The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is an advocacy group founded in 2002 by Robert Verkerk and based in the United Kingdom. The ANH was initially founded to raise funds to finance a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplement Directive. The ANH lobbies against regulation of dietary supplements, in favour of alternative medical approaches, and advocates a healthy diet and other lifestyle approaches to health. The Alliance also criticizes scientific research showing that megadoses of vitamins lack any health benefit.

Contents 1 Legal challenge to European Union Food Supplements Directive 2 Ideology 3 Stakeholders 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Legal challenge to European Union Food Supplements Directive

In 2004, along with two British trade associations, ANH had a legal challenge to the European Union's Food Supplements Directive^[1] referred to the European Court of Justice by the High Court in London.^[2] The European Court of Justice's Advocate General said that the EU's plan to tighten rules on the sale of vitamins and nutritional supplements should be scrapped^[3] but was overruled by the European Court, which decided that the measures in question were necessary and appropriate for the purpose of protecting public health. ANH interpreted the ban as applying only to synthetically produced supplements - and not to vitamins and minerals normally found in or consumed as part of the diet.^[4] The European judges did acknowledge the Advocate General's concerns, stating that there must be clear procedures to allow substances to be added to the permitted list based on scientific evidence. They also said that any refusal to add a product to the list must be open to challenge in the courts.^[5]

[edit] Ideology

The ANH runs campaigns in favor of dietary supplements, what they call sustainable healthcare, and traditional medicinal cultures such as Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine[1]. In their campaign for “Good Science” they argue that the current risk assessment methods for dietary supplements used by government agencies are flawed[2]. They campaign against GMO, Fluoridisation of drinking water, corporate control of the agro-industry, Electro-Magnetic Radiation, and the global trade harmonisation by the U.N. Codex Alimentarius Commission[3].

The Alliance believes that negative media publicity about nutrients such as vitamin E are merely a result of misinterpretations over the science.^[6] It also criticises the latest research^[7] proposing vitamin C supplementation does not protect against the common cold as having a number of fundamental flaws.^[8]

Verkerk, the Alliance's Executive Director, has stated that bad diets and lack of exercise could create a cancer timebomb for the future and that junk food should be taxed like cigarettes. He also argues that people should be encouraged to look after themselves so that the fewer visits they make to their doctor, the less insurance they pay.^[9] Verkerk has also been quoted in newspapers criticizing scientific findings from JAMA and the Cochrane Collaboration, among others,^[10][11] which found that some antioxidant vitamin supplements may shorten lifespan.^[12]

Speaking at the inaugural "Scientific Research in Homoeopathy" conference held by the Complementary Medical Association (CMA) at the University of Westminster in June 2008, Verkerk said that it was "utterly inappropriate" to use randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to assess homoeopathy and other complementary medicines, arguing that "as soon as you put someone into a trial situation, you destroy many of the effects that exist between patient and practitioner."^[13]

[edit] Stakeholders

The ANH is mainly financed by donations from private individuals and vendors of dietary supplements. Its support base consists of Complementary Health Associations, Consumer & Health Advocacy NGOs, Innovative manufacturers, suppliers & distributors, and Trade Associations[4]

[edit] See also

• Health freedom movement

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Alliance for Natural Health