Bullying to maintain the failed Status-Quo
Maybe you’ve tried a low carb ketogenic diet, and maybe like us you have reversed your own type 2 diabetes, and you might be wondering why everyone isn’t talking about this. And you might be wondering why diabetics are still in 2016 being recommended to eat a high carb low fat diet, and told to simply restrict calories and increase exercise when THAT advice only ever leads to diabetes progressing and getting worse.
The reality is that when medical professionals DO speak out in support of a hormonal solution to diabetes that IS working, and against the Calories In: Calories Out model that has never worked – they are bullied into shutting up. We’re going to do a series of posts about how the people who do stand up and get bullied … but let’s start with;
Dr. Jason Fung.
You probably know of Jason Fung. Carl and I interviewed him on Episode 26 – The Obesity Code with Dr. Jason Fung. Still the most popular podcast we have ever done. If you listened to the podcast or have have ever heard Jason’s many YouTube recordings you know his premise;
- It’s not your fault you are fat, your hormones are driving this not your choices
- Medical Science has lied to you by telling you that it’s your fault you eat too much and exercise too little
- The 2 compartment model explains how you became diabetic, and how you can reverse your diabetes
Jason has put all his content, free, online on YouTube for years … and millions of views later – Carl and I hear everyday from people who have watched his videos and it has changed their lives. He also has a clinical practice in Toronto that has successfully treated over a thousand patients. And he also has 2 books out;
 The obesity code |
 The complete guide to fasting |
Enter the Cyber Bully
Recently, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff flew into a Twitter rage about Dr. Jason Fung being a fat shamer.
On the face of it, that is a ridiculous assertion for anyone who has ever seen any of his presentations.
We’ve interviewed him, watched all his online presentations, and followed his blog for years. Carl and I have always believed that Jason had an extraordinary compassion for obese patients. He also helps them for free. No doubt he makes a decent living treating patients in his clinic, but he also gives away all the same techniques on YouTube for free for anyone to apply in their own lives.
For years Dr. Fung has been critical of the obesity establishment, the ‘experts’ that have allowed this epidemic to happen, and he blames them for failing to understand the obesity problem.
The other day Dr. Fung posted a tweet, which specifically identified his problem with the keynote ‘experts’ of an Obesity conference in New Orleans who were concerned about genetics and calories rather than what is self-evidently the problem – hyperinsulinemia and the hormonal theory. He also linked a picture to it. It was a mildly ironic tweet, for those accustomed to Dr. Fung’s blunt style.
Nevertheless, some people found it offensive.
A normal person who found offense, might reach out to Jason to ask him to remove the tweet.
Yoni Freedhoff, however immediately started his hate-filled attack. Fat-shamer he cried! Where was this fat shaming? Jason Fung had not mentioned weight. Was it in the picture that he had attached? That picture was taken from the very pictures provided by the conference itself! If Jason was fat shaming, then surely so was ObesityWeek 2016 itself.
A sorry history of cyber-bullying
A review of Dr. Freedhoff’s tweets of just the last month reveals the real issue here. This is only the latest in a long string of hateful tweets by Freedhoff against different doctors. Consider the evidence in black and white. To protect the innocent, I’ll redact the names of the victims of his bullying.
On October 14, he urges one doctor to “Delete your medical license”. For what? This poor man simply expressed his opinion. Understand that this doctor that Freedhoff is attacking is not simply a family doctor like himself. He is, in fact, a Harvard trained professor of surgery.
On October 26, he calls another victim ‘idiotic’ for having an opinion. But Freedhoff, knowing he has a large Twitter following immediately uses it to bully. Freedhoff pretends to be a professional, but publicly calling others idiotic proves that he is anything but professional. This is cyber-bullying of the first order. We teach our kids not to do it, but this assistant professor of family medicine routinely engages in it.
On October 31, he publicly alleges that yet another doctor, a well-respected internal medicine specialist is selling ‘bullshit’. Says who? Freedhoff thinks he knows so much about everything that his own opinion is gospel truth? Once again, doctors may not always agree, but each is entitled to their own opinion. This is clearly yet another intimidation attempt.
On October 31, he accuses a Doctor of ‘unflinching scumbaggedness’. He offers no proof of his assertion other than his own opinion. This is all within the space of a few weeks! This hate filled character cannot stop cyber bullying his colleagues for more than a few days.
Bullies pile on
Worse, consider what happened next. Even as Dr. Fung apologized, Freedhoff and his fellow cyber-bullies and notorious anti-keto trolls gloat all over the Internet about how they ‘took him down’. Absolutely outrageous. Jason Fung simply made a human mistake and apologized. It was disgusting to read doctors and dieticians applauding this horrible behavior, obviously not understanding that ‘to err is human’. They littered the Internet with their hate-filled invective.
The real point of this bullying
You know why they are doing it, don’t you? This has nothing to do with protecting the fragile egos of 2 obesity experts. This has everything to do with the fact that Jason Fung’s continued success at reversing Obesity and type 2 Diabetes in thousands of patients challenges their worldview.
