The Codex Conundrum and How it Affects Supplements in America

[Guest guest]

http://www.mercola.com/2005/may/4/codex_conundrum.htm

 

The Codex Conundrum and How it Affects Supplements in America

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

 

Educating readers and patients via my twice weekly newsletter -- so

you can take control of your own health by providing comprehensive,

clear and researched guidance on the best nutrition, medical,

emotional therapy and lifestyle choices to improve and maintain your

total health -- is important to me as it is a necessary element that

is required to change our fatally flawed health care paradigm.

 

Even though I generally believe people take too many supplements in

place of eating the healthiest foods, some are necessary. That said,

for one to take responsibility for his or her own health, I believe

Americans must never lose the right to choose and buy supplements.

Although I hope Americans will make the right decisions, they should

never lose the right to choose what's best for them, and that includes

supplements.

 

Many thanks to Jim Turner for his help, as he has crafted the first of

a series of informative pieces I'll be featuring on my Web site

leading up to the Codex meeting in July that may decide the supplement

issue for many more people besides Europeans.

 

By Jim Turner

 

The 28th meeting of The Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome July 4-9

will consider adopting vitamin and mineral guidelines based on

regulatory principles that, while not immediately limiting the access

to dietary supplements of consumers in the United States, could

significantly restrict access to vitamin and mineral supplements

worldwide. Consumers should act to urge adoption of U.S. law as the

international standard.

 

Committees of the Codex Commission other than the Committee on

Nutrition and Foods For Special Dietary Uses, the committee that

recommended the vitamin and mineral guidelines to the commission,

routinely consider matters relating to food trade that raise serious

questions of consumer safety and health such as the following:

 

* Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

* Irradiation

* Antibiotics, hormones and pesticide residues in food

* rBGH growth hormone in dairy cows

 

Of these serious issues, only the vitamin and mineral guidelines are

being considered by the commission at its annual meeting in July. The

other issues are in various stages of development.

 

How Codex Changes the Landscape For Supplements

 

This summer, the commission will meet to approve vitamin and mineral

guidelines that were finalized by the Codex nutrition committee in

Bonn, Germany last November. If the committee moves forward and

approves these guidelines, Codex will restrict access to vitamins and

minerals in five ways:

 

1.

 

Setting upper safe limits (maximum potencies) for each vitamin

and mineral based on scientific risk assessment.

2.

 

Marginalizing the nutrient supplement possibilities for the

nearly 1 billion people worldwide, who, by international standards, go

hungry. (Also, the population-based Codex standards under-appreciate

the nutritional status of the remaining 4.6 billion people, a majority

of whom lack the recommended amount of one or more essential nutrient.)

3.

 

Creating, through setting maximum vitamin and mineral

consumption limits, an approach to regulating dietary supplements,

which is consistent with and leading the way toward, if not itself

directly establishing, prior restraint.

4.

 

Narrowing the amount of nutrition and health information about

vitamins and minerals consumers will be allowed to receive, asserting

that only drugs can contain label claims for products that are

suitable for the prevention, alleviation, treatment or cure of

disease, disorder or particular physiological conditions.

5.

 

Fostering the worldwide health assumption that sufficient levels

of nutrients can be found in a regular diet.

 

The Key Points

 

Natural health consumers must remain active and organized to protect

and expand their health rights. Worldwide health could be undermined

by the limits to nutrients available in many countries created by

Codex guidelines.

 

Codex, by itself, will not change U.S. laws. Codex's upper potency

limits, established for vitamins and minerals, will not restrict U.S.

consumer access to high-potency vitamins and minerals, although U.S.

companies may choose to dumb down their potencies to mirror their

international formulations.

 

U.S. lawmakers who oppose consumer access to dietary supplements are

likely to seize on these guidelines in an attempt to change federal

law. Outside this country, however, the Codex guidelines may create

more access to vitamins and minerals in some countries while

restricting it in others.

 

Codex misapplies a toxic chemicals risk assessment model to regulate

helpful nutrients. Vitamin and mineral guidelines should evaluate

nutrients with nutritional science rather than with the toxicological

science used to evaluate toxins. Codex fails in this fundamental

requirement by erroneously applying toxic chemical risk assessment

principles, such as

 

1.

 

Nutrients should be treated as toxins.

2.

 

Foods and nutrients are not useful in treating disease.

3.

 

Supplements have little value because people can get the limited

amounts they need from food.

4.

 

Known reference values are more important than unique individual

nutrient needs.

5.

 

Western science is preferred to individual choice as the best

control on access to dietary supplements.

 

Codex reinforces, in its vitamin and mineral guidelines, its existing

prohibition on preventing truthful information about the ability of

foods and nutrients to treat, diagnose, prevent, mitigate and cure

disease. World hunger experts recognize nutrient supplementation can

be extraordinarily useful in improving world health and eliminating

disease (vitamin A supplements in developing countries can offer 30

times as much social improvement as $1 of development aid), a fact

Codex vitamin and mineral guidelines ignore.

 

Codex is not, and should not be confused with the European Food

Supplement Directive. The European Food Supplement Directive,

currently under legal attack in the European Union (EU), if it is

likely upheld, will strictly limit European access to many dietary

supplements. This law governs European markets and is not part of

Codex, though Codex and the EU directive are derived from the same

basic toxic chemical risk assessment principles.

 

Codex's vitamin and mineral guideline should be replaced by the U.S.

Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) standard as the

international standard for vitamin, minerals and all other dietary

supplements. The DSHEA, passed unanimously by the U.S. Congress in

1994, recognizes and protects the value of individuals making personal

nutritional and health choices in a way that is rejected by the Codex

guidelines

 

It is the culmination of 50 years of legislation and litigation that

has refined the supplement policy of the United States ensuring that

individual choice and need play a key role in ensuring private and

public health. The Codex guideline subordinates individual choice to

professional expertise. The DSHEA balances professionals and people.

 

Public Action

 

Codex information can be received from and sent to U.S. Codex

Commission delegate, Dr. F. Edward Scarbrough. Citizens for Health

(CFH) is also preparing comments and email campaign to be sent to the

delegate. CFH updates on Codex and campaign activities can be found at

the Citizens For Health Web site and will be posted on the Weston A.

Price Foundation's Web site.

 

For more details about Codex, visit the U.S. Codex office's official

Web site or e-mail them.

 

Jim Turner serves as general counsel to the Weston A. Price

Foundation.

 

Related Articles:

 

Three Steps and 11 Months to Diffuse the Ticking Time Bomb

Threatening Your Access to Vitamins and Minerals