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Interview
with Barbara Reed and Paul
Stitt |
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Paul and Barbara Reed Stitt |
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Andrew W. Saul Interviews PAUL AND BARBARA REED STITT Barbara Reed served as an Paul A. Stitt
has a M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, In 1997, they together started a
whole fresh foods lunch program for the students of the So this is one couple I just had
to interview. DOCTOR
YOURSELF NEWS: How did your interest in real nutrition begin? BARBARA: When
I was 33 years old, I suffered with borderline diabetes, degenerative
arthritis in my hands and spine, and a cancer on my left cheek. I was anemic
to the point of transfusions for 24 hours, had strep throat 3 times one
winter, diagnosed epileptic, had severe mood swings,
depression, fatigue and headaches. Then told I was in early stages of
menopause; that last one really got me to searching. I found a book by Gayelord Hauser called Look Younger, Live Longer” (Straus
& Giroux, 1950. ISBN: 0374190720). I followed his advice and within three
months ALL of the above symptoms were gone and I haven’t been sick for 41
years. DY NEWS:
Paul? PAUL:
Beginning in college, I discovered the main interest of food companies is to
make foods so that people can’t stop eating them. The last thing they want to
do is to make foods so that people are not craving more food all the time.
Making foods to prevent cravings is difficult and expensive. Whole grain
foods are inconsistent and difficult to work with. Trying to get 100% of the
optimum level of all nutrients into 1,000 calories is a real challenge. But
that is exactly what is necessary, because after people eat their healthy
food, they want to have indulgent foods. We all do. Preventing obesity is a
big challenge for sedentary people. DY NEWS:
Can you tell us some key events that led up to your marriage, arguably one of
the finest anti-junk-food alliances ever? BARBARA:
In 1980 I was speaking in When we
spoke together again August 1981 in DY NEWS:
Barbara, can you tell us a few memorable case histories from your probation
officer days? Some positive; some negative? BARBARA:
I worked as a probation officer from 1963 to 1982: 8 years with the A 19-year
old female was referred to probation for theft. She had been learning
disabled from second grade and wonderful people had tried to work with her. I
had her tested and she showed very high levels of lead. Plus she lived on
sweets. We had the lead chelated from her body and
corrected her diet. (Editor's note: More on lead poisoning at http://www.doctoryourself.com/lead.html)
Within 5 months, her IQ had improved by 26 points, her energy soared and she began
working for the first time in her life. The underlying problems would never
have been detected in a typical probation department. Another
gentleman was arrested for threatening with a firearm – he had threatened to
kill his own family and the family of his girlfriend. He was loaded with
toxic aluminum. After treatment to eliminate the aluminum and diet
correction, he became the nicest person. (More about aluminum at http://www.doctoryourself.com/alzheimer.html)
There
were hundreds and hundreds of cases. One young man was charged with
Discharging a Firearm because his girlfriend would not press charges. He
really should have been charged with attempted murder with a .57 Magnum. Both
he and his girlfriend lived on junk food. He had become very moody and
personality changes during 9th grade. He was very hypoglycemic (http://www.doctoryourself.com/diabetes.html).
