I've been at this skeptical blogging thing for over a decade now. I realize that I periodically remind you, my readers, of this and that perhaps I do it too often, but my reminders generally serve a purpose. Specifically, they serve to put an exclamation point on my surprise when I discover a new purveyor of pseudoscience and/or quackery that I had never heard of before but who is apparently fairly well known in the quackosphere. Such is what happened this week, when I learned of a man who appears to be challenging Deepak Chopra and Bruce Lipton for the title of most annoying mystical quack in the world. He's yet another example of the old adage, "Just when you think you've seen it all, you haven't." I'm referring to a guy who calls himself David Avacado Wolfe, who's shown up in a couple of posts at another blog collective. The only difference is that this guy is not a physician, which, embarrassingly to me, Chopra is, and he hasn't tried to turn his woo into a clinical trial yet, which Chopra has done. Yet he still manages to crank up the pseudoscience to 11 selling everything from a juicer to dear antler extract as magical ways of improving your longevity.
First, let's take a look at David Wolfe's website. If you think Deepak Chopra has a big ego, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Just take a peek at Wolfe's biography:
David “Avocado” Wolfe is the rock star and Indiana Jones of the superfoods and longevity universe. The world’s top CEOs, ambassadors, celebrities, athletes, artists, and the real superheroes of this planet—Moms—all look to David for expert advice in health, beauty, herbalism, nutrition, and chocolate!
David is the celebrity spokesperson for America’s #1 selling kitchen appliance: the NUTRiBULLET™ and for www.LongevityWarehouse.com. He is the co-founder of TheBestDayEver.com online health magazine and is the visionary founder and president of the non-profit The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation charity (www.ftpf.org) with a mission to plant 18 billion fruit, nut, and medicinal trees on planet Earth.With over 20 years of dedicated experience and having hosted over 2750 live events, David has led the environmental charge for radiant health via a positive mental attitude, eco-community building, living spring water, and the best-ever quality organic foods and herbs.
Heck, it's tempting to wonder whether Wolfe is trying to out-do even that legendary master of quackery and conspiracy theories, Mike Adams, a.k.a. The Health Ranger, who only fancies himself a real scientist and computer genius. Not only is he a rock star, but he's the "Indiana Jones" of superfoods and longevity! Of course, my first thought on reading this sentence—actually, my second thought after, "Man, is this guy a self-obsessed tool!"—was, "What the heck does Indiana Jones have to do with superfoods and longevity?" Is Wolfe picking up a whip, putting on a Fedora, and invading ancient tombs looking for new superfoods and herbs to increase your longevity?
Of course, a man is known by the company he keeps:
David is a highly sought after health and personal success speaker. He has shared the stage with success and business coaches like Anthony Robbins, Richard Branson, Brian Tracy, John DeMartini, as well as acclaimed doctors and health researchers including: Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Sara Gottfried, Dr. Lissa Rankin, Dr Dave Woynarowksi and many more.
Bruce Lipton and Joe Mercola, "acclaimed doctors and health researchers"? What is this guy smoking? I want some. (Actually, I don't. As I've said many times before, I can't inhale. I start coughing too hard.) You get my point, though. I've documented time and time again what utter and complete quacks these guys are.
So what is David Avacado Wolfe selling? I wandered over to his Facebook page to find out. Wow. The very first thing I came across was this:
Yes, it's infant reflexology! For those of you not familiar with reflexology, it's a form of quackery where it is claimed that different organs map to different parts the soles of our feet and the palms of our hands. It's based on a prescientific idea of how the body works, complete with vitalistic references to “energy” flowing through the body between the feet and various organs as the "mechanism" by which massaging the feet will somehow result in a therapeutic effect to specific organs, depending on what part of the sole of the foot is massaged.
Much of the rest of what's on his page tend to be content-free platitudes about being "natural" and the power of positive thinking, but sprinkled in among the feel-good nonsense are occasional chunks of pure pseudoscience. Anti-GMO nonsense? Check:
"Appeal to nature" fallacy? Check.
Pro-cannabis exaggeration of the sort I've discussed three times before? Check.
You get the idea. I actually thought this guy's name sounded vaguely familiar; so I looked to see if I had ever blogged about him before. I hadn't blogged about him per se, but I had mentioned im in the context of the paean to raw food woo, Simply Raw, where he appeared in one of the accompanying featurettes with Joe Mercola touting some sort of "super immunity" program involving "detoxification" to promote longevity. This trailer for Best Day Ever gives you a taste of what I'm talking about:
I think the end of the trailer tells it all, where Wolfe asks, "Is it possible to never feel bad ever, to never feel sadness, to never feel depression ever, to remove those emotions from our psyche totally? And the answer is yes." To which I respond: Even if that were possible (it's not), why would anyone want to do that? Sadness is part of life. Is he saying that we shouldn't feel sad when, for example, a loved one dies, something each and every one of us will experience at least several times during our lives?
The woo gets more intense in this excerpt:
Notice that right away the segment starts off with a quack Miranda warning in very tiny print (for a video) in which the viewer is reminded that none of the products being touted has been approved by the FDA and that you should consult with your doctor. In fact, it's one of the more impressive quack Miranda warnings I've ever seen, far more detailed than the usual ones I encounter. Then he goes on about how:
Energies are flowing out of the cosmos—or they're flowing out of the earth and up—and they're being concentrated in certain substances, like a deer's antler. So when you take a deer antler product, that's not soms eort of joke, that's not "oh, we're taking some sort of supplement now," that's a very deeply intuitive read that many sages in the history of our planet tuned into, because they know the prana is concentrated right there.
