Dumaguing: Do You REALLY Need Food Supplements?

Saturday, June 25, 2011

WHATEVER name you call them, whether food supplements, herbals, herbal medicines or dietary supplements, the sales of these products have reached a dizzying multimillion mark, not so much for their impressive therapeutic effects but due to their successful media blitz. Almost all outlets of trimedia carry loud, screaming and colorful, as well as attractive advertisements of these products, each one making fantastic claims in providing the gullible consumer promises of optimum health, glowing beauty, anti-aging properties, sexual prowess and even prolonging dear life.

Sad to say, these food supplements are here to stay, and worse, more and more unscrupulous businessmen are joining the bandwagon. Some of these products may have medicinal value but often, glossed over or deliberate; hidden by their promoters is the fact that these products may have their own toxicities or that they may have drug interactions with the other medicines the patient is taking.

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Quite frankly, not everybody is required to take food supplements. The people who need to have them include those who eat very little calorie diet, those who are strict vegetarians or those who are convalescing from a serious illness or recuperating from a major surgery. Now, if a product promises to delay hunger, trim away those globs of fats in your abdomen, increase your physical energy, make you look young or cure your diabetes completely, all at the same time, would you buy it? Am sure you would- but insist first that they show you scientific proof and clinical studies with consistent results, that indeed, their claims are backed by science.

Manufacturers of dietary supplements are responsible for making sure that their products are safe before they go on to the market. They are also mandated to ensure that their labels are accurate and truthful. It has been observed that many manufacturers frequently make claims that are not supported by scientific evidence except for the testimony of some well-known personality or celebrity, who for the most part, just parrot the script given to them, without even bothering to know, what they are endorsing.

By Philippine laws, our FDA or Food and Drug Administration has the authority and duty to intervene when false claims are made. Because of the proliferation of the so-called "health stores" or "wellness havens," plus the unabated growth of the food supplements industry, the BFAD on March 28, 2008 issued an advisory tpo the public, to wit" Paalala sa Publiko tungkol sa Food Supplements: ANG MGA FOOD SUPPLEMENTS AY HINDI NAKAKAGAMOT NG ANUMANG SAKIT-nagbibigay lamang ng karagdagang nutrisyon at walang pakikinabangang medikal-walang sapat na siyentifikong pag-aaral o katibayan na makapagpapatunay na ito ay makapagpagaling ng isang partikular na sakit o karamdaman.

The entire medical profession has Dra. esperanza Icasas-Cabral, to thank for this bold, courageous advocacy which when she was the Secretary Of Health, insisted that the English "No Approved Therapeutic Claims" has a functional translation in Filipino placed prominently on the labels of these so-called food supplements. As expected, those making millions. Oops make that billions of pesos from the supplenet industry reacted violently to this threat to their business and they lobbied tooth and nail to fight the advocacy of the good doctor. Unfortunately, their petition enjoining the implementation of the administrative order was granted by the court.

At any rate, dear readers, you still see those words "No Approved Therapeutic Claims." I am very proud to tell my friends in Manila that we Baguio and Cordillera folks speak and understand English quite well. Beside, with Baguio as a University town, with a high literacy rate and level of health awareness, we know for a fact that there is no medicine or food that could make anyone one more intelligent than he really is. Intelligence, sharp memory and oh yes, even height; these are all inherited.

More than ever, folks, I am sure, for your Health and Nutrition needs, more than ever, you now know where to spend your hard-earned money.