FDA declares walnuts a drug

this is why the fda budget should be thoroughly investigated and items such as this immediately removed. the waste factor for things such as this is abhorrent. such a bunch of pinheads..

Foods are medicines.This shows once again the corporate control of labeling laws.The politics of food labeling such as non Gbgh milk clearly shows how Monsanto and other food corps use labeling to shield them from consumer information.80% of consumers would not buy gmo foods if they knew the foods contained gmos.

Considering the number of advertisements for drugs APPROVED by the FDA of which potential side effects range anywhere from shortness of breath to internal bleeding all the way up to stroke and death, perhaps any decisions made by the agency should be considered circumspect.

I don't understand.

Don't foods like cheerios advertise that they're good for your heart? Does the FDA consider them as being drugs?

This really doesn't make any sense. Isn't it their job to evaluate and verify these conditions, not prevent you from advertising them if they're true?

I vote it's from The Onion, like the new story about McCain criticizing teabaggers.

Is this an article from The Onion? Or have I stumbled into the Twilight Zone?

It's lunchtime here and I'm runnin' over to the Elementary School to peddle some nuts - anything to make my fortune.

http://livingfoodvillage.com/features/36-general/143-walnuts-are-unapproved-drug...
The Alliance for Natural Health, a nonprofit organization committed to protecting access to natural and integrative medicine, has recently come up with a Congressional bill designed to stop government censorship of truthful, scientific health claims about natural foods and herbs, and restore free speech to natural health. The Free Speech About Science Act (FSAS), also known as HR 4913, will allow manufacturers and producers to reference peer-reviewed, scientific studies that highlight the health benefits of a particular food or herb that they grow or sell.

For too long, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have blatantly censored the truth about food, herbs and dietary supplements. These government agencies are supposed to be protecting public health and well-being, but they accomplish precisely the opposite by actively censoring the truth about natural products and working to keep the public ignorant about the health benefits of nutritional products. It's all part of the plan to prop up the profits of Big Pharma by eliminating the competition.

Current law restricts health claims to drugs only The FDA says, ridiculously, that only pharmaceutical drugs are capable of preventing or treating disease. Even though this is scientifically false, the agency has structured the rules to categorize anything that treats or prevents disease as a drug. So if you eat walnuts, and those walnuts lower high cholesterol (which they do), the FDA declares your walnuts to be "drugs."

Existing law dictates that if anything is advertised as providing health benefits without the FDA's approval, it's automatically considered to be an "unapproved drug", even if it's a common, everyday food like walnuts, cherries, grapes or oranges.

Amazingly, references to peer-reviewed scientific studies are not allowed to be made by companies without permission from the FDA because the agency considers this to be an illegal health claim. So if you sell walnuts, and your website merely links to published scientific studies that describe the cholesterol-lowering benefits of walnuts, then you can be threatened, arrested, imprisoned and fined millions of dollars by the FDA for selling "unapproved drugs."

If you flee the country, you can be then be listed on INTERPOL as an international fugitive wanted for "drug offenses." This is exactly what happened to Greg Caton, who was recently kidnapped from Ecuador by U.S. agents working on behalf of the FDA (http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_G...), brought back to the USA against his will, and sentenced to federal prison where he remains to this day.

The FDA thinks walnuts are drugs

If you're skeptical that what I'm saying here is true, take a look at the warning letter the FDA sent to Diamond Food, Inc. back in February concerning the health claims the company had been making about its walnuts.

Diamond Food, Inc., a large producer of nuts and nut products, had put some information on its website about the health benefits of walnuts (which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids). Some of this information included the following statements (all of which are verifiably true):

1) "Studies indicate that the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts may help lower cholesterol; protect against heart disease, stroke and some cancers; ease arthritis and other inflammatory diseases; and even fight depression and other mental illnesses."
2) "[O]mega-3 fatty acids inhibit tumor growth that is promoted by the acids found in other fats..."
3) "[I]n treating major depression, for example, omega-3s seem to work by making it easier for brain cell receptors to process mood-related signals from neighboring neurons."
4) "The omega-3s found in fish oil are thought to be responsible for the significantly lower incidence of breast cancer in Japanese women as compared to women in the United States."

All of these statements are true and have been demonstrated in various scientific studies about omega-3s. In fact, the University of Maryland has a complete reference page about the benefits of omega-3s that verifies the statements made by Diamond Food. Sixty-five different scientific studies are cited on that reference page alone!

