The mighty FDA muscle had not been flexed so
diligently for almost a year. The last victims
were
cherry farmers, terrorized for
quoting solid science that cherries may help
people reduce inflammation and pain without any
side effects. The FDA knew Vioxx posed
cardiovascular risks, yet they let it on the
market to kill over 50,000 Americans. We should
be proud the FDA was able to defend us from
healthy fresh fruit.
All Americans have to do is walk down any grocery store cereal
or juice aisle to see outlandish health claims for heart disease
and cholesterol reduction being placed on sugar-laden junk
food. It pays to be a big company; profiting by producing
garbage food that helps create obesity and consequently
diabetes.
The FDA is like the neighborhood bully that only picks on
people that have little chance of winning or even fighting
back. If they actually had to tackle a real issue they would
cower in their boots and run for cover.
The FDA Protects Big Pharma from Competition
The FDA was within their rights to send warning letters. True
enough, some of these small companies had stepped over the
line. Had they harmed anybody? Most of the nutrients in the
products being offered actually have considerable science
showing they may help diabetes. What is the FDA really afraid
of? People getting better? People learning what options they
have to the drug racket of the sickness industry? Maybe the FDA
is trying to distract the public, portraying themselves as
effective while they continue to this day to allow
thousands of Americans to be injured and die in the
name of profits for Bayer.
The FDA
justified beating up on small American companies in this way:
“We will not tolerate practices that raise false hopes and bilk
consumers of precious health care dollars,” said Margaret O’K.
Glavin, FDA’s Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs.
“Diabetes requires effective treatments and aggressive
management, not bogus and unproven products.”
And what are
these effective treatments? A commonly used FDA-approved
diabetes drug, Actos, has been found to
increase edema
and heart failure and have no benefit to diabetic
patients. Another diabetes drug, Metformin, is known to
cause B12
deficiency that will certainly increase the risk for
neuropathy. Then there is the expensive new diabetes drug,
Januvia, expected to have
sales of a billion dollars. Once again, the drug
only treats
symptoms and does not fix the cause of the problem.
When doctors put patients on insulin to control type II diabetes
the typical outcome is that blood sugar is lowered by stuffing
calories into fat, a medical treatment that causes fatigue and
further obesity. If we took the FDA statement about “bilking
consumers” at face value many common FDA-approved diabetes
treatments would need to be shut down. Is it any wonder
individuals are desperately looking for help?
The FDA is Guilty of Selective Enforcement
The FDA is
discriminatory against small nutritional companies. This is
because the FDA is avidly seeking to create a New World Order in
which all supplement companies are owned or controlled by Big
Pharma, and all therapeutic nutritional supplements are removed
from the free market.
Conspicuously
missing from the list of companies receiving a diabetes warning
letter is Nutrition 21, a company whose
largest shareholder is Wyeth. Nutrition 21 filed for
and the FDA approved a limited health claim that states, “One
small study suggests that chromium picolinate may reduce the
risk of insulin resistance, and therefore possibly may reduce
the risk of type 2 diabetes. FDA concludes, however, that the
existence of such a relationship between chromium picolinate and
either insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes is highly
uncertain.” This health claim may be used for any chromium
picolinate product.
Emboldened with
this limited health claim Nutrition 21 makes
wild health and curative disease treatment claims about its
product, going far beyond any approved claim.
Examples from their website include:
-
Learn about
Nutrition 21's chromium science--and its therapeutic role
relevant to many various disease states.
-
Learn about
Nutrition 21’s once-a-day nutritional support for people
with diabetes.
-
Diachrome™
is a patented combination of Chromax® chromium picolinate
and biotin designed especially for people with diabetes.
Diachrome’s efficacy has been validated by pre-clinical and
clinical studies.
-
Biotin is
already used as a nutrition therapy in Southeast Asia for
people with diabetes.
-
Nutrition
21, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXXI) reported results from a new clinical
trial that shows long-term daily supplementation with
Diachrome, a proprietary combination of chromium picolinate
and biotin, can significantly improve blood sugar levels in
people with type 2 diabetes who had poorly controlled blood
sugar levels and were taking prescription antidiabetic
medications.
