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==Publications==
==Publications==
Brand-Miller has played a major role in educating the community on the [[glycemic index]]. Her books about the [[low GI diet]], including ''The New Glucose Revolution'', have sold more than two million copies since 1996. The most recent title in the series, ''The Low GI Diet'', was published in September 2004. She has published 16 books and 200 journal articles.
Brand-Miller has played a major role in educating the community on the [[glycemic index]]. Her books about the [[low GI diet]], including ''The New Glucose Revolution'', have sold more than two million copies since 1996. The most recent title in the series, ''The Low GI Diet'', was published in September 2004. She has published 16 books and 200 journal articles.

=== '''Critique of Brand-Miller's sugary "Low GI (Glycemic Index) Diet" approach to type 2 diabetes (T2D)''' ===
Science journalist Gary Taubes back in 2007 observed: "Paradoxically, the glycemic index appears to have had its most significant influence not on the [improved] clinical management of diabetes but on the [improved] public perception of sugar itself", highlighting what some have called the "fructose loophole" in the sugary Low GI approach to diabetes care. (8) Taubes of course was aware that medical science and GPs across the western world in the early 1900s knew that sugary high-carbohydrate diets fuel T2D, and that competent GPs back then readily fixed/reversed T2D - or put patients' T2D "into remission" - by overseeing basic no-sugar, low-carbohydrate diets. (9)

More recently, in 1985 and 1989, world-renowned "Syndrome X" scientist Gerald Reaven published studies confirming "Deleterious metabolic effects of high-carbohydrate, sucrose-containing diets in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus [T2D]" (10) and advising the avoidance of the sorts of sugary high-carbohydrate ("Low GI") diets that Brand-Miller was starting to popularise: "it seems prudent to avoid the use of low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets containing moderate amounts of sucrose in patients with NIDDM [T2D] (11).

The determined exoneration of sugar as a problem for T2D patients and the community more generally was a key focus of Brand-Miller, her husband John Miller and their main scientific collaborator over several decades, Professor Stephen Colagiuri. In 1989 and 1994, for example, Colagiuri, John Miller and Brand-Miller, in separate papers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), brushed away the eminent Reaven's (well-founded) concerns, with studies that concluded "Sucrose added as an integral part of the diabetic diet does not adversely affect metabolic control in wellcontrolled NIDDM [T2D] subjects" (12) and "There are now many medium- to long-term studies that show that the GI is a useful concept and that sucrose in moderate amounts does not compromise diabetes control. It is time to reassess these two issues in planning meals for diabetes". (13)

Of course, the Low-GI crew's claim that consuming sugar is not a problem for T2D patients is true only to the extent that patients prefer to suffer T2D for the rest of their (shortened) lives. Unfortunately, in Brand-Miller and co-author Colagiuri's best-selling "Low GI Diet" book range - often featuring the silly but influential false claim "There is absolute consensus that sugar in food does not cause [type 2] diabetes" - there is no mention of their financial relationships with Novo Nordisk or its predecessors. (14)

For decades, Brand-Miller chose to keep secret her spouse's diabetes-drug-selling career at Novo Nordisk (and its predecessors). Notably, in that 1994 AJCN paper "Importance of glycemic index in diabetes" (13), Brand-Miller reported her results from feeding sugar to T2D patients and then (properly) reported that her sugar-promoting study was funded in part by CSL-Novo; but Brand-Miller again unethically decided not to disclose the obvious conflict involving her spouse John Miller's income as a senior employee in CSL-Novo's diabetes-drug-selling business. It is possible that Brand-Miller's enthusiasm to feed sugar to T2D patients - and the rest of us - would have been subject to greater scrutiny if her journals, scientific peers and her (career) funders at Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) had known back then that her life/financial partner was a high-flying executive in the diabetes-drug-selling trade.

