Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Naturally Fresh Deodorant

Naturally Fresh

In her article “Throw This Out of Your Bathroom Cabinet Immediately”,¹ Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) slams modern deodorants because they contain aluminum.

In “Flu Vaccine: The Aluminum Lining“,² I talked a lot about how aluminum (the most common metal in the earth’s crust) is an unavoidable part of our diets and is processed normally by the bodies of healthy people, so I won’t go into that again.  Please see the references in that article if you’d like more information on the safety of aluminum.  I’d like to concentrate on deodorants here.

One of the alternative products Hari recommends is Naturally Fresh Crystal Roll-On Deodorant (Fragrance Free).  She says this is the best deodorant she’s tried.  Vani likes it so much she’s encoded her Amazon.com affiliate ID in a link so that when you buy a bottle, she earns a commission:

Let’s take a look at the ingredients of Naturally Fresh, according to the manufacturer’s page on Amazon.com:³

Hmm… Ammonium alum and potassium alum.  Keeping in mind Vani’s hatred of all leading deodorants because they contain aluminum, let’s look more closely these two ingredients:

“Ammonium alum”, (NH₄)Al(SO₄)₂·12H₂O,⁴  is better known as Aluminum ammonium disulfate dodecahydrate, and looks like this:

“Ammonium alum”–Aluminum ammonium disulfate dodecahydrate.  (Click to enlarge.)

Do you see the enormous hypocrisy in Food Babe’s article?  I highlighted it for you in yellow.

“Al” is the symbol for aluminum.

Let that sink in for a moment.  Vani Hari has written an article telling you to throw out all the deodorants in your bathroom because they contain supposed Alzheimer’s-inducing aluminum, and then she’s turned around and referred you to a web site that sells you aluminum-containing deodorant.  And she earns a commission when you buy it.

The only significant difference between the aluminum in the deodorants that Food Babe hates and the aluminum in Naturally Fresh is that Vani Hari earns a commission when you buy the latter.  (We could get into a discussion on how the aluminum is bound, but that’s out of scope.  Remember, Hari’s flawed argument is that the mere presence of aluminum means you’re in danger of cancer and Alzheimer’s.  Read her article if you don’t believe me.)

The other ingredient in Naturally Fresh, “Potassium alum”, is better known as “Aluminum potassium sulfate,” KAl(SO₄)₂.⁵   Yes, you guessed it, there’s that pesky aluminum again:

“Potassium alum” — Potassium aluminum sulfate.  (Click to enlarge.)

Ironically, one of Food Babe’s fellow pseudoscientists, Dr. Mercola, warns against using natural deodorants that contain alum.⁶   Food Babe often quotes Dr. Mercola, so to see her peddling Naturally Fresh while he’s warning it can kill you is amusing.

Conclusion
So Vani Hari…

1. Scares you to death with false information about aluminum
2. Tells you your deodorants contain aluminum (throw’em out!)
3. Points you to an alternative deodorant that contains aluminum
4. Earns a sales commission on the alternative deodorant

Ka-ching!

As I pointed out in the introduction, what Hari doesn’t tell you is that the bodies of healthy humans process aluminum without any problems.  It’s the most common metal in the earth’s crust and an unavoidable part of our diets.  Foods near and dear to The Babe’s heart–such as spinach^7,8–are rich in aluminum.  If you’re interested in details, with references, you might want to check out my article “Flu Vaccine: The Aluminum Lining.“²

It’s no wonder that out of all the alternative deodorants Vani’s tried, Naturally Fresh works the best.  It’s the only one that definitely contains aluminum!  Buyers should be wary of the other three deodorants she recommends, because of a cryptic legal disclaimer to the effect that the materials you receive may be different than the packaging.

But, unless you’re suffering from a problem such as kidney disease where aluminum can’t be removed from your body efficiently, there’s really nothing wrong with Naturally Fresh deodorant.  I encourage you to buy it–or any other leading brand containing aluminum.  Just please don’t buy by clicking on a link from a Food Babe web page.

You May Also Be Interested In
Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Ava Anderson Mascara
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/food-babe-pushing-dangerous-items-ava-anderson-mascara/

Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Tarte Blush
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/food-babe-selling-dangerous-items-tarte-blush/

Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Shampoo
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/food-babe-pushing-dangerous-items-honeysuckle-shampoo/

Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Naturally Fresh Deodorant
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/food-babe-pushing-dangerous-items-naturally-fresh-deodorant

Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Physician’s Formula Organic Wear
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/food-babe-pushing-dangerous-items-physicians-formula-organic-wear/

The Food Babe Ban List
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/the-food-babe-ban-list/

References
Please note: To prevent increasing search engine exposure for objectionable web sites, I use the DoNotLink service to obfuscate their URLs.  I promise you are not being redirected to porn.

(1) Food Babe: Throw this out of your bathroom cabinet immediately
http://www.donotlink.com/cbka

(2) Flu Vaccine: The Aluminum Lining
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/flu-vaccine-the-aluminum-lining/

(3) Naturally Fresh on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005P0WRLU

(4) PubChem: Compound Summary CID 62668: Aluminum ammonium disulfate dodecahydrate (Ammonium Alum)
http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/62668?from=summary#section=Top

(5) PubChem: Compound Summary CID 24856: Aluminum potassium sulfate (Potassium Alum)
http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/24856#section=Top

(6) Mercola: Stop Using “Natural” Deodorants Until You Read This
http://www.donotlink.com/d1eq

(7) Food Babe: Spinach Recipe
http://www.donotlink.com/d1fi

(8) World Health Organization: Aluminum in Drinking Water
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/en/aluminium.pdf

Image Credits
Ammonium Alum from PubChem, http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/62668?from=summary#section=Top.  Used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

Potassium Alum from PubChem, http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/24856#section=Top.  Used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

Amazon.com product screen snapshots are used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

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Food Babe Pushing “Dangerous” Items: Honeysuckle Shampoo

Author’s note (07 Aug 2016): When this article was written 18 months ago, the shampoo being reviewed did not contain honeysuckle. A snapshot of the ingredients at that time can be found in the body of the text. The product has since been reformulated to contain honeysuckle oil. You can find the new ingredients here.

