Entries categorized as ‘Food for the brain’
Food for the Brain seem very pleased about an embarrassingly poor quality interview with Holford in National Health Executive (PDF): a journal targeted at senior health managers. Food for the Brain have sent out an e-mail to their mailing list to proudly plug this piece. However, the questions are frankly rather odd, and Holford is allowed:
- to bask in the glory of a Associate Parliamentary Forum report on diet, mental health and behaviour (despite the fact that the report failed to mention his work or that of Food for the Brain)
- to cast aspersions on the nutritional knowledge of qualified health professionals
- to accuse healthcare professionals of being biased against nutrition due to the role of pharmaceutical industry funding although Holford himself works for a company part-owned by Elder Pharmaceuticals, and accepted £464,000 from Neutrahealth.
It also looks like the NHE takes pay-to-print articles which might or might not explain the appearance of an article that reads like an extended advertorial for Food for the Brain and Holford. (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · Holford · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: patrick holford, Food for the brain, fish oil, BPSDB, National Health Executive
In a recent burst of autobiographical disclosure and outrage I posted The Economist: The End of a Childhood Illusion.
I can’t begin to describe my disappointment that The Economist somehow veered from its olympian standards and published a piece of such gob-smacking credulity that I was left waiting for the volte-face punchline that didn’t come. More extraordinary is the fact that The Economist links to Food for the Brain (FFTB) and lends its gravitas to that organisation by carrying this article about its recent conference (you may recall the awfulness of the lamentable Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007, details in further reading).
Treatment on a plate displays shoddy scholarship that is a strong warning sign that there is either a substantial misunderstanding or an undisclosed conflict of interest: this is not typical of The Economist…which makes this article all the more dispiriting.
Thanks to an impeccable source, we have learned the identity of the writer. (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · Holford · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: patrick holford, supplements, Food for the brain, Food Is Better Medicine Than Drugs, Jerome Burne, BPSDB, addiction, The Economist, Brain Bio Centre
When I was 12-years old I had a run of history and science projects that absorbed all my interest and exhausted the resources of my local library. Inexplicably, I was granted in-library reading privileges at the University Library. I was free to consult not only books but academic journals and popular reviews. For the first time, I saw publications that I had only read about: London Review of Books, Time Magazine, Paris Match, The Economist, New Yorker. I was overwhelmed by the glamour and gravitas of these periodicals: the smell and weight of the paper stock, the photo-journalism and, above all, the quality of the writing and editing. (more…)
Categories: 5-HTP · Food for the brain · Holford · omega 3 · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: patrick holford, omega 3, supplements, Food for the brain, FFTB, fish oil, BPSDB, addiction, The Economist
Categories: Food for the brain · children · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: patrick holford, supplements, Equazen, ASA, Food for the brain, children, fish oil, durham, ADHD, BPSDB, Advertising Standards Authority
Categories: Ben Goldacre · Food for the brain · children
Tagged: omega 3, Ben Goldacre, school, children, fish oil, durham, durham trial, essential fatty acids, BPSDB, Durham Fish Oil Initiative, Madeleine Portwood
This is our 350th post on HolfordWatch. Over the course of these posts, we have found a number of inaccuracies in Holford’s self-presentation and many serious errors in his work. These errors overwhelmingly remain uncorrected or inadequately corrected, and Holford has failed to respond to almost all of the issues raised (what responses we have had from Holford are not at all convincing). However, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Patrick Holford: despite embarrassingly poor-quality work, an inaccurate CV and very public demolitions of his research, Patrick Holford has achieved a great deal in his career, in academia and in the media.
While we have been running this blog, Holford managed to sell his Health Products for Life business to Biocare (owned by Neutrahealth, who 30% owned by Elder Pharmaceuticals) for £464,000, and currently works as Head of Science and Education at Biocare. We have ethical quibbles about taking money from the pharmaceutical industry - we don’t do it - but careers in this industry are competitive, and Holford should be congratulated for getting so much money from Biocare (and thus, indirectly, from Elder Pharmaceuticals).
Holford should also be congratulated for having his application to be a visiting professor at Teesside University approved (more…)
Categories: Ben Goldacre · Food for the brain · Food for the brain foundation · University of Teesside · patrick holford
Tagged: Biocare, Elder Pharmaceuticals, Food for the brain, Neutrahealth, patrick holford, Teesside University, University of Teesside
…because, if they did, they would be feeling pretty silly now.
We have recently received a response to a FOIA request to Teesside University, which included some interesting information about Visiting Professor Patrick Holford’s time at the University. Teesside’s Case for Patrick Holford as a Visiting Professor [PDF] referred to Food for the Brain funding a £12,500/year PhD bursary - something that would have cost a good £37,500. However, when Teesside were asked about any Holford-related income, they responded that:
No income has been received by the University from Mr Holford, Biocare, the Brain Bio Centre or Food for the Brain. Expenses have been paid by Food for the Brain for attendance by University staff in connection with a Schools project.
The total amount of money coming into Teesside from all these sources was therefore…wait for it… (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · University of Teesside · patrick holford
Tagged: Food for the brain, Holford, patrick holford, Teesside
Visiting Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University and the Food for the Brain Foundation (FFTB) are promoting a very well-thought plan whereby food and supplement manufacturers will give them money in exchange for the endorsement of their products. Now, charities have to get their money from somewhere, so isn’t that all very sensible? (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · Food for the brain foundation · Holford · University of Teesside · children · patrick holford
Tagged: patrick holford, Holford, food intolerance, allergy, Allergy UK, yorktest, Food for the brain, antioxidants, Cherry Active, dried cherries, Peter Whorwell, Anton Emmanuel, allergy test
