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Quotes about Health Claims from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Following are some of the other traditional health claims for tea: • increases blood flow throughout the body • stimulates mental clarity • detoxifies the body • boosts irnmunity • preserves young-looking skin • brightens the eyes • aids digestion • banishes fatigue • prolongs the life span For many years, scientists were skeptical about the health claims made by tea proponents. This skepticism was soon transformed into appreciation when researchers began scientific investigations into the disease-preventing properties of green tea and confirmed most of the health claims." - Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews, The Green Tea Book (Get the book.)

"Since evidence of effectiveness is not required, the only rule is that nutraceutical manufacturers can't make health claims about their products. So marketers have to be careful not to say that their product can relieve symptoms such as fatigue or pain. Doing so without evidence and FDA approval is illegal, although a glance at just about any health magazine shows ads that do make substantial health claims. In addition, the entrepreneur selling these products does not have to demonstrate that they are safe." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"Following are some of the other traditional health claims for tea: • increases blood flow throughout the body • stimulates mental clarity • detoxifies the body • boosts irnmunity • preserves young-looking skin • brightens the eyes • aids digestion • banishes fatigue • prolongs the life span For many years, scientists were skeptical about the health claims made by tea proponents. This skepticism was soon transformed into appreciation when researchers began scientific investigations into the disease-preventing properties of green tea and confirmed most of the health claims." - Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews, The Green Tea Book (Get the book.)

"Although there is no expressed objection by nutritional scientists to recognizing multiple systemic consequences of nutrient inadequacy, the hold of the one-nutrient-one-disease model continues to dominate nutritional policy and regulation of health claims. It is expressed, for example, in the reluctance of the field, in the case of vitamin D, to label as "deficiency" the osteoporosis, fracture risk, propensity to falls, immune defects, hypertension, and cancer risk of low vitamin D status. Clinical scientists call all this morbidity "vitamin D insufficiency." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.) "Dietary Guidelines for Americans and certain other authoritative statements of federal government agencies and the National Academy of Science are not evaluated under the evidence-based ranking system, but instead upon FDA procedural guidelines designed to ensure health claims are supported by "significant scientific agreement" through equivalent systems of scientific evaluation. Food and Drug Modernization Act, P.L. No. 105-115, ?03, 111 Stat." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.) "Food labeling: health claims. Soluble fiber from certain foods and coronary heart disease: Final rule. Fed. Register 63, 8103-8121. 272. Knekt, P., Ritz, J., Pereira, M. A., et al. (2004). Antioxidant vitamins and coronary heart disease risk: A pooled analysis of 9 cohorts. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 80, 1508-1520. 273. Virtamo, J., Rapola, J. M., Ripatti, S., et al. (1998). Effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of primary nonfatal myocardial infarction and fatal coronary heart disease. Arch. Intern. Med. 158, 668-675. 274. Bjelakovic, G, Nikolova, D., Gluud, L. L., Simonetti, R." - Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey, Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Get the book.)

"The main focus of the FDA/CVM revolves around verifying health claims made by pet food companies rather than investigating consumer complaints about pet food. The FDA/CVM oversees health claims made by pet food companies placed on their labels to attract consumers to their particular product. Pet food companies are not supposed to make claims that their particular pet food is for the prevention or treatment of a disease. For example, in 1990 some pet food manufacturers advertised that their cat food might prevent Feline Urological Syndrome (FUS)." - Ann N. Martin, Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food (Get the book.)

"In my opinion, with vitamins and supplements we have returned to the era of the patent medicines (undocumented and potentially dangerous compounds that were promoted with outrageous health claims, which led to the passage of the Food and Drug Act in 1905). Another aspect of vitamin marketing is the portrayal of products as wholesome and natural. They are frequently juxtaposed with conventional medications, which are portrayed as artificial, foreign, unwholesome, and potentially dangerous. And yet vitamins and minerals are no more natural than medications." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"Manufacturers have caught on that we're looking for convenience and they've found lots of enticing ways to package fruits and vegetables—sometimes even with health claims on the packages. But read the labels! You'll often find long list of added ingredients and these "convenience" foods are to be avoided. Stick to simple, unadorned frozen options. They're the best for your health and your taste buds. Some of my clients like to decorate the fridge with notes, photos, and tips that keep them going when the going gets tough." - Wendy Bazilian, DRPH, MA, RD, Steven Pratt, MD, Kathy Matthews, Superfoods Rx Diet: Lose Weight with the Power of SuperNutrients (Get the book.)

