Instagram influencer Tegan Martin defends health credentials claim

BEAUTY queen Tegan Martin has been caught out exaggerating her qualifications for a “health coaching business”. The former Miss Universe Australia has also advised potential clients she can help them overcome serious illnesses.

BEAUTY queen Tegan Martin has been caught out exaggerating her qualifications for a “health coaching business”.

The former Miss Universe Australia has also advised potential clients she can help them overcome serious illnesses such as glandular fever, irritable bowel syndrome and depression.

Tegan Martin has 121 Instagram followers, who she promotes her coaching business to. She says she will only take on paying clients once she finishes her health coaching certificate.

Emails obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal Martin has told would-be clients she studied nutrition with Sydney college Cadence Health and had a health coaching certificate with American online alternative nutrition school IIN. She has not finished either course.

The Telegraph can also reveal the 25-year-old believes “energy healers” can help improve health and she can judge whether food will cause inflammation through a feeling in her neck.

This comes as the Australian Medical Association warned people to be wary of untrained people offering health advice.

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In emails obtained by The Telegraph, Martin said she charged $300 for three 50-minute coaching sessions.

“I’ve done two courses, one in nutrition and a health coaching cert at IIN the worlds (sic) leading school,” Martin said in an email to a possible client on July 5.

“I have had chronic fatigue, IBS, fibromyalgia, candida, epstien barr (sic) and glandular fever, depression/anxiety and a whole host of other conditions that I can go more into if you have any specific health conditions.”

In one email spruiking her work, Martin bizarrely says she has “zero energy to live life” due to a “detox cleanse”.

When confronted by The Telegraph, Martin said she never completed the nutrition qualification.

“I did study, however, due to being at the lowest point of my CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) in my early twenties, I unfortunately wasn’t able to complete and attain my certificate,” Martin said.

She said she was still completing her “health coaching certificate” but was issued a “halfway certificate” in April, which she claimed enabled her to coach “paying clients”.

She said she didn’t plan on seeing “paid clients” until the end of August, when she was due to complete her certificate, and would start working as a health coach alongside her commitments “as a model and influencer”.

Martin after being evicted from I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here! Picture: Dylan Robinson

“I’ve spent five years as my own health detective and have had more success and results with my own health issues due to studying at IIN than with any doctors (sic) consultation,” Martin said.

New York’s IIN offers a 12-month online course to gain the title “Health Coach” and tells students they can charge clients $100 an hour after just six months of study.

Chef and paleo diet advocate Pete Evans is a graduate of the program.

Tegan Martin on the Dally M red carpet.

At a VIP event at The Star in Sydney.

AMA NSW vice-president Dr Danielle McMullen said when it came to serious illnesses such as depression or chronic fatigue the first port of call should be seeing a GP — not a health coach.

“Someone can spend a lot of money on treatments that have no evidence, instead of seeing their GP who is equipped to co-ordinate other health professionals,” she said.

Martin has 121,000 Instagram followers and advertises her coaching on the page.

Tegan Martin’s email to a potential health coaching client

“I’ve done two courses, one in nutrition and a health coaching cert at IIN the worlds leading school. IIN teaches a very different approach to health and I credit my time at this school for the recovery of my own health. I have had chronic fatigue, IBS, fibromyalgia, candida, epstien barr and glandular fever, depression/anxiety and a whole host of other conditions”

Originally published as Instagram influencer Tegan Martin defends health credentials claim