Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar has renewed interest in Belle Gibson’s infamous wellness scam, reminding us how vulnerable we can be to deception.
Gibson’s cookbook and app promoted a diet that claimed inner health problems (such as cancer) are the result of outside contamination, in this case by “bad” foods.
While Gibson’s scheme eventually collapsed, her story highlights how fraudsters can exploit our psychological and cultural biases to lure us into wellness traps.
Gibson and others co-opt this nostalgia by selling us products that connect us to the past.
Gibson famously claimed alternative therapies – most notably apple cider vinegar – helped treat her alleged cancer.
