It is the duty of a doctor to educate his patient, and this can\u2019t be done via social media, the disciplinary hearing against Professor Tim Noakes heard on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Doctors cannot give expert advice without consultation,” psychiatrist and part-time bioethicist Professor Willie Pienaar testified.<\/p>\n
“The mother and child may have suffered, but luckily they didn\u2019t because she didn\u2019t take the advice.<\/p>\n
“I am not happy that he has really considered the health of his patients.”<\/p>\n
Noakes – whose book The Real Meal Revolution<\/em> promotes a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) lifestyle – was called before the the Health Professions Council of SA after a complaint was lodged by the former president of the Association for Dietetics in SA, Claire Julsing-Strydom.<\/p>\n The complaint centred on a tweet from Noakes to a mother who asked what foods she should feed her baby.<\/p>\n Noakes advised the mother to wean her child onto LCHF foods, which he described as real foods.<\/p>\n The tweet read: “Baby doesn’t eat the dairy and cauliflower. Just very healthy high fat breast milk. Key is to ween [sic] baby onto LCHF.”<\/p>\n Pienaar said Noakes had the opportunity to refer the mother to a general practitioner.<\/p>\n “He gave expert advice without consultation. He didn\u2019t ask the age or health status of the baby,” Pienaar said.<\/p>\n “My main concern is that he gave specialist advice [via social media]. That cannot be good practice in our profession.”<\/p>\n Consultation was key to giving the correct diagnosis, he argued.<\/p>\n “I can\u2019t comment on the science, but I am deeply concerned about the doctor-patient relationship in the long run if we give expert advice without [it].”<\/p>\n The hearing continues.<\/p>\n News24<\/a><\/p>\n Tim Noakes\u2019 dietary advice deemed \u2018irresponsible\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on Tim Noakes<\/h3>\n