{"id":4593,"date":"2016-07-24T14:11:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T13:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zoeharcombe.com\/?page_id=4593"},"modified":"2023-12-10T16:19:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T16:19:34","slug":"about-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.zoeharcombe.com\/about-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Zo\u00eb Harcombe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who are you?<\/strong> I\u2019m a researcher, author, blogger and public speaker in the field of diet and health. My particular areas of interest\/expertise are public health dietary guidelines (especially dietary fat), nutrition and obesity. I also do quite a few media interviews \u2013 TV, radio, newspapers and magazines \u2013 plenty of examples here<\/a>. (Any media requests \u2013 please tweet @zoeharcombe and please try again\u00a0if I don\u2019t get back to you quickly enough, in case I\u2019ve missed it in notifications \u2013 many thanks).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a BA and MA from Cambridge University (economics\/maths). I\u2019m proud to have been the first pupil from my state (comprehensive) school to have graduated from Cambridge. I was even more proud to be voted college student president by my peers while there \u2013 only the second female president in over 630 years (well it did take them almost that long to admit women!)<\/p>\n

In 2016, I was awarded a Ph.D. in public health nutrition. My thesis title was \u201cAn 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<\/em>.\u201d The full document is available to site members here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are you known for? <\/strong>There are an increasing number of people who have worked out that current public health dietary advice is not healthy and not evidence based. I like to think that I have made original contributions to the body of knowledge in the following areas:<\/p>\n

1) Dietary fat: Being the first person to examine the evidence base for the dietary fat guidelines at the time of their introduction (US 1977 and UK 1983). Discovering that not only was the randomised controlled trial evidence NON supportive of the introduced guidelines, but that fewer than 2,500 sick men had been studied in the process.<\/p>\n

2) Dietary guidelines generally: I coined the phrase \u2018the Eatbadly plate<\/a>\u2019, which became \u2018the Eatbadly guide<\/a>\u2019 \u00a0in March 2016. If you know of anyone who has challenged this \u2018role model healthy eating\u2019 advice, as consistently and for as long as I have, please let me know \u2013 I\u2019d like to shake their hand! Ditto for the myth that is five a day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3) The 3,500 calorie theory: I devoted 7 chapters of my 2010 obesity book<\/a> to dissecting calories generally and the 3,500 calorie myth particularly. You can get a flavour here<\/a> \u00a0and in this presentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4) Physical and psychological reasons for food cravings: The question that baffled and fascinated me, from my teenage years until my mid 20s, was \u201cWhy do you overeat? When all you want is to be slim\u201d. This became the title of my 2004 (revised 2013) book, which is still unique in explaining physical reasons for overeating and how to overcome these.<\/p>\n

5) Journal article dissection: I receive requests from all over the world (many from my own heroes) asking if I can dissect a particular paper, which has led to daft media headlines e.g. margarine is better than butter. I thoroughly enjoy doing this, although there are too many to keep up with. Too much nonsense and too little time!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your food philosophy?<\/strong> My dietary advice can be summed up as:<\/p>\n

1) Eat real food;<\/p>\n

2) A maximum of three times a day; (One of my favourite sayings is: \u201cUnless you are a cow, or want to be the size of one: Stop Grazing!\u201d)<\/p>\n

3) Manage carbohydrate intake.<\/p>\n

I think those three principles\u00a0will get most people most of the way towards their own\u00a0optimal weight and health (unavoidable conditions allowing). I do think that some people need to start at number 3) and manage carb intake very precisely (those with extreme obesity who don\u2019t respond to the three bullets above and those with diabetes). That\u2019s the LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) world.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a real foodie first and foremost. I\u2019m passionate about real food. What do I mean by that? Oranges grow on trees, cartons of orange juice don\u2019t. Fish swim in the sea, fish fingers don\u2019t. Cows graze in a field, Peperami sticks don\u2019t. Hopefully you\u2019ve got the idea. Food should come from fields, not factories.<\/p>\n

