Noakes trial gets nasty

26 November 2015 - 02:38 By Aarti J Narsee

The heat was turned up at the misconduct hearing of high fat medium protein advocate advocate Tim Noakes yesterday as an expert witness for the Health Professions Council of SA, Esté Vorster, was grilled by Noakes's lawyer. Noakes is accused by the Association of Dietetics of SA of unprofessional conduct in that he provided "unconventional advice on breast-fed babies on social networks" by advising a mother on Twitter last year to wean her child onto a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.He has pleaded not guilty.Vorster admitted that she did not have a Twitter account or any experience of social media networks. She said she had had to refer to Wikipedia for a description of Twitter.The Association of Dietetics follows the World Health Organisation recommendation that an infant's energy should be derived from between 30% and 40% fat and 6% to 7% protein, with the remainder from carbohydrates.Vorster is an academic at North West University and a former director of the Centre of Excellence for Nutrition, but she conceded that she had not dealt with patients as a dietician or nutritionist.She assisted in drafting National Dietary Guidelines for South Africa. But Noakes's advocate, Ravin Ramdass, said: "There's nothing in the guidelines [that has] addressed the big problem of obesity."Ramdass pointed to Vorster's ranking as a researcher. She is ranked as a B1 for her research in sports science. The next highest rank is A2, followed by A1, the highest ranking.Noakes has A1 status.Noakes has had more than 60 research works quoted; Vorster 22.Vorster said she had not read all 4,000 pages of the documentation related to the evidence to be presented at the hearing."About half of them I glanced through. I did not read them in detail," she said.She said that she had not read Noakes's book, The Real Meal Revolution.The hearing continues today...

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