Dieticians warn against latching on to dietary fads

MOIRA SCHNEIDER

CAPE TOWN

Noakes is facing a charge of unprofessional conduct after he purportedly advised a woman on Twitter to wean her baby on to a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.

Jewish Report asked two dieticians for their takes on the diet.

Lila Bruk, a dietician in private practice in Johannesburg, did not mince her words. “I feel that it’s another fad, almost like a cult,” she says, describing the diet as “unhealthy”, while noting that there are ways of cutting carbs in a healthy way to attain a moderate intake. She also prefers to focus on healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, avocados, fatty fish and olive oil.

“Ultimately, the only thing that really works is a balanced diet, because what lands up happening is that people latch on to something that seems too good to be true – they’re attracted by the fact that they can eat all these foods that they haven’t been able to have like cheese and cream. They lose weight because any diet works if you stick to it, but unfortunately the long-term sustainability is very challenging.

“It’s very, very hard to go through your entire life never having a piece of cake or a slice of toast. And in addition to that, we don’t really know what the long-term health consequences (of the Banting diet) are either.”

While there is recent research showing that saturated fats are not as bad as were originally thought, the “safe doses” are not known.

Bruk thinks the charge against Noakes is “definitely” justified. “Putting aside whether you agree with Banting or not, it is so unethical to give advice to somebody when you’ve got no idea as to their background.

“He doesn’t know if this baby has allergies or pre-existing conditions.”

Bruk brands as “ridiculous” Noakes’ contention that he was answering the woman’s question as a scientist not a doctor, adding: “You can’t pick and choose what hat you’re wearing at any point.

“If you’ve got ‘Dr’ in front of your name, people are assuming that you’re going to be answering from that point of view, with a medical slant. I feel he’s clutching at straws.”

Her concern is that whatever the outcome of the case, it won’t change the effect the diet has had on the public. “At least this case has brought awareness to people who are maybe blindly following him and Banting, to take a step back to consider whether it’s the right thing to do and to question things a bit more than they were before.”

Heidi Bieber, a dietician in private practice in Cape Town, was more conciliatory, saying she is neither for nor against the Banting diet. “It really does work for some people, but I do not feel that it’s a long-term, liveable way of life, especially for women, and there are risks associated with it that can’t be ignored.”

On the other hand, she says, the risk of obesity is “very big” and when it does work you see “huge” improvements in people’s health from the weight loss per se. In addition, “the diet has highlighted key issues, that sugars, refined carbohydrates and processed foods are the enemy.

“Fat is not the problem, but I still advocate only good fats – I don’t think people should eat a lot of saturated fats. I do allow carbohydrates, but not in high amounts – it’s all about quality and quantity of carbs at a sitting.”