The Magic Pill Page #6

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The charges against Noakes

were laid

by the Association

of Dietetics in South Africa,

after he advised

a mother on Twitter

to ween her child

onto a low-carb, high-fat diet.

[Marika]

The health dietitian tweeted,

"Don't listen to him!

It's a terrible thing to say.

I'm going to report you!"

[man]

This will seriously harm

our profession!

The dietitian went on

and lodged a complaint

with the Health Professions

Council of South Africa--

that's the regulatory body--

for unprofessional conduct.

That is the most

serious charge

you can level

against a medical doctor.

It's time for us to take charge

of our nation's health.

This is a modern-day

trial of Galileo.

[Joan Adams]

Good morning.

It's the 16th of February, 2016.

We continue

with the official conduct

hearing against Dr. T. Noakes.

And, Professor,

you are still under oath.

[Noakes]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

-[Joan] Yes.

-This is a unique event

in the history

of modern medicine

that a scientist

has been charged

with giving

unconventional advice,

and can get up there

and say, "Actually,

it is not unconventional."

It has been in the literature.

[Marika]

The Association for

Dietetics in South Africa

is very, very much

a gatekeeper of nutrition advice

and the official dietary

guidelines of South Africa.

It's time to look

at the results and the outcomes

and say,

"Maybe we got it wrong."

[Marika]

And Professor Noakes is

building a really powerful case

for what really lies

behind the epidemic

of non-communicable diseases

around the world.

That's obesity, diabetes,

heart disease, cancer--

even dementia,

that is now being called

type III diabetes

because of its links with diet.

I'm talking

about insulin resistance,

which is so prevalent

in this country.

[Marika]

What actually lies at the heart

of his case is the science,

the wealth of evidence

that supports low-carb,

high-fat eating,

and equally that high-carb,

low-fat isn't so good

for you after all.

One of the definitive studies

of the low-fat diet

was done in the United States

by the National Institute

of Health

to prove that

low-fat diet reduced the risk

of cardiovascular disease,

and they invested

$700 million into it.

There were 48,000

post-menopausal women

who were going

to be studied for eight years.

They were divided

into two groups:

40% were assigned

to the low-fat eating pattern,

and 60% could just eat

what they liked.

The low-fat group were told

to reduce their energy

from fat to 20%

and from saturated fat to 7%,

and increase their fruit

and vegetable intake

to at least

five servings per day

and grains to at least

six servings per day.

So that would be the dietary

guidelines for Americans.

And what did they find?

After eight years,

this amazing study--

the low-fat diet did not

significantly reduce the risk

of coronary

heart disease, stroke,

or cardiovascular disease,

and achieved only modest effects

on cardiovascular risk factors.

So after all that effort,

that was the outcome.

[Nina]

In the 35 years we've

been following the guidelines,

animal fats are down by 17%,

red meat down by 17%,

eggs are down by 17%,

whole milk down by 73%!

So, everything we've been

told to cut down on,

we have cut down,

and everything we were told

to increase, we increased.

Grains are up by 41%,

vegetable oils up by 91%,

fruit up by 13%,

vegetables up by 23%.

So on the whole,

Americans have been

following the guidelines.

It leads you inevitably

to the conclusion

there must be something wrong

with the guidelines themselves.

There were parts of the study

which were a bit worrying,

and this was women

who were sick

at the start

of the trial with diabetes.

This healthy diet should

make them even healthier,

but it didn't.

Women with diabetes did worse.

And what I find interesting

is they never reported

the eight-year data

on women with diabetes

in that study,

and you have to ask, "Why?"

[Nina] When these

study results are coming out,

they're deeply inconvenient.

This hypothesis has been adopted

not only by the American

Heart Association,

but also by the National

Institutes of Health,

the entire federal government,

medical societies,

and a number of industries:

the vegetable oil industry,

ADM, Monsanto, Bunge--

some of the biggest companies

in the world--

and the grain industry,

and the soybean industry.

So these results had to be

ignored somehow

or suppressed.

[Marika]

I've been left

with a very disturbing feeling

that this hearing was set up

from the very beginning.

We'll adjourn tomorrow

at 10:
00 sharp.

[Marika]

There is much more at stake

than a simple tweet.

There are powerful

vested interests.

People stand to lose a lot--

whether it's status, money--

in accepting

Professor Noakes' viewpoint.

[Robert] Could you describe

what the low-carb, high-fat

pyramid would be?

Yeah. Actually,

that's an important--

that is maybe a graphic that,

more than any other--

What you have to do is take

the existing food pyramid

and turn it upside-down.

So that everything

that used to be in the base

of the food pyramid--

grains, carbohydrates--

really has to be up in the tip.

And then below that are

our fruits and vegetables,

and then the big bottom slab

really has to be fats

and animal foods.

That is actually what

a healthy diet looks like.

Hi. Hi!

How are you guys doing?

[Kate] I was so excited

to come here today

to see if there's

any changes with Abigail.

The first time I met her,

she was walking on top

of the window sills...

-She's a climber! [laughs]

-Abigail, get down!

...flopping all around

on the couches...

[laughter]

-[doorbell rings]

-[Kate] She comes in and...

-Hey, cutie!

-...she's absolutely calm.

-[Barry] Say hi.

-[Kate] Hi, Abigail.

Do you remember me?

It's very exciting.

Very exciting.

[Barry]

Can you say hi?

Seems like she's losing

some of that massive belly.

It looked like she was,

like, constantly bloated.

That seems to have decreased.

Her bowels have regulated.

They were using a laxative

every single day.

And I don't know if you noticed

that when you're trying

to present her something

that she doesn't want...

-No!

-[Barry] No?

-She's actually saying, "No."

-[Robert] Yeah, I noticed

that too, actually.

With her mouth.

She's actually saying, "No."

She's able to concentrate

and she's able to progress,

because she's not

running all over the place

and she's not seizing.

Her seizures are going down,

and we have tangible data

from the school.

We are actually

starting to ween her off

of the anticonvulsory narcotic

that she's on that

I think you guys heard

plenty of complaints

from me about.

There are great strides within

just five weeks. It's great.

[Robert] What do you make

of his sort of subdued

attitude about all that?

[laughs] They live

with Abigail day-in and day-out.

You don't see

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