It’s Halloween and you know what that means – candy. Lots and lots of candy.

Candy bars, lollipops, that nasty chewing gum that loses its flavor in 10 seconds flat. What other time would you eat a Tootsie Roll?

Working in this industry, doing the job that I do, I am constantly aware of all the bad dietary choices that are spread out in front of me – and my kids for that matter. I consider myself quite vigilant in making sure we eat a healthy, balanced diet – without candy as a food group. But this time of year is the one time of year that I will let my kids go crazy for a night. Halloween is fun and let’s face it – carrot sticks and celery aren’t fun. Getting a pencil or pennies in your pillowcase or your little jack-o-lantern bucket isn’t fun. Admit it. You avoided that house like the plague when you were younger.

This is the one time of year that we get to be a little silly. We get to pretend to be something or someone we’re not. We get to watch the excitement on our kids’ faces when she puts on that Cinderella ball gown and feels like a princess for a night. It’s fun. And I can calm down for this one night. I can allow my kids to be kids and to stuff their faces with candy. No one says I have to let my kids eat all the candy they bring home. They won’t. It will be gone come November 1^st. That’s the rule.

I can also hand out candy to all the little Cinderellas, Spidermen, witches and goblins that come to my house and still feel good about it. Organic lollipops exist – free of artificial flavors and colorings. Organic, fair-trade chocolate exists. Yeah, it’s still candy but at least I can feel good about giving it out…Or I can be that house that hands out pennies.

If candy is what is going to get us out once year to mingle in the neighborhood, to smile for an entire evening, to say hello to people we rarely speak to, then so be it. There are far worse things in this world than a Tootsie Roll.

Since When Does Listerine Fight the Flu?

I was going through my Sunday paper, perusing the weekly ads to compile my grocery list for the week when I came across a particular big-box store’s ad with a feature called “Fight the Flu”. In our world of dietary supplements, we would not dare to use such language, because it’s illegal. The FDA does not allow such claims on a dietary supplement. But I guess it is okay to say that Listerine “fights the flu” and it must be okay to say that Allegra Allergy “fights the flu”, or even a box of tissues. Honestly, the only product on that page that actually “fights the flu” was the Clorox wipes. How can they say that all these products fight the flu when clearly, they do not? Since when does Listerine fight the flu???

As part of the team at Redd Remedies that decides on product claims and the statements included in our supporting literature, I often times find myself frustrated at finding a legal way to communicate what our products do for people’s health. At times, I wish we could just say what science has proven to be true and factual. I find it more frustrating when I see ads or products that claim things that are pretty much not true and at times completely ridiculous.

My frustration stems from the fact that, as an industry, we have rules to follow. Like them or not, they are law and we have to follow them. The more companies out there willing to blatantly ignore DSHEA (the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act, 1994), the more people will falsely believe that we are not a regulated industry. I also don’t appreciate the fact that some of these claims are just predatory and come from a place of greed.

We started Redd to help people get their lives back – back to a place where they are comfortable; where they can function at a normal and healthy level; where they can be happy. We don’t claim to cure. We don’t promise a magic bullet. We respect the laws set in place and will comply and function within them. We have reached 10’s of thousands of people operating in that manner and we will continue to do so.