Dr. Mark Hyman: (Artificial) Sugar Daddy

Dr. Mark Hyman tells us that xylitol is addictive and leads to obesity, metabolism disorders, and addiction, but that doesn’t stop him from loading it into his children’s daily vitamin supplement.

It’s been a while since we last heard from Dr. Mark Hyman, the hypocritical doctor who openly sells a product filled with the same chemicals he falsely claims causes cancer.  Actually, he’s  selling two such products.  Well, OK, there are over a half dozen.  But I digress.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about Hyman and sweeteners.  Dr. Mark has the following to say about one of my favorites, xylitol:

“Whatever you do, stay away from artificial sweeteners. I recommend giving up aspartame, sucralose, sugar alcohols such as xylitol and maltitol, and all of the other heavily used and marketed sweeteners unless you want to slow down your metabolism, gain weight, and become an addict.” (emphasis mine)–Dr. Mark Hyman¹

Good Lord!  According to Hyman, xylitol is responsible for increased risk of obesity, rewiring your brain chemistry and metabolism,  and is highly addictive.¹ Sounds pretty dangerous!  Something you’d especially want to keep away from children, right?

Friends, cast your eyes on Herr Hyman’s “Pure Pals” children’s vitamin supplement, and its list of ingredients:²

Pure Pals, sold by Mark Hyman, contains 1 gram of xylitol per pill.2

The ingredients in Mark Hyman’s Pure Pals for children.2 (click/enlarge)

Wait a minute, that’s xylitol in them thar pills!²  Doctor (and I feel embarrassed to use that word) Hyman recommends one gram of xylitol per day for children aged 2-3, and two grams per day for those aged 4 and up.²  Remember, this is the sugar substitute that’s supposed to be highly addictive, increase obesity, and rewire your children’s brain chemistry.  Yet the man making these claims wants to feed it to your children daily, at a cost of $27.60 per bottle.

To put this into context, let’s look at how xylitol is used in some well known candy products, and compare it to Hyman’s recommended daily dosing for a four year old child. A publication produced by Augusta University’s Dental College of Georgia³ reveals ten times less xylitol (0.2 grams per piece) in a piece of Mentos Pure candy, 132% less in Icebreakers Frost Mints (0.33 grams per mint), and less than 50% in Spry Gum (0.72gm/piece).³

But, what should one do upon finding any of these candies in the kitchen of their home?  According to the good doctor: throw them out immediately!⁴  I kid you not.  Read Hyman’s polemic “Four Steps To Detoxify Your Kitchen“⁴ lest you think I exaggerate.

Another delicious piece in this Pie of Irony is that xylitol is a naturally occurring compound, so Hyman’s use of the word “artificial” is rather disingenuous.  According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s PubChem database:

“Xylitol is naturally found in many fruits (strawberries, plums, raspberries) and vegetables (e. g. cauliflower).”

–Extracted from PubChem Detail for CID 6912⁵

According to PubChem, xylitol can be produced industrially starting with, for example, a variety of natural sources, including almond hulls and birch bark,⁵ but it’s important to remember that everything is a chemical, so “artificial” and “natural” are just arbitrary labels.

For the record, this isn’t the first time Dr. Hyman has been caught selling xylitol in his products⁶ but, as I pointed out in this meme when I caught him red handed three years ago, none of his lemming-like followers seem inclined to read the man’s own product labels:

For at least three years, Dr. Mark Hyman has been selling products containing xylitol,⁶ which he links to an overabundance of health problems–and nobody seems to notice. (click/enlarge)

Ironically, the PurePals vitamin product is manufactured by Pure Encapsulations, the same company that makes Neuromins, another Hyman product that contains chemicals the doctor hypocritically and falsely links to cancer.⁷  Why would a doctor claim his own product causes cancer?  Because once the man says “hello, I’m a doctor,” people stop paying attention, bend over, grease up, and proceed to get screwed.

