David Wolfe Lathers on the Hypocrisy

“If I’m going to be staying up until 3 A.M., it should be for world peace and not shampoo sales.”– Mona Sutphen

It takes a special type of man to look you in the eye, tell you that pillows cause neck pain, and then sell you pillow cases via his online store.  A man with particular bravado: balls the size of Jupiter.  A man who isn’t bothered by marketing a boat load of goods made from the same chemicals that he claims will cause you to shuffle early off this mortal coil.

Ladies and gentlemen: I give you David Avocado Wolfe.

In his article “8 Toxic Beauty Care Chemicals That Are Killing You!,”¹ Wolfe links ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and its salts (e.g., disodium EDTA, trisodium EDTA) to health problems such as reproductive and kidney damage, fetal disability, and dermatitis.^3,4,5,6,7  Ironically, he singles out shampoos and hair conditioners as common sources of EDTA.¹

With this in mind, let’s go shopping at Avocado’s online emporium, the infamous Longevity Warehouse. (With all this foreshadowing, you probably know what’s coming.)

Here’s a nice bottle of Hairprint Amla Chelating Shampoo, and its ingredients:³

 

Hairprint Amla Chelating Shampoo, from David Wolfe’s Longevity Warehouse. (click/enlarge)

David Wolfe’s Longevity Warehouse’s Hairprint Amla Chelating Shampoo contains Disodium EDTA, an ingredient he’s linked to myriad health problems. (click/enlarge)

 

But soft!  What chemical through yonder shampoo breaks?  It is disodium EDTA, and David Wolfe is the son-of-a-snake-oil-saleman who’s selling it to you:

Oops!

Yes indeed.  Wolfe just told us that EDTA and its salts were responsible for a plethora of poisonous potions, and now he’s selling us the very same chemical.  Let me refresh your memory:

“EDTA is used as a preservative in various skin care products, bath soaps, shampoos, conditioners, hair dyes and hair bleaches.

With chronic use, EDTA has the potential to cause reproductive damage, fetal disability and kidney damage.

Ironically (remember, it’s used in skin care products) EDTA can also cause contact dermatitis.”–David Wolfe¹

But wait!  If you act now, you can get two EDTA-laden products from David Wolfe for the price of… well… two:

 

Yet another Wolfe product containing disodium EDTA (click/enlarge)

Wolfe claims disodium EDTA can cause kidney damage, but here it is in another of his products (click/enlarge)

 

Astute readers may have noticed that in the ingredients list, disodium EDTA is prominently listed next to a large banner from madesafe.org, proclaiming how rigorously these shampoos have been tested for safety.  This may be the first thing Wolfe got right–there’s no evidence that EDTA is dangerous, but it’s a howling act of hypocrisy to claim a chemical will harm you while simultaneously listing it in a sales ad next to a bold-print banner that purports you’ve done extensive testing for toxic ingredients

To put the whip cream on this huge slice of irony pie, Hairprint, the manufacturer of the shampoos hawked by Avocado, proudly touts disodium EDTA as a featured ingredient in its products.  David Wolfe: Google is your friend… learn how to use it:

“Disodium EDTA:  This is a salt designed to act as a metal and mineral chelating agent. It has several uses as a medicine and is an approved food preservative. We use it here to remove the build up of minerals caused by hard water. Our Chelating Shampoo containing Disodium EDTA can perform miracles for hair conditions cause by hard water.” — Hairprint.com product information page ¹⁰

I’ve found no evidence to suggest EDTA is harmful, unless you happened to be run over by a truck carrying a ton of it to a processing facility.  However, we’re not here to debate the safety of this chemical.  No, we’re here to ask David Wolfe why he’s attempting to sell over five millions followers a product he falsely alleges will put them at risk of kidney failure or fetal abnormalities.