Beyond these serious research-integrity issues, the science around Brand-Miller's sugary "Low GI" diets was always weak. As far back as 2008, formal randomised-controlled trials had convincingly confirmed that, when it comes to treating T2D, traditional no-sugar, low-carbohydrate diets markedly outperform (Brand-Miller style) sugary highcarbohydrate "Low GI" diets. (15). Brand-Miller has never properly addressed that critical matter of fact, nor appropriately abandoned her sugary "Low GI" diet-and-diabetes advice in response. Alas, it is unlikely that BrandMiller's sugary high-carbohydrate "Low GI" diets reversed T2D in even one patient, ever, not that ridding patients of T2D was ever the objective.

=== '''Brand-Miller, Novo Nordisk and American Diabetes Association block T2D reversal/remission''' ===
It is one thing for the misguided popularity of Brand-Miller’s (sub-optimal) sugary high-carbohydrate “Low GI” diets to effectively block the use of no-sugar, low-carbohydrate diets as a fix for T2D. It is another matter entirely for BrandMiller and her “Low GI” friends in September 2004 to issue “A statement by the American Diabetes Association” recklessly insisting – on the basis of nothing – that low-carbohydrate diets including ketogenic diets cannot fix T2D. (16)

That is, Brand-Miller et al falsely declared that carbohydrate restriction simply cannot fix T2D: "Although dietary carbohydrate increases postprandial glucose levels, avoiding carbohydrate entirely will not return blood glucose levels to the normal range". (16) As is now much more widely understood, that statement is utterly false. (17) Brand-Miller has never been forced to explain why she promoted that reckless falsehood or why in that paper, as became standard, she unethically kept secret her massive Novo Nordisk financial conflict of interest (2) (3) (4).

Happily, T2D patients across the world increasingly are finding effective low-carbohydrate dietary advice and ridding themselves of T2D. For example, Virta Health in the United States (18) and Defeat Diabetes in Australia (19) today are fixing/reversing T2D in many thousands of patients by advising no sugar, low-carb diets, while massively reducing patients' use of prescription drugs for T2D and other maladies. Dr Penny Figtree (20) in Australia and Dr David Unwin (21) in the UK are two GPs readily reversing T2D by advising simple carbohydrate restriction and ketogenic diets.

With Diabetes Australia and Defeat Diabetes now partnering (19), the hope is that health entities across the country will start promoting low-carbohydrate diets to help everyone suffering T2D and/or obesity, ultimately producing the biggest step forward in Australian public health in many decades, if not ever.

Economist and public-health campaigner Rory Robertson provided a large Submission (22) to Australia's 2023 Parliamentary Inquiry into Diabetes (23), highlighting the extent to which decades of problems starting in the Human Nutrition Unit at the University of Sydney in the late 1970s helped to fuel our current disastrous T2D epidemic. His eyebrow-raising “Timeline” is presented on pp. 8-14. The refusal of ABC health reporter Norman Swan to report to the Australian community what he knows about the secret involvement of Novo Nordisk in the University of Sydney’s dietand-diabetes advice is disappointing to say the least. (28)


===The Australian paradox: added sugar consumption===
===The Australian paradox: added sugar consumption===
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Following an investigation prompted by the Australian economist, two minor arithmetical errors were identified in the original manuscript of The Australian Paradox which were promptly corrected in early 2014.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Barclay|first1=Alan W.|last2=Brand-Miller|first2=Jennie|date=2014|title=Barclay, A.W. and Brand-Miller, J. The Australian Paradox: A Substantial Decline in Sugars Intake over the Same Timeframe that Overweight and Obesity Have Increased. Nutrients 2011, 3, 491-504|journal=Nutrients|language=en|volume=6|issue=2|pages=663–664|doi=10.3390/nu6020663|doi-access=free|pmc=3942725}}</ref> Similarly, complaints about the scientific journal ''Nutrients'' publication of The Australian Paradox paper were not substantiated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oaspa.org/conclusions-from-oaspa-membership-committee-investigation-into-mdpi/|title=Conclusions from OASPA Membership Committee Investigation into MDPI|date=2014-04-11|website=OASPA|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-11-26}}</ref>
Following an investigation prompted by the Australian economist, two minor arithmetical errors were identified in the original manuscript of The Australian Paradox which were promptly corrected in early 2014.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Barclay|first1=Alan W.|last2=Brand-Miller|first2=Jennie|date=2014|title=Barclay, A.W. and Brand-Miller, J. The Australian Paradox: A Substantial Decline in Sugars Intake over the Same Timeframe that Overweight and Obesity Have Increased. Nutrients 2011, 3, 491-504|journal=Nutrients|language=en|volume=6|issue=2|pages=663–664|doi=10.3390/nu6020663|doi-access=free|pmc=3942725}}</ref> Similarly, complaints about the scientific journal ''Nutrients'' publication of The Australian Paradox paper were not substantiated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oaspa.org/conclusions-from-oaspa-membership-committee-investigation-into-mdpi/|title=Conclusions from OASPA Membership Committee Investigation into MDPI|date=2014-04-11|website=OASPA|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-11-26}}</ref>

