By  LEAH CHAITON

Celebrity chef Pete Evans has once again landed himself in hot water over his promotion of the paleolithic diet on channel seven’s Sunday Night.

Channel 7 has also been caught up in the crossfire with the Dieticians Association Australia (DAA) writing a formal letter of complaint condemning the show.

The letter read: “When it comes to the ‘Paleo diet’, there is insufficient good-quality research to support the health benefits often claimed by advocates of the diet.”

The DAA’s strongest concerns were with the “inaccurate statements relating to the DIY infant formula".

“The very serious concerns raised about Bubba Yum Yum earlier in the year were not mentioned in the Sunday Night interview, and Australian health professionals' well-publicised concerns were essentially dismissed,” the letter said.

Pete Evans’ cookbook Bubba Yum Yum: The Paleo Way For New Mums, Babies and Toddlers drew criticism for its controversial "baby formula" bone broth recipe earlier this year. The book was shelved by publisher Pan Macmillan.

Co-author of the book and author of the blog Bubba Yum Yum Charlotte Carr developed the controversial diet for her sick son and said it helped his compromised immune system.

“For anyone considering making changes for the better, particularly with children, I encourage you to explore this healing, vibrant and very real way of eating,” Ms Carr wrote on her blog.

Infant Nutrition Council CEO Jan Carey said her concern was not the formula itself, but the lack of research done by parents.

“It is concerning that only 50 per cent of mothers actually ask a healthcare professional what formula to use.”

Ms Carey said Ms Carr developed the diet because she didn’t know what the ingredients in commercial baby formulas were.

“The paleo diet doesn’t believe in dairy, which is quite frankly stupid, because humans are mammals and mammal babies need milk.

“What we need to ensure is that healthcare professionals are willing to give information about infant formula to mothers,” she said.

RMIT University senior lecturer and course co-ordinator of nursing and midwifery Dr Jennifer James said there were no substitutes for breast milk, only poor alternatives.

“It is dangerous to suggest that the formula in that cookbook could be anything other than deleterious to growth and development.”

“Pete Evans is a great ambassador for health, but the paleo diet itself is a great nonsense,” Dr James said.

The paleo diet is based on the eating habits of early humans – thought to have consisted of meats, fish, fruits and vegetables, and little starch.

A recent study in the Quarterly Review of Biology found the diet’s low-carb basis would not have been enough to sustain the high glucose needs of the growing brain.  

The researchers argued that the introduction of cooked carbohydrates, such as starch, to their diets helped to provide early humans with the calories necessary for their brains to develop.

The study also found that a paleo diet during human pregnancy and lactation would place additional demands on the body’s glucose stores, and be especially detrimental to both mother and baby.

In order to monitor what parents are feeding their children, the World Health Organisation developed a code in 1981 to protect and promote breastfeeding, and to ensure the proper use of breast milk substitutes.

Mr Evans recently announced his cookbook would be back in print and on sale later this year.