Is it fair to randomly pick one ingredient from a product label, Google it, and scream bloody murder if you come up with something that sounds dangerous?  Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) seems to think so.

Turnabout is fair play, so I’ve read approximately 100 articles published by The Babe and selected some products and foods that she recommends.  I’m going to give these items the same treatment.  The first item is a doozy, linked to kidney disease and cancer, lacking a claimed main ingredient, and chock full of a chemical Vani Hari despises.  And–<gasp!>–there may be hidden GMOs!

Phone the kids and wake the neighbors…

 

Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Shampoo
It won’t surprise people familiar with Hari that she earns a sales commission from most of the items she’s hawking.  Such is the case with Aubrey Organics Hair Care Honeysuckle Shampoo.  She’s in love with this shampoo, as you can see in the following blog post snippet.¹  Note the encoded Amazon.com affiliate link² in the lower left corner. This makes Vani’s cash register go “ka-ching!” if you buy the shampoo:

Food Babe loves “Honeysuckle” shampoo (Click to enlarge.)

 

So let’s put on our Food Babe Detective Hats and scan the ingredients list for this shampoo³ and see if we can find anything dangerous:

Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Shampoo ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

Whoa!  Didn’t have to go far!  Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) is a traditional herb linked to liver damage^4,5 and cancer.⁶  Doctors warn against the use of coltsfoot for any purpose.  Chemists say that coltsfoot contains substances known as pyrrolizidine alkalloids that can be toxic to the liver.  An infant who was regularly fed coltsfoot tea by his parents developed severe health problems that only went away when the tea was withdrawn.⁴  Another developed liver damage and died after its mother drank coltsfoot tea during pregnancy.⁴

In a 1976 study, 67% of rats fed high doses of Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) developed cancer, as opposed to 10% on low doses.⁶   If you use statistics the way Food Babe does, then you’re looking at a likely carcinogen.

Food Babe should have read the label on this one before shilling for the manufacturer.  I suppose it would cut down on your affiliate commissions if people thought your products were linked to liver damage and cancer.

 

The Dagger
One scholarly resource⁴ hints that horticulturists may have bred a variant of Tussilago farfara with little or no levels of pyrrolizidine alkalloids.  It would, of course, be horrifying to Food Babe⁹ if this type of coltsfoot appeared in her shampoo because we are straying into the territory of genetic engineering now.

We could dig a little deeper and query Aubrey Organics about the source of the corn sugar and soy protein listed in their ingredients.  Corn and soy are two major GMO products in the United States and it’s hard to find non-GMO sources for those crops.¹⁰  But we’ll leave that for another day.

Anyway, Vani: whether you tinker with the genome of an organism in a test tube, by selective breeding, or any other means, you’re essentially doing the same thing.  One method just gets you there faster.  If your coltsfoot isn’t toxic, it’s genetically engineered.

You choose, Vani.

Nice hair.

It Gets Even Worse
Having Hari down on the mat for a ten count, I could stop here–but it’s not in my nature.

Remember how Food Babe viciously attacked Starbucks for using artificial pumpkin flavoring instead of real pumpkin?⁸

 

Let’s look at the ingredients in this “honeysuckle” shampoo again (click the image below to enlarge it):

“Honeysuckle” (wink wink-nudge nudge) shampoo ingredients    (Click to enlarge.)

There’s no honeysuckle (Lonicera caprifolium) in this shampoo!!!

Yes, that’s right–Food Babe doesn’t hesitate to warn us about products that use artificial ingredients, then turns around and recommends a honeysuckle shampoo that uses artificial ingredients to produce a honeysuckle scent.  Hey, call in the lady from the Wendy’s commercial:

 

Let’s Beat a Dead Horse
Playing by Food Babe rules, we’ve already got a cancer-causing, liver-damaging, fake-ingredient shampoo.  Suppose we removed the toxicTussilago farfara and added some real honeysuckle.  Would the shampoo then pass Vani Hari quality control?

Well, sadly: no.

In her New Year’s “Sugar Archives” article, Vani tells us we must avoid all products containing glucose:⁷

 

Oh dear.  This may be tedious, but it’s back to that ingredients list again…  Click to enlarge:

Ouch.  Glucose appears three times.  But according to Vani, we’re supposed to avoid glucose!!!

In the 100+ Food Babe articles I read, the woman displays an appalling lack of knowledge of chemistry, so I can forgive her for not knowing glucoside is derived from glucose.  But if she’d read the product labeling, the other two glucose occurrences are spelled out for her.

So what’s going on here?  Does she not read the labels on what she’s selling?  Or do best sellers get a free pass even if she reads the label and finds problem ingredients?  You cannot possibly miss the issues with this shampoo’s ingredients list!

 

Conclusion
By Food Babe standards, this product fails in three ways:

1. It contains an ingredient linked to liver damage and cancer
2. It contains artificial ingredients instead of the advertised natural one (honeysuckle)
3. It contains “banned” ingredients (glucose, possible GMO corn and soy)

But, in closing, I’ll tell you what Food Babe won’t tell you about this shampoo, or any of the items she slanders:

Honestly, the only danger with this shampoo seems to come from drinking it.  Doctors say coltsfoot is toxic when ingested, not when used in your hair (though one paper I read does say to stay away from the stuff).  Glucose is not a problem unless, for example, you’re a diabetic–Food Babe is just scientifically illiterate when it comes to processed foods, and that’s why she objects to the sweetener.  And there’s no difference in the safety of GMO foods and non-GMO foods.  Food Babe just doesn’t understand the engineering process.

