Cape Town - Breast-feeding is best for babies, the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) heard on day four of the hearing into Professor Tim Noakes’s professional conduct.
Professor of Nutrition at North West University, Salomé Kruger, lambasted Noakes for recommending the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet (LCHF) for a new-born baby, saying that at such an age health practitioners should encourage breast-feeding.
“In my opinion the respondent should have recommended that she (the mother) continues breast-feeding for at least six months. I believe that all health professionals should advise clients to breast-feed than any other diet,” she said.
Kruger said breast milk was high in fat and carbohydrates.
It was heard at the inquiry on Thursday that Noakes had advised Pippa Leenstra on Twitter to wean her newborn baby on to the controversial diet.
If the inquiry finds Noakes to have acted unprofessionally, he could face a hefty fine or lose his licence to practice.
Noakes’s detractors in the scientific community have criticised the UCT emeritus professor and sports scientist for promoting a diet that is not scientifically proven.
Kruger had been invited by the HPCSA to give evidence based on a report she had written during the preliminary inquiry into the case last year.
She accused Noakes of being unprofessional and putting his own interests in the LCHF diet ahead of Leenstra when he responded to her tweet.
“It is my opinion that Professor Noakes was not mindful of his position of power… He did not avoid abusing his position,” she said.
It was also her opinion that when Noakes wrote his books he was selective in the evidence he used to prove his point.
For her, the first 1 000 days of a child’s life were so important that “if you want to give advice in this critical window of development you must ensure that it’s evidence based”.
This was critically important in the country where there was a culture of not breast-feeding.
Under intense cross-examination from Noakes’s legal representative, advocate Ravin Ramdass, Kruger conceded that there was no evidence that proved the LCHF diet was harmful. She also said she hadn’t seen any evidence to suggest it was superior either.
Ramdass also suggested that her report was not only written in haste, but was based on assumptions and not facts.
She had written that Leenstra was concerned that her baby would suffer from wind or abdominal cramps.
Ramdass said she had written the report without having seen the baby in question or Leenstra. He said when he read the report, Kruger seemed to be “an expert of everything, including nutrition, ethics, breast-feeding and cauliflower”.
Kruger admitted to writing the report under pressure and said she based the report on her experience as a mother and the information that was available at the time.
She later expressed uneasiness at having to testify against Noakes, admitting that the hearing was probably taxing and unpleasant for the Banting advocate.
Kruger described Noakes as a “good man and an excellent A-rated scientist” whom she admired.
Cape Argus