Zoë Harcombe

Zoë Harcombe is an author, global warming denialist, nutritionist and cholesterol denialist from Wales. Harcombe disagrees with mainstream medical advice on dieting. She has been criticized for promoting misleading health advice that is not based on scientific evidence.Is Zoe Harcombe’s advice based on solid scientific evidence?. World Cancer Research Fund. She sells a low-carbohydrate fad diet known as the "Harcombe Diet".The Harcombe Diet
Recently Harcombe has been promoting the carnivore diet and appeared on Anthony Chaffee's "Plant Free" podcast criticizing dietary fibre and fruit consumption.Dispelling The Myths Of Fiber, Cholesterol, and Saturated Fats | Dr. Zoe Harcombe Harcombe is a global warming denialist who claims that CO₂ has been demonized by the scientific community.Dispelling the Fiber, Cholesterol, and Saturated Fat Myth | Dr. Zoe Harcombe PhD 
==Credentials==
In 2011, Harcombe stated she was studying for a PhD in nutrition and described herself as a "qualified nutritionist". These claims were questioned.Zoe Harcombe ~ Credentials?Zoe Harcombe Credentials II During this time she was not registered for a PhD.How to read a paper. Bad Science. In 2013, Harcombe was pursuing a PhD at the University of West of Scotland. In 2016, she obtained her PhD in public health nutrition.An examination of the randomised controlled trial and epidemiological evidence for the introduction of dietary fat recommendations in 1977 and 1983: a systematic review and meta-analysisBiography. Zoe Harcombe.
Her thesis can be found on her website behind a pay-wall, but the abstract and parts of each chapter are available free.PhD thesis Or you can get the whole thing free from the British Library.https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.695333 
==Papers==
Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals. Harcombe and colleagues published a systematic review in the journal BMJ Open Heart in 2015.Evidence from randomised controlled trials did not support the introduction of dietary fat guidelines in 1977 and 1983: a systematic review and meta-analysis Their review examined the evidence of dietary fat, cholesterol and coronary heart disease published before 1983. They concluded that UK dietary recommendations which were introduced in 1983 were not supported by the evidence. The review was widely criticized by medical experts for cherry picking and omitting certain data. Simon Capewell, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology commented that "perhaps the greatest crime is embodied within the penultimate sentence in the Discussion: “questioning the alleged relationship between saturated fat and coronary heart disease”. Why say “alleged”? It is surely monstrous to suggest that the scientific evidence linking sat fats and coronary heart disease has not increased hugely since 1983. OMG!"Expert reaction to study looking at historic UK and US dietary advice on fats
After her paper in BMJ Open Heart that formed part of her PhD thesis, the editors required her to correct her competing interests claim from "None" to "income from writing and from The Harcombe Diet Co. and from Columbus Publishing".https://openheart.bmj.com/content/2/1/openhrt-2014-000196corr1 The BMJ Open Heart journal was formerly edited by cholesterol denialist James DiNicolantonio up until 2023. DiNicolantonio has co-authored a paper in this journal with Harcombe.Evidence from randomised controlled trials did not support the introduction of dietary fat guidelines in 1977 and 1983: a systematic review and meta-analysis. openheart.bmj.com.
==Controversial claims==
In her book The Obesity Epidemic (2010), Harcombe made the following dietary claims, which were advertised in a credulous article in the Daily Mail:Everything you thought you knew about food is WRONG.
*Eat meat, fish, and eggs and ignore starchy carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, potatoes and rice.
*To lose weight cut down not on calories but the consumption of carbohydrates.
*Avoid extra exercise because it is counterproductive and will make you hungry.
*Real fat is responsible for a healthy heart and good mental health.
*Saturated fat does not cause heart disease.
*High cholesterol levels are not a bad or dangerous for health.
*Dietary fibre should be avoided.
*Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is a marketing scheme. There is no evidence for any cancer benefit.
*Fruit should be avoided by those attempting to lose weight. Instead, meat and dairy products should be eaten. 
*All food advisory bodies give false health advice as they are sponsored by the food industry.
The World Cancer Research Funded have stated that Harcombe's views are not supported by scientific evidence. Contrary to the nonsense promoted by Harcombe; fruit, vegetable and whole grain consumption lowers cancer risk.Fruit and Vegetable Consumption. progressreport.cancer.gov.Wholegrains, vegetables, fruit and cancer risk. wcrf.org.Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality-a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
Harcombe is a cholesterol denialist and has argued against the use of statins. She promotes the unproven claims of Malcolm Kendrick.Cholesterol & heart disease – there is a relationship, but it’s not what you think . "This also says to me – even though saturated fat has nothing to do with cholesterol, it doesn’t actually matter. Even if it did – cholesterol is only associated with CVD deaths in an inverse way. If fat did raise cholesterol – as public health officials like to claim – it could save lives!".Worried about cholesterol and/or statinsZoe Harcombe on TwitterZoe Harcombe on Twitter She contributed to the THINCS book Fat and Cholesterol Don’t Cause Heart Attacks and Statins Are Not The Solution (2016). 
===Harcombe Diet===
The Harcombe Diet has been criticized for making unsupported health claims. Complaints about the Harcombe Diet have been investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority. The Council ruled that she should not "make claims that the Harcombe diet could treat medical conditions in the absence of robust evidence, or to make claims that it could treat conditions which required medical supervision."ASA Adjudication on Zoë Harcombe
===Contradictory dieting advice===
Harcombe has criticized fruits and other high-fibre foods but actually admits to eating a lot of them. According to her website:
This is despite the fact, she considers all fruit and vegetables as "pretty useless nutritionally" and "not the healthiest foods available".This cynical five-a-day myth: Nutrition expert claims we've all been duped She describes fruit as "unhelpful" and blames it on causing obesity.Fruit is fuelling the obesity epidemic She claims fibre has no requirement in a human diet and recommends her readers to stay away from high-fibre foods but eats fruit "most days" and enjoys brown rice and oats.Fiber: An umbrella review
Harcombe endorses Konstantin Monastyrsky's pseudoscientific book Fiber Menace.Zoe Harcombe on twitter
==Global warming denialism==
Harcombe is also a global warming denialist claiming that CO₂ is not causing climate change stating that "I don't buy the whole CO₂ is bad" and has also commented that if there is any relationship between CO₂ and global warming it is far more likely to be "the other way round" as the warming proceeds the rise in CO₂.
==Selected publications==
*The Harcombe Diet: Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight (2011)
*Why Do You Overeat? When All You Want is to be Slim (2012)
*The Obesity Epidemic: What caused it? How can we stop it? (2015)
*The Diet Fix: How to lose weight and keep it off... one last time (2018)
==See also==
==External links==
*Zoë Harcombe
*Zoe Harcombe and Adele Hite's Hyper-System(at)ic Meta-Statistical Bovine Fecalemia
*Zoe Harcombe vs The Advertising Standards Authority: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
==References==
Category:Authors
Category:Carnivore diet promoters
Category:Cholesterol and statin denialists
Category:Food woo promoters
Category:Global warming denialists
Category:Living people