My Story - "The Time Bomb"
Long-Term Poor Eating Catches Up

by Robert Calvert

Revision 1.5 -- 3/4/99

Background
I’m a happy 53-year-old staff engineer in the telecom industry with two degrees from MIT. My wife is younger, bright and attractive with a golden personality. I have a good home, family, hobbies, etc. I am proud of my children and their recent educational and vocational accomplishments. I have been in various forms of research and development for 30 years. Finally I got a position for a great world-class corporation. The people I work with and for are super. It’s a great job. I love to teach intuitive methods and assist the younger engineers who have shown promise.

Unfortunately, I was totally ignorant of nutrition and good health; swallowing the usual American marketing hype and the culture of peer food encouraged abuses. I developed back problems, leg numbness, indigestion and anxiety in early 1998 until the dam broke and landed in the hospital emergency room November 1998 with gastric hyperacidity, esophageal reflux, high anxiety and panic attacks. This included agoraphobia’s about flying and driving in the dark. The typical American diet had finally taken its toll on me. Read on. You will see what I mean by a time bomb. The damage mushrooms over years. Now it’s time to get serious about health and proper nutrition.

Prior to November 1998, and as a matter of fact for 30 years, I was heavy into the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet). These were typical for me: ice cream, dry mass-market cereals, coffee (4+ cups a day with caffeine), Altoid Peppermint mints, pizzas, Burger King Whoppers, French fries, pastries, chocolate candy, milk shakes, cookies, cheddar cheese, yogurt, milk, margarine and butter on toast, bagels, microwaving lots of food on HIGH settings (studies have shown this to be bad.), a host of precooked processed food microwaved on high and eaten for convenience. In the rationalization of good health, I threw in some Broccoli, Spinach, whole grains, occasional vitamin supplements and high power herbs to compensate for poor nutrition.

Insight
How could such an educated, research-minded person be so uninformed (ignorant) of the long-term toxic effects of such an unhealthy diet? After research I found:

1. The American business culture – advertising and mass marketing promote processed tasty foods regardless of nutritional. Foods that with chemicals andtoxins added to prolong shelf life and taste better and of course cheaper to produce.
2. Peer group pressure – Even though I’m an introvert, the influence of my peers, both personal and vocational, is overwhelming. It’s hard to go counter-culture. You’re tagged a health food nut and anti-social.
3. M.D.s are mostly ignorant of good nutrition and Natural Hygiene Science. Most of them write high-power drug prescriptions and rush on to the next patient. If everyone ate a healthy diet, doctors would have fewer customers. They fix symptoms not causes. I was lucky to meet and consult with a rare exception. Chet Day who operates the Health and Beyond web site introduced me to Dan Chesnut, M.D. a nutrition wise physician using correct food choices to alleviate certain disorders. Both Chet and Chesnut have helped me see the light. Many thanks to both. They both had serious disorders. They beat it and are now drug free vegetarians.
4. "If it’s not broke don’t fix it." Don’t be concerned until you’re really sick.
5. Total lack of knowledge that poor diet and toxic foods have a long-term ill effect on the body. Problems don’t manifest themselves for years. In many cases, twenty to thirty years. The human body is amazing; processing garbage, but eventually compensation fails. They’re some short-term symptoms but they temporarily pass.
6. Eating healthy can be a lot of work (turns out to be a half-truth – Is a banana or apple hard to prepare?) Eating more vegetables requires shopping skills and preparation time.
7. Certain foods are ADDICTIVE. Yes, and addictive in the same way as alcohol, tobacco and cocaine are.. Salt, sugar, white flour, creamy dairy products and creamy fat content products are just a few of these. This has been proven in the last five years at several university research labs, including MIT and University of California.
8. Food is the number one pleasure for some people. It wasn’t number one for me but certainly high on the list. I find an alarming number of people who put too much emphasis on the pleasure of food, especially the so-called "comfort food," which turns out to be toxic food.
9. The American diet is deficient in dietary fiber. Most Americans can’t even define dietary fiber. There are too many animal products consumed and too little plant food with dietary fiber. This deficiency ultimately leads to a poorly functional GI tract. Those with "cast iron" GI tracts may not notice symptoms for years, but nutrient absorption and metabolism is impaired. Toxins build up in the colon and does occur elsewhere in the body.
10. The fast-paced, jet-set lifestyle most Americans enjoy plays right into the hands of the fast food and processed food profiteers. Eat the quick and easy food and get sick. A new high-powered drug will fix it. Don’t worry about the cause(s).
11. For many of us, the hyper, super achiever lifestyle creates stress. Actually we hurl ourselves into stress and then sooth ourselves with "comfort food" which I is addictive toxic garbage.

