Stop eating fads! Good nutrition advice from the Nutrition Centre

Last week I heard spots on the radio of a new campaign by the Nutrition Centre about 'stop eating drams'. I was perplexed!

Stop eating drams!

Wow, is The Nutrition Centre really going to fight our obesogenic environment that tempts us into unhealthy behaviour almost all day long? I immediately went to The Nutrition Centre's website and only got even more excited.

Link: www.voedingscentrum.nl/eetdrammen-en-het-probleem-van-de-ongezonde-omgeving

It is incredible

That it would ever happen again that I would get behind a campaign by The Nutrition Centre. I would call whoever said that to me 15 years ago crazy.

Indeed, I then brought my first book The Hormone Factor out and it had become a bestseller in no time. The Nutrition Centre had also noticed this and they almost immediately dove in to dismiss it as unscientific and frame me as a 'nutrition guru'. For instance, they wrote on their site about The hormone balance diet that scientific evidence is lacking and claims are misleading. And they did so without citing examples. Thus, they undermined my views... We are the Nutrition Centre and if we say this as an authority, it is correct.

Of course, I was never asked for any comments or explanations, and almost all other new diet forms had to be broken at the time too, because the Disk of Five had to remain the holy grail.

Also, often in my media appearances, another person from the Nutrition Centre was interviewed without my knowledge. This negative commentary was then pasted behind it instead of an honest live discussion.

So I couldn't defend myself and the Nutrition Centre's cowardly and mean-spirited attitude made me dislike it. This 'fittie' with the Voedingscentrum eventually caused me to sell even more books, but also caused me to be cancelled for lectures at some organisations, because they had done some Googling and found this piece on the Voedingscentrum site. Then they no longer dared to invite me, the 'frame and cancel method' thus partially worked.

Nutrition centre has changed

Years later when I was a little less into the media, I noticed that the Nutrition Centre was less and less concerned with rubbishing other people's views. Also, the Disk of Five was modified, leaving more room for customisation.

My observation that gluten-free eating can also have beneficial effects in people who do not have Celiac disease have, received confirmation in the scientific literature and was named 'non-coeliac gluten sensitivity'. The Nutrition Centre also finally listed glutensitivity on its site, after criticising me on the gluten theme for years.

So I saw improvements, but also deteriorations. The topic of sustainability was increasingly included in nutritional advice. As far as I am concerned, this obscures the health discussion, and as a centre of expertise on the subject of health, I think you should stay away from this.

I also found the Voedingscentrum as a knowledge centre rather a waste of taxpayers' money. If the Voedingscentrum's goal is to make the Netherlands healthier, then knowledge transfer is certainly not the most important thing. People usually eat unhealthy food even though they know very well that it is unhealthy. They are then not strong enough to resist temptation.

I have often said in recent years that the Voedingscentrum should be remediated in its current form as a knowledge centre. It should become a new centre with the aim of increasing the motivation of Dutch people to eat healthily. In addition, it should be closely working with the government to make healthy behaviour easier and more fun. So our environment should entice less to unhealthy eating and drinking. In doing so, there is really no need to patronise and ban things.

The Nutrition Centre is taking a fantastic step with its 'stop eating dram' campaign, which makes me incredibly happy. Hereby, I would like to forgive the Nutrition Centre for all its past nasty actions towards me and bury the hatchet. Keep up the good work, chapeau!