Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

Americans spend an estimated $5 billion a year on unproven herbal supplements that promise everything from fighting off colds to curbing hot flashes and boosting memory. But now there is a new reason for supplement buyers to beware: DNA tests show that many pills labeled as healing herbs are little more than powdered rice and weeds.

Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice...

Among their findings were bottles of echinacea supplements, used by millions of Americans to prevent and treat colds, that contained ground up bitter weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, an invasive plant found in India and Australia that has been linked to rashes, nausea and flatulence.

Two bottles labeled as St. John’s wort, which studies have shown may treat mild depression, contained none of the medicinal herb. Instead, the pills in one bottle were made of nothing but rice, and another bottle contained only Alexandrian senna, an Egyptian yellow shrub that is a powerful laxative. Gingko biloba supplements, promoted as memory enhancers, were mixed with fillers and black walnut, a potentially deadly hazard for people with nut allergies.

Of 44 herbal supplements tested, one-third showed outright substitution, meaning there was no trace of the plant advertised on the bottle — only another plant in its place...

If people just ATE healthy - and not relied on processed foods - then we wouldn’t have to have an industry like herbal or pharmaceutical...

http://www.foodmatters.tv/detox-and-weight-loss

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

I stopped eating meat, dairy, and most anything processed...and I feel so much better - lost weight - and didn’t have to BUY into anything - get an expensive gym membership - and I haven’t been sick in years...I can’t say that for other people I know that stick to the US diet....

the only piece of equipment I own for exercise is a 21 speed bike and a total gym...the basic model...it can be done - but I chose not to support these industries are slowly killing citizens while profiting...I chose not to participate!

Sorry, I do not agree, even our fruits and veggies are toxic because of fertilizer and pesticides and have less nutritional value: by Peter Eby Why Today’s Fruits and Vegetables are not as Nutritious as they used to be Is it possible to get all the nutrients we need from the fruits and vegetables we eat? The answer depends on how much food one can eat. The amount of nutrients found in fruits and vegetables has diminished greatly over the years. Let’s elaborate. Many well documented studies have shown a drastic decline of vitamins and minerals in crops grown today. One study concluded that one would have to eat eight oranges today to get the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one. Why has this happened? A sharp decline in minerals, vitamins and other nutrients in many foods can be attributed to; aggressive farming practices and environmental toxins, compounded by genetic manipulation and the corporate quest for profit. Today’s crops are being bred for larger yields, better appearance, uniformity, larger size, disease resistance, and longer shipping and storage time, but their ability to uptake nutrients has not kept pace with their rapid growth. Modern aggressive farming techniques have increased the amounts of nutrients stripped from the soil. Every time a crop is grown and sold, nutrients are takes away from the land leaving the roots of the next batch of plants struggling to get enough nutrients. Our ancestors rotated fields to allow soil to rest after each harvest to prevent nutrient depletion. Sadly, this is no longer the normal practice. To compounding the problem; many crops are pulled prior to being enriched with vitamins (when ripe) in order accommodate travel time required to get to the grocery store. A sharp decline in minerals, vitamins and other nutrients in many foods can also be attributed to a steady deterioration in soil, air, and water quality. Environmental toxins such as acid rain and pesticides leach minerals out of the soil. If used, fertilizers can replace nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium but plants require around twenty essential minerals that are not being replaced. The human body requires even more. According to Jeremy Grantham (co-chair of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment), phosphorus, and potassium “cannot be made, cannot be substituted, are necessary to grow all life forms, and are mined and depleted”. What are the ramifications? Dr. William A. Albrecht, Chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri, stated: “A declining soil fertility, due to a lack of organic material, major elements, and trace minerals, is responsible for poor crops and in turn for pathological conditions in animals fed deficient foods from such soils, and that mankind is no exception.” Studies: ■In 2004, a University of Texas research team headed by biochemist Donald Davis, Ph.D., studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. ■The Kushi Institute analyzed data from 1975 to 1997 found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent. ■In a 1997 study Anne-Marie Mayer compared British data over a fifty year period and noted “significant reductions” in the levels of minerals in fruit and vegetables. and questioned if modern agriculture could be responsible for the reduction. ■The following are the soil depletion statistics from the 1992 Earth Summit Report showing the percentage of mineral depletion, by continent, during the past 100 years; North America 85% South America 76% Asia 76% Africa 74% Europe 72% Australia 55%

This goes with obamacare

The way out of this mess is to take care of ourselves and get trauma insurance.

BO took advantage of an already sick system that insurance companies plus welfare medicine ruined a long time ago

Our medical system is not invested in health care. Not prevention nor promotion of health. It pays lip service to family members as well as patients and treats people like they’re too stupid to know how to feed themselves

And we respond

Some, finding that they can live better seek out natural remedies

The supplement industry has been pressured by this maniac

Why does the NYT go after this industry? Why does the FDA not cheaply inspect these companies?

Why are doctors so unapproachable regarding supplements ?

Why is the pharmaceutical industry so greedy? Why must people expect their monopolizing and taking over the medical industry as normal?

If a pharmaceutical sales rep can march into an mds office and pressure him to sell some drug with horrendous life altering side effects to PTSD who are better served by life enhancing supplements, diet changes and exercise, and this rep is wearing a $400 suit, sporting a company car, making $250K per yr, why isn’t the Times investigating her?

If this deal goes the way of prohibition, the industry will be changed and this will be the way of the future

And the Times is caught behind, here, lapdog

Next up , mothers get home and feed your families. The obesity rate is emergent

A sharp decline in minerals, vitamins and other nutrients in many foods ...thanks to Monstano! One does not need as much protein when on a heavy veg/fruit diet as compared to a meat diet...one can then supplement vitamins and minerals -- but that goes against what I first stated... The colons of most US citizens are packed with undigested meat - meat that is laced with antibiotics and other parasites...wonder why people are SO big in the abdomen? but have skinny arms and legs... The "walking dead" these people are...so lack of nutrients in the soil isn't making people fat - like you said - it's the amount - but then again - processed foods do not even come close to having the nutrient value that raw veg's and fruits have - despite the soil data. The US has become an over-medicated society!

When one looks like that - the colon is in failure!

The colons of most US citizens are packed with undigested meat

LMAO! Is this a PETA commercial from 1983? You do realize that this has been thoroughly and wholly discredited as untrue, right? If your sole dietary intake is fatty red meat, you have a serious problem. If you're consuming lean meats such as venison and choice cuts of beef, your feeding your body.

America's colonic issues have more to do with a lack of fiber intake. I take Metamucil twice a day, eat a handful of prunes every morning after my work out, consume cruciferous vegetables daily, and I BM 3-5 times a day. America's dietary problem has more to do with lifestyle than consumption. Everything in our dietary market is consumable in proper quantities. To discount red meats is foolhardy.

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