James' Bio
As Editor-in-Chief of Better Nutrition magazine, James was part of a small cadre of journalists who helped change the editorial landscape of natural products industry magazines by pioneering science-centered coverage.
James headed up regulatory and scientific affairs for Nutrition 21, where he managed U.S. and global regulatory submissions.
In addition to having served as a U.S. journalist delegate to an Oldways conference on cross-cultural and ancestral foods in Beijing, China, he attended FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius meetings in Paris and Rome as he helped report on and fight for global access to high-quality nutritional ingredients.
The former editor of three medical journals and the co-author of nutritional science papers and chapters, James also served as the Editorial Director of Vitamin Retailer and Nutrition Executive magazines and as the Co-founding Editor of Taste for Life’s Remedies magazine, where, in his monthly editorials, he regularly shined a light on supplement misinformation.
He continues to be a regular writer for Food & Beverage Insider, Natural Practitioner, Nutrition Industry Executive, Nutraceuticals World (the Natural Products Insights column) and Vitamin Retailer magazines.
In addition to the magazines above, James has written (or ghost-written) for such consumer magazines as Alive!, Consumers Digest, Delicious Living!, Let’s Live, Total Health and Vegetarian Times, and for such business and trade magazines as Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Health Products Business, Natural Foods Merchandiser, Natural Products Insider, Nutritional Outlook, Nutrition Business Journal and Whole Foods Magazine.
James has won numerous awards for his writing for Better Nutrition magazine, including several awards from the University School of Journalism/Magazine Association of Georgia (1996–2001), three medical blogging awards in 2010, and the Sacred Fire of Liberty Excellence in Health Journalism Award from the law firm funded by constitutional attorney Jonathan Emnord (Enod and Associates).
He is a Managing Board member of the Natural Health Research Institute (NHRI)—which began as a non-profit arm of the Citizens for Health Education Foundation—and is the President and Senior Policy Advisor of Citizens for Health.
James has provided pro-consumer and pro-supplements testimony or remarks at the local level (NYC Council), U.S. government level (FDA, College Park, Maryland), and international level — at Codex.
He has been an unflagging crusader for both consumers and the responsible core of the supplement industry and has always sought to build bridges between both.
For Citizens for Health, James and Jim Turner together fought successful campaigns to bring awareness to the dangers of water fluoridation, sucralose, aspartame, trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils), high-fructose corn syrup and its labelling, GMOs and more.
Jim, James Turner and Citizens for Health supporters have succeeded in defeating anti-consumer dietician bills and the original anti-supplement version of the FDA’s New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Draft Guidance - which was marked by James and Jim Turner delivering 12,686 Citizens for Health subscriber signed petitions to 11 U.S. congresspeople and the FDA.
His newest health-politics book is Health at Gunpoint: The FDA’s Silent War Against Health Freedom. His five previous books include the User’s Guide to Brain-Boosting Supplements.
James is considered a thought leader and expert in dietary supplements and ingredients, nutritional supplement regulations, and natural products.