With that corrected by diet, that young man ended up later hanging some of
his paintings in the very city building that he was almost charged with
Attempted Murder. DY NEWS:
And failures? BARBARA:
There were about 11% of the people that I simply could not reach for various
reasons. Out of the many prostitutes referred to my office, I am only sure of
one that was changed. I followed her for 9 years and there was never another
indication of an arrest or any further activity. DY NEWS: Please
tell us about your more recent work in schools. BARBARA:
Because of the success I'd seen with diet and behavior when working with the
courts, we decided to work with students and try to prevent problems. By
providing fresh whole foods to the students their behavior improved, and
their learning ability improved – a winning combination. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/adhd.html
and http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_feingold.html)
We demonstrated the difference by requiring the teachers have a "junk food
day" every 7 to 8 weeks – and within two hours they had lost control of
the class. Some students became hyper, others lethargic, others angry and
violent in some cases. The pulse rate of 2nd and 4th graders actually doubled
on junk food day! We required this to allow the children to understand that
it was what they were putting in their mouth that was causing the problems in
how they felt and behaved. We are now (2004) in our 11th year and the results
have repeated themselves every single year. DY NEWS:
What have been some of the major obstacles to your work? BARBARA:
The major challenges have been in guiding schools into HOW to change the
foods in schools. They have been accustomed to receiving money from the two
big Cola companies and from the fast food industry by allowing them to
furnish the “food” for the students. We produced a “Roadmap to Healthy Foods
in Schools” that gives them step by step instructions as to how it can be
done. The packet contains about 75 pages of information plus a DVD of our six
successful years in the DY NEWS:
So what foods do you yourselves eat? PAUL: The
center of our plate is whole grain food, complemented with tasty vegetable
dishes with fruit as an appetizer. Soup, salads, and breads make for very
nutritionally complete meals. Meat is for flavoring. DY NEWS:
Sometimes the people closest to us are the most resistant to change. How
"hip" to natural nutrition are your
families? PAUL: Our
families are on natural food diets, but not all of them are dairy-free as we
recommend. In time they will learn. DY NEWS:
What is the story of the Natural Ovens bakery? PAUL:
Natural Ovens was started in 1976 with no business plan, no mentor, no
recipes and no customers requesting whole grain foods. But we had a personal
mission: make the best foods humanly possible. In 1976, I had 5 employees.
Still have 2 of them; they are vice presidents. Now we have 330 employees
doing direct delivery to over 1,200 supermarkets in 7 states. We serve all 50
states by mail order. Our goal is still to bake the most nutritional, best
tasting whole grain bread product possible. DY NEWS:
Would you like to comment on the FDA, and the action against Natural Ovens
that is still posted on the Internet? (http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/g3941d.htm and http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/w0021r.htm) PAUL: The
FDA is totally unfair. In the last 12 years FDA has published 10 articles
involving the use of our flax. Then, they pick up a loaf of our bread, send
it to a lab that has no idea how to measure omega-3 and publish on the
Internet that our bread has no Omega-3 in it. So we send them analytical
results from 3 different labs, invoices showing we use a million pounds of
flax a year, at great expense. Then they say, in a private letter, that they
made a mistake, but they refuse to put it out on the Internet. Then they
accuse us of understating protein and overstating fiber. We find that what
chemist says is protein in grains is biologically unavailable, so it acts
like fiber in the body. Analytical chemists that are hired as consultants by
the FDA tell me that high fiber whole grain food contains many different
types of fibers, and that several types are destroyed during the analysis! So
of course, total dietary fiber is a misnomer because it is nowhere near the
value of non-digestible matter in the whole grain product. FDA is working on
revising their analytical system, but in the meantime, they shoot me in the
neck. DY NEWS:
Given all you've seen, what remains your most
important, most enduring message for DoctorYourself.com readers? PAUL:
Always do what you know is best for your body. BARBARA:
Feed your children fresh whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grain
breads and cereals, nuts, seeds, water, and lead them into good exercise – so
they can be healthy and have a long productive life. The artificially
colored, sweetened cereals, soda, sweets and products made with enriched
white flour and sugar will all cause the children to be ill, and unable to
behave and learn. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease and behavior problems are
rampant with our youth. This is truly criminal. For further reading: Reed,
Barbara. Food, Teens and Behavior. Natural Press, 1983. ISBN: 0939956047. EAT,
EXERCISE, EXCEL is a how-to video for you and your school, by Hugh D.
Riordan, M.D., available from http://brightspot.org/eee/index.shtml
YOU AND
YOUR KIDS DON'T EVEN GET THE RDA OF MOST VITAMINS: http://orthomolecular.org/history/myths/index.shtml
Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE
YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at
http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html
) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html
) For ordering information, Click Here . Interview and comments copyright
2004 by Andrew W. Saul. |
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