Mr Wolfe, a nutritionist and raw food proponent who describes himself as the "rock star and Indiana Jones of the superfoods and longevity universe", sells alternative health products and is touring Australia next month.

He was scheduled to speak about wellness and nutrition as part of a "special Mr Vitamins event" at the Concourse Theatre in Chatswood next week. But after the Herald's inquiries, the event was cancelled by Mr Vitamins.

The cancellation follows a furore on social media, with the retailer hit by complaints from users after promoting the talk on Facebook.

"Absolutely appalled that you are offering a platform to such a dangerous pseudo-science loving, anti-vax, snake oil salesman," one wrote.

"Sorry Mr Vitamins you just lost a customer," another user wrote. "This man is dangerous and I'm very angry to hear that you are promoting him."

"Damaging for your brand to be supporting his unsubstantiated and dangerous claims," said another.

The Concourse, a popular venue for community celebrations, civic ceremonies and performing arts, is owned by Willoughby City Council and managed by Century Venues.

"Willoughby Council has not been involved in any aspect of the booking of this event, as this is the responsibility of the venue managers," a council spokesperson said.

A spokesman for Century Venues said it was a venue for hire which endeavoured "not to discriminate in any way". Any complaints about the nature of an event should be relayed to the producer or promoter, he said.

The Facebook post.

A spokesperson for Mr Vitamins said its mission was to provide "the best quality advice and information to enhance people's health and wellbeing" and apologised on Thursday for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation.

Mr Wolfe's tour team had asked the retailer about "whether our organisation was interested in having a well-known nutritionist present on raw-food nutrition to an audience of Australians with an interest in the topic," he said.

"We have since listened to the feedback of this potential audience who have voiced their concerns about this nutritionist presenting, and have subsequently chosen to cancel the event."

Tahnee McCrossin, manager of SuperFeast, which is sponsoring Mr Wolfe's tour, said it was disappointing that the Chatswood event had been "shut down on the internet by people with an anti-vaccination agenda".

Mr Wolfe was not visiting Australia to talk about vaccination, she said. "That's not the sum of what he does," she said. "He's here to discuss nutrition, health and wellness, which is what he's always done."

Mr Wolfe, who also promotes the idea that cancer can be cured through diet, has been targeted by the #DontCryWolfe internet campaign, launched by science advocates to dissuade people from sharing his "dangerous misinformation" through Facebook posts.

He was not available for immediate comment.

Associate Professor Julie Leask, from the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, is a behavioural scientist specialising in vaccination. She said there were different groups of anti-vaccination activists.

"You've got people who are ... evangelical in their crusade against vaccination," she said. "Then you've got groups of parents whose children have some kind of problem, like autism, and some of those group believe vaccines are the cause. And that's understandable - when something goes wrong with your child, you look for a cause.

"Vaccines don't cause autism. But they can be appealing candidates when people are looking around for what happened before they noticed their child's first symptoms of autism."

Professor Leask said the third kind of anti-vaccination activists are "individuals who stand to make a big profit from a wider enterprise and vaccination can often be one of the things they latch onto. It's part of the entrepreneurial wellness movement and this is a billion dollar industry."

She said it was "a tragedy that people peddle the idea that something [parents] did could have caused their child's autism, because it didn't. It's not known what causes autism, although there's clearly some genetic involvement."

Professor Leask said there were 743 cases of mumps notified in Australia last year, as well as 103 cases of measles, which can be fatal or cause pneumonia or brain inflammation.

There were 18 cases of rubella, which can leave children with lifelong disabilities if their mothers were infected while pregnant.

"The fact is that the diseases vaccines prevent, can kill," Professor Leask said. "They can put adults and children in hospital and they can change lives."