PS – your link to Sneader’s Drug Discovery seems to be broken.

Admin edit: Fixed. Thank you.

Dr Lucy Wills as in Wills’ Anaemia and some fine early research in nutrition. Wills worked in some way with both Marmite and Harriet Chick – what joy. This article reports some of her findings about the monotonous diet of some of her patients between 1937-46.

Sneader’s Drug Discovery: A History also gives an overview of the discovery of vitamins.

At some point, I must put together some more research about Widdowson, McCance and several other UK notables in nutrition research: they don’t receive nearly enough acknowledgement nor admiration.

The antiquity and marginal nature of many of the favourite, frequently-used Holford references defies belief. I can’t decide whether I especially like a reference to an obscure catering report from 1981 or a no-longer-available cassette of a lecture delivered in 1993 (in the leading-edge, up-dated New Optimum Nutrition Bible: see refs 17 and 18, as Goldacre implies, it would be almost impossible to track these down).

This is the man who is steadfast in putting his fingers in his ears and refusing to update:
IgG tests for food intolerance;
chromium as magic for blood sugar;
vitamin C for everything;
cinnamon for blood sugar.
Those were off the top of my head – there must be more.

@ Catherine Collins. Is there no way of stopping this? What is going to prevent these people from being employed by PCTs as ‘personal dietitians’? Will they be allowed to recommend all the dodgy tests that they seem to recommend in private practice, like IgG?

For those interested in the full article that Patrick refers to as proof of chromium supplements being essential in diabetes, the clinical paper is freely available, courtesy of the journal Diabetes Care, here:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/reprint/30/8/2154
It clearly states in the opening paragraphs that the greatest perceived effect of chromium was in the poor quality trials.

If we take the best quality trials, fasting blood glucose was lowered by 0.8-1.1mmol. Anyone with a knowledge of diabetes would concur that such a reduction is similar to, if not slightly inferior to dietary manipulation, weight loss advice and exercise advice – all three of which not only improve insulin sensitivity in those with Type 2 diabetes but also have benefits for cholesterol levels and blood pressure management (which chromium supplements don’t).

I wonder why Patrick is suddenly trying to deride the Manual of Dietetic Practice. Perhaps, given its ease of acquisition, IONistas are finding its information at odds with their own teachings?
Or perhaps Patrick is seeking to muddy waters so that when OfQuack ‘regulates’ its first Nutritional Therapists in January 2009 – many of which I am sure will be IONistas – the public will mistakenly believe that the training and education of both ‘Registered’ nutritional professionals have equal validity? I wonder……

the book is a general reference guide to dietetic practice and is the main reference source of undergraduate dietitians. About Patricks level, actually….

After 30 years of self-guided study, and many books of his own out-pourings, it is good to know that Holford has reached the level of an undergraduate and is perhaps grasping the need to consult a decent reference text (but, read, don’t flick, is our advice). Now, if he were to learn to read it and interpret it appropriately, then that might be very helpful, not only for him, but for those who found him to be an acceptable source of advice on diet, health and supplements.

@ Wulfstan, some people might be able to pass up a banana skin, others just can’t.

@ Lee, this is a completely novel revision of history, as far as we are concerned, and there is no mention of that noble claim in the founding documents for ION at Companies House. Back then, it just seemed as if ION was another outcrop from Whole Food Programmes. Oddly, for such noble aims, ION was a commercial company rather than an educational trust, and this means of usurping an undergraduate degree course of 3 or 4 years plus some post-graduate experience that was necessary for dietitians, was apparently something that was taught on the odd weekend, by an unqualified, uncredentialled Patrick Holford, over a period of 2 years. But, we may need to refine the details of that.