Seriously, What Do They Teach at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition Judging by the IONistas in the Public Eye?

What do they teach people at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition? When the founder of one’s alma mater is Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford this might, occasionally, give one pause as to exactly what is taught to the aspiring cohorts of students of nutritionism. Patrick Holford set up the Institute of Optimum Nutrition as a limited company, back when he was in such a state of despair as to the disparity between his own auto-didact expertise and that of people who had actually studied the topic for several decades and researched it in rigorous detail, that he felt that he had no option but to set up his own institute of learning to spread his own special take on nutritionism throughout the tranche of gullible like-minded, well-heeled seekers after knowledge.

Detoxing for the new year: the holistic approach

In the run-up to the new year, Prof Patrick Holford of Teesside University has been promoting his “9-Day Liver Detox”. More on that later, but I thought it would be nice to start with some holistic health advice – advice that treats the whole person, instead of just targeting particular symptoms or organs in isolation. As Andrew Wadge (the FSA’s chief scientist) notes on his blog, if you have overindulged over the holidays there are better options than ‘detox’ pills and diets:

First, drink a glass or two of water (tap is fine, cheaper and more sustainable than bottled); second, get a little exercise – maybe a walk in the park – and third, enjoy some nice home-cooked food. There’s a lot of nonsense talked about ‘detoxing’ and most people seem to forget that we are born with a built-in detox mechanism. It’s called the liver. So my advice would be to ditch the detox diets and supplements and buy yourself something nice with the money you’ve saved.

Sounds fair enough to me. But, then, Holford offers an ‘alternative’ approach