Do we want the FDA over the Supplement Industry?

So I have kept pretty quiet since the reaming of Dr. Oz a few weeks ago. If you have been living under a rock here is a quick overview of what has happened. Dr. Oz as you may know, often promotes weight supplements on his show as the "magic pill" this then promotes a massive amount of purchases to different supplement companies and a ton of different sites tend to pop up advertising "as seen on Dr. Oz Show". Most of the sites do a "free" trial, but you pay for shipping and then are enrolled in an auto-ship program (Read the fine print people). Well Oz gets angry because these sites state that he talked about the product, so he tells his viewers that he doesn't endorse any products. But really he does the moment he talks about them. Anyway, his loyal fans by the supplement be it Green Coffee Bean Extract, Raspberry Keytones, Garcinia Cambogia, etc, and then it doesn't work "magically". So congress called him to session about his claims. Now, I don't want to defend him in any way, but all the "magic" pills he talks about have been around for decades. Many have actually had several studies that prove their affect, that is, if taken with a proper diet. And that is the problem, Dr. Oz promotes these items and states you don't need to change your life.

But I digress. The point is, Oz got reamed because he is contributing to the public being "Scammed" when you do have to partially blame the consumer for not researching prior to purchase. But then again, they are listening to a "Dr". Ok, he is a Doctor, but he is a heart surgeon, that is his specialty. He is not a nutritionist or dietitian, yet here he is on national TV giving this advise. Which by the way is technically not allowed by many state laws, that's just an FYI for you readers. So what does congress want to do know? Well the supplement industry is not overseen by the FDA. Sure they have some rules that need to be followed, but it is rare that the FDA gets involved. In fact, supplements come with a warning stating the the claims on the bottles have not been approved by the FDA.

But would it be so bad if the FDA was involved. In my opinion, yes. Why? Well, you would start seeing a massive ban on many proven products out there. They have already banned food products for claiming they have healthy fats that lower chances of health risks. Oh yes, in fact, here is the link against Blue Diamond Walnuts Directly from the FDA. The FDA has also banned steroids, which by the way there has been no proven case of steroids causing any deaths, in fact they are safer than Tylenol. Steroids are also proven to effectively treat HIV. But that doesn't matter to the government. Now the media is talking about caffeine because these kids are supposedly overdosing on it. Well there goes the pre workout supplements. Fish Oil? It's been heavily studied to show that it helps with joints, nails, hair and heart health, Fish oil is also an anti-inflammatory. If the FDA was involved, it wouldn't be allowed on the market.

If the government were to get involved in the supplement industry, all supplements would end up being required as prescriptions. The days of going to a local Complete Nutrition or GNC would be gone. Heck they would probably even ban protein powder. Granted, this would open up an amazing black market like it has for steroids, but it would also open things up for crap product, like it has for steroids. We need to keep the FDA out of our supplement industry.