FDA To Regulate Supplements?

Congress led an investigation into the quality of herbal supplements found on the market and uncovered many of these products have levels of lead, mercury and other heavy metals that are harmful. Congress was also displeased to find that many of these supplement products made illegal claims about the benefit of their use. We all know that supplements can be quacky, but some alternative herbal medicine does hold its water when it comes to dietary supplementation. I am all for holding supplement companies accountable for their products: it needs to be done. My only question is this: Why the sudden urgency to "crack-down" on supplements when the FDA approves drugs that masks symptoms and actually cause other health isssues as side effects and lets the food manufacturing industry produce pesticide laden, processed and practically plastic food?

The levels of heavy metal contaminants did not exceed established limits, but investigators also discovered troubling and possibly unacceptable levels of pesticide residue in 16 of 40 supplements, the newspaper said. - Yahoo!

I'm glad they are paying attention to these red flags when it comes to supplements, so what about the food that everyone eats on a daily basis? Again, I'm all for a quality investigation. We should do what it takes to protect people from clever marketing and poor "health" products. Let's not stop at supplements and get to what's really hurting people: food and drugs. The article does reference a Senate bill that I would love to read regarding new regulations for food manufacturers. This is a good step in the right direction...

This was my next favorite line in this article:

Products that purport to treat or relieve disease must go through strict reviews because they are considered drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

The FDA has two problems with herbal remedies and alternative supplementation: One reason is some of these products actually work and will improve your health as opposed to using the FDA approved legal narcotic that cures nothing and in fact should be an illegal and highly addictive street drug. The second is if people find a way to help themselves without drugs, what happens to all the billions of dollars in revenue generated by prescription drugs and pain pills?

Thank you Congress for pointing out that some supplements are quack and others are not. In fact the article says one in four herbal supplements has quality problems. This means that 75% of the products tested don't have issues. Let's look at prescription drugs and see how many of them have dangerous side effects?

Am I crazy or does this all sound just a little fishy?