What do we make of all this hypocrisy, then?  Perhaps we should take Mark Hyman’s advice and simply throw his Pure Pals product in the garbage:

“Throw out food with artificial sweeteners of all kinds (aspartame, NutraSweet, Splenda, sucralose, and sugar alcohols — any word that ends with “ol,” like xylitol or sorbitol)” –Dr. Mark Hyman⁴

References
(1) Why You Should Ditch Artificial Sweeteners
Warning: not a scholarly link
http://drhyman.com/blog/2015/12/02/why-you-should-ditch-artificial-sweeteners/
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

(2) Pure Encapsulations “Pure Pals” Children’s Supplement
https://store.drhyman.com/supplements-1/purepals-formally-pure-bears-without-iron.html
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

(3) Xylitol Products
Augusta University’s Dental College of Georgia
https://www.augusta.edu/dentalmedicine/axium/documents/xylitol-products2.pdf
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

(4) Four Steps To Detoxify Your Kitchen
Warning: not a scholarly link
http://drhyman.com/blog/2015/01/22/4-steps-detoxify-kitchen/
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

(5) U.S. National Library of Medicine PubChem Database: Xylitol (CID 6912)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/6912#section=Top
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

(6)  Xylitol, Warrior Princess
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/xylitol-warrior-princess-mark-hyman-debunked/
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

(7) Trick or Tweet: Dr. Mark Hyman Exposed
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/trick-or-tweet-dr-mark-hyman-exposed/
Retrieved 29 Dec 2017

 

Image Credits
Mark Hyman imagery and Pure Encapsulation screen snapshots and product image captures 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.

Ice Cream Truck/Candy Man parody image by the author, also produced and used under the parody provisions of 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.

 

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Thrive Market’s “Toxic” Deodorant: I Smell A Rat

Thrive Market, a new, supposedly all-natural online store being heavily pushed by the pseudoscientific Environmental Working Group, is concerned with body odor.  Sadly, the hypocrisy of both groups stinks to high heaven.  After scaring the caca out of readers over a perfectly safe ingredient in competing deodorants, Thrive author Michelle Pellizzon turns around and sells a Thrive product that contains the same compound she’s just linked to cancer.

First, the setup (emphasis mine):¹

“Aluminum, the active ingredient in deodorant that keeps you from getting stinky when it gets hot out there, has been linked to breast cancer and hormonal [im]balances (sic) when applied to underarms. The aluminum in antiperspirant is also the reason that your white t-shirts all have yellow pit stains—as if you needed another reason to switch to the organic stuff! All natural deodorants boast a formula that’s aluminum free, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end.”–Michelle Pellizzon, writing for Thrive Market¹

Never fear, Pellizzon and Thrive Market are ready to leap to the rescue by offering alternatives.  Why, look here… even as we speak, there are three contenders in the very article that just promised us cancer and hormonal imbalances if we go to competing, aluminum-laden brands:

Thrive Market is happy to sell us alternatives. But not so fast… (click/enlarge)

One of the author’s favorites is simply referred to as “the crystal”, and, lucky you, it’s currently on sale for the low, low price of $4.75 USD.

Act now Thrive customers, it’s on sale! (click/enlarge)

The ingredients are rather disingenuously listed as “Mineral salts and purified water”²  What exactly does that mean?  Is Thrive hiding something from us?  Let’s sashay over to the manufacturer’s web page and dig into the FAQ:³

Deodorant Stones of America’s FAQ reveals the hidden aluminum–and a heavy dose of scientific misinformation.

The deodorant in question is manufactured by Deodorant Stones of America (DSA).  A quick glance at the FAQ on the company’s web³ site reveals that their products are made from alum, a class of chemical compounds that contain aluminum.  Yes, you read that correctly–the Thrive Market article that claims aluminum in deodorants is toxic is, incredibly, selling you a deodorant that contains aluminum.

It gets laughably worse.  DSA claims that aluminum is a mineral.  It’s not–it’s an element. One of the few things DSA gets right about the most common metal in the crust of the Earth is that it’s natural.  They should have continued:  There’s no reason to fear this metal, unless you have a medical condition such as kidney failure, in which case you’d be on dialysis, and want to avoid exposure in excess.  But Deodorant Stones of America isn’t the guilty party here–it’s Thrive Market and their blatant fear mongering, designed to steer consumers away from safe products that contain the very same element found in the deodorant they’re hawking in their “sky is falling” tripe.