Why do you do what you do?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> I\u2019ve sat next to people at dinners and, when they hear what I do, they often say \u201cOh \u2013 you\u2019ll be watching what I eat then?\u201d<\/em> I reply \u201cI don\u2019t actually care what you eat; I care that you know what you should eat<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I passionately believe that human (and planet) health could be transformed if we returned to eating as nature intends. I know personally what it feels like to eat a Low Fat High Carb diet; to follow the government dietary advice to eat loads of starchy foods and sugary fruit. I did this for years \u2013 vegetarian on top \u2013 and I struggled to maintain my weight, I craved food like a drug addict (fruit especially!) and I was constantly tired and hungry.<\/p>\n

My fellow human beings deserve better. You deserve independent dietary advice, not advice assembled by the fake food industry<\/a>. You deserve evidence based dietary advice, not numbers plucked out of thin air. You deserve healthy dietary advice, not the current mantras that have paralleled a 10 fold rise in obesity and 4 fold rise in diabetes (UK data).<\/p>\n

I do what I do because I want people to know what healthy eating is; to know how they can achieve optimal weight and health and to know that they are being let down by public health bodies. What people choose to do with that knowledge is entirely up to them. Have starchy cereal and sugary fruit for breakfast if you want \u2013 but have it in the knowledge that it\u2019s bad for you, not in the public advice delusion that it\u2019s role model healthy eating.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave you with some food for thought\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have been eating food in the form that nature intended for 24 hours, agriculture (large scale access to carbohydrates) developed four minutes ago and sugar consumption has increased twenty fold in the last five seconds. I wonder which food is more likely to be responsible for obesity, diabetes, or indeed any modern disease\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you for visiting!<\/p>\n

Dr Zo\u00eb Harcombe, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you want some more personal stuff, read on!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Full name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zo\u00eb Verna Harcombe (Verna is my mum\u2019s name \u2013 it\u2019s French for \u2018Spring born\u2019 apparently \u2013 and I was!)<\/p>\n

Vital statistics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Height 5\u20192\u201d; Weight 7.12-8 stone; BMI 20.5<\/p>\n

Favourite colour?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Red<\/p>\n

Favourite food?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chocolate! (85-92% cocoa)<\/p>\n

What do you eat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I follow what has become known as The Harcombe Diet. After I wrote \u201cWhy do you overeat?…\u201d the publisher said that she had heard people referring to the diet as \u201cThe Harcombe Diet\u201d So, when I wrote \u201cStop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight\u201d, we added \u201cThe Harcombe Diet\u00ae<\/sup>\u201d to the title and stuck with it. It\u2019s my husband\u2019s name, so I quite like it!<\/p>\n

The Harcombe Diet is based on my food philosophy above. It\u2019s not LCHF, which wasn\u2019t really heard-of when I started writing books. I was vegetarian while writing my first few books, so carbohydrates were necessary features of my own diet. I started eating meat and fish again in 2010. This was a personal choice and I respect all personal choices in this delicate area. This may help to explain<\/a> how my views were developing around this time.<\/p>\n

I am fortunate, living in the countryside in Wales, to be able to eat meat, eggs and dairy from pasture living animals. I also eat fish \u2013 especially oily \u2013 white fish is less nutritious. I eat fruit most days, but not too much and because I like it, not because I think it is good for me. I eat a lot of vegetables\/salads \u2013 locally grown\/in season wherever possible. I eat very dark chocolate pretty much every day and quite a lot of it! It\u2019s a great source of minerals and saturated fat ;-). I do eat starchy carbs \u2013 just not daily. I enjoy porridge (plain oats and whole milk) \u2013 especially in the winter. I like brown rice and (veggie) curries\/chilli. Sometimes, there\u2019s nothing like a crispy baked potato and melted cheese.<\/p>\n

As Phase 3 of The Harcombe Diet\u00ae<\/sup> allows, I eat whatever I want if I fancy \u2018cheating\u2019: croissants; ice cream; chocolates crisps… Phase 3 sets out how to cheat and get away with it \u2013 in terms of health and weight. I do find I cheat less and less nowadays. I just feel better the closer I stick to quality real food.<\/p>\n

Family?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Husband Andy, his two boys \u2013 Gez and Max and our two mad rescue animals \u2013 one canine and one feline. They adore each other and there\u2019s no Tom & Jerry stuff going on!<\/p>\n