If Dr. Fung can help people to reverse their Diabetes with ease, and they are finding that their techniques don’t work nearly as well … then he must be BURNED AT THE STAKE.
A captive ‘journalist’
To complete his character assassination, Dr. Freedhoff had his girlfriend, journalist Julia Belluz (who writes for Vox.com) write an immediate article composed entirely of his tweets. Clearly she is not acting in the role of a Journalist here. She did not do her research. She did not bother to find out who Dr. Fung was. She did not bother to find out his well-known opposition to the old-fashioned calorie based thinking – which was where this tweet was directed. There is obviously something highly conflicted about their relationship if she will uncritically drop everything to promote his bullying tirade.
Hundreds of people who reversed their Diabetes thanks to Dr. Fung, and who know this accusation of fat shaming to be ludicrous, tweeted defending this man who had made such a difference in their lives. Dr. Freedhoff of course is silent. There is no acknowledgement. There is no recognition that perhaps Fung has helped many people. He just doubles down on his original claim of fat-shaming. The man is a serial character assassin by the evidence of his own twitter stream in just the last month, and he will evidently slander for sport.
Jason Fung was only the latest in a long line of targets for this guys bullying.
Dr. Freedhoff was the only one who observed that the 2 keynote speakers of an Obesity conference were themselves obese. I have not seen @YoniFreedhoff apologize for being a fat shamer.
He values his own opinion so highly that all others must be ‘idiots’ and ‘scumbags’ who must ‘delete their medical license’?
Is this what he teaches student doctors at the University of Ottawa (@OttawaU) in his role as an assistant professor? That it is acceptable, to sling insults at people with dissenting opinions, rather than mounting an argument against that opinion?
That is the difference between a professional, and a cyber-bully.
Cyber-bullies attack the person, and avoid engaging the argument.
Thanks for a good exposee of the matter. It’s not an isolated incident. The results of LCHF, Keto and Fasting practioners speaks for itself; yet, we are indebted to Fung’s and others efforts to legitimize the real truth to help save our society from the medical bastardization that has had us all duped for far too long. Cheers for your consideration and coverage. I find Freedhoff’s and Belluz’s behavior deplorable and self-damning.
Funny but true- I tried to look up Yoni’s publications on Amazon and was directed to books about…. something I was not expecting. Fair to assume Yoni might have been bullied a little in the past!
One is a Hebrew personal name the other a Sanskrit name for female genitalia, get out of the wrong dept.!! :))
I guess just because you have a medical license doesn’t guarantee that you aren’t a complete douche bag. I guess it’s just going to take more and more people to adopt keto and IF and lose weight on their own for doctors to finally give in and tell us it’s better for you. One day the ideas will in fact finally change and people will be able to get well again. For right now though I don’t think very many doctors get it. They maybe starting to but it’s going to be a long hard road with a lot of these types of doctors trying to sell their own agendas at the expense of their patients. Thank goodness we have Dr. Fung, Dr. Westman and Dr. Eenfeldt and a host of others that aren’t backing down on what is actually the cure for all this mess.
Well written, Richard. It was a pleasure to read. I have liberal vegan friends who are posting the vox article all over facebook. Now I know where it comes from, I can fire back. Thank you.
Belluz is his girlfriend? OMG! I read that article from her and she didn’t reveal that COI. That is completely unprofessional and deceptive.
Explaining it all to you… the persistence of Vox: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/explaining-it-all
And yet this article is a triumph of style over substance. The ‘journalist’ avoided explaining the substance of the charge against the failed Calories in: Calories out model and simply piled on to bully Dr Fung for a ‘slander’ actually voiced by Dr Freedhoff. Shoddy
Well well said
Hey Richard:
Great article and all good points. Very minor quibble: calling his girlfriend “inappropriate” is a vague, meaningless, shaming word. Perhaps you meant “conflicted”. Back in the day, when I worked as a psychotherapist, we were cautioned about using that word to describe our clients, since (if you think about it) it conveys absolutely nothing substantive about them but merely conveys the idea that we ourselves are somehow more socially acceptable and enlightened than they are.
Yes – good point.
Thank you
So – why then does Dr Fung block ANYONE from his twitter account if they merely disagree with his stance???
I assume he attracts trolls and chose to not feed them.
Dr.Fung knew exactly what he was doing when he posted the picture. I do not condamn Freedhoof reaction but we have to be honest guys, it was fat shaming in disguise. You CAN be an obesity expert and still be obese (maybe the person is simply happy with his weight, don’t know don’t care) we need to think rationally here. I am pretty sure dr. Freedhoff have nothing per see against low carb, keto or fasting if it fits the patient profil.
