If the Devil makes work for idle hands it is surely because he has no need to find any for busy bodies. They are far too engaged on Satanic projects of their own.
These infernal Children of Eternal Night are, it appears, girding their loins and grinding their battleaxes for another Unholy War, this time against….Vitamins!!
In accordance with sacred Samizdata liturgy there is no link to this UK Times article but here are some of the best bits:
The Food Standards Agency says that many vitamin supplements do more harm than good, and urges people to cut down on vitamin C, calcium and iron. It has for the first time set safe daily limits for various supplements, issues strong warnings on six and even demands the ban of one product — chromium picolinate, which athletes and slimmers use to help them to stay lean or lose weight.
Just a warning, of course. Mere sensible advice. A directive. Guidance. Official common sense. Satanic intentions are usually dressed up in the terminology of caring and sharing in order to mask the faint whiff of sulphur. We all know the Path to Hell has been pre-scripted though. This is where it starts and it is only a matter of time and bureaucratic stealth until the vitamin products they have targetted become restricted by law and then made available by prescription only (which must be accompanied by payment of the state fee, of course).
But this is not the first time ominous noises have been made:
Workers at a Sussex vitamins firm could lose their jobs if a European directive on food supplements becomes law.
Owners of G&G Food in East Grinstead have called on Euro MPs to block the European Directive on Food Supplement which they fear would take vitamins, minerals and herbal remedies off the shelves.
So is this an empire-building initiative from the British Food Standards Agency or are they merely minions taking their order from the Pit of Hades? It matters not, I suppose, because battle is enjoined and the signs are that it is going to be long and bloody:
Ralph Pike, of the National Association of Health Stores, which represents 12,500 health shops, was incensed by the “meddling”, and demanded: “Where are the dead bodies? There has not been one death anywhere in the world from people taking a legitimate vitamin supplement. This is disgraceful, and all it will do will scare people from taking safe and legitimate products for no good reasons. The authorities just don’t like people taking control of their own health and they want everyone to abrogate responsibility for their lives to the nanny state.”
Praise be to Mr.Pike for he has surely Seen The Light and is ready to step up to the ranks of the Holy Warriors.
Thank the maker that the drug dealers have yet to be driven out of business by legalization.
Can you imagine shoot outs over B-12 or E territory?
As a bit of an ex-rugby playing blimpoid, I’ve recently been trying the ol’ Atkins diet, to see if I can drop a few (28) pounds.
What a perfect diet for libertarians! Red meat, every day, keep the skin on the chicken, bacon and eggs for breakfast, strawberries and cream, red wine. Then there’s salads with lashings of mayonnaise, or olive oil, avocados and plenty of stilton, cheddar and brie. Marvellous. The health fascists must hate it.
And of course, Mr Atkins (sadly deceased) advises the use of Chromium Picolinate, to aid energy usage in a carbohydrate-stripped diet.
It would not surprise me if the Nannies have decided to try to ban Chromium Picolinate, because they hate Atkins; it’s just too red-blooded a diet. Some poor rat will have been force-fed its own bodyweight of the stuff, ten times over, every week, and then after six months of this, eventually developed a tumour. Well, wouldn’t you! 🙂
And of course, banning something people want to take, gives them the excuse to continue developing their nascent bureaucracy, and stifling the ability of fatties like me to take charge of their own health.
I say defend your rights, climb the barricades of freedom, eat buckets of vitamin B complex! 🙂
Andy Duncan writes:
“It would not surprise me if the Nannies have decided to try to ban Chromium Picolinate, because they hate Atkins; it’s just too red-blooded a diet.”
Spot-on there, Mr. Duncan. Just a few weeks ago the Telegraph carried an article by (I think) Adam Nicholson, rubbishing the Atkins diet because it was too pleasurable. His profound scientific thesis was that if it was so enjoyable, it couldn’t possibly work.
Much liberal-Leftism is driven by neo-Calvinism – hair shirtism, if you like. It underpins almost the entire canon of Leftist beliefs from obsessions with ‘safety’, to food policy, transport issues, health and exercise, global warming, gun ‘control’ and on and on at tedious length.
The basic principle is: if something is pleasurable it almost certainly does you harm and should be controlled, if not banned. On the other hand, if one is fundamentally disinclined to enjoy it, then it is probably good for one and should be made compulsory.
It is worth bearing in mind that the roots of much Left-wing thinking (if that isn’t an oxymoron) arose during the English Civil War, where it ran hand in glove with radical puritanism. In the UK, the two have been incestuously close ever since, hence the earnest, relentless joylessness of so many Left-wingers.
Sadly, the same disordered thinking has infected science departments too, with the result that much health or climate research, for example, needs to be treated with a pinch of the very same salt they still pretend is bad for us.
I heard awhile back that the EU was trying to medicalize vitamins, force strong supplements off the shelf and into the prescribing chemist’s. Perhaps this is just the EU’s propaganda corps ramping up the demonziation, so as to have an excuse.