Right now, thousands of people are posting selfies of themselves with huge bunches of celery on Instagram.
It’s called the Global Celery Juice Movement and its followers believe drinking the juice of an entire bunch of celery every morning can cure cancer and chronic disease.
The movement has been around for a few years, but in news that’s truly worrying, the supposed ‘virus inhibiting’ benefits of drinking celery juice have resurfaced amid the coronavirus pandemic.
WATCH: All you COVID-19 questions, answered. Post continues after video.
In March, Aussie model and entrepreneur Miranda Kerr promoted a resource called ‘Virus Protection’ by Medical Medium Anthony William in a since-deleted Instagram post.
The 33-page pdf claims we can protect ourselves from viruses by not eating the foods “viruses love to eat” (they include eggs, dairy, gluten, peanut butter, soy, chicken and pork, apparently) and keeping our immune system strong by consuming celery juice, cucumber juice, raw garlic, and elderberry syrup. Finally, on page 31, he also explains some ‘antiviral practices’ like washing your hands regularly, and avoiding touching your face.
Top Comments
Jesus, why are you even asking the question? How about writing the story as ‘this guy on Instagram is telling people that drinking a bunch of celery water will cure a bunch of diseases, here’s why it’s not true’? Don’t even hint that there might be some credibility, this “medical medium” is a quack with no medical qualifications and no evidence to back up his claims.
Exactly. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see an intelligently written article about health approaches that actually work, or one that dissects the woo-industry for what it is? Instead, we get thinly-veiled advertisements for fake cures and supplements. You might as well advise your readers to flush their money directly down the toilet.
Hi guys,
Thanks for your feedback on this article and thanks for reading. We try and present both sides of every argument, however if you read the entire article, you would see with the expertise of a dietitian, we myth busted any and all of those claims. Rather than being an advertisement for drinking celery juice, this was, as you referred to it, a dissection of this trend in the woo-woo industry.
Thanks again for your feedback!
I get your point, and many times I’d agree with you. But you can’t seriously give a self described “Medical Medium”, with no medical training or expertise, the same level of credibility as a qualified, trained dietician. Especially when he’s making claims about curing numerous serious diseases! This isn’t ‘Dr A thinks this is a good way to treat X, but Dr B uses this method’. It’s ‘snake oil salesman vs actual science’.
Agree with Rush. Some things don't actually deserve a platform or equal airing - the unproven, unscientific opinions of woo-merchants is one of those things. To present the recommendations of a snake oil salesman, plus related anecdotal positive reviews and endorsements from celebrities, without editorial criticism is elevating that "evidence" to the same level as the "other side" you present.
Ditto, if you write positive N=1 anecdotes about crystals or colonic irrigation (which you have in the past). You're just giving the woo-industry oxygen.