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Dr Elizete Kaffer is a Brazilian dermatologist.

In a video (in Portuguese) she claims, starting from 0:54 (enphasis on the part that I translated):

[After talking about hidden sources for pathologies, e.g. symptoms of eye pathologies can have sources in problems in the epidermis. At 0:34 we see "correlation / embryology / organs and systems", and "Metabolical changes in 1 organ - systemic symptom in another organ!!!".]

Então, o alimento neutro, ele vai ser o quê? Um alimento que, se você tiver muito bem, sobrando energia - não sabe que fazer da vida, quer ter um pouco de prazer - , você vai lá e come um alimento neutro, ou seja, o eletrão tá parado. Aí você vai gastar a sua energia, vai sujar o seu corpo para fazer esse alimento, girar, o eletrão dele girar para a esquerda. Então, a base, se você não detectar isso, é a base de todas as doenças. Todas as doenças começam com alimentos dissonantes.

Which I translate to:

Our body's electrons are stuck, but certain foods make the electrons spin to the left, and the body has to expend energy on it. That's the cause of all disease.

Is this correct?

A second translation, from a native speaker:

[After talking about hidden sources for pathologies, e.g. symptoms of eye pathologies can have sources in problems in the epidermis. At 0:34 we see "correlation / embryology / organs and systems", and "Metabolical changes in 1 organ - systemic symptom in another organ!!!".]

So, the neural food, what is it going to be? Something that you will eat when you are feeling good, you have extra energy and you're feeling without aim in life... so you will eat this neutral food, that is, the [food's?] electron is stopped. Then you will spend your energy, you will dirty your body to make that food, spin, its electron spin to the left. Thus, the source, if you don't detect this problem, this is the source of all diseases. All diseases start with dissonant food.

