Consumers Union Continues to Highlight Trader Joe’s Sale of Meat on Antibiotics While FDA Seeks Speedy Approval for New Antiobiotics to Combat Super Bugs
Consumers Union continued to draw attention to Trader Joe’s sale of meat raised using antibiotics as part of its Meat Without Drugs Campaign. The campaign which is seeking to convince grocers to sell only meat raised without antibiotics has also included outreach at Trade Joe’s stores in Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland and Washington, […]
A Brief History of Corporate Science; You Know Agent Orange and DDT Are Safe, Nicotine and Cancer are unrelated
Brilliant video in support of California’s Proposition 37 (which calls for the labeling of GMO products) the reminding us how science is about as pliable as Silly Putty especially when profits are involved. And in case you don’t already know organic food does not contain GMO ingredients.
Lawsuits Over ‘Natural’ Claims More about Predatory Lawyers Than Consumer Clarity
If you haven’t been following the details about the many lawsuits against a slew of food giants ranging from General Mills to ConAgra and Pepsico you might be mistakenly excited over a new era requiring honesty in food labeling. Yet most of these have less to do with consumer rights and more to do with […]
FDA Drafts Guidelines to Regulate Supplements, Herbs as Drugs
Once again the FDA has issued guidelines that would allow it to regulate non-toxic, supplements and herbal products. This Monday the FDA announced via a document posted on its website a new “guidance” document, plans to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs. Massage oils and massage rocks will […]
Vitamin E, Echinacea Continue to Lose Sales
As regular readers of NBN know (and if you’re not a regular reader get with it!) starting in 2005 and continuing in 2006 the media was rife ongoing reports over the inefficacy of nutritional supplements with Vitamin E and Echinacea bearing the brunt of the bad press. Studies about these were widely reported, overstated and […]
Chromium Gets FDA Approval—Health Claim for Diabetes Approved
In case you think chromium is just for the fenders on cars built before 1980, think again. A recent FDA ruling allowing qualified health claims for chromium picolinate might mean you’ll see cereal boxes touting ‘added chromium.’ As the supplement savvy NBN readers know, chromium, in the form of chromium picolinate, has been shown to […]
Politics Rule The Roost As Another FDA Official Resigns
The director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health, Susan Wood, resigned Wednesday over the agency’s decision to postpone indefinitely a ruling on whether to allow the sale of the morning-after pill to be sold without a prescription. The pill, used as an emergency contraceptive device, was deemed safe and recommended for OTC sale, by […]
FDA Withdraws Veterinary Drug for Chickens
As reported in today’s USA Today, for the first time, the US Food & Drug Administration has banned the use of a veterinary drug, specifically an antibiotic used to treat diseased chickens, “because it has caused the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health.” Baytril, used since 1996 to treat respiratory illness in chickens […]
This Little Big Pharma Piggy Went to Market
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex (lets call it PHIC for short, folks) lobbed another grenade last week, aiming to increase profits yet minimize choice and affordable public health. Last week, Pfizer announced that the testing of its new cholesterol drug Torcetrapib will be conducted only in combination with Lipitor. If the test plan is approved by […]