Positive Health Online

Antioxidants Prevent Cancer and Some May Even Cure It

It is widely accepted that antioxidants in the diet and supplements are one of the most effective ways of preventing cancer. Nevertheless, Dr James Watson has recently suggested that antioxidants cause cancer and interfere with its treatment. James Watson is among the most renowned of living scientists. His work, together with that of others (Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, Frances Crick, and Maurice Wilkins) led to the discovery of the DNA double helix in 1953. Although his recent statement on antioxidants is misleading, the mainstream media has picked it up, which may cause some confusion.

Antioxidants: What's Going On

Dr Watson claims to have discovered that antioxidants promote the growth of late stage metastatic cancers. He says that this is "among my most important work since the double helix."[1] We agree that the finding is fundamentally important, although it was not uniquely Watson's discovery. Rather, it is standard orthomolecular medicine and has been known for years.[2,3] Within the body, antioxidant levels act as a signal, controlling cell division. In healthy cells and benign tumours, oxidants tend to increase cell proliferation, whereas antioxidants inhibit it. By contrast, the malignant tumour environment can be so strongly oxidizing that it is damaging and triggers cell death by apoptosis. In this case, antioxidants may help tumour cells proliferate and survive, by protecting the cells against oxidation and stimulating the malignancy to grow. For this reason, antioxidants may sometimes be contraindicated for use with malignant tumours, although there are particular exceptions to this.

And Oxidants?

The balance between oxidants and antioxidants is a key issue in the development of cancer, as has been known for decades. Watson appears to be behind the times in his appreciation of nutritional medicine and, surprisingly, to have misunderstood the processes of oxidation and reduction as applied to cancer. He correctly asserts that reactive oxygen species are a positive force for life; this is basic biology. They are also involved in ageing, chronic illness, and cancer. Oxidants also cause free radical damage, thus the body generates large amounts of antioxidants to prevent harm and maintain health.

Back in the 1950s Dr Reginald Holman treated the implanted tumours of experimental rats, by adding a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide to their drinking water.[4] Hydrogen peroxide, an oxidant, delivers a primary redox (reduction/oxidation) signal in the body. The treatment cured more than half the rats (50-60%) within a period of two weeks to two months, with complete disappearance of the tumours. Holman also reported four human case studies, concerning people with advanced inoperable cancer. Two patients showed marked clinical improvement and tumour shrinkage. (Please note: we are not suggesting that people should consume hydrogen peroxide.) He published his findings in Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific periodicals of the day and, of course, the same journal that had presented Crick and Watson's double helix papers, just four year earlier.

Orthomolecular medicine has advanced since those days; we now have safer and more effective techniques with which to attack cancer. Intravenous vitamin C is a good example.[5] Nevertheless, both modern orthomolecular and conventional treatments often rely indirectly on increasing hydrogen peroxide levels, and thus deliberately causing free radical damage within the tumour. Watson correctly identifies oxidation and free radical damage as primary mechanisms through which radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs slow cancer growth. He also states that cancer cell adaptation to oxidation is the method by which it becomes resistant to such treatment, although once again, this has been standard in cancer biology for decades. We agree with some of Watson's assertions: that cancer research is overregulated; that a primary aim should be to cure late stage cancers; and that a cure for cancer could be achievable, given 5-10 years of properly targeted research.[6] However, we think he should become more familiar with progress in orthomolecular medicine, which is currently leading the way.

How Does Cancer Grow?

Cancer develops when cells multiply in the presence of oxidation and other damage. According to micro-evolutionary models, cells become damaged and change their behaviour, growing uncontrollably, and act like the single-celled organisms from which they originally evolved. The cancer cells' individualism overwhelms the cooperative control processes that are essential to a complex multicellular organism. Importantly, antioxidants limit oxidative damage and thus inhibit early benign cancer growth, preventing cancer from developing.

As cancers become malignant, they exhibit incredible genetic diversity. Whereas a benign tumour is like a colony of similar abnormal cells, a malignant tumour is a whole ecosystem. At this late stage, some (but not all) antioxidants can indeed promote cancer cell growth. Thousands of different cell types coexist: cooperating, competing, and struggling to survive. A consequence of the anaerobic conditions that prevail during the early development of a malignancy is that cancer cells differ from healthy cells, in that they have been selected for the way they generate energy (i.e. anaerobically, using glucose). This is the well-known Warburg effect,[7] another finding from the 1950s.[8]

How Does Cancer Stop?

