Strange diets, power-enhancing bracelets and crackpot theories – celebrities may have fame and wealth but they don’t always have sense. But scientists are now catching them out, looking at the facts and asking such questions as . . . How could you eat that stuff?
EVERY YEAR the the UK-based organisation Sense About Science picks apart some of the less-than-scientific utterings of celebrities and asks experts to put them right. So what did they turn up in 2010?
CHEWING CHARCOAL
One of the slightly dodgy health schemes highlighted by Sense About Science this year is how Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding sprinkles charcoal on her food.
Charcoal? Yes. Now magazine quoted her as saying: “It doesn’t taste of anything and apparently absorbs all the bad, damaging stuff in the body.”
Well, charcoal can mop up toxic molecules in sewage treatment and gas masks but the experts reckon that Harding is wasting her time adding it to meals.
“It is unnecessary when it comes to diet because the body is already quite capable of removing any ‘bad, damaging stuff’ it encounters in ordinary consumption,” says chemical scientist Dr John Emsley. “It might help prevent any smelly farts though.” That’s a relief.
Other experts in the Sense About Science report junked some extreme detox diets followed by couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and by supermodel Naomi Campbell.
“Essentially it’s not cleaning your body – it’s starving it!” says dietitian Anna Raymond. “A severe diet might actually lead to the creation of potentially harmful chemicals called ketones as a result of changes in your metabolism.”
BALANCE OF POWER
Eagle-eyed fans might have noticed footballer David Beckham and Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello wearing silicone bracelets embedded with a hologram.
The “Power Balance” wristband is meant to improve strength, energy and flexibility.
“The hologram . . . is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body,” according to the product’s website.
The Sense About Science report points out that Barrichello was moved to claim: “It is amazing how I feel better, stronger and more flexible when I exercise.”
But sports scientist Prof Greg Whyte points out that it’s probably the exercise rather than the wristband that is bringing those benefits.
“Any perceived enhancement to his performance from wearing the Power Balance bracelet is likely to be a placebo effect, as he expects to feel a change”.
MEDICAL MATTERS
In medical matters, the Sense About Science report slams the homeopathic preparations that actress Julia Swahala uses while travelling. It also addresses actress Joanna Lumley’s question about why more people seem to have cancer now than when she was growing up.
“Joanna, one reason cancer can seem more common than ever is due to improved detection and longer life expectancies,” says cancer research student Marianne Baker.
As for phone masts, businessman and former Harrods chairman Mohamed Al Fayed reckons they should not be put up in areas where lots of people live because “all that radiation – it causes cancer.”
But epidemiologist Dr Mireille Toledano disagrees. “Mobile phones and mobile phone masts work by transmitting non- ionising radio waves and, to date, there is no convincing evidence to associate this low-level radiation with an increased risk of cancers,” she says.
CHEMICALS FOR BABY
If there’s one thing that really annoys the folk at Sense About Science, it’s when people use the word “chemical” loosely. As when Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen commented on women who give formula to their babies, saying: “I think ‘Are you going to give chemical food to your child when they are so little?’”
But clinical scientist Stuart Jones responds: “Gisele, there is no such thing as chemical-free food. Everything we eat is made of chemicals, no matter how it is produced or where it comes from, whether it is natural or man-made.”
