The Food And Drug Administration

Institutional Powers have always affected my life in many ways. The main institutional power that control both positive and negative consequences of my life would be the FDA the Food and Drug Administration. The first way they control my life is they regulate all human and veterinary drugs in our country. Second, the FDA is responsible for protecting the public health and products. Lastly, they supply and control the entire United States Food supply. I believe that this specific governmental institutional power is 100% the authority over my life. The FDA needs to care more about the general health of the public and take into consideration how they play a major factor in the health of our bodies, minds, and environment as well.

The Food and Drug Administration, also known as the FDA or USFDA, is responsible for protecting and advocating public health. They are the official government agency that ensures our drug supply is safe and effective. This is achieved through the regulation and supervision of food safety, dietary supplements, veterinary products, cosmetics, vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, prescription and pharmaceutical drugs that can be purchased over- the- counter.

Take a gander around your local mega-mart today, and what do you see? An epidemic of food like substances taking over the supermarket shelves; an epidemic that has substituted real food for fake, shown links to obesity, and has altered our eating habits. There is, however, a solution that allows you to stick to the healthy foods you want to eat and avoid the foods you don’t.

* Origin of Drug: Dutch word droog meaning dry for dried herbs and plants that were the 1st medicine.

With having true genuine intentions in eating healthy people fall into the ideas advertised by cooperation’s that their products are healthy. Food corporations protect themselves through ingredient secrecy and even through the FDA because they are not required by law to disclose their ingredients; however, the chemicals used need to be considered by the FDA to be Generally Regarded As Safe (Schlosser 25). People should take responsibility in the research of the food products they consume; therefore, allowing an individual to be wise and informed of what their really consuming. Maybe, instead of cutting corners in trying to eat healthy with false idealistic advertisement consumers should consider eating fresh fruits, vegetables, and cooking ingredients. Consumers should like the author Pollan suggested in his rules of thumb: avoid food products unfamiliar, unpronounceable ingredients, and products containing more than five ingredients (Pollan

Food and drug administration is a department of U.S health and human services. It’s responsibility is to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs entering the market as well as to make sure that these medicines are quickly accessible to people. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has been passed in 1938 to ensure that foods other than meat, poultry and fish are clinically hygienic and safe to eat. This act also requires that the food should be labelled according to its content. (FDA.org) Drugs and tobacco are also regulated by FDA and in 1996, FDA strictly regulated the use of tobacco products like nicotine, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, by children and adolescents because of the increase in diseases prevalence and tobacco addiction. Annually 40000 deaths are attributable to its use and most of them are of premature. Therefore the goal of FDA is to stop the tobacco addiction by minors and prevent the deaths and diseases due to nicotine addiction. (FDA vs Brown, n.d) This essay will cover the food and drug administration’s role in under and over regulating drugs and medicines and how it effects our economy, health care system and patients health and safety.

Journalist and novelist Michael Pollan writes about the trials and tribulations surrounding food in North America and raises questions regarding Western diet, which is mostly comprised of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup and corn in general. He reiterates that chemically generated food is creating disease in North Americans; If we eliminate these factors and adopt the eating habits of less industrialized places in the world will we in our lifetime see rates of heart disease, type two diabetes and obesity decline dramatically? The western diet has evolved drastically in the last sixty years, so much so that people have become codependent on the government, dietitians and food agencies regarding their health and what to consume. The land is suffering from pesticides and singular plant farming, the alternative to this is to buy organic but at a higher price. Media has influenced the consumer to read the label and accept and trust the daily vitamin percentages on the box, as this is what is best for them. Money is the key factor in all of this and the government, scientific research and media know that, therefor the public is in for a shock when they realize that the very labels that are supposed to save them have fooled them.

How can anyone have a deficiency? Despite advances in vitamin research over the last century, millions of people around the globe still suffer from vitamin deficiency diseases. In the United States, the plentiful and

The food market nowadays has become a whirlwind of misleading claims and food packed with as many vitamins and nutrients as possible. In Michael Pollan's “In Defense of Food”, he argues that people are too obsessed with diets and focus too much on nutrients that they end up ignoring the fact that the “health food” they are eating is made up of many different chemicals and byproducts that can cause more harm than good. Pollan uses solid evidence to back up his claims by giving examples of the different ways cultures view food, explaining different studies that have been done relating to nutrition, and exposing the real meaning behind the labels that have been put on food.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved naltrexone in 1994 to assist in the treatment of alcohol dependence (Mark et. al, 2003). According to multiple studies of various sizes the medication has been proven to be highly beneficial in assisting with alcohol withdrawal and relapse (Leavitt, 2002; Rohsenow, 2004; Williams, 2005). With the approval of the FDA and the backing of many studies, why is this wonder drug not being more widely used? The following will address how naltrexone works and how it compares to other medications used in the treatment of alcohol dependence. Also included is the reasoning behind the professional hesitance in prescribing naltrexone.

On December 1, 2014 the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established two new rules requiring menu labeling and vending machine labeling. What does this mean exactly, well when it comes to menu labeling any establishment that has 20 or more chains are now required to list the calorie information on their menus or menu boards. This not only includes sit-down restaurants but also drive-through windows and takeout foods. They also established another rule for vending machines which requires all owners or operators with 20 or more vending machines to display calorie information as well. According to the FDA “Americans eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home. Making calorie information available will help consumers make informed choices for themselves and their families”.

For decades, the "natural" health industry has spoken of vitamin supplements as being essential for a healthy and productive life. Consider some individual examples of food-based vitamins and their synthetic analogues. The authors of the published scientific research are affirmative about the usefulness of taking vitamin

Are vitamins worth the time taking? Today about half of all adults use some form of dietary supplement at a cost of $23 billion a year. Ever since Linus Pauling a Nobel Prize winner first promoted “megadoses” an essential nutrients 40 years ago, Americans have been committed to their

You have only to walk down the aisle at your local supermarket to discover that there has been a vitamin revolution. Every possible vitamin and mineral needed by the body is available in capsule, pill, tablet, or powder form. Once your body has reached the point of unhealthy functioning, or you have placed such a strain on your body from over consumption that one of the related diseases has taken hold, it's almost impossible to correct one problem without creating another” (Fir, 2005.p1). This is why eating the right amount and the right foods and staying away from alcohol are the best way to go. Having a healthy diet is not as far fetched as people may think all they need to do is develop a healthy eating habit and stick to it. If society doesn’t start thinking about the health risks that follow by not eating healthy and drinking alcohol in the future can be deadly because some of the major organs in the body can stop working from not being properly taken care of, and alcohol can play a major part in this also.

In M2 we have been set the question ‘What are vitamins – and who needs them’? Vitamins are essential substances that cannot be manufactured by the body. We need small amounts of vitamins for growth and development. Without vitamins the body cannot survive.