vani-hari-food-babe-fraudI have Facebook friends who regularly “like” posts by Food Babe Vani Hari.  She has a cult-like following of people who listen to her as she screams bloody murder about all sorts of food.  FoodBabe, known to some as a “food activist,” loves to talk about all the chemicals and toxins in the food we eat. Sounds great, right? We all need to be more aware of what we’re eating!

But it’s not quite so simple. Food Babe (Fraud Babe?) isn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart. This is a business, people.  Paranoia and hysteria bring readers, readers bring revenue. It’s just that simple.

I’m not against anyone making a money, but I think it is important to look at how that money is made and what actually makes the “expert” an expert. More particularly, is someone a blogger who claims to be an expert? Or is someone an actual expert who just happens to blog?

FraudBabe is a self-annointed expert (who as you will see, is no expert at all) who makes money via pay-per-click advertisements (you click on an ad, she gets paid), affiliate links (she makes money when you click and buy), the sale of her “eating guide,” and speaking engagements.

Vani Hari denies that she does the Food Babe thing make money:

Ms. Hari, who left what she said was a lucrative management-consulting job in late 2012 to pursue full-time activism and blogging, responded in an interview that “I’m not doing this to make money.” She added: “This is my life. This is my passion. This is my calling. There is no way I would put myself on the line like I do because of money. This is all about what I’ve learned, and I have to tell everyone.”

But Vani Hari relies on alarmism and pseudo-science (actually, often no science whatsoever) to rally her fans around her negative PR campaigns. Her interest in food activism started with non-science (nonsense?):

Sometimes when she tells her story, she says she suffered from “a serious health crisis.” It actually was appendicitis, in 2002. Although appendicitis is not often linked to nutrition, she decided hers was caused by inflammation she blamed on her diet.

She calls it “a light-bulb moment.” She started reading about organics and changed to a diet free of processed foods. Although she isn’t a vegetarian, she gave up beef and says she only eats organic or locally raised chicken and fish.

The fact is that Food Babe uses bad logic, and she’s often just plain wrong. She promotes the idea that if you can’t spell or pronounce something, you shouldn’t eat it. It was wisely pointed out that the average person can’t pronounce pyridoxine hydrochloride, which is vitamin B6, which is actually very good for adults. Hello!

Food Babe has been referred to as a quack, or in other words, she is to food what Jenny McCarthy is to vaccines. (That’s bad. Very bad.) Look no further than her hysteria surrounding a chemical used in bread baked by Subway, which she claimed is also used in yoga mats. The problem is that she completely mischaracterized how the chemical is used in each, and she completely ignores the fact that there may be more than one perfectly safe use of the same chemical.

Surgeon (yes, a real doctor) David Gorski writes:

Unfortunately, when faced with a young, telegenic, clever but scientifically ignorant blogger who used her popular website and blog to gather a bunch of signatures rooted in the same “yoga mat chemical” ignorance she promotes, Subway caved, even though there is no good evidence that azodicarbonamide is harmful and lots of good evidence that it’s useful as a maturing agent. Basically, when it’s added to flour, it makes bread dough rise better. It also improves the handling properties of dough, making it drier, more cohesive and more pliable, allowing it to hold together better during kneading. No wonder uber-quack Mike Adams is so impressed with her. The two are kindred spirits, given how Mike Adams has been doing, in essence, the same sort of thing with a mass spectrometer, using it to measure heavy metals in various foods and supplements as fodder for fear mongering campaigns to demonize the food industry, not to mention to undercut competitors in the supplement business.

Summarized by the Charlotte Observer:

Dr. William Schaffner, chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University, looked at the post at the Observer’s request and found numerous problems.

“She takes facts that may be technically true, but then she runs with it and goes down roads that are inappropriate and frankly misleading,” he says. “There’s facts there, but then they’re misinterpreted.”

Who do you believe? The Food Babe, a computer engineer who worked for a bank and now has opinions (many of them seemingly devoid of actual scientific proof) on food…. or a neurologist who is a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, who says about Vani Hari and her Subway bread attack:

This is the worst example of pseudoscientific fearmongering I have seen in a while, and that’s saying something.

Vani Hari, a blogger known as “food babe,” has started a petition to get Subway to remove use of the chemical azodicarbonamide from their breads. She writes:

Azodicarbonamide is the same chemical used to make yoga mats, shoe soles, and other rubbery objects. It’s not supposed to be food or even eaten for that matter. And it’s definitely not “fresh”.