As we’ll see in upcoming articles, the link between Thrive Market and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is particularly worrisome.  Although EWG claims to have no financial stake in Thrive, they’re aggressively marketing the online store through an email campaign that includes the astounding demand that consumers be allowed to use food stamps to buy the overpriced organic products found there.  Organic products are no more safe than their commercial counterparts–they’re just designed to lighten the wallet. And Thrive heavily cites EWG as a scientific authority (even though they’re not) when disparaging competitor’s products and touting their own.  You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

One promise I’ll make, and deliver upon quite often in the future: Thrive Market is loaded with products that their and EWG’s “research” claims to be dangerous.  See you soon!

 

References
(1) Thrive Tries It: We Test 3 Natural Deodorants
https://thrivemarket.com/blog/thrive-tries-natural-deodorant

(2) ThriveMarket.com: Deodorant Stones of America Crystal Deodorant Stick
https://thrivemarket.com/deodorant-stones-of-america-crystal-deodorant-stick

(3) Deodorant Stones of America FAQ
http://www.deodorantstones.com/faqs.html

Image Credits
Thrive and Deodorant Stones of America product/screen snapshots are used in strict 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.

Food Babe Advisor Mark Hyman Selling Parabens He Links To Cancer

It’s been a while since we last visited the online store of Vani Hari’s (the “Food Babe’s”) trusted advisor, Dr. Mark Hyman.  I was poking around on his virtual shelves last night and noticed the inventory had grown substantially since discovering he was selling a self-described cancer-causing supplement a few months ago. Given the shady history of all of Food Babe’s advisors, five will get you ten that we’ll discover another skeleton in Hyman’s closet now that he’s marketing all these new wares.  So I thought that you, dear reader, might like to do some online shopping with me.  What say you?  Let’s pull out those credit cards and…

Oops!  I’m so embarrassed.  Safety first!  Before we shop here at Bad Science Debunked, we always review our Safety Rule O’The Day.  If you’re a regular here, you know that these rules always come from the people we’re actually buying from.

Today we’re going to pay close attention to parabens.  For critical advice on this class of chemicals, Dr. Hyman links us to the gold standard of medical web sites, The Huffington Post, which puts on its best white lab coat and tells us:  “Breast Cancer Study Finds Parabens in Virtually All Tumors.”^1,2

Dr. Mark Hyman shares his wisdom on parabens (by linking to a Huffington Post article).  (click/enlarge)

 

The Huffington Post piece links parabens to cancer, and since Hyman is a golly-gee-whiz real live doctor who hardly ever sells us product he says are harmful, I suppose we’d better take his advice and avoid parabens.

Right, then!  We can finally go shopping!

Hey, how about this nice jar of supplements?  I have no idea what the hell it does, but it’s got a nice scientific-sounding name–OmegaGenics EPA-DHA 500 EC–and it’s sold by a doctor:³

This supplement sold by Dr. Mark Hyman contains methylparaben and propylparaben, which he links to breast cancer. (click/enlarge)

But you know, the one thing we should probably do before we type in our credit card number and click the “buy” button is peruse the list of ingredients.  You can never be too careful these days.  Why, just moments ago, Dr. Hyman was telling us how dangerous parabens were.  So what’s in this supplement he’s selling us?  Ahem:³

Marine lipid concentrate [fish (anchovy, sardine, and mackerel) oil], softgel shell (gelatin, glycerin, water), enteric coating [methacrylic acid copolymer, propylene glycol, triacetin, glyceryl monostearate, triethyl citrate, vanillin, polysorbate 80, methyl paraben (preservative), and propyl paraben (preservative)], natural lemon flavor, mixed tocopherols (antioxidant), rosemary extract, and ascorbyl palmitate (antioxidant)

Wait.  What?  Methylparaben and propylparaben?  But Hyman just posted a link to Facebook that warned us that parabens were linked to cancer!

You knew this was coming, didn’t you? 😉

This isn’t the first time Dr. Hyman has been caught with his pants down.  He has previously claimed that caramel level IV coloring causes cancer, but that’s exactly the additive you’ll find in the Neuromins supplements sold via his online store. He warned that the artificial sweetener xylitol would slow your metabolism and add belly fat, but sells the supplement Endefen, which contains xylitol.  Pure cane sugar is to be avoided, according to the good doctor, but you’ll find it in his $50 Pure Lean Chocolate Powder.

