Actor Nayanthara's nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal responded to the criticism on Instagram a day after Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, also known as the Liver Doc on X, criticized the actor for sharing a post about the health advantages of hibiscus tea.
The nutritionist, who has more than 74,000 Instagram followers, disputed Dr. Philips' criticism by mentioning journal links in the post that list the "benefits" of hibiscus tea.
"My reach may not be as big as his, but request all those who have benefitted from Ayurveda, natural foods science and all qualified nutritionists and doctors (Ayurveda or Western) who believe in holistic medicine/ lifestyle to come out and share my post so that the truth triumphs. Not an activity that mentions a celebrity name with an interest to hog limelight," Ganeriwal wrote.
The Liver Doc then conveyed his disappointment and supplied screenshots of Ganeriwal's posts on X.
"Ok, so after the actress Nayantara indirectly "abused" me and silently deleted her post on hibiscus tea benefits, her "celebrity nutritionist" Ms. Munmum Ganeriwal, whom I called a "quack" has responded strongly against me...proving that she is indeed a 'quack'", he wrote in a series of eight posts.
Because there is "no human data" on the hibiscus flower, he rejected Ganeriwal's claim. Additionally, he criticized Ganeriwal's journals, calling them "dubious" and "non-peer reviewed."
The Liver Doc had already called Ayurveda "pseudoscientific garbage," and now Ganeriwal is defending it. He continued "Ms. Munmum then goes on a tangent, bringing up complete whataboutery and adding religious sentiments to dog whistle the Ayurveda apologists to come and personally attack me. Where is the real science? Like I said, total quack. Many celebrities follow her advice. Scary."
Ganeriwal continued criticizing the Liver Doc's views on Ayurveda: "When he talks so strongly about domains like food and Ayurveda which is not his expertise at all, unfortunately, his sense of aristocracy and entitlement reflects."
To this, the Liver Doc replied, "Finally, as expected, she goes after the messenger when she knows she cannot do anything about the message. Delusional and clutching at straws, she delivers a word-salad with the panache of an Ayurveda-apologist with a neuronal mass of entanglement for brains can conjure."
He stated as he wrapped up his response to Ganeriwal's post, "And to formally end this conversation, I can confidently say that if I ask Ms. Munmum to simply name family names of bacteria residing in our guts, I'm sure she will run for cover behind a bunch of hibiscus. Any species shown below. Not necessarily one served to Nayantara."
Nayanthara shared the Instagram image to support her nutritionist. The Liver Doc called him "hopeless" and beat him on this as well.
The previous day, Nayanthara published a post discussing the advantages of hibiscus tea for treating "diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart-related ailments."
Nayanthara's post was removed following criticism from the Liver Doc, who referred to the claims as "absolute BS, bordering on quackery."
The Liver Doc, who is well-known for combating false medical information on the internet, has attacked actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu and the doctors that she mentioned on Instagram for advocating hydrogen peroxide nebulization as a substitute to medicine in treating the common cold and flu.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)