RHEO H. BLAIR

Rheo Blair Protein: Milk Eggs and Mothers Milk

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 20:57:00 +0000

Rheo Blair, although a huge fan of (raw) milk which he used liberally in his work, was an even bigger fan of the egg -- that is to say the egg YOLK specifically. He used both in an effort to mimic mothers milk for the extraordinary growth factors it contains. His private client proteins powders were a combination of milk proteins and egg yolk and often nicknamed "mothers milk protein." Rheo Blair's clients knew it was a key factor of his growth-focused program.

The banner or "meme" below is the first in our new series of key quotes from Rheo Blair that put his unique and trendsetting philosophy into focus. We look forward to sharing many of these both here and on our Rheo H. Blair, Nutritionist Facebook page.

Rheo Blair - We get mail: "SO MANY PILLS...!"

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 00:02:00 +0000

It's not just about the Rheo Blair protein...

I recently received an email in which the writer asks a great question:

"Dear Charles, I have just read your article, "Blair's protein in context". Ironically, what struck me the most was the 500 supplement pills plus the protein "every day". I have to say WOW, that's a lot of pills. But it seemed to make sense and got me thinking. The average body is fairly large, and makes me wonder why, when it comes to fat burning, so many companies have you taking 6-12 pills a day. I was wondering are those numbers still relevant today. If so I wonder how anyone could afford to take so many. I am intrigued by your numbers, and was wondering if you would shed some light for this 58 year old body that wants to build muscle and lose fat. I am 6ft with current fat % at about 17%."

My reply:
I am so pleased to see that someone is interested in this question of Rheo's supplements and the quantities he had his clients use when 1. they had the funds and 2. they were willing and able to swallow such huge quantities. Everyone wants to talk about his protein but it was not necessarily magic in and of itself. The supplements he used worked with the protein in building the body; the protein was not a solo act. You can be certain the bodybuilders he worked with were taking supplements by the handful. If one had the both the money and the will to swallow everything he wanted you to take, digestion could still be an issue. One of his favorite sayings was "it's not what you eat; it's what you assimilate." So he prescribed a LOT of digestive enzymes and HCl. This brings me to another point: most of his famous before and afters were younger people with the relatively good digestion of young age. I was 16 at the time and had no problem with taking 100 pills and capsules five times per day, every day. However he did some notable transformations with people of more advanced age and in those cases the number of supplements and the dietary regimen were carefully calibrated to the individual's digestive capacity. I know of a certain Blair client, a gentleman who was in his mid 60's and who Rheo had taking around 150 pills etc./day coupled to a diet of light protein and salads.

17% body fat is pretty impressive for a 58 year old. If it were me, I would concentrate less on body fat/muscle and more on healthy mineral balance for overall good health. If you are on Facebook, there are several mineral-specific groups you can join. These can be quite helpful. My favorite is the Magnesium Advocacy Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/MagnesiumAdvocacy/

Original Rheo Blair Document: "A Few Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Egg"

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 23:49:00 +0000

Note: This is a retyped copy of an original informational flyer Rheo Blair published about the benefits of the egg in the 1970's. It includes his famous method for preparing undenatured hard boiled eggs and his popular deviled egg recipe. These flyers were given to his clients, handed out at health conventions he presented at and mailed with orders and given to visitors to his home and office.

We are posting this today in celebration of the U.S. government -- finally -- coming to its senses on the issue of dietary cholesterol. The Harvard Health newsletter says "...panel suggests that dietary guidelines stop warning about cholesterol in food..."Cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for over-consumption.” Translation: You don’t need to worry about cholesterol in your food...Why not? There’s a growing consensus among nutrition scientists that cholesterol in food has little effect on the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. And that’s the cholesterol that matters...Nutrition experts like Dr. Walter C. Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, called the plan a reasonable move. Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, told USA Today “It’s the right decision. We got the dietary guidelines wrong.”

This is huge. This is the U.S. Government and Harvard University saying these things today. They admit they had been wrong and have done a 180. Rheo Blair got it right 40 years ago. Read on below to see what Rheo said in his own words from that time.

____________________________

A Few Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Egg - by Rheo H. Blair

Eggs are the perfect food, but ignorance causes doctors to warn us off them, says Dr. George m. Briggs of the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Briggs says many people are warned off eggs because of concern over their cholesterol content. “But an egg contains only 275 milligrams of cholesterol and an average person’s body manufactures up to 2,000 milligrams per day as a body necessity. Because doctors aren’t trained in nutrition and food composition, they are often unaware that there are only two grams of saturated fats in an egg. If you eat two eggs a day you won’t get as much saturated fat as you would from a normal serving of margarine or salad oil, even those advertised as being low in saturate4d fats,” eh insists.

LOOK AT THESE ADVANTAGES IN THIS SUPERIOR FOOD!

The protein-efficiency of the egg is the highest of any food. The amino acid pattern in the egg comes closest to the needs of your body, closer than any other protein source (meat, fish, fowl etc.)

The egg is relatively low in fat but rich in Vitamin A and rich in protein (more economical and higher in quality than that of meat). Egg is a good source of Vitamin B-12, found only in animal products, which is why many vegetarians use eggs to supply their need for B-12.

The egg offers choline, a lipotropic B-complex factor which helps liver function in diabetes, in hypoglycemia, in gall-bladder syndrome and in fat intolerance. Egg also offers tryptophan, the amino acid that helps you go to sleep. Egg contains pyridoxine or Vitamin B-6 which you need to utilize protein, fats and carbohydrates. The egg contains these other B-complex factors: folic acid, which among other things is one of the anti-anemia factors; riboflavin or B-2 without which you would have trouble seeing in dim light and trouble resisting the glare of sunlight; thiamine or Vitamin B-1; pantothenic acid, which supports adrenal function. Also the egg contains the mineral selenium without which Vitamin E doesn’t work, the mineral zinc which you require for healing and for the metabolism of carbohydrates, as well as phosphorus, calcium and sulfur. A pretty good package, that little 2-ounce egg, isn’t it?

WHAT DO THE AUTHORITES HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE EGG?

Dr. Carl Pfeiffer says this balanced egg cholesterol has not been proven to be harmful and the few milligrams in the egg is substantially less than the one to two GRAMS of cholesterol the body makes daily.

Dr. Roger J. Williams calls it a fundamental nutritional error to exclude eggs from the diet and, now in his eighties, continues to eat his eggs. He things it would be weser to concentrate on correcting an otherwise poor diet than eliminate the suspect egg.

Dr. Richard Passwater says that avoiding cholesterol is the worst form of food faddism. For more information, get his book SUPER NOTRITION FOR HEALTH HEARTS and read pages 44 through 93.

RECIPES
Rheo Blair's PICKLED EGG Recipe
Prepare one dozen undenatured hard-cooked eggs, shells removed. Place six of the cooked and shelled eggs in a jar large enough to hold a little ore than the intire dozen eggs.

Add two or three beets and one-half cupful of the liquid from a can of canned beets (not pickled beets---too much sugar).

Add the following seasonings:
*half teaspoonful onion powder
*tablespoonful Moorehouse mustard
*teaspoonful peppercorns

Add enough Regina "Wine Vinegar with Garlic" to cover eggs; the product with this name already has garlic added.

Place in refrigerator for 24 hours; they are now ready to eat.

NOTE: those who like an extra "hot" taste may wish to add some La Victoria jalapeno peppers; one or two or three will do as they are very "hot"!

Blair's technique for making undenatured hard-cooked eggs
(This is the special secret mentioned on T.. but omitted from the air for lack of time.)

