The public, including me, is confronted with overwhelming amounts of information about food, health, supplements, herbs, and diet schemes. The consumer checking out at the grocery store is surrounded with magazines touting the latest celebrity diet and the herb to cure all your ails in addition to the latest alien cover-up. It is not always easy even for the professional to distinguish nutrition facts from nutrition misinformation. These practices often prevent or postpone the attainment of appropriate health care. Americans have become easy prey for the many messages to promote supplement use.
Consumers seem to be willing to make decisions without professional guidance.
There has been a long history of Congress failing to enact regulatory protection in regard to supplements. This legislation resulted in substantial deregulation of the marketing of supplement and health claims the industry can make. In addition to terms of efficacy, quality control, and safety, nutritionists are concerned about claims that are allowed for dietary supplements. Herbs are regulated as dietary supplements and therefore are not under the same regulations as prescription and Over the Counter Medications. NO training is legally required to recommend herbal remedies.