Food Babe Links Her Own Product To Leukemia, Other Cancers

Abstract: Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) does little to differentiate between “toxins” in the belly or applied to the skin.  According to Hari, toxins applied to the hair and skin are dangerous because they’re absorbed by the body.  The Babe is guilty of selling food and beauty products that contain the very same ingredients she falsely claims will harm her readers.  We’ll illustrate this fact here in a “Food Babe-style” investigation.

 

It’s payday.  My pockets are flush with cash and my cheeks are flushed with excitement–I’ve got some extra money to blow over on the FoodBabe.com shopping page!  My wife and I are still thrilled with the BHT-laden brown sugar body polish we recently purchased from Food Babe, and we thought we’d pick up a bottle of shampoo to go along with it.

Now, those of you who have previously gone on these shopping excursions with me know we adhere to a strict set of rules, taken from the Vani Hari playbook itself:

1. Always read the product labels
2. Consult FoodBabe.com and Vani Hari’s The Food Babe Way for advice
3. Scream bloody murder if we find any “dangerous” ingredients

Wanna go shopping with me?  It’ll be an eye opening experience, I promise.  Let’s go!

As I mentioned, we’re looking for shampoo.  This offering from the Food Babe beauty shop looks good: John Masters Organics Evening Primrose:¹

John Masters Organics Evening Primrose Shampoo on FoodBabe.com.

I sleep better at night knowing Food Babe isn’t just about food–she’s out there on the front lines fighting for safer beauty products as well:

“Being a Food Babe doesn’t stop at food. Once you’ve understood what chemicals can do in your diet – The next logical step is to understand what other chemicals in your surroundings can effect your health. Ever thought about what toxins are lurking in the cosmetic industry? Why there are so many chemicals in your shampoo or toothpaste?”–Vani Hari²

Vani goes on to explain to me exactly why I should worry about chemicals in my shampoo:

“Your skin is your largest organ!  What you put on your hair, is absorbed into your blood through your scalp and face.”–Vani Hari³

Food Babe says unequivocally that what I put on my hair is absorbed into my blood.  I’ll try to keep this in mind as we shop, but I hope you’ll remind me.  You’ll do that, won’t you?  Great!

So about this shampoo Ms. Hari is selling: as Shakespeare might have said: “Soft!  What ingredient through yonder product breaks?” (click image to enlarge)

This shampoo sold by Food Babe contains sodium benzoate, which she says is dangerous. (click/enlarge)

Why, it’s sodium benzoate, and the Food Babe Army is the pawn.

Vani Hari says this about sodium benzoate:

“one of the absolute worst preservatives out there.”–Vani Hari⁴

… because:

“when combined with Vitamin C this [sodium benzoate] can produce benzene that has been known to cause Leukemia and other cancers.”–Vani Hari⁷

All of a sudden, I’m all torn up inside.  I know Vani was writing about food when blasted sodium benzoate, and we’re only shopping for shampoo on her web site, but I’m haunted by something she said earlier.  You were going to help me remember, weren’t you, dear reader?  What was it Food Babe said?

“Your skin is your largest organ!  What you put on your hair, is absorbed into your blood through your scalp and face.” (emphasis mine)– Vani Hari ³

Yes, that’s it!

Now I’m a little worried.

But let’s not overreact.  Food Babe says we need the combination of sodium benzoate and vitamin C to produce her “leukemia-causing benzene”, and we’ve only spotted the sodium benzoate on the label.  There’s no vitamin C listed there.

Or is there?

To be safe, let’s put on our Food Babe Investigator Hats^{patent pending} and scan that ingredient list for a source of vitamin C:

According to multiple research papers, aloe vera is a source of vitamin C. (click/enlarge)

Oh dear.  We didn’t have to go far.  I’m not a biologist, but, according to multiple research papers written by experts, aloe vera is a reliable source of vitamin C.^8,9,10

So Food Babe’s shampoo does contain sodium benzoate and vitamin C.

And she says this combination is toxic.