Eggs are the most perfect protein food, but they are also a delicacy and fragile. The sustained high heat applied during customary hard boiling of eggs tends to denature (to downgrade) their protein value. This method of cooking eggs at a temperature considerably below the boiling point of water helps to preserve the food value of eggs, and it certainly makes them more excitingly tasteful!

Using a candy (confectioner's) thermometer, found at hardware or super-market, heat water in a cooking vessel to 180 - 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Put eggs in this water and hold for 25 minutes at this temperature. They're cooked, not boiled.

Here's an extra special secret: punch a small hole (an ice pick will do) in the large end of each egg before cooking and add two teaspoonfuls of table salt and a tablespoonful of vinegar to the water to make the eggs easier to shell.

When shelled, these eggs can be eaten as they are. They can be cut in half and eaten with just a few drops of a tasty wine vinegar placed on each open-faced egg yolk.

Deviled Eggs
Make them into deviled eggs by mashing the yolks with a little vinegar, mustard and sour cream, then returning the mixture to the empty whites. Sprinkle a little paprika over the top or garnish with small pieces of pimento or olive for the fancy touch.

Keep these delicious eggs in the refigerator for handy snacks ---plain, deviled or pickled. To your health!

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Copyright © 2008 - 2015 Charles Welling
All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Frank Zane on Rheo Blair

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 02:11:00 +0000

Today, October 9, 2014, would have been Rheo's 93rd birthday! Who better to help us remember Rheo than the one and only Frank Zane.

I had the great good fortune to meet Frank Zane and his wife, Christine, when on a spring evening in 1978 they dropped by Rheo's home to pick up supplements. They met Rheo out in his office (a separate building from the house on the same property) and Rheo asked Frank if he would come into the house and remove his shirt for for me -- Rheo wanted me to see this "wonder" live and in person for the inspiration it would give me as I was in the middle of my own transformation at that point. So Frank graciously agreed and in they came. The surprise of my life. There I was watching television and in walks Frank and Christine. Rheo: "I have a surprise for you. This is Frank Zane and he is going to show you his beautiful, award winning physique. The finest in the world. Here he is: Mr...." and Rheo began naming off his titles as Frank removed his shirt -- leaving me almost breathless not only at the incredible site I beheld but that someone so famous would do this for an audience of one - me! It was a very special experience and one I will never forget. We chatted for a few moments and then back out they went. Living at Blair House was one incredible experience after another with movie stars coming over frequently. You never knew who you would meet next. But this experience with Frank Zane stands out.

Frank was one of the very few famous, world champion, title holding bodybuilding clients of Rheo who, after he became a celebrity, stood by Rheo and continued to credit him consistently and fairly for what Rheo did for him with his knowledge and products. He continues to honor Rheo to this day.

When I contacted Frank recently about sharing something in memory of Rheo he sent me this quote:

"1970s good old days can't help thinking of Rheo Blair.
Short stature , pompadour of black wavy hair
grand piano playing singing songs baritone
was his form of vocal training
He was adept at swinging on monkey bars attached to his ceiling
and we'd sit there for hours on bean bag chairs
waiting for our supplements, eating ice ream bars.
Rheo died years ago. He know more about
supplements and amino acids than anyone else."

He sure did. Thank you Frank! This and more information on Rheo can be found in his Book "Body Mind Spirit" and I am told that in his most recent book he gives considerable space to Rheo. I am ordering this book as soon as I finish this post!

Get your copy at FrankZane.com and please tell him Charles Welling sent you.

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Copyright © 2008 - 2014 Charles Welling
All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

My Experience With Rheo Blair - Anthony Pitko

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:01:00 +0000

Anthony and I met Rheo the same year, 1978. While my story is well known at this point. you are going to want to read what Anthony shares here. The story he tells, and the way he tells it is, in a word, AWESOME. Anthony and I had similar health issues; reading his story brings back clear memories of my own and of the wonderful man that changed both our lives. Anthony had one huge advantage: while I was 16 when I began my transformation, Anthony was only 10 and this in and of itself was important. Rheo told me many time that if he could have gotten to me a few years earlier, I could have had a much more muscular body. Those early teen years are critical hormonally and developmentally. Anthony was able to take full advantage of those years. His story is riveting:

"I was 10 in 1978, sickly, asthmatic, skinny, allergic to everything. Nicknamed the stick and beat up by bullies on the schoolyard for being weak, my parents were more than worried. Trips to the child psychologist, me not eating, wanting to die, this is not normal for a 5^th grader. Up until then I was a gifted student, straight A’s, took school seriously and was put into accelerated learning classes and could finish an entire year of school books in just 3 weeks. But here I was, failing 5^th grade, could barely walk, so very sick.

Health has always been my Dad’s biggest thing. “The box has more nutrition than the contents.” He would say. Rheo Blair was coming to town in a large auditorium in the South Bay. We wouldn’t listen to my dad about sugar and processed food, so he brought me to listen to Rheo talk. I listened and seeing his stories of turning otherwise walking dead into these strong, muscular, good looking people. The stories blew my mind. It was at this point I wanted health so badly; I was making a change right there and then no matter what.

At the talk, Rheo had a raffle drawing for supplements, a private consultation, a workout book, etc. There must have been 1500 people there. I won the consultation. God answered my prayers. I was going to sit down with Rheo at his home on Van Ness and have him tell me how to be like the people on the slideshow. I was ecstatic. I stood up with my winning raffle ticket and everyone clapped.

My parents drove me up to Rheo’s home a few weekends later and we got to talk for an hour, that was all that was allowed. Rheo took one look at me and saw how sick I was. The sunken purple eyes, lack of nutrition obvious from my tiny and weak frame, breathing heavily from asthma and allergies. Rheo suggested a month stay at his home. My parents had no choice, I was going to die anyway. I said yes, let’s do this. I got pulled out of school, packed up and moved in. Pretty scary for a 10 year old in Hollywood with strangers, but for me, this was my chance to get my life back, to be like those people in the slideshow. I was a pretty tough kid and went through a lot, I knew I could handle myself, so I just trusted and listened and got to work.

Day one, eight glasses of water, platefuls of vitamins and supplements, lots of eggs and protein shakes, natural ice cream. Lifting weights was a routine two to three times a day, down an amino acid vitamin after every set, and a bite of a banana, back to reps. Then it was off to the therapist for hot/cold baths, massage, stretching and then sleeping. I slept like I never slept before, which is something I never did before anyway.

Next day - same routine. No bullies to worry about, no school, just me. The weights, the vitamins, the protein shakes, meat, potatoes, veggies, fruit, supplements again, hit the weights, treadmill. After a few weeks of this regimen, I noticed something, I wasn’t having asthma attacks, I gained weight, I felt strong, I had energy, I could sleep, I wasn’t taking any medications anymore. The transformation was mind-boggling.

I could go into the stories of daily life with Rolff, his right hand man, the therapist, Richard the

messed up 10 year old pot smoker, his friend Regis Philbin who I used to work out with, and all the other people that came into my life that month. I remember almost every single day.

When I finally said goodbye and went home, I threw out everything that had an ingredient label on it. From now on it was only meat, veggies, fruit, water – and LOTS of vitamins. When I made it back to school, people just stared at me. What happened to Anthony? Why was he gone? Why does he look different? I was the smallest in the class, the weakest and certainly the sickest. Within two years of my daily Rheo regimen, I grew 7 inches. I was 5’07” at age 12, finally topped off at 5’08” at 13. I was now the quarterback of the flag football team, playing basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, surfing, biking, running daily, eating better than anyone I knew and taking a lot of Rheo supplements.