"This is in part due to legislation in many countries that prohibits or limits the use of health claims on foods. This has restricted the ability of the general public to learn about the potential health benefits of probiotics and how they can be used to aid certain disease conditions. Probiotics are also heavily marketed to the healthy due to the strong evidence supporting the immune-boosting effects of probiotics. Do Probiotics Enhance Health? This is difficult to investigate because, clinically speaking, one is either healthy or diseased." - Allison Tannis, Probiotic Rescue: How You can use Probiotics to Fight Cholesterol, Cancer, Superbugs, Digestive Complaints and More (Get the book.)

"From the moment the health claims provision was conceived, the FDA and the drug industry viewed it as a means to undermine the new drug approval process and to challenge the drug industry's monopoly on the right to sell products for therapeutic purposes. In the rulemakings initiated to define the regulatory meaning of the new sections, FDA succeeded in virtually writing out of the law any way to make regular use of the provisions. FDA defined the standard for approval so high that it assured claim approval would be as rare as a finding of life on Mars." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"In my opinion, however, the health claims made by some water marketing companies are greatly overblown because water naturally seeks a neutral balance. Special water qualities, even if they were there, would change over a period of time. In addition, chemicals from some of the plastic bottles and pipes can leach into the water, which would pollute it. Carbonated Water Bottled carbonated water is a popular drink that many people view as good water. It is made by infusing water with carbon dioxide. However, the result is acidic water." - Ron Garner, Conscious Health: A Complete Guide to Wellness Through Natural Means (Get the book.)

"The scientist in me wants to see some hard research supporting its health claims. But the adventurer/maverick in me acknowledges the fact that apple cider vinegar has been used as a folk remedy for more years than I've been alive, that people swear by it to help myriad conditions, that it has a long and honorable tradition in folk medicine, and that all that has got to count for something." - Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why (Get the book.)

"All three helped to amplify the signal of nutritionism: journalism by uncritically reporting the latest dietary studies on its front pages; the food industry by marketing dubious foodlike products on the basis of tenuous health claims; and the government by taking it upon itself to issue official dietary advice based on sketchy science in the first place and corrupted by political pressure in the second. The novel food products the industry designed according to the latest nutritionist specs certainly helped push real food off our plates." - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Get the book.) "To do it right, you've got to be up on the latest scientific research, study ever-longer and more confusing ingredients labels,* sift through increasingly dubious health claims, and then attempt to enjoy foods that have been engineered with many other objectives in view than simply tasting good. To think of some of the most delicious components of *Geoffrey Cannon points out that nutrition labels, which have become the single most ubiquitous medium of chemical information in our lives, "are advertisements for the chemical principle of nutrition." - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Get the book.) "Watch out for those health claims. of meals, but also has done little for our health, except very possibly to make it worse. These are strong words, I know. Here are a couple more: What the Soviet Union was to the ideology of Marxism, the Low-Fat Campaign is to the ideology of nutritionism—its supreme test and, as now is coming clear, its most abject failure. You can argue, as some diehards will do, that the problem was one of faulty execution or you can accept that the underlying tenets of the ideology contained the seeds of the eventual disaster." - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Get the book.) "There are no ingredients labels, no health claims, nothing to read except maybe a recipe. It's hard when contemplating such produce to think in terms of nutrients or chemical compounds; no, this is food, so fresh it's still alive, communicating with us by scent and color and taste. The good cook takes in all this sensory information and only then decides what to do with the basket of possibilities on the counter: what to combine it with; how, and how much, to "process" it. Now the culture of the kitchen takes over." - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Get the book.)

"Doing so without evidence and FDA approval is illegal, although a glance at just about any health magazine shows ads that do make substantial health claims. In addition, the entrepreneur selling these products does not have to demonstrate that they are safe. The bottom line is that what is available for purchase—even if "organic"—is not necessarily safe. In fact, I know of one proposed clinical trial at my institution with a nutraceutical that was found to be contaminated with lead. Perhaps just as troubling, nutraceutical manufacturers don't need to set uniform dosages either." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"Home Remedies There are many health claims attributed to mangoes, ranging from improved digestion and immunity, to heart health, to lowered blood pressure, to curing asthma. Many believe that mangoes are both an aphrodisiac and an effective means of birth control. Throw Me a Lifesaver! HEART HEALTH: Fruits and vegetables high in potassium and antioxidants such as vitamin A, carotenoids, vitamin C, and flavonoids may help prevent or control hypertension and reduce the subsequent risk of stroke and heart disease." - David W. Grotto, RD, LDN, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! (Get the book.)

