Book Review: PCOS Unlocked by Stefani Ruper

UPDATE:  Stefani's response and my own, posted ~2:30 pm 1/12/13, search on "Stefani Ruper Responds"

Alternate Title:  The Creation(ism) of a Paleo Guresse

This post has been a long time in coming.  It is in the utter absence of glee or malice that I have finally put it together.  But it is a post that needs to be made, because not to do so means this phenomenon of overnight Paleo guru creation never gets a light shown on it.  

Part I of Book Review

Do not buy this book.  If you want to support Stefani Ruper's work, though I cannot see why, send her a donation instead.  If you are a women suffering from PCOS or who suspects you have PCOS, save whatever money you might spend on this book and use it towards a consultation with a medical professional and/or diagnostic tests that can help you and your doctor figure out what is going on hormonally.  I purchased that $39 paleo book package recently, and to be honest, one specific reason for doing so was to get my paws on PCOS-Unlocked without enriching Ruper's coffers.  For that price, I received 33 ebooks, among them  

PCOS Unlocked: The Manual you will be receiving is 52 pages worth; not the entire guide. Why? It has a specifically unique value and thus $47 selling price. A significant discount code to purchase the rest of the guide is inside.

The 52 pages I received were valued at an inflated $24 towards the bundle value of $479.

Aside:  I won't do recipe reviews, but if anyone is interested in a review of a specific book or general recommendation, feel free to ask in comments.  I'll do my best.   / Aside

I provide these numbers because the whole package is valued on her website by Stefani at a whopping $147.  Since the very beginning, the introductory offer was for half of that price.  She then started Cyber Monday sales of half off the half off.  Right now it's $47.  The whole package comes with some videos and such to go with the book, but according to the table of contents (no page numbers), the 52 pages I got included to the *******.

Introduction
Part I: What?What is PCOS? 

What kinds of PCOS exist?
Who has PCOS, and what are they at risk for?
How do you know if you have PCOS?

Part II: Why?

Type I PCOS: PCOS caused by being insulin resistant and usually overweight
Type II PCOS: PCOS caused by metabolic and psychological stress
Type III PCOS: PCOS caused by hypothyroidism
Type IV PCOS: PCOS caused by brain abnormalities
Combining types of PCOS: Case studies
Discerning your type of PCOS
Factors that promote the development of PCOS

Part III: How to overcome PCOSHow to overcome PCOS: 75 percent diet, 25 percent strategy 

**************************************************  
Diet
Foods to avoid and why
Foods to eat and why
Changing our food habits: a brief Q & A about how to implement these dietary changes
Strategies for everyone
Specific strategies for type I PCOS
Specific strategies for type II PCOS
Specific strategies for type III PCOS: Hashimoto’s and non-Hashimoto’s hypothyroidismPart IV: alternative treatments

Helpful supplements for PCOS
Herbs
Foods with potent PCOS-fighting properties
Optimizing thyroid function with medication or other interventions
Medication
Ovarian DrillingPart V: Moving Forward

You will have to spend an additional $18 to get the rest.  Seeing as Ms. Ruper has only recently "cured" her PCOS after 3 years of paleo diet failure, by ... get this ... gaining some weight*, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that whatever she has to say in the rest of this manual is as vague and unfounded as possible.  Perhaps there are references somewhere, but given as she brags on this being a scientific quest, she offers no references to any of the first 53 pages.    *We do not know that she has regained regular menstruation.

Save your money.  Because (p. 43):

If you feel confused by any of this, remember the takeaway: every woman who has PCOS has it because of damage that has been caused by straying away from what her body naturally needs. And remember the guiding principle: move constantly towards natural nourishment.

Listen to your body and your blood tests, and feed yourself what you need. This means with food, and it also means with your psychology and with your actions. It is at its root very simple: eat real foods, do not stress out, love your body, and listen to your body. Be natural, and at one with yourself. ...

Just don't tell Eades!  LOL.

Part II of Book Review

Here is the "literature" from the PCOS Unlocked website:  

My name is Stefani Ruper, and I’m a scientist, philosopher, and nutritional consult [sic]. 

I was diagnosed with PCOS in the fall of 2009.  I didn’t know a thing about ovaries, about nutrition, or about hormones.  I tried finding out about hormones on the internet, and I listened to my doctor, but neither of those things helped me much at all.  How could I become fertile again?  Have a sex drive again?  Regain radiant skin?

At the time, working for NASA in an Ivy League microbiology lab, I knew that I had to apply my rigorously-honed scientific brain to the problem of PCOS.   I knew I could do it.  I could hack my PCOS.  And I did.

What followed were several years worth of research, reading hundreds, if not thousands, of medical journal articles, surfing the web, experimenting with my body, and being in dialog with hundreds of women as I moved forward and began consulting others on how to overcome their PCOS.