Certain ‘antioxidant’ substances, such as vitamin C, are able to exploit the differences between cancer and healthy cells; they kill cancer cells while helping healthy cells.[9] Such substances have the ability to act either as antioxidants or as pro-oxidants, depending on their environment. In tumours, they act as pro-oxidants, producing hydrogen peroxide that attacks the cancer; whereas, in healthy cells they act as protective anti-oxidants.

The dual nature of these substances is crucial, because standard chemotherapy or radiation harms healthy cells almost as much as it does cancer cells. The idea of a drug with a limited selective activity against cancer cells has apparently impressed Watson, who suggests that "highly focused new drug development should be initiated towards finding compounds beyond metformin that selectively kill [cancer] stem cells."[10] Metformin is an antidiabetic drug that acts against cancer by lowering blood glucose levels. Interestingly enough, carbohydrate reduction and other methods of ‘starving the cancer’ are standard methods in orthomolecular cancer therapy.[2]

Selective anticancer agents of the kind Dr Watson advocates are already known to exist: they include vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin K, alpha-lipoic acid, selenium, and others. A research agenda to investigate the synergistic operation of such substances in cancer treatment is required urgently. It is time for conventional medicine to come to terms with their failure in cancer research and embrace selective orthomolecular methods. The public should stick with nutritional therapies while we wait, perhaps for some time, for medicine to focus on patients rather than profits. Don't be warned off the very substances that can most help you.

References

1. Watson J.  Nobel laureate James Watson claims antioxidants in late-stage cancers can promote cancer progression, The Royal Society, latest news. http://royalsociety.org/news/2013/watson-antioxidants-cancer. 9 January 2013.

2. Hickey S. Roberts H. Cancer: Nutrition and Survival. Lulu Press. 2005.

3. Hickey S. Roberts H.J. Selfish cells: cancer as microevolution, 137-146. 2007.

4. Holman RA. A method of destroying a malignant rat tumour in vivo. Nature 4568, 1033. 1957.

5. www.doctoryourself.com/RiordanIVC.pdf  www.riordanclinic.org/research/research-studies/vitaminc/protocol/  and www.doctoryourself.com/Radiation_VitC.pptx.pdf

6. Lettice E. James Watson: 'cancer research is over regulated' The Guardian, Friday 10 September, www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/10/james-watson-cancer-research. 2010.

7. Gonzalez M.J. Miranda Massari J.R. Duconge J. Riordan N.H. Ichim T. Quintero-Del-Rio A.I. Ortiz N. The bio-energetic theory of carcinogenesis, Med Hypotheses 79(4), 433-439. 2012.

8. Warburg O. On the origin of cancer cells, Science 123(3191): 309-314. 1956.

9. Casciari J.J. Riordan N.H. Schmidt T.L. Meng X.L. Jackson J.A. Riordan H.D. Cytotoxicity of ascorbate, lipoic acid, and other antioxidants in hollow fibre in vitro tumours, Br J Cancer 84(11), 1544-1550. www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v84/n11/abs/6691814a.html  2001.

N.H. Riordan, H.D. Riordana, X. Menga, Y. Lia, J.A. Jackson. Intravenous ascorbate as a tumour cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agent, Med Hypotheses, 44(3), 207-213, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030698779590137X   1995.

10. Watson J. Oxidants, antioxidants and the current incurability of metastatic cancers, Open Biology  doi: 10.1098/rsob.120144.  January 8 2013.

Further Information

Andrew W Saul PhD - Editor and contact person. omns@orthomolecular.org  

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource. Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: www.orthomolecular.org   

http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html       http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml     

Find a Doctor

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml 

Editorial Review Board

Ian Brighthope MD (Australia)

Ralph K. Campbell MD (USA)

Carolyn Dean MD ND (USA)

Damien Downing MD (United Kingdom)

Dean Elledge DDS MS (USA)

Michael Ellis MD (Australia)

Martin P. Gallagher MD DC (USA)

Michael Gonzalez DSc PhD (Puerto Rico)

William B. Grant PhD (USA)

Steve Hickey PhD (United Kingdom)

Michael Janson MD (USA)

Robert E. Jenkins DC (USA)

Bo H. Jonsson MD PhD (Sweden)

Thomas Levy MD JD (USA)

Stuart Lindsey Pharm D (USA)

Jorge R. Miranda-Massari Pharm D (Puerto Rico)

Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada MD (Finland)

Erik Paterson MD (Canada)

