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  ANH-Intl eAlert No 381 | 13 December 2017 International
Alliance for Natural Health
     
  e-ALERT  
  EU botanical and German magnesium restrictions  
     
  When a system doesn’t work very well, it’s very easy to place all the blame on the people in charge. Take a rowdy class at a school – while the adult teacher is ultimately responsible, their job can be made a lot tougher if the class is filled with badly behaved kids. Well, that’s not a bad analogy for what’s going on in the EU with natural health.

For nearly two decades, the people in charge at the European Commission have been trying to build a framework for foods and supplements used by every one of the half a billion or so people of the EU. As anyone who’s followed our work over the last 15 years will know, the framework is barely fit for purpose in most areas, and absolutely not fit for purpose in others. In the latter group are health claims and vitamins and minerals in supplements – these areas being the subjects of our two pieces this week.

But it’s not simply a case of ‘us’ and ‘them’ – with all the fault lying at ‘their’ door. While the ‘them’ is most certainly the unelected officials of the European Commission headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, and the European Council, in turn headed by Donal Tusk, we also have to look at the ‘us’. But who are ‘we’? OK, so we’re the students in the EU’s classroom, but among us are bullies and their victims, the noisy and the conscientious, and a majority who too often fail to be heard. Moving back to reality, the bigger the company, the greater its influence. One company can have much more influence that 10 million consumers. The rich have much more influence than the poor. Governments like Germany, with one seat on the European Council, have a disproportionate influence compared with other EU member states. And the one element of the democratic process, the European Parliament, that’s meant to hear and input the views of the people is often powerless and is itself often swayed by big business interests.

I urge you to have a good read of our two main stories this week – it’s important to understand what’s really going on behind the scenes so that we best work together to influence the situation for the benefit of citizens in the future. Some of the problems we’re now facing are not actually being caused by the Commission’s framework. They’re being driven by competing business interests and over-zealous national governments that seem not to care too much about the health of future generations. Maybe the teacher’s got other things on its mind now that one of the best students has opted to change classes….?

Please share our stories widely, along with our weekly news roundup covering last weekend’s TEDx meeting in the Isle of Man, liquid diets for T2 diabetes, a study that puts another nail in glyphosate’s coffin just months after its registration was renewed in the EU and, finally — in the UK — rising childhood obesity and attacks on ketogenic and low carb diets.

In health, naturally


Rob Verkerk, PhD
Founder, executive & scientific director
 
     
 
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