By Marika Sboros
Are Big Food and Big Pharma really killing people for profit globally? Yes, say some medical doctors in the UK and Europe. They are joining forces on a panel discussion at the European Parliament in Brussels on April 12
They say that they will “blow the cover” on the dark world of Big Food and Big Pharma lobbying to influence dietary and medical guidelines.
Click here to view the trailer
One focus will be on collusion between politicians, respected medical institutions, “charities” and medical journals. Crucially too, speakers will present new evidence of coercion of doctors by food and drug industries into prescribing unnecessary, potentially harmful treatments.
‘Hijack’ of evidence-based medicine
And they will show that major conflicts of interest at the highest levels have “hijacked evidence-based medicine”. The result, they say, has been an “epidemic of misinformation”.
Heading the panel is British consultant cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra. With him are Dr Richard Thompson, personal physician to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth from 1984 to 2005 and past president of the Royal College of Physicians; endocrinologist Dr Carl Heneghan, Oxford University professor of evidence-based medicine; and Dutch diabetes professor at Leiden University Dr Hanno Pijl.
The panel is a global reaction to medical and dietetic establishments with close links to Big Food and Big Pharma who dish up what many consider “dangerous dogma”.
Malhotra, the bête noir of both Big Food and Big Pharma, is a vocal campaigner for reduction of sugar consumption and the harms of “too much medicine”.
Pioppi Diet
In 2015, Malhotra became the youngest member appointed to the board of trustees of the health think tank, The King’s Fund. And in 2016, Debrett’s named him one of the most influential people in science in medicine in the UK.
He is also a growing multi-media influencer and co-author with Donal O’Neill (of Cereal Killers fame) of the The Pioppi Diet. Their documentary film, The Big Fat Fix, premiered in the British parliament.
Doctors and journals internationally have endorsed the book. Thomson has called it “revolutionary” and said that everyone should read it. Above all, the British Journal of General Practice calls it as “not just a diet book; it’s a healthcare manifesto”.
Meanwhile, in an establishment pushback in December 2017, the British Dietetic Association (BDA) named The Pioppi Diet a “celebrity” fad diet to avoid in 2018. (I have asked BDA for scientific references for that opinion. So far, I have received no reply)
In Brussels, Malhotra will argue that for years, public health advice across Europe has got it “dangerously wrong”. With global health systems forecast to collapse in the next few years, two things drive ever-increasing demand, he says.
Click here to watch Malhotra in convesation with BBC Radio’s Jeremy Vine
Firstly, the escalating burden of chronic disease that entirely preventable lifestyle illnesses causes. Secondly, over-treatment, which has led to millions taking drugs and undergoing surgeries that will provide “zero benefit” while costing national economies billions.
The panel will also focus on the unacceptably high cost of diabetes treatment in the UK. Diabetes medication alone currently costs the NHS over a billion pounds per year. Treatment costs over 14 billion pounds – in other words, a whopping £25,000 per minute. Click here to watch the event streamed live on Facebook
Statins under the spotlight again
Statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) will come under the spotlight at the Brussels event. Thomson has called for an independent inquiry into the blockbuster drugs after research found existing trial data was flawed.
However, conventional dietary guidelines and statin use are both based on the diet-heart hypothesis that saturated fat causes heart disease. That hypothesis is currently unproven and therefore, unscientific, say some specialists.
But the Brussels panel members won’t just be talking about problems. They will also offer solutions. That includes a call for UK diabetics (type 1 and 2) to ignore current low-fat diet government guidelines. In its place, they will show the benefit for diabetics of following guidelines backed by robust scientific evidence.
They will show that this would reduce dependency on diabetes drugs and insulin by over 50%. This would, therefore, save the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds annually. In effect, the panellists will call for a complete dietary guidelines overhaul to remove Big Food and Big Pharma influence.
Click here to read: Sugar conspiracy a sour figment of the mind?
Thus, they intend to show how this would reverse obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease and save European Governments billions annually.
That follows an open letter that Nathan Gill MEP (Member of the European Parliament) for Wales to British Prime Minister Theresa May in March. In it, Gill calls for an urgent overhaul of current dietary guidelines that promote low-fat foods and advise starchy carbohydrates.
A type 1 diabetic, Gill also describes how he has reduced his insulin requirements by 50% after reading The Pioppi Diet and cutting sugar and starchy carbohydrates from his diet. He urges May, who is also a type 1 diabetic, to do the same.
Drugs and deaths
As well, the panellists will call for an urgent Europe-wide campaign to reduce the amounts of medications people are taking. And they will suggest a Chilcott-style inquiry into biased information from Big Pharma on medicines.
In the UK, surveys show that more than half of all adults take at least one prescription medication. Fifty percent over 70 are on at least three. Estimates also are that prescribed medication is the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
Organisers say that interest in the Brussels event is high and pre-registration is essential. Members of the media can register with nathan.gill@ep.europa.eu. The panellists will hold a press conference afterwards and be available for interviews.
And for those who can’t get there, Sweden’s “diet doctor”, Dr Andreas Eenfeldt, will live-stream the event on his Facebook page. Click here to see it: https://en-gb.facebook.com/TheDietDoctor/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4uVNywg848
Are we still waiting for the BDA to present us with ‘Scientific Evidence’ for their positions on Pioppi / Paleo / Ketogenic ? diets… One hopes – at least – the Reply will be as witty as their summations !
Indeed we’d be interested in how they justify past Official Advice from the 1970’s to Today, and explain the meteoric rise in Obesity / Diabetes-T2.
Janet, apparently people just aren’t doing what dietitians tell them to do, including all the overweight dietitians.
