We believe in the critical value of & need for robust research into nutrition
The Noakes Foundation is a Non-Profit Corporation founded for public benefit which aims to advance medical science’s understanding of the benefits of a low-carb high-fat (LCHF) diet by providing evidence-based information on optimum nutrition that is free from commercial agenda.
The foundation is currently looking for funding to run several of its ground-breaking research programmes into healthy eating based on the Low Carbohydrate eating science.
As required by the Companies Act, all funds will be used to achieve the goals of the foundation, and will not be directly or indirectly distributed to any person unless it supports the fulfilment of these objectives.
The Directors
These passionate individuals are the driving force behind the Foundation.
Travis Noakes
Travis has been working where brand development meets health promotion since 1999. He spent nearly a decade helping Winning Wellness (Pty) Ltd…
Travis Noakes
Travis has been working where brand development meets health promotion since 1999. He spent nearly a decade helping Winning Wellness (Pty) Ltd become BODY iQ before its rebrand as Virgin Life Care (now myvirginactive), and then started work on his PhD. He now volunteers for The Noakes Foundation by contributing to the research funder’s strategy and overseeing its branded and co-branded publications.
Dr. HassinaKajee
Dr Kajee was instrumental in overseeing and facilitating the Foundation’s first ever Eat Better South Africa! intervention programme…
Dr. Hassina Kajee
Dr. NevilleWellington
Neville is a GP and managing practitioner at Kenilworth Medicross. He has been working in medicine for over 21 years, with paediatrics…
Dr. Neville Wellington
Neville is a GP and managing practitioner at Kenilworth Medicross. He has been working in medicine for over 21 years, with paediatrics and diabetes among his main passions. He completed a two year Postgraduate Diploma in Diabetes in 2012 and now runs a Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology (CDE), overseeing 3 doctors, a diabetes educator and a dietician. Neville is a staunch advocate of a low-carb lifestyle.
John Falconer
John is the Foundation’s financial manager.
AdamPike
Adam is a corporate and commercial business and legal consultant, holding BA, LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Cape Town…
Adam Pike
Adam is a corporate and commercial business and legal consultant, holding BA, LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Cape Town. He specialises in the implementation of corporate actions and transactions, and is a member the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope, the Institute of Directors (Southern Africa), and the Corporate Lawyers Association of South Africa.
Tim Noakes
Prof Noakes has published more than 750 scientific books and articles. He has been cited more than 16 000 times in…
Tim Noakes
Prof Noakes has published more than 750 scientific books and articles. He has been cited more than 21 000 times in scientific literature and has an H-index of 77. He has won numerous awards over the years and made himself available on many editorial boards. He now devotes a majority of his time to promoting the low carbohydrate high fat diet, especially for those with insulin resistance, and to raising funds for Eat Better South Africa! and research through The Noakes Foundation. He is also the Chief Medical Director of the Nutrition Network, an education, connection and learning platform founded by The Noakes Foundation in partnership with an esteemed team of doctors and scientists.
The Team
The committed team making things happen at The Noakes Foundation.
Jayne Bullen
Jayne believes research in healthcare needs better funding and strong minds. Since joining in 2015,
she has grown The Noakes Foundation into one of the key research funders in South Africa, an entity
that is changing the way the nation eats. As the Chief Operating Officer of The Noakes Foundation
she established Eat Better South Africa alongside inspiring colleagues and Prof Noakes. Most
recently she was appointed as Managing Director of the Nutrition Network, where she has taken the
lead in the process and creation of this educational and networking platform founded by The Noakes
Foundation in partnership with an esteemed team of doctors and scientists.
After realizing the dichotomy between brand research budgets and human health research, she
decided to leave the corporate research world and took the leap into medical and biological
research to bring her experience in big biz research into new areas to affect change to human
health.
Jayne is an MBA, High Dip in Marketing and International Relations graduate. She began her career
taking products into Africa and researching local markets in the West and East African block and
later moved to the UK to read for an MBA at Leeds University, later conducting Pan European media
research and strategy evaluation. She is also a Mind Body Medicine Practitioner, a barefoot dancer and a mom.
Jana Retief
Jana Retief has a M.A. in Drama and Theatre Studies, a post graduate degree in Psychology and
experience in the development and implementation of community projects. She is passionate about
helping people live happy & healthy lives, with a special interest in nutrition and mental health. Jana is
the Senior Operations Manager of The Noakes Foundation. She is thrilled to be part of the
team, and excited to contribute towards the future outlook of human health, by changing the way
people eat and the food policies to enable this.
