Cape Town - Professor Timothy Noakes's hearing before the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has been postponed to November, but the debate rages on.
The hearing centres on a 2014 tweet advising a mother to wean her child on to low carb-high fat (LCHF) foods.
In a press release, Real Meal Revolution managing director Jonno Proudfoot says: “We stand behind Prof Noakes in his right to (informed) freedom of speech and to ensuring that information is available to all who need it. There is more than adequate scientific knowledge out there to support a LCHF diet for children and to attempt to silence Noakes is not going to stop consumers from making their own decisions as the information becomes freely available.”
Noakes is Banting proponent and co-author of the Real Meal Revolution.
According to the press release, a 2014 report of the International Obesity Task Force estimates that worldwide more than 200 million school age children are already overweight or obese.
Children who are obese are more likely to become overweight as adults, with all the associated risks: Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, gout, cancer and dementia (as described in The Real Meal Revolution). This probability is especially high if obesity occurs before the age of 10 years.
There is a widespread belief that carbohydrates are essential for a child's growth and especially brain development. It is also called a source of dietary fibre and other “essential nutrients” though we are never told what exactly these nutrients are, the press release continues.
“While the health and science industry is rather divided on the topic, with some thinking that LCHF means drastic carbohydrate restriction only (to ketogenic levels), LCHF actually incorporates varying levels of carbohydrate restriction based on needs.”
A few studies have shown that overweight kids and teens (6-18 years of age) who followed a LCHF diet, containing less than 60g of carbs each day, successfully lost weight, without negatively affecting the levels of fat and cholesterol in their blood. The authors suggest that reducing dietary carbohydrate may be a possible treatment for insulin resistance in children and adolescents.
According to the soon-to-be-released book (Spring 2015) co-authored by Noakes, Proudfoot and Bridget Surtees: Raising Superheroes: “The three fundamental pillars of advice for children’s nutrition are to eliminate (or drastically reduce) sugar and refined carbohydrates from the diet and to include real, non-processed whole foods.”
The Science Chapter by Noakes goes on to state “It is important to remember that there are no essential carbohydrates and that there are only three uses for carbohydrates in the human body. They can be stored as glycogen – the human equivalent of starch – in the liver and muscles; or they can be used as an energy fuel; or they must be turned into fat. There are no other alternatives.
A growing baby cannot build muscles and bones from carbohydrates nor, for that matter, brains.”
IOL, adapted from a press release