Just because the sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste doesn’t cause cancer doesn’t mean it can’t cause problems. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a common detergent used in toothpaste. It was featured in a famous Internet hoax nearly 20 years ago. Colgate toothpaste contains SLS, which was supposedly proven to cause cancer, but at least buying…Read More

One food may be able to combat all four purported causal factors of autism: synaptic dysfunction, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. In a keynote address at an autism conference, Harvard neurologist Martha Herbert said, “I think we need to conduct research as if we know this is an emergency.” Already, up to 1.5 percent…Read More

A book purported to expose “hidden dangers” in healthy foods doesn’t even pass the whiff test. I started getting emails about The Plant Paradox, a book purporting to expose “the hidden dangers in ‘healthy’ foods that cause disease and weight gain”—foods like beans, whole grains, and tomatoes. Hidden dangers? The author’s talking about lectins in…Read More

Those with certain autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease should probably not eat nutritional yeast. Thousands of years ago, some yeast floated down into our flour and drinks, pleasing our palates, and we’ve been regularly exposed to it ever since. Yeast isn’t a problem for most people, but even non-disease-causing microbes could potentially trigger autoimmune…Read More

Is the exaggerated reaction of many Crohn’s disease patients to baker’s, brewer’s, and nutritional yeast just a consequence of their inflamed leaky gut, or might the yeast be a contributing cause? “Baker’s Yeast in Crohn’s Disease—Can It Kill You?” is the inflammatory title (no pun intended) of a 1999 journal article. Crohn’s disease is an…Read More

Dr. Dean Ornish showed that a plant-based diet and lifestyle program could apparently reverse the progression of prostate cancer for early stage, localized, watch-and-wait cancer. What about for more advanced stage life-threatening disease? Dr. Dean Ornish showed that a plant-based diet and lifestyle program could apparently reverse the progression of prostate cancer by making men’s…Read More