User talk:Deana.ferreri


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Joel Fuhrman - biography page
I am employed by Dr. Fuhrman, and as a PhD-level biomedical scientist, I am familiar with the scientific strength of his teachings. Both I and Dr. Fuhrman are surprised and concerned about the negative bias that is apparent on his Wikipedia biography page, and I request an evaluation of the fairness of the page. These are the specific statements in question:

“…as well as promoting the dietary regime he followed, which he says helped speed recovery from his injury because of its nutrient-rich nature.” Dr. Fuhrman has not claimed that his nutrient-rich diet speeded the recovery of his heel injury. There is no source cited for this statement, yet my deletion of it was reverted.

“Fuhrman has advocated eating ‘at least one pound of raw vegetables and another pound of cooked ones each day, the equivalent of a throw-pillow-size bag of spinach and a very large bowl of steamed broccoli.’[2]” This statement is of concern because using a leafy green, instead of an assortment of vegetables, including tomatoes, carrots, peas, lettuce, celery, cucumbers and kale, for example exaggerates the difficulty of eating a large salad that adds up to a total of one pound. To make matters worse, Dr. Fuhrman does not recommend eating large amounts of raw spinach, due to the oxalate content of spinach, which reduces calcium absorption and could have other risks in those prone to forming kidney stones. This statement has clearly been inserted here to make Dr. Fuhrman’s recommendation sound ridiculous.

“Peter Lipson, a physician and writer on alternative medicine, has been heavily critical of Fuhrman's health equation, writing that since its terms cannot be quanitified, it is ‘nothing more than a parlor trick’.[4]” There has been some discussion on the talk page regarding this statement, which appears biased; it is unclear why this particular physician’s criticism (but no balanced positive commentary) has been deemed worthy of mention. H=N/C simply states that for optimal health one should attempt to eat a diet with a sufficient amount of micronutrients per calorie. It is tremendously biased to degrade Dr. Fuhrman over this clear and useful tool used to conceptualize a dietary goal.

Much of the content of the page originates from one magazine article in particular; it appears that negatively-biased quotations from the article were preferentially chosen for the Wikipedia page: “In the October 2012 edition of Men's Journal, Mark Adams stated that Fuhrman ‘preaches something closer to fruitarianism or Christian Science than to conventional medical wisdom’.[2]”Encouraging people to eat more natural produce and a healthier diet does not imply fruitariansim or Christian Science. Again, this statement seems to have been chosen to portray Dr. Fuhrman in a negative light.

“Adams also reported that Fuhrman believes that the flu vaccine ‘isn't effective at all’.[2]” Dr. Fuhrman discussed research on the efficacy of the flu vaccine in one of his books, but did not make that statement, and his writings and opinions do not make that statement or express that opinion.

“Fuhrman has heavily marketed his products and his infomercials have ‘become a staple during the self-improvement bloc of PBS pledge drives’[2]” The statement that Dr. Fuhrman has “heavily marketed his products” is also not true. He has appeared on television, radio and in the media hundreds of times, and other than his books and the educational package of materials sold by PBS, he never mentions his products. Also he has not advertised his products in the media. So this is another biased exaggeration. Dr. Fuhrman has had three top-rated educational programs on PBS, which have successfully raised over $30 million for PBS. These programs were inaccurately labeled “infomercials,” when in fact they serve as a fundraiser for PBS, who receives all the funds generated. My attempt to replace the word “informercial” with “program” (after discussing on the talk page) was reverted.

Additional points: I suggest that for the article to be fair and balanced, that Dr. Fuhrman’s research findings be discussed (I have listed published research papers in the Published Works section). For example, Dr. Fuhrman’s findings on human hunger and its relation to nutrient density as published in Nutrition Journal in 2010; also Dr. Fuhrman’s positive results with diabetic patients, as published in the Open Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2012.

In addition to Eat to Live, Dr Fuhrman has had four other books appear on the New York Times Bestseller list, an important point regarding notability.

Thank you. Deana.ferreri (talk) 17:57, 23 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Hi Deana.ferreri, taking your comments one at a time, from the top down:
 * The statement about his injury recovery has been tagged for lacking a citation. Usually, we give editors a week or so to find a citation before removal. So, this statement can be removed in a few days.
 * The statement about pillow bags of leafy greens is a quote from an article by Mark Adams. In my opinion, this is problematic as it is presented as if it's a quote by Joel Fuhrman. For this reason, I've removed the pillow bags portion of the statement.
 * I understand your concerns about Peter Lipson's quote, however if this has already been discussed on the talk page, I think you would need to establish a consensus on the talk page before removing the statement.
 * In regard to the Mark Adams article - are there other newspaper, magazine or journal articles available which could be used to help balance this biography?
 * In regard to the flu vaccine - I'd suggest adding content about his published view.
 * Again, you need to establish consensus on the talk page in regard to your preferred wording instead of 'informercial'.
 * Regarding the other points, given that the article is currently fairly short, I think adding the sourced content that you suggest would be ok.
 * PhilKnight (talk) 23:47, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

PhilKnight, thank you for your help. --Deana.ferreri (talk) 14:29, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * There have been several recent claims (on articles) that content violates BLP. Note the frequency of this type of deletion excuse. Please look at this Wikipedia article about 'Crying BLP'!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Crying_%22BLP!%22 MaynardClark (talk) 21:20, 19 October 2017 (UTC)