Dietitians modern day luddites.

The Luddites were 19th-century English textile workers (or self-employed weavers who feared the end of their trade) who protested against newly developed labour-economising technologies, primarily between 1811 and 1816. The stocking frames,spinning frames and power looms introduced during the Industrial Revolution threatened to replace them with less-skilled, low-wage labourers, leaving them without work. The Luddite movement culminated in a region-wide rebellion in Northwest England that required a massive deployment of military force to suppress. Wiki


A comment posted on our blog post Why The World Needs More People Like Prof Tim Noakes.

"What a wonderful and heartfelt letter, which echoes the innermost thoughts and feelings of so many around the world.

Professor Noakes is much more than an inspiration. Having witnessed so much controversy in the field of dietetics, I was devastated to learn that Professor Noakes, an emeritus Professor of the highest level, had been reported by the president of the Association for Dietetics in South Africa. At first I felt stunned, then sickened and sadness.

The field of nutritional science cannot be monopolised worldwide by one organisation. In my experience, anyone who is not dietetic trained should not dare breath, let alone think about nutrition. Even branded by slogans such as 'only being able to trust one organisation to know about nutrition'. The entire world is becoming increasingly fed up with this egotistical standpoint. The case concerning Professor Noakes has angered many professionals worldwide, but it has brought us together, made us stronger, united and exposed the truth. Just watching the Professor Noakes and Marthie Leach televised debate was extremely uncomfortable viewing but extremely revealing.

We have taught high carbohydrate, low fat for decades. Where has it brought Us? I have taught high carbohydrate, low fat for many years. We are only trained to believe and promote what those leading the training believe. Most do not take a step further and question the underlying principles of what they have been taught. And when you believe and are constantly reminded that you are the only experts in your field, why would you think to question anything?

It is only those that have reached a higher level of thinking, that are open thinking, extremely humble, respectful of others knowledge and experiences, and those who truly - and I mean truly care, that can stand up and admit we got it wrong. That is what will shape the future. Emily's letter has really captured the thoughts and feelings of so many.

Professor Noakes is an inspiration to us all."

My first thought was to call this post 'why are so many dietitians so insecure' I can give you many examples for thinking this way. None will forget the blitzkrieg mounted against Dr. Rangan Chattarjee by the British Dietetic Association, after the BBC program Doctor in the house. Or the negative comments made on social media by high profile BDA members against Dr. Aseem Malhotra. In South Africa, A1 rated science Professor Tim Noakes, has been facing a hearing more reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition, than a fair open enquiry. We must not forget the Dr. Annika Dahlquist story, or Jennifer Elliott, an Australian dietitian, who has been de-registered by her professional body: the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) for putting her patients health above the interests of the corrupt DAA.

Now, if dietitians and their associations were beacons of success, or paragons of honesty and openness, I could understand their concerns about others giving contrary advice, to their well worn scripts. But they are not, not by a very long way. Far too many dietetic organisations and their members, have achieved nothing in the fight against the epidemics of obesity and it's often linked type two diabetes. It is a fact many dietetic organisations and their members, have received money from junk food companies.

The low fat high carbohydrate diet recommendations, will soon be going the way of the Dodo, as will many dietitians, who cling on to failed, outdated pseudo science. If dietitians want to be respected as true professionals, they should start acting like professionals, and work with all healthcare professionals, for the good of their patients. They must free themselves from unhealthy food companies, who have infiltrated so many dietetic associations and bought the approval of countless dietitians worldwide.

Fortunately the world of dietetics is not a lost cause, indeed the opposite applies. The list of Scientists, Doctors and Dietitians grows longer by the day, who have raised themselves above the parapet, of greed and the corruption of junk food. They realise the last forty years of low fat and high carbohydrate recommendations have failed totally. These enlightened professionals are recommending a whole fresh food diet, it is ludicrous for anyone to argue against a real food lifestyle. The longer the established dietetic organisations try to turn back the tide, the more irrelevant they will become.

Last words to Sylvan Weinberg, former president of the American College of Cardiology.

"The low-fat diet heart hypothesis has been controversial for nearly 100 years. The low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, promulgated vigorously by the National Cholesterol Education Programme, National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association since the Lipid Research Clinics-Primary Prevention Program in 1984, and earlier by the US Department of Agriculture food pyramid, may well have played an unintended role in the current epidemics of obesity, lipid abnormalities, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndromes. '

This diet can no longer be defended by appeal to the authority of prestigious medical organisations or by rejecting clinical experience and a growing medical literature suggesting that the much-maligned low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet may have a salutary effect on the epidemics in question"

References

Dr. Sylvan L Weinberg http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14998608

BDA https://www.bda.uk.com/news/view?id=89&x%5B0%5D=news%2Flist

Professor Tim Noakes http://www.biznews.com/low-carb-healthy-fat-science/2015/12/15/tim-noakes-hearing-why-it-really-isnt-about-twitter/

Dr. Annika Dahlquist http://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2013/10/20/sweden-gets-is-right/

Jennifer Elliott http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2015/10/jennifer-elliott-vs-dietitians-association-of-australia/

Don't worry, only another half century or so and maybe they'll notice their advice isn't working.

There's already a drop in obesity in Sweden despite their efforts to ban Annika Dhalqvist, and I believe the increase in diabetes in the US is starting to reduce, almost certainly a response to low carb/Paleo/anything but HCLF.

I'm just waiting to see who claims that "finally after all these decades low fat diets are starting to work!" My money is on Walt Willett at Harvard.

BDA dietitians and DUK always quote evidence based science for their dietary guidelines for diabetes, as we know most Type2 are discouraged from self testing and refused test kits so unlike us don't have the opportunity to discover the effects of the low fat whole grain diet on BG and A1c.

I was given a meter on diagnosis almost eight years on I still get strips on my script and my n=1 study proves conclusively the so called science based guidelines are anything but

It's not going to happen anytime soon but until all diabetics are given the means to self test the nonsense from the BDA/DUK will continue unabated.

"Evidence based, my arse!"

You just have to look at the hordes of evidence they ignore. Gerald Reaven, Ron Krauss, Richard Feinman. Eric Westman, Jeff Volek, Steven Phinney, Iris Shai, Staffan Lindeberg, just off the top of my head.

Mary Gannon and Frank Q Nuttall wrote a bunch of papers on the LoBAG diet - low carb by any other name - originally financed by the ADA but when they kept coming up with the wrong results their funding went away.

At one time their papers were still on the ADA site but all the links were removed so you could only find them if you knew the correct URL.

Most of what they call "evidence" comes from metastudies, but curiously they ignore the metastudies by Patty Siri-Tarino (with Krauss and Frank Hu) Andrew Mente and Rajiv Choudhury, to name but a few.

Your N=1 must by now = several thousand all over the world, which outnumbers the subjects in some of the studies by a couple of orders of magnitude.