It doesn’t
matter if these claims may be true, just as it doesn’t matter
that the claims made by the twenty-four companies receiving
warning letters may be true. The Nutrition 21 website clearly
implies that their products are for the treatment of diabetes.
And certainly the FDA is aware of their website. Their website
is easily converted to Spanish, so even the Mexican health
authorities could read all about it. What is going on?
A nutritional
trade organization, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN),
has been taken over by Big Pharma. Their top priority is
forcing unnecessary regulation on the supplement industry.
CRN members now include
Bayer, BASF, Wyeth,
and other multi-national corporations. As I explain
in Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of
America, CRN, working with the FDA, is actively seeking to
undermine health freedom in the United States through Big Pharma-sponsored
implementation of Codex Alimentarius and the North American
Union. Nutrition 21 is a CRN member. None of the other
twenty-four companies attacked by the FDA are in CRN.
Shockingly, the
heads of numerous network marketing companies such as
Mannatech, Shaklee,
Herbalife, Nu
Skin International, and GNLD International, along with big
health food chains like
GNC, are in CRN
and actively participating in this scam, selling out health
freedom for their place in the New World Order. Their
distributors and customers should revolt. CRN has recently
sponsored a
full-time outside attorney to attack supplement
companies. Yes, we’ll see how many CRN companies this attorney
goes after.
Big Pharma is
taking over the supplement industry. The FDA warning letters
are designed to reduce competition for new drugs as well as to
clear out competition for Big Pharma-connected vitamin
companies. Large nutrition companies are encouraging these
regulatory activities under the guise of boosting public
confidence, when in fact the primary goal is eliminating
competitors with lower overhead.
The FDA is a
Major Part of the Diabetes Problem
The FDA has
contributed to the epidemic of diabetes in a variety of ways.
They have approved massive adulteration of the food supply with
thousands of toxic chemicals (such as coal-tar derived food
coloring), addictive sweeteners (like aspartame and Splenda),
and neurotoxic chemicals like MSG that damage appetite
regulation. On top of that, the FDA and EPA allow a variety of
hormone-disruptive chemicals in the food supply. They also
allow the thyroid glands and brains of our citizens to be
poisoned with perchlorate and fluoride. The cumulative effect
of these multiple metabolic insults is creating a society that
is addicted to junk food and heading for rampant obesity and
diabetes.
The FDA allows
the illegal off-label promotion by drug companies of the
diabetes-inducing atypical antipsychotic medications on our
children. Eli Lilly makes over 4 billion dollars a year
poisoning children in this manner, making our kids and many
adults obese and diabetic at taxpayer expense. Talk about a
bilking job!
The FDA is
capable of bullying small nutrition companies. They are a sissy
organization when it comes to standing up to Big Pharma, Big
Agribusiness, and junk food producers. One of the FDA’s crimes
against humanity is condoning and approving profit-driven
strategies for large corporations that either directly or
indirectly cause obesity and diabetes. Look with a jaundiced
eye when the FDA misdirects public attention onto the foibles of
a few small companies. The FDA attack is not remotely
proportionate to the real issues. The FDA cannot possibly make
up to society all the damage it has caused and continues to
cause. Wake up Americans, we need to fight for our health and
what is right!
© 2006
Truth in Wellness, LLC - All Rights Reserved
Byron J.
Richards, Founder/Director of
Wellness Resources, is a Board-Certified
Clinical Nutritionist and nationally-renowned
health expert, radio personality, educator, and
author.
Richards
encourages individuals to take charge of their
health, stand up for their health rights, and
not blindly succumb to propaganda from the
vested-interests who profit from keeping
Americans sick. Author of
Mastering Leptin and
Fight for Your Health, Richards is now
joining forces with
health freedom leaders in the U.S. and
throughout the world. Visit his
health blog for up to date happenings.
www.truthinwellness.com
As founder of
Wellness Resources, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN
(since 1985), he has personally developed 75
unique nutraceutical-grade nutritional formulas.
www.wellnessresources.com
Charter Member of
the
International and American Associations of
Clinical Nutritionists (IAACN) (since 1991)
Richards has presented hundreds of educational
classes to health professionals and individuals
who want to take charge of their health!
E-mail: byron@truthinwellness.com
