Don’t toe the EU line on food supplements, says scientist
Tuesday 24th May 2011, 1:00PM BST.
A scientist has expressed his support for local campaigners who are urging deputies to throw out proposals to bring Guernsey into line with European Union food supplement standards.
The States are due to debate the topic tomorrow.
Alliance for Natural Health scientific director Dr Robert Verkerk (pictured) said yesterday that the Channel Islands were being put under pressure to conform, to the detriment of people who used various vitamins or minerals to better their health.
‘The primary driver has come from major pharmaceutical suppliers that supply supermarkets and pharmacies across Europe.
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I hope our leaders will not be persuaded by the pseudoscience of people who are profiting from the sale of untested and potentially extremely dangerous substances peddled as somehow more “natural” than the tried and tested products available from your qualified GP and pharmacist.
Dr Verkerk makes his living from the promotion of these untested “natural” products but his qualifications and experience are not in the areas pharmacology, medicine or nutrition. I’m sure Dr Verkerk is sincere but that does not make him right. There is, of course, an outside chance that he is right but that’s not a risk our lawmakers should be taking.
Remember Dr Andrew Wakefield? He sounded plausible, too.
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I don’t know if I am missing something here, but…Many years ago I was told that if I took Zinc and Vitamin C everyday I would never get a headcold, and I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a cold,5 years, 8 years?. Perhaps I have just been lucky. A few years ago I was struck down with gout, very painful, very unglamerous, loads of jokes about old fat men who drink too much port (I do like port, but the other bits are wrong) and again someone whispered in my ear that if I took a spoonful of sour cherry essence every day I would never get gout again. And I haven’t. Maybe it works, maybe it’s coincidence, maybe I’m doing something different, maybe the sour cherry/Zinc and Vitamin C are just placebos, but whatever the reason they work for me. I also smoke (sometimes with my glass of port)and for the past few years my packets have been plastered with words and now images warning of the potential dangers of smoking. Why can’t companies who produce these “natural” rememdies be forced to put something on the label along the lines of “This product has been used in the treatment of X for hundreds of years. However, there is no empirical, scientific evidence to confirm the validity of these claims. This company has elected not to register this product to conform to EU Food Safety Standards”. Then everyone will be happy. My Latin is not good enough to convert “buyer beware” to “user beware”, but caveat emptor. eh? PS I am also very superstitious, and if I do not ever come back to this forum it is because tomorrow morning I will be crippled with gout and struggling to breathe through a snotty nose.
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If people are claiming medicinal properties for the products they are selling, then they should be treated as medicines – and licensed and regulated as such.
If however they do not have, or claim to have, such properties they should be treated as such, and provided they are clearly labelled ” this product has not been tested as a medicine, and we claim no medicinal benefit for it ” continue to be sold unrestricted ….
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