From: [g--cz--s] at [njmsa.UMDNJ.EDU] (James Golczewski)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: STOP FDA BAN ON VITAMINS
Date: 13 Oct 93 15:58:08 GMT

   The FDA has consistently confused the issue of banning
unsubstantiated claims for supplements with banning the
supplements themselves, or at least making them very difficult
or expensive to obtain.  They have already conducted raids on
a number of reputable distributors (like the Life Extension
Foundation) whose only crime was selling common vitamins and
supplements.  If you want hard evidence for this see the FDA's
own publication, "FDA Consumer", where they describe seizing and
destroying Evening Primrose Oil capsules from Bronson Pharmaceu-
ticals as a "nonconforming food additive" (FDA Consumer, May '93),
or their seizure of (the common amino acids) lysine, glycine,
arginine, and ornithine tablets as "unapproved drugs" (FDA
Consumer, Dec. '92); or consider their action in the case of 
tryptophan, which remains banned years after a problem was traced
to contamination from one Japanese manufacturer.  
    There are unquestionably too many unsubstantiated claims being made
for *some* supplements by *some* distributors, but the way to stop
this should be to prosecute them for false advertising, not ban the
products themselves.  Unless the FDA is stopped they will continue
and increase their crusade to deprive Americans of the freedom
to decide for themselves what is best to put into their own bodies.