YouTube vlogger Mari Lopez, who claimed
that a vegan diet and prayer had cured
her breast cancer, has died. Welcome back
to What's Trending, I'm Shira Lazar. Be
sure to like this video and subscribe
for more social media news daily. Mari
was part of a YouTube vlogging duo
with her niece, Liz Johnson. As Liz and
Mari, they had a small but active
following on YouTube and earned a living
through content they posted behind a
paywall
on Vimeo. In their most popular video, Liz
and Mari make a smoothie called a Lemon
Ginger Blast, which they call a "Cancer
Killer." The pair also argued that their
faith in God was essential to defeating
the illness. In order to get healing like
this, you have to go to God first and
there's a lot of people that will
criticize and say well you can't just be
healed by faith, which is partly true
because you have to have faith. Good
works. Yes. Together. The description in
their first video reads: "She was healed
by changing her habits, environment,
nutrition, and spiritual walk. Mari was
healed in 4 months by juicing." But Mari's
stage four cancer had not disappeared and
the disease spread to her lungs, blood,
and liver. Mari even believed that her
faith had cured her homosexuality. She
said: "I was healed by God and faith and
used to live a gay lifestyle." So
obviously what they both practiced and
what Liz still believes in is
controversial. And cancer advocates have
worked for years to prevent the spread
of false information regarding
treatments. And the use of religious
faith to deny one's sexuality continues to
be a source of great anguish in
communities around the world. So
naturally some of the comments around
the story have been pretty harsh. Holly
Wilder wrote: "People like Liz are the
worst kind of crazy. Not only does their
insanity hurt them, but it drags in other
people and spreads somehow." And Richard
Bennett said: "The vegan wife of a vegan
friend of mine is dying of cancer at
this very moment. According to you
reprehensible moonbats who counsel diet instead of medicine, that's
impossible. Delete your accounts and never post on
the Internet again." In response, Liz has
disabled comments on her channel and in
her first video since Mari's death, Liz
defends herself and her beliefs from
detractors. She was diagnosed with cancer
at the same time she had just renewed
her faith in God and she changed her
lifestyle because she was a lesbian
before and she decided that she wanted
to make a change. It wasn't because I'm
claiming that juicing healed her of a
gay lifestyle. I think that's the most
ridiculous thing that I've seen so far.
In the description of the new video, Liz
says that Mari ended her vegan diet and
started doing radiation treatment and
chemotherapy before her death. And she
told Babe.net that she believes Mari's
health wouldn't have worsened had she
stuck to her vegan diet.
She's also defending herself against
accusations that she forced Mari to
renounce her sexuality. This is tough
because you want to be fair and
sensitive to this family as they're
grieving a death. But cancer and
sexuality are serious issues and you
have to be careful with the information
that you spread around the Internet
claiming that you found the solution to
something that's very serious and real when you have no evidence to back you.
The point is, that Lemon Ginger Blast is
full of vegetables and things that are
very good for you, but it's probably not
the cure for cancer. Liz now says she
plans to continue her channel and even
may post the videos behind the Vimeo pay
wall for free on YouTube. This topic is
clearly important to Harry Shukman, who
interviewed Liz Johnson for Babe.net. One
of his previous posts for the site
profiles blogger Brittney Auerbach, who
has over 100,000 subscribers
on her channel
Montreal Healthy Girl. Shukman calls Auerbach
a piece of sh*t for trying to profit off
desperate cancer patients by saying that
her method will stop the growth of new
cancer cells "overnight." It's tough
because people like Auerbach might
really believe in what they're preaching
to people watching them without
realizing that they may be swaying
people away from actual effective
treatments. And while a lot of people
might live or die by the things their
favorite influencers tell them to do,
it's important to remain cautious,
skeptical, and do your research. In 2016, a
famous Australian wellness blogger, Elle
Gibson, who claims natural remedies cured
her terminal brain cancer, admitted that
it was all a lie.
So what do you guys think? Is it
dangerous for people to believe in the
healing
hours of prayer and vegan diets? Let us
know in the comments below, be sure to
like, and subscribe for more of What's
Trending.
