Bill Sardi's letter to U.S. delegates to the CODEX meetings

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http://askbillsardi.com/sdm.asp?pg=codex

 

Your access to food supplements in doses that would promote optimal health is

threatened by agreements with a union of other countries known as CODEX. Bill

Sardi's letter to U.S. delegates to the CODEX meetings in Europe is presented

below.

 

 

Knowledge of Health, Inc.

457 West Allen Avenue, Unit 117

San Dimas, California 91773 USA

 

 

 

July 30, 2002

 

Elizabeth Yetley

And the US Delegation to CCNFSDU

 

To be entered into the public record

 

To the CODEX delegates:

 

The very fact that there are deliberations to establish upper limits on the

intake of essential vitamins and minerals is likely to mean some number must be

agreed upon by CODEX. There is a false assumption that there is a significant

enough health riskto consumers who overdose on food supplements, enough so that

limits must be established with some haste.

 

It can be argued that the over-dosage of any substance canproduce side effects.

While food supplements are not free of side effects, they are relatively safe.

They are safer than chlorinated tap water(long-term carcinogen; causes bladder,

kidney and rectal cancer), table salt (results in millions of cases of

hypertension), aspirin and ibuprofen (causes stomach ulcers which may hemorrhage

and result in death), cow’s milk (countries with the highest consumption have

the highest mortality rates), bacon preserved with nitrates (increases risk of

brain cancer more than 10-fold), and acetaminophen (Tylenol, which causes

thousands of cases of liver toxicity annually, hundreds of liver transplants and

some deaths), all which are non-prescription items.

 

Efforts to restrict the dosage of food supplements appear tobe a misdirected

priority.

CODEX convenes at a time when it has become apparent there are more than 150,000

needless deaths from properly prescribed drugs annuallyin the USA (over 400

preventable deaths per day, equivalent to a fully loaded commercial airliner

crashing and killing all on board every day!). Furthermore, it has become

apparent that the biological action of most prescription medications can be

duplicated with vitamins, minerals, amino acids and herbal products at far less

cost and side effects to consumers. The public needs to be educated about the

health benefits of food supplements, not scared away as is currently the case.

 

Some of the current restrictions on the dosage of food supplements are already

harming the public. For example, the FDA does not permit more than 99 milligrams

of potassium in a food supplement due to a small number of people who may

develop potassium overload. Yet consumers caneat a couple of bananas a day,

which provides about 700 milligrams of potassium per piece of fruit. This

reveals a bias against food supplements that is in urgent need of correction.

 

In a sense, it could be said that table salt is a food supplement (concentrated,

refined sodium). The over-consumption of salt, approximately 4000 milligrams per

day in the USA, results in millions of cases of hypertension and hastens the

onset of osteoporosis since sodium competes with calcium for absorption.

Prepared foods are laced with salt as companies compete for the consumer's

palate. So there is little hope that Americans will reduce sodium consumption to

recommended levels (<1500 mgs per day) without the cooperation of foodpurveyors.

Yet not a word is uttered to restrict the dosage of sodium in an unlabeled salt

shaker nor in labeled canned food. The antidote to the over-dosage of sodium is

potassium, which guards against salt sensitivity. But the dosage restriction on

potassium in food supplements prevents most consumers from obtaining a simple

and cost-effective answer to the problem. Instead, millions of dollars of

ineffective anti-hypertenive drugs are sold in the

place of potassium.

 

The U.S. FDA has taken an untenable position by often scaring the public away

from so-called high-dose food supplements. CODEX may make the same mistake.

For example, the FDA has repeatedly issued warnings for the public to be wary of

high-dose vitamin A supplements. The potential risk is liver toxicity, which

only occurs in about 30 people annually in the USA, most whom have pre-existing

liver disease. Yet health authorities estimate millions of Americans have low

vitamin A levels and exhibit health problems such as diminished night vision and

a compromised immune system. Yet to prevent a few from developing liver

toxicity the FDA warns millions of adults away from supplemental vitaminA.

 

For various reasons explained in a memo I addressed to U.S.CODEX delegates two

years ago, I believe that limits on the dosage of food supplements will result

in significant health problems. The science on vitamins is changing rapidlyand

the dosage of vitamin D, folic acid, vitamin C needed for optimal health is

likely to exceed any proposed upper limits presented to the delegates of CODEX.

For example, an upper limit on the dosage of supplemental vitamin D is likely to

be harmful to blacks living in northern latitudes who are immune compromised due

to their limited ability to produce vitamin D from sunlight exposure.

 

Sadly, while recent studies reveal nutritional deficienciesat epidemic levels,

which result in significant morbidity and mortality, CODEX ponders upper limits

for food supplements. Recent studies indicate as much as 80 percent of Americans

are deficient in magnesium, 80 percent deficient in essential fatty acids, 40

percent do not consume sufficient amounts of vitamin B12 or vitamin D, and more

than 90 percent do not consume the amount of vitamin C that has been

conclusively shown to prevent cataracts (300 mgs) and reduce blood pressure (500

mgs). Food supplements could safely and economically remedy these deficiencies,

but the public is not alerted. Just the shortage of magnesium in the American

diet results in an estimated 340,000 cases of sudden-death heart attack

annually.

 

If an outbreak of beri beri due to a vitamin B1 (thiamin) shortage affecting

just a few thousand people were to be reported in the news media, health

officials would be compelled to correct the problem. Yet millions of Americans

today exhibit overt signs of nutritional deficiency while public health

authorities point their finger of accusation at the few side effects caused by

food supplements which are largely reversible and non-mortal.

 

CODEX convenes at an historic moment in time when man-made medicines are

beginning to fail. Bacteria are now resistant to the “magic bullet” antibiotics.

Over 14,000 Americans now die needlessly in hospitals due to mutated microbes

that cannot be killed by the most potent antibiotics. Again, modern medicine’s

over-reliance upon prescription drugs is the problem. While it has been

conclusively shown that carvacrol and allicin, the active ingredients in oregano

and garlic, can kill virtually every known bacterium without inducing germ

resistance, these natural remedies are ignored and are often considered nothing

more than snake oil. Even needless death does not prompt public health

authorities tolook at natural alternatives. At a time when there is anxiety

over biological terrorism, there is even some evidence that carvacrol and

allicin are potent against the anthrax bacterium and the smallpox virus, yet

pharmaceutical companies continue to gain the attention of the news media

and funding from governmental sources for problematic vaccines that are known

to result in significant mortality.

 

For these and other reasons, I re-submit the letter I wrote to the U.S. CODEX

delegation two years ago, with hopes it will be read in detail and that the

CODEX convention will back away from proposed limits on the dosage of food

supplements, at least until further research is conducted.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Sardi

 

 

Bill Sardi's complete report on CODEX. (word document)

 

 

 

Copyright 2003 Knowledge of Health. .

 

 

 

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