W. Todd Penberthy PhD (USA)

Gert E. Schuitemaker PhD (Netherlands)

Robert G. Smith PhD (USA)

Jagan Nathan Vamanan MD (India)

What Really Causes Kidney Stones (And Why Vitamin C Does Not)

A recent widely-publicized study claimed that vitamin C supplements increased the risk of developing kidney stones by nearly a factor of two.[1] The study stated that the stones were most likely formed from calcium oxalate, which can be formed in the presence of vitamin C (ascorbate), but it did not analyze the kidney stones of participants. Instead, it relied on a different study of kidney stones where ascorbate was not tested. This type of poorly organized study does not help the medical profession or the public, but instead causes confusion.

The study followed 23,355 Swedish men for a decade. They were divided into two groups, one that did not take any supplements (22,448), and another that took supplements of vitamin C (907). The average diet for each group was tabulated, but not in much detail. Then the participants who got kidney stones in each group were tabulated, and the group that took vitamin C appeared to have a greater risk of kidney stones. The extra risk of kidney stones from ascorbate presented in the study is very low, 147 per 100,000 person-years, or only 0.15% per year.

Key points the media missed:

• ·           The number of kidney stones in the study participants who took ascorbate was very low (31 stones in over a decade), so the odds for statistical error in the study are fairly high;
• ·           The study was observational. It simply tabulated the intake of vitamin C and the number of kidney stones to try to find an association between them;
• ·           This method does not imply a causative factor because it was not a randomized controlled study, that is, vitamin C was not given to a group selected at random;
• ·           This type of observational study is fraught with limitations that make its conclusion unreliable;
• ·           It contradicts previous studies that have clearly shown that high dose ascorbate does not cause kidney stones;[2-6]
• ·           The study authors' conclusion that ascorbate caused the low rate of stones is likely due to a correlation between the choice of taking a vitamin C supplement with some other aspect of the participants' diet;
• ·           The study could not determine the nature of this type of correlation, because it lacked a detailed study of each patient's diet and a chemical analysis of each stone to provide a hint about the probable cause.

So we have a poorly designed study that did not determine what kind of stone was formed, or what caused the stones that were formed. These are serious flaws. Drawing conclusions from such a study can hardly be a good example of ‘evidence based medicine’.

Different Types of Kidney Stones (Renal Calculi)

There is a considerable variety of kidney stones. Here are five well-known ones:

1. Calcium phosphate stones are common and easily dissolve in urine acidified by vitamin C;
2. Calcium oxalate stones are also common but they do not dissolve in acid urine. We will discuss this type further below;
3. Magnesium ammonium phosphate (struvite) stones are much less common, often appearing after an infection. They dissolve in urine acidified by vitamin C;
4. Uric acid stones result from a problem metabolizing purines (the chemical base of adenine, xanthine, theobromine [in chocolate] and uric acid). They may form in a condition such as gout;
5. Cysteine stones result from an hereditary inability to reabsorb cysteine. Most children's stones are this type, and these are rare.

The Oxalate Oxymoron

The oxalate / vitamin C issue appears contradictory. Oxalate is in oxalate stones and oxalate stones are common. Ascorbate (the active ion in vitamin C) may slightly increase the body's production of oxalate. Yet, in practice, vitamin C does not increase oxalate stone formation. Emanuel Cheraskin MD DMD Professor of Oral Medicine at the University of Alabama, explains why: "Vitamin C in the urine tends to bind calcium and decrease its free form. This means less chance of calcium's separating out as calcium oxalate (stones)."[7] Also, the diuretic effect of vitamin C reduces urine concentration of oxalate. Fast moving rivers deposit little silt. If on a consultation, a doctor advises that you are especially prone to forming oxalate stones, read the suggestions below before abandoning the benefits of vitamin C. Once again: vitamin C increases oxalate but inhibits the union of calcium and oxalate.

