From the HSI eAlert:
Dear Reader,
Here’s a good one: Imagine vegetable juice is a drug.
Crazy thought, isn’t it? And yet, this is exactly what FDA officials are thinking. And I’m not speaking hypothetically. They really are thinking: “If vegetable juice is reclassified as a drug, it will be ours to regulate.”
“But why stop at vegetable juice?”
You can bet they’re thinking that too.
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Getting juiced
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In the e-Alert “This Is It” (4/16/07), I told you about the FDA plan to impose harsh new regulations on dietary supplements (vitamins, minerals, and herbs), and even food products that might be used to treat health problems.
The proposed guidelines appear in a document posted on the FDA web site. And here’s what the document has to say about vegetable juice: “If the juice therapy is intended for use as part of a disease treatment regimen instead of for the general wellness, the vegetable juice would also be subject to regulation as a drug.”
Do you drink lots of orange juice when you come down with a cold? Under the new guidelines, orange juice would be considered a drug.
Do you find relief from arthritis pain when you take chondroitin and glucosamine? That would be considered drug use.
Do you take curcumin (a component of curry) to help inhibit cancer tumor growth? Again: drug use.
One of the worrying aspects of these guidelines is that they’re vague and poorly written. And fuzzy language will work entirely in favor of the FDA when it comes time to interpret the guidelines. HSI Panelist Jon Barron listed these problems that are likely to unfold if the guidelines are adopted:
More confusion
More cost
Less access to health
Denial of freedom of access
You can read all of Jon’s comments in his blog at www.jonbarron.org.
Labels: bureaucracy, FDA, federal regulation, narural remedies, nutrition
