Misinformation on nutrition and health seems more prevalent than evidence-based information.  And it’s becoming more challenging to figure out just who the experts are.

Misinterpreted science, cherry-picked studies, conspiracies, and alluring anecdotes are the tools that many use to sell their stories.  Below you will find some of the more popular people or websites that do not provide evidence-based advice, along with links to articles that explain their lack of credibility or point out the misinformation.

You will often see some of the following in their narratives:

We’ve been lied to . . .

Decades of nutrition research are wrong . . .

I am focusing on the more popular trends/fads, and some of the more persuasive “experts” (often celebrity doctors or journalists) who cite scientific evidence to back up their stories. This is just a start, and a full list of sources with misinformation is beyond the scope of what I can do, but check back because I will be expanding this list.

For a comprehensive and excellent list of purveyors of misinformation, see Michael Hull’s Nutrition Sources You Should Avoid.

Also, here is good information on how anti-science forces spread on social media. The article also mentions popular anti-science websites and individuals who provide pseudoscientific health information that is widely shared.

To help you figure out health & nutrition resources that you CAN trust, please see How to Identify Evidence-Based Health & Nutrition Information

Alejandro Junger

Doctor to celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and author of Clean: A Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself, Alejandro Junger is a big fan of detox diets and a good snake oil salesman. His “Clean” 21-day program will cost you $475 in useless supplements and shakes. He preys on fear and convinces many that they are consuming and surrounded by harmful toxins.

As there is no evidence for any of his treatments, he relies on colorful stories and convincing anecdotes. Junger created Gwyneth Paltrow/goop’s Why Am I So Effing Tired pack: expensive supplements ($90 for a 1-month supply) designed to treat “adrenal fatigue” a condition not recognized by any endocrinology society and a syndrome that experts have confirmed does not exist.

Aseem Malhotra (Pioppi Diet)

Aseem Malhotra is author of the Pioppi Diet, a low-carb high fat diet, that tells the reader they’ve been lied to about saturated fats, that dietary guidelines made us fat and sick, and that carbohydrates are evil.  Angry Chef Anthony Warner has a good interpretation about the absurdity of this narrative:

It’s a bizarre and ahistorical conspiracy theory which, as Anthony Warner says in The Angry Chef would require ‘paying off the medical establishment, the World Health Organisation, numerous charities, public health bodies and nutrition researchers around the world, and keep producing systematic reviews that show links between consumption of saturated fats and increased risk of heart disease.’ The idea that millions of people have been killed by guidelines which (a) were never followed, and (b) clearly discouraged sugar consumption, is one of the strangest memes in the world of nutritional woo.

Malhotra enjoys butter and coconut oil in his coffee (bulletproof coffee) and promotes high intakes of saturated fat.  While it’s one thing to say we need more research on saturated fat, it’s another to promote their intake: there is no evidence showing saturated fat is good for health, and considerable evidence showing saturated fat is associated with heart disease and some cancers.

Malhotra does cite specific studies to back up his story.  But as  journalist Christopher Snowdon explains in his review of the Pioppi diet, it’s easy to cite what you want to suit your story and sell your book . . .

“The reader should not have to look up the references in a book to find out what is being concealed. The nutritional epidemiology literature is enormous. Thousands of studies have been conducted and they do not all agree with one another. If one ignores the totality of the evidence and cherry-picks a handful of studies, it is possible to argue almost anything. If the reader cannot trust the author to play with a straight bat, he might as well save his money and go on a Google binge.”

A recent opinion piece by Malhotra exonerating saturated fat in the British Medical Journal (a journal renowned for it’s pro low carb/high fat stand and opinion pieces masquerading as research) was widely and falsely reported as a new study saying that saturated fat has no role in heart disease.  Many cardiovascular disease experts weighed in, criticizing the BMJ and Malhotra for the cherry picked data and lack of scientific rigor. Among other critics, Professor Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, commented:

“Malhotra and colleagues question saturated fat and suggest the LDL-cholesterol hypothesis is over emphasised.  They could not be more wrong.

“To make their arguments they cite observational data – which is bizarre, since not only are such findings prone to many biases such that the results can often be incorrect, but more importantly plentiful randomised trial data (gold standard evidence) show lowered saturated fats lower cholesterol and risk of heart attacks.  So the evidence to lower saturated fat is robust . . . “

Aviva Romm

Aviva Romm is an integrative physician, midwife, and herbalist. She strongly defends goop doctors and their practices, contributes to the misinformation on the goop website, and like other goop doctors, her advice is not evidence-based.  Her website and Facebook page targets pregnant women, busy (and tired) women, and parents.

She sells her line of herbal supplements, books, and online courses (e.g. Heathiest Kids University – Natural Medicine for Children).  Much of her information uses the appeal to nature logical fallacy, that something “natural” (like herbal remedies) are good for you because they come “from nature.”

