Tag: Zoe Harcombe

Apr16201916th Apr 201918th Apr 20196Commentsby Marika

Statins: attacks on doctors reveal ‘smoking guns’ on side effects?

Posted in Heart Disease

UPDATED 17/03 WITH COMMENT AND BACKGROUND

By Marika Sboros

Is there really “a special place in hell for doctors who claim statins don’t work“? The UK Mail on Sunday health editor Barney Calman believes so. Or at least, that’s the headline to his opinion piece the newspaper published in March.

Calman also believes that some eminent medical doctors and researchers are “statin deniers” who peddle “deadly propaganda”. They are “putting patients at risk”, he writes.

Prof Sherif Sultan, president of the International Vascular Institute, vigorously disagrees. Sultan is also professor of vascular and endovascular surgery at the National University of Ireland Galway. Sultan joins other experts who see “smoking guns”  in media attacks on statin critics. They see these attacks as industry and medical establishment attempts to downplay growing evidence on seriousness of statins side effects.

He has said that Calman’s articles are defamatory and propaganda – and the Mail on Sunday acted “negligently” in publishing them. Sultan has called for an investigation into publication of the articles.

“Calman must declare his conflict of interest and publish who instructed him to write such unscientific articles and after what editorial meeting,” Sultan has written.

 

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Jul17201717th Jul 20171st Sep 201718Commentsby Marika

DID SA, UK SCIENTISTS DO SOMETHING DODGY TO NAIL NOAKES?

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial

By Marika Sboros

Did South African scientists really do something scientifically dodgy just to silence Prof Tim Noakes? The case against them could be building.

The US peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE is now investigating the Naudé Review, which it published in July 2014. The Health Professions Council of SA used it as key evidence to charge Noakes with unprofessional conduct.

The HPCSA found Noakes not guilty on all points of the charge on April 21, 2017. Thereafter, Noakes’s instructing attorney, Adam Pike, of Pike Law, wrote to PLoS ONE. Senior editor Dr Renee Hoch replied to say that the journal is “conducting a full reassessment” of the review.

All the universities involved have refused to investigate or “reassess” their academics’ role in it. UCT Faculty of Health Sciences deputy dean of research Prof Karen Sliwa said that only one out of the six researchers is from UCT. Four are from Stellenbosch University, one from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Thus, it would “seem preferable” for Noakes to complain to Stellenbosch.

Noakes says that’s like the Anglican Church saying it won’t investigate paedophilia claims against its priests because the Catholic Church has more claims against its priests.

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Jul0120171st Jul 20172nd Jul 20175Commentsby Marika

Who gets type 2 diabetes? Addicts and athletes!

Posted in BOOKS

By Marika Sboros

Here’s an intriguing new take on type 2 diabetes. A US bariatric surgeon says that only two groups of people develop it. They are drug addicts and performance athletes.

That’s fighting talk about a life-threatening, lifestyle disease that is sweeping the planet. After all, many type 2 diabetics don’t look like your average junkie or performance athlete.

Dr Robert Cywes is up for the avalanche of criticism that will surely descend on him. Still, his theory makes sense once you know what drug he means.  It’s the drug of choice for both addicts and athletes. It is sugar and other carbohydrate foods.

Cywes is an author of Diabetes Unpacked. It’s another gem from Columbus Publishing and the Noakes Foundation. It is a compelling collection of writings by some of the world’s finest minds in diabetes and diet research. The subtitle says it all: Just Science and Sense, No Sugar Coating.

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Mar0520175th Mar 20171st Mar 201810Commentsby Marika

Naudé Review: no mistakes, mischief against Noakes? Fat chance!

Posted in LCHF

Prof Tim Noakes. Picture: The Noakes Foundation

By Marika Sboros

“We made no mistakes and no mischief in our study debunking Banting and Prof Tim Noakes,” say South African scientists. They don’t use those exact words. However, that’s the gist of their letter, which the SAMJ has just published. It relates to the Naudé Review in PLoS One in June/July 2014 by Stellenbosch and Cape Town University researchers.

Noakes and British obesity researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe published their analysis of it in the SAMJ in December 2016. They found major errors. Therefore, they concluded, the review findings are “not robust”. That’s scientific speak for wrong. Noakes and Harcombe don’t use the words “scientific fraud” – yet. Instead, they diplomatically ask: “Mistake or mischief?” However, if the errors were not honest mistakes, then mischief is a euphemism. So, are these academics giving “alternative facts” to try to silence Noakes? Why should you (or anyone) believe the Naudé authors when they say there was no monkey business against Noakes? Because they say so?

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Jan13201713th Jan 20176th Mar 201716Commentsby Marika

NOAKES VS ILSI ‘QUEENPINS’ TRYING TO NAIL HIM

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial

By Marika Sboros

So, it has taken a brilliant US investigative journalist to expose all the food industry’s “biggies” trying to silence scientist Prof Tim Noakes. True, signs of food industry involvement were there from the start. CrossFit’s Russ Greene joins the dots to confirm it.

