Snake Oil or Health Tonic?
• Miracle Cures, Health Quackery
Ronald Bailey, Reason writes about the FDA's capriciousness.
Snake oil is a worthless preparation fraudulently sold as a cure for many ills. Nineteenth century medicine shows notoriously peddled all manner of tonics and physicks to cure everything from bunions to cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was established ostensibly to protect the public against such hucksters. But nowadays the FDA is also treating companies and people who want to communicate scientific findings about nutritional supplements to the public as though they, too, are snake oil hawkers.
What the FDA doesn't want you to know about dietary supplements