This, of course, is utter nonsense – that is, the notion that because a chemical has multiple uses, included in non-food items, that it is not “supposed” to be eaten. Azodicarbonamide (ADA) is used as a blowing agent in the formation of certain rubbers and sealants. It is used, for example, in sealing the tops of baby food containers, but also in the production of certain plastics and rubbers. It is also used as a bleaching agent for bread, giving it a softer and fluffier quality. None of this says anything about it’s safety at the levels used.

He goes on to say: (emphasis mine)

Hari the food babe has created a classic piece of pseudoscientific scaremongering, worthy of dihydrogen monoxide. She has collected a group of factoids that superficially appear scary, but do not relate to the risk of ADA as used in bread. They are designed to mislead and to stoke fears based upon scientific misunderstanding.

She also pulls the common scam of linking to references to support her claims, but not fairly representing what those references actually say.

Unfortunately, it appears that Subway is caving to this petition. I can’t blame them. It’s easy to fearmonger, especially about food, and more difficult to reassure customers with sober scientific facts. They have to think of their business bottom line.

But this essentially means that any blogger can hold any corporation hostage by simply grossly misrepresenting the scientific facts. It is unfortunate – it’s similar to caving into terrorism. I would hope, rather, that the food babe would be exposed for what she is, and that corporations would fight back against these nonsensical attacks.

There was also the computer engineer’s advice against getting the flu shot. The total lack of science behind her advice was destroyed by Dr. Mark Crislip, who said:

She continues, jumping straight into the toxin gambit:

What’s exactly in the Flu Shot? To sum it up – A bunch of toxic chemicals and additives that lead to several types of Cancers and Alzheimer [sic] disease over time

See what I mean. All the components of a sentence but with zero true content, like a diet Coke. As we will see, Food Babe is, somewhat ironically, the aspartame of medical understanding. More the fool me, I thought the flu shot was predominantly proteins derived from the influenza virus grown in eggs or from recombinant technology selected for their ability to elicit protective antibody. And vaccines and their components cause neither cancer nor Alzheimer’s.

[snip]

I admire the way Food Babe can take a complex and nuanced topic and distill it down to an aliquot of pure error. It is a talent rarely seen outside of the Tea Party.

And she has a poor concept of vaccination and immunity and is under the false impression that vaccines are both lifelong and perfect:

Why do I have to get a Flu Shot every year? Aren’t vaccines suppose [sic] to immunize you for life? (Err, no – MC)…And this brings me back to my previous point – if the flu vaccine were truly a vaccine – it wouldn’t wear off. Think about it – Once you get chicken pox as a child, your body develops antibodies to strengthen your immune system from ever getting chicken pox again (Um, reinfections can occur and there is shingles – MC) This is how vaccines are suppose [sic] to work. But the flu shot doesn’t work this way.

Another perfect misunderstanding of reality with every assertion incorrect. Of course doctors do not suggest the flu vaccine because it prevents morbidity and mortality, but because big Pharma makes money from the flu.

[snip]

An almost reality-free discussion of the influenza vaccine is, in a hideous kind of way, a thing of beauty. That people may make decisions based on this fictional account of the flu vaccine flabbers my gaster, any disclaimer notwithstanding. It is a good thing for Food Babe that understanding reality is not a part of being fit to survive, but I sure hope she is never exposed to influenza, especially if pregnant.

More examples of Vani Hari’s fake science were pointed out by nutritionist Colby Vorland: (emphasis mine)

EVEN BEFORE CONSIDERING THE MISREPRESENTATION OF TOXICOLOGY RESEARCH, let’s look at why a simple 10 minute assessment of Hari’s credibility should give pause to any reporter giving her the time of day.

