The Healthy Cookie

I have written a lot in this blog over the past year and a half about sunshine and rainbows, looking on the bright side of things and always doing my best to encourage you to be your best, to smile at strangers, to take things lightly when possible and let life unfold as it may. As much I encourage everyone else to do this, I try and do the same.

But then there are times when I get angry. Right now, I am angry.

There is a Bill, Bill C-51, being sped through legislation that essentially will make what I do for a living a criminal offense. But I’m a nutritionist you say. That’s right. With this Bill and the slightest word change- the entire natural health industry is in trouble of being dominated, like everything else relating to health and disease, by the pharmaceutical Industry. The following summarizes the little change that has huge impact:

“Among the changes proposed by the bill are radical alterations to key terminology, including replacing the word “drug” with “therapeutic product” throughout the Act, thereby giving the Canadian government broad-reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, vitamins, supplements and other items. With this single language change, anything that is “therapeutic” automatically falls under the Food and Drug Act. This would include bottled water, blueberries, dandelion greens and essentially all plant-derived substances.”

It would become illegal for me to recommend any food for its therapeutic function. Does that mean that ground flax seeds will no longer relieve constipation or that turmeric no longer eases inflammation? Of course not. I just can’t say so. Does it mean that pharmaceutical companies may go the way of ‘agricultural’ companies like Monsanto (which is really pharma as well) and start trying to patent food? I wouldn’t be surprised.

This Bill would make it illegal for me to state that I use food as medicine for its healing properties. It would be illegal for me to either recommend or sell any type of food or supplement for therapeutic purposes. Does this make it illegal for me to give chicken soup to someone when they’re sick? I think it just might.

I believe that there should be some regulation as to who can and can not recommend and sell supplements. I do not, however, think it should be up Health Canada, the FDA or any other governing body controlling this. So yes, this regulation and the fact that it is moving through at an extra super fast speed makes me angry. What really angers me are statements such as the following that I have not been able to find anyone else’s commentary on. (The following comes directly from the bill)

2.3 The purpose of this Act is to protect and promote the health and safety of the public and encourage accurate and consistent product representation by prohibiting and regulating certain activities in relation to foods, therapeutic products and cosmetics.

So that sounds innocent enough right? But it goes on to state the following:

3.1 (1) No person shall tamper with a food, therapeutic product or cosmetic — or its label or package — with the intent to

(a) render the food, therapeutic product or cosmetic injurious to human health; or

(b) cause a reasonable apprehension in others that the food, therapeutic product or cosmetic is injurious to human health without themself believing that it is so.

So then, the government believes Vitamin C to be harmful and dangerous but approving such things as aspartame, margarine (and other hydrogenated carcinogenic oils), Genetically Modified food, and oodles and oodles of chemicals to be used in the growing of our food to be rendered harmless simply because it is governed and went through an approval process. This Bill would make it illegal for me to recommend or sell multi vitamins, and I could have my home raided without a warrant for doing so, but it is still perfectly legal to sell cigarettes at any old variety store as long as the purchaser is of legal age.

4. No person shall sell or import for sale a food that

(c) is injurious to human health;

(d) is adulterated; or

(e) was manufactured, processed, prepared, preserved, packaged, stored or conveyed under unsanitary conditions.

Again, where do GMOs fit in? What about the farmed fish being imported from China? And hello? Since when was CocaCola and McDonald’s not injurious to human health? I’m just asking….

And finally- 12. (1) No person shall advertise, sell or import for sale a therapeutic product that does not have a market authorization or is not a designated therapeutic product.

I don’t even really get what that means. Most of the Bill is very wordy anyhow. What I do know is this; the government has major control over our food supply (raw milk anyone?), profits off of the pharmaceutical industry and I believe is realizing what the public realized a while back- natural healing methods work as both preventative and treatment. The government wants in on it.

Reading books like Michael Pollan’s ‘In Defense of Food’ and Marion Nestle’s ‘Food Politics’ clearly illustrates where the government and general population have gone awry when it comes to taking care of our own health. Where we went wrong was listening to what the government said we should be eating and trusting the chemical laden foods they approve as safe, eating in line with their food pyramids and Recommended Daily Intakes (RDIs) of nutrients.

I think the biggest challenge I have with this Bill, and likely the reason I haven’t been willing to give it much thought, is that I don’t believe this will actually happen. I know it’s possible, but I just can’t believe our government would pass a bill that would ensure the health of this country continues in a downward direction. But then again- why would I assume differently? When I got sick two years ago and couldn’t find a doctor to help me, my family paid for my natural healing route which included acupuncture, supplements, herbal remedies, whole foods, and yoga. With these natural therapies I stayed off prescription medications, out of a hospital bed, out of the operating room, and away from any leaves of absence from work. I saved the government thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars. When I submitted my expenses for tax purposes and was granted a refund of close to $3,000.00, it only took three months for them to realize their error and ask for the money back… and of course they charged me interest

If this Bill is passed, it will dramatically alter the way we, natural/holistic practitioners, have to practice. I have no doubt in my mind however that we will manage. That we will find ways to get what we need for our clients, for our families and for ourselves. Unlike the pharmaceutical industry and the government, our commitment to the health industry is about making and keeping people healthy, not making our shareholders happy. Laws such as these make our jobs more difficult, but government approval to promote certain chemical based foods such as margarine as a means of reducing heart disease, has already done that.

I promise my next post will be back to sunshine and rainbows. Until then- I encourage you have a read through the Bill and make your voice heard.