Sylvia Scholtz
Sylvia Scholtz is the Community Coach of Eat Better SA and has been part of changing the future outlook of health in the under-resourced communities of South Africa since 2015.
She is passionate about everything health & nutrition related, and also runs her own community gym in Atlantis.
Shannon Mace
Shannon Mace attained a BSc degree in Human Life Sciences from Stellenbosch University, she majored in biochemistry and physiology. She has a keen interest in metabolic physiology and hopes to further her studies in the subject. Shannon has joined The Noakes Foundation as a researcher, as well as an administrator. She looks forward to helping the Foundation promote healthier living and happier lifestyle practises.
Ambassadors
Ambassadors for The Noakes Foundation are people who support us actively in the media and public domain to share our messaging, thereby contributing to a healthier South Africa and world.
Sami Inkinen
Sami is a triathlon world champion and co-founder of the leading online real estate company, Trulia. Business and endurance sports are his main passions. He believes that if you can measure it, then you can improve it and he certainly lives this mantra out. He’s rowed across the Pacific Ocean, competed in Ironman tournaments and continues to push himself to the extremes of physical performance. Sami is a self-proclaimed data geek and has a spread sheet for everything. He’s a stickler for numbers and is constantly searching for the next big adventure.
Donal O'Neill
Donal O’Neill is the producer of the “Cereal Killers” movie franchise. He is a former international athlete and passionate activist for better food and smarter exercise.
Gary Taubes
Gary is an American author whose main hypothesis is that carbs stimulate the secretion of insulin which leads to fat storage. Originally focused on physics, his main interests now lie with nutrition and medicine. He’s an alumnus of Harvard and Stanford Universities. Gary rose to prominence with his controversial publication, What If It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?, and has become one of the world’s leading low-carb diet experts.
Bruce Fordyce
Bruce Fordyce is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. He is best known for having won the South African Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive, earning him the title of ‘World’s greatest Ultra Marathon runner’. In addition to writing two books, he is also a motivational speaker, columnist, running coach and a LCHF enthusiast.
David Pocock
David Pocock is an Australian rugby legend, playing for both the Brumbies and the Wallabies. Outside of rugby, the sportsman has close ties to his home country, Zimbabwe; he is the co-founder of EightyTwenty Vision, an organisation that focusses on maternal health and food and water security in rural Zimbabwe.
Besides being an environmental activist and Ecological Agricultural Systems student, David is an avid supporter of the LCHF lifestyle, saying that the diet is suitable for his high intensity rugby profession. His dedication to optimum health and fitness makes him an ideal ambassador for the LCHF movement.
Euodia Samson
Euodia has been married for over 20 years and is a mother to three sons. She studied drama at UCT and has been an actress for 23 years. She is currently the coordinator of EAT BETTER SOUTH AFRICA! and runs the development of information and training of the programme. She is a Level 2 TRE (Tension and Trauma Release Exercises) practitioner and is currently completing a diploma in counseling at SACAP (South African College of Applied Psychology).
Andre Obradovic
Andre’s mission is to inspire people to optimise every aspect of their life. An ex military/corporate executive with over 30 years experience in leadership and coaching, today Andre helps people achieve their goals, with a very strong focus on improving his clients health, habits, relationship with food and physicality. Endurance sports and Health are his main passions. He is a USA and Australian certified Triathlon Coach, a certified personal trainer, and executive coach.
He has run 8 Marathons he competed in 70.3 Triathlons and is training for his first Full Ironman. His aim in working with The Noakes Foundation is to drive change in our world with respect to eating better, optimised health covering the mental, physical and emotional.
Nina Teicholz
Nina Teicholz is a New York Times bestselling investigative science journalist who has played a pivotal role in challenging the conventional wisdom on dietary fat. Her groundbreaking work, The Big Fat Surprise, which The Economist named as the #1 science book of 2014, has led to a profound rethinking on whether we have been wrong to think that fat, including saturated fat, causes disease. In opeds, interviews, and articles, Teicholz continues to explore the political, institutional, and industry forces that prevent better thinking on issues related to
nutrition and science; published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the British Medical Journal, Gourmet, the Los Angeles Times and many other outlets.
Zoë Harcombe
Zoë reads, writes and speaks in the field of diet and nutrition. A Cambridge University graduate (economics/maths), Zoë had a very successful career in blue chip organisations before leaving corporate life in 2008 to pursue her passion. She completed a PhD in public health nutrition in 2016 following a complete RCT/epidemiological examination of the global dietary fat guidelines. Author of six books and active blogger (zoeharcombe.com), Zoë was honoured to be one of ‘Tim’s Angels’ at the ‘Banting for Babies’ hearing.
