WINDHOEK – He has been called “misguided”, at worst, a killer quack who “flouts the Hippocratic oath”, and his low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet is regularly labelled “bad science”, “dangerous” and “criminal”.
But Professor Tim Noakes of the University of Cape Town (UCT) enjoyed the full support of Namibian meat producers when he explained his new-found philosophy of a high animal fat diet for a long and healthy life at the recently held 2014 Agricultural Outlook Conference in Windhoek. “We humans are the only mammals that suffer from chronic ill health. One critic suggests it’s because we are the only animals clever enough to manufacture our own food – and stupid enough to eat it,” was one of his comments that had the audience in stitches when he applauded Namibian producers for what they put on the plates everyday: good, healthy food from the farms.
Noakes, Professor of Exercise and Sports Science and Director of UCT’s Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, remained relatively restrained in his responses to attacks that have skirted, and often crossed the lines of libel – until now. He has co-written a book titled, The Real Meal Revolution’ that has sold like hot cakes. He is unrepentant in his views on diet and nutrition saying there is solid science behind The Real Meal Revolution – for those willing to see it. The book is a runaway success serving only to infuriate Noakes’s critics. With word-of-mouth advertising only, it has sold more 100 000 copies since December 2013, making it South Africa’s bestseller ever. (All R500 000 profits so far have gone to the Tim Noakes Foundation set up to research nutrition and challenge scientific dogma.)
Ironically, everything Noakes writes in the book is in Time magazine’s cover story on June 12 2014. That puts him ahead of Time, and creates something of an inconvenient truth for critics – how to prove him wrong when Time says science proves him right. Noakes is a medical doctor and a scientist rated A1 by the National Research Foundation whose areas of expertise include both nutrition and weight loss. He told his Namibian audience that he has learned the hard way about the consequences of bad diets by being diagnosed as a Type 2 Diabetic recently.
He suggests a high-fat, low-carb, and moderate-protein only diet.
“I realised what was wrong with my health: I was insulin resistant and eating a high-carb diet before I started a high-fat diet. The diagnosis of diabetes could have been made then, but I’m my own doctor – the worst thing. I didn’t want to believe evidence for my diabetes, but it was there all along. The Real Meal Revolution is about real food, not processed in any way. People need to read the green list in the book. It talks about real meats and dairy products from pasture-fed animals and that are not highly processed.” “The idea that fruit and vegetables are healthy is commercially driven, and can be traced back to the industry in 1995 that promoted the 5-a-day idea without any good science. On the green list, we promote lots of amazing vegetables that are high in nutrients, low in carbohydrates, such as leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower and kale, and give you all the fibre you need.”
Professor Noakes’ diet’s high saturated-fat content gets up the noses of most experts and some have said there’s proof saturated fat causes heart disease. “No one has ever proven cholesterol in the blood causes heart disease. It’s an unproven hypothesis, an assumption based on epidemiology, and destroyed by Nina Teicholz inThe Big Fat Surprise. I would like to know which studies prove it. Oxidised cholesterol is the problem, but isn’t measured when patients are advised on diet. “Saturated fat has nothing to do with heart disease. If the Heart Foundation, the Stellenbosch researchers, dietitians and others who say it does, want to be scientific and credible, they should acknowledge there’s no evidence. They can hide it as long as they like, but eventually they’ll have to admit they are wrong, that taking fat out of the diet and replacing it with sugar has caused the obesity epidemic. The Heart Foundation in particular is accountable; the longer it takes to acknowledge the evidence, the worse the repercussions, including unnecessary deaths, over time,” he was quoted.
“Cancer is a carbohydrate-driven disease. Cancer cells are proven to be utterly glucose dependent. Some cancers can get their glucose from protein, but cancer cells have to get glucose from somewhere. We invested billions of dollars into drugs to kill cancer cells. Scientists who got it wrong have driven the research, but won’t admit it. They plod along, trying to cure cancer according to a model that clearly doesn’t work.
“Poor nutrition is the single greatest driver of chronic ill health. We’re fat because we eat too much addictive high-carb food, not because we eat too much fat and exercise too little. The food industry is committed to making profits, not promoting health living. It doesn’t care that their addictive, processed foods cause heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Until we recognise that, our profession can’t reverse the crippling burden of chronic ill health caused by these nutritionally based diseases. It takes courage to refute the commitment of medical fraternities and governments to the saturated-fat theory. Future generations of people will continue to avoid saturated fat and suffer health consequences, because those who are part of that Establishment are too scared to admit they’re wrong, and the diet-heart theory is disproven dogma,” he concludes.
Professor Tim Noakes of the University of Cape Town (UCT), delivering his powerful message about a high fat, low carb diet.