And she expressly forbids you from putting it on your hair, because she believes “toxins” will be absorbed into the body.

But she sells it on her web site.

Look, the sodium benzoate/vitamin C scare is an old one, and I’m not going to give it credence by debunking it–not until Vani Hari explains why she’s selling multiple products with this combination while simultaneously claiming it’s dangerous.  Did I say “multiple products”?  Yes, I did–#FoodBabeArmy, I’ll leave it to you to do some label reading of your own.

The upshot of all of this is that John Masters is a fine company with a solid safety record.  They use products made of ingredients reviewed and approved by those far more qualified than Vani Hari (or myself), and it’s those experts I’ll be going to when making purchasing decisions.  In honor of John Masters’ solid track record, and based on the favorable reviews left by customers on Amazon, I’m going to be buying a bottle of this shampoo.

I just won’t be buying it via FoodBabe.com.

I’ll leave you with a quote:

“Your skin is your largest organ.  It covers and protects everything on your body. How you treat it is incredibly important to your health. However, the skin is one of the most unappreciated organs, and one that I used to totally take for granted, slathering products full of toxic chemicals on it day after day. When I look back at all the different potions I’ve tried, I shake my head in disbelief and wish I would have known better.”–Vani Hari⁵

Practice what you preach, Vani.

Image Credits
Amazon.com, John Masters, and Food Babe 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.

Dr. Evil meme courtesy memegenerator.net. Also 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.

“The Scream” from WikiCommons, image is in the public domain because copyright has expired.

References
(1) Food Babe Shopping: For Your Beauty
http://foodbabe.com/shop/for-your-beauty/

(2) Be a Drug Store Beauty Dropout
http://foodbabe.com/2011/07/31/how-to-find-safe-beauty-products/

(3) Holistic Health Care
http://foodbabe.com/2011/11/06/holistic-hair-care-how-why/

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

(5) The Ingredients in Sunscreen Destroying Your Health
http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/05/what-you-need-to-know-before-you-ever-buy-sunscreen-again/

(6) John Masters Organics Evening Primrose Shampoo Ingredients
Deep Moisturizing Shampoo with Evening Primrose

(7) Why Aren’t You Making Your Own Hummus?
http://foodbabe.com/2011/05/18/homemade-hummus/

(8) ALOE VERA: A SHORT REVIEW
Amar Surjushe, Resham Vasani, and D G Saple
Indian J Dermatol. 2008; 53(4): 163–166.
doi:  10.4103/0019-5154.44785
PMCID: PMC2763764
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2763764/

(9) Biologic Effects Of Aloe Vera Gel
N Kathuria, N Gupta, Manisha, R Prasad, Nikita
(Internet Scientific publications)
https://ispub.com/IJMB/9/2/6161

(10) Effects of Drugs Effect of an extract of Aloe vera on the biodistribution of sodium pertechnetate in rats
Holanda, Costa, Silva, et al
Acta Cirúrgica Brasileira – Vol. 24 (5) 2009
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/38031194_Effect_of_an_extract_of_Aloe_vera_on_the_biodistribution_of_sodium_pertechnetate_%28Na99mTcO4%29_in_rats

 

John Hagee Repeats His “Blood Moon” Errors–On Film

Total lunar eclipse. October 17, 2014.  (Photo by the author.)

With a beautiful total lunar eclipse on slate for Saturday, April 4, old earth creationist John Hagee has resurfaced with revived claims of prophecies in the skies.  I wrote about Hagee earlier this year, debunking his claim that a tetrad (series of 4) “blood moons” was a sign from the heavens that something significant was about to happen in Israel.

