Viewpoint: Media focus on ‘scare fears’ like trace chemicals ignores real dangers like dietary supplements

There can hardly be a better example of […] logical disconnect than the silly July 12th hit piece in the [New York] Times about the “horrors” caused by tiny amounts of phthalates in mac and cheese packaging, and [the July 28] CNN report about the increase in the number of poison control center calls due to kids ingesting dietary supplements…

Thanks to scare tactics, people are terrified of trace amounts of chemicals that are harmless even at very high doses.

…

Thanks to a very bad law and very good marketing, the enormous supplements industry has managed to convince much of the US that their products will promote good health, correct an imaginary deficiency in your diet, and are safe.

They are not safe, as evidenced by 275,000 poison control calls over a 12-year period.

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These calls have often been a result of dangerous and/or illegal additives, which turn the supplement into a drug, and an untested drug at that. Without the additives, the supplement will probably do nothing—no weight loss, no extra energy, no erections.

Yet, phthalates are considered to be “bad” and supplements are “good.”

This is dead wrong.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Mac And Cheese Won’t Hurt Your Kids But Dietary Supplements Sure Will