Better Health Workshop

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Prof. Tim Noakes before the Health Professions Council of South Africa

Mighty forces clash: the ivory towers of major universities, around the world, and their commercial backers, against the reality of modern nutritional knowledge.

Dr Tim Noakes says we've be denying our scientific knowledge for more than 20 years. That's not how world class universities should conduct themselves.

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Suppport Tim

Dr Noakes Introduces the Series (5 min.)
"Nutrition is the driving force behind most of the ill-health we find in our modern societies."

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What's this About?

Health Professions Council of SA is investigating Noakes for "unprofessional conduct". ADSA (Association for Dietetics in SA) president Claire Julsing Strydom laid the charge against Noakes  in February 2014.

The Association for Dietetics in SA (ADSA), reported Noakes to the Council for a single tweet, advising a mother to wean her baby onto meat and vegetables.

You should understand that BOTH parties walked into this battle open eyed. BOTH think they are right. Both believe they have good science on their side. EITHER one of them could have backed down, and this "trial" would never have happened.

In the beginning there was confusion and delay. But after the Local FileStellenbosch Review was released the HPCSA decided to proceed. Early in 2016 this complaint finally got to court.

I think the HPCSA didn't understand what they were getting into. They thought this would be over quickly. That they would slap Dr Noakes on the wrist, the Local FileReal Meal Revolution would get some bad press, and that would be the end of it.

The costs today may be several million rand. And it's still not over. We fully expect Dr Noakes to win based on the evidence, and to claim his costs from the HPCSA. If that happens there will be some red faces. If the decision goes the other way, if the court decides to ignore the evidence, I expect Dr Noakes would appeal.

Essentially it's about two different paradigms of dietary health, the paradigm that's dominated the last 60 years, where glucose was the source of energy (particularly energy for the brain), and a newer paradigm which relies on free fatty acids as the main fuel for the brain and the body.

Wrong advice
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As Dr Noakes explains in his opening video, both his father and himself were diabetic. His father was given wrong dietary information 30 years ago, and lost a foot and eventually his life to the disease. The book page illustrates the incorrect advice. Today type 2 diabetes is curable, but that same bad advice is still being offered. Diabetes will not kill the son. He knows the advice is wrong.

The principles that underlie each of these two paradigms have such different starting points that the advocates of each system are talking about entirely different concepts while using the same words. There is no communication. The experts talk past each other, and the public is totally misinformed.

This is typically what happens when people with different paradigms, ways of understanding the world, come into conflict. There is heated argument and zero communication. Take time this is worth understanding. You own good health, and the health of your family, may depend on you doing that.

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