Pete Evans, celebrity chef and unshutuppable paleo evangelist, featured on this evening’s ‘Sunday Night‘ in an interview touted as an effort to “address his critics”.
And sure, there are moments in which interviewer Alex Cullen does press him for a response to the many, many times he’s been criticised for telling his legions of fans that sunscreen is full of toxic chemicals, that fluoride is poison, and that dairy products will suck the calcium from your very bones, among other nonsense. (He responds with a series of deft sidesteps, accusations of “fake news” and regular cries of “I never said that“, for the most part).
But more importantly, the interview is a portrait of a deeply unnerving man who has the mannerisms of a cult leader and the blinding-white, unblinking smile of a couch-jumping Tom Cruise.
It’s not hard to understand how he’s so thoroughly won over millions of people to his bone-broth-and-offal-sucking, food-as-medicine lifestyle, which he purports can cure diabetes in six to eight weeks.
Just look at how his wife of one year, New Zealand model Nicola Robinson, talks about her sinful old ways:
‘I dabbled in fillers, botox, all sorts of things.’ Pete Evans’ wife Nicola Robinson says her husband turned her life around. #SN7 pic.twitter.com/oxLCbksgub
— sunday night (@sundaynighton7) March 26, 2017
As Cullen rightly points out, Evans’ appearances before hordes of his fans, who call themselves The Tribe, have all the hallmarks and atmosphere of a church service – complete with blameless, persecuted holy leader.
When asked why he got into so much trouble for his ill-fated Bubba Yum Yum book, which contained a recipe for babies that consisted of bone broth and liver, Evans responded:
“Because a journalist wrote a lie about it, which then got regurgitated through all the media outlets that said ‘Pete Evans promotes bone broth over breastmilk’. And I never said that.”
Mm, okay, Pete, but as Dr Brad McKay says on the same program, the recipe that you put in that book does contain enough vitamin A to cause unweaned infants serious harm.
It’s a great bit of TV, if only for allowing us a chilling glimpse into how a significant portion of the population think: entirely incorrectly, to the point of endangering babies. Cool!
Source & image: Sunday Night.