ANeves
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Lambert macuse
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    Why is this question being hammered? What am I missing? It has a testable claim, it is notable, the OP expresses doubt. Sure, the original is not in English, but that's not a downvote reason. – Oddthinking Jul 12 '21 at 21:43
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    @Oddthinking I do not understand too. The doubt may be "idiotic" for some, but I'm in doubt because I'm not an expert in the area... the claim was not made by anyone – Lambert macuse Jul 12 '21 at 22:47
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    While a doc on YTube is surely notable (how much reach does she have elsewhere; this has 9.5k views), the language barrier makes it quite worthwhile imho to include a bit more context for that quote *and* the original wording used in it. Too many a contested claim on this site are just OP mishearing, misreading, mistranslating, misunderstanding it. (Not that I say this would be the case here though.) When answerers then just run with that misunderstanding, we see a lot of time wasted. Please add that context, the full video title and original language for proper vid title and excerpt – LangLаngС Jul 12 '21 at 23:14
  • Apologies for my downvote. I think I misunderstood what noteability means. (I thought a dermatologist making statements about electron spin was an obvious appeal to irrelevant authority and hence not noteable. But that's wrong since number of views or people believing it does make it noteable.) Unfortunately my DV is locked in now. – Jerome Viveiros Jul 13 '21 at 10:56
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    @JeromeViveiros Remember that once this is edited you can reconsider your voting… – LangLаngС Jul 13 '21 at 14:52
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    The premise is nonsense, as the accepted answer says. A question that asks if nonsense is nonsense shows no effort on the part of the OP. – George White Jul 13 '21 at 18:22
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    @Oddthinking It is being hammered as *the spin of an electron never changes, and it has only two possible orientations.* (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-exactly-is-the-spin/)- to that extent the spin cannot be changed. Of all the things that might change anything subatomic - "food" seems to be the most unlikely. The question seems to indicate that the OP (and the idiot Brazilian doctor) has not understood "spin" – Greybeard Jul 13 '21 at 22:28
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    @Greybeard: This is intended to be a site for people to ask "Hey, this claim is widely believed, but I am doubtful about it. Is it true?" We should welcome (with upvotes) people who *don't* understand electron spins (and know they don't know understand it) coming to ask questions like this. We should give answers they can show to their friends and family to say "Well, this is what the evidence shows." – Oddthinking Jul 14 '21 at 04:39
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    @Greybeard maybe the doctor is a spindoctor? ;) – jwenting Jul 14 '21 at 09:49
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    she may be confusing electron spin and protein folding direction. Left vs. right folded proteins can in some cases make the difference between a harmful and a harmless substance, and some of those protein toxins affect the skin, her field of expertise as a dermatologist. No time to pull up sources, but that may be what she intents to say. – jwenting Jul 14 '21 at 09:56
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    @jwenting Unless the quote in question is a gross mistranslation, a doctor confusing electron spin with protein folding might be more absurd. I guess it depends on what her doctorate is in. – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Jul 14 '21 at 17:59
  • @ReinstateMonica--notmaynard being a dermatologist she won't have a doctorate in either molecular biology nor particle physics, she'll have a doctorate in her field of medicine instead. – jwenting Jul 15 '21 at 10:15
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    Can you provide the original untranslated text? At what time in the video does Elizete Kaffer claim that? [The folks from portuguese.SE will help](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/25826/falatorio), but only if we are able to. :p I think it's at 1:10, I'll edit the question. – ANeves Jul 15 '21 at 12:56
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    The translation is not great; it keeps the _intent_ of the original words, but is highly imprecise. I'm not sure if I should change it... ping me in Falatório if you need my attention. (The existing answer remains, in any case, precise and true.) – ANeves Jul 15 '21 at 13:05
  • @ANevesachaquesEémau I accepted your edit, but why would it be inaccurate? I would like a quick answer, thanks! – Lambert macuse Jul 15 '21 at 14:04
  • I think it's innacurate, because of the nuances and complexities of language. Example, in the video Elizete Kaffer says that the electrons in food are neutral and the body needs to spend energy to make the electron spin to the left; but you translated that the food makes the electrons spin to the left and the body needs to spend energy to undo it. While I feel that you got the general gist of it right, these incorrections would cause a reaction like "no no no, you got it all reversed, you didn't understand anything..." from someone that would agree to the video. Not constructive, not correct. – ANeves Jul 15 '21 at 18:33
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    Dr Elizete Kaffer is, despite her diploma, a good, old-fashioned quack. While her clinic has some legit treatments, she is becoming some sort of brazillian Gwyneth Pawltron when health-related things are considered. It is a complete shame for the entire brazillian scientific community to see this person spew such utter garbage in video form. – T. Sar Jul 15 '21 at 18:46
  • To expand on my previous comment - this isn't the only instance of her saying such capital-G Garbage. Several of her other videos show a very _bad_ understanding of her so-called field of expertise, and an even worse understanding of physics in general. She is a terrible person with a very unethical and predatory business. – T. Sar Jul 15 '21 at 18:58
  • Well, yes, in as much as without electron spin we wouldn't be here to get disease. – Loren Pechtel Jul 16 '21 at 01:39
  • Any claim that "all disease" is caused by any one thing can be dismissed out-of-hand as nonsense. – Lee Daniel Crocker Jul 16 '21 at 16:31
  • There is no such thing as "left" other than with respect to some reference system. And things certainly don't "spin to the left"; that's nonsensical. – Acccumulation Jul 17 '21 at 00:32

2 Answers2

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The quoted text seems to refer to quantum-mechanical "spin". However "left" or "right" spin are not part of that concept, and it has nothing at all to do with the food we eat. It is also unclear how an electron can be "stuck". Taken as a whole the first sentence seems to be nonsense.

"That's the cause of all disease." is clearly false. We know what causes lots of diseases. For instance, many are caused by infectious agents. We can see how one person with the disease infects others, and we can isolate the agent that causes the disease. Electron spin has nothing to do with this.

In short, the quoted text is just woo; the misappropriation of scientific vocabulary in the service of nonsense.

Paul Johnson
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I find it strange that they should talk about electron spin to the left. Electron spin is usually considered "up" or "down" and is quite arbitary. The concept of electron spin direction is not to be taken literally as say a ball spins. As the electron is a point particle it wouldn't really make sense. Rather it is found that electrons have an extra component of internal angular momentum that can not be accounted for by its rotation.

Also regardless of electron spin, it still has charge. Electron charge is a fundamental constant of nature.

I think there might be some confusion with spin that does not strongly affect chemistry and electron number which does. If the atom is to lose electrons it can ionise or does not have a full valence shell can lead to a free radical that can affect the body chemistry and can indeed cause disease including cancer.

This information can be found in many textbooks but a quick search found Electron Spin http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/spin.html

Electron Charge https://www.britannica.com/science/electron-charge

Free radicals https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Organic_Chemistry/Supplemental_Modules_%28Organic_Chemistry%29/Fundamentals/Reactive_Intermediates/Free_Radicals

Free radical and cancer https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/antioxidants-fact-sheet

Tman
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