Just because a product is “natural” does not mean it is healthful, effective, or safe.

appeal to nature logical fallacy

How much do you need to worry about “Toxins”?

Toxins are prominent in Aviva Romm’s fearmongering.

Romm makes this sweeping statement

“many health conditions that are adversely affecting children today can be traced back to environmental toxin exposure.”

Environmental exposures are important. The field of environmental health trains many public health scientists in a variety of areas to study how environmental exposures influence health.  These experts and their research play an important role in setting guidelines and standards that consider the body of scientific evidence (and not just isolated studies).  Should we be listening to these scientists – environmental epidemiologists, toxicologists, and others – and trust them to protect public health, or rely on individuals like Romm, who often only present one side of the issue, instill fear, and sell products and supplements to help you get rid of “toxins”?

For example, Romm advises women to refuse glucola (a standard sugar drink to screen for diabetes), calling it a “toxic cocktail.” She credits the chemical-fearing Food Babe for alerting her to these toxins. . .

Should pregnant women be worried about glucola? No. Gynecologists Jen Gunter and Amy Tuteur explain that you would be better off fearing toxic advice of people like the Food Babe or Aviva Romm.

Aviva Romm’s Supplements and Products

Dr.  Romm’s website sells books, online courses (e.g., herbal medicine for women, adrenal thyroid pro training), and her online “dispensary” (via Fullscript) offers hundreds of high-priced supplements by category such as “Natural Detox Support” or “Adrenal and Thyroid Support” that include bogus health claims like “replenish adrenals,” “detox” “rejuvenate liver function” and “boost immunity.”

Her website includes many posts and tips (often herbal medications) for preventing and dealing with “adrenal fatigue” – a made-up medical condition that is not recognized by endocrinologists. She has created her own line of women’s herbal products to help “replenish and restore the adrenals and counteract the effects of an overwhelmed stress response system.” The products are adrenal nourish, adrenal soothe, and adrenal uplift, and cost $27.50 for 2 oz. ). There is no rigorous scientific evidence showing that these products will do anything beyond give you false hope and drain your pocketbook.

One of her top recommended herbal supplements for women is curcumin (found in turmeric) – she recommends it for  “leaky gut” (no quality research supports leaky gut syndrome) and “detoxification from environmental chemicals” – a nonsense statement.  Curcumin supplements are a waste of money: a recent comprehensive research review shows that they lack sufficient evidence of efficacy.

READ  Healthy or Hype? Turmeric

Should children use unregulated dietary supplements? Dr. Romm’s website guides you to a “Natural Children’s remedies” section, which has 20 supplements, including “Calm Child” designed to “support calm, focuses attention in children.” Her online course “Super-Charge Your Children’s Health and Immunity with Natural Remedies” lesson material includes “toxins in vaccinations” and a section on herbal medicines.

Aviva Romm claims to be offering the “evidence-based alternatives” that women are desperately seeking.  She masquerades as a trusted source of health information, yet sells dubious herbal treatments for which there is no good evidence.

WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT HERBAL AND DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS
Many people believe that herbal supplements are safer than prescription drugs because they are “natural” and they don’t consider them “drugs.” But, as Steven Novella, academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine, explains,

“herbs and plants that are used for medicinal purposes are drugs – they are as much drugs as any manufactured pharmaceutical. A drug is any chemical or combination of chemicals that has biological activity within the body above and beyond their purely nutritional value. Herbs have little to no nutritional value, but they do contain various chemicals, some with biological activity. Herbs are drugs. The distinction between herbs and pharmaceuticals is therefore a false dichotomy.”

Before a prescription and nonprescription drug is on the market, it undergoes years of research and rigorous testing for safety and efficacy and needs FDA approval to be sold. In contrast, herbal medicines and dietary supplements are not well tested for efficacy or safety (if they are tested at all); also, they are poorly regulated and often make outlandish and unfounded claims. There are many good reasons to be skeptical of the multi billion dollar herbal and dietary supplement industry and individuals selling herbal products.

John Oliver offers an entertaining account of the poor regulation of the dietary supplement industry . . .

Ben Greenfield

Ben Greenfield is  a successful marketing guru of hyped-up health products. But he goes beyond promoting nutrition and  health products and advice that have no robust scientific grounding. . . by many accounts some of his advice could be dangerous if followed. Unfortunately he has a wide influence as author of 13 books, and, according to his website, Greenfield was one of the world’s top 100 most influential people in health & fitness in 2013 and 2014.

He has a popular website, articles, podcast, and coaching business and sells many unfounded expensive dietary supplements and his own “Kion” products.

