*Claims are true only if the body part’s malfunction is due to deficiency of vitamin
Sub-Pharmacy made broad claims about health benefits of some food items retweeted 23,000 times and liked by 56000 person and this figure increases every minutes.
Using TheVisualized tool, I found out that the account has over 79.5K Tweets, 94.1K Followers and 8.2K Following. It has no real name but claim to be from Enugu, eastern Nigeria, whereas his email oloyetobe@gmail.com reflects western part of the country.
According to our backgrounds checks, Sub-Pharmacist is an individual with a Telegram account linked to Twitter page. It does not have a website and therefore not an organization. I notified him that his claims are being factcheck. He is did not respond to our message regarding his background.
Debunking the assertions, Nigerian born US Pharmacist, Isaiah Okoh told me that “these are true only if the body part’s malfunction is due to deficiency of the vitamin the food gives. For instance, Carrot is good for eye if the eye is deficient in Vitamin A that Carrot is rich in. Not all eye malfunction is due to Vitamin A deficiency. For instance,Glaucoma is due to increased intraocular pressure in the eye and a Trailer load of Carrot may not relieve such.”
We also found out that The idea that carrots promote healthy eyes and good vision originates from a myth — but that doesn’t mean it’s untrue.
Cucumber, Ginger, Avocados, as cabbage, kale, cauliflower and Brussels even turmeric, lemon, honey or cinnamon infused teas can be beneficial for improving health if deficiencies are due to lack of vitamins.
Conclusion: Sub-Pharmacist made common and generic claims on certain food items with intension to direct people to his social media page. The health benefits cannot be entirely pinned to one singular foot item and therefore bogus and not entirely true. The claims are about manipulating masses to drive online traffic and therefore for personal gains. Claims are true only if the body part’s malfunction is due to deficiency of the vitamin. From the range of False, Partly False, False Headline, Satire, Altered/Doctored, and Hoax/Fake, i arrived that the claims are Partly False.
This Factcheck is executed by Isaiah Onwuanumba, editor at IT News Nigeria and Code-for-Africa trained Factchecker. Kindly forward observations and concerns to isaiaho@itnewsnigeria.ng or isaiahmayor@gmail.com or +2347088800151
