Holford Myths: what is the problem with Nutritionist Patrick Holford?

Professor Patrick Holford is certainly attracting publicity to the University of Teesside. On Saturday, Damian Thompson mentioned Holford as instrumental in (inadvertently) exposing the shoddy research at the heart of nutritionism and other CAM: The last rites for alternative medicine? And, today, Lois Rogers of The Times discusses: Do vitamin supplements do more harm than good? Read the rest of this entry »

The nation recently had many opportunities to listen to Professor Patrick Holford of the University of Teesside and Head of Science and Education at Biocare. Holford was engaged in a manufactroversy about the Cochrane Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases (review). In several of the interviews he framed himself as a scientist and presented himself as a equivalent scientist to those who had conducted the review. Read the rest of this entry »

Summary: Professor Patrick Holford is a popular media pundit who is celebrated for his scientific approach to nutrition. Pundit brand equity may partially explain why the mainstream media do not seem to care that Holford’s work is riddled with errors that substantially undercut some of the scientific claims that he makes: that is irritating but understandable, given the economics of advertising. Mainstream media may also find it difficult to admit that they were duped or indifferent to the accuracy of what they were offering.

However, it does not explain why the University of Teesside persists in lending him academic credibility or why reputable scientists continue to be associated with him. Ironically, perhaps these people who should know better would only be prompted into appropriate action if the mainstream media were to cover his errors and to appraise the quality of his scholarship. Maybe Ben Goldacre will mention something in the next instalment of The Rise of the Lifestyle Nutritionists. Read the rest of this entry »

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We’re starting this blog because we were concerned about some myths propagated by the nutritionist Patrick Holford, and the ways in which these have impacted on the culture of nutritionism. Patrick Holford’s science has been effectively dealt with on a number of blogs - including badscience.net, dcscience.net and holfordwatch.info - so we’re going to focus on a few specific myths here. We won’t be able to deal with everything in one post, so will start with a few Holford Myths here:

• Questions about Patrick Holford’s CV. From the way that Patrick is quoted in the UK and international media, one could easily get the sense that he is an expert in nutrition. Indeed, Teesside University has given Holford a visiting professorship. However, bloggers have raised a number of serious questions about Patrick’s credentials - including his the date of his undergraduate degree, the quotes that Holford used on his CV and the fact that the only accredited university-level qualification on Holford’s CV is a 2:2 in Psychology.
• Patrick seems to have some strongly held beliefs about Prof David Colquhoun; however, his statements about Colquhoun have not been entirely accurate. When Prof Colquhoun showed that Holford had failed to declare his competing interest in curcumin sales in a BMJ rapid response, Patrick complained that “Professor David Colquhoun has so far not felt it relevant to mention his own competing interests and financial involvements with the pharmaceutical industry when knocking non-drug approaches to diseases”. However, readers were amused to learn that Prof Colquhoun did not declare these competing interests because he doesn’t have them: “My research has never been funded by the drug industry…Neither have I accepted hospitality or travel to conferences from them.” This is a very nasty myth to spread about an academic who - because he “would never want to run the risk of judgements being clouded by money” - has refused drug company funding.
• Dr Ben Goldacre “has failed to accurately critique one single point of [Holford's] science”. Patrick seems to be annoyed at that nasty Dr Goldacre, and by the publication of Goldacre’s work in the Guardian. However, Goldacre has accurately critiqued a number of points of Holford’s science - see for example Goldacre’s report on how Patrick’s Health Products for Life were found by the ASA to have made “untruthful and unsubstantiated claims about pills” or his fisking of Holford’s belief in “The Amazing Qlink Science Pedant“.
  

There’s plenty more myths to come - and lots of other contributors who want to share their concern about what Holfordism is doing to the culture of nutritionism - but this will do for now. If any other interesting myths come to mind, do please post them here.