He is into extreme biohacking (Steven Novella, clinical neurologist and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine,  calls biohacking “a rebranding of the usual self-help pseudoscience“).  Greenfield’s recent “at home” stem cell injections was televised on a Science of Sport Ad by Sportsnet (a Canadian sports network) – a testament to Greenfield’s worrying popularity and appearance as a fitness expert. This caused a furor among sports science experts who called the segment  “disgusting,” “unscientific,” “unsubstantiated,” “dangerous” and “potentially liable.”  Finally Sportsnet removed the Greenfield segment, but it is worrying that the fitness community sees Greenfield as an expert.

He sells a magic “power bracelet” that is better than all the other power bracelets out there because it uses Piezoelectricity to bring your body into a “state of cohesion. ”  At least this snake oil will simply cost the user money, and they may benefit from a placebo effect . . .

Exploiting Illness for Profit. A look at Ben Greenfield’s Cancer Resources is an example of his misinformation and very concerning: topics include “Why You’ve Been Lied to About Cancer and What You Can Do About It” with information from quack Dr. David Minkoff, who promotes bogus cancer treatments including metal detoxification and metal chelation.  Beyond these therapies being expensive and useless for the patient, it is plausible that cancer patients would delay or forgo conventional treatment in favor of this quackery.  And we now have good data showing that cancer patients who seek out alternative and complementary cancer treatments are more likely to refuse conventional cancer treatment, and with a 2-fold greater risk of death compared with patients who had no complementary medicine use.

His podcast guests would all be excellent candidates for this page of “experts” you shouldn’t trust (including anti-vaccine advocates, breatharianism proponents, supplement salespeople, biohacking experts) and I’m sure they are happy to have a platform to promote their pure opportunistic snakeoil.

Here  is a sample podcast title:

Deer Placenta Smoothies, Smearing Colostrum On Your Face, How To Use A Clay Mask & Much More

Ben Greenfield’s site is a cesspool of pseudoscience. He promotes anti-vaccine propaganda, his nutrition ideas are not supported by robust science, his podcast guests are quacks, his advice to cancer patients dangerous, and his biohacking experiments are often ridiculous.

David “Avocado” Wolfe

David Avocado Wolfe VaccineThis pseudoscience peddler has a thing for names – beyond using “avocado” as his middle name (which places him above David Perlmutter on my list), he calls himself “the rock star and Indiana Jones of the superfoods and longevity universe.” If that is not enough to get your pseudoscience spidey senses tingling,  there is plenty more.  His stories and scams  prey on science illiteracy and he makes plenty of money from his followers. For example, he claims that high frequency radio waves are “unnatural” and dangerous (but you can buy expensive pillow cases and sheets at his online store to protect you); and invents food scare tactics so that you can buy his “superfood” supplements; and discourages vaccines and effective cancer treatments in favor of his woo.  He is very good at marketing and draws people in with cute memes – he has a popular facebook page (723K fans)  and at least seven different websites.

David Perlmutter (Grain Brain)

Perlmutter Grain BrainOverview: Grain Brain, along with Wheat Belly, is a popular diet based on the premise that wheat and other grains are responsible for a myriad of health problems.  The books urge readers to eliminate wheat to lose weight and prevent disease.

Problems with Grain Brain: There is no good evidence that wheat causes disease or weight gain, but actually very good evidence that WHOLE grains are health promoting. Some of the claims in these books are borderline ridiculous (Grain Brain links grains to various conditions including depression, autism, tourette’s, and ADHD, while Wheat Belly links wheat to just about any ailment you can imagine). The diets are very low in carbohydrates, so if you’re an athlete you will have a hard time on these diets. Experts at Red Pen reviews extensively evaluated all of the scientific claims in Grain Brain and write:

Although Grain Brain describes itself as “undeniably conclusive” (p. 10), and parts of it are informative and even insightful, most of its key claims are highly speculative. I evaluated three of the book’s central claims and found them to be poorly supported, and in one case potentially dangerous (high blood cholesterol is good for the brain and readers should stop worrying about it). References cited in the book tend to support its claims about uncontroversial topics, but they tend not to support its more unusual claims.   

Dave Asprey – Bulletproof Executive

BulletproofDave Asprey, the bulletproof executive, is an entrepreneur, blogger, and paleo proponent who is good at selling things but doesn’t know much about health or nutrition (but tries to sound sciency by citing cherry picked studies to back up his dubious claims).  His main claim to fame is Bulletproof® coffee, which I wrote about here.  Claims for bulletproof coffee include that it helps burn fat, provides lasting energy, improves focus, helps gain muscle, increases mental acuity, helps digestion, and improves heart health.

But  . . . you need to buy his special  Upgraded™ coffee  that is low in mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are a form of mold found on coffee beans and in greater amounts on many other foods (e.g., raisins, peanuts, beer, wine, pork, corn, sweet potatoes): most mycotoxins on coffee beans are destroyed by roasting, and there is no evidence that low levels are harmful to health.

