Francesca Villette
Tim Noakes’ legal team tore the country’s dietary guidelines apart saying these had not done anything to curb obesity, and pointing out there are more overweight people now.
At the third day of Noakes’s hearing into unprofessional conduct yesterday his lawyer Ravin Ramdass said the 2013 guidelines had only two differences from that of 2003.
Ramdass was cross examining Professor Esté Vorster, a former chairperson of Nutrition Society of SA and the chairperson of the committee that compiled the 2013 dietary guidelines.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) had sought Vorster’s advice before it decided to charge Noakes for advising Pippa Leenstra on February 5 last year on Twitter to “wean” her baby onto a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet.
Leenstra’s baby was still being breast-fed.
Vorster testified that Noakes did not have the necessary qualifications to advise Leenstra about breast-feeding and that he acted unprofessionally by providing advice on social media.
She also said Noakes should not have provided “unconventional” dietary advice that was not evidence-based, and he should have referred Leenstra to a registered dietician because proper advice could not be provided in 140 characters on Twitter.
Ramdass questioned Vorster about her statement of Noakes’s unconventional tweet and said the number of people becoming obese and diabetic had increased over the past few years, despite there being dietary guidelines.
“There were two changes made to the dietary guidelines over 10 years. One change in the 2013 guideline includes the word ‘lean’ into a point that advises about eating meat, and the change sees the omission of advice about alcohol that was mentioned in the 2003 guidelines.
“The guidelines do not address the problem of obesity and malnutrition in South Africa and so the epidemic has remained much the same,” Ramdass argued.
Vorster, who has a BSc in Home Economics, said the guidelines were meant to complement educational readings and would then be better understood. During her testimony she said what needed to be dealt with was Noakes’ charge on advising a mother to wean her baby onto a LCHF diet.
Ramdass pointed out that Vorster had never been in a doctor-patient relationship and questioned if she was qualified to comment on Noakes giving advice to someone on social media. Vorster acknowledged that but said she had lectured many students on professional ethics.
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