I’ve had more than one good belly laugh over the scientific absurdities of David Avocado Wolfe, a believer that water is a living organism whose attitude is shaped by the path taken through the pipes entering one’s house.12 Adding to the fun, Mr. Wolfe’s fog of incomprehension regarding electricity is fodder for an upcoming article debunking his horrifically expensive “Zapper” and grounding mat products, so do stay tuned for that.

But as I launch my 2016 #DontCryWolfe series exposing this man’s dangerous pseudoscience (e.g., turning cancer patients away from effective treatments in favor of bogus vegetable cures), I’d like to kick things off with what has become the forte of my blog: proving that internet hucksters like Wolfe are selling products with exactly the same ingredients they claim will kill you.

As an example, let’s look at this Himalayan Crystal Salt available from Wolfe’s Longevity Warehouse:1



Wolfe makes an interesting claim about this salt:2

“Himalayan salt contains the 84 natural elements needed by the body. “

Eighty-four elements needed by the body? Curiosity got the better of me, so I contacted Longevity Warehouse and asked what my body “needs”. In response, they opened help ticket “LW Support #166810: Himalayan salt ingredients“, and eventually emailed this reply:

“The vendor has confirmed that the statement is referencing the book Water & Salt, The Essence of Life by Dr. Barbara Hendel MD and Peter Ferreira, which states that Himalayan salt can contain as many as 84 trace minerals. […] Attached is the list of minerals from the book for your reference.”

You can consult the Hendel/Ferreira book11 for the full list if you’re so inclined, but here are a few particular items from the publication that I think readers will find interesting:



Arsenic As 33 <0.01 ppm

Cadmium Cd 48 <0.01 ppm

Mercury Hg 80 <0.03 ppm

Lead Pb 82 0.10 ppm

Polonium Po 84 <0.001 ppm

Uranium U 92 <0.001 ppm

Plutonium Pu 94 <0.001 ppm

Before I dig into this lineup, it’s of utmost importance to understand one of Wolfe’s key claims about his product. To wit: even though the salt contains only trace amounts of 84 elements, it’s their very presence that makes the product beneficial to your health, and it’s their removal during commercial salt processing that makes regular table salt “toxic“. Speak to us, oh wise one:

“In order to make table salt, natural salt is heated to high temperatures and cleaned chemically, reducing all the important minerals and leaving only sodium and chloride”2–David Wolfe

Never mind that the salt you buy from Wolfe is still, by and large, nothing more than sodium chloride. He’s telling us that the mere presence of these 84 trace elements is important to our health. All of them. Uh oh.

Let’s look at some of these “important” elements:

MERCURY

Mr. Wolfe warns that mercury is one of the top ten toxins poisoning our children, and once it’s in the body, it’s impossible to remove naturally.3 So as you consume his salt, by the man’s own logic, you’re writing a toxic check your digestive system can’t cash.

No mercury-based fear mongering from a pseudoscientist would ever be complete without a reference to dental fillings, and Avocado does not disappoint. In this YouTube video,4 he describes mercury as one of the “highest toxic substances known to man”, and frets over the small amounts found in older dental fillings. You won’t find him agonizing over the mercury in the Himalayan salt he sells you, though. Why? Because money.

Wolfe boarded the Woo Train long ago on vaccines, not seeming to grasp whether thimerosal (a mercury-containing compound–which is not mercury) might actually be used in certain vaccines at all. Once his misinformation train left the station, a lot of innocent people have gotten sick from vaccine-preventable diseases. Avocado is fixated on his belief that your body can’t remove these heavy metals (which originated from his own Himalayan salt!) on its own.5 Perhaps this is why he’s happy to recommend and sell unproven detox routines to help in the cleanup.6

If you spend a lot of time reading Wolfe (I do), you’ll see this mantra repeated again and again when it comes to “heavy metals”:

“That is a long scary list and many of these things will not leave the body naturally.” 5–David Avocado Wolfe

LEAD

I’ll let Wolfe’s “lipstick meme” speak for itself on ingesting trace amounts of the toxic element lead:7

I agree with Wolfe: we should be concerned about eating or drinking lead. So why is it found in his Himalayan Crystal Salt?

Wolfe frets over a literal kiss of death, yet he would have us sprinkle the same elements of our destruction over our garden salad. You’ve heard me say it countless times in my writing: Pot. Kettle. Black.

I’m looking at you, David Avocado Wolfe.

ARSENIC

Wolfe’s own marketing material for Himalayan salt2 takes great pains to name arsenic as a toxin that we’re adding to our body in “normal” salt, and yet you’ll find the very same element in the Himalayan mix he’s selling you.

“Also considering salts come from the ocean, and our oceans are polluted with mercury, lead, arsenic and more, we are then adding more toxins into our body.”2

Along with “Shazzie”, Wolfe is listed as co-author of “Detox Your World”,8 a book that warns that ingesting low levels of arsenic over extended periods of time can lead to darkening of skin and warts. The book then goes on to link arsenic to several cancers, including lung, skin, bladder, and prostate.

URANIUM

On July 23, 2015, Wolfe tweeted a link to a story about abandoned uranium mines slowly contaminating Navajo water sources:

I think Wolfe is right to be concerned about the accumulation of radioactive elements such as uranium in the human body through sources such as groundwater.

