re TAPL, I’m afraid any sympathy I’ve managed to dredge up for people who feel pressurized to look good evaporates. So, I will very uncharitably observe that I was surprised to read in a newspaper report recently that she is only 48. I would not have thought that from the accompanying picture.

It would be interesting to ask Rona Tutt of Food for the Brain if she could confirm whether Mr Holford has had his own child(ren) educated in the state sector.

Is there anything the woman won’t do for publicity?

And that’s the most sinister feature of the whole nutritionist project, graphically exemplified by McKeith: it’s a manifesto of rightwing individualism – you are what you eat, and people die young because they deserve it. They choose death, through ignorance and laziness, but you choose life, fresh fish, olive oil, and that’s why you’re healthy. You’re going to see 78. You deserve it. Not like them.

Goldacre on TAPL. Some of this is very Ayn Rand.

I read an article somewhere on the internet recently which said Count Dracula was supporting him. Funny old world ehhh?

“who, according to the IoD magazine, are increasingly opting for cosmetic procedures – they must be getting ready for prime time.”

I agree, but I think there’s more too it than that, Claire. There is definitely a premium on appearing youthful and telegenic – think Tony Blair, or Sarkozy – but in these executive roles it also relates, I think, to the idea that one of the “selectors ” for making it to the top is being “super-charged”, i.e. having the physical energy and endurance to work twice as hard as everyone else.

My experience of academia has been that it is rarely the most intellectually gifted scientists that make it to the very top these days, and far more the gifted enough but noticeably most driven / indefatigable.

I can believe CEOs want to be viewed as simultaneously “tremendously experienced” (safe pair of hands) “…but young for his/her age” (exudes youth, health and vigour, good hair and teeth etc etc).

In the Alt Health setting, how much of Patrick H’s pitch is based on his own matinee idol housewives’ heartthrob schtick and “glow of health”? Quite a bit, I’d say.

Actually, I’d love to see some “rejuvenating supplement”-peddling AltMed guru getting papparazzi-ed sneaking out of a cosmetic surgery clinic. That really would be something to dream of.

who, according to the IoD magazine, are increasingly opting for cosmetic procedures – http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2008/5%20May/plastic_surgery_61_10.html

They must be getting ready for prime time.

You could argue that if tobacco companies had a monopoly on lung health research, it’s possible that the damaging effects of tobacco smoke would not have come out as quickly. So having the NIH funded by the government [and likewise the FDA and EPA] could produce a countervailing pressure against the tobacco companies. (I actually believe the independent foundations would provide it anyway.)

Why would independent foundations be interested in exploring whether or not antioxidant supplements are valuable for the general population? Where is the money in non-sales of supplements, or the non-sales of diet books because your dietary message boils down to Pollan’s maxim? Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

In the interview, it is remarkable how many times he veered towards sounding neo-Holmesian.

Science is constructed in “invisible colleges”–small groups of people who understand each individual discipline. So the number of people who can really understand the scientific papers is few.

This may be literally true but overlooks the fact that it doesn’t matter how much you jargonise something, there are times when a basic knowledge of science leads someone to say, “You’re claiming to have built a perpetual motion machine” or “You’re claiming that chlorophyll oxygenates my blood when it really can’t do that”.

Beyond that, I wonder how free-marketeers reconcile the fact that we don’t live in an unfettered free market (try taking a job in the US or Australia for a few months and stand back in amazement at the paperwork) with promoting the idea that we should introduce elements that suggest that we do.

I can’t express the next bit of what I wanted to say, so I shall think some more.