Organico Bantry

If you would like to help to protect your right to choose the amount of Vitamin C you can buy without being unnecessarily restricted by the EU, contact the following people and let them know your views:

1. Mr Markos Kyprianou, The Commissioner, Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection, The European Commission, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium.
2. Dr Brian Redahan, Director Consumer Protection, Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Abbey Court, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland. www.fsai.ie

Some of the points you might want to include in your letter or email:

* What you are writing about : The Food Supplements Directive & the setting of Maximum Levels of Vitamins and Minerals
* Who you are: As a single person or as a parent how do you feel about having your health possible jeopodised by the EU? For example, they would like to set the maximum limit for B6 at 10 mg/day, when people are safely taking 50 – 400 mg/day currently to treat common problems ranging from PMT to Asthma. How will this affect you?
* Express your concern at one of the possible motives behind this directive, which many think is linked to the large food companies seeing a new role in the market place for ‘fortified foods’, which would be especially in demand if the general public cannot buy their vitamins any other way.
* For more information on this subject see this article By Dr.Gaby:Safe Upper Limits for Nutritional Supplements: One Giant Step BACKWARD

• Or go to http://www.irishhealthstores.com/

As we speak, the European Union is in the process of introducing Europe wide regulations on maximum doses of vitamin and mineral supplements – and in particular what manufacturers and shops like Organico can say about the supplements we sell. Most shops and manufacturers are in favour of regulations, as we would not like to be working in a world where people can lie to the public about what a product does, but we are concerned that the proposed regulations are going to restrict consumer choice and impact negatively on health. We are most of us in favour of setting ‘upper safety limits’ based on scientific evidence, but not in setting them based on decades-old notions of what minimum levels of vitamins prevents life-threatening illnesses.

In Organico we believe in optimum health, not just in preventing illness. And we also feel that all of us should be able to treat our minor ailments in any (safe) way we chose – by using 1000mg of vitamin C for a cold, for example. But in other European countries this amount of vitamin C is prohibited, and in order to harmonise situations like this the European Union is trying to standardise maximum levels accross the EU.

Under the terms of Article 5 of the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC), the European Commission will shortly propose levels of vitamins and minerals which it believes are the maximum that should be permitted for use in supplements. A Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers will then be asked to approve those figures.

Unfortunately it appears that the Irish foods regulatory authority (the FSAI) are supporters of the RDA principal (which as I touched on above allows only for the prevention of critical illnesses rather than the maintenance of good health) and has taken very little notice of the Health Food Industry’s submissions of evidence supporting the use of safe upper levels. Our industry association (the I.A.H.S.) is currently in talks with the Dept of Health regarding this issue. However we are now starting to take action at a local level.

Shortly I will post a pro-forma letter that can be adapted and sent to relevant parties, and a list of people to send it to.

Pina is a Spiritual Healer who has been based in West Cork since 1999. People visit Pina for many different reasons – for relaxation; for relief from pain, grief, and exhaustion; or to recover their energy after a particularly difficult or traumatic episode. In Organico we refer people to Pina when we feel that their situation requires healing on a level that cannot necessarily be reached by herbs, supplements or physical manipulation.

An example would be a person who was having sleep problems which started just after a close bereavement – we can offer her some calming and relaxing herbal preparations but if she also visited Pina her recovery would be a lot more profound.

Pina’s own description of her work is as follows:

‘Pina is a spirit medium for healing who encourages the release of grief, shock, fears, emotional and physical pain and other trauma.

She uses a form of hands on healing, receiving guidance to help you towards regaining trust and inner strength.

In a session you are encouraged to make changes necessary for your personal growth to help you to restoring wholeness.

By recieving divine universal love energy and allowing the guidance of angels to work through her, Pina uses a combination of light, touch, sound and other shamanistic techniques. Blessed Be.’

To many people this will sound very unusual, to put it mildly! However, having had personal experiences of Pina’s healing, I can vouch for her authenticity, her discretion, and for the deep changes that can be felt after a session with her. She practices in Skibbereen on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and a session takes approximately 1 hour and costs €50.
For information please contact Pina on (028) 51582 (for bookings from Dubin and Skibbereen) or for bookings in Cork please call Dervish (021) 4278245. Email pinalazara@gmail.com.