www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/ram/2007_05_fri_03.ram

Lets examine a current example- this time int he the HOLFORD (TM) LOW GL DIET – Patrick states that if you want to ‘optimise’ GL – you need HCA supplements – er, NO, Patrick – you don’t. But don’t let excellent research by Dr Stephen Heymsfield, a REAL world renowned leading clinical nutritionist specialising in energy expenditure (at jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/280/18/1596, and oodles of other similar references) get in the way of your pseudomedical recommendations. Its surprising that Patrick relies so much on pills for his ‘Optimum Nutrition’ – seeing as another recent book vilifies the ‘Big Pharma’ pill-popping approach to dealing with modern illnesses…
Nay, Patricks supporters are usually middle aged, affluent and educated (but not in nutrition) females, usually with some tragic experiences of life/ health/ other, trauma who have suddenly seen the light and paid the (therapist/ supplement company) price and have been taken in with the Lineker Looks – and the fact he is always pictured about to eat some tempting food (funny how you never see a picture of him actually taking a bite out of that damned strawberry – perhaps its just too toxic – and better leave it to the supplements for nutritional benefit).

Think blonded females with borderline eating disorders and gym bunny tendencies, with little darlings just desperate to get into a selected entry school, and you’ve got the genre of Patricks People. Guess they aren’t drawn to your serious Oxbridge Ninja medical status, Ben. Damned if they can make their pretty little brain cells ponder the big (nutritional) science arguments….

Or how about this – do a Michael Moore, turn up at the IoN with a film crew some day when you know Paddy baby is in and ask him to debate, on camera, including why he is saying you wouldn’t debate him. Then send the film to Tonight with Trevor McDonald.

Seem to remember Brian Deer once tried to “doorstep” Andrew Wakefield at a conference, but apart from that I can’t think of any obvious examples of putting BadSciencers on the spot. . Madeleine Portwood of Durham “fame” is another one crying out to be doorstepped, since she has “gone dark” every time Ben has tried to ask her anything

i must say, i’d never really given much thought to the “Institute for Optimum Nutrition” before this, but what seems to me like complicity, ignoring emails etc, has certainly alerted me to the possibility that they may be a little different to most other “.ac.uk” institutions. i honestly can’t think of a proper college or university that would just ignore emails for a week like that. like i say, absolutely bizarre.

I see from Patrick Holford’s site that you have refused to debate him. It is obvious that you don’t know what you are talking about with nutrition, Patrick Holford is one of the world’s leading experts and he has very clearly shown the flaws in your so-called science. Now that it has been proved that you are wrong I have no doubt you will never debate him. You are nothing but a coward.

this is the most childish thing anyone has ever done, i’ve been through all my past emails with holford, i’ve been through my past emails with ION, i’ve found one thread, he suggested a debate, i said yes, he never got back to me.

i have tried to find out what he’s on about here. i’ve emailed him and his PR, twice, and all the ION people I can think of, david.nicolson@ion.ac.uk, reception@ion.ac.uk, aliya.dallara@ion.ac.uk, marvalyn.smith@ion.ac.uk, it’s a week later now, not one single one of them has had the gumption to reply.

absolutely bizarre.

at least two days later and not one single one of them has replied to me.

bizarre.

first the Optimum Nutrition Bible…..

then the feeding of the 5000 – er, with something fishy!

The Bible allegories just keep on coming.
next ?

the nature of the beast suggests a big PR puff! EXPERT NUTRITIONIST has DATA on the BIGGEST SURVEY OF OUR KIDS DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE caused by POOR DIET, and contributing to POOR RESULTS.

Guess it’l be launched around Easter – just in time to get the GCSE brigade rushing for the supplements….. watch this space!

“Both ION and I have previously invited Goldacre to debate the science behind any nutritional claims he wants to take issue with. So far he has not accepted the challenge”

he offered

and i said yes.

as far i can tell from searching my emails he never got back to me.

i’ve asked him to confirm that i chickened out as he says – since all the evidence i can find says i was up for it – but he hasn’t even replied.

what a total loser.

“In Ben Goldacre’s column on Saturday he once again reiterates a statement in one of my books that ‘AZT is potentially harmful and proving less effective than vitamin C’. What he fails to mention is that the author of the research I referred to – Dr Raxit Jariwalla – wrote to the Guardian (20/1/05) the last time Goldacre made this claim to confirm that my statement is correct on the basis of two studies on HIV infected cells, thus he is guilty, once again in misleading readers. The real crime here is that no full scale human trials have been funded on vitamin C to follow up Jariwalla’s important finding because it is non-patentable and hence not profitable.

Goldacre, who only left university in 1995, further accuses me of being unqualified to call myself a nutritionist. I have spent the last thirty years researching, teaching, writing and practising nutrition. I am not sure what else I can call myself. I did not confer my own diploma, as he states. The Board of Trustees of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION), which is an educational trust that I founded in 1984, awarded me an honorary diploma. I am not, nor have ever been on the Board of Trustees. ION offers a fully accredited Foundation Degree in Nutritional Therapy, upgradeable to a BSc with a further year’s extra study. The British Association of Nutritional Therapy, which is the self-regulating organisation that represents this profession, made me an Honorary Fellow. I am unclear about his qualifications for dismissing these professional standards or his patronising comment that anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.