We'll get to some of Stefani's other claims in a moment, but for now, I want to focus on the expectations anyone reading this would (or should) have.  That is, if I ever write a book and promote it on the basis of extensive review of medical journal articles, you'd be damned sure to find a lot of said science in there as well as a list of references that would put GCBC to shame (they may not be quite as extensive, but they would be peer reviewed current cites).    So, I was wondering where this stuff was ... no hint of it in my 52 pages.  And then I got to the bottom of Page 20 to the section on Insulin Resistance.  This is key folks, because PCOS, however misunderstood or, more correctly, however much is not yet definitively known about its causes and cures,  is considered to be an IR-Syndrome.  Insulin's basic action in glucose transport, however,  is not in question.    I predict that most people reading this or who have read much about insulin in this community would find the following APPALLING.

The science of insulin resistance

Insulin is one of the primary “fat storage” hormones. When we eat food, our blood sugar levels rise. This makes sense, right? We put food in our stomachs, and it almost inevitably has some form of sugar in it, so the sugar enters our blood.  Having too high of blood sugar levels--just more than one or two teaspoons of sugar in the body at a time-- however, is toxic.  So humans have a built in mechanism in order to prevent sugar toxicity. It is called insulin.

In order to clear sugar out of the bloodstream, the pancreas secretes insulin.  Insulin finds its way to the sugar, takes hold of it, and escorts it to fat cells. We can think of sugar as a group of rowdy kids causing trouble, and of insulin as the local cop.   The insulin comes out to squash the riot and escort delinquents away for the night.

In this model, fat cells are the county jail.  When the insulin and sugar arrive at the fat cells, insulin asks the fat cells for permission to enter.  The sugar needs to be put away for a while.  In a healthy person, the fat cells “hear” this request, and immediately let the insulin in to store the sugar as fuel in the cell. In an unhealthy person, the fat cells do not have the ability to respond properly.  They do not “hear” the request, and both the sugar and insulin remain outside of the cell, in the bloodstream.

Insulin resistance is a condition that occurs of the surfaces of fat cells. In an insulin resistant body, insulin and sugar make it all the way to the surface of the fat cells—but because the metabolism has broken by poor nutrition, and this repeated cycle of hyper-driving into fat storage, the fat cells have lost the ability to hear the request to enter.  

But the sugar needs to get into the fat cells.

So when this is the case, the pancreas secretes even more insulin. Thankfully, having so much insulin in the bloodstream convinces the fat cells to finally let the sugar in for storage. This saves lives. It prevents sugar toxicity. But then there is a lot of insulin left over in the bloodstream.

The more insulin a person has in her system over time, the less and less sensitive her fat cells become to it. It becomes harder and harder for the surface of the fat cell to detect the need for it to open up for the sugar and insulin to enter. This decrease in sensitivity is called insulin resistance. The blood sugar metabolism has broken. The woman is becoming increasingly overweight as she continues to eat too many empty calories and as her metabolism tries harder and harder to keep up.  This insulin resistant woman is not always overweight, but usually the two conditions accompany each other. In either case, her insulin levels become chronically elevated.

It is too bad Stefani never actually read a basic textbook, internet tutorial, or even watched a YouTube video about how insulin works.  It is NOT how she states in the red bolded parts.   Here's a little video I "recorded" from an animation linked to in this post here:  Insulin Resistance III: Glucose Uptake and GLUT4's


The video is only 16 seconds.  The blue dots are glucose.  That pink/blue thing on the membrane surface is an insulin receptor.  Insulin (red oval) docks on the receptor which sets in motion events that "signal" the GLUT4 transporters (blue things on green circle) to migrate to the surface, then glucose passes through transporters.  Insulin doesn't grab unruly sugar molecule kids by the hand and escort them anywhere.  This is basic stuff folks.  Furthermore, in  regards to the blue bolded statement,  fat cells are not the primary sink of dietary glucose, and not even a major one.  Those would be muscle cells and the liver.  Indeed if you knock out the insulin receptors on fat cells in mice, FIRKO, they remain remarkably insulin sensitive and normoglycemic overall.  

So how can someone who gets such academic truths so blatantly incorrect even presume to know more than any doctor about PCOS?    Which brings us to ...

Stefani Ruper's Credentials

I first discovered Stefani from the occasional hits I got from paleopepper.com.  As I believe I've related before, I always found this odd because usually when I catch these sorts of things and I follow the referring URL, I find a link to a post or my blog on a blog roll.  Not so at PP.  The first post that really caught my eye was this one:   Hungry or Angry as Hell.  Following PaleoFX12 the rumblings about body image in the Paleo Village started bubbling to the surface, and at some point this post of Stefani's also caught my eye.

Stefani wrote in rather compelling fashion about eating disorders and body image and all that.  So much so, I considered blogging more on those forgotten/ignored issues more myself.  As I read a few posts she spoke of all the years she had been ED and then references to her work.  Her studies.  Her travels. Etc.  Even, her practice!  I started doing some math in my head and looked at the picture and wondered (later asked) just how old she was.  It turned out just 23 at the time.  Upon learning that, I thought to myself that at least some of her claims HAD to be exaggerations, if not flat out fabrications.  One soon learns she was no child prodigy who got a PhD at age 10 or something that might explain all the boasted expertise/experience.  No, she was your ordinary woman who went through college in the usual 4 years and all that jazz.  