To quote the great Winnie the Pooh: “Oh, bother!”.

It’s not hard to see how poor Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) went astray in her own career, having been caught selling nearly three dozen products containing the same ingredients she says are toxic, when she’s getting her advice from doctors like Mark Hyman, who sets such a fine example.  What will we find next on the shelves of the stores of a Food Babe advisor?

Stay tuned and see.

 

References
(1) Mark Hyman Facebook Post on Parabens
https://www.facebook.com/drmarkhyman/posts/100469773412731

(2) Huffington Post: Breast Cancer Study Finds Parabens in Virtually All Tumors
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/organic-authoritycom/breast-cancer-parabens-_b_1209041.html

(3) Omega Genenics EPA-DHC 500 Enteric Coated 120 Count
http://store.drhyman.com/omegagenics-epa-dha-500-enteric-coated-120-ct.html

Image Credits
Mark Hyman Facebook and product screen snapshots are used in strict 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.

Mark Hyman “rear view mirror” illustration by Mark Alsip/Bad Science Debunked.  Used under parody/education 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.

Hyman’s Sugary Hypocrisy

Mark Hyman’s “Ten Rules To Eat Safely For Life And What To Remove From Your Kitchen”¹ has been an absolute gold mine of debunking material.  Never have I found so much hypocrisy in one article.  Nearly every paragraph Hyman writes demonizes an ingredient that he then pushes in his online store.

We’ve already looked at Hyman simultaneously vilifying and selling xylitol and miracle-cure foods in his “ten rules” article.  But he’s not done yet.  Not by a long shot.  Tell us how you feel about sugar derived from cane, Dr. Hyman:

“If sugar (by any name, including organic cane juice, honey, agave, maple syrup, cane syrup, or molasses) is on the label, throw it out.” ¹  (emphasis mine)

(Sigh).  Off we go to Mark Hyman’s online store.  How about a tasty nutritional shake?²

I can hear the skeptics in the crowd shouting, “show me the ingredients!”  I’d be happy to:²

Organic cane sugar.

Organic. Cane. Sugar.

But… but… Hyman wrote:

“If sugar (by any name, including organic cane juice, honey, agave, maple syrup, cane syrup, or molasses) is on the label, throw it out.” ¹

 

[Drops microphone.  Leaves stage.]

Image Credits
Mark Hyman and Pure Lean Powder 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.

Microphone by Chris Engelsma, from Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Artist does not necessarily endorse or agree with the viewpoints expressed in this article.

References
(1) Ten Rules To Eat Safely For Life And What To Remove From Your Kitchen
http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/02/02/10-rules-to-eat-safely-for-life-and-what-to-remove-from-your-kitchen/

(2) Dr. Mark Hyman’s Pure Lean Powder: Chocolate
http://store.drhyman.com/Store/Show/Nutritional-Shakes/739/Pure-Lean-Powder%2c-chocolate

Xylitol, Warrior Princess: Mark Hyman Debunked

I’ve always wanted to include Lucy Lawless in one of my articles. “Xenatol” sounded like “Xylitol”. Yeah. It’s pretty bad word play. Sorry. Hey, how much did you have to pay to read this stuff? 😉

I thought my debunking of Dr. Mark Hyman’s “10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life)“¹ would be a one off job, but the deeper I read, the more nonsense I found.  There’s enough material there for a half dozen articles, and Hyman commits some real howlers.  If there was ever evidence that these snake oil salesmen don’t actually read the labels of the overpriced products they’re selling, Hyman’s “Endefen” supplements is it.

I’d like to start with this pearl of wisdom from Dr. Hyman:

“Throw out food with artificial sweeteners of all kinds  (aspartame, Splenda, sucralose, and sugar alcohols—any word that ends with “ol” like xylitol, sorbitol). They make you hungrier, slow your metabolism, give you bad gas, and make you store belly fat.”–Mark Hyman on artificial sweeteners ¹  (emphasis mine)

So Dr. Hyman claims that the sweetener xylitol will make us hungrier, slow our metabolisms, cause us to “tootle melodiously through our sphincters” (I’m embarrassed by the word “fart”), and store belly fat?