However, Greene adds damning dots that don’t just implicate Big Sugar and Big Soda. He joins them in one straight line leading to a big food industry arm. It’s the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) that influences global food and health policy. (Scroll down for a link to Greene’s report. It’s long but well worth the read.)

The kindest thing Greene says about ILSI is that it’s a “Coca-Cola proxy organisation”. He also says ILSI is a “money launderer for purveyors of toxic substances”. And it’s a proxy for other food-industry giants, such as Kellogg’s, Unilever and Nestlé. One of Greene’s many strengths is that he shows all ILSI’s links to doctors and researchers driving the HPCSA case. I call them kingpins – or in this case one kingpin and many “queenpins”. There also appears to be a reigning queenpin. Here’s my review of what Greene shows they’ve all been up to, trying to nail Noakes.

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Dec0220162nd Dec 20169th Dec 201622Commentsby Marika

NOAKES: PROOF THAT SA SCIENTISTS TRIED TO SMEAR HIM?

Posted in LCHF

Tim NoakesBy Marika Sboros

Did researchers at top South African universities make multiple mistakes in a major study deliberately? Was their aim to discredit low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diets? And was their real target scientist Prof Tim Noakes? Or are they just human, fallible and in this case, hopelessly error-prone?

A new study in the SAMJ (South African Medical Journal) re-examines a 2014 study by University of Cape Town (UCT) and Stellenbosch University (SU) scientists. It shows that the scientists made many material errors that undermine their conclusions. It raises the question: mistake or mischief? Read on and make up your own mind.

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Oct26201626th Oct 201610th Dec 201617Commentsby Marika

TEICHOLZ EXPLODES FAT BOMBS IN NOAKES TRIAL

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial
Nina Teicholz

US investigative journalist Nina Teicholz with Prof Tim Noakes

By Marika Sboros

The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) has a few problems in its prosecution of scientist Prof Tim Noakes. One is research showing that these diets deprive infants and children of much-needed fats and other vital nutrients during their most formative years. Another is the effects of low-fat diets on heart health. It isn’t what the experts want you to believe it is.

US investigative journalist Nina Teicholz presented this and other explosive evidence during her testimony as an expert witness for Noakes. That was at the HPCSA’s fourth session of the hearing against him in Cape Town on October 25, 2016.

In the first of a three-part series on her evidence, here’s what she had to say:

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Oct25201625th Oct 201616th Jul 201711Commentsby Marika

NOAKES TRIAL: ‘ANGEL’ HARCOMBE AIMS AT ITS HEART

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial
Prof Tim Noakes with Dr Zoe Harcombe

Prof Tim Noakes with Dr Zoe Harcombe

By Marika Sboros

If South African scientist Prof Tim Noakes were enough to raise cardiologists’ blood pressure into the danger zone, British obesity researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe’s could fell them with an instant heart attack.

Noakes once memorably called statins “the single most ineffective drug ever invented”.  In her evidence at the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) hearing in Cape Town, Harcombe called them “one of the biggest crimes against humanity that the pharmaceutical industry has unleashed”.

She also said health professionals have a duty to tell the public that advice the Association for Dietetics in SA (ADSA) gives is biased in favour of industry. Here’s why:

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Oct24201624th Oct 201621st Aug 201827Commentsby Marika

MISTAKE OR MISCHIEF: SCIENTISTS IN PLOT TO NAIL NOAKES?

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial

Tim NoakesBy Marika Sboros

Mistake or mischief? Did top scientists at Stellenbosch and Cape Town universities make so many honest mistakes in their study? Did they really not know the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) would use it to charge scientist Prof Tim Noakes? Or was there something more contrived behind their research?

British obesity researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe asked those questions in her evidence-in-chief on day six of the HPCSA’s hearing against Noakes in Cape Town today. Harcombe is one of three expert witnesses for Noakes who have flown in from the UK, US and New Zealand.

The public has dubbed them “Tim’s Angels”. There was nothing angelic about Harcombe’s takedown of the study known as the “Naudé  Review”. Here’s what Harcombe said about it:

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Oct23201623rd Oct 201627th Oct 201615Commentsby Marika

NOAKES: CASE AGAINST HIM FALLING APART? PART 1

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial

Tim NoakesBy Marika Sboros

At the close of the first week of the fourth session of the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) hearing against scientist Prof Tim Noakes, there were signs of  terminal decline in the case against him. Whether you see signs as auspicious or ominous –  or see any at all – depends, of course, on whether you are a friend or implacable foe of Noakes.

Friend or foe – Noakes has both – it wasn’t hard to spot signs in HPCSA advocate Ajay Bhoopchand’s cross-examination of him. Bhoopchand started midday on Tuesday, October 18. By late Friday afternoon, he had achieved not a single major concession from Noakes. When he wasn’t accusing Noakes of having brought the case on himself, Bhoopchand tried and failed to poke serious holes in the science of low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) to treat and prevent serious disease.