Finally, there is nothing at all wrong with mixing a bunch of non-honeysuckle chemicals together to obtain a honeysuckle scent.  That’s what Aubrey Organics appears to have done.  If you judged them by Food Babe standards, they would fail.

Please don’t judge Aubrey Organics by Food Babe standards.  Buy from them.  But please don’t buy from them using a Food Babe link.

 

Image Credits
Screen snapshots of Food Babe and Amazon.com web pages are used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

“Where’s the Beef?” parody image used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

 

References
(1) Food Babe: Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Shampoo
http://www.donotlink.com/d15w

(2)  Laughing All the Way to the Bank (Part 1)
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2014/12/14/food-babe-laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank-part-1/

(3) Amazon.Com: Aubrey Organics “Honeysuckle” Shampoo
http://www.amazon.com/Honeysuckle-Rose-Moisturizing-Shampoo-11oz/dp/B0006GZAKI

(4) NYU Langorne: Coltsfoot
http://www.med.nyu.edu/content?ChunkIID=104668

(5) Reversible hepatic veno-occlusive disease in an infant after consumption of pyrrolizidine-containing herbal tea
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7720737

(6) FDA Poisonous Plant Database (Coltsfoot)
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/plantox/detail.cfm?id=12511

(7) Food Babe: Sugar Archives
http://www.donotlink.com/d16h

(8) Food Babe: Artificial Pumpkin Flavor
http://www.donotlink.com/bckg

(9) Food Babe: Anti-GMO
http://www.donotlink.com/d17i

(10) Adoption of Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us/recent-trends-in-ge-adoption.aspx

The Food Babe Ban List

This list is meant to serve as a companion guide to the articles I’ve written exposing the tactics of Vani Hari (aka the Food Babe).  It’s a list of over 610 products, vendors, and brand names that Hari’s targeted so far.  When you misrepresent the “dangers” of a product, then recommend an alternative for which you receive a sales commission–there’s a problem…

In addition to this list, you may also be interested in knowing that many of the products sold by Food Babe have the very same ingredients she says are dangerous.  For example, she sells a full line of products containing the same dyes over which she lambasts Weight Watchers, Kraft, and McDonald’s.  She’s sold BHT for nearly 3 years, all the while harassing Kellogg’s and General Mills over the same (safe) additive.  The Babe doesn’t like agave nectar, but she’s happy to sell you a full range of foods sweetened with–you guessed it–agave nectar.  And don’t even get me started on cellulose. A special series on Food Babe’s hypocrisy can be found here.

Without further ado then, here’s the Food Babe Ban List:

A
A1 Steak Sauce
Acetylated Monoglycerides
Activa
AeroMed Oral Glucose
Airport food (almost all)
Allegro (tea)
Alexia
Alka Seltzer
All-Bran
Almay
Almond Dream
Almond Joy
Alpen Gold (Kraft)
Alta Dena (butter)
Aminosweet
AMP Energy (Pepsico)
Amy & Brian
Anchor Butter
Andes
Anheuser-Busch
Annie Chun’s
Apple Cinnamon Cheerios
Aquafresh
Aquafina
Arby’s
Arnold Baker Light 100% Whole Wheat Bread
Arrowhead Mills
Artificial coloring (any product containing)
Artificial flavoring (any product containing)
Aspartame
Athenos Hummus
Atkin’s (protein shakes)
Avon
Aveeno
Azodicarbonamide (a safe bread ingredient)

B
Baby Formula (most, containing safe GMO corn syrup)
Bac’n Bits
Back to Nature
Baker’s
Baking powder (non-GMO)
Banana Boat
Barbara’s Bakery
Barley malt (any product containing)
BASF (Prop 37)
Bayer (Prop 37)
Beet sugar (any product containing)
Ben & Jerry’s (Prop 37)
Benevia
Berkely Farms
Betty Crocker
Bimbo
Big Gulp (7-11)
Bigelow
Birthday Cakes (all from supermarkets)
Blue No. 1 (food dye)
Blue Bonnet
Blue Diamond Almond Breeze
Bolthouse Farms
Bobby Brown
Boca
Bread (almost all packaged bread)
Bright Beginning Baby Formula
Brisk
Brown sugar (any product containing)
Bubble Yum
Budweiser
Bull’s Eye
Bullfrog
Bumble Bee
Bunge (Prop 37)
Burger King
Butterball
Buttered syrup (any product containing)
Butterfinger

c
C20
Cafe Collection
California Pizza Kitchen
Campbell’s Soup
Canderel
Canola (rapeseed, non-GMO)
Canola seed oil (non-GMO)
Capri Sun
Caramel
Carob syrup
Cargill
Carnation
Carrots, non-organic
Cascadian Farm (Prop 37)
Castoreum flavoring (do you eat beaver butt?)
Celestial Seasonings
Cellulose (non-GMO)
Cereal (GMO)
Cetaphil Facial Cleanser
C. H. Guenther & Son (Prop 37)
Chanel
Charles Shaw Wine (2 Buck Chuck)
Cheerios
Cheese (all conventional American cows’)
Cheetos
Cheez-It
Cheez Whiz
Chewing gum
Chick-Fil-A
Chipotle
Chocolate Cheerios
Cici’s Pizza
Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Citric Acid (non-GMO)
Cobalamin (Vitamin B12, non-GMO)
Coco Hydro
Coco Libre
Coco Pops
CocoZona
Coffee Mate
Coke (Coca-Cola)
Colgate
Colorose (non-GMO)
Con Agra Foods
Condensed Milk (non-GMO)
Confectioners Sugar (non-GMO)
Coppertone
Corn, all, in restaurants (non-GMO)
Corn Flour (non-GMO)
Corn Masa (non-GMO)
Corn Meal (non-GMO)
Corn Nuts
Corn Oil (non-GMO)
Corn Starch
Corn Sugar (non-GMO)
Corn Syrup (any product containing)
Corn Syrup, High Fructose
Corn Tortillas (non-GMO)
Corona
Cosmetics from drug stores
Costco (cakes, microwave popcorn)
Cottonseed oil, all, in restaurants (non-GMO)
Country Crock Butter
Country Time
Cover Girl
Cracklin’ Oat Brand
Crest
Crisco Canola Oil
Crisco Natural Cooking Oil
Crop Life (Prop 37)
Crystal Light
Crunch Nut (Kellogg)
Crush Soda
CVS Sunscreen
Cyclodextrin (non-GMO)
Cystein (non-GMO)