=== '''Outstanding concerns on the Australian Paradox matter''' ===
Rory Robertson continues to insist that the 2011 Australian Paradox sugar-and-obesity paper (falsely) exonerating modern doses of sugar as a key driver of Australia's obesity epidemic should be formally retracted from the journal Nutrients, without further unreasonable delay. (24)

Robertson says Brand-Miller's faulty defence of her controversial 2011 paper unreasonably avoids the fact that its main "finding" (sugar down, obesity up) is based on misinterpreted statistics (confusing down with up!) and unreliable - including faked - indicators of sugar consumption. That assessment was confirmed in detail, he insists, by the ABC in April 2016 - in response to a large 20+ page complaint from Brand-Miller - via an independent Audience and Consumer Affairs investigation overseen by (then) ABC Managing Director Mark Scott. (25)

Further, Robertson claims that Brand-Miller's infamous 2011 paper recklessly breached her Nutrients journal's conflictof-interest policy - "All authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could inappropriately influence or bias their work" (7) - with Brand-Miller again choosing to dishonestly hide the fact that her household income was substantially boosted in and before 2011 by her life/financial partner Dr John Miller's senior role at Novo Nordisk, as Medical Director Australasia helping to sell diabetes drugs into the growing "diabesity" (obesity and diabetes) epidemic. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

The University of Sydney refuses to stop this corruption of the formal scientific record. The media has reported Robertson's claim that Brand-Miller is clearly in serious breach of the University of Sydney's "External Interests Policy" (6) and that the University of Sydney is suffering a "governance crisis" because senior management - including ViceChancellor Mark Scott - is unethically pretending to be properly enforcing the taxpayer-funded university's formal codes of research conduct. (5)

Another profoundly troubling matter remains the University of Sydney's dishonest response to investigator Robert Clark AO's 2014 "Initial Inquiry" into the Australian Paradox controversy. Clark formally recommended that Brand-Miller prepare a new paper for publication “in consultation with the Faculty, that specifically addresses and clarifies the key factual issues examined in this Inquiry”. He formally advised: “The new paper should be written in a constructive manner that respects issues relating to the data in the Australian Paradox paper raised by the Complainant<nowiki>''</nowiki>. (26)

In the event, that did not happen. Brand-Miller and her Charles Perkins Centre "Faculty" - including her boss Academic Director Stephen Simpson and her former boss Professor Stewart Truswell - unethically avoided Clark's 2014 Inquiry recommendations, instead publishing an Australian Paradox "update" in the ACJN in 2017 that "confirmed" BrandMiller's earlier sugar down/obesity up "finding". (27) The critical issue of misinterpreted, unreliable and faked sugar consumption data dominating the 2011 paper (25) was dishonestly avoided, and the sham Australian Paradox "finding" was promoted as valid. In that 2017 AJCN paper - also using faked and otherwise unreliable data to exonerate modern doses of sugar as a menace to public health - Brand-Miller again failed to mention the fact that her life/financial partner's diabetes-drug selling had boosted her household income for almost her entire career, from the 1980s to the 2010s. (2) (3) (4) (14) (22)

