Noakes ‘targeted by report’

STATINS, which lower cholesterol, are some of the greatest crimes against humanity the pharmaceutical industry has released, Dr Zoe Harcombe said yesterday.

Harcombe was under cross-examination during the hearing into Professor Tim Noakes’s conduct.

Noakes is facing a charge of unprofessional conduct after he responded to Pippa Leenstra’s tweet that babies should be weaned on to a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet.

Claire Juslin-Stydrom, former president of the Association of Dietitians of SA, approached the Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA) and laid the charge against Noakes.

Harbcombe, from the UK, is the author of What the Fat?, her PhD thesis on nutrition.

She was under cross-examination by HPCSA advocate Ajay Bhoopchand, who put before her an eight-year, dietbased study on cancer risks in post-menopausal women.

Bhoopchand said Harbcombe could not refute evidence-based studies intimating that there was no study proving the benefits of an LCHF diet.

She responded that the diet, which she referred to as a real food diet, was what people had eaten for millions of years.

She said data showed the obesity epidemic started around the time that dietary guidelines advocating a carbohydrate-rich diet were introduced.

The body, especially the brain, needs cholesterol, she said.

“Remove the cholesterol, and we die immediately, she said. Yet we decided, with no evidence, that statins work, and we try to get our cholesterol down despite cholesterol being important for the brain to function and for muscles to work.

“It (introduction of statins) is harmful, and one of the greatest crimes against humanity that the pharmaceutical industry has unleashed,” she said.

Harcombe said the Naude study undertaken by Stellenbosch University was personal, unprofessional, flawed and used to discredit Noakes.

In a press release on the report, she said, Noakes was referred to as a “celebrity scientist” as a way to debunk his work.

“To claim Banting was debunked was absurd, impactful and potentially harmful.”

She said it appeared the paper was weighted to compile evidence against Noakes.

Harcombe and Noakes have written a paper refuting the Naude report, which has been peer-reviewed and will be published.

Harcombe’s cross-examination is expected to resume today.