My grandfather had an old saying from which Hyman would benefit: “a closed mouth gathers no feet.”

Here’s an interesting product sold in the Hyman store: “Endefen”: ²

Mark Hyman’s Endefen product. Wonder what’s inside?  (click/enlarge)

 

The full ingredients list is available at this link,² but let’s zoom in on that suspicious-looking additive trying to hide behind sunglasses and false wig.  You!  I say!  You there sir!  You with the red circle around you!  Can you stand up and identify yourself please?

Bless his heart! Dr. Hyman is selling xylitol, the very additive he says to avoid!

Why it’s Xylitol!  Hyman is selling the very sweetener he says to avoid!^1,2  To add the icing on the cake (no sugar pun intended), once you’ve finished all twenty-eight servings of Endefen, you will have consumed 26.6 grams of xylitol. Just under seven percent of the entire 420 gram bottle is xylitol by weight.

And oh, dear friends… I wish we could drop this and move on.  But did you notice the “Mannose” above the “Xylitol” in the Hyman’s Endefen?  Shouldn’t someone with a medical degree know that mannose a sugar monomer, especially if he’s going to preach about sweeteners as if they’re bringing on Armageddon?

“If sugar (by any name, including organic cane juice, honey, agave, maple syrup, cane syrup, or molasses) is on the label, throw it out.”–Mark Mark Hyman

Add in the mannose and Dr. Hyman’s product is now 8% sugar by weight.

Golly Gee.  Should we tell somebody about this?  Dr. Hyman?  Are you there sir?  Hello?

Nobody seems to be picking up…  hello?  Dr. Mark Hyman!  Paging Dr. Hyman…

 

I *love* PubChem. The naming section for compounds is particularly helpful in trying to determine if Hyman’s “D-Xylitol” is xylitol.  Chemists say it is.

 

Image Credits
Mark Hyman, Endefen, and PubChem 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.

Xena Warrior Princess meme by the author, used under parody provisions of 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) 10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life (and What to Remove from Your Kitchen)
http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/02/02/10-rules-to-eat-safely-for-life-and-what-to-remove-from-your-kitchen/

(2) Endefen Supplement on Dr. Mark Hyman’s Online Store
http://store.drhyman.com/Store/Show/Healthy-Fiber/449/Endefen

(3) PubChem Compound Summary for CID 6912: Xylitol
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/xylitol#section=Top

Dr. Mark Hyman Wants You To Throw Out His Own Food Products

Dr. Mark Hyman’s literary masterpiece “10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life (and What to Remove From Your Kitchen)”¹ contains this bit of sage advice:

“If a food has a label it should have fewer than five ingredients. If it has more than five ingredients, throw it out.”¹

Really? More than five ingredients qualifies the product for a trip to the waste basket?  Obviously when the good doctor wrote these lines, he wasn’t paying attention to what was on the shelves of his own online store–or hoping his followers would be too blind to notice.  Dr. Hyman, have you ever heard of “GlycemX360 Chocolate Shake Mix”?  I hope so, because you sell it:

(drum roll please…) Let’s bring up the ingredient list.²

Dr. Hyman’s chocolate shake contains over 45 ingredients. (click/enlarge)

 

Over 45 ingredients!  So by Hyman’s own \logic, you should thrown this product out (assuming you wasted money on it in the first place).  But wait!  There’s more!  Again from the doctor:

“Also beware of food with health claims on the label” ¹

Well doctor, let’s look at your labeling:

“Also beware of food with health claims on the label” says Hyman. Pot. Kettle. Black.

An “advanced medical food” with more (unsubstantiated) health claims than I can shake a stick at.

The cynical side of me feels that if people are so easily deceived by snake oil salesmen like Mark Hyman, they deserve what’s coming to them.  The compassionate side overcomes that, however.  I truly feel sorry for those wasting hard-earned cash on this nonsense.  The fact that a man with the letters “M.D.” after his name is pushing the pseudoscience makes it all the more offensive.

End rant.

Image Credits
Mark Hyman 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.

