Noakes hearing could have taken 5 minutes

WHETHER you’ve heard of it as the “Nutrition Trial of the Century” or the “Banting for Babies Trial”, professor Tim Noakes – whose views on carbohydrates and fat sparked an argument between himself and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) – is glad the hearing into unprofessional conduct draws to a close today.

The nutrition conundrum started on February 5, 2014, with a responding tweet Noakes had sent to a mother, advising her to wean her baby on a low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet.

Joburg-based dietitian, Claire Julsing Strydom, who reported Noakes to the HPCSA, called the Professor’s advice “dangerous”.

Noakes, who yesterday said he stood by his views on the LCHF diet, also claimed the HPCSA hearing had been set up “to demonise me and to destroy my entire career”.

He said this came after the HPCSA realised the initial complaint against him was “meaningless” because the Council “has no rules on Twitter”.

“They initially claimed what I said was dangerous and that it would kill babies; now they say all they wanted to find out was whether doctors can be active on Twitter and give so-called medical advice.

“That’s fantastic, that’s really important, but we could have decided that in five minutes.

“Instead, it’s cost me millions, it’s cost the HPCSA millions and it’s taken up 25 days of court time, plus all these people’s time,” Noakes said.

“We are finally presenting our evidence in a coherent way... we have to change the teaching of our medical students and our dietitians. We can’t continue to teach them information that doesn’t work.”

Doctor Zoe Harcombe, an independent researcher from the United Kingdom who testified in the Noakes’s defence yesterday, is part of a group of three international experts on the LCHF diet who had been flown in by Noakes to present evidence.

Harcombe said she did not understand why Noakes was on trial because “he’s one of the most brilliant scientists I have ever met”. – Siyabonga Sesant