Last week The Australian newspaper raised serious questions about the veracity of the popular health blogger’s personal story of being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and given just months to live before curing herself with food.
Since those doubts were cast Ms Gibson – who inspired the hugely popular health app The Whole Pantry – has seen her empire come crashing down with some suggestions that the 23-year-old social media entrepreneur never had cancer at all and now her publisher has pulled their endorsement.
“Despite our best endeavours, Penguin Books has not received sufficient explanation from Ms Gibson, author of The Whole Pantry recipe book, in response to recent allegations. As such, we have been left with no other option but to stop supplying the book in Australia,” Penguin Books said in a statement.
“We remain hopeful that we will receive the formal assurances we have requested in the coming days.”
Wellness author Belle Gibson appearing on Sunrise before the controversy.
The action comes after Penguin admitted it didn’t check for evidence her story was true before publishing her cookbook, which gained credibility from her personal cancer survival story.
On Friday night Ms Gibson hit back in a longwinded Facebook post, sardonically encouraging her critics to talk to the media if they needed to because “it says more about you, and your priorities than me or the story you’ll get paid to tell”, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Ms Gibson claimed she felt “bullied to my death” but went on to defend the work of The Whole Pantry.
“…I know the work my company and it’s [sic] contents did changed hundreds of thousands for the better,” she wrote.
Pete Evans believed to proceed self-publishing his Paleo cookbook for babies
All of this comes in the wake of The Weekly’s revelation last Wednesday that celebrity chef Pete Evans’ had planned to publish a Paleo book for babies which included a DIY baby bone broth formula that peak health authorities warned could harm or kill infants.
Pete Evans’ Paleo cookbook Bubba Yum Yum will be published despite health warnings.
It is now believed that the book will be self-published by its co-authors with Pan Macmillan Australia releasing a statement distancing itself from the controversial release.
“The authors of ‘Bubba Yum Yum – The Paleo Way – for new mums, babies and toddlers’ have decided to release a digital version of the book very shortly, and will, therefore, no longer publish the book, in any format, with Pan Macmillan Australia.”
This decision now leaves question over whether the books authors, Charlotte Carr, Helen Padarin and My Kitchen Rules host, Pete Evans, will include the potentially deadly DIY baby formula in their digital version.
Pete Evans, who once prided himself on his pizza recipes, is now endorsing a Paleo diet for babies.
Pete alluded to the book going ahead on his Facebook page last week and his announcement came after peak health organisation, the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA), went public with its fears about the book.
A DAA spokeswoman said an independent analysis of the contentious baby milk formula – based on blended liver and bone broth – showed that despite the book’s claim it was comparable in its nutrient profile to breastmilk, this was not the case.
“This formula could be very harmful to infants, their immature immune and digestive systems could not cope with this formulation and the levels of these nutrients it contains,” the spokeswoman said. “In a newborn, the formulation could cause permanent damage and possibly result in death.”
Among findings were that the DIY formula was 749 per cent higher in vitamin A, 2,326 per cent higher in vitamin B12, 1,067 per cent higher in iron, 879 per cent higher in sodium and 220 per cent higher in protein.
Babies can fall ill or die from vitamin A overdose, too much protein is linked to future obesity, too much iron can interfere with absorption of other nutrients and their kidneys cannot cope with large amounts of salt.
Dietitians Association of Australia warn Paleo recipes found in cookbook co-authored by Pete Evans put babies at risk of salmonella and botulism
Advice elsewhere in the book, says the DAA, such as recipes containing runny egg and honey, may put babies at risk of serious infections like salmonella and botulism.
The push to publish the book comes as the Australian Medical Association (AMA) calls for health advice issued by celebrities and alternative wellness advocates to be scrutinised more rigorously before being published in books or online to protect the public.
The country’s leading organisation for doctors issued the warning in the wake of a string of controversies over health claims made by popular alternative health and diet advocates without formally-recognised medical or health qualifications.
“We live in an era where people sometimes equate celebrity with expertise, which is not the case” Dr Stephen Parnis, vice president of the AMA told The Weekly online. “At best [alternative health and diet advocates] may advocate something which is supposed to be therapeutic but actually has no effect. But at worst, it can be dangerous.”
Can we trust celebrity cookbooks?
Last month, the Wellness Warrior Jess Ainscough died from a slow-moving cancer seven years after shunning conventional treatment in favour of Gerson Therapy, an unproven alternative health regime that includes coffee enemas and juices. She had previously attracted a strong social media following from fans who were inspired by her survival story.
Dr Parnis told The Weekly testing and evidence should be required before health claims and advice given by alternative health and diet advocates are published.
“Unfortunately when it comes to nutrition people may succumb to fads,” he said. “The risk is that people may come to harm.”
Alternative health advocates and their publishers should be prepared to take responsibility for health claims or advice that they give, Dr Parnis said, just as a doctor is liable for the care and advice they give to patients.
“It’s fine for people to do their own looking about or research,” he said. “But they should always check it with a reputable source – particularly with serious diseases, always run it past your doctor.”
Independent consumer watchdog Choice echoed Dr Parnis’ advice. “It’s really important that people understand the difference between medical science and alternative therapies,” a Choice spokesman said. “If you are really unwell, your first port of call should not be an alternative therapist.”
