More supplement opinion pieces: The Times and CNN

Posted on February 6, 2015 by admin

As the layers of fraud begin to peel away from the onion, the dietary supplement industry has been coming under increased scrutiny lately.

Earlier this week, Anahad O’Connor’s far-reaching front page article in The New York Times documented many appalling transgressions committed by the industry. For example, tests of many store brands of herbal supplements that are sold at Walmart, Walgreens, Target and GNC revealed that these products contained none of the herb in question 80 percent of the time. And significant impurities were present with astonishing frequency and in disturbing amounts.......Finally—20 years after the law that permitted this garbage to escape the aegis of the FDA—action is being taken by New York State attorney general’s office. Among other things, they have ordered all of these products removed from the shelves of the retailers in question…… Seres says, “As a nutrition expert, I am horrified by the daily barrage of outrageous and unsubstantiated claims touting cures from everything from E. coli to Ebola. If you do a Web search on just about any disease, you will find carefully worded ads promoting unproven nutritional therapies. Worse, some of these can be harmful. For example, people have suffered liver damage from green tea extract that is so severe that they have needed a liver transplant. And the frequency of harm from dietary supplements is on the rise.”……. To Read More.....