Noakes hearing 'could cost R1m'

Published Nov 26, 2015

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Cape Town - The hearing into the professional conduct of outspoken Banting advocate Professor Tim Noakes could cost up to R1 million.

The inquiry is being heard by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) over comments made on Twitter in which Noakes advised a mother to wean her baby on a low carbohydrate, high fat (LCHF) diet.

The chairwoman of the committee hearing the inquiry Joan Adams revealed the cost while expressing her frustration over the many adjournments since it started on Monday.

Hardly 20 minutes into the start of the third day on Wednesday, the sitting had to be adjourned so that photocopies could be made of the CV of academic dietitian and lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, Caryn Zinn. Her CV was needed by an expert witness against Noakes, Professor Esté Vorster, who continued to give evidence.

Adams had strong words for the pro-forma complainant advocate Meshak Mapolisa for not adequately preparing for the case. She said this was not only unfair to Noakes, but such delays could be costly for him.

“We’ve heard the respondent is funding his case and the costs of the hearing could run nearly to R1 million.”

 

Vorster’s cross-examination continued on Wednesday. Barely 24 hours after Vorster questioned Noakes’s ability to dole out dietary advice to breast-feeding mothers, Noakes’s lawyers grilled her on her expertise in nutritional matters.

 

On Wednesday it was revealed that Vorster, who delivered expert evidence at the hearing into Noakes’s conduct, never practised as a doctor or a dietitian.

Earlier, she had lambasted Noakes for giving dietary advice over social media. She questioned the need to put a healthy baby on a LCHF diet, saying such an eating plan was meant for epileptic patients who were not responding on conventional medication.

However, during cross-examination by Advocate Ravin Ramdass for Noakes, Vorster admitted that although she had no qualifications as a dietitian, her BSc degree in Home Economics allowed her to register as a dietitian or nutritionist. She had worked as a scientist and taught nutrition at university level.

 

Asked about Twitter, she admitted she knew little about social media and was not active on Twitter.

Asked by Ramdass why she acted as an expert in her testimony, she said: “I don’t think one needs to be an expert in social media to understand how it works.”

She stood by her testimony that the limited number of characters permitted in tweets was “too short to give advice that is usable and safe”.

Ramdass questioned Vorster’s criticism of Noakes, asking why his short tweet was questioned when the 2013 South African dietary guidelines, which Vorster helped author, came as “short sound bites of less than 140 characters each”.

To that she answered that while short, “we look at a set of guidelines, not individually”.

She said dietitians also advised that the guidelines should always be accompanied by educational material to make the the public understand it.

Vorster came under scrutiny for referring to Noakes’s advice as “unconventional”. Ramdass asked what she meant by that, with Vorster responding that she meant his advice did not fall under the country’s guidelines. He attacked the guidelines, saying some recommended eating carbohydrates, but were silent on insulin resistance related to carbohydrate metabolism.

To this criticism, Vorster quoted her own study, saying it was not “necessarily carbohydrates only that caused insulin resistance and obesity, but increased fat”.

Her study had proven that rural Africans who had moved to urban areas ate fewer carbs and more fat, and then became obese.

 

Ramdass 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.

Cape Argus, Cape Times

@FrancescaJaneV

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