Today I am 45 years old, 9% body fat. I lift weights 5 days a week. I don’t look 45, most guess 32-35. I feel like I’m 16 again - all the time. I run up stairs, I run across the street, paddle surf into big waves, rock climb cliffs, I’m always moving and there isn’t a day that goes by when I don't look up and say ‘Thank you Rheo for my life.” I always dreamt of that slideshow of the people Rheo helped and all I wanted was to look like that. I’ve had that for 30 years now and it never gets tiring." -- Anthony Pitko

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Rheo Blair Remembered: October 9, 1921 - October 6, 1983

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:48:00 +0000

One year ago we ran several stories remembering Rheo Blair on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Rheo's death on October 6, 1983. His sudden passing was a huge shock to almost everyone around him. We will run several additional remembrances over the next few days. Today is a special one for me. When I moved into Rheo's home in March of 1978 to begin my transformation, I had one housemate, that is to say another live-in client, staying there with Rheo. His stay overlapped with mine for a few days, a time I remember fondly and which as a great beginning to my extended stay. Robert Wall and I re-connected a few years back on Facebook and we had a good time reminiscing. So on this the 31st anniversary of Rheo's death, here is Robert Wall:

"I first heard of Rheo Blair via television in 1977. That was the main medium back then and Rheo made good use of it appearing of various talk shows. Indeed, he had incredible things to show on TV. One such appearance was on the AM Los Angeles morning show with Regis Philbin! Rheo was a frequent guest showing with large photographic evidence how he transformed peoples lives with super nutrition.

The famous Blair Student sticker.

I was fascinated with the idea of "super nutrition" ( this being one of his favorite phrases -- Rheo was "on fire" about nutrition) which Rheo was promoting thanks to the great support and interest on the part of Regis. Through several phone calls (and those of you who knew him know he loved to chat on the phone), I contacted Rheo & asked many questions which he graciously answered.


Robert Wall

Meanwhile, though in pretty good physical condition myself, I had long looked for any edge. So I made arrangements with Rheo to come to his home in Los Angeles & become a Blair Student. This was the Spring of 1978! I spent 10 days at Rheo's taking many vitamins & learning many things Let me add, Charles was there too. Charles was thin & Rheo was going to pack on the pounds, with muscle!

You'll have to ask Charles, how that turned out. I also saw Regis come by & bodybuilder Larry Scott! The info & philosophies I learned have become priceless to this very day. I kept in touch with Rheo often, up to his passing. He always was positive & glad to hear from me. When, I heard of his death in 1983, I remember feeling a profound sadness which came on stronger later, remembering the chats I had with him would be no more. It was a pleasure to know Rheo & I'm sure glad I did."

Thank you Robert Wall!

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Rheo Blair's Funeral

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 03:32:00 +0000

Just a brief post to bring you all some interesting news:

I was recently loaned a collection of cassette tapes having to do with Rheo; everything from him singing at health conventions to broadcasts of Carlton Fredericks. What I did not know and just found is that on one of those tapes is a complete recording of Rheo's funeral service. This is a huge find on several levels. Personally, it means a great deal as I was at that service along with a number of Rheo's closest friends including Lawrence Welk Organist Bob Ralston and Dennis the Menace star Jay North. It is both remarkable and sad to hear it and the memories it brings back are simply priceless.

Remembering Rheo Blair Part IV: Dave Draper a.k.a. "The Blond Bomber," Titleholder: Mr. America, Mr. Universe, Mr. Olympia

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 19:11:00 +0000

"I didn't know Rheo well, but he always welcomed me to his home in LA. And he truly enjoyed whipping up a smoothie with his poplular Blair's protein powder and watching his guest ...

One of Dave Draper's famous bicep shots back in the day.

...drink it down to the last drop. You expected from his expectant look that momentarily new or extra muscle might appear on your eagerly awaiting deltoids or biceps.

Rheo H Blair had a nice, neat and clean shipping operation in the expanded garage behind his simple and quaint cottage not far from the Long Beach Freeway. I zipped down his way in my windy dune buggy a couple of times with Arnold, fresh from Munich. We both gulped down our Blair specials, were given an armful of goodies and off we went, content and rich muscleheads.

They went thattaway. Zoom.

What attracts me most about those days and the experience is they were 50 years ago -- how cool is that? -- and they are defined with catchy words, including nice, neat and clean, simple and quaint. I guess we all do that: look back at the past and say how sweet it was.

God bless Rheo H Blair, who celebrated Christmas at home 365 days a year."

Dave Draper

And Thank you, Dave, for giving us this memory of a unique human being who truly did celebrate Christmas at home 365 days a year. Rheo was the most generous man many of us ever knew.

Please visit Dave's extensive web site and stop by his popular Facebook Page where he and his wonderful wife Laree will always give you a warm welcome!

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Copyright © 2008 - 2013 Charles Welling
All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Remembering Rheo Blair Part III: Bob Ralston, Pianist/Organist/Arranger from the Lawrence Welk TV Show

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 22:29:00 +0000

"RHEO BLAIR was truly unforgettable – in every way. He was a major part of my life from the time I met him, in 1963, until his death 20 years later.

Bob Ralston and family, 1969 Thanksgiving card. Photo by Rheo Blair

Rheo taught me the true meaning of kindness. He was very concerned about the feelings of others. On more than one occasion, I would make an insensitive comment to someone and Rheo would caution me, “Bob, it’s important never to hurt someone emotionally.”

A surprisingly good keyboardist and singer, Rheo would perform at many of his health-foods conventions, and I had the honor of accompanying him on the piano. I told him, “Rheo, you’re my hero; I’d accompany you anywhere!”

Our first meeting was at the Hollywood Palladium, where I was working with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra. Rheo came to deliver some of his supplements to Lawrence in his dressing room. We struck up a conversation, and a week later my wife and I invited Rheo to our home in Los Angeles, where he fixed us his tasty Protein Shake and his Instant Protein Ice Cream.

Our friendship grew, and we did a lot of traveling together -- including a business trip to Chicago and a wonderful vacation at Lake Tahoe.

We were entrepreneurial partners, manufacturing Photo Buttons. It was fun, but the venture was unprofitable and therefore short-lived.

Through Rheo, I met several celebrities, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would go on to become the Governor of California.

Another star Rheo took me to meet was the flamboyant pianist Liberace. I’ll close with this anecdote, but I really must tell it!

One fine day, back in the 1960s, Rheo Blair took me to Liberace’s home in West Hollywood. We drove up the driveway and parked next to the big swimming pool in the shape of a grand piano—with large painted black and white piano keys.

Before we got out of the car, Rheo said, “Bob, you might also meet Lee’s mom. She tends to be a bit snippy, so don’t take it personally.”

We went to the back door, and Lee let us in. The three of us sat at Lee’s kitchen table and chatted. After about 10 minutes, Lee’s mom, Frances Liberace, walked down the staircase that led directly into the kitchen. The following conversation ensued:

Lee: Mom, I’d like you to meet B….

Frances (mean-spiritedly): I don’t care who he is; he’s probably just trying to sell you some vitamins.

Lee: No, Mom, this is Bob, and he…

Frances: If he’s a friend of Rheo Blair, that’s all I need to know.

Lee: Mom, listen to me! This is Bob Ralston that you watch every week on the Lawrence Welk show.