Rory Robertson continues to campaign for an independent investigation into the controversial matters above. His contact details are readily available and he encourages feedback: "Importantly, if you read anything here or elsewhere from me that is factually incorrect or otherwise unreasonable, please contact me immediately and, if I agree, I will correct the text as soon as possible. This all matters because up to 2 million or more Australians today already have type 2 diabetes, the number growing rapidly. Many of these vulnerable Australians can expect mistreatment, misery and early death, harmed by high-carbohydrate diabetes advice promoted by a range of respected entities advised by highly influential Group of Eight science careerists. The unfolding diabetes tragedy can be seen most clearly in the quiet suffering of short-lived Indigenous Australians." (14) (22)

(1) <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/CV-Prof-Jennie-Brand-Miller-2017.pdf</nowiki>

(2) <nowiki>https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-miller-7ab727a/?originalSubdomain=au</nowiki>

(3) pp. iii-v <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/PhD-Dr-John-James-Miller-UNSW.pdf</nowiki>

(4) <nowiki>https://www.smh.com.au/national/education-meeting-used-to-push-drug-20040617-gdj53q.html</nowiki>

(5) <nowiki>https://michaelwest.com.au/sydney-uni-big-pharma-conflict-of-interest/</nowiki>

(6) <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/External-Interests-Policy-USyd.pdf</nowiki>

(7) <nowiki>https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients/instructions#conflict</nowiki>

(8) <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Gary-Taubes-Sugar-and-GI.pdf</nowiki>

(9) <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/1923-Medicine-Textbook.pdf</nowiki>

(10) <nowiki>https://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/0026-0495(85)90146-5/abstract</nowiki>

(11) <nowiki>https://www.amjmed.com/article/0002-9343(87)90058-1/abstract</nowiki>

(12)<nowiki>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20483006_Metabolic_effects_of_adding_sucrose_and_aspartame_to_the_die</nowiki> t_of_subjects_with_noninsulin-dependent_diabetes_mellitus

(13) <nowiki>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002916523194871?via%3Dihub</nowiki>

(14) pp. 10, 77 <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/Letter-to-Belinda-Hutchinson.pdf</nowiki>

(15) Fig. 9 in <nowiki>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900714003323</nowiki>

(16) <nowiki>https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/27/9/2266/22648/Dietary-Carbohydrate-Amount-and-Type-in-the</nowiki>

(17) <nowiki>https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/10/3299</nowiki>

(18) <nowiki>https://www.virtahealth.com/individuals</nowiki>

(19) <nowiki>https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/mediarelease/diabetes-australia-partnership-defeat-diabetes/</nowiki>

(20) <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11x9PhlZuK0</nowiki>

(21) <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-rA1K7TFE</nowiki>

(22) pp. 4-22, 31-49 <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/Submission-HoR-DIABETES-INQUIRY.pdf</nowiki>

(23)<nowiki>https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Health_Aged_Care_and_Sport/Inquiry_into_Diabe</nowiki> tes

(24) <nowiki>https://michaelwest.com.au/former-fattie-rory-robertson-ups-the-ante-on-sydney-unis-connections-with-big-sugar/</nowiki>

(25) pp. 5-19 <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/ABC%20ACA%20Investigation.pdf</nowiki>

(26) p. 4/86 <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/australian-paradox-report-redacted.pdf</nowiki>

(27) <nowiki>https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(22)04831-6/pdf</nowiki>

(28) <nowiki>https://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/RRLetter-to-ABC-re-NormanSwan.pdf</nowiki>


==Awards and recognition==
==Awards and recognition==

Revision as of 16:59, 17 April 2024

Jennie Brand-Miller
AO FAA
Born1952 (age 71–72)
Alma materUniversity of New South Wales
Awards
  • Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2018)
  • Member of the Order of Australia (2011)
Scientific career
FieldsNutrition
InstitutionsUniversity of Sydney (1978–present)
Websitesydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/jennie-brandmiller.html

Janette Cecile Brand-Miller AO FAA (born 1952), also known as Jennie Brand-Miller, Janette Cecile Brand and GI Jennie, is an Australian academic who holds a chair in human nutrition in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney.[1] She is best known for her research and publications on the glycemic index, a term originated by David J. Jenkins of the University of Toronto, and its role in human health.

