Did you know that when you eat meat, it stays in your gut for 40 years, putrefies and leads to a disease that kills you? 鈥淭hat is a fact,鈥� according to the model and charity campaigner , one of several celebrities whose statements in the media last year have been scrutinised and where necessary challenged by the British-based charity Sense About Science in its latest .
Since 2007, the charity has published the annual review after receiving alerts of scientifically questionable or incorrect statements by public figures. 鈥淲e try hard to explain why it was wrong, and why what might appear to be true isn鈥檛,鈥� says , the charity鈥檚 director.
Other celebs have been pulled up this year for apparently not realising that natural substances such as hormones are chemicals, and that ovulation is suppressed naturally by pregnancy and prolonged breastfeeding. Actress , for example, was quoted as saying that the contraceptive pill must be unsafe 鈥渂ecause is it safe to take a chemical every day, and how would it be safe to take something that prevents ovulation?鈥�
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Actor , meanwhile, was taken to task for claiming that foie gras causes Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, and for dismissing evolution.
Soccer star , who plays for London club Arsenal and the Netherlands national team, ended up in the review for publicising a treatment in which horse placental fluid was dripped onto his injury. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be on the lookout for more sporting examples this year in the run-up to the World Cup finals in South Africa this summer and the 2012 Olympics,鈥� says Raphael.
Any readers disturbed by Mills鈥檚 meaty assertions can take comfort from , a gastroenterologist at the University of Liverpool, UK, quoted by Sense about Science: 鈥淢eat proteins, like all other proteins, are digested by enzymes and absorbed in the small bowel before they ever reach the colon. Any remaining indigestible matter is mechanically transited through the whole bowel in a matter of days and expelled in your faeces.鈥