And for some reason this "life energy" doesn't concentrate in lettuce, but does in deer antlers and shagas, which makes no sense. None of which stops him from saying:
Dear antler is not a product. It's a cosmic substance. And it's an androgenic substance, by the way—very androgenic. And it needs to be taken with respect and understanding, which is why we've been getting into this whole thing about estrogenic forces and then androgenic forces. You gotta know that deer antler is an androgenic force. And why? Because it's cosmic in nature. It's elevating. It's levitational in nature. Which actually makes you younger. The forces of levity make you younger. Rudolf Steiner said that we gradually age due to substances in our body that are seized by the earth's gravity. He could have said anything. He could have said anything at all, but he said that. That's amazing. Then he said that you want to use the force of levity to drive the force of levity into your body. Then he talks about silica, that silica can be made to be levitational again.
Like, wow, man. But, wait. I still don't get it about the deer antlers, other than that apparently David Wolfe sells deer antler extract, from the red deer, specifically. He sells them for quite a pretty penny, too, $75 for a mere 2 oz. bottle of deer antler extract. And, wow, the pseudoscience doth flow in his description of the product:
Deer Antler is considered to be one of the "big three" ultimate herbs of China - Ginseng, Reishi Mushroom and Deer Antler. All three are tonic herbs that have been used since pre-historic times to prolong life, improve energy, to protect the body and to promote wisdom. Deer Antler is a Yang Jing herb, but it also tonifies Yin Jing, Qi, Blood and Shen.
Huh? Deer antlers are not herbs.
The actual "science" used to justify ingesting deer antler extract is even more risible. I wish I had found this right off the bat, rather than when I was halfway done with the post, because I could have done a whole post just on this one product. Here's just a taste, though. Wolfe notes that deer antler contains insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which, by the way, is a real growth factor:
Deer antler extract provides minerals, amino acids, and other nutrients including insulin-like growth factor IGF-1.
Clinical trials have shown IGF-1 to:
- Promote immune functions
- Increase muscular strength and endurance
- Possess anti-inflammatory properties
- Possess growth-stimulating properties
- Help regulate low and high blood pressure.
- Promote sounder, more refreshing sleep.
- Improve eyesight, including night vision.
- Reduce cholesterol and triglycerides.
IGF-1 is causing a great deal of excitement among bodybuilders. According to researchers, IGF-1 increases lean body mass, reduces fat, builds bone, builds muscle, and builds nerves.
IGF-1 is also an important potential nutrient for people interested in reducing the symptoms of aging and for those people interested in living the longest, healthiest, and most active life possible.
"One of the most exciting uses for IGF-1 is that it can repair nerve damage that occurs in injury or illness. These nerves can regenerate to some extent. Severe damage of more than one-half inch may result in permanent injury. However, IGF-1 has repaired and reconnected severed nerve endings up to a distance of six millimeters. This has never, heretofore, been done." This may explain part of Deer Antler's ability to regenerate nerve tissue in deer.
Also, IGF-1 Plus "contains a small-molecular-weight protein that has the unique ability to modulate the immune system. This means that if the immune system is depressed, this protein can dramatically improve it. And if it is overactive, it can reduce it into a normal range."
Anyone know the problem with this? Yes, IGF-1 does a lot of these things, but there's no evidence that supplemental IGF-1 will produce these results. In fact, even if IGF-1 supplementation did these things, consuming it orally wouldn't do a damned thing because IGF-1 is a protein and your digestive tract would break the protein down to its constitutive amino acids long before it could get to any of the receptors that it might bind to in order to exercise its biological effects. As is the case with so many of these sorts of supplements, they include proteins whose biological activity (assuming that supplementing them would even do the things claimed) is destroyed by digestion.
If you want to get an idea of just how dumb the sort of stuff Wolfe is peddling really is, check out this compilation video of his "greatest hits":
I do rather like the part, right at the beginning, where he talks about how chocolate "lines up planetarily with the sun" and "chocolate is an octave of sun energy." What the hell does that even mean? I like chocolate as much as the next guy, but this is inanity. But that's not enough. There's another bit of him saying that it's "same octave" as serotonin, the sun, a smile, and gold.
There's lots more where that came from. ("Bacteria are exceptionally advanced consciousness"?) In fact, I encourage you to listen to the entire thing—if you dare. You might not make it through, because it's nearly 15 minutes of a litany of Deepak Chopra-grade woo. On the other hand, maybe this guy isn't on Deepak Chopra's level. Snake oil salesman that he is, Chopra can at least make his woo sound somewhat plausible to the lay person. I doubt too many fail to recognize this stuff as pure, grade-A nonsense. Unfortunately enough do to keep this guy in business selling deer antler extract.
And Zappers.
- Log in to post comments
"Avocado Wolfe"? The man is deeply confused. There is evidence that avocados feature in the diets of jaguars and cougars, but no-one has suggested that they attract canids.
This guy is even deeper down the rabbit hole than Deepak. Deepak's nonsense sounds like it might have some sort of plausibility in some universe somewhere. Not Mr. Avocado Wolfe. I was particularly taken by the zapper video, but then I discovered it was all a fraud .