But apparently the FDA has little concern with truth and science, because the agency wrote in its warning letter to Diamond that, "[b]ecause of these intended uses, your walnut products are drugs... they are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions." It goes on to say that, "they may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application."

When all was said and done, Diamond was essentially coerced into removing virtually all the truthful information about the health benefits of walnuts from its website in order to stay in compliance with the FDA's ridiculous demands.

So when science discovers the amazing health-promoting and healing abilities of natural, whole foods, you are not allowed to actually tell people about it. If you do, those foods automatically become unapproved drugs, according to the FDA, and they are subject to seizure. This is how the FDA enforces nutritional ignorance across America. The agency is actually an ANTI-EDUCATION group of knowledge destroyers who want the American people to remain ignorant of the health benefits of natural foods and supplements.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4913:

Link for the bill.
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But remember, pesticides, GMOs and anything produced by either a pharmaceutical or war chemical company is good for you.

Oh for fuck's sake! Really?! You can not give nutritional information without FDA (who does a shit job of regulating the drug companies) approval.

This diseased slave colony gets dumber and more corrupt by the minute.

Don't anyone dare take away my medicinal walnuts; I shall smoke what I want, thank you. Keep your hands off my nuts.

Not the first time this has happened, cheerios had to remove their 'cures heart disease' bullshit a few years ago when the FDA called their bluff and told them 'either you produce a double blind study PROVING your product does this or you can't claim things that only a drug could do.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Cholesterol/story?id=7574156&page=1

Libertarians will do anything to make life impossible. Thanks FDA!

Fox is trying to defend it. WARNING alarm goes off. Those folks are nuckin futs :)

Look folks if it will help keep ya healthy they want a ban on it. This just goes to show that Big Pharm has bought the F.D.A.

Kind of a leap of faith to say that because the FDA is saying Diamond can't advertise the health benefits without approval that it means the FDA is declaring walnuts are a "drug". The title of this article is pretty misleading.

I knew sumpthin was up when that pusher-man dude on the street corner gave me 7 walnuts for free one day, but the next day wanted to charge for those suckers by the pound.

What we are seeing is Big Pharma trying to push around the food industry. Somehow it got Omega-3 labeled a drug under the name Lavaza. People have been taking Omega -3 pills for decades. Will the FDA(Big Pharma) go after the fishing industry as well?

This is what happens when we allow politics to be clouded by money. Bush and the RIPublicans have jammed the government with people from the industries that they were supposed to be regulating. I am not talking about the department secretaries, but the hiring spree for underlings filled them with radical liaise-faire free market types that had no problem with not enforcing regulations, and just doing the bidding of their former masters.

GODAMN SON OF A BITCH!! First nutmeg now walnuts! How the hell am I supposed to make banana bread?!? *grumbling*

Someone already asked if they're nuts, right?

Is it me or are our articles and news getting funnier and funnier i needed it fo real it frickin"Nuts" "nuts" "nuts" look at the rethuglicans "Nutz"!!!

I like Paulie Wallnuts too

Time to plant a walnut tree near you .....

They have excellent medicinal properties and can compete against certain drugs , just hating on the competition .....

this is ridiculous, I am still going to eat my walnuts.

So now Omega-3 is considered a drug by the FDA.
So why don't doctors start prescribing walnuts?
Silly question, I know.....

I would have commented sooner but I was at Betty Ford trying to kick my Wal habit.

They call it Wal for short on the streets.

This is another step towards banning all kinds of holistic medicines and Nutritional Supplements just so big pharma can make more money. Come on people we have to feed the rich now!

Just as long as they leave my hallucinogenic nutmeg alone damnitt!!

I like walnuts. I'll eat them regardless of how the FDA forces a change in label. It's amazing; we actually send the government money to waste it on foolish ideas like this. I work in the pre-clinical testing industry for new medical products being submitted to the FDA. They're usually not this nutty (no pun intended). Government employees love to say no; it helps them build a dynasty and justify their inflated budgets. - Jon Wyderka -

That's Nuts!!

Damn it! Now the price of walnuts is gonna go through the roof and now I might get shot trying to score some nuts.

Hmm, a product of a natural plant declared a drug...when have we ever seen that before?

Can you say Marijuana?

God forbid that natural food could be healthy for you. No money in it.