This is one of many Longevity Warehouse products that follow this pattern of hypocrisy, yet Wolfe’s followers seem to line up like lemmings who don’t read product labels, cash in their tiny paws, ready follow each other over the edge of the Cliff of Consumer Fraud.  Sadly, some of Wolfe’s offerings, such as his dangerous and unproven cancer “cures,” could get someone killed.  It’s a sad state of affairs, and in a world where facts no longer seem to matter, I see no end in sight.

Oh, about those pillow cases I mentioned in the opening…  Get’em while they’re hot.  And please:  #DontCryWolfe

How deeply can you trust a health guru who tags pillows as the cause of neck pain, then tries to sell you pillow cases?   Screen snapshot from David Wolfe’s Longevity Warehouse.  (click/enlarge)

References
(1) Eight Toxic Body Care Chemicals That Are Killing You (DavidWolfe.com)
https://www.davidwolfe.com/8-toxic-beauty-care-chemicals/
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(2) Longevity Warehouse Hairprint Chelating Shampoo
https://www.longevitywarehouse.com/hairprint-chelating-shampoo#product_tabs_ingredients
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(3) Disodium EDTA, linked as information source by David Wolfe (see reference #2) [Warning: Not a scholarly link]
http://www.cosmeticsinfo.org/ingredient/disodium-edta
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(4) Trisodium EDTA, linked as information source by David Wolfe (see reference #2) [Warning: Not a scholarly link]
http://www.cosmeticsinfo.org/ingredient/disodium-edta
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(5) Pubchem EDTA (Compound ID 6049)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/edta
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(6) PubChem EDTA Disodium Salt (Compound ID 13020083)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/13020083
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(7) Pubchem Edetate Trisodium Salt (Compound ID 9008)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/9008
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(8) Hairprint Chelating Shampoo
https://www.longevitywarehouse.com/hairprint-chelating-shampoo
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(9) Hairprint Chelating Shampoo Ingredients
https://www.longevitywarehouse.com/hairprint-chelating-shampoo#product_tabs_ingredients
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

(10)  Hairprint.com Ingredients
https://www.myhairprint.com/pages/ingredients
Retrieved 19 Nov 2017

Image Credits
Article banner: Connor Gap Ireland (background) © 2017 Mark Aaron Alsip. David Wolfe screen snapshot elements, bathtub, shampoo, etc, 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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David Avocado Wolfe Sells a Carcinogen (#DontCryWolfe)

Rare photo of David Avocado Wolfe auditioning for the movie “Cocktail”. David is juggling a bottle of his Longevity drops, which contain alcohol that he links to cancer.

David Wolfe is selling longevity drops!¹  Golly gee whiz!  This is exciting news!

Until we got bogged down in the drudgery of this never-ending presidential campaign here in the United States, where watching the news conjures up thoughts of sticking my tongue into a 120 volt electrical outlet, I had always hoped to live forever.  I wanted to live long enough to see humans travel to the stars.  I secretly thought I’d persevere and see the Chicago Cubs win a World Series.  I’m embarrassed about never buying life insurance and didn’t want to be confronted with the consequences of that mistake by actually dying.

So there I was, credit card in hand over on Wolfe’s Longevity Warehouse web site, ready to make a purchase of the liquid that’d give me eternal life, and I thought: “wait a minute… maybe I should check out the labeling on this product.  Wolfe hasn’t been exactly straightforward with his science in the past.”

Indeed, this is the man who claimed that water is alive.

Here’s the product in question:

David Wolfe’s Longevity Drops

Anyone want to check out the ingredients with me?¹

Longevity drops ingredients (click/enlarge)

Oh dear.  David Wolfe’s Longevity Drops contain alcohol.  This is a conundrum.

Now, for those of you who studied science at Food Babe University, a conundrum isn’t one of those things you wear while having safe sex. The word means  “a difficult problem”… something illogical…  a severe contradiction, as it were: something David Avocado Wolfe is famous for.