Here’s Part 1 of a review of the week: 

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Oct13201613th Oct 201614th Oct 20160Commentby Marika

Tim’s Angels: hear them speak! One night only – book now!

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial

Noakes

People have quickly dubbed them “Tim’s Angels”. They are three down-to-earth international experts on low-carb, high-healthy-fat eating. They are flying in to support University of Cape Town emeritus professor Tim Noakes in his trial on a charge of unprofessional conduct. That’s for his views on butter, eggs, bacon and broccoli – and biltong along the way.

Join us at an exclusive dinner in Cape Town on October 26, 2016 to hear what the angels say about the trial. You’ll hear British obesity researcher and public health nutritionist Dr Zoë Harcombe, US science writer Nina Teicholz  and proudly South African-Kiwi academic and registered dietitian Dr Caryn Zinn on a panel with Noakes. 

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Sep16201616th Sep 20169th Oct 201624Commentsby Marika

NOAKES TRIAL: EXPERTS FLYING IN TO SUPPORT THE SCIENCE

Posted in LCHF, noakestrial

Picture: ROB TATE

By Marika Sboros

When the Kafkaesque trial of world-renowned South African scientist Prof Tim Noakes resumes in Cape Town in October 2016, two heavyweight international expert witnesses will testify for him: Cambridge University graduate Dr Zoë Harcombe, a British public health nutritionist, and US science writer Nina Teicholz.

The country’s regulatory body, the Health Professions Council of SA, has charged Noakes with unprofessional conduct for his views on diet. Here’s what you can look forward to in this strange scientific saga that has garnered worldwide attention: 

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Jul11201611th Jul 201611th Jul 20160Commentby Marika

Will pasta make you thin? Fat chance!

Posted in LCHF

PASTABy Marika Sboros

Italian scientists say they have proved that eating pasta won’t make you fat. That it actually helps you to get thin.

That’s how media across the globe heralded a new study published in Nutrition and Diabetes. That’s how the researchers themselves have happily punted it .

Can a pizza study be far behind? 

The research is grist to the anti-low-carb mill. A knock-out blow to the low-carb side of the UK “fat wars”. It sabotages a powerful “Martin Luther moment”. It supports Public Health England’s much maligned Eatwell Guide. 

Or does it? Is this just Big Carb fighting back – and losing? Here’s look at what the researchers really say and what their data really show: 

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Jul0520165th Jul 20161st Jul 20180Commentby Marika

UK Eatwell Guide boosts ‘industry wealth not public health’

Posted in LCHF

British poundsTHIS POST UPDATED  ON OCTOBER 3, 2016 WITH NEW RESEARCH.

 

By Marika Sboros

Is the UK government dishing up bad dietary advice to its citizens? Has it wrongly demonised fat, glorified carbohydrates and harmed people’s health for decades?

Is Public Health England’s (PHE) Eatwell Guide really the Eatbadly Guide, as obesity researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe dubs it?

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Apr15201615th Apr 201614th Jan 201712Commentsby Marika

You need 5-a-day fruit and veg? No you don’t! – Zoë Harcombe

Posted in Living well

fruit.veg

5-A-DAY fruit and veg servings – it’s a mantra doctors and dietitians repeat to patients as if it’s written in stone somewhere. They even say you can drink most of those servings, and that fruit and veg juices are instant boosts for your health. Yet 5-a-day has no science behind it whatsoever, says British obesity researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe. It’s a number plucked out of thin air, a memorable number, she says, the same  as the digits on one hand. (Presumably, those who came up with it think that makes it easier for people to count servings?) The campaign is a different number-a-day across more than 25 countries, she says. Some say three, others four, five or more.  Harcombe’s not saying you shouldn’t eat fruit and veg. Just don’t believe the magical health benefits doctors and dietitians promise you because there isn’t any science to show there will be. During my last visit to London, the British government told its citizens that fruit juice should no longer be part of 5-a-day servings – because of the high sugar content. Harcombe says’s she’ll only drink a toast to that advice when …

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Apr15201615th Apr 201616th Jul 20172Commentsby Marika

CAN’T LOSE WEIGHT? HARCOMBE BUSTS DIET MYTHS

Posted in LCHF

obesityMany dietitians say that all you have to do to lose weight is eat less and exercise more. They also say you must avoid saturated fat like the plague because it clogs arteries and causes heart disease. And they say that meat is bad, carbs are good and you should eat at least five-a-day fruit and veg.

Those are some of the diet myths that make you fatter and sicker, says UK public health researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe. 

Those myths make dietitians increasingly irrelevant. They also contribute to the obesity, diabetes and heart disease epidemics across the globe, says Harcombe. She demolishes myths in her brilliant e-book, 20 Diet Myths – Busted. Scroll to end for details on where to get it. Here, she gives 12 of those myths in bite-size pieces – Marika Sboros

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