Lore of nutrition: Challenging conventional dietary beliefs - Tim Noakes & Marika Sboros

“My scientific conversion came about after what I call my ‘Damascene moment’. It happened after I came face to face with compellingly robust evidence that contradicted everything I believed was true about optimum nutrition to treat and prevent serious diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. I started to question whether much of what my professors at medical school had taught me as incontrovertible nutrition truths were, in fact, no more than myths.

I challenged two deeply held dogmas: the role of carbohydrate in nutrition and the diet-heart hypothesis that saturated fat causes heart disease. I expected that my colleagues in the medical profession and in academia, including at my own university, would be intrigued. They would want to know why I had changed my mind. They would be open to dialogue on matters of science and evidence-based medicine. They would want to learn. I could not have been more wrong.

The results of my personal choices would prove to be brutal for myself, my wife and the rest of our family, beyond anything I could possibly have imagined… We did not embark on this journey thinking it would be easy, nor did we do so lightly. We certainly did not choose it. But once our enemies threw down the gauntlet in the most public way that they did, my wife and I were not going to go quietly into the night. Our opposition, the prosecution, has learnt that to their considerable cost. If ever there was an illustration of the lesson in unintended consequences, then the case against us is the classic example.

My message to you, dear reader, is that all people are entitled to their own opinions. But not to their own set of facts. So do not believe what you want to believe. Believe what the facts tell you is the truth. For in the context of junk diets, embedded scientists, corrupt – or simply ignorant – doctors and dietitians, human health and comorbidities, what you believe about your personal nutrition will determine not just how you live, but also how you die.”

— Tim Noakes