Sovereignty – political, health or commensal

“Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the Gunpowder treason and plot…” is the start to an English prose verse that most British children learn before they reach primary school. We’re 3 days off bonfire night in England which marks the anniversary of one of the most famous, yet foiled, plots of treason in British history. It dates back to 1605 and in 2016 we’re still turning out on bonfire night to ‘celebrate’ around community bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes atop.  It seems fitting this week that our articles centre around the theme of sovereignty.

Our first article deals with both political and health sovereignty – at least for the Brits among us – as Britain attempts to extract itself from 4 decades in the EU. As messy as things might get, Brexit presents a unique opportunity to jettison some of the most ludicrous laws the British people have been forced to endure courtesy of the EU. Speaking of which, we’ve listed in our second piece this week, 10 of the biggest EU natural health absurdities. Check them out, share them – and, for the Brits among you, please respond to our call to action!

In our third article, we aim to show just how ludicrous the situation is when a renowned scientist and researcher such as Professor Tim Spector can shout about probiotics and prebiotics from the rooftops, yet products on EU shop shelves must grapple with ambiguous terms like bacteria and microorganisms. How is the consumer supposed to make sense of the situation and be able to exercise their right to health – or even commensal – sovereignty?

As always, we collate our top picks of news snippets and there are some corkers this week, including GSK’s withdrawal of Cervarix HPV vaccine from the US!

 

In health, naturally

Meleni Aldridge

Executive Coordinator