Why is it a problem for Wolfe to be selling a longevity product that contains alcohol?  Because the Avocado Dude recommends you consume this elixir daily, but in an article titled “This is What Happens to Your Body if You Drink Alcohol on a Regular Basis”, he warns that alcohol has the following effects on your body:²

• It causes cancer
• It decreases vitamin B12 production
• It decreases vitamin D and calcium absorption
• It damages the liver
• It’s a depressant

So… “buy my product to live longer, but it will kill you.  Bottoms up!  Love, David!”

Do yourself and/or a sick, disadvantaged person a favor:  Help make the world a better place by searching for and re-tweeting the truth about David Avocado Wolfe with this hashtag:

#DontCryWolfe

And don’t ever, ever buy anything from his online store.  If you want the grape alcohol featured in his longevity drops, it’s better known as wine, and you can pick up a decent bottle for a few bucks at your local liquor store.  #Cheers.  #BottomsUp.

 

Image Credits
David Wolfe/Longevity Warehouse screen captures and product images 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.

“Cocktail” parody by Mark Alsip/Bad Science Debunked.  Used under the parody provision of Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of U.S. copyright law.  This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

References

(1) Food for the Immortals Longevity Drops (50ml)
http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/food-for-the-immortals-longevity-drops-50-ml

(2) This is What Happens to Your Body if You Drink Alcohol on a Regular Basis!
http://www.davidwolfe.com/happens-to-body-drink-alcohol/

Your Worst Day Ever: David Avocado’s Himalayan Salt Debunked

I’ve had more than one good belly laugh over the scientific absurdities of David Avocado Wolfe, a believer that water is a living organism whose attitude is shaped by the path taken through the pipes entering one’s house.¹² Adding to the fun, Mr. Wolfe’s fog of incomprehension regarding electricity is fodder for an upcoming article debunking his horrifically expensive “Zapper” and grounding mat products, so do stay tuned for that.

But as I launch my 2016 #DontCryWolfe series exposing this man’s dangerous pseudoscience (e.g., turning cancer patients away from effective treatments in favor of bogus vegetable cures), I’d like to kick things off with what has become the forte of my blog: proving that internet hucksters like Wolfe are selling products with exactly the same ingredients they claim will kill you.

As an example, let’s look at this Himalayan Crystal Salt available from Wolfe’s Longevity Warehouse:¹

Wolfe makes an interesting claim about this salt:²

“Himalayan salt contains the 84 natural elements needed by the body. “

Eighty-four elements needed by the body? Curiosity got the better of me, so I contacted Longevity Warehouse and asked what my body “needs”. In response, they opened help ticket “LW Support #166810: Himalayan salt ingredients“, and eventually emailed this reply:

“The vendor has confirmed that the statement is referencing the book Water & Salt, The Essence of Life by Dr. Barbara Hendel MD and Peter Ferreira, which states that Himalayan salt can contain as many as 84 trace minerals. […] Attached is the list of minerals from the book for your reference.”

You can consult the Hendel/Ferreira book¹¹ for the full list if you’re so inclined, but here are a few particular items from the publication that I think readers will find interesting:

Arsenic As 33 <0.01 ppm
Cadmium Cd 48 <0.01 ppm
Mercury Hg 80 <0.03 ppm
Lead Pb 82 0.10 ppm
Polonium Po 84 <0.001 ppm
Uranium U 92 <0.001 ppm
Plutonium Pu 94 <0.001 ppm

Before I dig into this lineup, it’s of utmost importance to understand one of Wolfe’s key claims about his product. To wit: even though the salt contains only trace amounts of 84 elements, it’s their very presence that makes the product beneficial to your health, and it’s their removal during commercial salt processing that makes regular table salt “toxic“. Speak to us, oh wise one:

“In order to make table salt, natural salt is heated to high temperatures and cleaned chemically, reducing all the important minerals and leaving only sodium and chloride”²–David Wolfe

Never mind that the salt you buy from Wolfe is still, by and large, nothing more than sodium chloride. He’s telling us that the mere presence of these 84 trace elements is important to our health. All of them. Uh oh.

