No harm has come from a tweet by Prof Tim Noakes advising a mom to wean her baby onto a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet, but instead the “Banting” advocate is being prosecuted for being “unconventional”.
This is what Noakes’s defence argued at the resumed hearing into his professional conduct.
Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) advocate Ajay Bhoopchand laid into Noakes’s defence, saying Noakes does not have the expertise or evidence to advise a mother to wean her infant on to a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet.
Noakes, who has more than 85000 Twitter followers, has been accused of
acting unprofessionally by advising Pippa Leenstra to wean her baby on to a LCHF diet.
Leenstra tweeted him and nutritional therapist Sally-Ann Creed, who co-authored the Real Meal Revolution book with Noakes, to ask if the LCHF Banting diet was safe for babies of breast-feeding mothers.
Noakes replied on Twitter: “Baby doesn’t eat the dairy and cauliflower. Just very healthy high-fat breast milk. Key is to wean baby on to LCHF.” The tweet spurred more than 500 responses.
Claire Julsing-Strydom, former president of the Association of Dietitians of SA, approached the HPCSA and they laid the charge against Noakes.
Bhoopchand said during proceedings, Noakes admitted that he should not have used the term “LCHF diet” in his tweet, but should rather have said that the baby should be weaned on to a “real food” diet.
Noakes’s advocate, Michael van der Nest, said: “This is an unprecedented prosecution as there are no guidelines that deal with practitioners and Twitter.”
Bhoopchand said: "Noakes was not an expert in this field, and he certainly doesn't have any training in this field. Why go through the whole process when you could have just have said ‘I do not have the expertise and I come clean'."
He also said Noakes had failed to attain basic information from the woman, including the age of the child, before giving her advice.
Bhoopchand also questioned how it made sense to recommend a diet geared towards the reduction of weight – for a baby, when the LCHF diet is aimed at being of benefit to adults with ailments such as Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and obesity.
Van der Nest said: “When a practitioner is charged for being unprofessional, typically the HPCSA would be faced with someone who suffered harm. Who has been wronged? Where is the harm?
“The charge is about unconventional advice. Why is it improper to be unconventional, unless it is harmful?”
Julsing-Strydom was “disgruntled” after not being able to convince Noakes he was wrong, he added.
The matter continues today.