Yes, only noticed him this month too, now suddenly everywhere (think march against monsatan gave him a boost).
Experiencing levels of frustration I normally don't, so deep is the crap this hack is spouting. Check the recent food hunk facebook quip on him.
Also, too, it seems his first book was straight plagiarism of a 70s raw food book, uncredited. And he dropped his raw foodism vegan thing for that + mashed ants and antlers. Which leans him more towards 'no scruples' than 'bat shit crazy' camp.
Avocado? Where does that fit into the banana/ cucumber scheme of things?
At any rate, Mikey** was also selling deer antler velvet.
** who has -btw- launched his very own search engine GoodGopher.com, today: it won't be biased like g--gle but will censor corporate and government propaganda
He's probably just terrified of snakes.
Isn't deer antler made of keratin? Might as well just chew your fingernails.
As an astronomer, I can attest to the accuracy of this statement. There is a cosmic microwave background, and as we've learned all too well, the only significant loss of heat from the earth is from infrared radiation that escapes into space.
Not sure about the rest of the excerpt, though ...
I loved this:
Indeed, he could have said anything at all that happened to come into his head.
Daniel Guacamole Fox https://www.facebook.com/danielguacamolefox
The invaluable Encyclopedia of American Loons has a good entry on this guy.
Also, if you haven't been following the third pass through the alphabet, the last three articles have been about people in fields of interest to RI readers, namely:
- two major proponents of naturopathic medicine (Mark Bertolini, an Aetna exec; Brian Berman, a quackademic at the U of Maryland School of Medicine), and
- an antivaxx person (Sallie Berman of SafeMinds).
this is like spirit science with food instead of crystals
He has mastered the Facebook way of marketing - send out tons of cute memes that direct traffic back to you. It's a smart marketing machine he runs. And he's a batshit quack.
*camera pans into a grass field with two bull deer grazing. The deer look up quizzically at each other antlers*
"By Jove, Karl, I believe he is right. You are wearing cosmic substance on your head"
"Oh shut up, Sig, it's just that kids call it these days."
--------------------------------------------
The presence of ladies in the room prevents me from further commenting on the deer's antlers being "very androgenic".
More seriously, I don't think much of people looking after rhino's horns for also being "very androgenic". Not sure I like deer people any better.
jypsy @8 -- That's hilarious!
I watched all 3 videos. Yiiiiii! Mushroom ETs!
He appears to be a salesman above all else.
Like the other loons I survey, he encourages followers to whip up incredible mixtures of liquefied glop which are composed of ingredients he sells. Thus they either sell packaged superfoods ( Mikey) or dried powdered fruits, vegetables and herbs ( Gary)- all of which are composed of purified life essence which will enhance your own.
Rather than a supplement capsule or pill ( @ 500 mg/ 1 g) or powders ( serving size 30 g), the ingredients in these smoothies add up to ounces and can replace meals. Raw food diets can be partially acquired through super markets or even grown at home ( Mike has that covered though, with his mini-farms). Some of these miracle foods originate in diverse and farflung locales rather than garden variety sources.
I once added up ingredients' costs that Mike listed in one of his breakfast smoothies- it's expensive to do. Similarly, creating drinks based on the powdered stuff.
I wonder if his followers ever eat anything? It's easy to get 2000 calories or so by liquid drinks especially if you include powdered nuts or oils.
I blogged about Wolfe and his nuttery nonsense last month. He packs a lot of rubbish into the memes that appear on his Facebook feed. I was really annoyed because he was promoting all sorts of nonsense in the guise of inspiration memes, and then would slip in some health quackery.
http://tysonadams.com/2015/04/13/beware-the-meme/
Helianthus @12 -- Deer antler is surely no more androgenic than rhino horn, but at least in North America deer are not endangered. Far from it -- their natural predators are long gone, and there are far too many of 'em.
Incidentally, one thing that distinguishes the US from Europe are the enormous tracts of essentially untended forests -- they go on for mile after mile after mile in the northeast.
palindrom -- I have seen a statistic that says that there are more white-tailed deer in the US today than there were during the American Revolution, which of course begs the question...did someone count them?
I don't know about cosmic substances, I just know the darn critters seem to have a psychic ability to determine when our sweet corn patch is ready. Them and the raccoons.
I can never keep up with today's woo. I thought we were supposed to avoid milk from cows given rbst because it slightly increased IGF-1 in the milk. This was supposed to be horrible for people t drink.
@#12 Helianthus
The presence of ladies in the room prevents me from further commenting on the deer’s antlers being “very androgenic”.
The ladies in the room would love to know more, so stop being sexist! :-))
I often wonder who supports (literally and figuratively) these goofballs, and then I run into someone who actually does. It ruins my whole day.
I think he cribbed his bio from Buckaroo Banzai.
@ shay:
Aha! I see that your animal guests are into the raw food diet.
Ahhh! That infomercial!
This is the guy who sells the "Nutribullet" blender/juicer* on a half-hour infomercial that's been airing (in the US) for, what--three years now?
Most people quickly change the channel when they realize it's an infomercial on. I work a television job where I have no choice but to watch the whole thing. I have the damn thing memorized. Him and Shaun T (of endless exercise video sets) own the early-morning TV-filler dead zone. (Oh, and that vacuum cleaner guy too.)