Bulletproof coffee is not a healthy breakfast: it provides about 460 calories and about 47 g fat (mostly saturated), taking the place of protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins and minerals that are essential for good health. There is no good evidence that a breakfast of coffee with large quantities of saturated fat (butter and oil) delivers any of the laundry list of benefits beyond potential short-term cognitive or long-term health benefits of coffee.

READ  Healthy or Hype? Buttered/Bulletproof Coffee

Why stop at coffee when you can make so much money? Beyond his bulletproof coffee Asprey sells books and a variety of products (supplements, foods, technologies, coaching) claiming to improve health.  And of course, there is the bulletproof diet (a “revolutionary” weight loss plan. . . but works best with his products), described so well by health and science writer Julia Beluz as follows:

“The Bulletproof Diet is like a caricature of a bad fad-diet book. If you took everything that’s wrong with eating in America, put it in a Vitamix, and shaped the result into a book, you’d get the Bulletproof Diet.

The book is filled with dubious claims based on little evidence or cherry picked studies that are taken out of context. The author, Dave Asprey, vilifies healthy foods and suggests part of the way to achieve a “pound a day” weight loss is to buy his expensive, “science-based” Bulletproof products.”

“Biohacking” is another favorite marketing term of Asprey’s, and includes advice as ridiculous (and potentially harmful) as injecting your own urine into yourself to relieve allergy symptoms.

Dwight Lundel

Dwight LundellYou may have seen a viral post “World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease.”  In the post Lundell proclaims that decades of research and guidelines for heart disease prevention are wrong (the “we’ve been lied to” narrative that is so popular . . .) , and the he has the answer in his books “The Cure for Heart Disease” or “The Great Cholesterol Lie.”

Heart disease is complex, as is the science of how different kinds of foods affect our bodies and the role that different kinds of fats play in disease.  The evidence-based to date does not support Lundel’s oversimplified ideas.

Eric Berg

Eric Berg is a popular health and wellness “expert” (actually a chiropractor who has ventured beyond his realm of expertise). He has a website and many videos promoting unscientific health advice, and books including  The 7 Principles of Fat Burning: Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Keep it Off! and Dr. Berg’s Body Shapes Diets.  Some of  his bogus health and wellness treatments have included Body Response Technique, Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique, Contact Reflex Analysis, and testing with an Acoustic Cardiograph. His unsubstantiated claims for his therapeutic treatments have been the subject of disciplinary action by the Virginia Board of Medicine.   Some of his treatments relate to “adrenal fatigue” – a term not recognized by any endocrinology society and a syndrome that experts have confirmed does not exist.

Some of his diet advice is extremely and unnecessarily restrictive (anti-wheat; anti-carbohydrate); he advocates weight loss based on a bogus hormone body type (adrenal, ovary, liver, thyroid); talks about “fat burning” hormones (they don’t exist); and includes a “detox phase” in his diet plan (a term that should raise your quack alarm).

As typical with many of these so-called health experts, his website includes a shop with unproven supplements (e.g. adrenal body type package, estrogen balance kit) that beyond being a complete waste of money, could quite possibly do you more harm than good.

Patient Complaints:

Erin Elizabeth (Health Nut News)

Erin describes herself as Dr. Mercola‘s better half, so this should make you doubt before you trust her advice. Erin’s information and Health Nut News website is well described by Stephanie M. Lee in  this article (excerpt below).

“Erin Elizabeth is a self-described journalist and the creator of Health Nut News, which, at three years old, has over 447,000 followers on Facebook and regularly racks up likes on stories such as “Infant Twins Die Simultaneously After Vaccines, Medical Board Rules ‘Just a Coincidence’” and “Renowned Holistic Doctor Found Stabbed to Death in Her Palo Alto Home.”

She and Adams have found fans in people not unlike them: anti-establishment, self-styled crusaders who value “health freedom” above all and deeply distrust the mainstream.”

Gary Taubes

Taubes Case Against SugarGary Taubes argues that the main cause of obesity is eating too many carbohydrates. He talks about the insulin-carbohydrate hypothesis of obesity as if it is fact. In reality, numerous studies don’t support this hypothesis. Obesity researcher Stephan Guyenet does a nice job explaining the insulin-carbohydrate hypothesis and outlines why you should question this reasoning.

The insulin-carbohydrate hypothesis is an important theme in Taube’s anti-carb campaign and his books “Good Calories/Bad Calories” (you’ll find an excellent critical review here) and “Why We Get Fat.”  Obesity expert Yoni Freedhoff provides an excellent and detailed review of Why We Get Fat.

In his book “The Case Against Sugar” Taubes asserts that removing sugar from our diet will eliminate obesity, diabetes, cancer, and most chronic diseases (if it were only that simple!). Harriet Hall reviews the book here, and Seth Yoder shows how  the book is a rehash of Good Calories/Bad Calories with the theme that dietary guidelines encouraged refined carbohydrates (untrue) and made people fat and sick.  Seth shows Gary Taubes’ cherry picking and misinterpretation of the research here.

More reading:

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow’s pseudoscience reaches far and wide.  Tim Caulfield,  professor of law and health policy at the University of Alberta, has critically debunked many of her practices in his book about celebrity health misinformation  “Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything?”

Habib Sadeghi

Dr. Sadeghi, who has been called Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Quack in Chief,” is another goop doctor who contributes a fair share of fearmongering pseudoscience to the goop website. His misinformation includes a lengthy article resurrecting a myth that underwire bras cause breast cancer. Trying to sound legitimate, he selectively cites what he deems as “research” to support his case.

A common tactic of goop doctors is to foster a distrust in mainstream medicine or research that doesn’t support their ideas.  In rebuking a rigorous trial showing no link between bra wearing and breast cancer by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (a world leading institution in Cancer Research), Sadeghi brings up the ridiculous notion that these researchers may have falsified study results because they have a fundraising fun run called the Bra Dash. Unbelievable, but true.

He has many unfounded tips to reduce cancer risk, including such nonsense such as taking an epsom salt and baking soda bath soon after a flight to remove toxins from the body; and reducing intake of grain products (because of the proteins lectin and gluten)  – there are no studies linking intake of either of these proteins to cancer.

Sadeghi is founder of Be Hive of Healing,  which offers a host of bogus treatments, and a Wellness Store with an overabundance of products and supplements with no convincing evidence to support their use.

If is frightening that Sadeghi advises cancer patients about their treatment, and irresponsible of goop to publish his nonsense.

Lifestyle factors can play a role in some cancers, but goop or Habib Sadeghi are not good resources. You can find evidence-based information on lifestyle tips for cancer prevention at AICR.org.

Joseph Mercola

MercolaSome call Joseph Mercola the “Internet Supplement Salesman.” He tells his audience that his supplements can heal almost any condition.  This dangerous practice exaggerates any harms of evidence-based medical treatments while promoting unproven supplements and therapies.  His website is full of one-sided, often inaccurate, and misleading health advice. Some of his claims include HIV not being the cause of AIDS, microwave ovens emitting dangerous radiation, and sunscreen causing cancer.  His website is one of the most popular health websites on the Internet, suggesting that his pseudoscience has great influence.

Kris Carr

Kris CarrKris Carr is a self-proclaimed cancer-lifestyle guru with a very large following. She is not an oncologist, an expert in nutrition, or a scientist who knows how to interpret research.  All cancers are different and respond to different treatments.  Her advice about diets is not accurate, and she recommends detoxes and cleanses.

For example, she advocates juicing because “alkaline juices help to detoxify your body.  They raise your pH and help pull out old waste from your colon and tissues.”   First of all, detoxing is a myth,  as is the influence of acid or alkaline foods on health.  The environment in which foods are digested is complex, and many scientists question the accuracy of methods used to calculate the acidity of foods (more about alkaline diets here).  She recommends fasting because it “removes stored toxins and excess waste” a statement that makes no sense.

Lifestyle habits and nutrition can certainly play a role in the incidence and survival of some cancers, but Kris Carr is not a good source for this information.  For terrific free science-based information on this topic, visit the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Marika Sboros

This low-carb high-fat evangelist, endorser of a ketogenic diet for health, and vaccine skeptic uses her position as a journalist to promote her erroneous health and nutrition views as science-based to a wide audience. She is also an overly outspoken cheerleader for Tim Noakes. 

Marika Sboros portrays carbohydrates as evil and harmful for health, which is not in line with the body of evidence. I describe much of the controversy and confusion in my article Fats vs Carbs: Clarifying Conspiracies, Controversies, and Confusion, detailed below, which clarifies many of Sboros arguments.

More Reading:

Mark HymanHyman Detox

Mark Hyman’s pseudoscience includes popular detox diets (which also means buying his questionable – and expensive –  detox supplements),  giving health advice that is not backed by the body of scientific evidence, and promoting a bogus autism cure.   He also propagates the false belief  that vaccines are related to autism, and false information about heavy metals. He recommends bogus testing for heavy metals and expensive “chelation” therapy (a test that may be harmful) that he has ordered on “tens of thousands of patients.”

Harriet Hall, MD has a excellent pieced about Mark Hyman and functional medicine that includes the following:

“He sells dietary supplements and detox cleanses. He has said that the law of thermodynamics doesn’t apply in living organisms, and that current medicine is as obsolete as bloodletting or phrenology. He says diseases don’t exist. He is essentially a germ theory denialist, saying it’s the terrain, not the germ.”