-She has a degree in computer science, not nutrition or anything with a background in learning how to read research: http://clclt.com/charlotte/lust-list-2012/Content?oid=2616360

More importantly, she shows that she lacks the ability to identify credible resources:
-Thinks the flu vaccines is not efficacious and thinks it is toxic http://foodbabe.com/2011/10/04/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/

-Thinks microwaves are a risk because of radiation, destroying nutrients, and changing the structure of water (seriously) http://www.science20.com/cool-links/the_food_babe_took_down_her_goofy_microwave_oven_post_science_win-140892

-Says artificial sweeteners cause cancer, obesity; links to Mercola who is the internet’s worst health source http://foodbabe.com/2013/01/25/coca-colas-low-calorie-beverages-will-kill-you-before-they-solve-obesity/?sb

-Thinks GMOs cause obesity (same link above)

-Includes links throughout to naturalnews.com, the 2nd worst health source on the internet e.g. http://foodbabe.com/2012/04/16/panera-bread-the-healthiest-fast-food/?sb

-She has stated in the media that “When you look at the ingredients, if you can’t spell it or pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t eat it,” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/protesters-target-subway-chemical-sandwich-bread/story?id=22373414 this is of course an absurd rule (can the average person pronounce pyridoxine hydrochloride – vitamin B6?)

There is a common theme in these and all other posts: she picks out an ingredient she thinks is scary, links to poor sources to play up a health risk by misinterpreting toxicology studies (using large doses of anything causes cancer or other health problems at high doses- even natural plant chemicals http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cpdb/MOEtext.html#cram), and doesn’t look to science-based organizations. She often appeals to moms, pitting big companies against their child’s health. Of course, nothing I highlighted is evidence-based: the flu vaccine works and is not toxic, microwaves are safe (and actually increase some nutrients), GMOs are considered safe by all credible science organizations, and artificial sweeteners do not cause cancer. These are some of the most studied topics in health that we have strong answers to, yet she gets them completely wrong. Reporters should recognize this and not lend her the attention they give her!

I’m sure Vani Hari is smart enough to educate herself on food and nutrition, in spite of her degree being in computer science. It just seems that she chooses not to. And for that, some (including me) are of the opinion that she is a fraud.

The companies Vani Hari attacks sometimes give in to her and change their products. Why? Because she creates a public relations nightmare, even when she’s completely wrong. Food Babe has such a large following, many of whom appear to blindly (and wrongly) trust her. So when she stirs the pot, companies sometimes feel like they have no choice but to change in order to appease her.

Why is Food Babe so interested in promoting her nonsense? I submit to you that it is all about the money. And it’s not just the money from advertising, affiliate links, or speaking engagements. No doubt, these are incredibly lucrative. Each time Vani Hari attacks a food company, other companies with allegedly healthier alternatives jump on the bandwagon and throw money into advertising and promotions. Food Babe has a large, captive, lucrative audience:

There’s no doubt that the Food Babe is photogenic and also has a talent and penchant for making her utter ignorance of chemistry and science work for her as a powerful P.R. tool that has catapulted her from an obscure food blogger to a guest on television shows such as The Doctors and that repository of all medical crankery and quackery, The Dr. Oz Show, where The Great and Powerful Oz himself praised her activities as part of the “Oz effect.” Her name is Vani Hari, but she is much better known by her blog name, The Food Babe.

But there is other money to be made in this food fight. Here is where it gets interesting.  On August 20th and August 28th, The Farmer’s Daughter posted articles about Food Babe on her blog. Today, those articles are gone from the blog. But thanks to the miracle of Google Cache (which sometimes doesn’t last for long), we can still see what she had to say about Vani Hari.

The first article, Give Food Babe an Inch, takes Hari to task for harassing companies until they agree to have her do “consulting” for them. Vani Hari denies that Subway paid her to do consulting work. But she was paid by Chick-fil-A for consulting work after she started a negative campaign against the company. And she did not disclose on her website that Chick-fil-A paid her.

It is only fair to question whether other companies have paid Food Babe after she attacked them publicly. I recognize that as a business owner, she doesn’t necessarily owe that information to anyone. However, it would be intellectually dishonest to pretend that it doesn’t matter if her targets pay her off, either as a preventive measure or after she attacks them.

The second article on The Farmer’s Daughter’s blog, Food Babe: Pot, Meet Kettle, was written when The Farmer’s Daughter temporarily removed the first article from the site.  Vani Hari sent her a Facebook message claiming that the first article was “defamatory and inaccurate,” with a demand to remove the article.  What’s funny about that message is that Vani Hari makes wildly inaccurate claims about companies and their products on her blog, but she gets upset when someone might have misstated something about her. (As far as I can see, the only potential problem with the first article is that it seemed to imply Subway paid Hari for her consulting. She says they did not, and the article was clarified.)