I probably would have let it all drop had it not been for Stefani's rise to fame in the paleo community.  It is something that I've been aghast in watching and epitomizes all that is wrong in the LC/paleo community.   First came the Paleo for Women website, and then podcasts and guest posts and more podcasts, and then she created PCOS Unlocked.  With each appearance, milestone, and the like, I kept noticing her credentials became more bloated.  Some of these may seem trivial to non-scientists, but they are crucial to one's personal integrity in that realm.   There are also exceptions to rules where formal education is concerned.  But just as someone without formal credentials can amass knowledge and become a credible source, so too can those with some formal credentials demonstrate how they are not enough ...    Stefani's claims to hold specific degrees and/or use of specific labels and terms describing her work and practices are, at this point, beyond exaggeration.  They constitute fraud.

On Paleo Pepper, she writes:

I graduated from Dartmouth College, where I specialized in studying life on other planets. This is not a joke. This is the unparalleled brilliance of a liberal arts education. After that, I lived in Italy for a bit, in Detroit for a bit, and then in Taiwan. Today, I live in Boston. I study the philosophy of religion at Boston University, and I studying Unitarian Universalist ministry at Harvard Divinity School.

At the time, this seemed to be entirely truthful.  On her LinkedIn page, she describes herself as:  Writer, Nutrition Specialist, Counselor, and Advocate at Paleo for Women.  Blurb:

I write about, counsel on, and advocate a paleo diet specifically for women's health, fertility, and weight-loss. My work is focused in two avenues: highly critical biochemistry and health science, and fierce defense of women's natural bodies. My page's Facebook description reads: Paleo for Women is a movement. It calls women to own and to love themselves as natural, evolved beings. It demands health, it demands love, and it demands recognition of the power, beauty, and unapologetic radiance of natural womanhood.

Her experience lists ONLY: Paleo for Women January 2012 – Present (1 year 1 month) Write books, speak at conferences, contribute to magazines, blog, counsel women on nutrition and eating disorders.

Education:
Boston University, MA, Philosophy and psychology, 2011 – 2013 (expected)Dartmouth College  High Honors BA, Biogeochemistry, 2006 – 2010

At other times she has used the term "nutritionist" which implies certification (mainstream academic or otherwise).  Counselor?  That implies some training right?  Well she once wrote:   "My work in women’s health began as an eating disorder counselor", which turned out to be some peer-to-peer gig in college.  For those not following the timeline, this would be when Stefani was in the throes of ED herself.  

But she's always promoted the Biogeochemistry angle, I think because when one is, indeed, an Earth Science major who apparently studied soil that may or may not have contained microbes, it's a hard sell to translate those qualifications to human biochemistry and physiology.  But that's what she is:   Listed here as Earth Science 2010 you should talk to her if:  "You’re struggling with which science to major in, or are feeling interdisciplinary, since my concentration is biogeochemistry. Also if you’re interested in soils or in any extra-terrestrial science."  Now, I can hear the groaners out there parlaying a concentration in biogeochemistry to a degree in same is mostly just semantics.  Trust me, to any company seeking to hire Ruper, it would be far more.  A degree in biogeochemistry would infer far greater specialization and academic study than one in earth science with a specialization.  

I have lost track of all of Stefani's claims, but her credentials have evolved over the past year, though they did not change.  It seems like some of her classes involved field work, and the professors at Dartmouth are happy to have undergraduate "grunts" (as a former graduate student "grunt" I use that term lovingly) do menial tasks on their research projects.  But in she has exaggerated that into "working for NASA".  No.  Stefani Ruper never worked for NASA.  She did some work on a project NASA funded.  Stefani has morphed into a "former research scientist".  Having never worked as such, that claim is more than appalling.   Indeed the summer before my senior year in college (and over winter break) I worked in a world-renowned research facility for a Fortune whatever-the-smallest-number-is company doing cutting edge research on silicon device fabrication.  I was out of my element as a biology major, having been hired for my chemistry background/experience to work with a bunch of mostly EE's, but I look back fondly on those times and have quite a few accomplishments I take great pride in achieving, even if I never really could tell anyone the details  -- it was that proprietary!  And yet, still, I would never have been so bold as to describe myself as a research scientist until I actually became one (in Big Pharma) after graduation.  It's like the seasonal help at HR Block claiming to be CPA's, or a customer service person at Legal Zoom claiming to be a legal aid let alone an attorney.  

I am frankly shocked nobody has said anything about Ruper's resume padding to date, but on the other hand, I'm not all that surprised by anything anymore in this community.  Stefani Ruper has a Bachelor of ARTS in Earth Science.  Period.  She has no background in cell-signaling, molecular biology, human anything, etc.  She has openly stated that she abandoned (at least temporarily) her academics at BU.  She has told us of her continued disordered eating, health challenges, and how paleo actually FAILED her.  

But here's the real kicker.  Stefani Ruper is slated to speak at PaleoFX13.  One can presume on her area of "expertise", PCOS.   Her short bio reads ... blah blah blah ... 

Stefani has degrees in biochemistry from Dartmouth College and in philosophy from Boston University. Stefani loves nothing more than her current job: empowering women not just with knowledge of nutrition and their bodies but also with love.

