Europe's push towards a single harmonised market that offers information on the benefits of foods is encapsulated in Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR). The NHCR will be the main focus of our contribution. Our contention is that this regulation not only stifles scientific research, limiting it to the relationship between nutrition and health, but also hinders Europe's public health, especially with respect to the intake of micronutrients. We will analyse this with the aid of some aspects of the current state-of-the-art in the nutritional sciences.