“In an age when consumers have become increasingly suspicious of processed food, the Internet has become a powerful platform for activists who want to hold Big Food accountable,” begins a story posted yesterday at the NPR blog The Salt about Vani Hari, known on the Web as “Food Babe.”
Detractors, many of them academics, say she stokes unfounded fears about what is in our food to garner publicity.
Steve Novella, a Yale neuroscientist and prominent pseudoscience warrior, among others, has dubbed Hari the “Jenny McCarthy of food” after the celebrity known for championing thoroughly debunked claims that vaccines cause autism, NPR reported.
Critics note that Hari lacks credentials in nutrition or food science; she is a former consultant who studied computer science. Hari declined to be interviewed for this story; through her publicist, she told NPR she is not speaking to media until her new book is released in February. But when the Charlotte Observer asked her about such criticisms, Hari answered, “I’ve never claimed to be a nutritionist. I’m an investigator.”
But that lack of training often leads her to misinterpret peer-reviewed research and technical details about food chemistry, nutrition and health, says Kevin Folta, a professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida and vocal online critic of Hari. “She really conflates the science,” he tells The Salt.
“If anything, she’s created more confusion about food, more confusion about the role of chemicals and additives,” Folta says.
The blog post can be read in its entirety on The Salt’s webpage here.
