Noakes hearing committee unbiased, chair insists

Cape Town - Although the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) paid for the hearing, the committee overseeing the proceedings against Professor Tim Noakes remained independent, chairperson Joan Adams said on Monday.

This came after a complaint was received of her being introduced to Noakes’s wife on Friday, apparently viewed as "inappropriate" by HPCSA advocate Meshack Mapholisa, Adams announced during proceedings.

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"While we are appointed by the council, we are independent, objective and unbiased,” she said.

Interactions with the public did not "influence [her] one bit", she added.

Noakes, whose book The Real Meal Revolution promotes a low carbohydrate, high fat (LCHF) lifestyle, was called before the council after a complaint was lodged by the Association for Dietetics in South Africa former president Claire Julsing-Strydom.

The complaint centred on a tweet from Noakes to a mother who asked what foods she should feed her baby.

Noakes advised the mother to wean her child on to LCHF foods, which he described as real food.

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The tweet read: "Baby doesn't eat the dairy and cauliflower. Just very healthy high fat breast milk. Key is to ween [sic] baby on to LCHF."

Meanwhile, it was unclear when a new witness secured by Mapholisa over the weekend would testify.

The HPCSA secured bioethicist Professor Willem Pienaar, but Noakes’s team argued they had insufficient time to prepare to cross-examine the witness.

Proceedings may be postponed this week and resume in 2016.