Let’s look at some of these “important” elements:

 

MERCURY
Mr. Wolfe warns that mercury is one of the top ten toxins poisoning our children, and once it’s in the body, it’s impossible to remove naturally.³ So as you consume his salt, by the man’s own logic, you’re writing a toxic check your digestive system can’t cash.

No mercury-based fear mongering from a pseudoscientist would ever be complete without a reference to dental fillings, and Avocado does not disappoint. In this YouTube video,⁴ he describes mercury as one of the “highest toxic substances known to man”, and frets over the small amounts found in older dental fillings. You won’t find him agonizing over the mercury in the Himalayan salt he sells you, though. Why? Because money.

Wolfe boarded the Woo Train long ago on vaccines, not seeming to grasp whether thimerosal (a mercury-containing compound–which is not mercury) might actually be used in certain vaccines at all. Once his misinformation train left the station, a lot of innocent people have gotten sick from vaccine-preventable diseases. Avocado is fixated on his belief that your body can’t remove these heavy metals (which originated from his own Himalayan salt!) on its own.⁵ Perhaps this is why he’s happy to recommend and sell unproven detox routines to help in the cleanup.⁶

If you spend a lot of time reading Wolfe (I do), you’ll see this mantra repeated again and again when it comes to “heavy metals”:

“That is a long scary list and many of these things will not leave the body naturally.” ⁵–David Avocado Wolfe

 

LEAD
I’ll let Wolfe’s “lipstick meme” speak for itself on ingesting trace amounts of the toxic element lead:⁷

David Wolfe on lead. (click/enlarge)

I agree with Wolfe: we should be concerned about eating or drinking lead. So why is it found in his Himalayan Crystal Salt?

Wolfe frets over a literal kiss of death, yet he would have us sprinkle the same elements of our destruction over our garden salad. You’ve heard me say it countless times in my writing: Pot. Kettle. Black.

I’m looking at you, David Avocado Wolfe.

 

ARSENIC
Wolfe’s own marketing material for Himalayan salt² takes great pains to name arsenic as a toxin that we’re adding to our body in “normal” salt, and yet you’ll find the very same element in the Himalayan mix he’s selling you.

“Also considering salts come from the ocean, and our oceans are polluted with mercury, lead, arsenic and more, we are then adding more toxins into our body.”²

Along with “Shazzie”, Wolfe is listed as co-author of “Detox Your World”,⁸ a book that warns that ingesting low levels of arsenic over extended periods of time can lead to darkening of skin and warts. The book then goes on to link arsenic to several cancers, including lung, skin, bladder, and prostate.

 

URANIUM
On July 23, 2015, Wolfe tweeted a link to a story about abandoned uranium mines slowly contaminating Navajo water sources:

David Wolfe tweet on uranium (click/enlarge)

I think Wolfe is right to be concerned about the accumulation of radioactive elements such as uranium in the human body through sources such as groundwater.

My question is, why doesn’t he care that he’s listed trace amounts of uranium as one of the 84 essential elements in his Himalayan salt? One can’t help but notice the radioactive polonium and plutonium in the salt as well, even if Wolfe hasn’t spoken out specifically against them. These elements are most definitely harmful to the human body and, as Wolfe so often loves to shout from the rooftops,⁶ there’s no way to remove these toxins once we’ve ingested them (unless you subscribe to one of his detox regimens).

 

CADMIUM
Cadmium is listed repeatedly^10,11 (along with arsenic and lead) as a “metallic toxin” in Wolfe’s book, Superfoods; The Food and Medicine of the Future.

Can you name a food where you’ll find cadmium? Oh hell, I’ve ruined the surprise by now, haven’t I? Yes, it’s in Wolfe’s Himalayan Crystal salt.

 

Conclusion
There’s nothing really dangerous about Himalayan salt.  The trace amounts of elements found there are too small to do you any good–or harm.  David Wolfe’s health and science advice swing from harmless, laughable blurbs such as “chocolate being a magical octave of the sun”, to irresponsible, and patently dangerous claims such as ginger being more powerful than chemotherapy in cancer treatment. The former is funny; the latter can cost someone their life.

