New book on supplement industry
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
"Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry," a book Random House bills as "a riveting work of investigative journalism that charts the rise of the dietary supplement craze and reveals the dangerous - and sometimes deadly - side of these highly popular and completely unregulated products," is slated for release Dec 26. The publishing company says author Dan Hurley, a contributing journalist to the New York Times, "charts the remarkable growth of an industry built largely on fraud, and reveals the backroom politics that led to the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994, which effectively freed the industry from FDA oversight," the publisher continues. "In unprecedented detail, he shows how supplement manufacturers have concealed the truth about dozens of untested treatments and the shocking rise in deaths, disfigurements, and life-threatening injuries cause by products deceptively promoted as 'safe and natural'"...