Internet sites use something called “chum boxes” to attract readers. Groups add chum box modules to internet sites for free, with just a few lines of code, and start making money immediately from the traffic they deliver to paying partners.
The old time banner ads have dismal click rate of around one-tenth of a percent, but chum box ads rake in millions of dollars. Every time you sign on to Yahoo there are tons of news stories, fake and otherwise. And, many of the so called news stories are in reality chum box advertisements.
Chum boxes contain “sponsored content” or “suggested reading.” They’re generated by a variety of companies, but the largest two are Taboola and Outbrain, both founded in Israel.
They get you to clicking with stuff like sex (e.g., hot singles in your area, “your area” determined using your IP address), some shocking and/or drastic changes in your city’s government (again, determined by your IP address), celebrity “news”, miracle cures, weight loss, finances, slide shows, junk objects like tine hearing aids, etc. etc.
One such story that always draws a chuckle is the gut doctor that is begging Americans to throw out “this vegetable” now! This news is accompanied by a different image nearly every time, a hand chopping up what appears to be green apples, a petri dish with a worm in it, gut bacteria giving off electricity, inside of a lotus root, illustrated rendering of roundworms, etc.
The gut doctor’s chum box contains what’s known as hidden content...you are redirected someplace totally unexpected, a website unrelated in any obvious way to what you originally clicked, and lead you on a wild goose chase between loosely connected sites that are also littered with ads.
What’s the vegetable this elusive top U.S. gut doctor is begging Americans to throw out? The doctor it would seem is Dr. Vincent Pedre, “a Certified Medical Doctor, a Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner, and Chief Wellness Officer at United Naturals.” He takes an holistic approach to medicine.
United Naturals is dedicated to providing “lasting relief from bloat and other embarrassing digestive issues,” in the form of probiotic capsules called Synbiotic 365 ($45 per box or $229 for six boxes). United Naturals also sells a collagen powder dietary supplement called ActivMotion for $45 a pouch, and offers a testimonial from a customer who says it cured their depression. There is no information here about vegetables.
However, this is not Dr. Pedre’s only website. His Integrative Health site has lots of information about weight loss and bowel movements and HappyGutLife.com sells a 28-Day Happy Gut Cleanse Kit for $399 which has been marked down from $499.
In January 2016, the New York Times interviewed Dr. Pedre. He stressed the value of vegetables, but never said that there is one vegetable that is literally poison and should be banished.
In July 2018, Dr. Pedre told Microsoft’s news there are five foods he would never eat again: cereal, milk, coffee, sandwiches, and pasta. Sandwiches make him “super sleepy.”
There is also a Facebook group for Happy Gut Cleanse that features Dr. Pedre where he conducts polls, asking his followers if they would buy one-page gut health advice sheets for $7 to $9 a page, and what advice they would like specifically.
He also shares links about why children in the Mediterranean region have the “highest rates of severe childhood obesity” and about “The Bacteria You’ve Never Heard of That Promotes Weight Loss” and other such foolishness.
Foods you should eat include kimchi, asparagus, broccoli, dark chocolate, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, mangoes, onions, pickles, and sauerkraut and cabbage.
Foods you should not eat had no vegetables on it. Just whole grains that contain gluten, soy products like miso, yogurt and also all dairy and GMO foods. Corn is apparently bad...maybe even the food you should never eat again. Who knows for sure?
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