Don’t be fooled, Pete Evans is not a health professional, writes Dr Brad McKay

PETE Evans is a good cook with a nice tan and great teeth. He’s also hugely popular, with hundreds of thousands of followers. But there’s one thing he’s not.

OPINION

EXCITING new health fads pop up each week, peddled by smiling celebrities promising to make our gut smaller, boobs bigger, dick longer, or even claim to cure cancer — but they rarely deliver.

Pete Evans is a good cook with a nice tan and great teeth, but he’s not a health professional.

The recognisable Aussie celebrity sports 1.5 million Facebook followers. Every time we click on his page we give him a voice, and he rewards us by continuing to cook up outlandish health advice.

He’s well spoken, dresses up his opinions with a smile, and people tend to believe him because he repeats his claims with confidence.

Unfortunately his recipe for bone broth is potentially toxic for infants and his recommendation of camel milk for babies may also cause kidney failure.

Doctors and dietitians repeatedly condemn his reckless health advice, but he’s bold enough to continue stating his uneducated opinion as fact.

Confidence might be endearing, but confidence doesn’t make you right.

Conspiracy theories intrigue us and we sometimes wonder who we can trust. Evans has tapped into his audience by appealing to this narrative of fear and suspicion.

He opposes fluoridation of drinking water, even though independent scientific research reports that at appropriate levels, it’s safe to drink and effective at preventing dental cavities.

He states that sunscreen contains “poisonous chemicals”, but doesn’t list any of these chemicals or provide evidence where sunscreen has poisoned the majority of Australia’s population.

He suggests osteoporosis can be treated by removing dairy from your diet “as calcium from dairy can remove the calcium from your bones”.

His dangerous ideas, scaremongering statements and preposterous claims need to be backed up by solid evidence.

“The reality is that the public love people who give really fiddly, superficially plausible-sounding, very technical, dietary advice,” says medical doctor and academic from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University Ben Goldacre.

Dr Goldacre, in Australia on a speaking tour, says someone needs to be held responsible for those who peddle nonsense.

“You’re never going to have a world in which you can stop individuals from doing absurd things or making absurd claims, but you can have higher expectations of the systems,” he said.

A deluge of scientific-sounding health advice on our televisions makes it difficult to sift out fact from fiction, but finding out the truth really comes down to you.

Learning takes time, but it’s the only way to stop being a sucker for bad science. Be inquisitive and curious about your health. Ask questions, think critically and be prepared to change your view, depending on the evidence.

Seek out a qualified professional and don’t just believe the next miracle or quick-fix cure endorsed by a confident, conspiracy theorist celebrity.

— An Evening with Dr Ben Goldacre is touring with Think Inc and will be in Brisbane on September 22, Melbourne on September 23, Auckland on September 24 and Sydney on September 25.

— Dr Brad McKay is a GP and host of Embarrassing Bodies Down Under. Find him at www.drbradmckay.com.au or follow him on Twitter @drbradmckay.