A listener forwarded me this rather extraordinary email:

From: The Real Food Channel <newsletter@therealfoodchannel.com>

Subject: The shocking truth about dairy

Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009, 11:59 AM John McDougall MD routinely reverses and cures serious diseases like diabetes and heart disease simply by helping his patients change their diets.

Well there’s certainly no news in the fact that poor dietary habits can contribute to obesity, diabetes, and some forms of heart disease. No doctor would dispute basic health information like that. But “routinely reverses and cures serious diseases”? Red flags begin waving.

In his experience, the most important thing to remove from your diet is dairy foods.

Really? And is there any correlation between dairy and heart disease? Dairy and diabetes? Sounds like this author paints Dr. McDougall as being a little blinded by his own luminance.

I realize that a lot of people are not going to want to hear this, but the science is overwhelming.

Got to love “A lot of people are not going to want to hear this.” He’s being suppressed for bucking the official establishment. Too bad this kind of rhetoric is so effective on unsuspecting readers.

And the science is overwhelming! Well, if this guy says so, it must be true. But I wonder how he has come to this conclusion, since McDougall has not managed to convince any meaningful percentage of the medical community that outrageous claims are anything other than quackery. This total failure constitutes “overwhelming science”?

The scary thing is that advertising dollars from the milk and cheese industry keeps this simple information from getting to the public.

Ahhh, so it’s all a conspiracy. That puts it into a whole new light of plausibility. I know that my doctor receives his share of Big Milk dollars every month, and he’s always telling my kids and I to drink it. The bastard.

If you want a simple thing you can do to significantly improve your health, take the time to watch this important video.

Details:

http://www.therealfoodchannel.com/page/29.html Ken McCartthy

Founder, The Real Food Network P.S. Please share Real Food Channel videos with your friends, family and colleagues. That’s how we grow. Thanks. Amacord, Inc.

14 North Road,

Tivoli, NY 12583, USA

I wouldn’t post an email like this unless it was obviously bunk. I searched the literature, and found that the preponderance of research supports…ummm… exactly the opposite of what McCartthy is attributing to Dr. McDougall. Here’s from a 2005 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine:

Each serving-per-day increase in total dairy intake was associated with a 9% lower risk for type 2 diabetes… CONCLUSION: Dietary patterns characterized by higher dairy intake, especially low-fat dairy intake, may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in men.

McCartthy’s “overwhelming science” – 0; real science – 1. I could go on, but there are useful things to do in life.

So what is this “The Real Food Channel” anyway? No, it’s not a food channel, surprisingly enough. It’s a nearly blank web site slathered in advertising links, and its only content is videos promoting quackery with titles such as Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof. As far as I can tell, these videos appear to all be pirated from other sources, not created by McCartthy himself. Click any of the links, and you’re sent off to some site selling quack health products: Supplements, books, superfruits, you name it; all promising to endow you with some kind of magical super-health. In short, it’s an affiliate marketing site, making money off of tricking you into buying worthless woo. Always be skeptical…