“Hyman includes standard advice about a healthy lifestyle, but he mixes it indiscriminately with advice that is based on speculation rather than on credible evidence. And he makes claims that defy belief (curing autism with cod liver oil) and many that are demonstrably not true.”

Hyman is listed on Quackwatch as an author whose books promote misinformation, espouse unscientific theories, and/or contain unsubstantiated advice. He also advises GOOP, and his advice seems to be in line with other GOOP Doctors.

When scientific experts reviewed evidence on fats and cardiovascular disease and it didn’t align with Hyman’s own ideas, he endorsed an article by “RebootedBody.com” promoting the idea that the American Heart Association is a terrorist organization.

Here’s another example of his misinformation (and fear-mongering) from Mark Hyman’s twitter account,  a comment about wheat and sugar that does not make biochemical or nutritional sense.

Mehmet Oz

Mike Adams (Natural News)

Mike Adams (AKA the Health Ranger) is creator of the disturbingly popular website Natural News, a blatantly anti-science website widely criticized by many for health misinformation, anti-vaccine advice, conspiracy theories, and pseudoscientific claims.  The FBI has investigated Mike Adams for supporting the assassination of scientists.  According to Joe Schwarz, one of this latest “ludicrous” claims is a “Nutrition Rescue” program for cancer patients.  This includes his expensive “non-GMO” vitamin C  that can counter “poisoning” by chemotherapy (high dose vitamin C may in fact interfere with chemotherapy).

Thankfully in June 2019, Facebook removed the popular Natural News website (almost 3 million followers).

“You might never have clicked on a Natural News article, but you’ve probably felt its influence. The site is one of the largest brokers of far-right conspiracy theories, including disinformation about vaccines. Natural News has spent the past 10 years moving from relatively innocent claims about the benefits of herbal remedies, to full-blown culture war, with a side business of selling survivalist gear.” Kelly Weill, Daily Beast

Nina Teicholz

Nina Teicholz, author of “The Big Fat Surprise,” is a journalist who believes that nutrition scientists are all ignoring research showing that saturated fat is good for us and she erroneously states that it plays no role in disease.  She cherry picks studies that support her stories and works at great lengths (and stretches of the data) to convince us that the US Dietary Guidelines are the cause of the obesity epidemic.

Here is one of  her many tweets blasting the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. She clearly did not read the study (or even the abstract) and does not understand the study design but uses this an opportunity to misinform readers about the study findings:  

This study is clearly NOT investigating weight loss, but weight-independent cardiometabolic effects: researchers want participants in both arms of the study to maintain weight so if the diet produces health changes they can be attributed to the diet/foods and not to weight loss (weight loss on it’s own leads to improvements in many health markers which can confound study findings). Unfortunately most people will not read the study, which did note that the Dietary Guidelines group showed an improvement in systolic blood pressure, but did not change glucose homeostasis or fasting lipids (note that reduced body fat plays a role in improving glucose and fasting lipids and may explain these results. Also, the study did not include the physical activity Dietary Guideline recommendation, which would influence glucose homeostasis and fasting lipids.

Most evidence-based reviews show that Teicholz lacks the appropriate nutrition expertise to critique studies and put decades of research in context.  Many experts question her credibility and you should too.

Here is a detailed scientific critique that fact checks Teicholz’s Big Fat Surprise text and outlines the many errors and biases (see The Big Fat Surprise: A Critical Review (Part 1; Part 2).

READ  Fats vs Carbs: Clarifying Conspiracies, Controversies, and Confusion

Pete Evans

This celebrity chef is a proponent of the unfounded health benefits of a paleo diet, (which he states can prevent autism). Though this diet isn’t in itself harmful, it excludes many health-promoting foods for reasons that aren’t well-supported by science.  His dietary advice is extreme, he labels many foods as “toxic” and regularly comes out with nutrition “statements” that are plain wrong. His websites and books will tell you not to trust the advice from health professionals, dietitians and public health institutions.  His cookbook for toddlers was widely criticized as being potentially harmful to the health of infants.

Peter D’Adamo (Blood Type Diet)

Peter D’Adamo is a naturopath who has written several books promoting the blood type diet (e.g., Eat Right 4 Your Type). The blood type diet recommends eating based on your blood type — O, A, B, or AB — to help you lose weight, have more energy, and prevent disease. The idea is that you will digest foods more efficiently if you eat foods designed for your blood type (the author claims that the foods you eat react chemically with your blood).

The blood type diet did undergo scientific investigation, but researchers found any health improvements were not linked to blood type.  Micheal Klapter has taken the time to debunk many of the claims made in Eat Right 4 Your Type here.