Oh that’s easy. They will tell you that low fat diets are important because heart disease has declined. Then when you ask about the obesity, diabetes and all the other metabolic diseases that have exploded they will tell you that is because no-one is actually following their advice. No cognitive dissonance there then
Excellent news – and surely this sow seeds of truth that will produce much fruit!
Marika you wrote “… They’re joining forces on a panel discussion at the European Parliament in Brussels on April 12”. Could I ask you to a) give us summary of what they say and b) help us see the debate … FB is not always the clearest for me … but YouTube works well mostly!
Blessings
It’s noticeable that the British Dietetic Association (BDA) has never had the confidence to make a formal complaint against Aseem Malhotra, or any of the UK’s prominent dissenters from the low-fat nonsense. They publicly complained about Dr Rangan Chatterjee when he ‘inappropriately’ performed a near miracle on a type 2 diabetic when he removed all the sugar and refined carbohydrates from the man’s, but the dietitians didn’t go beyond making public fools of themselves .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9HPSP7QwPU&t=2s
British Dietitians have absolutely no desire to make a complaint and then be obliged to provide evidence in front of a UK professional body, and certainly not a court. I get the feeling that their confidence is slowly ebbing away as prominent people publicly contradict their increasingly irrelevant advice.
When Public Health England talks about obesity, it’s looks increasingly desperate, almost pleading with the public to follow their recommendations. They still want to “work with the food industry” who just take the mickey and make insignificant gestures to buy a few more years.
The opposition to the current madness is led by the Public Health Collaboration, led by people like Aseem Malhotra and other doctors who think public health matters more than pharma share prices.
https://phcuk.org/
They tried damn hard to have John Briffa’s licence pulled for not recommending high carb diets for diabetics, but they failed. One of the perpetrators spent years trolling a diabetes forum warning of the “extreme dangers” of low carb diets, mainly constipation, scurvy and halitosis, which actually no-one suffered from, and which she saw as far more dangerous than amputations, dialysis and blindness.
I expect they will fight back against this by trolling, as usual. And ignoring outcomes, as usual.
David Unwin saves between £30 000 and £50 000/year on his diabetics. Someone calculated that if all UK doctors followed his lead the NHS would “save” half a billion per year. Of course this would mean the drug companies would LOSE half a billion a year, hence the fightback.
Nice to see the Queen’s doctor involved, She is a poster child for low carb even at her advanced age.
Thank you, Chris. I didn’t know they’d gone after John Briffa. I could be wrong, but I think they’d be more wary now. Dr Briffa might have got the worst of the early backlash, like Professor Noakes in South Africa.
The trolling dietitian was clearly barking – except for constipation, which affected me to begin with, although it wasn’t from low carb, but from moving to time restricted eating. I’m assuming a lower level of insulin will mean reduced water retention and hence the possibility of constipation? It was easily resolved and, as you say, is trivial, in comparison to the utter madness of advising diabetics to continue eating the thing that’s made them ill. Too much glucose? Well, eat glucose!
At some point in the hopefully near future the current treatment of diabetes will be regarded with utter disbelief. The NHS needlessly carries out 138 diabetes-related amputations a week. I’m told that most dietitians are still in complete denial.
I just replied to this but it went in the bit bucket.
?
I made a long reply but it vaporised. This occurs from time to time and usually on several blogs at the same time, and is NOT caused by the blog owners.
After a while it stops happening again. I suspect someone trialling some censorship software, probably putting me on a blacklist which subsequently expires again.
Basically and without links this time I suggested looking on John Briffa’s blog under the title “diabetes” but the worst of the attacks were on a doctor’s blog which was subsequently deleted and never archived.
Then Jay Wortman was banned from a diabetes forum as a troll, and the same nearly happened to David Unwin. I think we have moved forward a bit since then, except on the “official” websites.
Great news. May be asking too much, but can we get rid of Facebook next? 🙂
With you on that one Adrian as disappointed to see the live-streaming only available on FaceBook. This is such an important event and many people that don’t buy into the current dietary dogma also don’t buy into using Facebook as a platform to spread news for change. Perhaps with so many followers on this fascinating and hopefully policy-changing event – organizers and followers could begin using another uncompromised medium to share information? Perhaps a combination of YouTube and Twitter?
Can’t livestream on Twitter or YouTube but I’m reliably informed that it will be available on YouTube thereafter!
That’s great, many thanks!
There is definitely a possibility of success, although BF&P know where to continue to put in their well-focussed efforts.
The present politicians must assist to identify current, former and potential “Medical expertise”. Our politicians in power must lean on “expertise” to get policy advice, especially in areas of nutrition and medicine where they often would be completely clueless. I understand that when BF&P are putting the “pressure” on these key people, most changes are today engineered to improve pharma profits instead of patient care. If the group can change something in this area, Big Pharma and Big Food can lose their grip! They must start by entertaining existing ministers for health and their staff an introduce these key players to the viable alternatives they have, at least showing the right people the alternatives instead of getting advice from bought professors., like it often seems to be today.
This is a very exciting development, and I wish these fine doctors well. Will it be a turning point, or shall we be expecting a concerted wall of misinformation, slander and outright lies against them from the usual suspects, à la trial of Professor Noakes?
This is a turning point I hope.
Until now the information was still ignored by the official bodies that regulate Medicine in the UK and internationally. The so-called bio-medical model currently leading the field of medicine in the West is severely limiting, I would like to say crippling, our abilities to really help our patients.
If one doctor alone cannot stand against the rule of the powerful drug industry and its vassals in the medical hierarchy, a strong group of well informed physicians and scientists can do it, particularly with the help of well intentioned politicians who themselves don’t have to fear the wrath of the varied bodies who have the power to destroy our professional careers.
I am grateful for your energetic fight against the conventional views which created the catastrophic situation we are in , where health is only a word and everything else is still based on economic power and profit.