George Skouras · 2026
What has actually been proved—and who must answer when health promises exceed the evidence?
This book traces the American vitamins and dietary-supplements marketplace from the controversies of the 1960s to the regulatory settlement of 1994 and its consequences through 2026. It examines how legislative choices, FDA oversight, FTC advertising enforcement, judicial decisions, and commercial incentives shape the distance between promise and proof.
George Skouras distinguishes legitimate supplementation from misleading health promotion and examines the evidence by product, dose, population, and claimed outcome. Enforcement case studies ask what companies promised, what the record established, what remedies followed, and whether consumers recovered their losses.
The concluding chapters develop a forceful framework for corporate and public accountability. The author's proposed Dietary Supplement Truth, Safety, and Corporate Accountability Act combines product visibility, evidence transparency, meaningful consumer recovery, and escalating consequences for proven misconduct, with proportionality and due process. It is proposed legislation, not enacted law.
Inside the book
- Before DSHEA: vitamin controversies, consumer access, political mobilization, and the making of the 1994 settlement.
- The architecture of permission: product categories, health claims, scientific evidence, safety, and FDA authority.
- Selling health and enforcing truth: consumer vulnerability, FTC substantiation, litigation, influencers, and digital promotion.
- Responsibility and reconstruction: executive responsibility, restitution, severe remedies, and model legislation.
Includes a regulatory chronology, legal and enforcement reference tables, model legislative language, and a consumer and researcher verification checklist.
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Paperback: 204 pages · 6 × 9 inches · ISBN 979-8-234-26366-7
Publisher: George Skouras · First published October 10, 2026
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