Dirty Gods: Why #TAPL is bad for our moral health

Signe Rousseau

‘…good conspiracy theories resemble religions in all kinds of significant ways. As well as encouraging belief in the existence of a dark enemy, they usually offer a highly ingenious explanation of a set of events which flies in the face of most of the available evidence. Because of their counter-factual nature they have a tendency to misrepresent, misreport or simply conceal the evidence which actually exists.’

(Richard Webster, 2010)

“You Are What You Eat”

A full English breakfast consisting of: 4 sausages, 2 slices bacon, 3 hash browns, 1 portion beans, 1 fried egg, 2 slices black pudding; 1 latte with 3 large sugars; 6 biscuits; 2 jelly sweets; 2 flapjacks [oat crunchies]; 2 bars of chocolate; 14 diet cokes; 22 glasses of water; 1 salad; 9 packets of crisps; 2 cups of tea (with milk and 2 sugars); 1 beef-filled taco shell, with a rib, sauté potatoes, guacamole; 1 slice of granary bread; 1 chicken leg and rice; 1 slice of ham; 5 rum and diet colas; 1 portion chips and cheese; 1 portion noodles; 1 portion fried rice; 1 pancake roll; 1 portion sweet and sour king prawn balls; 1 tuna mayonnaise ciabatta; 1 portion onion rings; ½ a pizza with coleslaw; 1 packet of nuts; 1 slice chocolate fudge cake; 1 double cheese burger and chips; 1 chicken and mushroom pancake; 1 chicken burger; ½ litre of orange juice; 1 portion pasta with tuna and mayo; 1 chicken and mushroom slice; 4 sausages with 8 roast potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms; 1 tin tuna with mayonnaise; 1 doughnut.

“an amazing 18,000 calories in a week … almost 5,000 more than she should be”

“it’s awful, …absolutely diabolical. You go through so many take-aways, and I don’t think you have any idea what’s inside of them. Could be MSG – monosodium glutamate – there could be sugars, flavourings, enhancers.... There’s no real knowledge, as far as I can see, of what’s going into what you eat.”

Helpful or harmful?

• GM: Eating blue-green algae regularly will allow you to “connect with something essential and ancient…. [O]n subtle vibrational levels, unique genetic memories and messages of harmony and peace are stored in algae.”

• National Centre for Ecotoxicology & Hazardous Substances: Blue-green algae ‘properly called cyanobacteria - are able to produce a range of very powerful toxins, which pose health hazards to humans and animals and can result in illness and death.’

Helpful or harmful?

• (Mikaela): You've got me brainwashed, Ms. Gillian, and in the best possible way! Me and my mom absolutely LOVE your food! It’s so tasty and so fresh, and we feel great after eating it, and working out has become like a drug to me; I’m addicted, and I have to get it every day.

• (Annel): You have changed my life so that I don’t eat cake, bread or anything bad for you. … I am not very much overweight - about 5kg - but I don’t eat - and sometimes I don’t eat at all - I know that is bad But I'm starving my body to not pick up weight - bad ye?

• (Emma): I would like to thank you for all of your products which I could not live without. …. I buy myself at least one item a day.

• (Teresa) I thought about writing to my local hospital and I pass your website URL to anyone who cares to listen, but that isn't wide enough to reach thousands of people like me who are harassing their doctors to no avail.

‘I’m going to push the boat out here, and suggest that since you’ve bought this book you may already be harbouring some suspicions about multi-millionaire pill entrepreneur and clinical nutritionist Gillian McKeith (or, to give her full medical title: Gillian McKeith).’

(Ben Goldacre)