A Short-Term Fix for the Symptoms of My Illnesses
My initial approach was rushing to the doctors for high-powered drugs to moderate the symptoms just to return to work. So I took the drugs. And I changed doctors - GPs, gastro internal specialists, endocrinologists, urologists, shrinks, allergists, etc. I had to change often, because they were incompetent, especially the ones who said, "Don’t worry about what you eat. Just eat what feels good to you. If it makes you feel bad, then don’t eat it." I wish I could collect $100.00 an hour to dish out that advice. I learned more off the Internet medical websites than from the doctors I had seen and started saving money to boot. This was before ever knowing about Dr. Chesnut. Without surgery he beat reflux and gall bladder disorders. His contemporaries wanted to operate on each disorder. Through proper nutrition, supplements and antioxidants, he recovered. Now he is one of the few nutrition-first M.D.s.

Getting to the Root of the Problems
Being a researcher at heart, I began to study the principles of good nutrition. The Internet is a good tool, but don’t believe everything you read. I compare several different reference sources and find a consensus. A key to proper use of research is to formulate potential solutions to problems. I was led to papers and books by M.D. s and Ph.D. s who had researched various aspects of what is behind good and bad health. I found an amazing amount of consistency as well as some conflicting information. But soon the trends and directions were obvious. And it will be obvious to any person willing to do the work. Effort is rewarded.

So I began developing and documenting my own program based on the Science of Natural Hygiene and Holistic as well as more modern moderate approaches to healthy dietary intake.

I am perfecting a practical nutrition plan and hope to offer it to the public soon.

Here is some insight I gained from a famous MIT nutrition professor: "Everything you put into your body except distilled water is a drug." What he meant is everything else has serious effects on some major internal body system including all hormones and enzymes governing voluntary and involuntary functions. Our bodies are over 70% water.

Here are some of the MAJOR agreed upon nutritional points that a majority of researchers from a wide variety of professions have stated:

1. Americans adults consume 3 to 6 times the required amount of animal protein, dairy and fat. Effects on long-term health are toxic and often go unnoticed for years.
2. The human body has evolved little in the last 50 years, yet artificial, processed food consumption has quadrupled. The body’s GI tract, liver, kidneys, pancreas and other organs cannot handle the steady flow of unnatural chemicals and toxins. The body needs a permanent rest from unnatural foods and toxins.
3. Dairy products are for children and not adults. Many experts think they’re bad for children too. Calves drink milk, but cows are vegetarians. The dairy industry lobby and influence suppresses most of the mass-market news and reports that are unfavorable to dairy products. Most dairy products go partially undigested in adults and some children (older than babies) and collect as mucous in the body cavities and intestines, blocking proper absorption of other nutrients, not to mention some of it goes to stored body fat. The calcium and other dairy nutrients are easily supplied from other foods. Children need a lot of protein and calcium as they grow, adults require much less, but dairy sources are not necessary. Furthermore, animal protein blocks the absorption of dairy calcium.
4. The human’s GI tract is structurally and functionally analogous to that of vegetarian mammals, not to a meat-eating animal. This is a simple fact, not conjecture.
5. Over the last 80 years farmers' soils have been depleted of precious minerals and vitamins. This is documented in government reports including with the FDA. More chemicals are needed to make crops grow efficiently. Farmers are not at fault, they are squeezed financially. Cows, chickens and pigs eat what the farmers produce and thus the deficiencies are passed on.
6. Microwaving food is inferior to proper cooking. HIGH settings especially modify nutrient molecules. This information never makes the major news, but is documented in several American and international sources.
7. Most water is polluted with toxins, even "approved" tap water. Only distilled water and rarely some spring water are healthful. Most people don’t drink enough water. A minimum of eight 8-oz glasses of high-quality water is required. Our bodies are over 70% water’, a natural solvent and cleanser. Drinking water during meals dilutes digestive juices and enzymes. Water should be consumed between meals, not with meals.
8. Poor food combining causes some foods to ferment in the body and nutrients can be wasted. For some people with sensitive GI tracts it can lead to disease. There is a whole science on proper food combining with several guidelines. Major ones include eating fruit separately from all other food; don’t combine starches and proteins in the same meal; eat your food in courses, not a bite of this and a bite of that and back and forth. Start with the lightest (greens) and then more complex foods, ending with the most complex protein. There are many papers and books written on this topic and several are on Chet Day’s Health and Beyond website. More on this later, as it is crucial.
9. The Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) often includes about two parts sodium (salt) to one part potassium. University research at M.I.T and University of California have proven that ratio should not only be turned around, but should be at least 5 to 1 in favor of potassium. Before the modern way of American processed foods, people ate more naturally. The human body has not evolved fast enough to handle what the typical American consumes. Just because some people have cast iron stomachs and some decent short-term health is no proof that the S.A.D. is good. Many illnesses and disorders are incorrectly treated with drugs while the food intake is ignored. It so happens that foods with poor sodium (salt) to potassium ratios are usually Appetite Accelerators. That’s right, they actually cause your brain to want more food even though your cellular nutrient needs might be satisfied. They are in fact addictive. The foods with high potassium to sodium ratios tend to be Appetite Satisfiers, or decelerators. Simple carbohydrates, sugar and salt are appetite accelerators.
10. Most foods in their natural state have favorable potassium to sodium ratios. Bananas have a 400 to 1 ratio. Apples 90 to 1. Even chicken and fish without skin and without adding salt have reasonable ratios. Most breakfast cereals have poor ratios and then the manufacturers sprinkle on some powdered vitamins to call them healthful. Granola (good quality with minimal added salt and sugar) and oatmeal (good quality without added salt and sugar) are the some cereals that have healthy ratios.
11. Research has shown that many problems relate to salt (sodium) and sugar addictions. These addictions are very similar to alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and drug addictions. If you have to add salt to your food, you can forget about losing weight and are in for potential health deterioration. Breaking your addiction to salt and sugar will be a big step in health improvement and weight control.

