Experts feel silenced by the “blatant promotion” of Pete Evans’ Paleo views.
The Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) have submitted a furious complaint to Channel 7 following an interview with celebrity chef, Pete Evans, that appeared on Sunday Night.
CEO of the DAA, Claire Hewat, told The Daily Telegraph that the interview was “blatant promotion” for an “untested diet”.
“This one-sided piece seemed to be blatant promotion of the personal dietary views of network’s prime time stars.”
The relationship between Pete Evans and the peak body for accredited dietitians has been fractious in the past, with Evans writing at length about the DAA, linking their advice to increased levels of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and autism.
Hewat also raised concerns that interviewer (and Paleo road-tester), Mike Willesee, seriously downplayed the major health concerns surrounding Evans’ bone broth for babies. The DAA wrote in their complaint to the 7 Network that Willesee seemed to “gloss over” the potential harm of Evans’ views.
Pete Evans has responded to the claims of the “scare-mongering” media on his Facebook page, calling their coverage a “relentless pursuit for an uneducated sensationalist headline”.
Evans writes:
You can’t help but see the correlation between the DAA and their corporate sponsors in their ongoing attack against a NATURAL offering instead of something that has vegetable oils, soy protein, high fructose corn syrup as their main ingredients.
The interview with Evans discussed his paleo cook book, Bubba Yum Yum, that was stripped from shelves, after consumer outrage for the “unsafe” recipes it promoted.
“The book promoted the broth to zero to six year olds as the sole source of nutrition, along with saying it was the next best thing to breast milk, and the broth formula has never been tested, which is a requirement for all infant formula,” said Hewat.
She also raised concerns about the vitamin A content of the broth, saying it was 800% higher than what is recommended for babies – an amount that Hewat claims is potentially deadly.
Professor Heather Yeatman, who works for the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), voiced major issues with the paleo diet, saying that it could impair a baby’s growth and development.
The PHAA has supported the complaint made by the DAA: “Having a celebrity chef’s version of infant formula without proper scientific or nutritional analysis is simply dangerous.”
Both the Heart Foundation and Dietitian Association of Australia have expressed concerns about the paleo diet – but those concerns weren’t raised or even mentioned on Sunday Night last week.
CEO of the Heart Foundation, Ms Mary Barry, has spoken to Mamamia about their reservations regarding the paleo diet:
“The Heart Foundation does not endorse or recommend any fad, novelty or crash diets especially for those with heart disease; instead we encourage people to follow healthy eating patterns. The keys to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight are to enjoy a variety of foods and be physically active every day.”
The Dietitian Association of Australia had similar concerns about the restrictive nature of the Paleo “lifestyle”. They told Mamamia,
“Our primary concern is that some aspects of the Paleo diet are inconsistent with the Commonwealth Department of Health’s Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG). Independent experts in nutrition, working with the National Health and Medical Research Council, reviewed more than 55,000 studies in developing the latest ADG, which were released in 2013.”
Pete Evans has previously attacked the Government’s dietary guidelines, suggesting that they contribute to rising rates of autism, mental illness, dementia and obesity.
But the DAA is concerned about the lack of scientific evidence supporting paleo, telling Mamamia, “As accredited practicing dietitians, we base our decisions and advice on scientific fact. That means that in a world where ‘diets’ have become ‘trendy’ and may come and go, our advice is solid and dependable.”
The executive producer of Sunday Night, Steve Taylor, has responded to the DAA’s complaint, saying they have “rushed to judgement”.
“Sunday Night’s Great Paleo Challenge was always pitched as a series of stories. Without seeing the remaining two segments, the DAA has rushed to judgement without the full picture.”
Another segment of Sunday Night’s story will air tonight.
Do you think Sunday Night’s interview was promotion for Pete Evans?
Want more on Pete Evans? There’s plenty for you…
The latest thing that can “cure” autism, courtesy of Pete Evans’ Facebook fans.
Top Comments
This is a FAD diet.No more no less. Just like Weight Watchers, Atkins, the cigarette diet and the multitude of others the food, beverage, tobacco and other big industries have thrown at us over the years. As the DAA and other bodies include in their advice about fad diets - they are UNSUSTAINABLE. Sure, fad diets work to start with (mainly due to water loss etc) but within about 2 years, people are back to square one with their weight and so go searching for a new diet.Yes, people are making serious money off fad diets like Paleo - just ask Pete about his books, videos, and other promotional materials he makes and sells. Also, somebody tell me why the heck so many are so ready to believe the words of a celebrity (also think Gwenyth Paltrow) with no formal qualifications on the matter over the experts like DAA?
Meera dont you think other people have the right to have a different healthy diet ? Its a world where the whole almost seven billion humans differ dramatically and the few million die hard paleo soldiers probably are n't going to change the statistics in the near future.
AJ, what a breath of fresh air. "Why Pete Evans is right (and why that’s so annoying)". Logically making a case for paleo lovers without insulting other bloggers points of view or preferances is to be commended. Not sure you are right on the money with your comment, "Dieticians Association of Australia and Exercise is Medicine based on their professional partnerships with key influential private and public companies (such as Coca-Cola, Sanituriam and the dairy industry)!!" Agreed by the CEO, that they would review some of those sponsors, IE Coke, but there are a lot of brekky eaters that love their weetbix or Special K with cold milk. Also while I have never been to a nutritionist in my life, I have had a bit to do with good Naturopaths and like you, thats my preferance. But to cast aside the validity of a qualified nutritionist or dietician, (that are in most if not all hospitals), would not be fair dinkum, as most of the good ones lean more to our way of eating any way. When I say our way, I eat the paleo way with no sugar, alcohol, plenty of fruit and vegies, greens and salads, nuts and fresh water and green and black teas. I just add sensible portions of brown rice, antioxidant rich red pinto beans, occasionally chick peas and soybeans, some parmesan cheese and sour cream every now and then and cook with pure vigin olve oil. To each his own and other cultures like the tibetan and asian dynasties live very long lives and were doing it all long before us. Have a good one. :-)
DAA are also linked to the marketing board for infant formula. Are you at all surprised then that they dont want mothers giving stock to their children when the industry stand to lose money? I followed the rules of the heart foundation and my health deteriated since going paleo my health has improved measurably.
Not children. It was a breast milk replacement for new borns. I think of you are advocating a Breast milk replacement you should have the evidence that it is similar to beat milk and not harmful. That's nottoo much to ask
Tink, I tink you missed HTs point. A)) He is eating a fully rounded healthy Diet.
B)) Once you delete "any brown rice,red pinto beans,chick peas,soybeans,parmesan cheese or
sour cream, no matter what the amount! Plenty of fresh fruit is out as
well...you need to limit that!" then you arrive back at the Paleo halfway diet.
"I think you would love Weight Watchers,where all the foods you mentioned above are included,and NOTHING is excluded!"
Tink, why would any one need to go to weight watchers if they were already eating a fully rounded healthy diet. Weight watchers exists to make money selling non organic packaged foods ??
Just eat healthy and cut out sugar, trans fats and fried foods. Cheers an ava good one :-)
Its all good, I been a bit hard onya an ya been a good sport. Once again your not sarcastic, your fine ;-))