When booking a hotel online, you often see a much more appealing price than you end up paying. When you鈥檙e closing the transaction, that鈥檚 when they hit you with the 鈥渞esort fee鈥� and you realize they鈥檝e pulled the old 鈥渂ait-and-switch鈥� on you: baiting you with an appealing rate, only to switch it to a higher one when you鈥檝e committed. I鈥檝e also observed this maneuver in the world of alternative medicine, and it鈥檚 not always the product of deception.
Max Lugavere is a health and science journalist who鈥檚 been described as 鈥渙ne of the new generation of 鈥榖right lights鈥�.鈥� He鈥檚 young, tall, buff, and handsome, and has authored a New York Times best-selling book called . He speaks confidently about how to improve your lifestyle鈥攐r 鈥渦pgrade yourself鈥� as 鈥攖o reduce your risk of developing dementia and other neurological diseases.
He doesn鈥檛 shy away from speaking about his motivation: his mom, a fast-walking New Yorker, started to exhibit worrying symptoms, like brain fog and gait changes, before being diagnosed with both Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease. And the top neurologists they consulted鈥攅xperts at such well-respected institutions as Johns Hopkins and Columbia University鈥攃ouldn鈥檛 do much for her. Lugavere calls it 鈥渄iagnose and adios鈥�. But in searching for potential treatments for his mom and preventative measures for himself, he stumbled upon a trove of research papers that seemed to offer an alternative to 鈥渘eurological nihilism鈥�.
I first became aware of Lugavere because of his appearance on the long-form talk show The Rubin Report. , which was seen either in full or in part over 122,000 times, was actually, all things considered, quite reasonable. He pointed out that there isn鈥檛 a lot of evidence that butter improves brain health, thus addressing the whole 鈥渂utter coffee鈥� myth; he argued that we need to reduce our consumption of ultra-processed food; and he recommended a big bowl of salad once a day. He even understood the difference between observational studies (which cannot prove causation) and randomized controlled trials (which address this question more directly). He wants us all to get enough quality sleep and to take a break from social media once in a while.
I can鈥檛 argue against any of this. In this one-hour interview, he ends up sounding balanced and well informed. But there was a hint of the 鈥渂ait-and-switch鈥� I would experience later when he stated the following:
鈥淧ubMed [a portal that allows you to search the biomedical literature] is something that anybody can search. Not everybody is going to be qualified to the degree that they can understand, for example, medical literature or even cut through the jargon but鈥� there鈥檚 a lot that people can glean from what is readily available.鈥�
This appeal to self-empowerment鈥攖hat 鈥渋nformation wants to be free鈥�, as he put it a few seconds earlier鈥攊s quite common in the alternative medical community. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Many studies are poorly designed and executed, yet they end up getting published just the same. How can the average person tell the difference between a good and a bad study when a committee of actual scientists seems unable to turn the bad ones away from being published?
When you go to Lugavere鈥檚 website, there鈥檚 a pop-up message, made to look like a social media friend request, that asks, 鈥淲ant my free supplement guide?鈥�
I did.
The four-page document I received listed 鈥�11 supplements to supercharge your brain鈥�. There was an entry on omega-3 fatty acids (鈥淚鈥檓 religious about my high-quality fish oil supplementation鈥�) and one on astaxanthin (where the research is apparently limited but enough to be included in his regimen, he tells us). And once you鈥檝e received this guide, you鈥檙e added to his mailing list. And the rabbit hole starts to get deeper.
He tells you that his book has 鈥渘o bias鈥� (an impossible task) and 鈥渘o B.S.鈥� He writes, 鈥淚鈥檓 not selling anything. (Seriously!)鈥� Except he is.
He sends you an email about these amazing sunglasses to help you filter out the blue light that keeps you awake at night. He knows the founder of the company personally, just so you know, so you can grab a pair and save 20$. He鈥檚 also really worried about airborne particles causing Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, so he reached out to the manufacturer of a fantastic air filter, and you can purchase it for 299$ instead of 599$.
The rabbit hole gets deeper and darker on Lugavere鈥檚 brand-new podcast, . Each episode features an interview with a so-called expert. He brings a holistic health coach on , whose father had terminal kidney cancer and, she claims, cured himself by abandoning Western medicine and fine-tuning his nutrition instead. In , the guest is a 鈥溾�� who says crooked teeth happen because we鈥檙e not eating healthy. His website promotes recipes for and for . And the episode gets a sponsorship from a Toronto-based supplement company. Lugavere really likes their 鈥済ut health powder鈥�.
Make no mistake: Max Lugavere is building a business. And there鈥檚 nothing wrong with this. But his business seems to be constructed on the principle that, if there鈥檚 a scientific study on this, it鈥檚 worth endorsing. I don鈥檛 think this is a cynical cash grab. Rather, he simply seems ill-equipped (as a college major in film and psychology) to interpret the scientific literature as opposed to reading it.
A bait-and-switch maneuver is when an appealing truth is presented first, while a less appealing, often controversial or flat-out wrong belief is hidden, only be revealed once trust has been earned. Scientology is probably the most extreme and well known example of the bait-and-switch, approaching strangers about anxiety and trauma only to reveal much later the story of thetans, Xenu, and volcanoes.
On other people鈥檚 turf, Max Lugavere appears like a proponent of common-sense solutions to ill health鈥攂etter nutrition, exercise and sleep鈥攂ut it鈥檚 only when you start to trust him that he reveals himself to be a naive believer in anything that has a study behind it. His book has received endorsements from people like Dr. Oz and functional medicine proponent Mark Hyman, and this company is telling.
In his book, Genius Foods, Lugavere writes: 鈥淐onnecting the dots requires a certain level of creative thinking.鈥� No. It requires rigour, scientific training, and experience.
Let鈥檚 see how long it takes before Lugavere has his own line of brain-boosting supplements. I give him a year.
Want to engage with this content?
