WASHINGTON UPDATE*

Insulting Our Intelligence

Should the FDA be educating supplement consumers on nutrition?

April 2009

Recently the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Food and Drug Admini­stration (FDA) seek authority to educate consumers on nutrition and oversee the supplement industry. Once again, Americans are haunted by the specter of FDA supplement regulation—a scenario that could destroy health freedom.

So what is the GAO, and why is it making this suggestion? Though it may sound like part of the US government, in reality the GAO is an independent entity. According to its website, the GAO “advises Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical, equitable and responsive. Our work leads to laws and acts that improve government operations, saving the government and taxpayers billions of dollars.”

But wait—didn’t we elect our Congress to do that? Presumably, our senators and representatives work to realize the public’s wishes. So why is this independent entity advising Congress and claiming responsibility for its laws and operations? For the sake of health freedom, we must make sure that our elected officials ignore the GAO’s advice on dietary supplements and listen closely to the voting public’s demands for safe, natural nutrition.

Taxpayer Money Wasted

The GAO’s suggestion that the FDA be granted more oversight of dietary supplements is highly questionable. But the GAO is only partly culpable for this poor judgement. The organization is commissioned by members of Congress to perform such studies, so it’s a classic case of “garbage in, garbage out.”

The full GAO report features the names of the elected officials who spearheaded the dietary supplement study: Representatives Henry Waxman, John Dingell and Bart Stupak, along with Senator Dick Durbin. These names have long been associated with attacks on health freedom. This latest assault vaults them to a whole new level of ethical and financial irresponsibility.

For 2009, the GAO requested a budget of $545.5 million from Congress. Although this is a huge sum of money, many GAO research projects could justify the expense—in recent months, the organization has launched studies on homeland security, toxic waste, climate change and the financial crisis.

But supplements are not even remotely close to belonging in the same category as those dire concerns. Waxman, Dingell, Stupak and Durbin, in commissioning a GAO study to slander safe, natural, health-promoting dietary supplements, have taken your taxpayer dollars and flushed them down the drain. And, at 77 pages long, you can be sure it was an extremely expensive study—a waste made even more painful given its misleading conclusion.

For the People

Sixty percent of Americans take supplements. This obvious majority wants to continue taking supplements to promote good health. They do not need or want the FDA to hold their hands, teaching them or telling them how to take supplements. But the GAO—along with Waxman, Dingell, Stupak and Durbin—appears to feel that we lack the intelligence to make our own sound health decisions. And so the GAO recommends the FDA educate us about nutrition and oversee our supplements—bizarrely projecting ignorance onto healthy individuals who believe in nutrition.

Does the GAO’s recommendation fill you with outrage? Write to your elected officials and demand to know how much taxpayer money was wasted on the GAO dietary supplement study. If you disagree with the GAO, let your elected officials know! Finally, remind your elected officials that it’s their job to listen to us—not some independent agency that is offering irrational advice. Fight for health freedom—keep the FDA’s hands off our supplements! For more information on this crucial issue, visit www.nha2009.com.

*This editorial is a public service announcement sponsored by the Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA).