Bodybuilders are among the worlds biggest consumers of food, given their
sport dictates specific quantities of a multitude of high-quality nutrients
at precise intervals, to maximize anabolism and impact growth.
The major body responsible for helping to ensure food arrives at our table in a safe
and beneficial state is the Codex Alimentarius Commission. All important
aspects of food, as far as protection of consumer health and fair practices
in the food trade are concerned, fall under the scrutiny of the Codex
Alimentarius Commission.
Such is its importance, the commission is said to have lifted the world community's awareness of food safety and related
issues to unprecedented heights and has consequently become the single most
important international reference point for developments associated with
food standards (2).
Indeed, the safety and quality of the foods we eat is of
international political importance also, as evidenced by the activities of
the United Nations General Assembly, the FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization), WHO (World Health Organization), all of whom encourage or
commit their countries to adopt standards in line with the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (the FOA and WHO jointly established the Codex
Alimentarius Commission in 1961-62) (2).
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It is clear the Codex Alimentarius Commission is a vital underpinning in terms of bodybuilders achieving their
goals through safe, high-quality, foods. However, its role is often unclear,
with many in the bodybuilding community unaware of what it does, and, in
many cases, even of its existence.
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The Codex Alimentarius Commission
What Is It And What Does It Do?
Established by the FOA and WHO in 1961, the Codex Alimentarius Commission
works on the premise that every person has the right to expect their food to
be safe, of good quality and suitable for consumption (2).
The Codex Alimentarius Commission established the Codex Alimentarius (a food code
volume containing a collection of international standards for food safety
and consumer protection), which is designed to ensure an across the board
reference point for food safety and quality.
Published in Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish, the Codex Alimentarius officially covers all
foods, whether processed, semi-processed or raw.
The specific standard in which certain foods are sold to the consumer is decided upon and published
within the Codex. Also, more general standards such as food labeling, hygiene, food additives, and pesticide residues as well as guidelines for
the management of governmental export and import inspection and certification of foods is contained in this document.
It is the Codex Alimentarius Commissions role to establish, and oversee, all these aspects
of food safety and control in the Codex document. Documented in the Codex
are:
Specific Standards:
- Milk and milk products.
- Fish and fishery products (marine, fresh water and aquiculture).
- Meat products (fresh, frozen, processed and poultry).
- Foods for special dietary uses (includes infant formula and baby food).
- Fresh and frozen fruits & vegetable and fruit juices.
- Cereals and derived products, dried legumes.
- Fats, oils and derived products such as margarine.
- Miscellaneous food products (chocolate, sugar honey, mineral water).
General Standards:
- Food labeling (general standard, guidelines on nutrition labeling,
guidelines on labeling claims).
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- Food additives (General standard including authorized uses, specifications
for food grade chemicals).
- Contaminants in foods (general standard, tolerances for specific
contaminants including radionuclides, aflatoxins and other mycotoxins).
- Pesticide and veterinary chemical residues in foods (maximum residue
limits).
- Risk assessment procedures for determining the safety of foods derived from
biotechnology (DNA-modified plants, DNA-modified micro-organisms,
allergens).
- Food hygiene (general principles, codes of hygienic practice in specific
industries or food handling establishments, guidelines for the use of the
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point or "HACCP" system).
- Methods of analysis and sampling.
As the above suggests, the Codex Alimentarius is a very important document
and the Codex Alimentarius Commission an important body, for ensuring the
continued quality and safety of the foods we eat.
For bodybuilders this means a continued supply of high quality foods at the highest possible
standard.
However, the impact the Codex Alimentarius may have on
bodybuilding community could reach much further than previously thought.
The Codex Alimentarius
The Benefits For The Bodybuilding Community
As mentioned, the Codex Alimentarius could be seen to have benefited
bodybuilders due its strict emphasis on food controls.
After all, the quality of the food we eat translates into a quality physique. The following
could be seen as benefits the Codex Alimentarius holds for the bodybuilding
community:
- Provide a single international reference point for the safety and quality
of foods: through Codex, more attention has been drawn, on an international
scale, to the quality and safety of our foods.
Athletes need to know the food they eat will not result in them becoming sick due to contamination of
the food, or undernourished due to inferior nutritional content.
Codex are charged with the responsibility of ensuring food is safe for human
consumption. One of their objectives is to enhance consumer protection
through ensuring the minimization of food-borne illnesses.
- The development of the Codex itself: due to continuing research and
product development, the task of developing Codex is a mammoth, and endless,
one.
The code is thought to be authoritative in its collection and
evaluation of food information which translates into a set of scientifically
backed standards that ensure fair practices in the sale of foods and
protection of customers (2).
Consenting Views
Negative Aspects Of The Commision
However, the Codex Alimentarius Commission is, in some circles, seen as a
negative, and restrictive organization. In fact, many are skeptical as to
the intentions of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and indeed, the Codex
document itself (5).
Given the Codex Alimentarius Commission are charged
with tightening the security measures on food, and this includes food
supplements, new requirements governing how we use supplements are
established, by the commission at their will, could have dire
ramifications for the bodybuilding community at large.
A startling revelation has come to light recently highlighting the situation; those who
use supplements are faced with: a Codex Alimentarius Commission guideline
saying no dietary supplement can be sold for preventative or therapeutic
purposes (5).
The Codex plan to completely restrict the use of supplements
is already underway with the final step (step 8, the final stage) to take
place in June 2005.
For Those Who Think This Sounds Absurd In The Extreme,
Unlikely To Happen, A Fictional Invention, Need To Ponder The Following:
- Codex supplement restrictions have already been implemented in Germany with
vitamin C over 200mg in strength requiring a medical prescription (3).
Also in Germany, zinc, a valuable mineral nutrient, has risen from four-dollars a
bottle to $52, and Echinacea (an ancient immune enhancement herb) from $14 to
$153 (both these supplements are bought on a prescription only basis in this
country) (5).
In Norway similar rules apply and in both these countries a black market in supplements has emerged.
Closer to home, amino acids tryptophan and L-carnitine, once available in Canadian health stores for $14 per 100 capsules, are now available, only on prescription, for $120-$190 in
this country.
The same could occur is the US, and other countries if the Codex requirements take hold.
In the US, the complete ban of tryptophan by
the FDA, following the uncovering of a faulty batch in the 90s may have signaled future restrictions in this industry at the hands of the Codex
Alimentarius Commission.
The Future Of The Commission
What's In Store?
The commissions finalized code, to come into effect
in the US in June 2005, will include the following stipulations:
1: No supplement can be sold for preventative or therapeutic use.
2: Any potency higher than the listed RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance =
minimal strength) is a drug requiring a prescription and must be produced by
drug companies.
NOTE: Over 5000 safe items now in health stores will be
banned, terminating health stores and vitamin businesses as we now know
them.
3: CODEX regulations become binding internationally.
4: New supplements are banned unless given very expensive CODEX testing and
approval.
Is The New Code Worth It?
Who Really Benefits?
One has to ask the question, why would an organization charged with the
responsibility of ensuring the health and well-being of the consumer,
restrict the availability of nutritionally beneficial supplements.
It is thought the intent behind the new codex requirements is to limit access to
self care and institutionalize medicine (3). This would create profit areas
for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and clinics.
Restricting the supplement market would also allow for future pharmaceutical company
profits. For example, if a supplement from established American companies
became freely available on the European market, major pharmaceutical
interests in these countries would stand to lose a large amount of money and
the degree of control they have to supplement distributors (4).
Furthermore, the people responsible for implementing the Codex restrictions (The CODEX
Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use or CNFSDU), are
pooled from the ranks of large pharmaceutical and agricultural companies
and, what is possibly more disturbing, have among them no knowledgeable
nutritional researchers or consumers (4).
It seems supplement users are in
the hands of those with vested interests in the field of pharmaceuticals.
Very little about the Codex restrictions on supplements has been brought to
light, and supplement users, which include to a large degree bodybuilders,
are largely unaware of such a potential disaster.
The bodybuilding, and sports, industry and the general health-seeking population could find itself turning to the
black market or paying exorbitant prices as a slave to the health system.
Supplements have been used by millions of people for many years.
Very few of these people have become ill as a result of over-supplementing, in
comparison to the thousands each year who become seriously ill, or die, from
the effects of conventional medicine.
Clearly, one should be free to choose what is beneficial for them in terms of supplement use.
The implementation of codex, on the other hand, could be seen as a direct assault on ones
ability to care for themselves through proper supplementation.
