Susie O’Brien: Who should get booted off MKR? Paleo Pete Evans
Why is Pete Evans still given a prime time platform? (Pic: Tara Croser)
US President Donald Trump has “alternative facts” and TV chef Pete Evans has “doctors I interview”.
Both seem to me bogus attempts to package half-truths as the real thing.
This is why I think we should boycott My Kitchen Rules until Pete Evans himself is eliminated.
The popular TV show, which kicked off its eighth season last night, offers an invaluable vehicle for judge Pete Evans and his nutty views.
When he’s appearing on the show, Evans is careful to ditch his controversial paleo diet in favour of regular food. Nor does he use the show as a platform to preach his wacky anti-science, natural health ideology.
However, his appearance on the top-rating production gives him credibility he doesn’t deserve and makes him dangerously accessible to the masses.
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So what, you may be wondering, is wrong with ol’ blue eyes Evans?
One concern for me is the vast gulf between the anything-goes dietary approach of MKR and the strict paleo diet espoused by Evans.
For instance, the first few shows of this new season feature dishes such as apple crumble cheesecake, vegetable tart and pavlova made with white flour, sugar, cream, cheese and butter. This is food Evans would never usually touch unless it’s made with paleo-style ingredients such as honey, coconut oil, almond flour, coconut flour or palm shortening.
Evans has made a career out of pushing the paleo diet, which excludes flour, cereal grains, dairy products, sugar, starchy vegetables, processed products and legumes. And yet we see him eating those foods night after night on the show.
It’s completely hypocritical and serves to make his paleo messages appear mainstream and more palatable than they deserves to be.
A more serious issue for me — and many others — is his “food is medicine” philosophy, which he was pushing once again on ABC radio yesterday morning. When questioned by the host about his paleo principles, he mentioned that his evidence came from many doctors. The host asked which doctors and Evans replied “the ones I interview”.
He went on to assert that “the world’s leading doctors and researchers” favour the paleo lifestyle.
Funnily enough, he declined to name names.
He then proceeded to say on air: “If you want to drop some kilos or have auto-immune issues or type 2 diabetes — if you want to get on top of that — it’s (a paleo diet) a good place to start,” Evans said.
He went on to say it’s not a “cure-all” for everything and people should also have to look at issues such as breathing, stress and toxins. He mentioned just about everything except the help that comes from conventional medicine and doctors.
Doctors — real ones, and not just the ones interviewed by Evans — are rightly concerned about this approach.
Often the health experts Evans refers to aren’t doctors at all, but self-taught natural health practitioners with online diplomas. In fact, leading doctors and researchers are lining up to question his views and warn people against following his dangerous pseudo-medical advice.
Sure, a healthy non-processed diet high in vegetables and basic meats, is going to improve anyone’s overall health. But it’s not going to cure diabetes or auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis or scleroderma.
In a Facebook question and answer session on January 17, Evans was still at it, suggesting someone asking about sunscreen should use a product called surf mud which hasn’t been authorised by Therapeutic Goods Administration. That means we don’t know for sure if it works.
He told someone with high cholesterol, and a family history of high cholesterol, “not to be brainwashed by back (sic) science”.
And he also pushed a product called diatomaceous earth, which is a chalky powdered form of silicon dioxide also known as fossil shell flour.
It’s hardly helpful when people are coming to him for help with real medical problems.
It’s clear that he’s reined things in a little; in response to a query about whether diabetes type 1 is curable, he talked about “using a low carb approach” but also suggested working “with a healthy health professional”.
No doubt he’s felt the heat of criticism after he told a woman with osteoporosis she should avoid dairy and advised babies should be fed “bone broth” and camel’s milk.
The craziness must stop.
The producers of My Kitchen Rules have a responsibility to act in the interests of public health and remove Paleo Pete from the show. Leaving him there year after year raises his profile and gives him a platform and credibility he does not deserve.
Having a string of popular cook books, a hit TV show and 1.5 million followers on Facebook does not make Evans a health professional any more than wearing a T-shirt saying “food is medicine” makes him a doctor.
Time to boycott the show until Paleo Pete is voted off by producers once and for all.
Twitter @susieob
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