Frances: (Pause—and complete change of attitude) …Oh, Bob! I’m so very happy to meet you. You know, next to my own son, you’re my favorite piano player in the whole world."

Thank you Bob Ralston!
More about Mr. Ralston can be found on his website, here, and his Wikipedia page, here.

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Remembering Rheo Blair Part II: John O'Connor, Close Friend and Chief Assistant

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 19:39:00 +0000

I met Rheo Blair in the summer of ’69. I was seven years old at the time and sitting in a pew at St Brendan’s Catholic Church observing my sister and her fiancé rehearsing for their wedding when into the church walked Rheo,


Rheo surrounded by John's family at their home in 1972

shoulders squared, wearing a bright yellow shirt, as I recall, and carrying a great big camera. As it turned out, my sister’s fiancé and his brother both worked for Rheo and Rheo magnanimously agreed to be one of the two wedding photographers. Then I remember at the wedding reception that was held at our house on south Harvard Avenue in Los Angeles seeing Rheo there again, this time with his Champion juicer, set up in our living room, serving strawberry ice cream! The fact that it was his special high-protein ice cream didn’t matter to me at the time; the fact that it was ice cream did (!) and it was at that moment that Rheo became my new best friend.

I still remember that ice cream as being quite delicious, because I remember going back for seconds and thirds and fourths…although when I reminded Rheo of that time years later he laughed and said he didn’t think that it was the best batch he’d ever made. But to a kid who loved ice cream, eating Rheo’s ice cream on that hot August summer day was a real delight and I recall it as if it was yesterday. Rheo quickly became a dear friend of my family, not really because of the ice cream (although, speaking for myself, it certainly helped!), but because of the man that he was and the invaluable nutritional advise that he provided to members of my family, especially my mother, who was experiencing some pretty serious health problems at that time.

I also remember the first time I went over to Rheo’s house on Rosewood Avenue. I went with my parents and brothers. When we arrived at the door we had to remove our shoes, because Rheo’s house had wall-to-wall white carpeting. This was a new and rather fascinating experience for me. We all ate protein ice cream that night too and Rheo played W.C. Fields movies on his home projector until dawn (Rheo was a real night owl!). I had never seen a W.C. Fields movie before and recall turning to my parents at one point and, referring to W.C. Fields, saying “Where’s this guy been!” as I never laughed so hard in my life.

Although Rheo was a well-known nutritionist in his day and a true pioneer in the field of nutrition, he was also a man of multiple talents. He loved photography and was actually quite good at it; many of his famous before-and-after pictures as well as other publicity pictures were taken by Rheo himself, at least in the early years. In fact, the only moving footage of my family in existence was taken by Rheo himself at my brother’s graduation from Marine boot camp. Moreover, he could also sing and do it well, in a baritone style reminiscent of the late, great Nelson Eddy. He could even play a little piano too, although as a non-musician who lacks the musical knowledge, I couldn’t rate him on this, other than to say he sounded pretty good to me. Moreover, he seemed – to me, anyway – to know his bible and, although he did not belong to any particular religion during the time I knew him, would on occasion cite scripture in a manner reminiscent of Billy Graham.

Rheo dabbled in so many things. This included doing a little body building himself as a young man – although he knew this wasn’t ultimately for him. He was a man who knew his limitations as well as his strengths. But I am convinced that, although nutrition was the career path he ultimately chose, with his positive attitude and willingness to work hard he could have chosen a number of different paths and been successful at it.


John working out in Rheo's home, 1983

Rheo was really ahead of his time in many ways, including when he opened his own gym in downtown Chicago back in the late ‘40s. It included a kitchen along with state-of the-art equipment as well as it provided a venue to sell his and other dietary supplements. He was primarily interested in nutrition, but with targeted exercise. Moreover, he continued to work with body builders, because he knew that they made up a key segment of his target audience and they weren’t afraid to experiment with new things, be it exercise techniques or the protein and other dietary supplements. This arrangement worked out well for Rheo’s fledgling business. They also modeled for his Tomorrow’s Man magazine he published in which he advertised his supplements.

Rheo was also a motivational speaker and I think that, by design, he incorporated motivational tools into the nutritional program. As a disciple of the motivational authors and speakers Earl Nightingale and Napoleon Hill, Rheo was a big believer in the power of positive thinking and believed that in a free society such as ours a positive attitude coupled with hard work would invariably lead to success, be it financial, spiritual, or what have you. Moreover, Rheo felt that many of the young kids he met during his time as a nutritionist not only had nutritional deficiencies that needed to be addressed but also had very negative attitudes, which could be a factor in why too many turned too drugs. So, although many didn’t know this about Rheo, he very often included listening to tapes of motivational speakers like the aforementioned and others, like Reverend Ike, to work synergistically with the nutritional phase and yield better results. I can even recall one time when Rheo took some young students of his and me to listen to Reverend Ike speak out at the Santa Monica Convention Center. I found it to be a riveting experience.

Another thing about Rheo that I’ll never forget is how much he loved science and technology. He was an extremely curious man and was always anxious to learn new things and buy the latest technological gadgets to hit the market. The fact that he had little formal education of his own may have stirred in him a real thirst for knowledge that continued to the day he died. I even recall when I went to see him in the hospital after he had been diagnosed with kidney failure how utterly fascinated he was with the dialysis machine and how it had “saved my life.”

Rheo’s attitude toward technology was quite telling, for it was very different than the sort of attitudes he told me he witnessed as a boy growing up in rural Somerville, New Jersey. He told me his father was one of the first people in their area to purchase an automobile and that there were closed-minded people at the time who referred to his father’s car as the “Devil’s mobile.” Rheo detested this sort of closed-minded, anti-science attitude and wanted to get as far away from it as possible.

As a big music lover, he used to recall his early days working in Chicago when he owned his own recording studio. I think he would have been great at it if he had pursued it, but God obviously had other plans for him. However, one example of Rheo’s fascination with technology was when he went out and purchased the first-generation walkman when it first hit the market and was just beside himself at the quality of the sound coming from what at that time was such a small unit. For a man who was working with reel-to-reel recording equipment back in the ‘40’s, this was no doubt a quantum leap and Rheo couldn’t get over it.

Of course, it was Rheo’s own poor health that inspired him to get into nutrition in the first place. He told me that he was once diagnosed as the most anemic boy in that part of New Jersey where he grew up. Rheo was very sickly as a boy and said that his mother was suffering with an active case of what he called “infantile paralysis” (polio) while pregnant with him. But he said he used to listen from his home in New Jersey to Dr. Carleton Fredericks’s radio show that aired out of WOR in New York City and how this raised him out of ignorance. He praised Dr. Fredericks greatly as his mentor, acknowledging that so much of what he knew about nutrition came from listing to this nutritional pioneer.

Rheo suffered with, among other things, severe hypoglycemia, which he told me impared his ability to think clearly and concentrate in school. This led him to seek relief by experimenting with many different types of diets, including veganism/vegetarianism, which was very popular among the “health nuts” of the day. But he said the first diet that he noticed really helped him was the Bernard McFadden “Milk Diet.” After this, along with becoming a disciple of Dr. Fredericks, Rheo was on the path to adopting the high-protein, animal-based diet as the dietary basis for his nutritional program.

