From: http://www.idahostatesman.com/103/story/60234.html
Bodybuilding.com refutes information presented in a story about weight-loss supplements on NBC’s “Today Show Monday.Madelyn Fernstrom, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center and Today Show contributor, said during an interview for the story that topicals, like soaps and lotions, provide a greater degree of safety.
But Bodybuilding.com officials said that information isn’t substantiated.
Bodybuilding.com, based in Boise, is the world’s largest bodybuilding Web site. It sells more than 5,500 bodybuilding products and provides thousands of articles on bodybuilding.
“To say on national television that dietary supplements are dangerous and are riddled with false claims constitutes general ignorance of the industry and the regulatory efforts within it, Ryan DeLuca, chief executive officer of Bodybuilding.com, said in a statement. “Like in any industry, there are those who possess ethics and those who do not. There are thousands of success stories where people have altered their lifestyle to align with the principles of a healthy diet, exercise and smart nutritional supplementation.
Bodybuilding.com claims the NBC story inaccurately described the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, a federal law that allows companies to make false statements.
The federal law set up a regulatory structure for dietary supplements, giving them a different space for regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. They are neither foods nor drugs, but a unique area €” partially because the FDA has not promulgated specific regulatory guidance. Under the definition of the law, dietary supplements can even be in conventional food form. This has helped increase growth in the market for functional foods. The law does not, however, allow manufacturers or advertisers to make “false promises or “bogus claims about the products they sell, DeLuca said.
He said NBC’s commentator should have suggested that consumers consider the source and trust only those that come recommended or those that have a proven history in the supplement business.
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