Ben Goldacre’s Rise of the Lifestyle Nutritionists on Radio 4 Won a Norwich Union Medical Journalism Award

HolfordWatch enjoyed Dr Ben Goldacre and Rami Tzabar’s 2-parter on The Rise of the Lifestyle Nutritionists on Radio 4 (see update for MP3 links). We thought that it was an interesting exploration of the scientific rhetoric that is intended to lend respectability to nutritionism, and its adherents. Visiting Professor Patrick Holford was included as a notable example of a self-styled nutritionists who distorts research and reduces it to what was characterised as ‘a low and somewhat tabloid-y level of discourse’ with a hefty dose of promotion for supplements. We’ve just learned that it won the Norwich Union Healthcare Medical Journalism Award for National Radio, 2008.

National Radio

Winner: Rami Tzabar & Ben Goldacre, BBC Radio 4 – ‘The rise of the lifestyle nutritionists’
Judges’ comments: “This was an incisive look at some of the unsubstantiated claims surrounding this modern obsession and helped to expose the charade of alleged scientific evidence. Very refreshing.”

Congratulations to both Tzabar and Goldacre.

It’s likely that the 2 programmes will be repeated in the near future.

At the time, we wrote:

A number of people have chosen to associate themselves with Holford’s work, and to act as if it is scientifically credible. This is not a trivial matter: Holford offers (often erroneous) advice on treatments for a number of serious conditions, and is seeking to influence public policy and academic research agenda. We would therefore suggest that Biocare and Teesside University might like to reconsider their positions. We would also suggest that the academics on the Food for the Brain Scientific Advisory board reconsider whether they want their names associated with such poor quality work, and also look to produce a full list of errata to supplement the error-ridden Food for the Brain child survey report. Finally, we would ask that Holford’s publishers work with Holford – or independently – to produce suitable lists of errata to accompany his work, and that those mainstream media outlets that promoted his work look to correct their previous errors and run a compensatory more accurate assessment.

Holford has not made any attempts to correct any of his repeated errors since this programme: this is disappointing. However, although the University of Teesside did not publicly reconsider its position, it is notable that Holford’s appointment with them came to an end in less than a year.

Update

29 Nov 23:20: Professor David Colquhoun has kindly made the MP3 files of Programme 1 and Programme 2.

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