"What an amazing collection of health claims, none backed by research, but all surrounded by a large dose of misogyny! As it turned out, estrogens are effective in controlling menopausal hot flashes. Otherwise, each and every one of these medical claims proved to be false. Nonetheless, between 1963 and 1975, dollar sales for prescription estrogen replacements quadrupled. As one Harvard researcher noted: "Few medical interventions have had as widespread application as exogenous estrogen treatment in postmenopausal women." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.)

"As long as they don't claim that their products cure a specific disease without showing evidence, they can make general health claims without providing backup. For instance, a manufacturer can say its product "promotes liver health" and advise someone with a liver problem to take it. The fact that there is no evidence for this claim doesn't matter under the law. No wonder we get taken in by vitamin salespeople. They can and do make their products sound so good." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"As to the first (that health claims lacking "significant scientific agreement" were inherently misleading and therefore not protected by the First Amendment), the Court dispatched the argument in this way: As best we understand the government, its first argument runs along the following lines: that health clams lacking "significant scientific agreement" are inherently misleading because they have such an awesome impact on consumers as to make it virtually impossible for them to exercise any judgment at the point of sale." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.) "Consequently, the ban on health claims robs the American marketplace of virtually all of the hundreds of thousands of peer-reviewed, university based findings on the effects of nutrients. The ban is predicated on the illogical argument that through a categorical prohibition on all speech the government arrests that subset of speakers who depend upon fraud to sell their goods. Fraud is illegal, of course, regardless of the existence of the health claim prior restraint." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.) "Through its prior restraint on health claims, FDA has censored truthful nutrient-disease information for over half a century. The government has deprived consumers of their right to receive information at the point of sale that can enable them to discern the physiological effects of foods and supplements and thereby exercise informed choice." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"The cosmetics and personal care products industry successfully created the illusion of public safety, and so long as profits stay high, they will not be too concerned about liability issues associated with harmful ingredients in their products; they feel confident they can always create enough doubt about health claims to avoid accountability in any court of law. Meanwhile, mainstream consumers are mostly content to believe that if the products they use contained threats to their health, the FDA would surely intervene and alert them." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"This group has already conspired to outlaw all health claims for products sold on the Internet. Testimonials are not allowed either. For more information, read the aforementioned Medical Mafia and any of Ralph Moss's books exposing the cancer industry, as well as Racketeering in Medicine: The Suppression of Alternatives by James P. Carter, MD, and Politics in Healing: The Suppression and Manipulation of American Medicine by Daniel Haley. Dr. Marcia Angell resigned from her editorial position at The New England Journal of Medicine." - Susan E. Schenck, The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet (Get the book.)

"HEALTH CLAIMS FOR HERBAL MEDICINE Modern scientific research has much to say about what criteria are used to evaluate health claims for herbs. There seem to be two approaches: (1) the evidence-based or science-based approach and (2) the empirical or traditional approach. In herbal medicinal practice, there is basically only one approach and it involves an integration of both approaches. There is a longstanding empirical criterion that has been used for thousands of years: do the substances work?" - David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes, Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief (Get the book.)

"Many MLM companies have managed to sidestep regulatory conflicts because unaffiliated salesmen make the fraudulent health claims on their behalf There doesn't seem to be anything that can be done to prevent families from spending large sums on empty promises: and perhaps these juices, even at their inflated costs, may help certain adherents. The glimmering half-facts of fruit marketing tap into our need to believe. Getting to the truth is its own adventure, as I learned when I started investigating the story of how one truly miraculous fruit was banned in America." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

"While the Food and Drug Administration has established rules (albeit poorly enforced ones) for the specific types of "health claims" that a food company can make, some manufacturers are essentially doing an end run around these directives with their own "seal programs." Now, two of the largest food companies, PepsiCo and Kraft, are awarding their own self-congratulatory stamps of approval to their products. For consumers, the result can only be more confusion." - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.)

"They are, however, a confusing, horrible mess to deal with because they pose all kinds of health issues: calories, health messages, saturation, rancidity, ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s, and health claims. Some oils taste better than others, and cost is also a consideration. Let's take the issues one by one, starting with calories. THE CALORIE PROBLEM Dead or alive, olive oils labeled "light" mean they are light in color, not calories. Extra-light olive oil has the same number of calories as every other salad and cooking oil: 120 per ta- m^^p^pjhmwwmwmbmmbmmjbbj^i blespoon." - Marion Nestle, What to Eat (Get the book.)

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