D’Adamo also makes ridiculous claims that blood type influences personality.

Rocco DiSpirito

You’ll find plenty of misleading health and nutrition advice in ‘Cook Your Butt Off!’ with Chef Rocco DiSpirito, that has been featured of all places on the New York Times health pages. The book boasts the following:

  • lose up to a pound a day (dangerous and doesn’t lead to sustainable changes)
  • fat-burning foods (don’t exist)
  • gluten-free recipes (because they help you lose weight?) They don’t
  • recipes designed to burn more calories than they contain! Sorry.

cook your butt offIn the New York Times video chef DiSpirito explains that we shouldn’t use kitchen appliances and do cooking tasks by hand as a form of exercise to burn more calories (he claims this can burn up to 400 calories an hour – doubtful – unless you’re somehow running around or doing exercises at the same time). I’m all for saving energy, noise, and doing some things by hand, but this doesn’t make sense in terms of diet or nutrition advice. In fact, the reason most people don’t cook is because they don’t have enough time – so it would make more sense to encourage time-saving devices. Also, although health experts are unanimous in encouraging exercise for better health, when it comes to using exercise to burn calories that leads to weight loss there is some debate. It’s disappointing that the New York Times Health Section is promoting such a book.

Steven Gundry

Steven Gundry is a goop contributor,  author of several books overloaded with misinformation on diet and disease, and runs the website gundrymd.com.  If you sign up for his newsletter, you will immediately be presented with an offer for one of his many supplements – Gundry MD Vital Reds, for a discounted $254.70 (for 6 jars, which is what Gundry recommends): and it’s also recommended you buy Dr. Gundry’s book Diet Evolution (to supercharge the benefits of Vital Reds).

According to the website, MD Vital Reds will

“help reduce the fatigue and energy dysfunction which act as warning signs for much more serious health problems. I’ve combined the power of 25 polyphenol-rich superfruits with dozens of natural fat-burning ingredients to help your body maintain higher energy levels and fast metabolism.”

Save your money – there is no good evidence to back up any of these claims.

And Vital Reds is just the beginning!

You can spend a lot more money on unproven supplements at Gundrymd.com.  These include “Lectin Shield” ($75)  – to protect yourself from the “toxic” lectins (proteins in some plant foods), which Lundry states are the #1 biggest danger in the American diet.  Gundry has even written a book about lectins (to convince you that you really do need Lectin Shield).  In The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy foods that Cause Disease and Weight Gain, he claims that lectins are the cause of almost all diseases.  The fact that Dr Oz has endorsed the book is a good clue to the pseudoscience within.

The book promo has the familiar popular line that introduces much pseudoscience . . .

“Is it possible that everything you’ve heard about diet, weight, and nutrition is wrong?“

There is no good evidence showing that lectins cause disease

Avoiding lectins means missing out on many nutritious foods, including whole grains, beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, dairy, eggs, and fruit.  The Atlantic’s James Hamblin has an excellent commentary on the Gundry’s book, including this observation:

“In fact, the book seems to be a sort of culmination of a long-percolating hypothesis about the imminent dangers of lectins. It’s especially common among purveyors of dietary supplements. The story goes: We need nutrients to survive, but many plants makes us sick, so synthetic supplement pills and powders are the prudent approach.  The idea is based in just enough evidence to be seriously convincing in the right hands.”

“…Book publishers are rarely held accountable for publishing invalid health information. Rather, there seems to be an incentive to publish the most outlandish claims that purport to upend everything the reader has ever heard. This is a problem much bigger than any plant protein. Cycles of fad dieting and insidious misinformation undermine both public health and understanding of how science works, giving way to a sense of chaos.”

Other ridiculous health claims by Gundry on the goop website include that eating out-of-season fruit is one of the biggest modern health hazards (because “fruit promotes fat storage”).

READ  Healthy or Hype? Gluten-Free Diets

Gundry also perpetuates myths like the existence of a so-called leaky gut syndrome (and of course recommends his products as a remedy).  According to experts at the Canadian Society of Intestinal Research, no quality research supports the existence of leaky gut syndrome, which they say is “is all speculation, as scientific studies do not validate any of these claims. It is extremely dangerous that a TV doctor personality and some otherwise trusted practitioners are diagnosing and treating this baseless ‘syndrome’.”

These are but a few examples of the vast amount of misinformation that Steven Gundry shares. Your best bet is to ignore everything on his website, books, and writings on the goop website, and definitely don’t buy any of his products.

Emails from Gundrymd.com are pretty good evidence that this “Dr” is little more than a snake-oil salesman . . . too bad so many people fall for this marketing.

