2008 round-up: This year's top five comments

Shane Starling’s reality check for the omega-3 bandwagon came in top of the tree. Despite endlessly buoyant market predictions for omega-3 products, a closer look at the state of play reveals very few omega-3 functional foods and beverages have moved beyond niche sales levels.

Shane argued that perhaps a juncture has been reached where functional foods companies need to rethink their approach to omega-3 food fortification along with the manner in which these foods are communicated.

To read “Omega-3 reality check”​, please click here​.

Pharmaceuticals versus dietary supplements​

Next up is Shane’s comment about GlaxoSmithKline's petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban dietary supplements from making weight loss claims. While the issue may be seen as purely an American dilemma, thousands of readers of the European edition of NutraIngredients.com clicked on “The GSK weight loss wake-up call”​.

Shane argued that the issue was due to the inadequate or incomplete scientific substantiation, question marks over efficacy, health claim exaggeration, formula contamination and mislabelling that continue to dog the dietary supplements industry despite the best intentions of the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health Education Act (DSHEA) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations enacted last year.

“It's a situation that leaves industry open to the kind of attack GSK has mounted and drives the urgent need for it to get its house in order,”​ said the comment.

To read “The GSK weight loss wake-up call”​, please click here​.

2008: An Olympic year​

This year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, while being a grand showcase for the world’s elite athletes, had impacts on the dietary supplements industries from a supply stand-point. Shane Starling pointed out that the games went hand-in-hand with “state-prompted sacrifices”​ that had repercussions for the food ingredients industry.

Writing in November when medals were already gathering dust in display cases, Shane noted that the sacrifices were still being felt by the global food, supplements, ingredients and raw materials industries.

“Without suggesting China is uniquely problematic, those doing business with Chinese suppliers may do well to remember the relationship between state and business is a little different on the Sino peninsula and make contingency plans for when that difference is manifested, as happened this summer,”​ said the comment.

To read “Beijing Olympic Games clean-up a dirty business”​, please click here​.

Never stop questioning​

Also attracting a lot of attention was Stephen Daniells’ comment on the big debate ignited by a little yellow flower – St John’s wort. The study raised questions over the role and disclosure of funding after the small print at the end of the journal article (published in JAMA​) showed that one of the researchers admitted receiving funding from a number of pharmaceutical companies, and quite an impressive list it was.

“[The study] raises questions about the validity of results from medical researchers heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry, researching dietary supplements and food and reporting null results,”​ wrote Stephen.

“Disclosing sources of funding in journals is necessary and not an admission of anything other than funding. But at what point do funding disclosures become conflicts of interest, and at what point do conflicts of interest turn into something that essentially undermines the science? Is there a cut-off point? ​

“If there isn't, there should be,”​ said the comment

To read “The value of hyperactive curiosity”​, please click here​.

Statins for kids?​

Lastly, but by no means least, was Stephen Daniells’ reaction to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced recommendations to prescribe cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to obese children as young as eight.

Such a statement is “tantamount to saying that food and diet have failed, and that children are incapable of changing their eating habits and lifestyle,” ​wrote Stephen. ​

The comment argued that prescribing statins to children is the complete opposite of what should be happening. Since the lifestyles of the children got them into this state, their lifestyle must get them out of it. And that means changing their diets.

“As the old saying goes, it's better to have a fence at the top of a cliff than an ambulance at the bottom,”​ said Stephen. “Even if people don't have the same reaction as me, let me explain the economics of it: It's cheaper to build fences than it is to buy ambulances.” ​

To read “Diet better than statins for kids’ cholesterol cuts”​, please click here​.