Wolfe lures unsuspecting readers to his web site through the use of cute memes featuring the likes of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, drops a load of dangerous pseudoscience on them that could dissuade them from seeking real medical attention, and sells them products that by his own claims could damage their health.

Do the world a favor and don’t share David Wolfe memes in 2016. Please share, and tag with #DontCryWolfe. Thanks for reading.

#DontCryWolfe

Edit History
18 Jan 2016: Four astute followers caught the embarrassing misspelling of prostate; added some extra verbiage to assure worried readers they don’t need to throw out their pink salt.  It’s completely safe.

Image Credits
David Wolfe/Longevity Warehouse web site screen and product snapshots are used in strict compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of United States copyright law (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) Longevity Warehouse David Wolfe Himalayan Salt (One Pound)
http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=himalayan+salt

(2) Himalayan Salt Claim
http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/david-wolfe-foods-himalayan-crystal-salt-1-lb

(3) Top Ten Toxins Poisoning Our Kids
http://www.davidwolfe.com/toxins-poisoning-kids/

(4) Dental fillings wit mercury in them. (David Wolfe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmvewxE4D-4

(5) Vaccines and Vaccine Safety
http://www.davidwolfe.com/vaccines-and-vaccine-safety/

(6) David Wolfe Vaccine Detox
http://www.davidwolfe.com/vaccine-detox-children-adults-remove-heavy-metals-toxins/

(7) Wolfe’s Lipstick/Lead Meme
https://www.facebook.com/DavidAvocadoWolfe/photos/a.10150364951666512.342374.102515706511/10152895865466512/

(8) Detox Your World (Shazzie, David Wolfe)
North Atlantic Books
ISBN 978-1-58394-450-1
https://books.google.com/books?id=fP5QuCv05vYC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=david+wolfe+arsenic&source=bl&ots=pIxgnCJpYa&sig=er7xVWgZ6VZAwf2KlVUtU658emg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAjgKahUKEwidgOmfwpDIAhUEWh4KHdwODs0#v=onepage&q=david%20wolfe%20arsenic&f=false

(9) David Wolfe Uranium Tweet
https://twitter.com/davidwolfe/status/624365403381219328

(10) SuperFoods: The Food And Medicine Of The Future
North Atlantic Books
ISBN 978-1-55643-776-2
https://books.google.com/books?id=6EtHo7N3-PYC&pg=PT51&lpg=PT51&dq=david+wolfe+copper&source=bl&ots=Jg-DZ0J5X4&sig=DGbZnuv0bNDABzNCebBSxwulB6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvnuP59obKAhVFMj4KHYICDZY4ChDoAQglMAE#v=onepage&q=david%20wolfe%20cadmium&f=false

(10) SuperFoods: The Food And Medicine Of The Future
North Atlantic Books
ISBN 978-1-55643-776-2
https://books.google.com/books?id=6EtHo7N3-PYC&pg=PT51&lpg=PT51&dq=david+wolfe+copper&source=bl&ots=Jg-DZ0J5X4&sig=DGbZnuv0bNDABzNCebBSxwulB6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvnuP59obKAhVFMj4KHYICDZY4ChDoAQglMAE#v=onepage&q=david%20wolfe%20cadmium&f=false

(11) Water & Salt:: The Essence Of Life: The Healing Power of Nature
Natural Resources
ISBN: 978-0-97445-151-0
http://www.amazon.com/Water-Salt-Essence-Healing-Nature/dp/B001DVZMW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453116977&sr=8-1&keywords=Water+%26+Salt%2C+The+Essence+of+Life

(12) David Wolfe Shares on Getting the Best Water You Can Get
http://www.donotlink.com/hx8w

(13) Chocolate As An Octave Of The Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzMmzd2qJVw

(14) Ginger Stronger Than Chemo
http://www.davidwolfe.com/ginger-stronger-than-chemo-kills-cancer-cells/