A "health educator" possessing a vast global audience has identified what he believes is the "number one most dangerous food in the world", according to The Mirror. The culprit is neither alcohol, table sugar, nor fried food. Instead, the report highlights an item described as "the perfect definition of ultra-processed food" – a daily staple often fed to children under the assumption it promotes wellness: cereal and orange juice.
Eric Berg contends this breakfast option is "a sugar bomb with another bigger sugar bomb" causing "massive fructose overload" that overwhelms the liver, The Mirror reported.
Is cereal and orange juice bad for you? (ukayacan/Getty Images)
"The number one most dangerous food in the world is not fast food," says Berg. "It's not even table sugar, or seed oils or fried food or even alcohol."
"Many people think this meal is actually healthy and it's been normalized because so many people do it, including myself growing up. But it destroys your liver faster than anything else I know. This common breakfast meal is basically a sugar bomb with another bigger sugar bomb. You get this massive fructose overload. And it's pasteurized or cooked so there's going to be no nutrients in it. In fact, the vitamin C is added because heat kills vitamin C."
"But the type of vitamin C they're using is made from corn starch and sulphuric acid, it's synthetic ascorbic acid. Tonnes of sugar, tonnes of hidden industrial starch, artificial flavouring, artificial colouring, zero protein so you're not going to be satisfied when you consume it. It's the perfect definition of ultra-processed foods: ingredients that have been so altered it no longer resembles its original structure."
"Now your liver has to deal with all that. It has to convert it into fat, creating a fatty liver. The most dangerous meal that you can eat is cereal and orange juice."
The Mirror noted that Berg has 14.2 million YouTube subscribers and 2.1 million followers on TikTok. His website states he is a certified chiropractor rather than a medical doctor, yet he claims to be a "globally recognized health educator known for his work in nutritional science". He transitioned from clinical practice to public education, publishing 6,000 videos on topics such as liver health that garner 200 million views monthly.
However, The Mirror reported that many scientists dispute his extreme rhetoric. While conceding that juice and cereals are often unhealthy, experts rarely classify them as the "number one most dangerous food in the world." Berg also champions the keto diet and intermittent fasting, concepts supported by scientists like Professor Tim Spector, according to the report.
Yet, his warning against "seed oils" faces rejection. King's College London Professor Sarah Berry, the chief scientist at the firm Zoe, told The Mirror : "The most surprising thing I've learned about seed oils is how much nutri-nonsense there is out there about seed oils."
