I asked him to confirm he did not study for a qualification at Abram Hoffer’s institution or anywhere else. He did and then went on to say that what he did in America and what he has been doing for the last thirty years is reading what other people have said about nutrition. THAT is how he picked up his skills. In fact, he declared that by 1983 he had a waiting list three months long. People were asking him to teach them what he knew so he decided to set up his own training institute.

It sounds to me like he visited the libraries and possibly arranged to see academic researchers. We know for sure that he managed to meet Abram Hoffer and Carl Pfeiffer. How did he do so? Who knows. My guess is he wrote to people in advance:

“I am a young British psychology graduate from the University of York, one of my country’s top universities. Currently I am researching the effect of nutrition on mental health. It has come to my attention that you are one of the world’s leading authorities on nutrition and mental health. I am travelling to the United States to try to make contact with the leading researchers in this field. Unfortunately, the medical establishment in my country is so far behind. I would be very grateful if you could spare me an hour of your time and possibly I could take some of your insights back home with me in an attempt to change things for the better.” Who could resist such a flattering letter? What harm would it do to meet the enthusisastic young Brit for a mint herbal tea?

With the help of contacts at York and elsewhere it would presumably have been easy to get a library pass.

Admin edit: possibly, but that would be a very different kettle of fish to what most people would imagine to be meant by the reassurance that someone had visited all the major nutritional centres etc. But, yes, plausible.

But, this is all sounding very odd. I know that universities etc. tend to be quite open to visits from scholars, but you normally have to give a lecture to them in return, and you typically have to be from an educational institution yourself unless the past really is another country. Holford wasn’t affiliated to an academic institution during that time.

I asked him what he was doing at all the major American nutritional research centres. He reminded me that he had been spending the last thirty years reading about and researching nutrition. He said he had visited the institutions to find out the latest research on nutrition. That implied he was visiting the libraries. Possibly he also managed to meet some resarchers as well, but unfortunately I only got the chance to speak to him for a few minutes so was not able to press him any further.

Perhaps ex-professor Holford’s life could be made in to a film?

Presumably with the soundtrack album to be called Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches” – though the real record deserves better.

Of course, the question for the Holford version would be whether the Bellyaches were due to overdosing on Vitamin C or to colonic irrigation “detox-ing”.

“He rose without trace. A man with a mission. A man with some pills. But could anyone stop him?” Appearing at a health food store near you soon!

OPTIMUM NUTRITION – YOU KNOW IT MOCKS SENSE …

BBC on illusions and superstitions at times of stress.

On the vitamin and mineral supplements front – I have an uneasy feeling that some of the hyperbolic coverage of what the credit crunch means for families is leading a very small number of people to think that they might be better off eating cheap, nutrient-depleted food and then supplementing (I can’t comment on the quality but some supplements are pennies). Plus, in times of stress, if smokers are feeling the pinch for their disposable income but they feel that this is the wrong time to give up smoking, I don’t know if they too might compromise on food as an ‘economy’ and try to make up for it in other ways.

To quote Ben Goldacre‘s Bad Science, pg. 62: “We are human, we are irrational, we have foibles”.