*He absolutely insists that its "NOT a blender, NOT a juicer." Oh, and it "turns ordinary foods...[dramatic pause]...into SUPERFOODS!" I'm sure it's sold well. Isn't he rich enough off of that?
As a trained musician, Avocado's misuse of the word octave makes me flinch. (It's worse, content-wise, than the misuse of crescendo, surely the most frequently misused musical term. At least the way people tend to misuse crescendo is closely related to its denotation.)
Deer antlers are actually bone, so different than rhino horn. And yes, they count the deer. Obviously they can't count every one, but statistically they can count the deer. Reams of wildlife publications can tell you how to do it.
"Deer antlers are not herbs."
You just have to find a deer named Herb. Then the antlers are Herb's.
After watching about a third of his zapper video, I'm seriously contemplating building him a 400 volt square wave zapper with convenient in-ear electrodes.
As my favorite Wolfe, Nero, would say: "Pfui."
probably with a rebuke for wittering
Composer99: "As a trained musician, Avocado’s misuse of the word octave makes me flinch"
Just like I hate the way they use "frequency" and "energy." In my former life I was a structural dynamics engineer where I was particularly interested in natural frequencies and how they affected structural movement (trying to avoid another "Galloping Gertie", a short lived Tacoma Narrows bridge).
Next time someone pulls the "frequency" of something I am going to demand they show me the eigenvalues and eigenvectors!
(note: kids all got music lessons and they had to endure me geeking out when while one kid was practicing the piano I noticed the snare drum started to rattle)
Is he perchance unaware of the relative sizes of one-half inch and six millimeters?
Re: the Indiana Jones bit
Perhaps he means he keeps finding and losing things? Or he engages in a series of short-lived romantic flings? Perhaps he has a child side-kick?
A noble effort, so long as he keeps the trees to their native areas and isn't introducing invasive species.
I don't know about deer populations in the mid-1700s, but from the mid-1900s to now, the deer populations have very much grown here in Virginia. I remember the first time I saw a road kill deer in the area in about 1988 or 89, and it was the topic of conversation around the water cooler. About 7 or 8 years ago, road killed deer were only worth bringing up if you had run over the deer, which I did. If there were half this many deer running around back in the day, the Founding Fathers must have been eating good.
Yep. To satisfy my creative urges, I make pens. Mostly I use wood, but you can also make them from deer antler. You can see a few examples here - http://www.penturners.org/forum/f274/voting-antler-horn-bone-contest-13…
(none of mine are on that page - I've made a few, but they don't look that good)
While I doubt the extract does you any good, the consensus amongst the pen turners is that deer antler powder is to be avoided http://www.penturners.org/forum/f18/any-bacterial-danger-deer-antler-12…
I have a few pounds of antler, and at $75 for 60mL, I could whip up a big ol' batch of deer antler stock and be rich, if it wasn't for these darn pesky morals.
Proper Johnny
Accept no substitutes
And yes, they count the deer.
In 1776? I'm having visions of one of the Adams brothers standing out in the back 40 with a tally sheet.
I shudder at the thought of what would happen if you ate a minor third of sun energy.
How is this guy successful? I tried watching all three videos and I could not get past the first minute mark. He has a very annoying style that I am surprised that people actually took the time to listen to what he is says. At least Deepak Chopra is good at presenting his material.
This is the guy who tried to explain why he's is/was a vegan while selling deer antlers.So he's quite adapt at mental gymnastics. Scary thing is he's one of the saner ones.
The raw vegan/fruitarian/ whateverelse movement is filled with nuts. If anyone hasn't run across them look up Durian rider & Freelee. They're a special kind of special.
justthestats or #35
or even worse, a flattened fifth. Anything that involved a quarter tone or three quarter tone bend would would probably be instantly fatal.
For pete's sake, who are the dolts who are falling for such an obvious snake-oil salesman?
"Dear antler is not a product. It’s a cosmic substance. And it’s an androgenic substance, by the way—very androgenic....You gotta know that deer antler is an androgenic force."
I'm going to start bringing home all those moose antlers I find while working in the bush. If deer antlers are dear, then imagine how much I could make with one of our majestik møøse antlers--I could probably pay for another research season. You gotta know that moose antler is much more androgenic 'cos size does matter, donchaknow.
I pay big $$$ for antlers for my dogs putatively to chew, but instead they leave them where I will step on them in the dark. Deer antlers work, but there's a premium on elk antlers. I hate to think what moose antlers would cost me. And the androgenic capacity of the antlers would explain some of their behaviors. :)
Deer antler is surely no more androgenic than rhino horn, but at least in North America deer are not endangered.
Don't go knocking the deer velvet scam, it's a useful income stream for NZ deer farmers.
They're sawn off while still growing and more cartilage than calcified. So full of vascular growth factors, is the theory.
The Avocado-Man doesn't explicitly say he's antivax.
But if bacteria are "exceptionally advanced consciousness", then at least some vaccinations are tantamount to murder.
Somebody needs to hip Avocado to Easley Blackwood before it's too late.
What, pray tell, would a non-cosmic substance be?
Given how weird antlers are when you think about it - living bony structures that grow out of an aminal's head and fall off every year - maybe he's just trying to tell us they aren't, in fact, alien intruders from some Lovecraftian otherworld?
None of his "ultimate herbs of China" is an herb, of course; the ginseng is at least a plant, but the part that people use is the root, not leaves or stem.