D
Dairy (all conventional American cow’s milk and cheese)
Danimals (yogurt)
Dannon
Dare
Dasani (Coca Cola)
Dean Foods
Del Monte
Deodorants (all aluminum-containing)
Designer Whey
Dextran/Dextrin [sic] (any product containing)
Dextrose, all (I kid you not–see the Stevia article)
Diacetyl (non-GMO)
Diastase (any product containing)
Diastatic malt (any product containing)
Diet Coke
Diet Mountain Dew
Diet Pepsi
Diet Soft Drinks
Diglycerides (non-GMO)
Dimethylpolysiloxane (ingredient)
Dole
Double Gulp (7-11)
Domino’s
Doritos
Dow
Dream Whip
Dreyer’s Ice Cream
Dr. Praegar’s
Dr. Pepper
Duncan Hines
Dunkin Donuts
DuPont

E
E951 (sweetener, U.K. & Europe)
Earth’s Best (baby formula)
EAS Myoplex
Edible Arrangements
Eggs (all, from fast food restaurants)
Eggo
Elizabeth Arden
Enfamil
Ensure
Equal
Equal Spoonful
Erythritol (non-GMO)
Estee Lauder
Ethyl maltol (any product containing)
Evian (Coca Cola)

F
Fair Life
Famous Amos (Kellogg)
Fanta
Fantastic World Foods
Fiber One
Five Alive
Flu Shots (very dangerous to skip this one!)
Food and Drug Administration, U.S. (FDA approved ingredients)
Food Starch (non-GMO)
Fosters
Franklin Farms
French’s
French Meadow
Fresh Market (cakes)
Frito Lay
Frosted Mini Wheats
Froot Loops
Fructose (any product containing)
Fruit, from concentrate
Fruit By The Foot
Fruit Gushers
Fruit Rollups
Funnel cakes
Fuze

G
Gardein
Garden of Eatin’
Garelick
Gardenburger
Gatorade
General Food International (General Foods)
General Mills
Gerber
Gevalia
Ghiradelli’s
Ginger Ale
Girl Scout Cookies
Glucose (any product containing)
Glutamate (non-GMO)
Glutamic Acid (non-GMO)
Gluten (for non-celiac disease sufferers, a safe protein found in wheat, barley, and rye)
Glycerides (non-GMO)
Glycerines (non-GMO)
GMO Foods (inc. corn, soy, cotton, canola)
Godiva Chocolates
Gogurt
Gold Medal
Good Earth
Good Morenings
Good Seasons
Golden Grahams
Goya
Gravy Master
Great Value
Grey Poupon
Groupe Danone
Guiness
Gummy bears

H
Haagen Daz
Hain-Celestial
Hall’s Cough Drops
Hamburger Helper
Handi Snacks
Haribo (gummy bear manufacturer)
Harris Teeter Cakes
Harvest Bay
Hawaiian Tropic Sunscreen
Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Hellman’s
Hello Kitty popsicles
Hemicellulose (non-GMO)
Hemp Milk
Herbalife
Herbal Essence Shampoo
Hero (Prop 37)
Hershey’s
HFCS-90 (ingredient, High fructose corn syrup)
Hickory Farms
Hidden Valley Ranch (salad dressing)
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Honest Kids
Honest Tea
Honey Graham Oh’s
Honey Nut Cheerios
Hope in a Jar
Horizon Organic
Hormel
Hot Pockets
Hot Tamales (candy)
Hummus (prepackaged)
Hungry Jack
Hydrogenated Starch (non-GMO)
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (non-GMO)

I
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!
Icehouse
Idahoan (Prop 37)
Inositol (non-GMO)
Inventure Foods (Prop 37)
Inverse Syrup (non-GMO)
Inversol (non-GMO)
Invert sugar (any food containing)
Isoflavones (non-GMO)
Isogen
Izze (Pepsico)

J
Jack in the Box
Jason’s Deli Ice Cream
Jason’s Deli Dressings
Jason’s Deli Meats
Jason’s Deli Muffins
Jason’s Deli Soups
Jell-o
Jenni O’s
Jett Puffed
Jiffy
Joe’s O’s
Jolly Time
Juice, Fruit (nearly all processed)
Just Juice

K
Kashi
Kellog’s
Kerrygold
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
Kix
Kleenex
Knouse Foods
Kool-Aid
Kraft (not just Mac & Cheese!)
Krispy Kreme
Kroger (poultry)
Krusteaz
Kudos

L
La Banderita
Lactic Acid (non-GMO)
Lactose (any food containing)
Lakewood
Lancome
Land O’Lakes
Laughing Cow
Lavera
Lay’s Potato Chips
Lean Cuisine
Lecithin (non-GMO)
Lehigh Valley
Leucine (non-GMO)
Life Cereal
Lifesavers
LightLife
Lipton
Little Caesars
Living Harvest
L’Oreal
Lucky Charms
Lunchables
Lysine (non-GMO)