Say what?  I've been watching the evolution of her BA degree -- astrobiology one time, biogeochemistry most times, emphasis on microbiology once or twice.  But now, it is biochemistry.  That is NOT a typo.  And that is a LIE.  Stefani has no degree in biochemistry from anywhere.  I'm not even sure she has taken a course in biochemistry.  But even more blatant is the fraudulent claim to a degree from BU.  There aren't even any claims of working in the capacity of scientist post graduation.

Oh but Evelyn, perhaps it's the PaleoFX folks who wrote the bios and they got things a little off.  No.  I wrote to them to ask and Michelle Norris emailed me back and confirmed my suspicions:  Bios are submitted by the speakers.  Of course we cannot know who wrote them, but considering Stefani's short bio, etc., she most assuredly wrote hers or could have taken five seconds to peruse it for accuracy before sending it off.    Michelle asked me about what error I was inquiring about and that it would be corrected and the speaker informed.  Let us see what becomes of that.  I informed her of the information regarding credential fraud as outlined in this post.  I'll be emailing her a link to this post.  

So here's how a Stefani Ruper goes from college grad trying to find herself to PCOS authority in less than a year.  She writes a post critical of Mark Sisson, one I found lacking in any kapow factor.  Sorry, I have criticized the man, but for some sort of sexism and failure to cater to women's issues, no.  And he's not some sort of fasting zealot either.  Indeed if someone said fasting and asked me to name the top 5 names I'd associate with it, I'm not sure he'd make the list.   But Nikoley took note.  Nikoley also actively trolled for page hits by exploiting Jack Kruse for all it was worth.  This made Abel James, a man with abs and a great radio voice, and a Dartmouth education, a podcast rockstar overnight.  And then someone put bugs in Stefani's ear and Paleo for Women got a few makeovers, she did a guest post on FTA that in-yo-face threw her sistas under the bus -- oh never mind, I don't feel the love LOL.  And then she started a podcast and interviewed Jimmy and Abel interviewed her and it's all a rather disgusting Incestral Health Society thang going on.  On Jimmy's Low Carb Conversations she promoted PCOS Unlocked.  She, Jimmy, Abel and Dean "Dude I'm a Neurosurgeon" Dwyer guest hosted for Sean Croxton.  And the Balanced Bites ladies are promoting her book and she went on their podcast and I think they went on hers, and Jimmy went on hers and twice on Abels and on Balanced Bites (Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe, no relation to Robb Wolf) ... and round and round we go, where we stop the insanity, who the eff knows!!!  

In a few weeks, this group is scheduled to do guest appearances on JimKKKins Moore's podcast.   Will they?   In Ruper's case, why should SHE be invited to do so?  Does she have any experience?  Nope.  Education?  Nope.  Expertise gained in some other manner?  Nope.    And let's see what PaleoFX does with this as well.  She was not on the list last time I checked in the fall, she's among several later additions.  I know they are more "theory to practice" which if Ruper was what she claimed to be, would be a perfect fit for her.  But she is not, and they know it now several weeks in advance.   Let's see if they can even do the right thing with a small player.  If they cannot?  That said, this is not only on the organizers of PaleoFX ... it is a test for the community.  **They failed to properly vet Jack Kruse, NEUROSURGEON!, in 2011-12, and look where that got them.  Well, lots of bad publicity they blamed on a few women they didn't give a sh!t about and were easy targets, that's what.  Will they repeat history with Stefani Ruper, EarthScience Major?  2013 shall be an interesting ride.

---

** EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE:  When I wrote this, I never in a million years felt that PaleoFX -- the Norrises -- were involved in what comes after the ** above aside from being part of the community as a whole.  They = Paleo Community.  That was the point of  the "this is not only on the organizers of PaleoFX"  but I can see how this is not clear and can make the rest seem as if I'm referring to them specifically.  THEY, PFX folks, DID NOT BLAME ANYONE.  Indeed my recollection of events of the time of the whole bioterrorism, FBI, etc. fiasco is that they were extremely helpful especially behind the scenes.  There was a FORMER business partner involved on some of the threats and such made in emails, but this had nothing to do with them.  I apologize for this error and have left my original wording intact with this explanation.  I stand by the statement that PaleoFX and basically the entire community did not properly vet Jack Kruse.  MANY had been speaking out about this guy's utter mangulation (made up word) of science and such.  Too many fell for the "dude I'm a neurosurgeon" line because ... well ... he is (was?) one and he baffled with bullshit.  However when he appeared at FX12, it was with a few crazy statements on a Jimmy Moore podcast, at PH, at the Paleo Summit and his Holy Trinity post -- that came just before PaleoFX inaugural event.  I'm sure they had no clue he was to pull the dynamite stunt, etc.  and were probably (speculation on my part here) biting nails hoping he wouldn't make a mockery of their event.  TEDx -- with the smearing MRSA claims and such -- came afterwards, and Krusegate much later still.  When I was referring to finger points of blame it was to the ultimate fallout of Krusegate, again where my recollection was nothing BUT support from Michelle and Keith.  I recall Michelle posting on PH about this but don't have the link.  If anyone can supply one, I'd greatly appreciate it.

So to repeat/summarize:  I do believe this community as a whole needs to do some soul searching about vetting its "experts".  Whether its speakers with questionable behavior within the community (Nikoley) or questionable affiliations and/or professional behavior/ethics (Moore), or, in this case questionable credentials and content (Ruper), there's got to be more careful vetting and consequences when people lie or misrepresent or make up wild theories in the name of science.