Oxalate is generated by many foods in the diet, including spinach (100-200 mg oxalate per ounce of spinach), rhubarb, and beets.[8-10] Tea and coffee are thought to be the largest source of oxalate in the diet of many people, up to 150-300 mg/day.[8,11] This is considerably more than would likely be generated by an ascorbate dose of 1000 mg/day.[5,12]

The study we are discussing didn't tabulate the participants' intake of oxalate, but on average they had relatively high intakes (several cups) of tea and coffee. It is possible that those who had kidney stones had them before the study started, or got them during the study, due to a particularly high intake of oxalate. For example, the participants that took vitamin C may have been trying to stay healthy, but the subset of those who got kidney stones might also have been trying to stay healthy by drinking a lot of tea or coffee, or eating green leafy vegetables such as spinach. Or they may have been older people who got dehydrated, which is also very common among men who are active outside during the summer. Among the most important factors in kidney stones is dehydration, especially among the elderly.[13]

Summarizing:

• Ascorbate in low or high doses generally does not cause significant increase in urinary oxalate;[2-6]
• Ascorbate tends to prevent formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones;[3,4]
• Risk factors for kidney stones include a history of hypertension, obesity, chronic dehydration, poor diet, and a low dietary intake of magnesium.

Magnesium

Kidney stones and magnesium deficiency share the same list of causes, including a diet high in sugar, alcohol, oxalates, and coffee. Magnesium has an important role in the prevention of kidney stone formation.[14] Magnesium stimulates production of calcitonin, which draws calcium out of the blood and soft tissues back into the bones, preventing some forms of arthritis and kidney stones. Magnesium suppresses parathyroid hormone, preventing it from breaking down bone. Magnesium converts vitamin D into its active form so that it can assist in calcium absorption. Magnesium is required to activate an enzyme that is necessary to form new bone. Magnesium regulates active calcium transport. All these factors help place calcium where it needs to be, and not in kidney stones.

One of magnesium's many jobs is to keep calcium in solution to prevent it from solidifying into crystals; even at times of dehydration, if there is sufficient magnesium, calcium will stay in solution. Magnesium is a pivotal treatment for kidney stones. If you don't have enough magnesium to help dissolve calcium, you will end up with various forms of calcification. This translates into stones, muscle spasms, fibrositis, fibromyalgia, and atherosclerosis (as in calcification of the arteries). Dr. George Bunce has clinically demonstrated the relationship between kidney stones and magnesium deficiency. As early as 1964, Bunce reported the benefits of administering a 420 mg dose of magnesium oxide per day to patients who had a history of frequent stone formation.[14,15] If poorly absorbed magnesium oxide works, other forms of better-absorbed magnesium will work better.

Calcium oxalate stones can effectively be prevented by getting an adequate amount of magnesium, either through foods high in magnesium (buckwheat, green vegetables, beans, nuts), or magnesium supplements. Take a magnesium supplement of at least the US RDA of 300-400 mg/day (more may be desirable in order to maintain an ideal 1:1 balance of magnesium to calcium). To prevent a laxative effect, take a supplement that is readily absorbable, such as magnesium citrate, chelate, malate, or chloride. Magnesium oxide, mentioned above, is cheap and widely available. However, magnesium oxide is only about 5% absorbed and thus acts mostly as a laxative.[14] Milk of magnesia (magnesium hydroxide) is even more of a laxative, and unsuitable for supplementation. Magnesium citrate is a good choice: easy to find, relatively inexpensive and well absorbed.

The Role of Vitamin C in Preventing and Dissolving Kidney Stones

The calcium phosphate kidney stone can only exist in a urinary tract that is not acidic. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C's most common form) acidifies the urine, thereby dissolving phosphate stones and preventing their formation.

Acidic urine will also dissolve magnesium ammonium phosphate stones, which would otherwise require surgical removal. These are the same struvite stones associated with urinary tract infections. Both the infection and the stone are easily cured with vitamin C in large doses. Both are virtually 100% preventable with daily consumption of much-greater-than-RDA amounts of ascorbic acid. A gorilla gets about 4,000 mg of vitamin C a day in its natural diet. The US RDA for humans is only 90 mg. The gorillas are unlikely to all be wrong.

The common calcium oxalate stone can form in an acidic urine whether one takes vitamin C or not. However, this type of stone can be prevented by adequate quantities of B-complex vitamins and magnesium. Any common B-complex supplement, twice daily, plus about 400 milligrams of magnesium, is usually adequate.