Research interests

Her research interests focus on all aspects of carbohydrates—diet and diabetes, the glycemic index of foods, insulin resistance, lactose intolerance and oligosaccharides in infant nutrition.

Brand-Miller holds a special interest in evolutionary nutrition and the diet of Australian Aborigines. As a nutrition lecturer in 1981, she was investigating Aboriginal bushfood when she came across the glycemic index, a nutritional concept devised by David J. Jenkins and colleagues from the University of Toronto. The glycemic index has since changed the way the world thinks about food, nutrition and dieting.

Publications

Brand-Miller has played a major role in educating the community on the glycemic index. Her books about the low GI diet, including The New Glucose Revolution, have sold more than two million copies since 1996. The most recent title in the series, The Low GI Diet, was published in September 2004. She has published 16 books and 200 journal articles.

The Australian paradox: added sugar consumption

She has come under attack by economist Rory Robertson over her argument that added sugar consumption in Australia has declined in recent decades at the same time rates of obesity increased,[2] which she has dubbed the Australian paradox.[3] Recent research by GreenPool Commodity Specialists for the Australian Sugar Refiners, using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS "extended series") methodology, has confirmed that apparent consumption of sugar has decreased in Australia over the past few decades.[4] It is worth noting that the ABS is now looking into re-establishing the collection of Apparent Consumption data for Australia. In addition to this, new research by Levy and Shrapnel[5] has confirmed that added sugar from soft drinks has continued to decline, and finally the Australian Governments latest Health Survey[6] indicates that total sugar consumption has decreased from 1995 - 2011/12.

Following an investigation prompted by the Australian economist, two minor arithmetical errors were identified in the original manuscript of The Australian Paradox which were promptly corrected in early 2014.[7] Similarly, complaints about the scientific journal Nutrients publication of The Australian Paradox paper were not substantiated.[8]

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ^ a b "Professor Jennie Brand-Miller | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  2. ^ Gardner, Tom (2 March 2014), Sweet research goes sour (PDF), HoniSoit
  3. ^ Pascoe, Michael (7 March 2012), "Economist v nutritionists: big sugar and low-GI brigade lose", Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax
  4. ^ Sugar Consumption in Australia - A Statistical Update (PDF), GreenPool Commodities, 4 October 2012, archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2014
  5. ^ Levy, Gina S.; Shrapnel, William S. (2014). "Quenching Australia's thirst: A trend analysis of water-based beverage sales from 1997 to 2011". Nutrition & Dietetics. 71 (3): 193–200. doi:10.1111/1747-0080.12108. ISSN 1747-0080.
  6. ^ "Australian Health Survey: Nutrition First Results - Foods and Nutrients". www.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 9 May 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  7. ^ Barclay, Alan W.; Brand-Miller, Jennie (2014). "Barclay, A.W. and Brand-Miller, J. The Australian Paradox: A Substantial Decline in Sugars Intake over the Same Timeframe that Overweight and Obesity Have Increased. Nutrients 2011, 3, 491-504". Nutrients. 6 (2): 663–664. doi:10.3390/nu6020663. PMC 3942725.
  8. ^ "Conclusions from OASPA Membership Committee Investigation into MDPI". OASPA. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  9. ^ "News and events".
  10. ^ Morgan, Branwen (13 June 2011), "Nutritionist recognised for pioneering work", ABC News in Science, ABC, retrieved 16 December 2017
  11. ^ "Queen's Birthday 2022 Honours - the full list". Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment Co. 12 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jennie_Brand-Miller&oldid=1219418319"