My apologies to Michelle (and Keith) for any distress my original wording may have caused.

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Stefani Ruper Responds & My Reply

Stefani has responded to this post in the comments section.  If you want to read them, free of commentary first, scan down and do so now (it might be quickest to use a browser search on "Hi all").  But rather than have to diggle with formatting, character limits and all that on my own blog, I'm C&P'ing them to the blog post proper with commentary.  Stefani's words will be indented italics, and further only those parts to which I'm specifically responding will be in regular size font and bolded.  Mine will be usual unformatted

Hi all,

While a bit of a shock, I am happy that these possibly misleading misteps or mistakes in my past and bio are being pointed out so any bad air can hopefully be cleared. I am also honored to hear your ideas and your comments. That is not a lie-- Evelyn, I understand where you are coming from. I do. I hope that everyone approaches me and my work and the work of people on the internet with as much information and skepticism as possible.

There are two explicit things about the bio that I would like to explain, agree with, and apologize publicly for. The informaion is in fact a typo on the paleo fx site about my Dartmouth degree. It is a degree in biogeochemistry-- when asked about what that means I tell people openly and happily. It is about microorganisms interacting with organic and inorganic chemistry in the environment. I studied microbes and bacteria under microscopes primarily, writing my undergraduate thesis on the viability of Ecoli cells to survive extreme temperatures and pressures, which has unique implications for the possibility of life to exist in the interior of terrestrial planets.

First, let me say that my initial questioning of Ruper's scientific rigor came when I read this January 2012 post where she mentioned how she was introduced to paleo by Nora Gedgaudas.  I have nothing against Nora as a person.  I do not know her.  But her book, Primal Body, Primal Mind,   would be close to the top or at the top of paleo books that I would suggest not reading.  Her science of metabolism is atrocious, having claimed that all body fat comes from glucose, attributing that to a major medical textbook, yet cannot provide an exact reference.  She defended this to me in an email exchange once "I didn't make it up".  My challenge holds for anyone to find such a statement in any college textbook.  There are many other things wrong with her book from misrepresenting the peer review she does reference, relying primarily on mass media diet books for her science, particularly on leptin (Rosedale), and her accounting of history of the human species.  By bottom line on Nora's book is that no person with a basic education in human biochem/physiology could take anything in the book seriously after reading her mangling of it in PBPM.  In January 2011, she wrote about her worried Mom giving her PBPM:

I was a scientist, and it was a principle of mine to be as open minded as possible. Fine. I’d do it. But I was not happy. “Mom,” I choked out on the phone, trying to get some privacy in a packed student commons “even if it turns out that it’s healthier for me to eat animals, I won’t do it. It’s not right, and I’m not willing to make that sacrifice.”

Well, I did. I read Nora’s book and marked with sticky notes where I thought she was wrong. But by page 60 I stopped that hyper-sensitive, unfair nitpicking. I had studied evolutionary biology. I had read popular science books. And I had common sense. My life became a series of Duhs. I lived in a house full of vegetarians, and I began trying to get them to read Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint, which I had also read, and loved fiercely.

Sometime in 2012 for the PfW site, this morphed to:

So I read the book and I highlighted all the points I wanted to contest, and I put little sticky notes in the margins, but by page 60 I was sold. I needed to eat a paleo diet.

So I did.

And I became wholly invested in natural health. My undergraduate degree was in biogeochemistry, and I was in fact a tutor in organic chemistry, so both the biochemical principles as well as the general scientific rigor of what the paleo authors were espousing were enormously compelling. I began applying my background and a general critical eye to all the literature I could possibly find, and my brain, philosophy, and passion all began to grow. I loved and read so much that in fact I compiled several hundred posts about a year ago into a“paleo archive” that serves as a thorough snapshot of the evolutionary scene at that time.

So here is where you can imagine I was shaking my head, because the way I see it, someone who has an Ivy League, or even a community college education in anything relevant, would recognize the science of PMPB (as well as, unfortunately, much of what Mark Sisson -- BA Biology) as anything but rigorous.  I was not familiar with exactly what biogeochemistry entailed, so I did a quick Google search to see what this involved.  It turns out there is no such major at Dartmouth, but there is quite a bit of biogeochemistry research going on there in the Earth Sciences department.  You'll note that there's a students link in the search I took while writing this.  I'm not sure how it was that I landed eventually on a similar page featuring Stefani herself.  

I'm quite frankly appalled by the number of people with degrees in Biology (as I hold) or related fields in this community that parlay that "expertise" into promoting scientifically unsound theories.  Gimmickry is one thing, making shit up or relying on Good Calories Bad Calories for your understanding of biochemistry/physiology is unacceptable ... or it should be.  This is why I looked to see what exactly Stefani studied for her major with "bio" in it, because the education varies widely from institution to institution.  My degree, being from an engineering school where virtually all freshman take two semesters of calculus (our 2 semesters = 3 semesters at most schools), calculus based physics and general chemistry (on the order of chemistry for science majors), and as a bio major I took my first biology classes.    I compare this general science background to that other bio majors receive and it is just *different*.   In some cases that provides plausible deniability (they never learned otherwise), in others it demonstrates inflated credentials and statements made from a falsified position of knowledge/authority.