Why have both of these articles been removed from The Farmer’s Daughter’s site? I don’t know, and she hasn’t responded to an email I sent this morning inquiring about it. I have to wonder if Food Babe is concerned about her fans learning that at least one company has paid her for “consulting” following a negative splash by her. Right now, the only other evidence of that seems to be buried in an article in the Charlotte Observer and an article in the Chicago Tribune. I suspect more targets of her negative press have paid up, and Vani Hari is hoping we don’t find out about them. (For the lawyers: This is just an educated guess, and I have no evidence. Don’t bother with a cease and desist letter, as my opinions are legally protected by the First Amendment. 🙂 )

42 Comments

  1. sarah 10/02/2014 at 11:44 pm - Reply

    You sound a bit sour grapes that someone is doing something innovative, and potentially helping people and getting paid for it .sad!

  2. Tracy Coenen 10/03/2014 at 7:49 am - Reply

    Sarah – Giving people incorrect information, as Food Babe is, is NOT “helping” them. Further, extorting money from companies does not help anyone either. It is not innovative or helpful to be wrong or be an extortionist.

  3. Florida Farmer 10/03/2014 at 1:13 pm - Reply

    It’s innovative to grift off the backs of people who swallow her pap whole without verifying anything? I hate to tell you this, but that’s been going on for a long, long time. While it is profitable for her, it isn’t very helpful to others.

  4. Food Babe is a Disease 10/15/2014 at 7:32 pm - Reply

    Food Babe needs to be reported to the FTC and FDA for promoting false health and nutrition information to the public. Then she will be shut down. It’s that simple. Related efforts have been started, but we require a concerted effort now. Who will rise to the challenge?

  5. Ken 10/22/2014 at 9:59 pm - Reply

    Sarah, if you believe all her rambling, have you gotten rid of your “dangerous” microwave oven? Have you only purchased foods she recommends from her sponsors? Do you believe 50 grams of sugar in a Starbucks PSL is toxic. While her recommended and sponsored Suja Juice has 180 grams of sugar? She’s a liar and a danger to those blindly following her. Please, think for yourself. It will take less than an hour to be smarter than she will EVER be.

  6. Leah 10/27/2014 at 1:34 pm - Reply

    Ms. Corner, Isn’t azodicarbonamide banned by the EU, Australia and other countries. Your post sounds like a paid post advocating for use of azodicarbonamide. Full disclosure would be helpful for people to understand the extent to which your post is credible. Are you paid for this post directly or indirectly?

  7. Chris 10/28/2014 at 2:12 pm - Reply

    Plenty of her information is valuable, and some isn’t (I’ll keep my microwave for now). Just like information you receive anywhere on a blog, YouTube, or television, it is up to YOU to research it further and make a conclusion. I’ve concluded caramel coloring is bad for me, I’ve concluded artificial dyes are bad, and I’ve concluded that most companies try to hide information from consumers. Don’t whine about about her information, just don’t follow her if you don’t agree!

  8. Tracy Coenen 10/28/2014 at 11:24 pm - Reply

    Chris – It’s not about “agreeing” with Food Babe or not. When she disseminates FALSE INFORMATION (which she does quite regularly), that is a huge problem. And that problem doesn’t get solved by simply looking the other way.

  9. Tracy Coenen 10/28/2014 at 11:27 pm - Reply

    Leah – Who is Ms. Corner, and why would you think she got paid for this post directly or indirectly?

  10. […] and let live”, believes in the advancement of science and technology and rejects quacks like Food Babe, looks at the world as it is and not the way we want to see it, and strives for knowledge and make […]

  11. PM4 11/16/2014 at 6:53 pm - Reply

    Just as a heads up, your opinions are not protected by the First Amendment. You are protected against the government from coming after you, but not from a private party suing you.

    That being said, props on the article.

  12. […] of the reasons it’s still scurrying around in Food Babe’s swimming pool of gold coins, however, has to do with how food affects the pH of our […]

  13. Bee Carrol 12/04/2014 at 4:13 pm - Reply

    You are obviously being paid by the food industry to trash her. Nice try, but I think we’re all a little too smart to fall for your tricks.

  14. Tracy Coenen 12/04/2014 at 8:25 pm - Reply

    Bee – You’re being sarcastic, right? I would LOVE it if I was being paid to trash this moron. But no, I proudly shine a light on her shenanigans for free.

