IT WAS a good week for nutritional items in the British Medical Journal last week; one paper reported that zinc supplements helped protect slum-dwelling kids from pneumonia, and one showed that probiotics (you know, lactobacillus acidophilus, Yakult, that sort of thing) can protect you from antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.

But it's all going to be irrelevant soon because you won't be able to buy the stuff; the EU is yet again going to effectively ban all nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathic medicines - anything not made by a pharmaceutical company in fact.

I went to a meeting last week organised by the journal What Doctors Don't Tell You; representatives of a number of organisations (doctors, herbalists, nutritionists), manufacturers of vitamins, herbs, homeopathic medicines and so on, plus key organisations such as the Institute for Complementary Medicine, all pledged their support for a new body called the Health Freedom Movement.

This will publicise the EU moves and campaign against them.

There are three separate moves in process in Brussels.

The Food

Supplements Directive

This will impose Napoleonic Law on nutritional supplements in the form of a (very restrictive) positive list which will be the only preparations allowed, plus maximum dose levels which are likely to make effective supplementation impossible. So no more vitamin B6, no Evening Primrose Oil, without a prescription from your already overworked GP.

The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive

This will make illegal the use of any herbal product that has not been in use for 30 years - including 15 in the EU. Products such as Gingko Biloba will become unobtainable.

Proposed Amendments to

the Medicines Directive

This will enable the Medicines Control Agency, which regulates all medicines in this country, and comparable bodies elsewhere, to define as a medicinal product, and therefore to regulate the use of, absolutely anything intended to "restore, correct or modify physiological function".

In theory this could include mineral water; it is certainly likely to be extended to homeopathic preparations, such as Bach Flower Rescue Remedy, acupuncture and so forth.

So the MCA, who were defeated over B6 by common sense and public opinion, will get their way after all.

You can - you must - do something about this, if you care at all about your health, not to mention our civil liberties. The HFM will be campaigning, but what will really make the difference is when lots of people write to their MEP and protest, or better still turn up in their surgeries to make their point.

Ask your practitioner, health food store or even manufacturer if they have more information, and look out for the HFM website (coming this month) and for leaflets and updates.

Updated: 08:40 Monday, June 24, 2002