Natural health justice and diet wars

Perseverance pays off. We’re thrilled to report this week on the successes of our Swedish colleagues in the highest Swedish court. This is about a 3-year battle to save high-dose vitamin supplements from over-zealous Swedish regulators who lack sufficient understanding either of the science or the law. Just how this precedent will be applied in Sweden – let alone beyond its borders – is anyone’s guess. But it’s further evidence that, when everything else fails, going the legal route to achieve natural health justice can bear fruit. It’s also a reminder that you should never give up. Huge respect to our good friend Rolf Forslund and others close to him in the Nordic Food Supplements Alliance who’ve been at the front of this movement to protect high dose supplements in Sweden.

In our second piece, I’ve chosen to blog on a thorny subject: the increasing chasm that divides the polarisation of views between vegans and those who choose to eat mainly, or exclusively, products of animal origin. As with so many things in life, we all have differing views, knowledge bases, experiences and priorities. Some are concerned more about their personal health, others about the environment or the future of the planet. The science is a lot thinner on the ground than many like to suggest, so it’s no wonder that diet wars continue to rage.

In this week’s news, there’s the mouse study that’s been picked up by the world’s media, that’s wrongly claiming benefits of high carb diets for humans; the deepening diabetes crisis in ASEAN countries; the continued and deeply concerning increase in autism diagnoses in the USA; FDA bans on carcinogenic artificial flavours; a German report released ahead of COP24 that calls for major sustainability reform in global food production systems; noises about a sugar tax in New Zealand – and more.

In health, naturally and sustainably,

Rob Verkerk, PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director