Also, nothing flows "out" of the cosmos, because we are within/part of the cosmos. By definition. If I thought there was any sense to be made here, I'd be wondering, if "androgenic" substances are powerful and potentially dangerous, at what point taking "astrogenic" ones would cause a person to start fusing hydrogen, or at least emitting visible light
IGF-1 does indeed promote nerve growth in some in-vitro and in some animal studies. But there are only 2 human clinical trials that I know of, 1 in diabetic neuropathy (PMID:15363067) and 1 in ALS (PMID:8502260) and both studies failed to show a benefit of treatment.
Isn't the word for avocado and lawyer the same in French?
Vicki @46 --
Whoa, man ... you're blowing my mind here!
For comic relief, I recommend checking out Daniel Guacamole Fox on Facebook. Though this guy could be his own parody.
This guy is a complete wackadoodle. Avacado? Really? Plus if you want deer antler, walk around the woods in the fall and pick some up or talk to your friends who are hunters. I do not understand the current fad of juicing. Calories that are ingested in liquid form aren't as satisfying as eating, and all of these juice fasts people are on about can't be that healthy. Also I am deeply unclear as to how putting food into a glorified blender turns it into a superfood. Plus they all advocate for organic, non-GMO and other qualifiers. Obviously these are not people who have grocery shopped on a tight budget. But he is playing to the whole crowd who want to be young and beautiful forever.
Google translator translates lawyer to avocat, and avacado to avacado
I am not surprised that Google translate translates "avacado" to "avacado," since it is not a word, but "avocado" does in fact translate to "avocat."
Chocolate is for weight loss:
http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1…
Any, boy do you guys have your work cut out for you.
So, apparently drinking recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) in zero or trace quantities in cow milk is somehow vaguely bad for us because "GMOs" and "chemicals", but drinking/eating uncontrolled quantities of deer antler Interferon Growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is somehow magically good for us because, ummm, "ground energy". Do these quack-meisters and gullible woo-believers ever listen to themselves, or even process language? They're internally inconsistent as well as scientifically illiterate and bat-shit crazy. I'm amazed, but not in a good way.
@palindrom
...and, evidently, frequently did.
Shay: Spanish, actually. The French word for avocado translates to "alligator pear".
The Aztec word that the Spanish were trying to replicate with "lawyer" generally translates to "testicle". Which, when you look at an avocado, kind of makes sense.
Theo would like (or not) a bit from article at TrUTH's link:
emphasis mine
JustaTech, the Spanish word for "lawyer" is abogado or abogada depending on gender. It is based on the Latin for "advocate." I noticed that in my srea and the one I visited in California last weekend have many storefronts that say "Abogados de inmigracion."
Apparently avocat can mean both avocado or male lawyer in French:
http://www.livinglanguage.com/blog/2012/01/19/the-difference-between-av…
It is not like there are not English words that have multiple meanings, sometimes with varying pronunciations. One thing that is very small is minute, and sixty seconds of time is a minute. I often tell folks "I'll be back in a minute minute." :-)
Well, he is an agent for levity, but I doubt that is what he intended.
We never had this problem when they were still referred to as alligator pears.
If ever there was a time to test 1.21 gigawatts on an avacado.....
Shay, well they do look like pears with alligator skin.
@ Chris
Yep.
And if any of the two is "marron", you are out of luck.
A French lawyer has put a few comic strips together to illustrate his daily job, It's over there (in French, of course). I will let you guess which legume he is using to represent himself.
Don't taste like 'em, though.
C'est un cornichon ou .... ?
Dangerous Bacon @ 43
You just need to start browsing his memes.You could fill up a couple of Antivax Bingo Cards from this one post alone.
"Vaccines and Vaccine Safety
(A summary of Internet links to alternative viewpoints on vaccines)
by David Avocado Wolfe
May 20, 2015
Where there is smoke, there is fire. A growing body of evidence indicates that vaccines are not safe and that they can injure or even kill you or a family member. The damage caused by vaccines can no longer be ignored, nor can it be dismissed as a necessary evil. By 2010, the U.S. Court of Claims had awarded nearly $2 billion dollars to vaccine victims for their catastrophic vaccine injuries.
The information and resources provided below indicates that vaccines contain questionable, if not dangerous additives, and in some cases, may be dangerously contaminated (see resources below). Not only that, the efficacy of vaccines has been called into serious scientific debate based on statistical population data (see resources below).
If you choose to vaccinate you and your family, that is your choice. However, to force others to vaccinate themselves and their families is a violation of our basic human right to protect ourselves and our families from danger. The basic and important logic is this: If you and/or your child are vaccinated, then you and your child are supposedly safe, so you shouldn’t be concerned with violating the basic humans rights of another family and their children by forcing them to comply with a vaccination program supplied by a transnational pharmaceutical enterprise.
Basic Human Rights: The right to protect oneself and one’s children from being injected with a vaccine cocktail containing potentially harmful preservatives, heavy metals, animal tissue cultures, aborted human fetal tissue, gelatin, sucrose, MSG, etc. manufactured by a transnational pharmaceutical corporation is a basic human right that cannot be violated by any government or corporation.
Attention Vegans
Many vaccines (if not all) contain animal tissues of one type or another (these may include: sheep blood, pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain, dog kidney, monkey kidney, chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg, calf (bovine) serum, porcine (from pigs), casein from animal milk), hydrolyzed gelatin, and/or aborted human fetal tissue. This means that these vaccines are not vegan.
