About Quack or Snack
A public database for documenting pseudoscience and the people who spread it.
Our Mission
Quack or Snack exists to make it easy for anyone to look up a person promoting health claims and find out whether those claims are credible. We believe that access to organized, sourced, and clearly explained information is a public good.
We focus on people who systematically promote misinformation for financial or ideological gain, particularly in health, medicine, and science. Our goal is documentation and education, not harassment or defamation. Every claim we make is sourced.
Methodology
Each entry is researched and written by contributors who verify claims against published scientific literature, regulatory actions, and reputable journalism. We distinguish between debunked claims (false, contradicted by evidence), misleading claims (technically true but presented in a way that deceives), and unproven claims (no credible evidence either way).
Credentials are evaluated by comparing claimed qualifications against verifiable records. A credential is marked misleading when someone uses a real title in a context designed to imply expertise they do not have.
Danger Ratings
Danger ratings are assigned manually by content authors based on four factors: reach and audience size, potential health impact of their advice, degree of credential misuse, and financial exploitation of followers. These are not computed algorithmically.
Directly causes demonstrable harm. Large audiences. Active misinformation campaigns.
Promotes genuinely dangerous advice with significant reach or financial exploitation.
Misleading or unproven claims with moderate reach. Less likely to cause acute harm.
Mostly harmless pseudoscience with limited reach or low-stakes claims.
The Heroes Section
The Heroes section documents science communicators, educators, and journalists who have a track record of good-faith science communication and effective debunking. We include them to point readers toward trustworthy sources and to celebrate the work of people fighting misinformation.