Diet Guru Dr. Katz Goes Ballistic (Again)

To say that the influential diet guru Dr. David Katz disprove of the recent BMJ article about saturated fat is an understatement:

Dr. Katz on LinkedIn: An Open Letter to the BMJ Regarding US Dietary Guidance

It’s not the first time Dr. Katz is over-the-top disappointed in great scientific journals or NYT publishing something involving Gary Taubes or Nina Teicholz, if fact it tends to happen every single time. Dr. Katz might qualify as the (h?)angriest diet guru in America.

Dr Katz’s rebuttal usually involves denigrating his opponent for having books to sell. Here’s a few examples from his latest critique:

With all due respect to Ms. Teicholz, she is not a nutrition expert, and not a scientist. She is a journalist herself, and one with a book to sell. She refers to bias, but fails to highlight her own. […] The notion that the opinion of one journalist with a book to sell…

And finally…

I don’t have a diet to sell.

So that’s no less than three times in one brief article that Katz attempts to discredit Teicholz by bringing up her excellent book The Big Fat Surprise (one of the best books of last year according to publications like The Economist and The Wall Street Journal). This even though Teicholz never mentions the book in her article.

However Dr. Katz still insists we should not listen to Teicholz as she has written a book on the history of the science behind our dietary recommendations. He, on the other hand says “I don’t have a diet to sell”, and technically that is correct. Dr. Katz does not have one diet to sell, he has many diets to sell.

A few of Dr. Katz’s diet books

Comment

Yep, there they are, complete with their “lose X pounds in Y weeks” taglines, while showing chocolate cake on the cover, wildly unsubstantiated health promises and cover blurbs by Dr. Oz.

Even Dr. Katz may have to agree that Dr. Oz is an entertainer, not a scientist, regularly promoting any dubious idea or product when it can bolster his ratings. No self-respecting scientist would put a Dr. Oz blurb on the cover of his diet book, let alone twice, unless he’s desperate to sell more books.

So – this attack may be the biggest dose of hypocrisy I’ve had all week. Sorry, Dr. Katz, but when it comes to integrity and focusing on the real scientific questions it’s game, set and match to Teicholz.

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