My question is, why doesn’t he care that he’s listed trace amounts of uranium as one of the 84 essential elements in his Himalayan salt? One can’t help but notice the radioactive polonium and plutonium in the salt as well, even if Wolfe hasn’t spoken out specifically against them. These elements are most definitely harmful to the human body and, as Wolfe so often loves to shout from the rooftops,6 there’s no way to remove these toxins once we’ve ingested them (unless you subscribe to one of his detox regimens).

CADMIUM

Cadmium is listed repeatedly10,11 (along with arsenic and lead) as a “metallic toxin” in Wolfe’s book, Superfoods; The Food and Medicine of the Future.

Can you name a food where you’ll find cadmium? Oh hell, I’ve ruined the surprise by now, haven’t I? Yes, it’s in Wolfe’s Himalayan Crystal salt.

Conclusion

There’s nothing really dangerous about Himalayan salt. The trace amounts of elements found there are too small to do you any good–or harm. David Wolfe’s health and science advice swing from harmless, laughable blurbs such as “chocolate being a magical octave of the sun”, to irresponsible, and patently dangerous claims such as ginger being more powerful than chemotherapy in cancer treatment. The former is funny; the latter can cost someone their life.

Wolfe lures unsuspecting readers to his web site through the use of cute memes featuring the likes of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, drops a load of dangerous pseudoscience on them that could dissuade them from seeking real medical attention, and sells them products that by his own claims could damage their health.

Do the world a favor and don’t share David Wolfe memes in 2016. Please share, and tag with #DontCryWolfe. Thanks for reading.

Edit History

18 Jan 2016: Four astute followers caught the embarrassing misspelling of prostate; added some extra verbiage to assure worried readers they don’t need to throw out their pink salt. It’s completely safe.

Image Credits

David Wolfe/Longevity Warehouse web site screen and product snapshots are used in strict compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of United States copyright law (commonly known as “fair use law”). This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.

References

(1) Longevity Warehouse David Wolfe Himalayan Salt (One Pound)

http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=himalayan+salt

(2) Himalayan Salt Claim

http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/david-wolfe-foods-himalayan-crystal-salt-1-lb

(3) Top Ten Toxins Poisoning Our Kids

http://www.davidwolfe.com/toxins-poisoning-kids/

(4) Dental fillings wit mercury in them. (David Wolfe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmvewxE4D-4

(5) Vaccines and Vaccine Safety

http://www.davidwolfe.com/vaccines-and-vaccine-safety/

(6) David Wolfe Vaccine Detox

http://www.davidwolfe.com/vaccine-detox-children-adults-remove-heavy-metals-toxins/

(7) Wolfe’s Lipstick/Lead Meme

https://www.facebook.com/DavidAvocadoWolfe/photos/a.10150364951666512.342374.102515706511/10152895865466512/

(8) Detox Your World (Shazzie, David Wolfe)

North Atlantic Books

ISBN 978-1-58394-450-1

https://books.google.com/books?id=fP5QuCv05vYC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=david+wolfe+arsenic&source=bl&ots=pIxgnCJpYa&sig=er7xVWgZ6VZAwf2KlVUtU658emg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAjgKahUKEwidgOmfwpDIAhUEWh4KHdwODs0#v=onepage&q=david%20wolfe%20arsenic&f=false

(9) David Wolfe Uranium Tweet

https://twitter.com/davidwolfe/status/624365403381219328

(10) SuperFoods: The Food And Medicine Of The Future

North Atlantic Books

ISBN 978-1-55643-776-2

https://books.google.com/books?id=6EtHo7N3-PYC&pg=PT51&lpg=PT51&dq=david+wolfe+copper&source=bl&ots=Jg-DZ0J5X4&sig=DGbZnuv0bNDABzNCebBSxwulB6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvnuP59obKAhVFMj4KHYICDZY4ChDoAQglMAE#v=onepage&q=david%20wolfe%20cadmium&f=false

(10) SuperFoods: The Food And Medicine Of The Future

North Atlantic Books

ISBN 978-1-55643-776-2

https://books.google.com/books?id=6EtHo7N3-PYC&pg=PT51&lpg=PT51&dq=david+wolfe+copper&source=bl&ots=Jg-DZ0J5X4&sig=DGbZnuv0bNDABzNCebBSxwulB6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvnuP59obKAhVFMj4KHYICDZY4ChDoAQglMAE#v=onepage&q=david%20wolfe%20cadmium&f=false

(11) Water & Salt:: The Essence Of Life: The Healing Power of Nature

Natural Resources

ISBN: 978-0-97445-151-0

http://www.amazon.com/Water-Salt-Essence-Healing-Nature/dp/B001DVZMW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453116977&sr=8-1&keywords=Water+%26+Salt%2C+The+Essence+of+Life

(12) David Wolfe Shares on Getting the Best Water You Can Get

http://www.donotlink.com/hx8w

(13) Chocolate As An Octave Of The Sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzMmzd2qJVw

(14) Ginger Stronger Than Chemo

http://www.davidwolfe.com/ginger-stronger-than-chemo-kills-cancer-cells/