Persuasive Essay On Dietary Supplements

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What if I told you that all the vitamins and supplements you are taking are useless? In hopes of improving a person’s health, millions of people in the United States consume dietary supplements. The effectiveness of countless supplements has failed to be proven by research to prevent diseases. Regulating dietary supplements have become a serious problem for the FDA.
To help protect the American people, congress needs to take action by repealing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). The old DSHEA should be replaced with legislation similar to the European Union’s Food Supplements Directive. By ensuring the public does not consume banned substances the FDA could potentially save hundreds of lives. Additionally, Pre-market approval …show more content…
Regrettably, a category made by the DSHEA of 1994, which received enormous amounts of funding from the supplement industry, allows supplements to be immediately put on the market with any unproven claim about what the supplement does (Dier 394). If the FDA believes a product is unsafe, it must prove it in court, which usually only happens after people have been severely harmed (Thompson 737). As stated by the Journal of Legal Medicine, “tainted dietary supplements have accounted for slightly more than half of all drug-related recalls since 2004” (Qtd. in Palmer 323). The FDA has struggled with regulating dietary supplements because dietary supplements are managed by a different set of guidelines than conventional drugs and foods. Under the current enforcement, the FDA does not require pre-market testing (Palmer 314). Furthermore, if a company is found guilty of causing deaths, the punishments are not severe. Under the current dietary supplement laws, if a company which sold a product containing a banned substance is removed from the market the company suffers little to no …show more content…
As J.C. Romero, the pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, stated, “If somebody’s doing something illegal with supplements sold over the counter, they need to be accountable for their actions and be penalized.... We have to do the right thing so the youth don’t go to stores and buy dirty supplements” (Qtd. in Dier 386). Romero made that statement after being suspended for fifty games after testing positive for a banned substance (Dier 386). Supplement companies can often make false claims without any proof (Starr 481). As quoted in the journal of Public Health Ethics, “A study found that 55% of Websites selling supplements made disease claims; half of these Websites did not contain the required disclaimer” (Starr 481). Companies making false advertising claims is a serious problem in the supplement
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