It has not been the best of weeks for the big public health empire. The renegades have had two wins despite the might of the state being used against them. That so much effort and resource is used to try and stop individuals suggesting that people consume less refined carbohydrate remains quite staggering.
On June 8 the Health Practitioners Council of South Africa (HPCSA) finally handed down its decision in the case which has dragged on for four years. Professor Tim Noakes was completely cleared of any wrong doing. The decision was 100% in Noakes’s favour, the same as the original finding. Exactly why the original finding was appealed is something we may never know.
What we do know, from leaked emails is that the President of the South African dietician’s association emailed the HPCSA seeking an “intervention”. In fact, the email says they were “desperate for an intervention”. And why? Because Tim Noakes had dared to publicly state that a lower carbohydrate diet not only was not dangerous but was beneficial in many instances.
The case centred on a tweet! That’s right, a single tweet where Professor Noakes, in reply to a question (which may have been a set up) indicated that it was OK to wean a baby from high fat breast milk to a low carb higher fat diet.
Goodness me – You can understand the desperation and the need for four years of legal proceedings to deal with such a serious matter.
That Noakes has been totally exonerated is clearly justice. However, he will never get the four years of his life back and were it not for pro bono legal assistance could well have been bankrupt. Meanwhile the vexatious complainants have used the resources of the deep state and have suffered no financial hardship and face no consequences other than needing to wipe the egg of their faces.
Meanwhile for reasons best known to himself, new Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Tony Bartone decided to revisit criticism of Pete Evans’ movie The Magic Pill which is now on Netflix. He called for the movie to be taken off Netflix as it was allegedly dangerous!
I have seen the movie. It follows the lives of people who have changed their diet and improved their health. What a terrible, dangerous thing to do. You can see why the public need protection. The movie does not claim that everyone will get the same results nor does it exalt people to do anything – other than question what they have been told by big public health for the last 35 years.
Like Noakes, it questions the low fat dietary guidelines mantra. The degree of threat that this must cause to vested interests is clearly considerable. We have previously seen this in Australia with the persecution of Gary Fettke.
By weeks end views of the movie must have gone up with the free publicity and Netflix announced that rather than taking the movie down, it was extending the run and will put it on other country platforms and translate it into other languages.
Maybe this would have happened anyway but the publicity would have helped. In soccer terminology the AMA has kicked an own goal and, sensibly, made no further comment on the actions of Netflix.
The central question remains – why is big public health so frightened of views other than its own. How is eating less refined carbohydrate and reverting to an eating pattern which humans did for eons (food which till recently was growing or moving around) is dangerous. Why does it feel people who have a different view to theirs need to be at the least censored and preferably prosecuted? Why does it feel the public is incapable of hearing different views on dietary matters and then finding what works well for them?
There are numerous answers to each of these questions and you can determine your own.
Much like in Star Wars, the Empire will not go down without a fight. The death star was far better resourced than the rebels. Yet the rebels won. In the diet wars, the empire has all the resources of the deep state and the renegades have themselves.
What the renegades have on their side, which will win out in the end, is truth.
Medical Doctor, author, speaker, media presenter and health industry consultant, Dr Joe Kosterich wants you to be healthy and get the most out of life.
Joe writes for numerous medical and mainstream publications, is clinical editor at Medical Forum Magazine, and is also a regular on radio and television.
Joe is Medical Advisor to Medicinal Cannabis Company Little Green Pharma, Chairman of Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association and sits on the board of Arthritis and Osteoporosis WA. He is often called to give opinions in medico legal cases.
He has self-published two books: Dr Joe’s DIY Health and 60 Minutes To Better Health.
In 2024 due to public demand he commenced a podcast, Dr Joe Unplugged, which can be accessed via Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
Through all this he continues to see patients as a GP each week.