Red Pen reviews provides an extensive look at the scientific claims in the book. They write:

The book supports these claims using case studies from the author’s medical practice, and it repeatedly suggests that the program is based on scientific evidence. However, our review suggests that the book’s key claims are poorly supported by scientific evidence, and this is reflected in its very low scientific accuracy score. We were unable to identify even modest evidence that lectins may be a root cause of obesity or any of the chronic diseases mentioned in the book. The diet portion of the program is extremely restrictive and will be quite expensive . . . 

More Reading:

William Davis (Wheat Belly)

Wheat Belly William DavisWheat Belly, like Grain Brain, is based on the premise that wheat and other grains are responsible for a myriad of health problems.  The books urge readers to eliminate wheat to lose weight and prevent disease.

There is no good evidence that wheat causes disease or weight gain, but actually very good evidence that WHOLE grains are health promoting.   Wheat Belly links wheat to just about any ailment you can imagine. If you follow this diet you will exclude many nutritious foods for no reason. The diet is also very low in carbohydrates, which might be a problem if you are an endurance athlete.

Tim Noakes

Many hold sports physiologist Tim Noakes in high esteem after reading his popular books (e.g. Lore of Running). But he is losing respect among scientists: recently he seems to be in the anti-establishment/conspiracy theorist camp, disregarding science (that doesn’t support his opinions).   His claims are extreme, absolutist in nature, and he persuades with anecdotes instead of rigorous science.  He claims that ALL carbohydrate-containing foods harm health (this equates refined sugars and overly processed carbohydrates to vegetables and beans/legumes), and also claims that his LCHF diet will prevent many diseases including diabetes, dementia, and cancer.

Here is are a few examples of the extreme nature of Noakes misleading claims:

 “If you are not eating the carbohydrates you don’t have to worry about developing cancer.”

“If you’re insulin resistant, you do not have to get any disease whatsoever. If you eat a high-fat diet all your life, you will not develop diabetes, you will not get cancer, you will not get dementia. That I can guarantee you”. 

Nutrition science is complex, and there are many paths to healthful eating, including low-carb high fat nutrition: such extreme views show ignorance and his diet recommendations are not backed by scientific consensus.

Tim Noakes Evidence-Based?

He believes that his claims are evidence-based.  While it is beyond the scope of this page to rebuke all of Tim Noakes’ misleading claims, let’s look at the evidence for one of his claims – that a LCHF diet prevents cancer.

A scientific evidence-based opinion needs to consider all the research, and not just those studies that support a viewpoint, and almost never reaches extreme claims like those of Noakes. Although there is research investigating very low carbohydrate diets for cancer prevention, it is important to put the research in context and consider the nuances of the research (type of study, population studied, clinical applications, etc), and look at studies that have reached different conclusions: for example, the a LCHF diet can be low in many foods or food constituents that research as associated with reduced cancer risk (low fiber,  low vegetable) and high in foods associated with increased cancer risk (red meat).  Findings from a thorough unbiased review of the scientific evidence looking at cancer and lifestyle (World Cancer Research Fund Report) does not concur with Noakes. This report is produced by an independent panel of global experts and a comprehensive analysis worldwide body of research available. Cancer is complex, and as such the report is broken down into levels of evidence for a variety of difference cancers.

Here is the World Cancer Research Fund recommendation regarding high-carbohydrate-containing foods for cancer prevention – whole grains, vegetables, fruit, and beans (for context please see the full recommendations in their report/ summarize in the graphic below).

There is strong evidence that eating wholegrains protects against colorectal cancer, and that eating foods containing dietary fibre protects against colorectal cancer and against weight gain, overweight and obesity.

Noakes claims that a proven link between vaccines and autism have been covered up.  Noakes has also stated that we must eat more meat to save the environment,  which is contrary to a robust body of scientific evidence.

Beyond Noakes’ misinformation on food and health, he propagates dangerous health information on his popular Twitter account (>126k followers), as portrayed below endorsing anti-vax propaganda and conspiracy theories from the one of the worst health websites naturalnews.

* Jacques Rousseau, author of Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience: Why We Can’t Trust Our Brains (Springer Publishing 2016) has written many columns on Prof. Tim Noakes, and some of the reasoning used by proponents of the Banting / LCHF diet.  The columns detail Noakes’ “errors of logic, cherry-picking, conspiratorial reasoning, and the absolutist nature of some of the statements made by LCHF proponents, which stand in stark contrast to the evolving and contingent nature of sound scientific propositions.”

Vani Hari (The Food Babe)

Vani Hari (The Food Babe) exaggerates potential harms of “toxic” chemicals in our food.  She loves to use the word “toxin” for any chemicals, and asserts that anyone who disagrees with her must be paid by the food industry.

Websites to Avoid

Yvette d’Entremont (AKA SciBabe) has a good list that will help you steer clear of health websites spouting pseudoscience.

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Updated June 1,  2019

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