David "Avocado" Wolfe (born August 6, 1970) is an entrepreneur, author, and product spokesman. He is known for promoting raw foodism, alternative medicine, and a variety of conspiracy theories.
Video David Wolfe (entrepreneur)
Early life
Wolfe grew up in San Diego, California.
According to Wolfe, he became intolerant of dairy when he was 18 and stopped consuming it, which led him to explore various diets and by the time he was 24 he was on an organic, raw food diet.
Maps David Wolfe (entrepreneur)
Career
In 1995 he co-founded the company, "Nature's First Law" with his childhood friend, Stephen Arlin, who later changed his name to Thor Bazler. The company sold organic food and products related to raw foodism. Wolfe and Bazler started the company selling products out of their car trunks; by 2005 the company had 23 employees and around $6 million in revenue, and had profits of $1.2 million in 2004. The company grew in part by endorsements from celebrities like Steve Jobs, Woody Harrelson, Alicia Silverstone, and Angela Bassett. Wolfe became known for using Kirlian photography to show that raw foods had more "energy" than cooked food.
Wolfe is president of the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, which received its IRS nonprofit certification in 2002.
In 2004, Wolfe starred on the reality TV show Mad Mad House regularly as the naturist "alt", alternative lifestyle practitioners who served as hosts and judges for the contestant "guests". In 2004 Wolfe was part of a rock band called "The Healing Waters" that travelled the country in a vegetable-oil powered bus and performed songs including "Raw Food Girl" and "Bye Bye Burger World".
By 2005 Wolfe had become an evangelist for raw foods, travelling and speaking, while Bazler stayed in San Diego and tended to the Nature's First Law business.
Wolfe co-founded the company "Sacred Chocolate" in 2006 with Steve Adler, which sells specialized raw chocolate products.
In 2007 Nature's First Law changed its name to "Sunfood Nutrition".
New Horizon Health, Inc. was founded in 2009 and runs websites and businesses for which Wolfe is the "celebrity spokesperson": the e-commerce site, "Longevity Warehouse", and the subscription-based longevity web magazine, "The Best Day Ever" that Wolfe says he co-founded. Len Foley says he is the CEO of New Horizon Health, Inc. and that he is the co-founder of "Longevity Warehouse", "The Longevity Now Conference", "Longevity Conference", and "The Women's Wellness Conference". New Horizon Health had $7.6M in revenue in 2013.
The relationship between Wolfe and Sunfood ended at least by 2011, and there was litigation involving personality rights. In 2012 Sunfood claimed Wolfe was defaming it.
Wolfe has been the spokesman for NutriBullet since its inception in 2012, and has appeared in several infomercials promoting the product. Wolfe has authored and co-authored several self-published books promoting foods and offering diet advice. Wolfe also sells and promotes supplements and organic food.
Criticism
Wolfe has been criticized for promoting pseudoscience. His popularity on social media networks such as Facebook has led to backlash articles from critics, who accuse him of profiting from pseudoscience and promoting potentially harmful subjects, such as anti-vaccination.
- He promotes a diet based on raw plants, stating that this has a "detoxification" effect, while there is no scientific basis for this sort of "detoxification".
- He advocates that people with cancer take dietary supplements instead of getting medical treatment, which he describes as "largely a fraud."
- He believes that "chemtrails" exist and are harmful to people and animals. There is no evidence of the existence of "chemtrails", and multiple scientific agencies have explained that such clouds are merely common contrails.
- He has considered cocoa to be one of several "superfoods", a marketing term with no clear definition and not in widespread use by dieticians and nutrition scientists.
- He says that deer antler spray is "levitational" and an "androgenic force", which he promotes and sells.
- He claims that mushrooms have an "advanced intelligence and consciousness". He has stated that mushroom spores can "levitate off the planet" and believes they are trying to "get to the center of the sun". He has stated that mushroom spores originally came from "distant planets" and were "carried by cosmic winds or meteors into the Earth's atmosphere", stating "the preliminary work develops as the mushroom mycelium sets itself up to network and nourish multi-celled carbohydrate-forming organisms". He has also stated that the mushrooms that grow in trees are "medicinal mushrooms".
- He believes vaccines are dangerous and may not work.
- He believes that the Earth is flat and that gravity is a hoax, ideas that are considered to be pseudoscientific and are not compatible with the physical evidence of the Earth, which is spheroidal in shape.
Bibliography
- Arlin, Stephen; Dini, Fouad; Wolfe, David (1996). Nature's first law : the raw-food diet (1st ed.). San Diego, CA: Maul Bros. Pub. ISBN 978-0965353304.
- Wolfe, David (2007). Eating for beauty : for women and men : introducing a whole new concept of beauty, what it is, and how you can achieve it (3rd ed.). San Diego, CA: Sunfood Pub. ISBN 978-1556437328.
- Shazzie; Wolfe, David (2010). Naked chocolate. Great Yarmouth: Rawcreation. ISBN 978-0954397715.
- Good, Nick; Wolfe, David (2008). Amazing grace : the nine principles of living in natural magic : a galactic cliff-hanger. San Diego, Calif.: Sunfood Pub. ISBN 978-1556437304.
- Wolfe, David (2009). The sunfood diet success system (8th ed.). San Diego, CA: Sunfood Publishing. ISBN 978-1556437496.
- Wolfe, David (2009). Superfoods : the food and medicine of the future. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1556437762.
- Wolfe, David (2012). Chaga : king of the medicinal mushrooms. Berkeley, Calif.: NAB. ISBN 978-1583944998.
- Wolfe, David; Gauthier, R.A. (2013). Longevity now : a comprehensive approach to healthy hormones, detoxification, super immunity, reversing calcification, and total rejuvenation. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1583946145.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia