German court rules that a hangover is an illness

CHEF’S COMMENT:

There’s not enough written on this article, which leaves too many questions unanswered.

That there is an existing ban, in Germany or Frankfurt, on attributing to food products the ability to prevent, treat or heal illnesses to me is misguided.

Of course food is medicine. Without it we’d become sick and die. With it, depending on the quality and type of food, illnesses can be prevented or healed. Pharmaceuticals are not the only medicine.

Germany needs to get out of the Pharma medicine chest and start eating better, healthier foods if they want to be less sick and live longer.

Sure a hangover can be considered an illness, albeit a temporary illness, and alcoholism is now considered a disease because of it’s progressive, deleterious effect on the body, and can be considered a social disease as well, due to it’s progressive, deleterious effect on the family and society as a whole.

At first I was shocked that a hangover is considered an illness, then I wasn’t. Now I’m shocked that food cannot be considered medicine, in fact there is an actual ban on calling food medicine.

Alright, I can see where many manufacturers and sellers of supplements make unfounded claims, such as claiming that just about every supplement on the market can stave off or cure Alzheimer’s disease. Or that the lack of a certain supplement (pick a pill any pill) causes some form or Progressive Cognitive Impairment. A vitamin, a mineral, an enzyme, a hormone, an amino acid and on and on. Miss one and your done. Cover all your bases and you still get the flu, still need surgery, still get mysterious illness, still get  a myriad of illness. So, yes, the sellers make too many false claims. But to say food cannot heal, is just as fraught with false implications.

The article didn’t name the defendant. Or who was making what claims. Doctors order protein drinks and powders for sick people and the sick people get well. How is that food not considered a medicine?

Doctors tell people to stop eating animals and fat to lower their risk for heart disease and related illnesses, and if done as instructed it works, so how is that lack of certain foods and the inclusion of more whole foods not considered as able to heal the body systems?

I’m lost here due to the lack of intel in this article. Don’t take it to press with a few lines, thinking you’ll add to it later. That’s sloppy journalism.

Now I’m left with the thought that Germans aren’t too smart if they think food isn’t medicine. What about herbs? Herbs are food. I eat them.

Oh, but alcohol, a food to some, after all we ingest it, is also called a drug by some, along with coffee. The court states that alcohol is a harmful substance, but alcohol can also be used as a medicine to treat symptoms of an illness, or as an appetite stimulant to get people who don’t feel hungry to eat and get well.

Medicines originate from plants, so if medicines can cure a hangover or if they can make it more bearable – and they can, then plants can do that same.

More facts of the case itself, should have been presented, as well as more facts regarding the ban, instead of simply reporting the results. Again, lazy journalism. How lazy can you go?

I don’t have the time to keep checking back to see if the Associated Press added to the article. Don’t post it till it’s finished. This isn’t Facebook. It’s serious news that needs to be disseminated correctly.

Frankly in Frankfurt, Germany, I think the ban should be revisited and reworked.

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German court rules that a hangover is an illness

AP NEWS

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has ruled that a hangover is an illness, in a verdict against the distributor of a food supplement marketed as an “anti-hangover drink.

”The state court in Frankfurt ruled in a verdict released Monday that marketing by the defendant, which it didn’t identify, violated a ban on attributing to food products the ability to prevent, treat or heal illnesses. It rejected an appeal against a lower court’s similar verdict.

Judges found that an illness should be defined broadly in the interest of protecting people’s health, and said the term encompasses “any, even a slight or temporary, disruption of the body’s normal condition or normal activity,” according to a court statement.

That, they said, includes headaches and other symptoms that result from consuming alcohol, “a harmful substance.”

Source: German court rules that a hangover is an illness

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