The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari's Glass House

by Marc Draco, Mark Alsip, Kavin Senapathy

The book the natural food industry can’t afford to let you read.Deconstructing numerous fallacious claims from NYT’s best-selling author Vani Hari a.k.a. The Food Babe, this book describes in detail just how effective the right words are if you have a panacea to sell and a pretty face to help sell it. Researched and written by a dedicated international team of pro-science authors and firmly rooted in facts, science and logic, The Fear Babe places many of Vani Hari’s claims under a microscope - shining a light into the dark corners to demonstrate the lack of scientific evidence behind her most egregious contentions.Brimming with invaluable and up to date reference material on food additives, modern technologies, and the ways the anti-science hucksters operate outside of the law, this book is destined to become and instant classic. An essential reference for everyone concerned with their own diet and their family’s health. Take back control and fall in love with great food once more. GMO technologies really are and why we need them.How MSG & aspartame got bad names (and why they’re harmless).The way charisma and clever wording are used to keep us in the dark.How to make a healthy diet that works for your own body.The facts behind those toxic pesticide scares.Why you can’t (always) trust a doctor.A complete reference to the European E-Number database.Why vaccinations are not just safe but also necessary.and much, much more.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

616 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2015

Reviews

[Kyle O'Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deeply enjoyed this book. It explained scientific concepts in a way that is accessible to people who may not have that much training in the relevant fields. Clearly, the authors are well-read on the research and know what they're talking about.
I always suspected that the Food Babe was kind of a terrible person, but now I know it.
The only negative comment I could make about this book is that I wish it had been edited better. I see a couple instances where I would have moved a paragraph around to make it flow better, a couple instances where I would have advised to phrase something differently were I the editor, and a couple minor grammatical errors. However, I am an editor, so I am perhaps more sensitive to this sort of thing than the average person would be. This should not be enough to deter anyone from reading the book, as the information is accurate and the book is enjoyable overall. I highly recommend this book.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have any doubts about the functions, safety, or uses of vaccines, GMOs, food additives, and diets in general, read this book - it goes into extreme detail into how and why different aspects of modern food and health work (and how and why others don't) by way of also deconstructing the claims of one of the world's leading "natural foods" gurus, the Food Babe (Vani Hari). Written by leading scientists in the biochemical field (Kavin Senpathy, Kevin Folta, more), you might want to brush up on your Biology and Chemistry before starting but it's written in a way that the lay person can grasp the science behind the concepts well.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vani Hari aka “Food Babe,” Dr. Joe Mercola, Natural News, fear of chemicals, GMOs, vaccines....it’s all very easy to buy into the fear mongering with just the right use of phrases, pieces of abstracts from studies that aren’t actually peer reviewed, scary sounding chemicals, and all manner of “sciency sounding” stuff. But is it true? No. Lies travel much faster than the truth, especially when wrapped up in shiny packaging. Fear is easy to sell. And profit from. This book does a fairly good job of breaking up the myths and how these tactics are used.

[Heidi Christensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disgusting propaganda by Big Food companies making money off the deteriorating health of the American people. Why so threatened by Vani Hari if she is so delusional? Me think thou doth protest too much… She is a hero to tell the truth about the packaged and processed toxic food that the FDA allows the Big Food companies to sell to the American people. Big Food companies think the general American population is too dumb to turn packages over and read food labels… we’re not.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent job of exposing this "expert" and her "Army", with lots of useful reference material. But it could be better organized in collecting what seems to be existing material, and could have used better editing.

[Spider B Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of good facts, this book was written by truly knowledgeable authors. However, they often lose their way in the bone they have to pick with Vani Hari - not that what they say is wrong, but it isn't. But they often go so far out of their way to talk about how much they've been picked on that frankly, I just stop caring. This book could really have benefitted from a strong editorial hand. It reads very much 'written by friends and rushed to market.' With that editorial hand, it could be something truly great. I struggled to get to the good facts, however, because of how clunky the writing was, and how much the book sometimes rambled.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book!

Very well-researched & thorough take down of Vani Hari and her ridiculous "health activism." Vani's "Food Babe Army" should open their eyes to the charlatan they adore for who/what she truly stands for. Money in her bank accounts and lush vacations at their expense. Should be required reading in every high school.

[Aaron Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. If you fear food and follow sites like Food Babe, Natural News, David Wolfe or any other fear mongering pseudoscience blog, I highly recommend this book. Hopefully it will change your mind on silly things like “toxins” and “chemicals” and your irrational fear of food.