Correcting the Causes of Disease with Proper Eating and Lifestyle
From the mass of research papers and books I collected, it was obvious that huge change in dietary lifestyle was needed. I’m currently on a 95% vegetarian diet with only about 5% animal food. And the animal food is simple: NO dairy products whatsoever, some trout, salmon. That’s about it for the animal kingdom. My goal is 100% vegetarian. The vegetarian food plan includes a variety of fresh fruits, raw and steamed vegetables, whole grain products, legumes and some nut-based products. That variety will increase as my digestive tract heals further.

In addition, I am on a slow natural detoxification program with high-quality fresh vegetable juicing, including BarleyLife, the dried green juice mixes with water. I bought a real (expensive too) juicer and the fresh carrot juice gives me more real nutrition than most Americans get in a week. I take special vitamin and mineral supplements in the antioxidant group. It’s important to note that these are not megadoses. They are balanced supplements to boost the immune system and take care of the harmful free radicals from the toxins. I’m converting to even more natural antioxidants after consulting Dr. Chesnut. And I’m still taking a few prescription drugs to assist the healing symptoms. But except for Herbal Fiber Blend, I don’t take any herbal supplements.

Let’s look at anxiety treatment. I’m still on the drug Xanax for anxiety. Actually relatively small doses of Xanax have very few adverse affects compared to the other central nervous system drugs. One bad thing about Xanax: it is addictive. Well guess what. Sugar, salt, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are also addictive. Coming off Xanax has to be tapered very slowly, about ¼ mg per two weeks. I have read a couple of books for using several herbal substitutes, supposedly safer. Valerian root is one of these, but it’s addictive too. Herbs are basically unregulated drugs, don’t kid yourself. At least you can read a 400-page FDA report on whatever drug you might take, but not on the "naturals". Anxiety and the digestive tract are closely coupled. Bad things in one area can set off the other and vice-versa. I will also be on some GI tract drugs until my natural diet can heal me. Animal products and dairy foods made my anxiety worse. My progress so far has been great. I’ve reduced my GI tract drugs drastically. My biggest problem getting off the drugs is the anxiety triggering GI problems. I am seeking Natural Hygiene assistance to solve these problems as well as cognitive therapy on stress management.

After just two months on a 90%+ vegetarian food lifestyle, I have gone from 220 pounds to 170 pounds and I am physically stronger. My exercise is walking up and down stairs in the winter and brisk outside walks when the weather is decent. No aerobics yet, except for frequent "aerobic" lovemaking with my wonderful wife. I want to get into Yoga, but lack the motivation. I have to break my mental block against structured exercise. I sleep two less hours per night, yet suffer no symptoms of tiredness, although I do have some nights of insomnia.

The single most valuable source of practical nutritional information has been Chet Day’s Health and Beyond website, where many references and a wealth of information relating to health matters can be found. And Chet has answered my emails with practical suggestions and not extremist's advice. I am very grateful to Chet Day and Dr. Chesnut for their inspiration and counseling. Please be advised that this paper does not represent their opinions or advice, although I have certainly incorporated much of their work in this effort. Dr. Chestnut lives in Oklahoma City and we consult over the phone. In my opinion, he is a genius. He was forceful with me: He told me, GET RID OF THE DAIRY PRODUCTS AND ANIMAL PRODUCT FOODS RIGHT NOW IF YOU WANT TO LIVE. The slight amounts of undigested dairy and animal meats collect over a period of time in the body. Mucous and other deposits clog and block absorption of nutrients and let the damaging free-radicals rape the body. When we are children (under 25 years old) our enzyme and hormone product handles dairy products and meat reasonably well. NOT SO FOR ADULTS. Dairy and meat are more toxic than helpful. The advertising dollars of these industries and their lobby in Washington DC are powerful. Because the ill effects are not seen for years, the food industry gets away with Murder.