Honest Expose About The Natural Health Industry

[Guest guest]

Below is why we need to be careful with the natural health products we

recommend and/or purchase for ourselves. I do support the Natural Health

Trade Shows but this article shows that even in natural medicine, we just

don't have it all together and all is not well or " as it appears " in natural

medicine. The complete article can be found at:

<http://www.newstarget.com/021694.html>

http://www.newstarget.com/021694.html

 

Be Well~

Loretta

 

 

Behind the scenes at Natural Products Expo West - A " brutally honest " Health

Ranger Review

by Mike Adams | NewsTarget.com | March 13, 2007

 

 

 

The Natural Products Expo West trade show was held last weekend in Anaheim,

California. I spent the show cruising the floor, interviewing vendors,

sampling products and digging up new information to pass along to NewsTarget

readers. (By the way, thanks to all the people who said hi to me at the

show! It was nice to meet some NewsTarget readers in person.)

 

If you read the mainstream media, everybody's happy, happy, happy about the

show and the industry as a whole, but if you go there yourself and ask

questions as an independent, skeptical journalist, you get the rest of the

story. And that's what I'll share with you here: A behind-the-scenes look at

Expo West. Here's what you'll never read in the mainstream media.

 

And now for the rest of the story...

 

Ahh, the fragrant smell of... cigarettes?

 

 

You would think that a hall full of 45,000 people buying and selling natural

health products wouldn't smell like an ash try right outside the front door,

but you'd be wrong. The predominant smell of the show wasn't essential oils,

or rosemary, or fragrance, but rather cigarette smoke. You couldn't escape

it.

 

Smokers surrounded every building with an impenetrable wall of airborne

carcinogens. Just walking out of the Hilton hotel became an exercise in

respiratory survival, and entering the Expo West show itself required

scrambling through a wall of smokers stationed just outside the main

entrance doors. Whether you were trying to eat lunch under the sun, catch a

taxi or return to your hotel, you were always fighting the cigarette smoke.

It even wafted indoors any time someone opened a door to enter or leave the

show building.

 

I inhaled so much smoke at Expo West that I'm pretty sure visiting that

trade show was the single most hazardous health experience I've had since

last year's show. Sorta funny for a " health " show, huh? But it also just

goes to show you how many people are in the industry for the profit, not the

health. Some folks will sell you cancer remedies in between puffs on a

cigarette.

 

The solution to all this is simple. Ban smoking on all the sidewalks and

walkways, create a designated smoking room in the basement, and make people

go there to light up. Now, I'm a big believer in personal freedom, and I

don't give a hoot if people go suck on burnt tobacco in their own homes or

cars, but when THEIR smoke gets in the way of MY lungs, then I'm going to

say something about it. Next year, I might bring a gas mask and have a

picture taken in front of the Expo West logo, surrounded by smokers.

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

 

FDA censorship in full swing at Expo West

 

 

Many vendors were complaining to me about the FDA censorship at the show.

The New Hope group that organized the show actually invites an " FDA

Enforcement Officer " to join the show, and they run around the show sampling

brochures and making sure nobody makes any " unproven claims " about

supplements, herbs, vitamins or even colloidal silver.

 

The FDA " presence " at the show, of course, is intended to make sure nobody

can tell the truth about what natural supplements actually do to prevent and

even cure degenerative disease. The point of all this is to keep the public

ignorant and make sure there's a huge market for pharmaceuticals and

surgery.

 

Of course, the show organizers will say the purpose of the FDA Enforcement

Officer is to make sure nobody gets carried away with outlandish health

claims. Because outlandish health claims should be reserved for television

ads featuring FDA-approved prescription drugs, you see.

 

Is Horizon really organic?

 

 

The top sponsor of the show was Horizon Organic, the " organic " milk company.

It's the same company now being boycotted by the Organic Consumers

Association (www.OrganicConsumers.org) for false labeling. Every time I

asked a vendor, " What do you think about the integrity of the show

sponsors? " I got a huge laugh. Everybody on the show floor knew the top

sponsors were a joke. Of course, there were some decent sponsors like

Larabar, but they weren't the top-level sponsors with the deepest pockets

and greatest visibility.

 

Wow, look at all these crap products!

 

 

Another major complaint I heard from quality product vendors is that so many

of the products at the show are made of " crap. " Filler, junk ingredients,

contaminated raw materials... you name it, I heard somebody mention it. The

hoodia industry continues to be largely run by con men (although there are

at least four exceptions that will be listed here on NewsTarget shortly),

the super-fruit juice products continue to be made largely with apple juice

(not Goji or Mangosteen as is loudly proclaimed on the label), and there's a

long list of companies with the word " Organic " in their company name who

don't even use organic ingredients in their products.

 

The level of deception in the natural products industry has never been

higher. Everybody, it seems, is claiming " all natural " or " organic " even

when they're not, and thanks to corporate influence in Washington, the

regulations are watered down so much that the terms have practically lost

all meaning. Folks like David Bronner at Dr. Bronner's soaps

(www.DrBronner.com) have been fighting hard to eliminate fraudulent organic

claims from the marketplace, but it's an ongoing battle. (Isn't it funny how

the FDA Enforcement Officer at the show will restrict vendors from saying

cherries treat arthritis, for example, but have no problem whatsoever with

fraudulent claims of organic ingredients? Enforcement is highly selective.)

 

But until there's a real solution, it's very difficult for quality companies

to compete with the huckster companies who sell crap products at organics

prices. And don't trust the advertising, either. It seems that the more

money a company has for advertising, the crappier their products are. (Which

makes sense, actually, because higher margins on crap products leave more

money to spend on advertising and sponsorship.)

 

Truly, some of the best companies I found at the show do no advertising at

all and couldn't afford it anyway because they only have a 12% margin on

their raw materials. Those are the companies I like to promote, and you'll

see me listing a lot of them here in upcoming reviews.

[Guest guest]

Buyer beware and do your homework before buying! No one to blame but

ourselves and beats Big Brother making our decisions.

 

, " Dr. Loretta

Lanphier " <LorettaLanphier wrote:

>

> Below is why we need to be careful with the natural health products

we

> recommend and/or purchase for ourselves. I do support the Natural

Health

> Trade Shows but this article shows that even in natural medicine,