Response to study: mistake or mischief ?

WE WRITE in response to the statement from Naude et al at the end of your article of December 20, “Noakes disputes diet study”. This is the first response from the authors following our recent dissection (SAMJ) of their ‘lowcarb’ publication. The defence is as poor as the original article.

The authors have made no attempt to address the 14 material errors we identified, all but part of one in their favour. One material error alone, one study being duplicated, warrants a retraction of the paper. They have made no attempt to defend their conclusion, when we have demonstrated that it ceased to hold in the absence of the material errors in their favour.

The authors have made no attempt to defend the tens of other, lessmaterial, errors, sloppy and unworthy of the esteemed organisations they represent (Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Liverpool; Centre for Evidence-based Health Care; South African Cochrane Centre; South African Medical Research Council).

Instead they claim that “the numerous criticisms… were addressed in the hearing during crossexamination of Dr Harcombe”. This is not true. As set out above, none of the numerous criticisms have been addressed by the authors – not in the hearing, nor in their Cape Times statement.

The statement claims “Dr Harcombe conceded more than seven times that the ‘errors’ she had pointed out were in fact not material to the findings”. This is not true. Dr Harcombe conceded nothing. She was the one who presented faithfully to the panel which errors were material, which were not, and the consequences of each.

The hearing transcripts confirm that while giving testimony Dr Harcombe used the term “material error” 16 times. While under cross-examination, Dr Harcombe twice dismissed questions by volunteering “I did not report this/ that as a material error”. The authors’ errors thus remain unaddressed and unexplained. As a consequence, our question remains unaddressed and unexplained: Was this mistake or mischief ? Dr Zoë Harcombe, Wales Professor Timothy Noakes Constantia

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