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The insanity of America is barely regulating food and medications, but then deciding supplements can be sold like snake oil. They should be regulated by requiri

The insanity of America is barely regulating food and medications, but then deciding supplements can be sold like snake oil. They should be regulated by requiring testing to verify what is sold is what it contains. And, of course, what's missing in almost all areas of American safety regulation is the precautionary principle. Tens of thousands of chemicals were ignored under TSCA due to placing commercial concerns ahead of public safety.

mardifoufs 4y ago
I'm not sure they can actually make snake oil claims- at least not directly. Multiple supplement manufacturers have been repeatedly sued and driven out of business in the US for making bs claims or marketing unproven benefits (the internet usually takes care of the marketing anyways, nowadays). I'm pretty most of them now basically just sell the supplements without listing miracle benefits on the bottles. As a slight tangent, I think that the whole supplement craze is a thing in most of the world, and supplements just seem to attract a crowd that will buy them no matter what. From my own experience, for example, homeopathic "products" are almost mainstream and widely available/sold in France even if they have been ridiculed and debunked for decades now. Imo as long as the substances aren't proven to be harmful, it's just better to keep them available and legal But I completely agree that they should at least be forced to verify that what they sell actually contains the promised supplements! That's the bare minimum
- 1letterunixname 4y ago
  Exactly. If it's called "milk", it should fit the nutritional definition and derivation of cow milk and not be melamine paint water. If something were touted as containing CBD, it should specify the total amount and concentration. (And 1.0 femtogram doesn't count.) Yes, the "health and wellness" community abuses advertising often with absurd, de jure false health claims and bullshit, pseudoscientific "explanations". They need a 5 MT scientific rigor bomb dropped on their deception.

mardifoufs 4y ago

I'm not sure they can actually make snake oil claims- at least not directly. Multiple supplement manufacturers have been repeatedly sued and driven out of business in the US for making bs claims or marketing unproven benefits (the internet usually takes care of the marketing anyways, nowadays). I'm pretty most of them now basically just sell the supplements without listing miracle benefits on the bottles. As a slight tangent, I think that the whole supplement craze is a thing in most of the world, and supplements just seem to attract a crowd that will buy them no matter what. From my own experience, for example, homeopathic "products" are almost mainstream and widely available/sold in France even if they have been ridiculed and debunked for decades now. Imo as long as the substances aren't proven to be harmful, it's just better to keep them available and legal But I completely agree that they should at least be forced to verify that what they sell actually contains the promised supplements! That's the bare minimum

1letterunixname 4y ago
Exactly. If it's called "milk", it should fit the nutritional definition and derivation of cow milk and not be melamine paint water. If something were touted as containing CBD, it should specify the total amount and concentration. (And 1.0 femtogram doesn't count.) Yes, the "health and wellness" community abuses advertising often with absurd, de jure false health claims and bullshit, pseudoscientific "explanations". They need a 5 MT scientific rigor bomb dropped on their deception.