Nutritionist · Author · The Nutrition Myth Buster

Get the answers,minus the hype.

Fifteen books. Twenty-five years. One job: working out whether a nutrition claim is actually true, and saying so when it isn’t.

Ask Jonny a question See the books

In print since 2001

The shelf is the argument

Two of these have been revised and reissued years after publication, which is a harder thing to manage than a first printing. The earlier work and the cookbooks are on the books page. The eight major titles.

Every title, with what it argues

As seen on

Appearances marked documented carry a verifiable air date. See Watch.

Before anyone tells you what to eat

Five ways to spot nutrition advice that won’t hold up

Most bad nutrition advice fails in one of five predictable ways. None of them require a science degree to notice. They are the questions Jonny has been asking in print since the 1990s.

Cholesterol in food raises cholesterol in your blood.

Jonny has argued since 2012 that the link is far weaker than the advice implied, and that inflammation, oxidation, sugar and stress deserved the attention that went to a single number instead. That is his position, and it remains a minority one in cardiology.

Everyone should eat the same way.

People differ in how they handle carbohydrate, fat, caffeine and stress. His whole practice runs on that difference, which is also why a book cannot replace a conversation and he does not pretend otherwise.

What he actually does

Four things, and a straight answer about each

December 2012

Ten doctors wrote a letter

His position on cholesterol and statins remains a minority view in cardiology. He says so himself, in the book.

For thirty years the advice was settled. Cholesterol clogged arteries, saturated fat raised cholesterol, and the job of a nutritionist was to help people eat less of both. Saying otherwise on daytime television was not a career move.

He and cardiologist Stephen Sinatra went on the Dr. Oz Show anyway and argued that the profession had spent three decades aiming at the wrong target, and that inflammation, oxidation, sugar and stress were doing the damage while everyone watched a number. Ten doctors sent a joint letter afterward.

He kept publishing the argument. Eight years later the book came back revised and expanded, with forewords from two more physicians and a National Bestseller line from its publisher. He has never claimed the case is closed. He has only ever said the question was worth asking out loud, which is the whole job.

Watch

Two minutes on coaching, and an hour on why obesity is not a willpower problem

All five Model Health Show episodes

The part nobody explains

Where Jonny buys his supplements

The brands worth taking are mostly sold through clinical accounts rather than retail, which is why they are hard to find and easy to counterfeit. Jonny keeps a practitioner dispensary on Fullscript so readers can order the same professional-grade lines he uses, at a member discount, without guessing at what arrived in the box.

Open Dr. Bowden’s dispensary Why not just buy them anywhere

The reason this page exists

Got a question for Jonny?

Ask it. He reads them. Not every one gets a personal reply, and the questions that come up often end up answered in the column, which is usually more useful than a private answer anyway.