References
(1) 10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life (and What to Remove From Your Kitchen)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/healthy-eating_b_1250939.html

(2) GlycemX360 Chocolate Shake on Dr. Hyman’s Online Store
http://store.drhyman.com/Store/Show/Nutritional-Shakes/774/GlycemX360-Chocolate

Dr. Mark Hyman’s Cellulose Hypocrisy

Catching pseudoscientific doctors in the act of demonizing ingredients while simultaneously selling the same to their blissfully unaware followers is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

This week we’re back with Dr. Mark Hyman, MD., and another offering from his world class online “Wellness Shop”.  First, of course, we must have the setup: here’s Dr. Hyman weighing in on the common food/supplement additive cellulose:¹

Mark Hyman doesn’t like cellulose. He doesn’t even understand what it is. (click/enlarge)

Calling cellulose “sawdust” is a scare tactic (and one that’s going to really bite the doctor hard a few paragraphs from now).  Cellulose is simply an organic compound that makes up most of the cell walls of plants (including trees).

Hyman isn’t a big fan of cellulose, listing it as one of the additives to avoid in his article “Health Foods That are Dangerous For Your Health.” ²  (It probably isn’t coincidental that he’s closely affiliated with Vani Hari, who also claims cellulose is dangerous, but let’s stick to Hyman for now.)

As you’ve probably guessed, it’s time to point our browser outward and experience the Mark Hyman Shopping Experience.^{(Patent Pending)}  Let’s have a look at the Pure Encapsulations Digestive Enzymes Ultra product being sold on his web site:³

Pure Encapsulations Digestive Enzymes Ultra as seen in the Mark Hyman Wellness Shop.

The list of ingredients on Hyman’s shopping page ends with something that might seem a bit cryptic if you haven’t studied biology:

“Hypoallergenic plant fiber”?  Why would Hyman’s web site list the additive this way.  Why, that’s another name for cellulose!

“Hypoallergenic plant fiber?”  Excuse me, but that sounds like cellulose!

Not wanting to falsely accuse Hyman, I contacted the manufacturer (Pure Encapsulations) and received this reply:

“Dear Mr. Alsip,

Yes, the hypo-allergenic plant fiber is cellulose derived from pine.  I have attached an information sheet here with this spelled out (also available on our website).”–email from Pure Encapsulations Product Support, 21 Aug 2015 (emphasis mine)

The email went on to explain that the company wasn’t trying to hide anything.  And they certainly weren’t.  Their own web site clearly explains that the “plant fiber” is indeed cellulose.⁵  The detailed PDF they were kind enough to send explicitly states this.  Hyman clearly edited the word out for his shopping page.  Why?  I can only guess it’s because he has demonized cellulose in his Facebook and blog posts.  If you’re making money from a product, you don’t want people to to think it’s dangerous, right?

Unedited (original) product data from Pure Encapsulations web site (click/enlarge)

I need to stop here and point out how helpful the folks at Pure Encapsulations have been in answering my questions about their products.  They seem as perplexed as I am as to why anyone would have a problem with cellulose.  I hope that Mark Hyman’s hypocrisy and creative editing of ingredients won’t reflect negatively on this company which, to the best of my knowledge, has a sterling safety record and is well regarded by its many clients.

The claimed health benefits of this product have not been evaluated by the FDA, but there’s certainly nothing dangerous about it.  If you want to buy supplements such as this, have at it… just don’t buy from DrHyman.com.

 

References
(1) Hyman demonizes cellulose on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/drmarkhyman/posts/645782292119190

(2) Health Foods That Are Dangerous For Your Health (Hyman)
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/07/04/health-foods-that-are-dangerous-for-your-health/

(3) Pure Encapsulations Digestive Enzymes Ultra on Mark Hyman’s Online Store
http://store.drhyman.com/Store/Show/Enzymes/861/Digestive-Enzymes-Ultra-180-ct

(4) Pure Encapsulations Digestive Enzymes Ultra Ingredients List
http://www.pureencapsulations.com/products/digestive-enzymes-ultra.html

Image Credits
Mark Hyman, Facebook, and Pure Encapsulations 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. Mark Hyman Selling “Dangerous” Toothpaste

It’s not uncommon to find quack doctors contradicting themselves on the internet these days, giving medical advice that directly contradicts facts about products that they’re selling for a profit.  Case in point: Dr. Mark Hyman and his guidance on toothpaste.