Now, Stefani has deleted her initial responses here and replaced them.  Not good form, I might point out.  I believe I have the originals saved, but can't find them at the moment, so I'll address mostly what was here earlier today.  However, it is telling that in her original reply, Stefani basically accused me of mocking her degree or considering it somehow inferior.  To paraphrase she said something like "you can continue to think that I skated by in some second class major" -- perhaps she'll clarify for us.  This is the reason for my expressed disgust below.   Firstly I never even addressed her academic performance.  Not once.  I have also never dissed either her major or institution.  I do think it is important, since she certainly highlights her Ivy League education -- something I'd be equally proud of having, as I am proud of the institutions I've attended -- that just exactly what that education was matters.  It matters a lot.

Look, I had arguments with my Dad, who if he had his way I would be an engineer today, about where I'd go to college.  I was a finalist for a full scholar-athlete scholarship program at a liberal arts school that only offered a BA, not a BS.  My parents were adamant that they would not pay for me to get a BA, so you can imagine I was a little crushed when I didn't get the scholarship.  In retrospect a good thing, because as difficult as it was for a bio major to find gainful employment in the 80's (almost every job I managed to get  interviewed for paid $10-15K/year while my engineering friends were getting offers in the mid 30's+ to put in perspective, and I had a good resume), I would not have stood a chance with that BA, and my graduate pursuits were a smoother transition having taken calc based physics and the like which most bio majors simply do not take.  But enough about me....  

I'm just abhored by the bastardization of science in this community.  It is unacceptable.  If the people that are so concerned over their movement, and getting the mainstream medical establishment to revise their past errors, are really serious, they can start with revising their's.  Junk science will never go mainstream.  Never.  Isn't the health of the population more important?  So back to Stefani.

She is listed as an Earth Science major here.  You will note that the other student's study field specifically includes a formal minor.  Dartmouth does not offer an undergrad degree in Biogeochemistry, and while, according to that page, students can receive specialized degrees for individualized majors, there's no indication this is the case for Stefani.  So, I believe at this point, the onus is on her to provide proof of her actual degree from Dartmouth.  What does it say on the diploma?  Back to the comments as they stand today:

My apologies for wherever that transmission occurred-- I would like to shoulder the blame for that misstep whether through autocorrect or editing or poor editing on my end, I do not know. I do understand some biochemstry and have studied it. But I am by no means an expert in it.

That is not really the impression one gets from the PCOS Unlocked promo materials and what you wrote on the About page there:

I have since then shared my breadth and depth of knowledge about PCOS and female health with thousands of women through the Paleo for Women website, fertility forums, and the several hundred email consultations I have performed.

All of that work on PCOS required a discerning eye, a sharp scientific mind, and research expertise. That came to me through years of rigorous education. I graduated with high honors from Dartmouth College with a degree in biogeochemistry; I performed research on the biochemical origin of life..

Ummm ... Sigh.  Back to the response:

My second importance piece and apology is about my degree at Boston University. The problem with my bios over the last year or so is that the course of my life has changed so frequently. At first I thought I would graduate in May 2013, then I thought "fuck it!" and quit and signed up for Functional Diagnostic Nutritional School, then I thought I would hold a degree before Paleofx.  Different course offerings and changes in my life have meant that that date has been pushed around.  At the time I wrote the bio that said I was quitting school, that was true. I believe it has changed since then. It was on my blog. At the time I wrote that bio for Paleofx, I had thought I'd have a degree in my hands at that time, and at the very worst and egregious 30 days following the conference (since the graduation date would have been the semester before or that semester.) Yes, I have returned to my studies since thinking that I would quit them and enroll in FDN school, but my graduation date is still flexible and moving backwards a bit of time.

I'm happy to learn that you have resumed your formal study.  For someone so unsure about your education, it was extreme hubris to write a bio about actually having a degree.  Period.  It wasn't an oversight, I don't accept that and neither should the community at large, but anything seems to go in Paleolocaland it seems.   

Michele has changed the bio to say "pursuing a degree in philosophy." She was absolutely certain to make sure that the bio was correct, and I could not agree with her more.

That makes it all better.  Not.  I provided Michelle with my cell phone number two days ago and she indicated she would call.  I have not to the time/date of this update received any further response, email or phone.  (I'll email a link alerting her to the update).  What is Stefani going to speak about at PaleoFX?  Eating disorders?  Huh?  The woman just wrote a blog post discussing how going Gedgaudas-style VLC paleo/primal triggered eating disorders and didn't work for her!!  There seems to be little evidence she's made much progress on that front.  Kvetching in emails with other eating disordered people isn't counseling, and she has no business counseling without formal training or a solid record of recovery herself.  Same with  PCOS.  Totally and utterly unqualified based on education, or expertise -- formal or personal.  I'm sure it will reflect well on PaleoFX that one of their speakers just recently wrote about how going paleo actually made matters worse for her.   Theory to practice and all that ...   Onward ...