A Dozen Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Kidney Stones

1. Maximize fluid intake.[13] Especially drink fruit and vegetable juices. Orange, grape and carrot juices are high in citrates which inhibit both a build-up of uric acid and also stop calcium salts from forming;[16]
2. Control urine pH. Slightly acidic urine helps prevent urinary tract infections, dissolves both phosphate and struvite stones, and will not cause oxalate stones. And of course one way to make urine slightly acidic is to take vitamin C;
3. Avoid excessive oxalates by not eating (much) rhubarb, spinach, chocolate, or dark tea or coffee;
4. Lose weight. Being overweight is associated with substantially increased risk of kidney stones;[17]
5. Calcium is probably not the real culprit. Low calcium may itself cause calcium stones;[18]
6. Most kidney stones are compounds of calcium and yet many Americans are calcium deficient. Instead of lowering calcium intake, reduce excess dietary phosphorous by avoiding carbonated soft drinks, especially colas. Cola soft drinks contain excessive quantities of phosphorous as phosphoric acid. This is the same acid that is used by dentists to dissolve tooth enamel before applying bonding resins;
7. Take a magnesium supplement of at least the US RDA of 300-400 mg/day. More may be desirable in order to maintain an ideal 1:1 balance of magnesium to calcium. Many people eating ‘modern’ processed-food diets do not consume optimal quantities of magnesium;
8. Take a good B-complex vitamin supplement twice daily, which contains pyridoxine (vitamin B6). A deficiency of vitamin B6 produces kidney stones in experimental animals. Vitamin B6 deficiency is very common in humans. A vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency also is associated with stones; [19]
9. For uric acid / purine stones (gout), stop eating meat. Nutrition tables and textbooks indicate meats as the major dietary purine source. Natural treatment adds juice fasts and eating sour cherries. Increased vitamin C consumption helps by improving the urinary excretion of uric acid.[12]. For these stones, use buffered ascorbate ‘C’.
10. Persons with cysteine stones (only 1% of all kidney stones) should follow a low methionine diet and use buffered vitamin C;
11. Kidney stones are associated with high sugar intake, so eat less (or no) added sugar’ [20]
12. Infections can cause conditions that favour stone formation, such as overly concentrated urine (from fever sweating, vomiting or diarrhoea). Practice good preventive health care, and it will pay you back with interest.

References:

1. Thomas LDK, Elinder CG, Tiselius HG, Wolk A, Akesson A.Ascorbic acid supplements and kidney stone incidence among men: A prospective study. Published Online: February 4, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2296. 2013.

2. Wandzilak TR, D'Andre SD, Davis PA, Williams HE  Effect of high dose vitamin C on urinary oxalate levels. J Urology 151:834-837. 1994.

3. Hickey S, Saul AW. Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor. Basic Health Publications ISBN-13: 9781591202233. 2008.

4. Hickey S, Roberts H. Vitamin C does not cause kidney stones. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n07.shtml  2005.

5. Robitaille L, Mamer OA, Miller WH Jr, Levine M, Assouline S, Melnychuk D, Rousseau C, Hoffer LJ. Oxalic acid excretion after intravenous ascorbic acid administration. Metabolism. 58(2):263-9. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2008.09.023. Feb 2009.

6. Padayatty SJ, Sun AY, Chen Q, Espey MG, Drisko J, Levine M. Vitamin C: intravenous use by complementary and alternative medicine practitioners and adverse effects. PLoS One. 5(7):e11414. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011414. 2010.

7. Cheraskin E, Ringsdorf, M Jr, Sisley E The Vitamin C Connection. Bantam Books. ISBN-13: 9780553244342. 1983.

8. Noonan SC, Savage GP Oxalate content of foods and its effect on humans. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 8:64-74. 1999.

9. Kawazua Y, Okimurab M, Ishiic T, Yuid S. Varietal and seasonal differences in oxalate content of spinach. Scientia Horticulturae 97:203-210. 2003.

10. Proietti S, Moscatello S, Famiani F, Battistelli A. Increase of ascorbic acid content and nutritional quality in spinach leaves during physiological acclimation to low temperature. Plant Physiol Biochem. 47(8):717-23. 2009.

11. Gasinska A, Gajewska D. Tea and coffee as the main sources of oxalate in diets of patients with kidney oxalate stones. ROCZN. PZH 58(1):61-67. 2007.

12. Pauling L.  How to Live Longer And Feel Better. OSU Press ISBN-13: 9780870710964. 2006.

13. Manz F, Wentz A. The importance of good hydration for the prevention of chronic diseases. Nutr Rev. 63(6 Pt 2):S2-S5. 2005.

14. Dean C. The Magnesium Miracle. Ballantine Books. ISBN-13: 9780345494580. 2007.

15. Bunce GE, Li BW, Price NO, Greenstreet R. Distribution of calcium and magnesium in rat kidney homogenate fractions accompanying magnesium deficiency induced nephrocalcinosis. Exp Mol Pathol. 21(1):16-28. 1974.

