On 10 December 2015 Maryke Gallagher, the president of the Association of Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA), published a column on Health24.com entitled "Noakes hearing – it really isn't about the sponsors".
Presumably, the column was posted by Gallagher in order to defend her organisation's position in relation to the influence its sponsors exert over its activities, its policies and the nutritional information that it endorses. It is noteworthy that ADSA saw fit to elaborate on this point in the public press.
The influence that ADSA’s sponsors exert over it and the role played by industry bodies in funding nutritional research remains in issue in the Noakes hearing held by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).