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Patrick Holford is a controversial British nutritionist, author of more than twenty books on nutrition and health, and founder and director of the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London.
Holford is also the director of the Food for the Brain Foundation, a registered charity that is helping children with special needs through improved nutrition, and the Brain Bio Centre, 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.
In January 2007, The Guardian newspaper reported that Fuel PR, a public relations firm working for Holford, had anonymously removed criticism from his Misplaced Pages article.
Career
Holford began his academic studies at the University of York, where he studied experimental psychology (completing his BSc in 1976). 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 1995, the ION awarded him an honorary Diploma in Nutritional Therapy.
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.
Criticism
In the UK, the title "nutritionist" is not a covered by any registered professional body, so some have questioned Patrick Holford's qualifications and expertise. His only formal qualification in Nutrition is an honorary Diploma from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (which he founded, and which he was Director of at the time of this award). Holford is a Fellow of the British Association of Nutrition Therapy, which claims to regulate nutritional therapists; however, this is not a statutory body, and there are a number of bodies which claim to regulate such therapists.
The accuracy of Holford's claims about nutrition have also been questioned. For example, Dr Ben Goldacre has responded critically to Holford's claim, in The New Optimum Nutrition Bible, that "AZT, the first prescribable anti-HIV drug, is potentially harmful, and proving less effective than vitamin C". Goldacre points out that Holford based this conclusion on a non-clinical study where "you tip lots of vitamin C onto HIV-infected cells and measure a few things related to HIV replication". Goldacre notes that the paper does not compare vitamin C to AZT for efficacy: in fact, it "doesn't even contain the word AZT". He argues that "Holford was guilty of at least incompetence in claiming that this study demonstrated vitamin C to be a better treatment than AZT."
Misplaced Pages controversy
In January 2007, a Guardian article written by Goldacre detailed how a public relations firm working for Holford had anonymously removed all criticism from his Misplaced Pages article. Holford says this was not his intention: he had intended for the PR firm to add a defence to the criticisms. Following publication of the article, User:Clarkeola, apparently an employee of Fuel PR, was banned indefinitely from editing Misplaced Pages articles under Misplaced Pages's meat puppet policy.
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)
References
- ^ Patrick Holford, Patrick Holford: Profile. patrickholford.com. Accessed 6 January 2007.
- Rachel Shabi, “Food fighters”. The Guardian, 8 January 2005. Accessed 6 January 2007.
- ^ Ben Goldacre, “Vitamin deficiency”. The Guardian, 6 January 2005. Accessed 6 January 2007.
- ^ Ben Goldacre, “Working papers”. The Guardian, 20 January 2005. Accessed 6 January 2007.
- ^ Ben Goldacre, “Doctored information on celebrity nutritionist”. The Guardian, 6 January 2007. Accessed 6 January 2007.
- User_talk:Clarkeola.
- Ben Goldacre, “Doctoring the records - updated”. badscience.net, 6 January 2007. Accessed 6 January 2007.