I think Rheo would agree that he was not the most organized individual in the world. But I got the sense that this was, at least in part, because he tried to do too much of everything himself. He should have delegated more responsibilities to others, particularly when it came to the private nutritional counseling. Rheo always insisted on doing it himself, even though there was such a demand for people to see him and he couldn’t possibly handle them all one-on-one. This didn’t stop him from trying. At a certain point,however, when the load simply became too heavy, he did start referring some prospective clients to Dorothy North for nutritional counseling. She was the mother of child television star Jay North of Dennis the Menace fame, was a believer in Rheo’s nutritional philosophy, was very knowledgeable herself, and a well-respected nutritionist herself at the time. I would later work under her in the vitamin department at Quinn’s Health Pantry, which was the state-of-the-art health food store in Los Angeles back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, before Mrs Gooch’s (later purchased by Whole Foods) came along.

Rheo H. Blair influenced my mother and me greatly. My mother told me that she used to scoff at my sister for taking a vitamin C pill, but that when her health was failing her and she was losing so much weight because she couldn’t hold any food down she relented and tried Rheo’s protein powder and that it was the first time in a long time she was able to hold any food down. My mother went on to fully recover her health and became a disciple of Rheo’s and a real believer in the power of “super nutrition.” Moreover, I myself learned so much from Rheo and found myself reading the books he recommended, such Food Facts and Fallacies and Low Blood Sugar and You, both by Dr. Carlton Fredericks, and Super Nutrition by Dr. Richard Passwater. After Rheo passed away, I worked various jobs as a laborer before my mother got me a job working at Quinn’s Health Pantry where she was working. I honed my nutrition skills working in health food stores and eventually went back to school to earn my degree in nutrition. Clearly, Rheo had a profound impact on the career paths my mother and I chose to take.

Another thing I’d like to stress about Rheo was how very open minded he was. Although he was passionate about what he believed in, he was always willing to listen to an idea, even if it was counter to what he believed. And he even found himself changing his views on occasion, including his nutritional views. I remember, for example, how Rheo used to be opposed to drinking beer, before coming to advocate its consumption with meals, in small amounts. Another example of how Rheo could change his position concerned his view on beta carotene. Rheo would always say that carrots don’t contain “vitamin A”; rather, they contain beta carotene, which is pro-vitamin A, and which has to be converted in the liver into the “active” form of vitamin A. Therefore, Rheo argued, beta carotene wasn’t necessary and that it was better to consume foods (e.g., liver) with the active form of vitamin A already available. However, one day, I saw Rheo reading some articles on beta carotene and so I asked him “Why are you reading about beta carotene? You said the active vitamin A is superior.” Rheo replied that, as it turns out, beta carotene may have benefits above and beyond its vitamin A activity, most notably as a much more potent antioxidant than vitamin A, with the capacity to quench the corrosive singlet-oxygen radical. Additionally, not too long before Rheo passed away, he began to see the value in consuming evening primrose seed oil and fish oil, studying up on the important prostaglandins produced from these oils, and even introduced his own Evening Primrose Oil and MaxEPA fish oil products. Although these products seem inconsistent with Rheo’s reputed nutritional philosophy, what this showed was how non-dogmatic Rheo was and that he was more interested in learning and doing whatever worked than engaging in game of cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, this, I believe, is why Rheo was able to deliver the best before-and-afters I’ve ever seen. Even today, thirty years after his death, I don’t think there is an authentic before-and after out there that comes close to the transformation Rheo achieved in the case of Caroline Young (Let’s Live Magazine, August, 1967).

What I realized about Rheo was that he was absolutely not some guy pushing his own narrow agenda to make a buck. In fact, Rheo always went for the highest-quality and as a result the most expensive materials. But he never got rich doing it, as some out there have claimed. In fact, he was always in debt and had to work eighteen-hour days, seven days a week, just to keep paying his bills, which were prodigious. Rheo struck me as a man of integrity, a very spiritual individual with a zest for life, someone who loved science, and a holistic practitioner in every sense of the word who wanted to improve the quality of people’s lives. And he did. Like George Bailey in the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life – a movie Rheo truly loved, by the way – Rheo really did touch the lives of so many people, and no doubt far more than he ever realized. But unlike George Bailey, Rheo actually did make it out of that little town he was desperate to get away from, and there are a whole lot of us thankful that he did!

John O’Connor has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science and works for a dietary supplement company where his duties include Quality Control, R&D, and Regulatory Compliance.

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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

We Remember Rheo Blair On The 30th Anniversary of His Passing

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:14:00 +0000

Seen with Jimmy Durante in Chicago, 1953

Today we begin a week-long tribute to Rheo Hughes Blair, who passed away unexpectedly on October 6, 1983.

I remember that day clearly. Rheo's long time friend and assistant, Rick Backlund, phoned me a few hours after he died. In tears, he told me what had happened. Rheo had been diagnosed with end stage renal failure and had been on dialysis for an extended period of time during which he developed severe heart disease. The two go together. His heart stopped thirty years ago today. The story of his kidney disease will be told another time. Today we begin a commemoration of the man, the wonderful person he was. Over the next two weeks we will run a series of tributes or remembrances from several close friends of Rheo.
They are of varying lengths from a wonderful group of people and even include a couple of well-known names. Check back each day for another tribute. These will make for interesting reading and learning.

This entire website and the book I am working on is my remembrance of the good man. Check back tomorrow for the first of our tributes. I'll end here, for now, by posting the original caption to the photo above originally published in Tomorrow's Man, the bodybuilding and health pocket-magazine he started in Chicago. There is a lot of Rheo in the caption including a couple of his "thousand dollar secrets" to health and success. If you knew Rheo, you will recognize them at once.

Rheo Blair on Calcium and the "Phosphorus Jitters"

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 15:27:00 +0000

A recent article about Rheo Blair caught my eye and has deservedly received much attention around the web: John Catanzaro's "The Protein Pioneer: Lessons from a Golden Age Nutritional Guru" published on the popular Bodybuilding.com. It's interesting on several levels not the least of which is the fact that it's a well written piece by a graduate of Bastyr University, a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine who has an apparent interest in protein supplementation. It is surely a welcome addition to the fairly limited online information about Rheo Blair and his ideas.

The one idea he singles out for "caution" concerns Rheo's promotion of calcium supplementation. And indeed calcium supplementation has been promoted far and wide as long as most of us can remember but quite recently has been found to be a cause for concern with cardiac health. As he states, magnesium, not calcium, is what most us should be supplementing. Moreover, balance of all minerals is important to achieve and maintain. Because we are all biologically unique, some of us need "more of this" or "less of that" to achieve the unique balance that works for us in our individual cases. That is far easier said than done and a matter far beyond the scope of a brief blog post. My only purpose here in this post is to offer some background on why Rheo was gung-ho on calcium.

"Health Gurus" have been known to get their start because of their own early health challenges in life, finding something that works for them and then milking or promoting it as "the" answer to the ills of mankind. My favorite example of this is Dr. Richard Schulze, someone for whom I have the utmost respect and, while I don't agree with all of his teachings, he has taught me a lot and I use certain of his products regularly. Dr. Schulze got his start because of severe health issues early on in his life.

So it was with Rheo Blair. Of course Rheo promoted many things among them protein, calcium, amino acids, etc. He once told me that if he had to sacrifice everything else and choose just one thing he could keep and use, it would be his amino acids; not his protein, his amino acids. But calcium was indeed central to his ideas and this interest began early in his life with an inability to relax.

