A topline report from the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN),
the leading trade association for the dietary supplement and functional food industry
CRN fights to fill the #GapInSNAP
Americans on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are not currently able to purchase a multivitamin with their program benefits. CRN believes good nutrition is not a luxury, and it is working to give SNAP recipients the ability to choose to purchase a multivitamin. CRN is calling on Congress to change this policy to ensure all Americans have access to the benefits of these valuable supplements. Through face-to-face meetings with movers and shakers in the House and Senate, aggressive social media campaigns, op-eds, and advertisements in leading publications, CRN is working with Congress to incorporate language in the 2018 Farm Bill to allow SNAP recipients to purchase a multivitamin supplement with their benefits.
Click here to read about CRN’s advocacy and learn more about how to get involved.
CRN sets the record straight: supplements are safe and beneficial
Responding to three separate publications in July, CRN defended the safety and benefits of dietary supplements:
- When a new meta-analysis, “Association of Multivitamin and Mineral Supplementation and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease,” concluded that multivitamin supplementation does not improve cardiovascular outcomes in the general population, CRN reminded consumers that multivitamins are “an affordable and convenient way to combat insufficient nutrient levels, [but] are not intended to serve as magic bullets for the prevention of serious diseases.”
- CRN responded to a separate review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews that challenged the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for reducing cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease. Highlighting the scientifically-supported benefits of these omega-3 supplements for heart health, CRN criticized the study’s broad conclusion that both sidestepped the existing literature supporting the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for heart health and misconstrued the role of dietary supplements as part of a healthy lifestyle.
- A review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that publications of clinical trials on probiotic, prebiotic, or synbiotic usage generally do not adequately report harms data from the studies. According to the researchers, this absence of data raises concern over the safety of such products—a conclusion CRN firmly refuted. Read more here.
CRN amicus brief defends First Amendment rights of industry and consumers
“[A]ny attempt to suppress the dissemination of health and wellness information related to dietary supplements must be grounded in something more than a dispute about the methodology employed in a clinical trial,” concluded an amicus brief submitted by CRN to the Washington state Court of Appeals, in a case involving the state and Living Essentials, the manufacturer of 5-Hour Energy. Washington has accused Living Essentials of duping consumers with misleading claims regarding the effectiveness of 5-Hour Energy. According to the state, Living Essentials made untruthful statements to consumers, despite failing to show any consumers actually relied on the statements to their detriment.
In its brief, CRN cited Congress’s clear mandate favoring public access and informed decision-making with respect to dietary supplements and argued that the core of the statements challenged—that 5-Hour Energy contains certain vitamins and amino acids that improve “energy,” “focus,” and “mood”—are “precisely the kinds of claims that Congress long ago explicitly permitted manufacturers to make without FDA pre-approval.” This is one of five amicus briefs submitted by CRN in four cases this year in an effort to defend the rights of dietary supplements manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.
Industry executives brave the DC heat for annual advocacy event
CRN joined forces with t
he American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) to advocate for the dietary supplement and functional food industry during CRN’s 15th annual Day on the Hill, held in June in Washington, D.C. Meeting with over 100 Congressional offices, the 75 participants shared information about the dietary supplement industry’s economic impact on jobs and local economies, as well as the value of including multivitamin/mineral supplements in SNAP. Other key issues included allowing supplements to be purchased tax-free with health savings account/flex spending account funds, industry’s self-regulatory efforts such as the Supplement OWL, and more.
In conjunction with CRN/AHPA’s Day on the Hill, the Dietary Supplement Caucus (DSC), a bipartisan group of House and Senate members who work to raise congressional awareness of supplements and the laws governing the industry, hosted a luncheon briefing featuring speaker Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and senior scientist, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Speaking before an audience of more than 130 individuals, Dr. Blumberg highlighted the role public policy plays in designing meaningful approaches to solving the critical problem of “hidden hunger” in the U.S.
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