#782: Janet Starr Hull

Janet Starr Hull runs The Online Hair Analysis Program, a website that offers “hair mineral analysis” tests to determine “exactly what chemicals are inside of you, including radiation, heavy metals such as mercury, food chemicals, pesticides and more!” Even the way it is formulated should make anyone suspect that something fishy is going on here. Indeed, “[g]eneric medical lab tests don’t identify deep tissue toxins or nutrient depletions,” and as opposed to what Hull seems to insinuate, there may be a reason for that. Quackwatch calls hair analysis “A Cardinal Sign of Quackery”. According to Hull, however, “[t]he hair analysis is the BEST tool out there to show you if you are toxic or if you are out of balance with essential nutrients.” Ah, the toxins; always the toxins. And the imbalance of the humeurs, straight out of medieval medicine.

According to her bio, Hull used to suffer from a deadly disease, and got interested in nutrition when she discovered that “[w[hen she removed aspartame from her diet, she healed from her deadly disease within thirty days.” Why aspartame? Well, you see, aspartame is unnatural, and as all practitioners of “holistic nutrition” knows, “what works in nature, surely works in man.” Which does not even make sense.

There’s a good, fact-based source on aspartame here. Indeed, through her book “Sweet Poison” and her Aspartame Detox Program, Hull may be considered one of the founders of the modern aspartame scare.

Diagnosis: Severely dangerous crackpot; no extenuating factors. She has caused quite a bit of harm already, and the world is surely not getting to be a better place in her presence.