This week on the podcast Mikki speaks to renowned nutritionist, Zoe Harcombe, PhD about navigating nutrition advice when up against the dietary guidelines. They chat about how Zoe got into nutrition after beginning her career in the corporate world, and taking on a PhD when she realised how far removed the dietary guidelines were from actual evidence base that were supposed to inform them. This had lead to Zoe’s role now as a science communicator, helping people understand the click bait nutrition headlines to get a better handle on what is true and known, and what is… not. Zoe and I then discuss how important it is to evaluate what we are told in a range of areas related to public health, including the pandemic, and describes her take on that situation. Ultimately, Zoe is an advocate for helping people think for themselves. That comes across strong in this podcast. 

Dr. Zoë Harcombe, PhD is a Cambridge University graduate with a BA and MA in economics/maths. Zoë enjoyed a successful career in blue chip organisations before leaving corporate life in 2008 to pursue her passion. Her early career involved international roles in management consultancy, manufacturing and marketing in global organisations, from FMCG to telecoms, before specializing in Personnel and Organisation. At the peak of her career, Zoë was Vice President for Human Resources for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Having written three books between 2004 and 2007, while being ‘Head of People’, Zoë left employment to research obesity full time. This culminated in the publication in 2010 of The Obesity Epidemic: What caused it? How can we stop it?

Zoë returned to full time education in 2012 to complete a PhD in public health nutrition (awarded March 2016). Her thesis was entitled “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-analysis.” A number of peer-reviewed articles have emanated from this work. The first was the 64th most impactful paper in any discipline in 2015.

Zoe has an incredibly informative website that you can subscribe to which dives into the details in studies that are often ignored by media headlines. It is super reasonable to sign up to and helps us sort between what is actually a headline, and what is hype

https://www.zoeharcombe.com/

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