M
M&M/Mars
Malic acid (non-GMO)
Malitol (any product containing)
Malt (non-GMO)
Malt Extract (non-GMO)
Malt syrup (any product containing)
Maltodextrin (any product containing)
Maltose (any product containing)
Mannitol (any product containing)
Martin’s Potato Rolls
Maseca Corn Flour
Maxwell House
Maybelline
Mazola Corn Plus
Mazola Vegetable Plus
McCormick Seasonings, Spices, etc.
McDonald’s
Meat (ALL conventional, non-organic)
Menchies Frozen Yogurt
Mellow Mushroom Pizza
Methylcellulose (non-GMO)
Mexican Restaurants (most–I’m not kidding)
Michelob
MicroZap Inc.
Microwave ovens, all (watch out for those Hitler crystals! 😉
Mighty Leaf (tea)
Milani
Milk (all American non-organic, pasteurized)
Milk (condensed, non-GMO)
Milk Powder (non-GMO)
MillerCoors
Millers
Milo Starch (non-GMO)
Mineral Fusion
Minute Maid
Miracle Whip
Miss Vickie’s (Pepsico)
Mission White Corn Tortillas
MMR Vaccine
Modified Food Starch (non-GMO)
Modified Starch (non-GMO)
Moe’s Southwest Grill
Monoglycerides (non-GMO)
Monsanto
Monster
Morning Star
Morton Salt
Morton’s Seasonings
Mott’s
Mrs. Dash
Mrs. Fields
Mucinex
MUG Root Beer
Muir Glen (Prop 37)
Munkijo
Multi Grain Cheerios
Muscle Milk

N
Nabisco
Naked Juice
Nanoparticles (ingredient, especially yogurt)
Nature Valley
Neosugar (ingredient)
Nesquik milk
Nestle (virtually all products)
Neutrogena
Newcastle
Newman’s Own (popcorn)
Nice! Oats & Honey
Nilla (Kraft)
Nulaid
Nutrasweet
Nutri-Grain (Kellogg)
Nutter Butter
NyQuil

O
Ocean Spray
Odwalla
Old El Paso
Oleic Acid (non-GMO)
O.N.E Coconut Water
Open Pit
Orangina
Orbit (gum)
Oreos
Organic Valley (butter)
Ortega
Orville Redenbacher
Oscar Mayer
Oxybenzone (sunscreen component)

P
Pabst
Pace
Pacific Foods aka Pacific Natural Foods
Panera
Papa Johns
Papa Murphy’s
Papayas, all from Hawaii
Parent’s Choice Organic (baby formula)
Parkay
PB2
Pediasure (via “Moms Across America/Glyphosate article)
Pears from concentrate
Peñafiel
PepsiCo
Pepperidge Farm
Pepsi
Phenylalanine (non-GMO)
Philadelphia
Phosphoric acid (ingredient)
Phytic Acid (non-GMO)
Pickles and Relish (any that contain food dye)
Pillsbury
Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt
Pinnacle Foods
Pirate Booty
Pizza Hut
Planters
POM
Pop Secret
Popcorn (microwave)
Popsicle brand popsicles
Pop Tarts
Potassium sorbate (ingredient)
Powerade
Powerbar
Power Crunch
Prego
Pringles
Promise Me (Susan G. Komen perfume)
Propel
Protein Isolate (non-GMO)
Pure Protein
Pure Via
Purity

Q
Quaker

R
Rapeseed (aka canola, non-GMO)
Raw sugar (any product containing)
Red No. 40 (food dye)
Red Mango Frozen Yogurt
Reddi Egg
Reese’s
Refiner’s syrup (any product containing)
Reilly Food Company
Republic of Tea
Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A, found in sunscreens and lotions)
Revlon
Rich’s Products
Richelieu Foods (Prop 37)
Rice Krispies
Rimmel
Rite-Aid Sunscreen
Ritz
Robitussin
Rolling Rock
Round Table Pizza
Russell Stover
R.W. Knudsen (Prop 37)

S
Sabra Hummus
Saccharine
Safeway (poultry, Prop 37)
Salad dressings (most, with “GMO oils”)
Salmon (farmed)
Salsarita’s
Sandwich Thins
Sanka
Santa Cruz Organic
Sara Lee
Sausages (with nitrates)
Sea Pak
Seattle’s Best Coffee (Pepsico)
Shakeology
Shock Top
Shoyu (non-GMO)
Silk & Horizon
Silk Soy Milk
Similac
Simply Light
Simply Orange
Slim Fast
Smartwater (Coca Cola)
Smart Balance (butter)
Smart Ones
Smithfield (Prop 37)
Smjor
Smucker’s
Snickers
Snyder’s of Hanover
So Delicious
SoBe (Pepsico)
Sodium benzoate (ingredient)
Sodium citrate (non-GMO)
Soft Drinks (almost all)
Solae (Prop 37)
Sorbitol (any product containing)
Soy, all in restaurants (non-GMO)
SoyBoy
Soybean Oil (any product containing)
Soy Flour (non-GMO)
Soy Isolates (non-GMO)
Soy Lechitin (non-GMO)
Soy Milk (non-GMO)
Soy Oil (non-GMO)
Soy Protein (non-GMO)
Soy Protein Isolate (non-GMO)
Soy Sauce (non-GMO)
Special K
SPF greater than 50 in sunscreens
Spices (Virtually all sold in the U.S.A.)
Sprite
Smart Balance Cooking Oil
Sorghum syrup (any product containing)
Sour Patch Kids
Spectrum Organic
Spice of Life
Squirt Soda
Starburst
Starch (non-GMO)
Starkist Tuna
StarLite Cuisine
Stearic Acid (non-GMO)
Stella Artois
Stevia, manufactured (see article)
Stewart’s (Soda)
Stove Top
Subway
Sucralose
Sucrose (any product containing)
Sugar (unless specified as non-GMO cane sugar)
Sugar, raw
Sugar, yellow
Sulfites (ingredient, vegetable preservative)
Sun Chips
Sun Drop
Sunny Delight
Sunscreens, all spray   (also see specific brand names)
Sunscreens, all powder  (also see specific brand names)
Sunscreens, CVS brand
Sunscreens, Rite-Aid brand
Sunscreens, Walgreens brand
Sunkist Soda
Super Big Gulp (7-11)
Susan G. Komen Foundation
Swanson Chicken Broth
Syngenta (Prop 37)

