Dr Geoffrey P Webb

Since the late 1980s, I have focused my creative energies into researching and writing books, monographs, academic reviews and critical essays which have been mainly related to aspects of nutrition and weight control. I have also written about several major scientific errors and their consequences, for example:

•  The promotion of front sleeping for babies in the 1970s and early 1980s that led to a worldwide epidemic of cot deaths that caused tens or hundreds of thousands of extra cot deaths around the world.
• The almost unanimous belief (1950-1980) that the world was desperately short of protein and that protein malnutrition was the most important cause of worldwide malnutrition. Huge amounts of time effort and resources were expended in trying to solve this illusory problem.
• The belief that antioxidant supplements given to generally well-nourished people would increase life expectancy and reduce the levels of heart disease and cancer.

In my recent researches I have concluded that these error examples are symptomatic of a much more general problem with the credibility of much of the research that is published. Some writers have suggested that most of the research that is published is wrong and that up to 85% of research spending is wasted.

Finally I have prepared detailed case studies of many scientists who have committed research fraud and fabricated their data. Using these case studies I have tried to assess the damage caused by fraudulent research. I have also reviewed the measures that should prevent the publication of fraudulent data (protection), the ways in which fraudulent data is identified after publication (detection) and the way in which fraudulent data and fraudulent authors are dealt with after exposure (disinfection). Using the case studies, I have tried to assess the effectiveness of these measures in keeping the scientific literature free of fraudulent data. 

Current publications

• Webb, G. P. (2006) Cot death: the benefits and dangers of health promotion. British Journal of Midwifery. 14. 670.

• Webb, G.P. (2007) Nutritional supplements and conventional medicine: what should the physician know? Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 66, 471-8

• Webb, G.P. (2006) Dietary supplements and functional foods. Blackwell publishing: Oxford. An academic monograph that discusses the various types of supplements and functional foods within a structured and logical framework. Identifies common themes and principles of supplements in general and particular categories of supplement. A strategic overview approach to each chapter followed by evidence-based assessment of efficacy and safety for the individual supplements and functional foods.
• Gao, J., Sanchez-Medina, A., Pendry, B.A., Hughes, M.J., Webb, G.P. and Corcoran, O. (2008) Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tinctures. J. Pharm. Pharmaceutic. Sci 11(1), 77-87.
• Webb, G.P. (2007) Complementos nutricionales y alimentos funcionales. (Spanish edition of Dietary supplements and functional foods . Editorial Acribia: Zaragoza

• Webb, G.P. (2007) Naucz sie kontrolowac. Wage ciala za pomoca diety i cwiczen Polish edition of Teach Yourself Weight Control. Bauer-Weltbild Media: Poland

• Webb, G.P. (2008) Nutrition: a health promotion approach, Third edition. London: Arnold. A revised, updated and extended edition. Now also covers dietary supplements, plant secondary metabolites with extended coverage of functional foods.
• Webb, G.P. (2009) Interpreting nutritional science - what have we learnt from the past? Nutrition Bulletin 34, 309-315.

·                        Webb, G.P. (2011) Dietary supplements and functional foods. 2nd edition. Oxford: Wiley/Blackwell.          http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1444332406.html

·       Webb, G.P. (2011) Vitamin fortification of foods: a critical review. Food Science and Technology Bulletin: Functional Foods 8(1) 1-10.

·       Webb, G.P. (2011) Vitamin fortification of foods: a critical review. Food Science and Technology Bulletin: Functional Foods 8(1) 1-10.

·                              Webb G.P. (2012) Nutrition: maintaining and improving health. Fourth edition Oxford: CRC Press 

I maintain a blog relating to my areas of expertise i.e. diet and nutrition, research methods and error in science, research fraud http://drgeoffnutrition.wordpress.com/. 

In the late 1970s and 1980s I led an obesity research group using animal models of obesity.  I supervised two successful PhDs during this period. Perhaps the most important achievement of this research group was to unequivocally confirm that mice become torpid when fasted and that torpor occurs without fasting in genetically obese (ob/ob) mice. We correctly predicted that humans with the same genetic defect would have normal thermoregulation and that theories of defective thermoregulation being a major cause of human obesity were probably incorrect.

Since the late 1980s, I have focused my creative energies into researching and writing books, monographs, academic reviews and critical essays which have been mainly related to aspects of nutrition and weight control. I have also written about several major scientific errors and their consequences, for example:

•  The promotion of front sleeping for babies in the 1970s and early 1980s that led to a worldwide epidemic of cot deaths that caused tens or hundreds of thousands of extra cot deaths around the world.
• The almost unanimous belief (1950-1980) that the world was desperately short of protein and that protein malnutrition was the most important cause of worldwide malnutrition. Huge amounts of time effort and resources were expended in trying to solve this illusory problem.
• The belief that antioxidant supplements given to generally well-nourished people would increase life expectancy and reduce the levels of heart disease and cancer.

In my recent researches I have concluded that these error examples are symptomatic of a much more general problem with the credibility of much of the research that is published. Some writers have suggested that most of the research that is published is wrong and that up to 85% of research spending is wasted.