How to Protect Yourself from Infections without Vaccines manufactured by Transnational Pharmaceutical Corporations
At this point it appears the best way to protect yourself and your family from infections is a healthy lifestyle including organic food nutrition, immunological (herbal) nutrition, vitamin and mineral supplements, sunshine, fresh air, healthy loving support and relationships, exercise, pure water, and sanitary conditions on the body and around the home and environment. If you feel your family should not be vaccinated, that is your choice and you should be able to exercise it. Homeopathic vaccinations and other alternatives could also be explored.
Acupuncture and electronic medicine systems (zappers, rife machines, frequency generators, PEMF devices, biofeedback machines) are also gaining popularity due to their efficacy in producing health.
Facebook Vaccine Debate Resources (Alternate Viewpoints)"(urls removed)
First thing I thought of.
"Don't ever question me Gordie I know a lot more about nutrition than you do."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PleFw1gZ8GM
@ Shay
If you mean Maitre Eolas, he will be sorry you think he is pickled.
If you mean Mr Avocado, it's one of the words I would use to describe him in French.
To start with, cornichons are much more androgenic.
Whoa, I learned a new word: androgenic. I kind of knew the first part, and the second part... but not the combination.
Helianthus, I confess that my attempt to learn enough French to survive a driving tour through your country was hampered by my mere two years of high school Spanish. I frustrated the teacher by trying to pronounce each letter! My brother did it right by first learning French, and then Spanish.
Okay, I can kind of read French, especially if the word is similar to Spanish and/or English, but that is it. Especially if it is a menu. I kind of understood the lawyer cartoon, but it is not good enough since I don't think a chestnut is a legume. The pun was lost on me.
This is terrible since both my father and my daughter have degrees in linguistics, and they both speak French... and a bit of Japanese and Korean. And while my father knows some Russian (and Spanish), my daughter does Swedish. The "ability to learn language" skipped me completely.
I get back at them by using applied math terms like "Fourier", "Lagrange", "Pascal", "Cauchy", "Laplace", etc. ;-)
(in reality not so much... I lost many brain cells trying to explain to my father how logarithmic scales worked in regards to the Richter Scale after a major earthquake somewhere a few decades ago)
And the revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
@jypsy #8
How much did Monsanto pay you to spread that lie? Because I was able to keep my Sun energy focused on positive thoughts, I nearly died laughing.
@ Chris
My apologies, I was caught in my French slang and got carried away.
By "legume", I just mean the lawyer represented himself as an avocado.
And by "marron", I meant the color, brown, as in rotten.
When I was a raw foodist, through Shazzie, he was my "guru", then after reading his positions against medicine and science I found his curriculum vitae (he has studied political science, not nutrition) and it was my last day as a 20 years old raw foodist.
After that period, Theo Colborn has became my hero. She and Richie Havens.
Is killing deer for their antlers natural ? (I mean, like barbaric, cruel, and selfish).
I could not stand the video, my brain was fleeting, I was dying inside, slowly. He should just stop using word because he don't know how to make sentence.
According to the other link, they don't kill the deer for their antlers. I don't know if they saw them off or wait until they naturally fall off every year, but either way I tend not to believe them.
The "deer antler for dog chews" folks I know pick them up after they fall off. So, in theory, no deer were harmed in the deer antler scam. Although people may be...
Helianthus -- to add to the confusion, "legume" in American English refers not to vegetables in general but rather to the class of dried vegetables that includes lentils, split peas and beans.
(That's speaking as a cook. A botanist would undoubtedly correct me).
Legumes (pronounced LEG yooms) are any of the nearly 19 thousand species belonging to the Leguminosae (family). A comparatively small but very important number of species are used for human and/or animal food. Some are quite poisonous - which reminds me, one of my favorites, showy locoweed, will be in bloom here before long. In the meantime early yellow locoweed is quite glorious right now.
Can those deer antlers be processed in that 'famous' nutribullet?
This afternoon I saw a part of the commercial. I want those minutes of my life back. Testimonials like: "I used it once, and I slept amazing well."
And those things are not really cheap.
Cool, thanks doug. I just found out last year that my wisteria vines are also legumes, as they are part of the pea family. The flowers look similar, and they have really cool seed pods.
"Yet he still manages to crank up the pseudoscience to 11"
should say:
"Yet he still manages to crank up the pseudoscience to potato"
@Janet re:41
I dunno what chewing antler goes for, but take a look at
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/WXANTLER.html
and see if they will save you anything.
Though those are both actually the same word, from Latin. A 'minute' was the 'first small part' of an hour, so 'pars minuta prima'. And when you divided it again, you got 'pars minuta secunda', the second small part, hence our word for 'second' as a measure of time. (And according to Wikipedia, Polish and Arabic still have words meaning 'third' used to refer to 1/60th of a second. Hunh. I hadn't known that part before.)
"Though those are both actually the same word, from Latin."
Even though one is an adjective and the other is a noun? Anyway, that is cool, especially the reason for calling the tiny bit of time a "second."
