As can be seen, despite being calculated using so-called “scientific risk assessment”, combined with a rationalized risk management step to convert the ‘upper safe levels’ to ‘maximum levels’ (the regulatory end-point), in the majority of cases these numbers correspond very closely to RDA-type values.

Further evidence that the use of nutrient group based “scientific risk assessment” methodologies could contribute to the setting of unacceptably low maximum permitted levels subsequently emerged in June 2006, when the European Commission issued a Discussion Paper on the setting of maximum and minimum amounts for vitamins and minerals in foodstuffs. The Annex of the Paper included five examples of existing nutrient risk assessment models, all but one of which would be virtually guaranteed to lead to the setting of highly restrictive maximum permitted levels if adopted on a European-wide basis. Moreover, even the one relatively less restrictive example, a risk management model designed by the European Responsible Nutrition Alliance (ERNA) and the European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM), leaves much to be desired, in that it proposes maximum supplement levels of 2mg for manganese, 10-15mg for zinc and 4.8-7mg for beta-carotene. Putting this beta-carotene figure into perspective, for example, a good-sized portion of cooked carrots will deliver a highly bioavailable 50mg of the nutrient, around 10 times the potential maximum supplement level!

One man’s risk is another man’s benefit

Another major problem with most current nutrient risk assessment methodologies is that they totally ignore the fact that what might be a minor and inconsequential risk to one person may, in contrast, be profoundly beneficial to another.

For example, whilst some nutrient forms, such as magnesium hydroxide and the ascorbic acid form of vitamin C, can cause looseness of the bowels when taken in high doses, to somebody suffering from persistent constipation, the ability of the aforesaid nutrient forms to loosen the bowels would not be seen as a risk, but as a highly desirable benefit.

As such, it can be seen that because people are genetically and biochemically different to each other, restricting nutrient levels in supplements to near-RDA amounts will ultimately increase the risks to people’s health by limiting their treatment options to the infinitely more dangerous synthetic-drug medicines produced by the pharmaceutical industry.

Furthermore, an individual’s nutrient requirement varies greatly over time. A person suffering from a viral infection, for example, will typically find that his or her bowel tolerance for vitamin C will increase more than 10-fold; such is the higher requirement of the body for this nutrient while the immune system is fighting an infection.

Conclusion

The setting of globally-enforced maximum permitted levels for nutrients in supplements is arguably the most crucial of all the various threats currently facing the future of natural therapies and health freedom.

Whilst the pro-pharmaceutical and anti-health freedom forces are trying to disguise these threats, by claiming that the upper safe levels for each nutrient will be calculated scientifically, via a process called “scientific risk assessment”, the reality is that this methodology, combined with the risk management step which determines maximum amounts in supplements, may still lead to legal enforcement of maximum permitted levels that are little better than the RDAs.