Both ION and I have previously invited Goldacre to debate the science behind any nutritional claims he wants to take issue with. So far he has not accepted the challenge, seeming to prefer to use his column to defame health professionals with a non-drug approach, rather than expose the numerous examples of distorted and poor quality research used to support the use of drugs whose side effects kill more than 10,000 people a year in the UK.”

you could do a point by point rebuttal of all the silliness in this letter but i dont suppose its really worth it. The last point is especially ludicrous.

Id be interested to know if ben has actually had any invites to debates from Holford.

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What annoys me is that the criticism always comes just from courageous individual dieticians, doctors or scientists – it takes guts to speak out when you are aware that people like TAPL are quick to get on the phone to M’Learned Friends – and not the medical or scientific establishment. It should be the British Dietetic Association or similar professional body that should be speaking out about things like the Durham Nonsense, or the fatuous Woo and fleecing of the public promoted by the Nutri-balls gang. Not just the odd individual.

I suspect the professional bodies keep shtum for a range of reasons: “giving them the oxygen of publicity”, not wanting to “come out” as slagging media-darling types, It’ll all just go away, “some of the advice is sensible” etc. etc. But I think all the professional associations and learned societies are far too craven about this.

What would be so hard about a factual statement from the Brit Dietetic Association pointing out that, while parts of the advice given by Holford, McK et al.might be sound, many also promote, or are associated with, loads of thoroughly discredited nonsense, they have no proper qualifications or real professional accreditation in the field they profess to be expert in etc etc.

seems that the link in post #21 regarding dodgy diet gurus and Food for the Brain ‘trial that is not research’ seems mysteriously to have fallen off the Indy’s website into the Internet equivalent of a black hole. Thank goodness for Bens posting of the full text…
How fortunate for Mr Holford. His peeved comments about the dietitian being ‘professionally jealous’ of his self-styled qualification/ dietary interventions/ ‘whatever ‘is now removed from public scrutiny, whilst he can continue to undermine the dietitian (called Catherine Collins) on his website. Er – just how professional is that Mr Holford. And The Independent. It is. ….Really??

In Response To The Article Titled ‘Doctors Warn Against Food Fad Dangers’

The following letter has been sent to the editor of the Independent on Sunday for publication:

Dear Sir

Re: IoS, 7th January 2007 – Doctors Warn Against Food Fad Dangers

I write in response to the article titled ‘Doctors warn against food fad dangers’ in last Sunday’s paper.

This was a British Dietetic Association-led article expressing concern about people adopting ‘faddie diets’ and it took, as an example, commentary from Catherine Collins about one child in a large school project in which I am involved. She was quoted as being “extremely concerned” about the weight loss of an autistic child.

I wish to object strongly to the comments made, which were incorrect and misleading to the reader, and would like to set the record straight with the true facts of this particular case.

In the article Catherine Collins claims that the autistic child ‘suffered sleep problems and her weight dropped as a result of the advice Mr Holford gave’ and that ‘her parents were told to remove soya milk and cow’s milk from her diet’. In fact, before we even started this project, the child had been diagnosed by her doctors as milk allergic and was already on a dairy-free diet, additionally refusing to have soya milk. She was also a very poor and fussy eater and was sleeping very little, waking up throughout the night. Consequently, Ms Collins is utterly wrong to claim I restricted the girl’s diet by elminating cow’s and soya milk.

Since the project started we have expanded the foods she’ll eat, improved her diet and given her supplements. As a result of our intervention she is now less hyperactive, sleeping much better, has reduced her asthma and consequently her need for asthma medication.

Behaviour-wise she has, on independent behavioural tests, made significant improvements in her ADHD, social difficulties, shyness and anxiety. Her mother is extremely pleased with the results. “Before she woke up a lot in the night. Now she sleeps the whole night without waking.” she says. “She is behaving better and has calmed down a lot. She is more confident and independent. Her asthma has improved a lot. She doesn’t real cough or wheeze anymore. Her health is better. She hasn’t had a cold for a long time. I’m not worried about her weight. I think the Eye Q essential fats and the other supplements helped. I don’t give her Weetabix anymore. I’ve noticed she gets very hyperactive.” Her psychiatrist actually called us to find out what specifically we had been doing to bring about these obvious improvements.

The temporary weight loss may have occurred when we agreed, with her dietician, to put her on a gluten-free diet following an IgG food intolerance test which identified that she was gluten sensitive. Unfortunately she wouldn’t eat the gluten-free options so we put her back on pasta, for example, which she would eat. Wheat gluten and dairy allergy is quite common in autistic children. She has since regained the weight she lost.

Catherine Collins, the accusing dietician, is not the girl’s dietician and, as far as we know, has never met her, nor is in any way involved with the school or with this project and therefore is really not in a position to have an informed opinion. The results of the project, which is proving highly successful, can be found on our website.

Yours sincerely

Patrick Holford – Food for the Brain Foundation

www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1684

1 teaching rep
1 prof of hospitality management
1 business manager with good brand development
1 lawyer
2 ION ‘graduates’
.. and a couple of others.

guess that demonstrates their knowledge in imparting ‘honorary diploma’s’. Just imagine if medical degrees were awarded similarly…….