A physician gave the teenage Rheo (then, Irvin Johnson) a calcium injection and the positive result on his ability to relax was so swift and so dramatic that he was forever sold on this mineral. Along with his early experience with raw milk, the two helped form the foundations of his ideas. The ability to relax and remain in a constant state of relaxations was absolutely central to his theories in general and about maximizing blood circulation in particiular, for the distribution, all over the body, of the hundreds of supplement pills and countless grams of protein he prescribed to his students. He prescribed much extra sleep to his clients which also required the ability to relax. His personal experience had taught him that high-levels of calcium supplementation was required to relax. And so it became part of his regimen. And indeed there is science behind a certain calcium to phosphorus ratio for optimum health. But again, how each of us, as biologically unique individuals, achieves this ratio is another question and it involves more than taking calcium.

In the 1960's he wrote (his emphasis in the original): "The PHOSPHORUS JITTERS is my own unique phrase to describe the overwrought, over-stimulated condition that MANY HAVE BUT DO NOT REALIZE. The PHOSPHORUS JITTERS are characterized by a constant restlessness, anxiety, sleeplessness, and a general inability to relax regardless of how hard you try." This statement of his is very revealing of Rheo Blair the man and why he advocated calcium. His phrase "many have but do not realize" is worthy of study for anyone seeking to understand Rheo Blair and his ways.

Incidentally, his favorite form of calicum was one he never sold under his own label (to my knowledge, and why not, I do not know) but did offer under the manufacturer's label when it was available, and that was Calcium Orotate. This was taken off the market by the U.S. government shortly before I began my stay with Rheo in 1978. He had one bottle of it left in his inventory at the time as well as a bottle of magnesium orotate and gave them both to me. So we do know he was interested in some sort of Calcium-Magnesium balance. But between the two it was calcium where his real focus lay. Calcium orotate was indeed a very relaxing form of calcium and I missed it when I used up that one bottle. It is again available in this country and I do use it from time to time when I supplement calcium, which these days is not very often.

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Copyright © 2008 - 2013 Charles Welling
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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Roy Hilligen Part III: What Type of "Vegetarian" Eats Meat and Drinks Milk?

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Oct. 1951 with Roy Hilligenn "My Story" p. 26

The Hilligenn type, apparently. Randy Roach writes in with this excerpt from his Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors, Volume I, reminding us that, at the very least, he built his body on a non-vegetarian dietary regime and was publicly vocal about this early on. Randy's excerpt follows:

"Totally opposite to Vince Gironda was 1951 Mr. America, Roy Hilligenn, who denounced the meat based diet entirely, opting for the vegetarian lifestyle. He was a rarity at that time, possessing freakish strength and claiming to have never eaten any meat at all. (my emphasis -- CW) Clarence Bass in his article "Roy Hilligenn, a Marvel - Then & Now" quoted Hilligenn:"I believe being a vegetarian all my life is a secret to [my] youthful countenance and longevity and perfect health. Roy says he has 'never' eaten turkey, fish, chicken or red meat. 'I truly believe,' says Roy, 'that fruit is the body's cleanser, vegetables are the body's healer, and meat is the body's premature aging agent.'"

In an early article by Jim Murray, Hilligenn did indicate that he used milk in his diet. However, a letter to Hoffman's Strength and Health in1946 had Roy confessing to gathering protein from more than just dairy. "Eat but 3 meals a day; plenty of milk, fruit, dried fruit, and lean meat.
Can eat like a horse. Where it goes, nobody knows."

Was a young Roy Hilligenn too socially uncomfortable to admit his vegetarian ways? Or was an older version of him just too stubborn to admit he at one time ate meat? Ironically, the same year Hilligenn
won the Mr.America crown, 1950 Mr. USA, Armand Tanny commented on vegetarianism in an article titled "Food For the Champions" for Joe Weider's August, 1951 issue of YourPhysique: "Strict vegetarianism is taboo. Especially if you are on a muscle building program. If your cult forbids the use of meats you had better forget about building your body to the fine lines of the champions."

Tanny was as primal an eater as you would find in any historical era. He also wasn't on board with the food gorging trends that had gained popularity over the previous decades. He stated, "It isn't a matter of eating a lot of food, but rather eating enough of the right kind."

Armand Tanny wasn't publicly vocal about his raw meat eating. He did recommend in his 1951 article both organ and muscle meats, along with milk, beans including soy, and vegetables. In the early 1950s, he was not recommending isolated protein powders, but did advise the readers to research for themselves the potential of vitamin and mineral supplements."

Perhaps -- and probably -- Rheo Blair knew that Roy Hilligen had been a meat eating/milk drinking non-vegetarian during the period he was building his body despite his subsequent claims. All the more reason for RHB to express skepticism about the claims made for vegetarianism, especially since it only tore him down further as a young man when he was trying to regain his health.

Thank you, Randy Roach.

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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Roy Hilligenn Update

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 21:24:00 +0000

Reader and new friend Ken Wheeler, former owner of a chain of gyms called "Superfitness" in Toronto, writes in to say he once employed Roy Hilligenn as a floor instructor. Having just arrived from South Africa with with his wife Marion and two children, Ken hired him sight unseen on the recommendation of Boyer Coe.

My post on Roy was about similarities and contrasts between him and Rheo Blair. Ken helps fill in this picture a bit with further details for which I am very grateful! Like Rheo, Ken tells us that Roy sang for his own amusement (we know Rheo took this a couple of steps further...) and that Roy was always smiling, very motivational with people, and that he used to read a little book called "As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen. Well, anyone that knew Rheo would recognize this same description. I find it particularly interesting they both read the James Allen book. In the case of Rheo, at least, this played a hugely influential role in the person he turned himself into. The same it seems is true for Roy Hilligenn.

We mentioned too, in our earlier post their weak, physically troubled, childhoods. Ken tells us Roy used to joke that when he started training he would have had to gain 2 poundst to be a 97 pound weakling. But his low weight was due to an accident and childhood illnesses. He spent his entire childhood in orphanages. We (I) don't know the nature of his illnesses nor the circumstances of his accident. Rheo said different things at different times about his childhood including a reference to an accident. What is known with certainty is that he was born with a dwarf kidney and other issues due at least in part to his mother's bout with polio before his birth. Let it be known here that the dwarf kidney eventually brought down Rheo's good kidney and this is what led to his death; end stage renal failure. He had been on dialysis for a year before he died. We are getting off topic here but don't believe anything suggesting he died of food poisoning after eating chinese food or AIDS. More on this another time.

Moving on to their contrasting dietary philosophies, Ken tells us Roy ate fruits and vegetables and some sort of "thing" that looked like a hamburger but was made out of soy. Today, soy is at once a huge industry and an increasingly controversial food. For one thing, it is a known goitrogen. Soy held no favor with Rheo as he called it an indigestible, incomplete protein that ruins your thyroid. Some have sharply questioned Rheo's credibility for having employed soy protein powders early in his work but they do so without acknowledging that he ceased using using soy as a protein source once he discovered its faults and began using milk and egg based formulas. Finally, Ken tells us that prior to a contest in the late 1970's Roy drank 10 protein drinks daily (and ate nothing else) made from casein (proteins commonly found in mammalian milk) and emphasized it must be casein, not whey. I don't know if they kept in touch over the years but at least here, casein, was a place for some dietary common ground between these two charismatic characters.

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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

"Sorry Ladies: Bobby Riggs Threw His Match Against Billie Jean King"

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 04:15:00 +0000

So reads the remarkable headline here for a story summarizes the long, page turner of a read here. For those of you who may not know anything about this, you can catch up on your history, here. Then, go back and read the first two links in order.