Yoni Freedhoff was the videographer of the poster presentation by Kevin Hall where Dr Hall announced the “Insulin hypothesis of obesity falsified”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atfBiEsxG5o
Julia Belluz was been a willing participant in its distribution
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/6/12105660/do-low-carb-diets-work
Jason Fung explained how Dr Hall got out over his skis on this
https://www.dietdoctor.com/how-kevin-hall-tried-to-kill-insulin-hypothesis-pure-spin
Dr Fung’s humiliation was therefore just a matter of time until he offered a tenuous premise, the three to be at the same location at the same time, and the appearance of a regular anti-LCHF troll to egg Dr Freedhoff on and the rest was inevitable.
@YoniFreedHoff @CarbSane
BTW I really don’t believe Jason Fung was fat shaming Dr Brownell, he was expert shaming the conference.
Dr Freedhoff was the one who brought up Dr Brownells weight.
I am sure if Dr Brownell were to present to Dr Fung’s practice as a patient, Dr Fung would start out like he always does and tell him that obesity is not his fault, that he had been lied to when he was told that it was caused by Gluttony and Sloth, and he would probably apologize on behalf of the Medical community that had gotten this disease so wrong for so long. 1000s of his patients have had that experience and it frankly flies in the face of Dr Freedhoff’s narrative.
Interesting info.I have noticed “sceptics”in sweden link to tweets by Freedhoff and articles by Belluz.
I wrote this http://buggesblogg.blogspot.se/2014/07/is-sceptical-movement-really-sceptic-j.html#comment-form
som years ago. In sweden they are against LCHF.Because their leaders are aginst it. Freedhoof and Belluz behave like astroturfers.
Belluz did a review of David Ludwigs book “Allways Hungry” that was full of lies.
https://www.drdavidludwig.com/all-diet-books-do-not-lie-an-open-letter-to-vox-editor-ezra-klein/
Do you have evidence that Belluz and Freedhoff are in a relationship or is that a snarky qualification of their public interactions? I tried to find evidence that they’re in a relationship, but didn’t find anything. I did see lots of her bringing him up in kind to glowing terms in her articles and him referring to her as providing “awesomesauce”, but nothing more explicit.
I know she is a girl and they are friends. I have no knowledge of their relationship, other than it appears on the face of it to not be a professional one between a journalist and her source (or is that “Sauce“).
I think Julia Belluz knows how Dr. Fung his.
Dr. Fung mention her in this post from last May.
https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/first-law-thermodynamics-irrelevant/
Clearly she has ‘form’ for supporting the CI:CO hypothesis in the face of evidence to the contrary.
She used the Stanford ATOZ study to assert that the low carb diet is no better for weight-loss than the Ornish, Zone or LEARN diets using a chart that showed it clearly was. What is more the other conclusions from that study showed that the Low carb arm saw objectively superior glucose control, and lipid chemistry.
So she cited a study that concluded the Atkins diet arm outperformed the other 3 for weight loss, and objective markers of disease then she asserted the study concluded there was no best diet.
Wait! Is this what we should accept from a “Science” journalist?
I’m sure Dr Oz would be touched that you don’t think his medical degree should be deleted or that you don’t think he’s a scumbag. For a blogger who I think looks at science, it’s interesting to note you support dr Oz when it’s been shown that half of his recommendations are factually incorrect.
I don’t approve of most of what Dr Oz (the TV personality) says.
But if I needed a coronary bypass, I would be comfortable if Mehmet Oz was doing the slicing.
The distinction is that saying “Dr Oz’s recommendations on XYZ (pick almost any) are fraudulent” is one thing, but saying “Delete your medical license” is bullying.
If you had a financial adviser who was REALLY good at advising people on one particular part of their finances–say real estate finances–but half of what they said to all of their clients was factually incorrect, would you still be comfortable with that financial adviser being certified by their board? Would you still think that they should be legally allowed to practice if they were being given financial incentives to have their clients buy certain products? Between Dr Oz’s history of COI and absurd advice, I don’t think saying “delete your medical license” is bullying.
I think you need to figure out the difference between bullying and calling people out. Bullying is when you try to hurt or intimidate someone–like constantly sending people after someone to threaten or insult them, or . Calling people out is when you publicly exposing someone’s motivations or faulty logic–like calling out someone out for promoting a type of medicine while receiving financial compensation for recommending (or selling their own brand) of supplements, etc.
I think when you say Dr. Freedhoff has a history of cyber-bullying, I think you mean he has a history of calling people out on schemes and practices that are harmful. Like calling someone out on their weight bias and the stigma they’re promoting. I dunno, just a thought, since Dr. Freedhoff didn’t call Dr. Fung out by name in his tweets, and did not name names when asked. People took the initiative to go looking on their own.
Bullying is not only a pain in the ass but also hindering progress in science !!
In the nutrition field there are some serious bullies, on-line and off-line which have to called out, like Yoni F.
A great paper:
Overcoming Potential Threats to Scientific Advancements: Conflict of Interest, Ulterior Motives, False Innuendos and Harassment
http://www.onlinepcd.com/article/S0033-0620(16)30055-X/abstract
Can’t help it, folks: I’m a linguist by training: Dr. Lingam-Kopf. Captures his m.o. perfectly, no?