  15. Jason L 12/08/2014 at 8:57 am - Reply

    First I’ll say, I am not a very loyal person….if I feel my doctor is charging too much for a service, I would change doctors. Sure, Vani probably doesn’t have the scientific backing to support her claims and I don’t agree with some of her logic, but I look at it this way, the FDA approves tons of chemicals in our food that other countries have banned. She may also be making a pretty penny off of her “fear mongering”, but come on, who would take up that much time and effort for free? Also, maybe I completely stopped eating Subway after the food babe’s post, but I really should have stopped and questioned why I was eating gray roast beef. She is a catalyst to inspire a healthy life style, or at least reminding us that we should know what is in our food. The best quote on the subject of food that I ever heard, and it didn’t come from Vani, goes something like this “do you know what they called organic food in the 1950’s?…they called it food” That rings so true, why do we need to add all of the chemicals? If making food last longer and taste better is the only reason, we need to evaluate what food is to us. It is our means of sustainable life, it doesn’t have to be thoroughly enjoyed….that’s probably why we have the most obese country in the world.

  16. Tracy Coenen 12/08/2014 at 8:40 pm - Reply

    Jason – I think you’re missing the point. No one would have a problem with Vani making money if she was doing so with the truth, and in a way that seem to exhibit integrity on her part. The problem is that she is spreading misinformation (yes, lies) and making money by doing so. That is immoral.

  17. Green Girl 12/21/2014 at 4:54 am - Reply

    I used to respect her blog. I agree with her in the sense that we shouldn’t eat ‘chemicals’ and I generally look for organic produce, which doesn’t allow GMOs. I believe in just eating whole, real food that doesn’t come from a lab. It is so simple, that I don’t understand why she needs to dedicate her existence to promoting packaged food that is void of nutrients, even if organic and GMO project verified.

    I went to one of her affiliate links and I only looked at 2 products and found the ingredients included one that she is so passionate about disclosing as cancer causing. I mean, really?

    My other issue with her is that she keeps saying that she is ‘changing the world’ and compares herself to Gandhi. However, I don’t think she will eat a Subway sandwich, even if they remove the ‘yoga mat chemical’. She eats whole foods and a lot of veggies. My issue with activists is that if you are going to uncover specific corporations to make a ‘change’, then support that change as a consumer. If not, then just don’t buy from them! So simple.

    Lastly, she is a big yoga fan. If she is looking out for people’s health, then she shouldn’t buy the yoga mat because the people who manufacture them is exposed to this chemical! I mean, I do yoga with no mat and no special clothes.

    I’m sorry, as much as I agree with her ‘mission’, I think she is a sell out!

  18. […] Insolence, Chow Babe, Science Babe, Kevin Folta, Kavin Senapathy, Science Based Medicine, Sequence Inc, Minnesota Farm Living, Forbes, Ian Chadwick, Steven Novella and Mark […]

  19. […] Insolence, Chow Babe, Science Babe, Kevin Folta, Kavin Senapathy, Science Based Medicine, Sequence Inc, Minnesota Farm Living, Forbes, Ian Chadwick, Steven Novella and Mark […]

  20. […] few months ago, I wrote here about “Food Babe,” the persona invented by Vani Hari. She is a pretend expert on food, blogging about supposedly […]

  21. deedeerivers 02/02/2015 at 9:10 pm - Reply

    These people are crazy. I’m so ashamed of being American sometimes. It’s like they hit us with a scientific stupid stick.

    ARG.

  22. Gary D 02/14/2015 at 6:09 am - Reply

    Look for the good in what she is doing because all this negative energy you’re promoting in this blog is bad for your health and well being.

  23. Tracy Coenen 02/15/2015 at 7:28 pm - Reply

    I don’t think that this article is negative at all. Exposing the TRUTH is very positive. There is very little good about Food Babe, and I am happy to be able to help educate the general public about her nonsense.

  24. Liz 02/21/2015 at 7:09 am - Reply

    I’d rather not eat chemicals found in yoga mats. Just sayin. And most doctors went through ZERO nutrition classes to get their degrees. Of course they’d promote science and chemicals. This articles a joke. Keep eating those yoga mats, you mutant. I’ll stick to whole foods and ingredients that I can pronounce. Oh and for you to compare food babe to Jenny McCarthy is really lame.