I am open for business for all your non-Big Pharma GMO free, all natural and organic, growth hormone free, free range, cruelty-free, BPA-free, cosmic superfood needs. Just look for the billboard for Old Rockin' Dave Nectarine Spectacled Bear's Miracle Cure Shack and exit right one mile past it. Be sure to bring your checkbook, cash, credit cards, and gold coins - you're going to need all of it. At least I need all of it. It's not like deer antlers are lying around waiting to be picked up.
(Nectarine: "Half a peach, half a plum; it's a hell of a fruit.")
Incidentally, very incidentally, the first known citation of the word "avocado" in the English language was in the writings of that remarkable explorer, pirate, naval officer, and oceanographer William Dampier. Dampier added about one thousand words to the language, including "barbecue" (Thanks, Bill.). He did a lot of other amazing things and is very much worth reading about. I recommend the book "A Pirate of Exquisite Mind".
Helianthus,
OT - I don't know if you enjoy the TV series 'Engrenages' (aka 'Spiral') as I do; even if not you might enjoy this article about the slang used. I'm amazed by how much Arabic has entered the French language. We have just as many Muslims in London as they do in Paris, but I have yet to hear a non-Muslim say, "inshallah" or "elhamdulillah" (apologies for transliteration).
Ha!
I'm rather surprised that neither ORDave nor Kreb caught my banana/ cucumber/ avocado reference above.
Maybe you did but thought it too prurient- or perhaps it was not quite prurient enough.
Denice, I saw it, I got it, but I was offended - I thought I had the monopoly on sophomoric humor here.
Palindrom @ 9: Thanks for the "Encyclopedia of American Loons" reference. I looked him up and found "#1268: David Wolfe."
The "Loons" entry says that Wolfe promotes the idea that "dirty electricity is all around you."
Dirty electricity, eh? Now we know what happened to Wolfie's hair. Bzzzzt!
---
It's hard to tell if he's truly a loon or merely a huckster. But one thing he isn't is mystical. The Dalai Lama is a real mystic and is on record saying that if anything in Buddhism doesn't comport with science, Buddhism will change.
I'm going to guess he's a narcissistic huckster who believes his own BS and also believes he's "special." He's clearly in love with his own image, as shown by the sheer quantity of self-promoting photos in his material.
What's scary is the size of his audiences, and what would be even scarier is the applause if it wasn't overdubbed on the audio track. What's even scarier than that, is the number of people who go to religious-right megachurches every week. Take a look at the size of some of those rooms and gasp.
They are indeed a member of the Fabaceae. I don't recommend eating the fruit or seeds though.
I think he shows great self awareness.
Avocado is the Aztec word for testicle and he talks complete bollocks.
Orac--you've never heard of David Avocado Wolfe before?
Neither had I. We should both watch more reality TV. While googling around just now, I discovered that he was one of the "Alties" on a 2004 reality TV show called "Mad Mad House".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Mad_House#Alts
Reviewers were less than impressed. "Get more feral"--was my favorite. (You can find that one in the reviewers link on the wiki page).
For some reason, this foray into the entertainment world does not get prominently mentioned in Wolfe's websites. This is odd, given that his grandiose self-promotional tone reminds me of that classic college admission essay: (http://paws.kettering.edu//~jhuggins/humor/essay.html)
Anyway, I wonder how many people are attracted to "Alties" for the entertainment factor?
Must be just the luck of the Irish.
O'Rac is an Irish name, isn't it?
Peebs: "I think he shows great self awareness.
Avocado is the Aztec word for testicle and he talks complete bollocks."
Please go to reception to pick up your voucher for the internet.
You should check out the reality show he starred on - Mad Mad House.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Mad_House
I'll admit I only skimmed this but seriously, is this guy actually advocating deer antler extract because it's been used for so long in traditional medicine? (I use the term 'traditional' for 'Chinese' here as this stuff is used in several Asian countries) By his woo philosophy of 'energy flowing' to the pointy bits of things, I suppose he feels the same about rhino horn and tiger penis? *slow claps* well done, aren't you are enlightened.
This David Avocado Wolff has put me off avocadoes forever.
HDB -
“Avocado Wolfe”? The man is deeply confused. There is evidence that avocados feature in the diets of jaguars and cougars, but no-one has suggested that they attract canids.
Oh but they do. The houses whose dogs are so fat, so rotund, that if they can even rouse themselves from their buttery lethargy when approached can do no more than waddle a few steps and bark desultorily - these houses have avocado trees in their yards.
Watching Bassett hounds hunt avocados in tall grass is a marvelous way to spend an afternoon.
he's got a lion on the back of his jacket you can see as he walks up to the stage in the first vid.
is he a Lannister? hmmm....
#24
@composer99
Once had the studio engineer ask if we could play the section an octave louder.
“Is it possible to never feel bad ever, to never feel sadness, to never feel depression ever, to remove those emotions from our psyche totally? And the answer is yes.”
That sounds like something a narcissist would say - in fact, that's one of the things that being a narcissist is all about.
I also just really noticed David Wolfe within the past few weeks. It's his "feel good" posts that have really catapulted him into Facebook fame. There's nothing wrong with many of his "feel good" posts; I believe that I have also shared a few of them my very self. People then become receptive to whatever else he is selling. I was glad to see this article about him because, as I mentioned, I have just noticed his "stuff" everywhere recently. Now I know the context.
It would appear that he's dropped the 'Avocado' from his name on his Facebook profile - his posts (which I see because I seem to have gullible friends) now show up as 'David Wolfe.'
