"Health food store staff need formal training to ensure people with serious medical complaints are not given substandard advice, an article in the NZ Medical Journal argues.
In the experiment, a 53-year-old man visited randomly selected health food shops in two cities and two suburban areas in New Zealand.
He told staff members he had just joined a fitness club and had been informed he had high blood pressure. If asked, he told the employee his blood pressure was 160/120.
He then asked staff for recommendations to lower his blood pressure.
In 25 of the shops he purchased a wide range of products, with the most popular being garlic, which had not been proved to be effective against the health problem, the authors said.
"One health food store assistant recommended consultation with an iridologist as she could see 'a white ring of salt around his iris'.
The report by five medical researchers and professors followed an experiment in which a man visited 26 health food stores complaining of high blood pressure and in only one case was referred to a doctor."
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