First, we get a Facebook post warning us that toothpaste can be toxic.  But never fear, the good doctor links us to an article written by a dentist friend, with instructions on making our own paste, and, significantly, warning us of ingredients to avoid:¹

Dr. Mark Hyman Facebook post on toothpaste

The Hyman Facebook post leads us to “The Complete Guide to DIY Toothpaste“² written by Dr. Mark Burhenne, DDS. I’ve linked the full article here so I won’t be accused of quote mining, but one of the ingredients Dr. Burhenne warns us we must avoid in a toothpaste is:

“Glycerin, which isn’t toxic, but has no place in the mouth as it’s a soap that strips your body’s natural oral mucosa and leaves a film. This film could coat the teeth, messing with the structure of the biofilm which could alter the microbiome in the mouth and impact the natural remineralization process — your body’s natural cavity-fighting mechanism.” ²

It just so happens that rather than make his own toothpaste as he’s just recommended, Dr. Mark Hyman sells a commercial brand in his online store.  It’s known as PerioBiotic, and he highly recommends it.  Let’s take a look at the ingredients in this toothpaste:³

Dr. Hyman’s PerioBiotic toothpaste contains some interesting ingredients

Oh dear.  Is that glycerin I see listed there?  Didn’t Hyman just post an article by a dentist telling us that glycerin has no place in our mouth?^1,2  Why yes, he did!  The toothpaste Hyman is hawking can, according to his own reference material, dangerously alter the microbiome of your mouth, strip its natural mucosa, and alter the body’s ability to naturally fight cavities.

Ouch!

If you get the impression that woomeisters such as Hyman take a shotgun approach to posting self-contradictory articles, ostensibly to cross promote others of their ilk, then you may be on to something.  Notice that I highlighted the (misspelled) ingredient carrageenan in Hyman’s toothpaste.  No, the dentist didn’t disparage carrageenan in his article, but Hyman and one of his compatriots certainly–famously–have.  Let’s look at a Hyman Twitter post:⁴

Dr. Hyman congratulates Food Babe, celebrates removal of “controversial” ingredient carrageenan/Twitter. (click/enlarge)

Hyman is congratulating our old friend, the Food Babe (Vani Hari) on her purported part in the removal of the “controversial” (hint: it really isn’t) ingredient carrageenan from a certain company’s products.  Yet here we find it in the toothpaste being sold by Dr. Hyman, who wrote the foreword to Food Babe’s book, The Food Babe Way.  Hyman hails Hari as a hero,⁵ but doesn’t think twice about earning money from a product containing an ingredient she falsely links to cancer.⁶ He can’t feign ignorance–he tweeted her congratulations on its removal!

This “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” theme runs rampant among the woomeisters currently pushing their pseudoscience on the web these days.  Hyman helps Burhenne and Hari with links and referrals, and they do the same for him^7,8–but none of them seem aware of the fact that they’re contradicting each other (and themselves).

Or, as long as the money rolls in, maybe they don’t care.

References
(1) Dr. Mark Hyman “Toxic Toothpaste” post
https://www.facebook.com/drmarkhyman/posts/1040445272652888

(2) The Complete Guide to DIY Toothpaste
http://askthedentist.com/homemade-toothpaste/

(3) Mark Hyman Healthy Living Store: PerioBiotic Toothpaste (Spearmint)
http://store.drhyman.com/Store/Show/ListAlphabetically/827/PerioBiotic-Toothpaste-%28Spearmint%29

(4) Mark Hyman celebrates carrageenan removal (Twitter)
https://twitter.com/markhymanmd/status/502810272294109184

(5) Do You Know What’s Really In Your Food? (Hyman blog)
http://drhyman.com/blog/2015/02/05/know-whats-really-food/

(6) Watch Out For This Carcinogen In Your Organic Food (Hari blog)
http://foodbabe.com/2012/05/22/watch-out-for-this-carcinogen-in-your-organic-food/

(7) Burhenne Tweets Hyman
https://twitter.com/askthedentist

(8) Food Babe’s Special Mark Hyman Section
http://foodbabe.com/markhymanmd/

Image Credits
PerioBiotic, Facebook, Dr. Mark Hyman 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.