I had not known that I was listed on the speakers list for paleo fx. I was in fact saddened when I didn't see my name on the list in December because I had hoped to be able to be included in a paleo [sic, panel?] or such about emotional eating, etc. So I did not know there was a bio out there that needed correcting. When Michele told me this morning that I was listed on her website I was surprised.

Geesh folks.  How do these various pow wows go about things anyway.  I mean did she submit a bio or pitch a talk or something with said submission?  It seems it's just the Norrises running the show there.  To date Michelle, at least, has shown little to no concern over Stefani's credentials.  They put her on the list of speakers on their website before informing her?  Huh?  While there's always the "tentative" out, surely being listed as a speaker on the website selling admission to/promoting their event.  This is ... just ... odd. 

Those are the two elements of my bio for which I think you have every right to be concerned and upset, and for that reason I apologize, and with deep sincerity. I ask your forgiveness in my falibility and my inattention to detail in both regards. I understand, however, that it may not be given, and I am at ease with that. Sometimes we make mistakes that are not forgiveable, or that do not still make up for the whole of our personas, and I am okay with that. Please love me if you love me, and do not if you do not. I believe that I shall always respect your opinions.

This is not personal Stefani, and I really do wish you would not diminish meaning of the word love in this way.   You don't love me because you don't know me to love me!  You throw that word around so as to make it meaningless.  If I were one of your true loved ones, I'd be wondering over your sincerity based on your pap and platitudes.  Just sayin ...

There are a few other relevant pieces I believe need addressing.I have called myself a "nutritionist" a couple of times when first starting out as a big mistake and a misunderstanding of the officialness of the term. Once I learned it, however, I never used it again.

I'm going to take some license here and juxtapose a later statement out of order and address both.

As for being a "former research scientist," this is the truth, since I was paid outside of my school curriculum on time I took off from my undergraduate work as a research assistant. Some of this work was funded by a NASA grant, another focused on meteorites. Another piece of it contributed to a part currently on a rover on Mars.

You are really stretching my patience here.  Somehow you are now so concerned with the "officialness" of the term nutritionist, yet fail to comprehend the meaning of scientist.  I'll repeat that on your PU main page it says as of today:  "My name is Stefani Ruper, and I’m a scientist, philosopher, and nutritional consult."    I'll let the philosophers worry about your boasts in that regard, but sorry Stefani, your lack of comprehension of the "officialness" of the term scientist is astounding.  Elsewhere you have described the NASA work as being in a Dartmouth lab, so it's absurd to continue on this track to justify your resume inflation.  You know this is wrong even in the past tense, but it's used in the present tense in your promotional information to imply *expertise* on your part.  While scientist means different things to different people, within the field, it is well understood.  The fact that you show reverence and deference for the term nutritionist -- officialish for sure, but you or I could get a certificate in a month that would entitle us to use that term, it's not like an RD for example -- but throw around the term scientist to infer expertise with such utter disregard is beyond words.  No?  You don't do that?  Well, let the following repeat quotation speak for itself:   "All of that work on PCOS required a discerning eye, a sharp scientific mind, and research expertise. That came to me through years of rigorous education. I graduated with high honors from Dartmouth College with a degree in biogeochemistry; I performed research on the biochemical origin of life."

I AM, however, a nutritional consultant, since I have have clients and spoken with them about diet. I also started a business in 2012 that did a bit of eating disorder counseling. But I found that I did not have as much time for it as I would have liked, so I have not grown it into a full practice. Still, however, I coach women through self love and eating disorder issues when they contact me. Often I direct them to other women I know with different specialities who can help them better. But sometimes it is my advice and support that they are craving, so I give it to them. I am open about the fact that my training in eating disorder counseling comes only from informal classes and volunteering and such for the last several years. I believe that my experience and my empathy are powerful for many women, however. I resonate with them. If they do not want my services, they do not need to ask me of them, obviously. And I do not think -- and I am certainly in no way trying to do so -- that I mislead them about who I am, what I've done, what I think, and what I stand for. I am a woman with a few credentials and experiences that I am open about, and I invite you to judge me however you wish.

What you are doing sounds an awful lot like practicing something without a license.  And since you have repeatedly and publicly discussed your own issues with both nutrition and eating patterns (and health), there's no doubt some misrepresentations going on there as well.   Lastly -- in the only part of the original response Stefani did not delete and edit:

It has been my experience and perspective that my credentials have become less and less "bloated" over time --that is, I immediately recognized the error in calling myself a nutritionist and even pursuing that as an official path-- as I realize the truth of my path, how things are done in the real world, and my level of accountability to my readers. I am constantly open to being corrected.

Consider yourself corrected then.  Because your credentials vis a vis your science background have become more and more bloated over this past year.  I've pretty much been biting my tongue about that since PU came out in October.  Your self-promoting claims were so over the top I thought surely someone, anyone, would call you on it so I wouldn't have to!  But no!!  Around and around the affiliate links went with absolutely no qualms or reservations.  

One example of this is in my struggles with PCOS Unlocked and sharing it with people. How do I sell something I believe in, even when I hate so much to sell myself and to ever do any kind of convincing? Which I do, and strongly? I first heeded the advice of many advocates and tried to use marketing techniques for better sales, but then I hated that so much that I backed down, but I still had some language about "curing" PCOS in the website left over and that was horrible, and so upon realizing that I eliminated that right away.

