The Supplement Industry Likes To Style Itself As People's Medicine, But Works To Stifle Debate

[HuckleB]

Yes, this is about what BIG SUPPLEMENT does in Great Britain, but it does as much it can via propaganda of the same type everywhere else.

With their money, myopia and abuses, these pill makers match big pharma
The food supplement industry likes to style itself as people's medicine, but the way it stifles debate is far from democratic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/12/matthiasrath.aids

"Matthias Rath today pulled out of a legal case against the Guardian which has cost the organisation £500,000 to defend. I am proud that we fought it. Rath is an example of the worst excesses of the alternative therapy industry; UK nutritionists make foolish claims on poor evidence – they can make your child a genius with fish oils, or prevent heart attacks in the distant future – but Rath transplanted these practices into the world of HIV/Aids, where evidence really matters.

The potential consequences of his actions are outrageous, but he is by no means untypical. This sector has engineered a beneficent public image for itself, a warm and friendly cottage industry; but that fantasy is not borne out by the facts.

First, despite claims about the true evils of "big pharma", presented as if they were evidence that vitamin pills are effective, there is little difference between the vitamin and pharmaceutical industries. Key players in both include multinationals such as Roche and Aventis; BioCare, the vitamin pill producer that media nutritionist Patrick Holford works for, is part-owned by Elder Pharmaceuticals, and so on.

The food supplement market, comprising products like vitamin pills and herbal supplements, is worth $50bn worldwide (against $600bn for pharmaceuticals). It has lobbied angrily and successfully against safety regulation, and the vitamin industry is also legendary in the world of economics as the setting of the most outrageous price-fixing cartel ever documented: during the 1990s the main offenders pleaded guilty and had to pay $1.5bn, the largest criminal fine levied in legal history.

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It's time to realize that supplement companies are not some glorious supporters of some imaginary freedom. They are the same type of companies as one finds in every other industry. Please stop the knee-jerk defensiveness. BIG SUPPA is not on our side.

:hi:

[Ian David]

1. I always thought nutritional supplements were made with love, in the basements of grandmothers. n/t

[MineralMan]

2. That's right, and they use only ingredients grown by Amish

farmers. You betcha. The reality is far, far different, and much of what goes into the supplements we buy comes from chemical manufacturers in China and India. Googling a few actual ingredients of supplements is very interesting.

Try "ascorbic acid manufacturers" in Google. Take your Vitamin C supplements, folks. But know where the stuff comes from that goes into those pills.

[HuckleB]

3. Not just love. Magical love! -nt-

[Ian David]

4. Well, THAT goes without saying. n/t

[xchrom]

5. Recommend

[HuckleB]

9. Thank you.

[trotsky]

6. We are seeing this phenomenon IN ACTION right here in the Health forum.

With multiple threads spamming the same attack against whatever mysterious forces are conspiring to PRY MY VITAMINS FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS. :eyes:

[HuckleB]

7. Yup.

And those posts are getting plenty of recs. It seems like us Democrats need to do something to promote science, as we are not without our own anti-science factions.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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