  25. Tracy Coenen 02/22/2015 at 9:57 am - Reply

    Yeah, the whole “chemicals in yoga mats” is an ignorant scare tactic. Plenty of ingredients that are perfectly safe to consumer are found in all sorts of non-food products. It doesn’t matter that something is “used to make yoga mats.” It matters if the ingredient is is safe for us in the manner in which it is used. in this case, the ingredient is perfectly safe. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-reinagel-ms-ldn-cns/azodicarbonamide-subway_b_4770189.html

  26. Joe Smoe 03/10/2015 at 4:51 am - Reply

    Well you eat GMO and are FAT and Vani eats health organic and is in great shape. Vani is HOT and you ain’t ! !

  27. Bob Nord 03/12/2015 at 12:24 am - Reply

    Food babe is an idiot. A hot idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

  28. Meagan 03/15/2015 at 11:31 pm - Reply

    Food babe is an idiot for pushing products containing ingredients she staunchly opposes (which has happened numerous times). This author is an idiot for believing ANYTHING our government (FDA) says (no one with a brain can truly believe GMO foods are safe). And Joe Smoe is just plain ignorant.

  29. […] http://www.scibabe.com/foodbabeway/ (I HIGHLY recommend this entire blog, not just this post! She’s sassy and knows her stuff: “Yvette holds a B.A. in theatre, a B.S. in chemistry, and an MSc in forensic science with a concentration in biological criminalistics.“) http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2014/09/is-food-babe-a-fraud/ […]

  30. Christoph Dollis 04/20/2015 at 8:51 pm - Reply

    How fat are you?

    Not in pounds, but in percent body fat?

  31. Tracy Coenen 04/21/2015 at 7:36 am - Reply

    Christoph – Who are you asking?

  32. […] right away. But trying to engage her online will only get you banned from her social media spaces. Facts can be so confusing. Let’s not go there, […]

  33. Bob Ronson 04/24/2015 at 6:29 pm - Reply

    Many people, especially fatties, are too lazy and scared to have an actual conversation about what is in the bs food they eat.

    Instead they attack anyone raising awareness about chemicals that are banned for human consumption in dozens of other countries across the world while patting themselves on the back. It’s easier for mouth breathing fatties to not ask a lot of questions and just trust the Fraud and Death Administration, no matter how awful their track record is. Trans-fats were perfectly safe according to the FDA until recently.

    The underlying message in this tripe is that Subway is fine. Subway is not fine and anyone who classifies it as food not only has no taste but endangers their own health.

    The idea that someone needs to be a scientist or doctor to have an opinion about something as intuitive and natural food is absurd.

    Enjoy your GMO’s! Make sure to give kids 56 shots issued by the most awful companies in the world! Make sure you call anyone who disagrees an idiot and shame them for not being a “scientist.”

    All hail science! It’s obviously perfect in every way ever time and no special interest groups ever control the outcomes of their studies!

  34. Tracy Coenen 04/25/2015 at 1:12 pm - Reply

    You don’t have to be a scientist to have an opinion, but if you promote falsehoods (as Vani does), then you ought to expect someone to call you out on that.

    What are these chemicals that are banned for consumption in other countries.

    Trans-fats aren’t dangerous, they just ought not be consumed in large quantities. Yes, Subway is fine. They serve bread, meat, cheese, and vegetables for the most part. There is nothing dangerous about what they serve.

    Yes, sciences rules any day over Foodbabe’s false information and fear-mongering based on her incorrect “facts”.

  35. Audra 05/27/2015 at 3:38 pm - Reply

    If you don’t think the food in our grocery stores and restaurants needs to be “cleaned up,” then I’m not sure what planet you are living on. That said, however, I appreciate your views on the Food Babe. I always like to hear the other side of any story, investigate the facts, and make my own conclusions. Interesting read.

  36. Amy 07/14/2015 at 10:18 pm - Reply

    Tracy,
    You are seriously not informed about food. Maybe you should stick to blogging and investigating things you know about. You don’t think the food at Subway is bad???? Seriously. Nitrates in the meats for one thing. Processed cheese, msg in the dressings, sauces etc. And you keep saying the latin name for B6, really? Where do you EVER see that labeled. It’s always labeled B6. Your point is weak. Don’t even get me started on the flu shot. Waste of money and almost everyone I I know that gets it gets the flu. It’s last years virus. The virus mutates too fast for them to give you a shot of the current virus. I don’t know much about foodbabe but if she gets people thinking about what is in their food then good for her. You on the other hand want people to just keep eating the crap the FDA says is ok so they can develop diabetes, Parkinson’s, etc from the artificial sweetners that can kill. The rise in obesity is directly correlated with the “junk” put in our food. In the 80’s they stared adding bromelain to our bread. It has an effect on the thyroid blocking iodine which contributes to hypothyroidism. So knowing what goes in your food is a really good thing.