This time, Hagee is back with a movie.  “Four Blood Moons”¹ rehashes the false claims the pastor made in his book by the same name.  The film opened with a special one-day release on March 23 and returns for an encore on April 9.  Based on the movie’s trailer and interviews with Hagee, it doesn’t look like the creationist has added anything new to the claims I’ve already debunked.  So I’d like to just hit the highlights here.  For a thorough point-by-point refutation of Hagee’s claims, complete with references (NASA tables of solar eclipses, information on the Hebrew calendar, the pastor’s historical mistakes, etc.), please see my article “Oh Bloody…“.²

To review: the pastor claims that major events in the history of Israel are linked to total lunar eclipses occurring on the Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot.  The pattern that he sees goes something like this:

1. Tragedy knocks on the door of Israel and/or the Jewish people.
2. Miraculous victory is somehow snatched from the jaws of defeat.
3. (1) and (2) are announced in the heavens by a tetrad of “blood moons” (total lunar eclipses) that magically occur during one of two Jewish holy weeks.

Hagee’s conclusion: divine intervention in Israel, proven by an invisible hand controlling the positions of the sun, earth, and moon.

Wow.

As I explained in (excruciating?) detail in my earlier piece on this subject,² Hagee is wrong in nearly every way imaginable:

1. Holidays on the Hebrew calendar are tied to lunar phases because humans designed the calendar that way.  Periodic adjustments are made to the calendar–by humans–to keep seasons (and, as a result, religious holidays) “aligned”.  It’s no accident that the sun, moon, and earth are lined up in a certain way on a given Jewish holiday.  People constructed the calendar in that manner–and they go to a lot of trouble to keep it from changing, even periodically adding a temporary month to keep the holidays from drifting out of alignment.

2. Major events cited as miraculous by Hagee do not actually coincide with “blood moons”.  He apparently never bothered to check an almanac of eclipses.  His 1967 “Six Day War” example is a great illustration.  Yes, it was triumph from tragedy for Israel.  Unfortunately for the good pastor, there was no lunar eclipse on Passover or Sukkot in ’67.  Oops.

3. In fact, most major events in Israel’s history don’t occur anywhere near an eclipse.  If the heavens are being used as a signalling device, it’s broken most of the time.  I offer as evidence the Yom Kippur War of 1973.  If ever Israel turned tragedy into triumph, wouldn’t beating off the overwhelming surprise attack in 1973 be a prime example?  Where were the holiday eclipses?  Answer: there weren’t any.

4. Hagee’s command of history is shaky at best.  For example, America wasn’t “discovered” by Columbus as Hagee claims–there were already people living there when the explorer arrived.  In any event, he wasn’t the first outsider to arrive in North America.  And, while credence could be given to the minister’s claim that the United States became an eventual safe haven for the Jewish people, it certainly didn’t remain that way for the millions of Native Americans who died at the hands of European settlers.

And, dare I mention… there was no Passover/Sukkot eclipse in 1492?

John Hagee gets it wrong again.

Other than the simple truth that eclipses actually happen, John Hagee doesn’t even try to get his story straight.  And, for some reason, his followers eat his nonsense up.  It’s a shame that an event that’s beautiful and wondrous in its own right has to be linked to superstition and fear, and that those who follow Hagee won’t take the time to fact check him.

While not as awe-inspiring as total eclipses of the sun, lunar eclipses are still a treat–and visible from a larger portion of the earth’s surface than their solar counterparts.  To check visibility of the April 4 eclipse from your area of the world, NASA provides a nice map.³ Sky & Telescope magazine offers up a brief article on the eclipse along with timetables.⁴

Image Credits
Lunar eclipse photography by the author.  Copyright (c) 2015 Mark Aaron Alsip.  All rights reserved.

“John Hagee at Podium” from Wiki Commons, by owner Christians United for Israel.  Released into public domain by owner.  Image owner does not necessarily agree with or endorse the views expressed by the author.

References
Note: to avoid increasing search engine exposure for quack web sites, I use the DoNotLink service to obfuscate URLs.   You have my promise you’re being redirected to the web site indicated in the title 🙂

(1) Four Blood Moons (Movie Official Page–Facebook)
http://www.donotlink.com/eeey

(2) Oh Bloody…
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/oh-bloody/

(3) Total Lunar Eclipse of 2015 Apr 04 (NASA)
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2015Apr04T.pdf