T
Tab
Taco Bell
Tamari (non-GMO)
Tang
Tapatio
Tassimo
Tazo (tea)
TCBY Yogurt
Teavana
Tea Forte
Tempeh (non-GMO)
Teriyaki Marinades (non-GMO)
Tetly
Textured Vegetable Protein (non-GMO)
Think Thin
Thomas’ 100% Whole Wheat English Muffins
Threonine (non-GMO)
Toblerone
Tocopherols (Vitamin E, non-GMO)
Toffuti
Tofu (non-GMO)
Tootsie Rolls
Tostitos
Town House
Trader Joe’s
Trehalose (non-GMO)
Triaminic
Trical (Prop 37)
Trident Gum
Triglyceride (non-GMO)
Triscuit
Trix
Tropicana
TruMoo (Dean Foods)
Truvia
Tuna, canned
Turbinado sugar (any product containing)
Tuscan
Twinings of London (tea)
Twist
Twizzlers

U
Udi’s Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread
Uncle Ben’s
Unilever (Prop 37)
Uno Chicago Grill
Utz All Natural

V
V8
Vaccines (most)
Vega
Vegetable Fat (non-GMO)
Vegetable Oil (non-GMO)
Veggie burgers (non-organic)
Velveeta
Vermont Organics (baby formula)
Vie de France
Vita Coco
Vitamin A (Retinyl Palmitate, found in sunscreens and lotions)
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin, non-GMO)
Vitamin E (Tocopherol, non-GMO)
VitaminEnergy (Coca Cola)
Vitamin Water Zero
Vlasic (pickles)

W
Walgreen’s sunscreen
Walmart (I kid you not!  They’re selling GMO products!)
Welch’s
Wendy’s
Wesson Oil
Wheat Thins
Whey (non-GMO)
Whey Powder (non-GMO)
While Lily Flour
Whitewave Foods
Whole Foods (Even she doesn’t understand her do’s and don’ts–see her article!)
Whole Foods Organic Baby Formula
Wholesome Sweeteners
Wrigley’s Gum

X
Xanthan Gum (non-GMO)
Xochitl

Y
Yellow No. 5 (food dye)
Yellow Squash
Yellow sugar (any product containing)
YoCrunch (yogurt)
Yoforia Frozen Yogurt
Yogurt Mountain
Yoplait
Yuban
Yves Veggie Cuisine

Z
Zicam Cherry Cold Remedy
Zico Coconut Water
Zucchini

References
Please note: to avoid increasing search engine exposure for quack web sites, I use the DoNotLink service to obfuscate URLs. I promise you are not being redirected to porn 😉

Food Babe: Processed To Death (Cooking Oils)
http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/04/cooking-oils/

Food Babe: GMO Ingredients A-Z Reference
http://foodbabe.com/possible-gmo-ingredients-a-z/

Food Babe: GMO Ingredients in General Mills Foods
http://foodbabe.com/2014/09/17/general-mills-or-generally-toxic-after-you-see-this-product-i-know-which-one-youll-choose/

Food Babe: “Recipe for a Heart Attack”
http://foodbabe.com/2011/05/26/food-lion-speed-street-krispy-kreme/

Food Babe: Why aren’t you making your own hummus?
http://foodbabe.com/2011/05/18/homemade-hummus/

Food Babe: Artificial Dyes
http://foodbabe.com/tag/artificial-colors/

Food Babe: Read the Ingredients List
http://foodbabe.com/2015/01/06/read-ingredient-lists/

Food Babe Avoid These When Eating Out
http://foodbabe.com/2012/09/02/how-to-avoid-genetically-modified-ingredients-when-you-eat-out/

Food Babe: Olive Oil Archives
http://foodbabe.com/tag/olive-oil/

Food Babe: Sugar Archives
http://foodbabe.com/tag/sugar/

Food Babe: Dead Animal Parts in V8, Prego, Swanson, Campbell’s
http://foodbabe.com/2014/08/05/there-might-be-dead-animal-parts-in-your-v8-homemade-v8-juice/

Food Babe Heinz
http://www.donotlink.com/cxry

Food Babe: “Carrots soaked in chlorine”
http://www.donotlink.com/cxwa

Food Babe Microwave Ovens
http://www.donotlink.com/cxsd

Food Babe Beauty Products
http://www.donotlink.com/cxvy

Food Babe “GMO” Candy
http://www.donotlink.com/cxrx

Food Babe Cetaphil
http://www.donotlink.com/cxrq

Food Babe Oreos
http://www.donotlink.com/cxry

Food Babe: Parabens
http://www.donotlink.com/cl9t

Food Babe Mrs. Dash
http://www.donotlink.com/cxrt

Food Babe: Companies Fighting Prop 37
http://www.donotlink.com/cxsb

Food Babe Susan G. Komen & Other Cancer Organizations
http://www.donotlink.com/cxr4

Food Babe Flu Shot Nonsense
http://www.donotlink.com/eTg

Food Babe Kleenex
http://www.donotlink.com/cxpg

Food Babe Truvia, Stevia
http://www.donotlink.com/cxw0

Food Babe Sunscreens
http://www.donotlink.com/p-x

Food Babe “Just Say No” to Candy
http://www.donotlink.com/cxr3

Food Babe Fair Life
http://www.donotlink.com/cxqt

Food Babe Salmon
http://www.donotlink.com/cxph

Food Babe Chocolates
http://www.donotlink.com/caem

Food Babe Whole Foods (She’s really confused on this one!)
http://www.donotlink.com/cxpi

Food Babe Peanut Butter
http://www.donotlink.com/bc6k

Food Babe Toothpastes
http://www.donotlink.com/cxql

For Babe Birthday Cake
http://www.donotlink.com/cxpj

Food Babe Thanksgiving Scrooge
http://www.donotlink.com/b99

Food Babe Protein Shakes
http://www.donotlink.com/cxc5

Food Babe Spices
http://www.donotlink.com/cxc2

Food Babe Banned Holiday Gifts
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbt

Food Babe “GMO Wheat”
http://www.donotlink.com/cwrs

Food Babe Milk, Dairy Products
http://www.donotlink.com/cakd

Food Babe Baby Formula
http://www.donotlink.com/bg3w

Food Babe Non-Organic Meat
http://www.donotlink.com/cws3

Food Babe Double Standard
http://www.donotlink.com/bufs

Food Babe Ractopamine
http://www.donotlink.com/cecg

Food Babe Trader Joes
http://www.donotlink.com/b3jj

Food Babe Beer
http://www.donotlink.com/bv8
http://www.donotlink.com/cl9s

Food Babe Chewing Gum
http://www.donotlink.com/cwc5

Food Babe Snacks/GMOs
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbb

Food Babe Burgers
http://www.donotlink.com/l8X

Food Babe Silly Putty
http://www.donotlink.com/bQe

Food Babe Microwave Popcorn
http://www.donotlink.com/bro4

Food Babe Deodorants
http://www.donotlink.com/cbka

Food Babe How to Ruin Oatmeal
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbd

Food Babe Coconut Water
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbe

Food Babe Juices
http://www.donotlink.com/clol

Food Babe Natural Flavors
http://www.donotlink.com/c0r4

Food Babe General Mills
http://www.donotlink.com/bny7

Food Babe Soft Drinks
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbg

Food Babe “Toxic” drink
http://www.donotlink.com/ljL

Foodbabe Scare Tactics
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbh

Food Babe Mexican Pizza
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbi

Food Babe Pizza
http://www.donotlink.com/gAN

Food Babe Jello
http://www.donotlink.com/iZX

Food Babe Medicine Misinformation
http://www.donotlink.com/bfvc

Food Babe GMO Natural Products
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbj

Food Babe Pepperidge Farm
http://www.donotlink.com/cxbk

Food Babe Cereal
http://foodbabe.com/2013/10/16/how-this-very-popular-cereal-is-exploiting-americans-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Food Babe GMO Archives
http://foodbabe.com/tag/gmo/

Food Babe Butter
http://foodbabe.com/2014/01/20/is-butter-secretly-ruining-your-health/

Food Babe Jason’s Deli
http://foodbabe.com/2013/04/23/jasons-deli-whats-healthy-whats-not/

Food Babe Bread
http://foodbabe.com/2014/02/24/healthiest-bread-on-the-market/

Food Babe Never Buy!
http://foodbabe.com/2014/10/21/10-grocery-store-items-you-should-never-buy-again/

Food Babe Tea
http://foodbabe.com/2013/08/21/do-you-know-whats-really-in-your-tea/

Food Babe Frozen Yogurt
http://foodbabe.com/2011/05/07/fro-yo-craze-is-just-well-crazy/

Food Babe: Laughing All the Way to the Bank (Part 1)

It’s no secret that Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) makes money from pushing certain products on her web site.  Also common knowledge is the fact she uses scare tactics to frighten people away from safe and nutritious products in order to drive them toward those from which she’ll earn sales commissions.

What may be slipping through the cracks is just how pervasive this process is, especially now that the Babe is encrypting her product affiliation information before presenting it on her web site.

Let’s look at her recent article, “Do You Know What’s Really in Your Tea?”¹  In a future article I’ll examine the hypocrisy in Hari’s recommending tea at all, since it contains one of the highest concentrations of aluminum in all food,² and she falsely claims aluminum is toxic.³  If you’d like a primer on the safety of ingesting aluminum, check out my article here.  But for now let’s concentrate on how Hari hides her relationship with Amazon customers.  In her article,  after countless paragraphs of lies and misinformation on the dangers of just about every tea in the world, we come to this:

You can bet your arse she recommends looking at this chart!  We’re about to find out why.  This nice graphic tells us that “Numi”, “Rishi”, and “Traditional Medicinals” are, apparently, the safest drinks around.  No check marks for these three!

Then, here comes the confirmation–conveniently linked to Amazon.com for purposes of placing orders are these same three teas:

But where’s the Vani Hari connection?  If you hover your mouse pointer over the linked product names and look carefully at your web browser, all you see is what looks like an innocent Amazon URL (“Uniform Resource Locator”… the way web pages are found on the Internet):

“amzn.to/16LydJk”… no apparent ties to Food Babe here, right?

Wrong.  Let’s look at the “page source”… the hypertext markup language (HTML) behind the web page.  You can click on the image to enlarge it:

Source of the web page “Do You Know What’s In Your Tea?”, with Amazon.com shortened URLs highlighted.

“amzn.to” is a shortened URL used with bit.ly’s “Pro” service.⁴  “bit.ly” refers to Bitly, a web service company that makes long URLs shorter and easier to read.  When you click on a bit.ly link you’re directed to a Bitly-powered server.  That server translates the shortened link into something longer, then sends you along your merry way to the intended destination–in this case, Amazon.com.  Looks innocent so far, right?

The tie-in to Food Babe comes with the “16LydJk” portion of “amzn.to/16LydJk”.  This innocent-looking 7 character code is an encrypted version of a link to an Amazon.com web product page.  That encrypted link also contains a Food Babe affiliate ID.  This is how Amazon knows that Vani Hari referred you to their web site.  When you buy, her cash register goes “ka-ching!”

You may not realize this when you land on Amazon’s web page.  Just look at the following screen shot.  The Food Babe referral isn’t obvious even though it isn’t encrypted anymore:

… but let’s copy that entire URL (highlighted, above) to the clipboard and take a closer look at it:

See the text “tag=foodbab-20” tacked on at the very end of the decrypted URL, where it couldn’t be seen in the browser’s address bar?

Ka-ching!

