The Food Babe Decoded
Vani Hari, who goes by the alias “The Food Babe” has become a real social phenomenon. She blogs, appears on TV and has just come out with a book that quickly made it to the New York Times best seller list. She has lots of followers and lots of critics, including myself. I don’t disagree with her goal of improving people’s eating habits. I just disagree with the methods used. Irrational fear-mongering is not the way to go. "There is just no acceptable level of any chemical to ingest, ever," she says. I think by now Vani has had enough mud flung at her to make her understand that everything in the world is made of chemicals, so in the above quote she probably refers to chemicals not found naturally in food. She equates food additives to toxins, which in nonsensical. In fact additives are better tested than many natural food components. In the following article, for which I was interviewed, Courtney Rubin paints an accurate picture of Hari as a well-meaning but scientifically confused publicity hound who has been catapulted to fame by charming ignorance.