A day after Dr Cyriac AB Phillips, better known as the liver doctor on X, called out Nayanthara for sharing a post on the health benefits of hibiscus tea, the actor’s nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal responded with a series of posts on Instagram.

The nutritionist, who has more than 74,000 followers on Instagram, mentioned journal links in the post that explain the “benefits” of hibiscus tea and challenged the criticism made by Dr Phillips.

Ganeriwal wrote, “My reach may not be as big as his but I request all those who have benefited from Ayurveda, natural food science and all qualified nutritionists and doctors (Ayurvedic or Western) who believe in holistic medicine/lifestyle to come forward and share my post so that truth prevails. This is not an activity where celebrity’s name is mentioned to grab limelight.”

Take a look at nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal’s Instagram post here:

Following this, the Liver doc shared screenshots of Ganeriwal’s posts on X and expressed his disappointment.

In a series of eight posts, he wrote, “Ok, so after Actress Nayanthara indirectly “abusing” me and silently deleting her post on benefits of Hibiscus tea, her “celebrity nutritionist” Ms Munmun Ganeriwal, whom I had called a “jholachhap”, has hit back strongly against me… which proves that she is indeed a ‘jholachhap’.”

He dismissed Ganeriwal’s claim about the hibiscus flower as it “has no human data”. He also discredited the journals mentioned by Ganeriwal, saying they were “non-peer reviewed” and “dubious”.

When Ganeriwal defends Ayurveda, which the liver doctor had earlier called “pseudoscientific garbage”, he said, “Ms Munmun again goes off topic, spews utter nonsense and incites Ayurveda supporters to attack me personally while adding religious sentiments. Where is the real science? As I said, total sham. Many celebrities follow her advice. Scary.”

Ganeriwal also took a dig at the liver doctor’s stance on Ayurveda, saying, “When he speaks so strongly on topics like food and Ayurveda, even though he has no expertise in them, it unfortunately reflects a sense of elitism and entitlement.”

To this the liver doctor responded, “Finally, as expected, she goes after the messenger even though she knows she can do nothing about the message. Confused and grasping at straws, she serves up a word salad with the grace of an Ayurveda-psychologist, with nerve fibers to tangle in the brain.”

He concluded his stance on Ganeriwal’s post by saying, “And formally ending this conversation, I can confidently say that if I ask Ms Munmun the family names of the bacteria that live in our intestines, I am sure she will hide behind a pile of hibiscus. Any of the species mentioned below may not necessarily be the one served to Nayantara.”

Nayanthara defended her nutritionist by sharing an Instagram post. The liver doctor also strongly criticized it and called it “disappointing”.

“Disappointing. Absolutely disappointing. Still no responsibility being taken for promoting nutritionists who mislead and sell pseudoscience. The state of healthcare awareness here is quite sad,” he wrote.

A day earlier, Nayanthara had shared a post about the health benefits of hibiscus tea and how it helps in “diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and cardiac ailments.”

Following criticism by a liver doctor, who described the claims as “absolute nonsense, bordering on hoax”, Nayanthara’s post was removed.

The liver doc, known for fighting medical misinformation online, had previously also criticised actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu and the doctors she mentioned in her Instagram post for promoting hydrogen peroxide nebulisation to treat cold and flu as an alternative to medicine.