As most of you probably know, Androstendiol has now been banned in California.
I live in California, so I’ve just accepted that prohormones are now a thing of the past.
However, the ph ban is nothing compared to what the European Union is doing. The E.U. has passed a law to ban all supplements.
Yes, ALL.
Not just prohormones.
NOt just ephedra.
NOt just creatine.
Everything. As in your absolute worst nightmere come true.
You want to know what’s worse? Since the U.S. is a member of the World Trade Organization, it means we have to harmonize our laws with the E.U.'s or we get hit with massive trade sanctions.
The law passed in the E.U. goes into effect in 3 stages over the next 3 years.
600 million Europeans wrote letters protesting this and the head of the E.U.'s equivalent of the FDA responded by posting a letter on the internet stating, “We are committed to your safety, and best interests.”
‘Among the 300 ingredients to be banned by the Directive will be natural forms of Vitamin E, found in food such as wheatgerm oil, and organic bound minerals like selenomethionine and selenocysteine, found in foods like brazil nuts. In addition, the directive aims to ban nearly all important trace elements used in supplements, including boron and vanadium.’
"600 million Europeans wrote letters protesting this and the head of the E.U.'s equivalent of the FDA responded by posting a letter on the internet stating, “We are committed to your safety, and best interests.”
Writing ones senator will do absolutely nothing. These corrupt politicians simply bow to these pharmaceutical companies without batting an eyelash. Committed to our safety and best interests? Bullshit. I’ll make my own decisions thank you very much, I dont need another mommy watching over me. The nanny-state in full swing. The only thing that will prevent this country and others from sinking further into fascism is marching on Washington itself but it wont happen (Wish I was wrong about this).
well… after a quick look through thewebsite and reading the directive, i would appear that things may not be as bad as you may have thought.
It would appear that he EU wants to
1)standardize the labelling of vitamins and minerals in products across the EU
(to make it clear to the consumer)
2)ensure the quality and bioavailability of vitamins and minerals in the products labelled as such
(to prevent jo average from thinking that he’s ‘getting’ vitamins from the product when he’s not)
to ensure that the vitamins are reasonably placed in foods - by which I mean that you can’t push ‘cheese strings’ as healthy in advertising simply because they’ve added extra calcium into the mixture.
(This has got to be a good thing - I’ve seen starburst ice-cream with a label on saying ‘way to five’ (fruit portions per day). I mean what a joke. jo average doesn’t consider the fact that the sugar, preservatives, saturated fat etc. will kill 'em, just that there’s strawberry and vitamins in it)
so all in all, it doesn’t seem to bad - although I will admit that you could possibly extrapolate the wording of the law to regulate our kind of supplements, but on face value I don’t think that’s the intention.
the most interesting part is that the EU says in the law that it’s noticed that the average diet is so poor nowadays that people are looking to get their vitamins + minerals from junk food products. what a sad state of affairs.
still, for those of you who put the effort in to apply what you know from reading T-Mag, it just means the gap between you and the averag bloke/grrrrrl will be even higher, and you’ll be that much more athletic/sexy/muscular/healthy/whatever than ‘the norm’ great huh? :-DDD
You may want to overlook the EU law again. Amongst other things, it will reclassify supplements as medicines. It will also prescribe “safe” levels.
What this means is that you will have to go to a doctor to get a prescription.
Assumming the doctor will give you a prescription, she will only be able to give you one for the amount the government has determined to be safe. In the case of vitamins, this will likely be somthing akin to the RDA.
Regarding herbs, the law will only allow doctors to prescribe herbs that have been widely used for at least 30 years, and widely used in EU countries for at least 15. Again, even if the doc is willing to give you a prescription, it will only be for a “safe” amount.
Keep in mind that when you have to go to a doctor,the price of the herb-vitamin is going to skyrocket.
I’m not trying to scare people. This is some serious shit and if anybody out there thinks the anti-supplement legislation in the U.S is only going to be limited to prohormones, their seriously mistaken.
On a somewhat hopefull side, the European alternative community has really banded together to try and stop this.
My hope is that this law represents the “bad cop” of the good cop-bad cop scenario.
In other words, they propose this and we all shit in our pants. Then were more than happy to accept something not as bad. Maybe something that would keep the average person from finding out saw palmetto works great for the prostrate, but not the type of law that would keep more enterprising researchers from figuring this out.
Not to sound paranoid, but keep a few general things in mind:
The supplement industry is finally starting to impact pharmaceutical profits. People are starting to wake up that modern medicine, for all of its benefits, is not the be all and end all.
This is scaring the shit out of Big Pharma
Nazi Germany passed laws similiar to this one in order to crack down on alternative practioners. As you may have guessed, the laws were all written in the spirit of protecting people.
Interestingly enough, Germany has the most votes of any of the EU nations. Something to make you go hmmm. . .
ok, fair enough - I’ll read it again when I get chance (one evening this week)
I’m not questioning you, 'cause I haven’t read it yet, but I just can’t see how what you’re saying would work in the UK -the waiting list at my doctor’s surgery is 7-10 days for a non-emergency already, without everybody queuing up for their vitamin c