  37. Tracy Coenen 07/15/2015 at 9:26 am - Reply

    Amy – Nitrates in meat are harmless. If you consumed a ton of it, it might be harmful, but the small amounts in meat are good because they kill dangerous bacteria. Basically, you can get a simple sandwich at Subway, including bread meat and a bunch of fresh vegetables… and that’s pretty good for you. Just about everything you’ve noted in your comment is from the mouths of conspiracy theorists. But here’s the bottom line: Food Babe is so wrong so much of the time that it is foolish to ever listen to her.

  38. Rachel 07/25/2015 at 4:18 pm - Reply

    I love how the comments turned from agreeing or disagreeing with you into a stream of people accusing you of being fat. Comments sections never cease to be entertaining.

    As far as the ingredients found in yoga mats, I really don’t understand what makes that a big issue. I would understand if I was buying bread and one of the ingredients was actually made from recycled yoga mats. That would certainly be alarming. But if, for example, beet juice were used to dye yoga mats, does that now mean that beets are poisonous? Or is beet juice still ok solely because the name is easy to spell and pronounce? It’s such a stretch of logic.

  39. Lynn 08/07/2015 at 10:02 pm - Reply

    It’s no stretch of logic. GMO Beets are dangerous TO EAT because of the excessive pesticides and altered genes that keep it from dying when “Round-up” (the sanitized word for “agent orange” type of chemicals) is sprayed on it. Common sense would indicate that the color in a rubberized mat wouldn’t hurt you because you don’t eat it.

    As for the author, just because you are a forensic accountant that focuses on fraud, tax evasion & divorce etc, and you only “make a small amount of money off this blog” doesn’t give you the right to call Vani a liar and it certainly doesn’t make you an expert on dangerous food additives at all! Someone who researches other well known doctors and other experts and gets their info out on the web because the big media outlets and tenured professors (some of whom support Monsanto) shun them, doesn’t count in your book. You and many others would rather blindly believe what the powerful money interests peddle in furthering their Big Biz at the expense of people’s health.

    Re GMOs, their lobbyists are even trying to pass FEDERAL laws RIGHT NOW TO PROHIBIT Americans from knowing what they’re eating. WHY??? The natural conclusion is because Monsanto and their cohorts have something to hide. Whether or not you think your food is safe, we all have a right to know how it’s grown or processed. This should be a wake-up call to everyone!! Vani may not do or say everything perfectly – no one gets it all right. And she may make a living like doctors and scientist do who sell their books and info, but to quote some professors “OPINIONS” who are dissecting all her words like lawyers so they can try to discredit her work (because they refuse to study the other professionals she quotes), is equally appalling and misleading.

  40. Tracy Coenen 08/08/2015 at 5:59 am - Reply

    Lynn – Your ignorance is stunning. Do you have any idea what makes a vegetable a GMO? Obviously not, because you think it has to do with pesticides.

    I didn’t call Vani “a liar,” but I absolutely do have “the right” to call her that if that is my opinion. The Constitution gives us all “the right.”

    You need to read a little more about the GMO situation you cite. The proposed law is NOT to “prohibit Americans from knowing what they’re eating.” It’s not prohibiting anything. What the law is doing is NOT FORCING food manufacturers to disclose GM ingredients. Any manufacturer who wants to disclose that is free to do so. And here is where it is really easy: If labeling foods regarding GMOs is important to you, then you should only by foods that have those types of labels. Easy enough!

  41. RUSS 08/28/2015 at 8:36 am - Reply

    Spot on assessment of the Food Boob.

    @ Lynn… see the hypocrisy in your post?

    You call it the author on her credentials and yet you defend the Food Boob who has NO TRAINING in nutrition!
    She has a degree in computer science!

  42. M 11/16/2015 at 6:59 pm - Reply

    She really said that the flu shot should work for life like the chicken pox vaccine? Really? You sure and she spread this to her followers? What an idiot! She should apologize to the public. One vaccine for all the different strains of influenza? Nevermind the changes in the hemaglutinin protein due to evolution. A change in structure is correlated to changes in functional properties-and that includes immunogenicity properties.

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