If it quacks...

A couple of weeks ago, the Observer Food Monthly (OFM) published the list of its Food Awards for 2015. Awards are given to the best restaurant, food retailer, food producer and so on. In the 'special' edition of OFM detailing the award winners, each award recipient was given some space to talk about how they got into the food business, what their personal philosophies and attitudes to food and consumption are and what they want to do going forward. One of the awards given out was for the Best Food Blog of the year and it was awarded to Ella Woodward for her blog, Deliciously Ella.

I was reading the piece on her in the OFM when I arrived at this paragraph:

"In the current wave of interest in healthy eating, the most prominent figures are not doctors or dieticians but “wellness gurus”, and there has been a backlash against people giving out dietary advice without proper medical qualifications. (Woodward is currently training part-time for a diploma in naturopathic nutrition at the College of Naturopathic Medicine, a London-based organisation founded by homeopath Hermann Keppler.)"

Now, the mention of 'naturopathic' rang a lot of little alarm bells. In my years of 'O' and 'A' Level biology, a physiology degree course and a health and social care degree course, I had never come across the medical field of 'naturopathy'. When I looked into the 'college', I realised why this was. 'Naturopathy' is concerned with nurturing the body's 'vital force' through homeopathy, herbalism and naturopathic nutrition. Now, studying for a diploma in nutrition designed to nurture this 'vital force', a rather fuzzy, unscientific concept, says to me that Woodward is aiming to be just such a "wellness guru" albeit with some rather dodgy letter after her name. She too will be handing out "dietary advice without proper medical qualifications" but will seek to legitimise that "advice" by parading a New Age qualification as 'proof' of her knowledge.

Now, I am not going to dismiss, out of hand, the worth of herbalism and accupuncture (homeopathy, however….): many modern drugs have their basis in plant extracts and plants are increasingly being looked at to provide new treatments going forward. However, linking food to this 'vital force' adds a level of mysticism to the existing (scientific) field of nutrition. Why not study for a diploma in nutrition? In the article, it was noted that Woodward's blog was followed in large part by teenage women, many of whom will already be pulled in negative directions by the perceived need to be the same as the celebrity 'role models' that are constantly shoved down our throats. To dress up an influential food blog with the trappings of pseudo-science is, to my mind, a potentially dangerous path and gives spurious substance to fad eating and snake oil ingredients that promise to 'cleanse', 'vitalise' or 'energise'. If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. But if it promises you wellness through eating an obscure South American berry, it's a quack.