Most of you probably know that Rheo Blair prepared Bobby Riggs nutritionally for the first match against Margaret Court in 1973 and Bobby beat her handily. Riggs was a committed Blair disciple taking his 400 Blair pills every day and following a careful diet as prescribed by Rheo. This brought Rheo tremendous national attention. But in the second match, the one against King, it has always been a mystery why Riggs lost. We know he let himself go downhill physically, didn't prepare for the match, sloughed off his nutrition program like he didn't care. Why? Perhaps we now have the answer.

It's fascinating and it has Billie Jean King Fans up in arms. Want to watch Bobby Riggs discuss his 400 pills/day regimen with Mike Wallace on 60 minutes? Want to watch him swallow a handful? The portion with the pills begins at 3:50 if you want to fast forward. The little black pills are Blair's famous Soybro. Wish I had some of those today. Riggs had a tough time taking them but as you can see he made himself do it. But the toughest pill to swallow must have been throwing the second match if in fact that is what happened.

Mike Wallace' opening statement, in hindsight, may be both ironic and wrong:

"In the era of winner-take-all tennis a past champion hit upon a unique way to cut himself in on the action. Challenge the women. Make it about anything but the money. Make it about the superior gender"

It may have been ALL about the money, after all. Not something Billie Jean King will relish, if true.

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Copyright © 2008 - 2013 Charles Welling
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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

A few notes on Rheo Blair and Roy Hilligenn

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 20:33:00 +0000


Irvin Johnson and Roy Hilligenn at a party ca. 1953

Roy Hilligenn, much loved and a bit of a character in his own right, is but a footnote in the life of Rheo Blair. But between these two fascinating men both a certain contrast and a few parallels are worthy of at least brief mention. We begin with the latter.

We touched on Rheo's public singing performances at Health Conventions in a recent post. More than a decade earlier at a party we find him teaming up with Roy Hilligenn to sing a duet. The two of them can be seen in the upper left portion of the image to the left in which Rheo (in his Irvin Johnson days) has his hand around Hilligenn. You can tell he is not shy about opening his mouth to sing. Both gentlemen can be seen in all three photos within this image which was published in Tomorrow's Man in 1953 (click on the image for bigger view). The caption reads "Open house at the home of Philadelphia specialist, Dr. T. Ealy, drew a happy crowd of celebrities in the bodybuilding field. TOP LEFT: Irvin Johnson and Roy Hilligenn join in a duet while Jack Delinger prefers to "sit this one out."

Both have been called "entertainers" and "charismatic." Roy was the "smiling superman" and Rheo the great singing imitator of Nelson Eddy. In earlier days Rheo was also known as the "singing milkman of Sommerville" (NJ). Both succeeded in no small part because of an unusually positive attitude, a pleasing personality, and a huge amount of determination.

And at early points in their respective lives both were both the proverbial "90 pound weakling." But enter here a critical and noteworthy contrast: they chose and maintained throughout their lives very different dietary philosophies and roads to health. Rheo's devotion to healthy proteins, fats, amino acids etc. needs no elaboration here. Roy was the vegetarian opposite. He wrote "I believe being a vegetarian all my life is a secret to [my] youthful countenance and longevity and perfect health." Roy says he has "never" eaten, turkey, fish, chicken or red meat. "I truly believe," says Roy, "that fruit is the body's cleanser, vegetables are the bodies healer, and meat is the bodies premature aging agent." He built his body with vegetables and weights. He turned out to have the God-given gift constitutional gift of being an "easy gainer."

Not so, Rheo. In his youth he experimented with every sort of diet in attempting to simply feel good. He left nothing out, not even the carrot juice fast. He also tried weightlifting. But weightlifting was of no use other than to deplete and leave him in a weakened state -- until he coupled exercise to a nutrient-dense diet of animal-sourced fats and proteins with supplements, the latter to aid in assimilation and usage of the former. This began for him with the classic raw-milk diet-cure which turned is life around. He then got his first real job, delivering milk while studying voice on the side; hence the "singing milkman of Sommerville."

I never with spoke with Rheo about Roy Hilligenn but then I had never heard of Roy Hilligenn until I began this project. But Rheo did give me an earful, at every opportunity, about what he considered the utter futility of vegetarianism (for the record, I do not agree with him on this; see my words below on different metabolisms). For the usually happy, gentle soul who was practically always smiling and singing, it was surprising to see him get animated and riled when the subject of vegetarianism came up; one of the few things that truly irritated him. Perhaps because when he was in his young, weakened state, all it did was tear him down further.

On a personal level, a low fat, low protein, vegan sort of diet also does not work for me although I have had more than one "one-size fits all militant vegans" try to convince me otherwise. I do best on a very high animal-fat/ protein diet. BUT I do understand that people are different. My father is a very young and vibrant 83 year old who swims an hour every day and thrives on veganism -- and so did Roy Hilligenn. And that is because we all have different metabolisms. Biochemical individuality is a reality. Rheo understood, acknowledge and preached biochemical individuality. And to this end each of his students underwent blood work to determine their glandular profile which in turn helped Rheo individualize each clients' program. But Rheo could be as rigid in a paleo-diet sense as vegans are about their ideas.

Rheo's mentor, Carlton Fredericks, had Dr. Robert Atkins on his radio program in the middle of June 1983, about 10 days before Rheo and I travelled to New York to appear on that same radio show (as well as The Morning Show with Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey -- another story for another time). I listened to a tape of the Fredericks/Atkins episode recently and Dr. Atkins related an interesting phenomenon: while the assumption is that steak/meat/fat doesn't generally cause blood sugar spikes and carbohydrates do, blood tests show that a small number of people with certain protein sensitivities do experience a blood sugar spike when beef is eaten. Beef is not healthy for such people. For these same people, carbohydrates may be less of a problem food than for most of the rest of us. Carlton Fredericks and Dr. Atkins understood this but I am not certain that Rheo did. In any case, one size simply does not fit all. And by the way, if you can ever get your hands on any tapes of those old Carlton Fredericks broadcasts, they are fascinating.

I would love to have been able to discuss Roy Hilligenn's vegetarian diet with Rheo. It would have been a lively conversation.

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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Housekeeping Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 01:31:00 +0000

This post is to bring you up to date on a few items of a practical nature.

First you will notice the site has been re-designed and re-built. It has a much cleaner look and more closely resembles the "Rheo Blair" "clean" look with of lots of white and red. Those of you who had the privilege of visiting any of his homes in Los Angeles or Chicago know what I mean. But the change was necessitated by my desire to display short snippets of many stories on the front page with a "continue reading" link to the full post. This was technologically impossible with the old design.
There is a slight glitch with the post border but that is being worked out.

With the new format, will come much more frequent posting and often of a shorter nature. This has always been a research blog but now I intend to post a wider variety of items as though I were keeping a notebook of ideas and so forth. The usual longer articles will be posted to be sure but many brief items begin will appearing as well. As always, your input, your emails, are welcomed. It's a joy and an honor to hear from you.

The "book" itself -- the whole point of this venture -- is still in process and will happen. One of the reasons for starting this blog five years ago was to attract or find people Rheo knew, former friends, students, employees. The past month has seen a huge number of such people come out of the woodwork. For the first time since I began this project, I am seriously backlogged in getting to everyone and everything. That's exciting!

So hang in there; a book is will be coming.

Finally, there will be a VERY special post coming in about six weeks. Stay tuned!