Way way OT ..
@krebiozen
There might be almost as many Muslims in London as there are in Paris, but this is still quiet a different situation, subject to at least three major differences.
1) major muslim immigration is a rather recent development
2) France as a whole, has way more Muslims (around 7.5 Compared to 4%)
3) most importantly : many Muslims in the UK don't speak Arab (since they're mainly from Pakistan or Bangladesh!)at all.*
On the other hand, don't forget the influence of the Indian/Asian language and culture had!
We can talk about yoga, nirvana and karma without the need to look it up in the dictionary.
We can shampoo our dinghy in our bungalow if we're not afraid of the juggernauts :)
*I'm well aware that muslim pakistani might use words like Inshallah too, but you get the idea. .
For now, excuse my French!eh, or English..
and i should stop using my phone to post..
hope you it makes sense to you
Very, very good article. Only one thing... Maybe you could try to split your sentenses into shorter ones? Makes it so much easier to read :)
They called me 'the cucumber' when I was younger. Not for reasons people might be thinking ;) , more for 'he's as cool as a cucumber". Now, avocado??? FFS! :D
I keep seeing friends on Facebook share this guy memes so I googled " who the hell is David avocado Wolfe"? You were on the top of the Google search. Thanks and where to quake this guy is.
How sad! You rip things apart... for fun! David advocates a Healthy Lifestyle. We NEED more people like him. Wake up and stop being blinded by what you are told is science.
@John #110
Having just found David Wolfe covered here, words alone can not express my gratitude. I came across David "Avocado" Wolfe many years ago and have warned people to disregard almost anything he has to say as reliably inaccurate, right down to what claims about medicinal and food-plants, including goji berry; one of a number he has a history of promoting. It's one thing to advocate a healthy lifestyle and quite another to spread falsehoods, inaccuracies, and dangerous misconceptions. Never mind scientific methods and facts, he fails to get traditional, herbal, or ethnocultural concepts of health and medicine correct. But then his captive audience is typically young and evidently unversed in the topics he presents, let alone the need for reproducible, rational methods of critical evaluation called science. Had they spent some time (typically years) in studying what he propounds, they would come to very different conclusions and statements, provided they developed the skill of critical thinking along the way; his claims about deer antler (one of the oldest potions promoted in China for 'long-life') being an apt example. Unwittingly or not, he stoops to one of the earliest tricks of hucksters in the health food market in the U.S. in what was known decades ago as the "contains game". There was plenty of that in the 1960s, and it continues to this day. Here's how it works or doesn't: Even though a product (food, supplement – you name it) contains a substance, but not in a bioavailable form or sufficient quantities to exert a biological effect of any significant benefit, sales are generated on the basis of activity studies using far greater isolated amounts, be they in laboratory animals, in vitro, or in humans. The contains game represents another among many of using science to make a sale, regardless of the pseudoscience it is.
One of the classic examples and biggest 'knee-slappers' of them all is Beta-sitosterol. Nearly ubiquitous in plants, the quantities are so small, they can not be held to account for the consumption of a plant consumed raw or in the form of a crude extract for anti-inflammatory activity. Yet, the same sterol has been widely promoted in the contains game as an anti-inflammatory constituent of one herb, vegetable, or fruit and the next. Even more inane, promoters claim the sterol is an "ingredient" of the plant, as if the plant had added the sterol to itself!
If there's any, the "fun" in pointing out the egregious practices of his ilk comes as a form of comic relief for what is otherwise producing at least two immediate and disturbing effects: further tarnishing the dietary supplement industry with the reputation of ignorant quacks and hucksters, and leading the public so far astray, they would forgo effective treatments for conditions in place of those without adequately demonstrated, objective benefits. A gullible audience, not knowing what it takes to demonstrate efficacy and safety, can be led to believe almost anything, if its incredible enough! Contributing to unsound and false statements and claims, the opinions of law-makers and legislators are brought closer to imposing greater restrictions on the marketing and labeling of dietary supplements. If it keeps up, all supplements will require pre-market approval before they are allowed to be sold, including any label claims and statements on the web by those selling them.
I sure hope he paid for those stock images he keeps using for his quotes, which at times also aren't his own. He has his own watermark all over them like he owns them. Just sayin'.
Does this "man" have the right to essentially talk cancer patients out of often successful radiation and chemotherapy therapies by telling them that "Chemotherapy doesn't work 97% of the time," simply because he says so?? This "man" is dangerous and should be investigated further!
https://www.facebook.com/DavidAvocadoWolfe/videos/10152475486906512/
Nice try. Try this instead:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/09/16/two-percent-gambit-chemoth…
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/12/07/so-chemotherapy-does-work-…
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2013/10/30/so-chemotherapy-does-work-…
Trying to find out who you are Orac? Not that l am dismissing your views, but if l am to absorb them into my decision making process, then l need to accredit your qualifications to judge different subjects.
There are a few l don't agree with you, that of the cannabis use in medicine. I have found cannabis useful in controlling aspects of my physical and mental health, though l don't partake now due to some very toxic practices by illegal growers and not wishing to contribute to criminal funds. And would like to see some proper research conducted into the plant as a a medical aid.
I don't know much about some of the other subjects. It is hard in the shady Web to find well balanced and qualified opinion, which is why l ask about your background and experience in order to quantify your expertise in these subjects.
Thank you.
Sophia