Deceptive Marketing - Children's Multivitamins

Most of us want to believe the people who produce children's products actually care about our children. They don't. Like everyone else, all they care about is their bottom line.

• That is why baby bottle companies continued to make bottles using BPA even though evidence indicated it might not be safe.
• That is why millions of toys produced in China were recalled for containing lead paint.
• That is why foods containing artificial flavors and dyes, high fructose corn syrup and trans fat are marketed to children

And that is why  NBTY, Inc. (and subsidiary's NatureSmart LLC and Rexall Sundown, Inc.) deceptively labeled their Disney Princesses and Marvel Superhero children's multivitamins, to make us believe they contained the DHA our children need for healthy brain and eye development when they didn't.

In actuality, they contained only a fraction of the DHA necessary to substantiate these claims.

Read the full article here.

It is just another example of corporate America trying to dupe the public into buying their sub-standard crap. And I fell for it. I bought both of these multivitamins for my two children, specifically opting for these over the more natural options because they contained DHA. And now I'm pissed off. Not because my kids didn't get the DHA I thought they were getting, and not because I spent so much money on these crappy vitamins, but because I was duped.

I have always taken pride in my ability to see through corporate propaganda, thoroughly evaluating every product that came into my home and not taking things at face value, but I totally dropped the ball on this one. I didn't check to see if the amount of DHA these vitamins contained was enough to support the effects they were touting. It honestly didn't even occur to me.

And though I know the vitamins weren't made by Disney, it saddens me to see how they would apply their brand to a product without first evaluating it. Not that I would really expect this from any corporation, especially one as big as Disney. Like I said, I'm aware that they don't really care about my children. It's a fact of the world we live in and I realize that, but it still makes me a little sad.

Mostly, it just pisses me off.

 

Just in case you haden't heard: Arsenic in Juice and formula

Okay, so this is the kind of stuff that really ticks me off. I feel like I try so hard to keep my family healthy, but the FDA could give a crap less so we end up unknowingly feeding our children products laced with toxins like BPA  and arsenic. Anyway, Here is the gist of what's going on:


Arsenic in Apple Juice 
Consumer Reports
This all started when Consumer Reports did a study that discovered large amounts of arsenic in some of America's top juice brands . They tested

"88 samples of apple juice and grape juice for lead and arsenic. We found that roughly 10 percent of the samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards of 10 parts per billion (ppb) and 25 percent of the samples had lead levels higher than the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. Most of the arsenic detected in Consumer Reports’ tests was a type known as inorganic, a human carcinogen." ConsumerReports.org

You can read the full results here

Dr Oz
Jumping on the bandwagon was, of course, Dr. Oz (who admittedly kind of annoys me but I can't help but appreciate the information he provides) did a bit more research into the subject, and was helpful enough to give us some ideas of what to look for in our juice to keep our families safe. He made 2 recommendations:

1. Look for juice concentrate made in the USA - we have higher standards than some other countries particularly China. Look at the label carefully. Product of "country"  doesn't always mean that the item came from that country just that it was packaged there. Look for Conc of "country" if possible. This is hard. Check the bottle thoroughly.
2. Buy Organic - Dr Oz's independent test didn't find high concentrations of arsenic in organic juices which is why he recommends it, but that recommendation did not take the consumer reports findings that showed high levels  in a number of organic juices.

So what can we do?  Looking at the test results, buying Made in the USA is a good start, but I' not totally sold on the whole Organic thing yet, but it can't hurt. If you have the money to buy organic juice.

Bills have been. proposed to to create standards for juice companies. We will just have to ee what happens.

 Arsenic is Formula
Here is the other lovely finding. It seems that formula made with  organic brown rice syrup (the organic version of high fructose corn syrup) leads to high levels of arsenic in organic infant formula. Just when you thought you were doing something good for your baby. It seems that the rice pulls arsenic naturally from the ground - great!

What can we do? Dr. Allen Green advises us to purchase rice products that are from California where testing is stricter or through companies that demonstrate that they are testing their products.

Safe choices

• Earth's Best - Issued a statement saying that  their formula does not contain organic brown rice. Read that here.
• Natures One says they conduct independent testing to assure that their brown rice is arsenic free  - read more here.

So what can we take from this?

We're screwed! 

Just kidding. We just have to stay informed.