In mid-April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “urged” the addition of selenium as a required nutrient in infant formulas. Selenium has been known to be an essential nutrient for humans since Dr. J.T. Rotruck et al., discovered in 1973 that it is a component of a key body compound. However, research into the roles of selenium in the body continues to grow. Nearly every week, a new study is published elucidating one or more biochemical pathways in which selenium compounds in the body are vital to human health.

How many times have you felt like standing on a mountaintop and shouting, “Natural supplements are not snake oil and they are regulated!!!”  Well, for all those times of frustration, fate may now be giving you a bit of vindication in an unlikely place: DMAA.

Everyone is talking about the hottest natural products beverage trend that beckons from the fridge with unusual flavors and a funky layer of something floating around inside the bottle. Don’t let that turn you off! It certainly hasn’t stopped anyone else from enjoying it. Kombucha is becoming a hot commodity, with total sales projected to reach $500 million by 2015 (1). So, what exactly is in this trendy drink that has everyone coming back for more? Here, we’ll touch on kombucha’s beginnings, its healthful qualities and its controversial past.

For anyone doing business in California, Proposition 65’s history is well-known by now both within and outside that state. In November 1986, California voters approved ballot Proposition 65 in the belief that its passage would help protect them from toxic chemicals in the environment. Officially entitled the “Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986,” almost everyone these days simply calls it Prop 65.