You have fall-off-my-chair GOT to be kidding me Stefani.  There is language all over your website that is synonymous with cure:  "overcoming",  "overcoming ... for good", and the, frankly, disgusting put downs of the medical establishment that just doesn't have the knowledge of that expert, Stefani Ruper.   This screenshot is from this morning.

Now I can see missing some stuff at the bottom of some secondary page, but this is at the top of your main page for the book.  Expert.  Overcome [grammar sic] will be solved, for good.    But speaking of "cure", no, you have not scrubbed that from your website while promoting yourself.  On the bottom of the About page, behold a screenshot I just took:

Beyond words Stefani.  You have not cured your own PCOS!!!!!  (Heck, I could be wrong, but I seem to recall you at least wondering if you ever had PCOS at all and weren't misdiagnosed all along.)

Much of this has been a journey for me. I apologize if I have misled you. That was in no way my intention. Honestly-- in no way. I have been overwhelmed at times and inattentive with this "rise to fame" (which I believe has plateued, thank goodness, and even specifically declined after the fasting issues and such this summer), all the while doing my best to provide what I think is helpful information for my readers. Not everyone agrees, and I am okay with that. But some women find what I do helpful, and that is the only reason I have stayed in this endeavor. 

PCOS-Unlocked with all its outrageous braggadocio was released in October if I'm not mistaken.  If, as you say, your "rise to fame" was in decline, why was not more attention to detail given?  But please don't insult me or my readers with this nonsense.  You had a golden opportunity to help women in this community following AHS12 when Richard Nikoley ratched his vulgarity laced attacks against women up, and all we got from you was a middle finger in the face because it was more fun to hang out with a misogynist who thinks you are hot.  Sickening Stefani.   You were called on it in the comments here on my blog, but you stayed cowardly silent.  In this regard the very name of your website is offensive as you seem to be some self-appointed voice and advocate for women.  Bull SHIT Stefani.  You got all up in arms over Ron Rosedale making some comment that required some truly creative interpretation to view as sexist, and yet when Nikoley went off on an AHS volunteer for daring to address some issues regarding sexism in the community?  Silence.  Oh ... except to come to this blog and accuse me of being angry.  You better damned well believe I was angry.  Anger is not an emotion women are forbidden to have young lady.  I sure as hell wasn't feeling love!  Pap and platitudes and throwing the word love around doesn't change that, it makes you seem silly.  As of today I am unsure what happened to that woman, I'm not even sure she is alive as my last email went unanswered.   Eh ... where was her love Stefani?   But this is just some venting that needed to be done and isn't really relevant to my assessment of your book, etc.

As a final quick note, my apologies, Evelyn-- all of the references -- all 25 pages of them -- come at the very end of the manual and I did not append them to the first half that I cut off for the Toadally Primal Bundle.

Well, how odd for a self-proclaimed scientist to reference a book but make no use of footnotes of any kind.    Since this is ultimately about your piss-poor discussion of insulin's action (I take you on your word that you fashioned your patently false police analogy yourself), perhaps you can give us a reference for that "biochemistry".  The point of references is so that if people want to read more, they can easily find the source.  Do people have to waste what could be hours pouring over 25 pages to find the sources of whatever information you provide in the remainder of the book?  Are they in chronological order of citation?  Or alphabetical order, an utterly useless organization when inline author citations are absent.  Or are they organized by chapter?  If so you could easily C&P the references for the first 52 pages so we're not all cheated out of the full $24 value of this part of your book.  

There are many more points to address, but I believe these are the important ones.

I again apologize for any harm that has ever come to anyone as a result of my efforts. I have zero intention to mislead anybody. I have great love for you, and I am sorry. I do my best to walk as gently, helpfully, and strongly, and honestly in this world. I am young, but if I can help people, I absolutely will.

All my best regards,

Stefani

Nobody wants you to stop helping people.  But without the proper training and real expertise you are just taking advantage of them and perhaps even hurting them.  This is why I said in my review that any potential buyers of your book should save their money and use it towards getting competent care from people trained in the field.  This is repetitive, but I'm not feeling the love, not to mention an offensive lack of respect, from you for doctors.  What did they ever do to you?  This is an extremely harmful theme that pervades this community.  That just because modern medicine doesn't have all the answers and may have gotten some things wrong, that they have it all wrong.  That they are all out to make a buck off of your suffering and medications and dietary recommendations they foist upon you to line the pockets of their Big Pharma and Big Food puppetmasters.   I realize some of this has probably been hurtful to read.  But the truth hurts Stefani, but people deserve to know it.  It's really too bad so many in paleoloca land are not only so fast and loose with the truth, but seemingly can't handle it when it's put right in front of their faces.

There are all manner of sayings regarding helping others but it being best to first help oneself.  I think they apply here.

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COMING SOON:   What Will It Take?  A chronicling of events surrounding various paleo and LC peeps that should have woken people up,  forced some manner of accountability, and forged real change in the community.  If you have any ideas you think I might miss or don't want me to forget, please suggest in comments or you can email me:  carbsane at gmail dot com.