So, when Food Babe builds a web page, she encodes her own affiliate ID along with the Amazon product link.  If you’d like to see how that’s done, the entire Amazon affiliate encryption process is simply and elegantly described in this LinkTrackr tutorial.⁵

Vani Hari… the woman knows no shame.  She’s even trying to make a commission on cookware (you can see the stainless steel and glass tea strainer affiliate links encoded in the page markup I showed earlier):

As an exercise, try visiting a Food Babe page and hovering over all the links you find.  You’ll be amazed how many products she’s selling.  After warning her scientifically challenged army of followers about non-existent dangers in foods, she gets them running to Amazon like lambs to the slaughter checkout counter.

 

 

Image Credits
Screen snapshots of Food Babe and Amazon.com web pages are used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

 

References
Please note: to avoid assisting with search engine exposure for quack web sites, I use the DoNotLink URL obfuscator on certain links.  I promise you are not being redirected to porn 🙂

(1) Original Food Babe tea scare article
http://www.donotlink.com/cF7

(2) World Health Organization: Aluminum in Water and Food
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/en/aluminium.pdf

(3) Food Babe on Aluminum
http://www.donotlink.com/cbka

(4) “Amazon Goes Pro with bit.ly”
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/amazon-goes-pro-with-bit-ly/

(5) LinkTrackr Amazon affiliate coding tutorial
http://www.linktrackr.com/blog/amazon-affiliate-link/

Debunking the Synthetic Insulin Myth (Part I)

You would think someone with “MD” after her name would know better than to fall for quack medical articles.  Still, I could forgive Kelly Brogan, “Holistic Psychiatrist”, for her mistake in linking “Insulin Can Kill Diabetics; Natural Substances Heal Them”¹ on her Facebook page,² if only she had apologized for her mistake when it was pointed out to her.

Instead, Brogan plows mindlessly on, erasing critical posts, banning users who debunk her, and going on to spread more misinformation like, for example, the HIV virus not being responsible for AIDS,⁶ and claiming that we need viruses more than vaccines.²

Confirming a lie instead of debunking it–NOT what a doctor should be doing. See footnotes for image credit.

In a future article, I’ll debunk the myth that synthetic insulin is dangerous–and that pig-derived insulin is somehow safer.  In this article, however, I’d like to look at how people like Brogan and her source, “GreenMedInfo”, misrepresent real medical studies to scare the general public.  The study in question is called (hold on to your seats): “Glucose-lowering with exogenous insulin monotherapy in type 2 diabetes: dose association with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, and incident cancer.”³

In this study, the researchers didn’t really look at when patients began insulin therapy and how the insulin affected the outcome.  Instead, they used a “proportional hazards model”, a statistical method in which they took a database of Type II diabetes patients from the United Kingdom, assumed synthetic insulin was a hazard, and introduced it mathematically over a designated period of time.

In other words, the researchers had no idea when the patients actually began insulin therapy and whether the insulin was a factor in the hazardous outcomes breathlessly reported by people misquoting and misrepresenting this study.  One thing that’s obviously missing is a control group–in this case, a group that did not receive the synthetic insulin.  The researchers do admit this, but everyone quoting the study ignores the fact.

So, all we really know from this study is that several years after 6,484 people with diabetes received synthetic insulin, some of them got sick, and some of those sick people eventually died.  Well, that’s exactly what you would expect in any population, especially if some of them are seriously ill.  The calculated adjusted hazard ratios in this study (e.g., 1.37 for major adverse/acute cardiovascular events, MACE) could just as easily be explained by pre-existing conditions or other factors.

In fact, a recent presentation at the 50th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes claimed that “pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) emerged as the greatest risk factor for experiencing a major acute cardiovascular event (MACE) among patients with type 2 diabetes”.⁴  Wow.  Is it possible that patients with Type II diabetes are predisposed to cardiovascular disease?

Answer: Yes.  According to the American Heart Association, CVD is the cause of death in approximately 65% of all diabetes patients.⁵  All of a sudden, we’re running in circles: did the diabetes cause the CVD, or did the synthetic insulin?  Remember that missing control group?  What about the age of the patients?  What about when they actually began taking the insulin, as opposed the the arbitrary time selected by the researchers?  What about other health conditions?  What about…?

The researchers themselves were aware of the limitations of their study.  The last line of their abstract, missing from every quack article such as GreenMedInfo’s:

“Limitations of observational studies mean that this should be further investigated using an interventional study design”

An “interventional study” is what I hinted at earlier… it is a carefully controlled experiment involving, among other things, a control group that does not receive the drug (e.g., synthetic insulin) being tested.

There is nothing inherently wrong with an observational study, or statistical analysis.  The authors may very well have a point–maybe more studies are warranted.  I’ll leave that up to doctors.

What I want to point out is that one observational study does not–in any field, in any circumstances–prove a link between one thing and another.  And that is what’s being claimed by Dr. Brogan and everyone else citing this horrific GreenMedInfo article.

 

Image Credits
Dr. Brogan/Facebook screen snapshot used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

 

References
Please note: To prevent increasing search engine exposure to quack web sites, I use the “DoNotLink” link obfuscator service to disguise URLs.  I promise that you are not being redirected to porn 🙂

(1)  (Quack Article) Research: Insulin Can Kill Diabetics; Natural Substances Heal Them
http://www.donotlink.com/crxt

(2) Dr. Brogan (Facebook)
http://www.donotlink.com/cryq

(3) Glucose-lowering with exogenous insulin monotherapy in type 2 diabetes (abstract)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dom.12412/abstract

(4) Pre-Existing Cardiovascular Disease Largest Risk Factor for MACE in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes
http://www.firstwordpharma.com/node/1236429#axzz3KxlconSQ

(5) AHA Scientific Statement: Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/100/10/1134.full

(6) Kelly Brogan denies germ theory and the value of HIV drugs
http://sciblogs.co.nz/diplomaticimmunity/2014/09/23/kelly-brogan-denies-germ-theory-and-the-value-of-hiv-drugs/