For instance, here’s some fast facts, displaying the sheer range of perspectives showcased in this event:
- Immunity supplement sales have declined by 7% compared to last year—but the category is still worth $1B on Amazon alone (Market Trends: Shaping the Future of Immunity Supplements)
- Vitamin D is the fastest growing segment on Amazon (Market Trends: Shaping the Future of Immunity Supplements)
- 41% of U.S. adults have vitamin D insufficiency (Vitamin D and Me! Collaboration)
- About 70-80% of immune cells are in the intestine (Postbiotic Immune Activation with IMMUSE LC-Plasma: An Innovative Approach to Immune Health)
- The 10 largest emitting countries—including the U.S., China, India, Russia, and Japan—contribute 68% of greenhouse gas emissions, while the 100 least-emitting countries contribute only 3% of emissions (Climate Change, Pandemics, & Public Health)
- Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could save about a million lives a year worldwide by 2050 through reductions in air pollution alone (Climate Change, Pandemics, & Public Health)
- 60% of the American population has at least one chronic disease; 40% has two or more (Climate Change, Pandemics, & Public Health)
For instance, Bob Quinn, Organic Farmer, Montana Flour & Grains, spoke duringClimate Change, Pandemics, & Public Healthabout the necessity of supporting farmers, and supporting them properly—failure or refusal to pay for good, regenerative, fresh, local food, and instead purchasing cheap, nutrient-poor food, leads to chronic disease later on. He called it “true-cost accounting”: the cost of the food at the check-out counter, versus the cost of the food that doesn’t show up in the price tag, which ranges from chronic illness and chemical pollution to the decline of rural communities and poor wages throughout the supply chain.
Looking at the above numbers regarding chronic disease, Quinn continued: “The CDC says that this lies at the doorstep of our food, the poor nutritional quality of our food. This will sink us, if we don’t course correct now—but it can be done, and I think that the easiest way to do that is through regenerative organic agriculture. It allows farmers to reduce inputs—we control pests and diseases through crop rotation, and we can get our own fertilizer. If farmers are prospering, communities will prosper—if we can keep more local businesses and eat more locally, we can revive rural American heartland. We can also see a great improvement in environment—agriculture is a big component in climate change, because of production of nitrogen fertilizer. And if we look at our health—imagine if we were to eat closer to home, more nutritious food, fresher food. Organic food has better nutrition. If you want to help—buy one thing organic every time you go shopping, even just a little bit, and you will help shift the country. That’s how you can make a dent in this.”
There was also coverage of claims, from Asa Waldstein, Founder & Principal, Supplement Advisory Group, who discussed the most recent info on FDA and FTC’s thinking regarding immune support inCommunicating in-store and online—where are we now?“FDA is going back many years and citing multi-year-old social media posts in warning letters,” he shared. “One cited a social media post from 2014, and they treat those the same way as new posts. Hashtags are also claims. ‘Liking’ a post is a claim. Replying to or reposting a customer comment on social media, that’s a claim. All marketing is considered ‘labeling’.” That includes, he said, product reviews and testimonials; infographics; citing studies; blogs; and more.
Related: Naturally Informed: Building Immune Resilience for a Whole New World #NaturallyInformed: Say Goodbye to Immune Boosting, and Hello to Immune Fitness Naturally Informed Education: Nootropics
There was also an immune system 101 from David Foreman, Pharm.D., in the sessionImmune Health 2 Years into COVID-19: What we have and haven’t learned and where we go from here.He took the time, too, to explain cytokines, products that misrepresented themselves, the difference between stimulating and supportive immune products, how to help customers choose products, and much more, including 10 minutes of audience Q&A.This is just a sampling of the amount of information this Naturally Informed event provided—the event also offered information from Alan Lewis, VP Advocacy & Governmental Affairs, Natural Grocers, on helping customers stay healthy; a fireside chat on business health; massive amounts of data on the immune health market; and so much more. You can register to view it all for free and on-demand atwww.NaturallyInformed.net. And while you’re there, check out the rest of the on-demand sessions from prior years—and save the date: Coming up in May, we’re offering aMicrobiome: Mastering the Marketevent, which you won’t want to miss.