16. Carper J. Orange juice may prevent kidney stones, Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal, Jan 5, 1994.

17. Bagga HS, Chi T, Miller J, Stoller ML. (2013) New insights into the pathogenesis of renal calculi. Urol Clin North Am. 40(1):1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ucl.2012.09.006. Feb 2013.

18. L. H. Smith, et al.  Medical evaluation of urolithiasis. Urological Clinics of North America. 1:2, 241-260. 1974.

19. Hagler L, Herman RH. Oxalate metabolism, II. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 26(8): 882-889. 1973.

20. J. A. Thom, et al.  The influence of refined carbohydrate on urinary calcium excretion. British Journal of Urology, 50(7): 459-464. 1978.

Further Information

Andrew W Saul PhD - Editor and contact person. omns@orthomolecular.org  

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource. Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: www.orthomolecular.org    

http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html       http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml      

Find a Doctor

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml  

Editorial Review Board

Ian Brighthope MD (Australia)

Ralph K. Campbell MD (USA)

Carolyn Dean MD ND (USA)

Damien Downing MD (United Kingdom)

Dean Elledge DDS MS (USA)

Michael Ellis MD (Australia)

Martin P. Gallagher MD DC (USA)

Michael Gonzalez DSc PhD (Puerto Rico)

William B. Grant PhD (USA)

Steve Hickey PhD (United Kingdom)

Michael Janson MD (USA)

Robert E. Jenkins DC (USA)

Bo H. Jonsson MD PhD (Sweden)

Thomas Levy MD JD (USA)

Stuart Lindsey Pharm D (USA)

Jorge R. Miranda-Massari Pharm D (Puerto Rico)

Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada MD (Finland)

Erik Paterson MD (Canada)

W. Todd Penberthy PhD (USA)

Gert E. Schuitemaker PhD (Netherlands)

Robert G. Smith PhD (USA)

Jagan Nathan Vamanan MD (India)

European Commission Tries Closing Door on Product Descriptors

ANH-Intl highlights challenges as well as solutions with EC proposals for food and beverage “generic descriptors”

Consumers around Europe could be plunged further into the dark as foods and beverages stand to lose hundreds of commonly recognised descriptors.  The outcome of a European Commission (EC) consultation could see an end to categorizing descriptors, such as ‘digestif’, 'cough drops', 'tonic water' and 'digestive biscuit', under the controversial EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR).

Monday saw the deadline for interested parties to submit comments to the UK’s Department of Health on European Commission (EC) proposals for one of several unresolved areas of the NHCR.  In its comments, submitted yesterday, the Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl) - a UK-based campaign organisation that works to promote and protect natural health and consumer choice - described the EC's proposals on generic descriptors as “preposterous” and “absurd”.  Far from culling current descriptors, ANH believes that the category should be increased to cover such terms as 'probiotic', 'prebiotic', 'antioxidant' and 'sports drink', amongst others.

Commenting on its submission, ANH-Intl’s executive and scientific director, Robert Verkerk PhD, said, “It’s as if the European Commission wants to create an approach for the use of generic descriptors that is so restrictive that hardly any will ever make it onto the marketplace.”  One of the overriding EC views is that generic descriptors should not be allowed if consumers might interpret them as implying a health or nutritional benefit.

The EC even suggests that companies should be forced to prove that their chosen generic descriptor does not infer a health or nutritional benefit to the consumer.  ANH-Intl stresses that proving a negative in this way could be both technically very challenging and prohibitively expensive for smaller companies and niche food business operators.

Even more remarkably, the Commission suggests that generic descriptors could be limited to the language of the country in which the descriptor was traditionally used. Dr Verkerk said of this, “You’ve got to wonder if the European Commission hasn’t lost the plot with this one.  It’s a bit like saying that Indian restaurants that provide after-dinner digestive seed mixes would have to refer to them solely by their Sanskrit term, mukhwas!

ANH-Intl also believes that some of the EC suggestions are legally disproportionate.  This will create adverse affects for smaller companies and niche suppliers that have long used generic descriptors as a means of categorizing the food or beverage products they sell.

Finally, ANH-Intl argues that the approach for applications for generic descriptors is premature, given that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has not yet completed its evaluation of more than 1500 botanical health claims that were put on hold by the EC over 2 years ago.

Further Information

Please contact Robert Verkerk PhD, Executive and Scientific Ddirector, ANH-Intl on  Tel: +44 (0)1306 646 600;  info@anhinternational.org   www.anhinternational.org