . . . .
Meanwhile, the European Union is in the final stages of preparing a very restrictive Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims. Expected to be passed in mid-2006, it will give the European authorities full control over any and all claims made about food products sold in Europe. Essentially, no claims of any sort will be allowed unless they are first specifically accepted and approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Notably, however, information provided in media articles of the type described above will be exempt from the Regulation. As such, while most health claims for dietary supplements will, in all likelihood, be either rejected or at best extremely difficult to gain approval for, European consumers will continue to be subjected to an increasing barrage of dubious articles of the type that exhort them to eat cheeseburgers and buy walnuts for their melatonin content.
Nevertheless, and before anybody gets the wrong idea, I have nothing against either Nutraingredients or its website (other than the fact that one of its reporters once called us the “so-called National Health Federation”). I subscribe to the Nutraingredients daily newsletter, for example, and generally consider it to be a useful source of information about the supplement and health-food industries. And just for the record, I also like walnuts and eat them regularly for their many health-promoting promoting properties.
My concern, however, is that Europe is currently heading at breakneck speed towards an Orwellian world where truly life-extending and health-enhancing information, of the type that consumers both want and have a moral right to avail themselves of, will be banned; but where the fast- and processed-food industries (and of course, the pharmaceutical industry) will thrive as a result of their financial power, political connections, and easy access to the media.
Moreover, having just returned from a Codex meeting in Bonn, Germany and having witnessed discussions regarding a proposed global standard, the Draft Recommendations on the Scientific Basis of Health Claims, that could potentially do just as much damage to natural healthcare and health freedom as the Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements eventually might, I know only too well the extent to which we are now being hoodwinked on this issue by our politicians, regulators, and media.
As the old saying goes - unless we change direction soon we're likely to end up where we're going. Well, we’d better change direction pretty soon then, as from what I have seen recently our current destination is looking increasingly worrying.
REFERENCES
/1 “Consumers to be better informed on food,” European Commission Press Release, July 2003. http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/health_consumer/newsletter/200307/1.htm
/2 “Cheeseburgers are good for the gut,” Nutraingredients.com article, October 11, 2005. http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?n=63108&m=1NIEo11&c=lmqbgluszkwtiej
/3 “Walnuts are a source of melatonin, shows study,” Nutraingredients.com article, September 14, 2005. http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=62492
/4 “Walnut Varieties for Home Production,” The Natural Food Hub. http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_nut_cultivars_walnut.htm
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