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Patrick Holford is a British nutritionist, author of more than twenty books on nutrition and health, and founder and director of the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London.

Patrick Holford is also the director of the Food for the Brain Foundation (www.foodforthebrain.org), a registered charity that is helping children with special needs through improved nutrition, and the Brain Bio Centre (www.brainbiocentre.com), an outpatient clinical treatment clinic for those with mental health issues wishing to pursue a nutrition-based approach. He appears regularly on television and is also a frequent guest speaker on radio. He lectures throughout the world, and presents about fifty lectures and workshops a year in the UK.

Holford began his academic studies at the University of York, where he studied experimental psychology. As a psychology student, he became interested in the biochemistry of mental health problems. His research brought him in contact with Dr Carl Pfeiffer and Dr Abram Hoffer, both of whom claimed success in treating mental illness with nutritional therapy. He became their student, and later studied with Dr Linus Pauling.

In 1984, Holford founded the Institute of Optimum Nutrition (ION). At that institute, he has worked on nutritional approaches to depression, schizophrenia, and eating disorders. His research into the rôle that nutrition plays in children's IQ levels was the subject of a Horizon documentary in 1987.

In the UK, "Nutritionist" is not a title covered by any registered professional body, so some have questioned Patrick Holford's qualifications and expertise. The accuracy of Holford's claims re. health and nutrition has also been questioned: for example, Dr Ben Goldacre has responded critically to Holford's The New Optimum Nutrition Bible. Holford used a non-clinical study where "you tip lots of vitamin C onto HIV-infected cells and measure a few things related to HIV replication" as the basis for his conclusion that "AZT, the first prescribable anti-HIV drug, is potentially harmful, and proving less effective than vitamin C". For Goldacre, "Holford was guilty of at least incompetence in claiming that demonstrated vitamin C to be a better treatment than AZT" - "he paper doesn't even contain the word AZT. Not once."

Holford has written more than twenty books, the first of which was The Optimum Nutrition Bible, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. His books have been translated into seventeen languages.

Books

• The Family Nutrition Workbook (1988)
• The Whole Health Manual: Comprehensive Guide to Nutrition and Better Health (1988)
• The Better Pregnancy Diet: The Definitive Guide to Having a Healthy Baby (1993)
• The Optimum Nutrition Bible (1998)
• Say No to Heart Disease (1998)
• 30-Day Fatburner Diet (1999)
• 100% Health (1999)
• Beat Stress and Fatigue (1999)
• Say No to Cancer (1999)
• Improve Your Digestion (2000)
• Say No to Arthritis (2000)
• Supplements for Superhealth (2000)
• Solve Your Skin Problems (2001)
• Six Weeks to Superhealth (2002)
• Optimum Nutrition for the Mind (2002)
• Natural Highs: Chill - 25 Ways to Stay Relaxed and Beat Stress (2003)
• Natural Highs: Energy - 25 Ways to Increase Your Energy (2003)
• 500 Health and Nutrition Questions Answered (2004)
• The Alzheimer's Prevention Plan (2005)
• The Holford Low-GL Diet (2005)
• The Holford Diet GL Counter (forthcoming)
• Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs (2006)

See also

• Patrick Holford's Website
• Institute of Optimum Nutrition
• Food for the Brain
• The Brain Bio Centre

• Living people
• Nutritionists
• Alumni of the University of York