Have you ever passed off a bought meal as your own?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No way \u2013 my friends all know I can make chocolate mousse and that\u2019s it! Andy is the cook in our household \u2013 I\u2019m the taster!<\/p>\n

Favourite book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have three:\u00a0The Power of Now<\/em>\u00a0by Ekhart Tolle;\u00a0The Diet Delusion<\/em>\u00a0by Gary Taubes and\u00a0The Great Cholesterol Con<\/em>\u00a0by Dr Malcolm Kendrick . All brilliant and original and good to take on a desert island, as you would never get bored of re-reading them.<\/p>\n

What do you do to relax?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not great at relaxing \u2013 I\u2019m pretty full on from the minute I wake up until the minute I crash. If the cat jumps on my lap \u2013 that\u2019s the best thing guaranteed to make me sit still until he decides he\u2019s had enough! Thinking about it \u2013 it\u2019s animals that best help me relax \u2013 a walk with Roxy is wonderfully relaxing.<\/p>\n

Favourite Film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have three criteria for a great film \u2013 the three \u201cE\u2019s\u201d \u2013 if anything\u00a0<\/strong>E<\/strong>ntertains,\u00a0E<\/strong>ducates and\u00a0E<\/strong>motionally stimulates me, I love it. There are loads that Entertain and Emotionally \u2018reach me\u2019: \u201cLove Actually\u201d, \u201cBridget Jones\u201d, \u201cAbout a boy\u201d, \u201cNotting Hill\u201d \u2013 I love all that stuff. There are also quite a few films that deliver all three \u2013 examples would be \u201cDead Poet\u2019s Society\u201d, \u201cCry Freedom\u201d, \u201cAmadeus\u201d, \u201cErin Brockovich\u201d, \u201cGladiator\u201d etc.\u00a0 I hate any depressing films, like \u201cThe Piano\u201d, \u201cAtonement\u201d, \u201cThe Reader\u201d \u2013 why would anyone want to watch a film that makes them depressed?! Fave overall? Dead Poet\u2019s Society clinches it I think \u2013 if only for the brilliant Robin Williams (RIP).<\/p>\n

Favourite TV?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I watch so little TV I hardly know what people are talking about. I do the thumbs up thing on TIVO to record all diet programmes, but I watch those with the laptop in front of me making notes and analysing things. I keep factsheets on things from the Horizon Atkins programme to \u201cWhy are thin people not fat<\/em>\u201d and \u201cThe Biggest Loser<\/em>\u201d and all sorts \u2013 these are not just diet programmes \u2013 they are a great source of research material.<\/p>\n

Fave TV series is deffo \u201c24\u201d \u2013 best thing on the small screen ever! I loved Prison Break also \u2013 but only after the first series, which was a bit slow. My new faves are House of Cards and Stella.<\/p>\n

What makes you cry?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What doesn\u2019t?! Any human emotion makes me cry \u2013 someone getting through on the X Factor\/American Idol, someone scoring the winning goal in a footy match (and I don\u2019t even like football that much), every event at the Olympics, watching people reunite at airports \u2013 I\u2019m a basket case!<\/p>\n

What makes you laugh?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dog\u2019s face when the cat is in her basket! Twitter makes me laugh most days, Michael McIntyre, Gavin & Stacey, Stella (two mentions for this brilliant series), Friends, Gabby & Carlos on Desperate Housewives, Jo Brand, clever cartoons in newspapers, great one-liners and loads of my friends make me laugh \u2013 that\u2019s nice eh?!<\/p>\n

Personal Values?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freedom, Health, Relationships, Curiosity, Mutuality and Integrity.<\/p>\n

Hobbies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love what I do. My work is my hobby. Call me sad, but there\u2019s little more fun than dissecting a journal article! I love learning and discovering new things. I love connecting with people doing similar things. I love spending time with Andy (we work together now, so we need to get non-work time also). What else? Walking the dog, stroking the cat, rugby (supporting Wales \u2013 can be very stressful), socialising and having great dinner parties with great friends.<\/p>\n

Describe yourself in 5 words:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked Andy to do this and he said (he can\u2019t count!): Friendly; Too bright; Enthusiastic; Principled; Chatty; Passionate (oh, & short!)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all folks! Site members can contact me here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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