The Rise of the Lifestyle Nutritionists – A

This is part of the second of two BBC radio 4 programmes in which Dr Ben Goldacre investigated the science behind nutritional therapy and the claims made by some of its leading practitioners. Lifestyle nutritionists is the name given here to people who make careers (and often financial fortunes to match) out of claiming that certain diets, foods or vitamins are especially advantageous to promoting good health when they are not. They might be good for you, but the terms used, such as ‘super-foods’ imply that they are particularly good for you, when they are not.

There has also been a similar phenomenon in the field of fitness, when high-profile individuals advocated a certain exercise or sport which sounded impressive but was not healthy or appropriate for people to imitate.

The text given is not an exact transcription – it adapts some of the material you hear.

You may wish to read through the text first, before starting to supply the missing words.