According to the old breakfast cereal slogan, “Trix are for kids.”
Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) has a new variation on this theme with her latest misinformation campaign: Tricks are for kids–and their gullible parents.
Let’s look at a Hari Facebook rant from October 2, accusing General Mills of targeting children with alleged carcinogenic compounds in General Mills’ Trix cereal.1 As we’ll see in a moment, Food Babe also targets children with products containing these very same chemicals, and has been doing so for at least six years:
Food Babe sells the same falsely-labeled toxins in her Facebook post, ironically targeting children in the process. (click/enlarge)
Hari asks if marketing artificial colors to children should be illegal. An ironic question coming from a woman who markets products containing artificial colors to children herself.2 Not just any artificial colors, but the same “coal tar dyes” she rants about in her October 2 post.
Sherman, set the WayBack Machine to November, 2015, when I pointed out the (pink?) elephant in the room to Food Babe:
Two years ago, it was clearly pointed out to Vani Hari that she’s selling to children the same class of “coal tar dyes”that she labels toxic. From Bad Science Debunked, November 15, 2015. (click/enlarge)
Yes, this children’s fingernail polish marketed by Vani Hari is made from the same artificial colors that are causing her Blue #1 sky to fall. But the hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Not that anyone in the #FoodBabeArmy seems scientifically literate enough to pick up on the fact, but this children’s product also contains an organic pesticide, neem oil. Vani Hari is an outspoken opponent of pesticides, but apparently has no qualms about selling them to children.
Hari does not get a “get out of jail free card” because she’s lambasting a food product and here she’s hawking a cosmetic. Thus sayeth the Food Babe:
“Your skin is your largest organ! What you put on your skin, is absorbed into your blood.”–Vani Hari3
This is a common theme in the world of “all natural” product salespeople–it doesn’t matter if it comes from food or beauty products–it it’s a toxin, it’s gonna kill ya, whether you swallow it, inhale it, or get it on your skin.
But it gets worse for Ms. Hari. Several of the dyes that she calls out by name, including Blue #1 and Yellow #6, were openly sold via her online “Food Babe Shop” for several years before being quietly pulled overnight when called out on her gaffe.4 These products were ingested by humans, as they included a dozen different shades of Tarte lipstick. Placed on the lips, the very dyes Hari calls “neurotoxins” were happily and enthusiastically lapped up by every woman who licked her lips while wearing Food Babe-recommended cosmetics.
The third artificial color, Red #40, which Hari curiously links to hyperactivity? It has been a mainstay in the Giovanni Hair Care products she’s been hyping on FoodBabe.com since 2011.7 You’re three-for-three Vani. Well done. Well done, indeed.
Food Babe highly recommends Giovianni hair care products. There’s only one problem…
Red #40, much maligned by Hari, is found in hair care products that she hawks in her blog. (click/enlarge)
Last but not least, Vani takes issue with the presence of genetically modified ingredients in Trix cereal. Let’s rinse and repeat our investigative pattern for the #FoodBabeArmy crowd who are missing the obvious: Food Babe has been selling you a product containing GMO corn long enough for Seralini to have faked a dozen more GMO cancer studies.6
This product, featured on FoodBabe.com, is made from GMO corn. (click/enlarge)
As the commercial goes, Trix may be for kids, but Tricks are for Food Babe.
Let us then revisit the original, deceptive General Mills Trix cereal box graphic that Vani Hari presented in her October 2 Facebook post, and put it into proper context by comparing her alleged toxic ingredients with those she sells or has consistently sold for years:
Food Babe’s Babes “Box of Tricks” includes an online store pushing products containing every single ingredient she disparages in General Mills’ Trix cereal.
Gentle reader, there’s nothing dangerous in Trix cereal, or, indeed, any of the products that Vani Hari “trix” her followers into buying by pretending that the alternatives are harmful. Buy any of the products mentioned in this article with complete confidence they’re safe. Just please… don’t buy them from FoodBabe.com.
References
(1) Food Babe Trix Post
https://www.facebook.com/thefoodbabe/posts/1696483297053041
(2) Food Babe Selling Pesticides, Coal Tar Dyes To Children
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/food-babe-selling-pesticide-coal-tar-dyes-to-children/
(3) So Fresh And So Clean–Skin Care Tips
http://foodbabe.com/2011/08/09/so-fresh-and-so-clean-skin-care-tips/
(4) Food Babe Slam Kraft Over Three Dyes But Sells Same
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/food-babe-slams-kraft-over-three-dyes-but-sells-same/
(6) Food Babe is Selling GMOs
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/food-babe-is-selling-gmos/
(7) She Did It Again!
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/she-did-it-again-food-babe-linked-to-another-company-using-same-dyes-she-forbids/
Image Credits
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.
“American Pie” imagery photoshopped/produced by the author, used under the parody provisions of 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.
“Trix/Tricks” imagery photoshopped/produced by the author, used under the parody provisions of 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.
Bad Science Debunked 