Dr. John Briffa nails the British Nutrition Foundation !

Yet again we see an organisation that boasts they are independent and unbiased with their advice being caught out. Remember the government and other organisations are advised by the BNF on food safety and nutritional advice. The bribery and corruption never ends.

John Briffa

"Last week one of my blog posts focused on a widely reported ‘news’ story which concerned the supposed value of bread in the diet.

I feel there’s a clear conflict of interest with the BNF, and that concerns about transparency are legitimate, and it seems I’m not the only one.

Professor Buttriss does leave the best for last, when she draws our attention to the fact that Warburtons “financially [supported] time spent on the preparation of the review.” So, let’s not mince our words and tell it straight: A bread manufacturer has funded a review which lauds the supposed nutritional attributes of bread. This, despite the fact that, as I stated in my original blog post, superfood it ain’t. And then there’s plenty about bread we should be wary of."

Read the full story here.

http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/09/26/the-head-of-the-british-nutrition-foundation-responds-to-my-blog-post-on-bread-and-i-have-a-few-words-for-her-too/


Eddie

Edited to add this from The Cochrane Library

Wholegrain cereals for coronary heart disease

Authors' conclusions.

Despite the consistency of effects seen in trials of wholegrain oats, the positive findings should be interpreted cautiously. Many of the trials identified were short term, of poor quality and had insufficient power. Most of the trials were funded by companies with commercial interests in wholegrains. There is a need for well-designed, adequately powered, longer term randomised controlled studies in this area. In particular there is a need for randomised controlled trials on wholegrain foods and diets other than oats.

Plain language summary

Wholegrain  foods encompass a range of products and examples are wholegrain wheat, rice, maize and oats. The term wholegrain also includes milled wholegrains such as oatmeal and wholemeal wheat. The evidence found by this review is limited to wholegrain oats, and to changes in lipids as an outcome. There is a lack of studies on other wholegrain foods or diets. There is some evidence from this review that oatmeal foods can beneficially lower lipid levels such as low density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol and total cholesterol in those previously diagnosed with risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) even with relatively short interventions. However, the results should be interpreted with caution because the trials found are small, of short duration and many were commercially funded. No studies were found that reported the effect of wholegrain foods or diets on deaths from, or occurrence of CHD.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD005051.pub2/abstract

Graham