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Caryn Zinn
Caryn Zinn
Dr Caryn Zinn is a New Zealand Registered Dietitian and a Senior Lecturer at AUT University, NZ, where she currently focuses her research work on whole-food, low carbohydrate, healthy fat (LCHF) nutrition and its application to metabolic health and sports performance. Caryn also has over 20 years of consulting experience as a dietitian. She has an extensive range of clients in her private practice, and is well-versed in the application of both the mainstream and the more contemporary, whole-food, LCHF nutrition approach to a variety of population groups. She is a co-author of two books What The Fat? Fat’s in Sugar’s out, and What The Fat? Sports Performance. Her current mission is to work alongside mainstream dietitians and shape the thinking of the dietetic profession as a whole.
Sean Sakinofsky
Sean Sakinofsky
Sean is not your typical endurance cyclist.
10 years ago he had a light bulb moment post the death of his father, who passed away from oesophageal cancer. After deliberating over the loss of his father and various family members on both his mother’s and father’s side who had mostly passed away from cancer or cardiac disease he came to the conclusion that there is a direct link to what we put into our bodies and that sugar is creating a fertile ground for various diseases. Sean has slowly but surely discovered more about how the processed food industry is pushing a narrative to keep us hungry by getting us hooked on sugars.
Sean has pursued disproving the narrative that one requires carbohydrates to fuel one’s physical events and exercise. In 2020 he once again started to push the barriers of performance by embarking on endurance rides and performing at levels that would leave most sports scientists scratching their heads. He has been able to perform above his Functional Threshold Power (FTP) for extended periods and multiple times after 5 hours of riding, without the effects of hypoglycemia. Sean would only consume salt and water during these feats.
He has truly championed the cause of LCHF and more so to be a beacon of light for others and inspire them to think out of the box. We look forward to helping Sean on his journey and to further spread our message of healthy eating to the world.
Affiliates
Our affiliates are companies or products which ascribe to and promote the Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF) lifestyle.
Their values and practices are in line with ours. If you would like to find out more about becoming an affiliate,
simply click here.
Friends
A person who actively supports the LCHF movement, and who works towards changing the way South Africa, and hopefully the world, thinks about food. He or she actively supports the agenda and work that The Noakes Foundation does. Contact us if you feel you are a friend or would like to become one!
Karen Thomson
Karen launched her online program and blog, Sugar Free Revolution, in 2014. Karen, a recovering sugar addict and founder of the Harmony Eating & Lifestyle Program, identified a need for a support network and program for those people trying to kick a sugar or carbohydrate addiction. Since launching SFR, Karen has also written a book “Sugar Free: 8 Weeks to Freedom from Sugar and Carb Addiction”, and, together with Prof Tim Noakes, has launched and hosted The First International LCHF Health Summit.
AJ Vd Walt
AJ is Banting’s biggest success story, having lost a staggering 140 kgs to date, he is now a shadow of his former 282 kg self. AJ now spends his time traveling around the country taking part in various endurance races in an attempt to create awareness about healthy eating and Banting. AJ believes that the mind is the most powerful thing when it comes to the body’s capabilities and he lives by the motto “I am not done” as he is always striving to improve himself and help others who find themselves in a similar situation as he once was.
Gail van Niekerk
Lizanne van Niekerk
Since joining Banting Blvd as its Brand Manager, Lizanne has become passionate about nutrition education. Qualified with a BBA in Brand Building and Management, she strives to not only build the brand of Banting Blvd, but interact with communities in all walks of life to inspire them to a healthier lifestyle.
Gabriel Van Wesemael
Gabriel Van Wesemael is a 13 year old Type 1 diabetic. Three weeks after his diagnosis in July 2015 he immigrated to The Netherlands and began a journey of discovery to find the best way to handle his condition.
Before he left he found out about Prof Tim Noakes and Dr Neville Wellington and the LCHF lifestyle and decided to go full out with it! He then created his own YouTube Channel, Gabriel’s Diabetic Kitchen, where he could create awareness about how effective the LCHF lifestyle is in the management of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. He has since moved back to Cape town South Africa where he feels he can work together with Prof Noakes and Dr Neville Wellington to make a difference!
Rita Venter
Rita Fernandes Venter is the owner of the hugely popular Facebook group ‘Banting 7 Day Meal Plans’. The group was created to support all Banters, beginners and veterans, and is a space for people to share information with each other and to make the LCHF lifestyle easier to follow. Rita’s own life has been changed by Banting, and she works hard to help others reach their full health potential.