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Rheo Blair and Lawrence Welk: The Singing Nutritionist

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 01:00:00 +0000

After having wondered, hoped and searched for a very long time, I am thrilled to announce that recordings DO exist of Rheo Blair singing. I have heard them just this past week and they include a wide range of events. Whenever he attended health conventions he stood out. Singing at these conventions was one reaso and was something he did frequently. The picture you see here is one such example On another occasion he teamed up with famed singer Marni Nixon and sang a duet to rousing applause. And, yes, there is a recording of this duet and it was remarkable to hear. It is well known that Rheo had a particular affinity for the voice of Nelson Eddy and sang many of the songs he was famous for. People remarked just how similar the two voices were. You will find more about Rheo Blair and Nelson Eddy in the article below this one, Hooray for Rheo Blair's Hollywood.

The caption to this photo, which was published in Iron Man Magazine back in the day, reads as follows:
"Lawrence Welk was star of the national Dietary Foods Association annual banquet. From all over the world, diet authorities met in Los Angeles for their 28th annual convention August 4-8. Their annual banquet, entertainment and dancing event was held in the world-famous Palladium Ballroom in Hollywood on Saturday evening. The feature of the evening was Lawrence Welk, his famous band and the entertainers who make up his popular organization. An unexpected feature of the evening was the appearance of Rheo H. Blair as impromptu Soloist. Mr. Blair, physical culturalist, is well known to dieticians and health-food stores nationwide. Lawrence Welk, with his amazing physical stamina and enthusiasm, gave public praise to Mr. Blair for his part in the physical fitness program created for him by Blair. Photograph shows Rheo Blair singing with the Welk orchestra, and the smile of approval accorded him by Lawrence Welk."

There will be much more to say about his singing, indeed about his role as a Hollywood celebrity in the many ways in which he played that role, in the weeks and months ahead. I hope you will stay tuned.

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Copyright © 2008 - 2013 Charles Welling
All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Hooray for Rheo Blair's Hollywood!

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 01:00:00 +0000

This is a repost of an article I wrote back in 2008. It provides context and background for Rheo's presence in Hollywood and, since there are many new readers of this blog I felt it is time to publish it once more. It is also compliments nicely the post above about Rheo singing with the Lawrence Welk orchestra, above. I hope you enjoy it!

My lovely wife, Lorraine, and I spent this last weekend in Hollywood. She performed as part of the Pacific Chorale at the Hollywood Bowl in the Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) production of Not the Messiah -- an "oratorio" (spoof of an oratorio, that is) based on the Python film, The Life of Brian. We stayed at a hotel just adjacent to Hollywood and Highland, a huge outdoor shopping/entertainment/restaurant/hotel complex built to resemble a movie set (more info here). It was a convenient place to stay, since the Bowl is just a 15 minute walk up Highland Avenue. "Up" is meant literally, not figuratively, since Highland slopes up into the Hollywood Hills. FYI, for those of you unfamiliar with the area, Hollywood is a district of Los Angeles, not a separate city.

Our tour today begins today with with dinner and the concert; we will then progress to the Rheo Blair-related pics.
Note that I have not yet learned the correct way to insert photos directly into blog postings (other than at the top). For now, just click on the hyperlinked text, as it occurs below, to view the photos in my Picasa album. When you are in the album, you can also choose to view the entire album as a slide show. There are captions to each photo; however, there is much more detail right here on the blog about each photo. Note too, that there are a few extra photos in the album beyond those which are linked to below. The album also has a map on which the photos are pinned, so you can see where they are physically located. Finally, not all of the links below are photos; some are links to relevant sources of information on the Web.

On Saturday night we joined Lorraine's father (who not only is a good friend but edits much of what you read here on this blog) for dinner at Trastevere. We all enjoyed well-balanced meals Rheo surely would have approved of (with the exception of the carb-intense linguini which I am about to admit to; Rheo was adamant about his low carb/high protein philosophy). Since Trastevere is an Italian restaurant, we started by splitting an order of linguini with tantalizingly kicked-up marinara sauce. I had the grilled and sliced marinated New York steak topped with fresh herbs, lemon and olive oil sauce served with radicchio and arugola salad. Lorraine enjoyed the Grilled salmon fillet with a creamy brandy and Dijon mustard sauce served with grilled Portobello mushroom, eggplant and zucchini. Dad had veal scaloppini spiked with capers and accompanied by roasted potato cubes.

After dinner we walked off the food en route to the Bowl where a great time was had by all. Here's a few shots from the concert; first, the Bowl shell with the performers on stage (can you find Lorraine, or where's Waldo, for you older folks); second, the fireworks finale; another of the fireworks; and finally, the Bowl shell seen backstage from behind looking through the shell out to the audience.

As many of you know, the film The Life of Brian ends with a wierdly wonderful song, Always Look On the Bright Side of Life sung by Eric Idle hanging on a cross. Well, Not the Messiah ends with the same song. So on Sunday, after sleeping in, and still basking in the afterglow of a truly unique (and wacky) experience the night before, Lorraine and I pondered what to do. What would be the perfect complement, or foil, to looking on the bright side of life, so to speak? We ended up at a cemetery. But remember, this was Hollywood, so it was no ordinary cemetery. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, full of dead stars, is adjacent to Paramount Studios and is within a half mile of Rheo's home. Our interest here, vis-a-vis Rheo, is the grave of Nelson Eddy, an operatic singer and movie star whose voice Rheo idolized to a very great extent. Rheo even went so far as to model his own singing voice after Eddy. Anyone who ever heard Rheo sing and was familiar with Eddy's voice was amazed at how much Rheo truly sounded like him. So it's rather interesting, is it not, that Rheo ended up living just a few blocks from his hero's grave! Coincidence? There are more photos of the cemetery in the album.

The eastern perimeter of the cemetery is on Van Ness Drive just a few blocks north of the one-time Rheo Blair residence. So, having enjoyed an unusual couple of hours in this most unusual cemetery, we drove down the street to Rheo's home and snapped a couple of pictures. It is in the 90004 zip code in an area just adjacent to Windsor Square and less than half a mile from Paramount Studios, the former KHJ/KCAL 9 TV studios, and, of course, Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It is a large 3500 square foot Cape Cod style home on a corner. In this picture we see the front steps leading up to the front door. Looking to the second floor, the window to the far right (and partially cut off in this photo) was my room during my stay there. The windows directly above the front door were part of a large second floor landing/common area with a built-in sitting area against the windows.

To the left of the home is a driveway at the top of which is this building, that served as his local warehouse and personal office. Here Rheo processed orders, spent hours talking on the phone as he loved to do, and occasionally mixed custom protein powder forumulas for bodybuilding clients with special needs and requests. One evening one of his most famous clients dropped by to pick up supplements, etc. Rheo brought him in the house so I could meet him. At Rheo's request, he graciously took off his shirt to reveal the most remarkably developed human being I have ever seen. I respect this man's privacy, so he shall remain nameless, but it is a name everyone in the bodybuilding field would instantly recognize. Finally, around the corner was the spa house. The physical therapy, available at the spa house, was designed to increase blood circulation to get Rheo's protein and supplements to where they needed to be throughout the body! The main residence has been sold a couple of times in recent years, and currently appears to be a victim of neglect. It was a stunning property while Rheo lived there. However the entire neighborhood now appears to be undergoing something of a renaissance with an explosion of building and remodeling happening.

Then we headed back up Van Ness and turned left onto Melrose Avenue. If the name seems familiar, you are probably thinking of the Television show Melrose Place. Wikipedia tells us "a short street named Melrose Place exists in Los Angeles as an offshoot of Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood." However we are several miles east of that location. Back to our tour. Having turned onto Melrose, we drive just a couple of blocks until, on our right, we see this sight which in fact is the main entrance to Paramount Studios. At the left edge of the photo you will notice a green hedge, which can be seen clearly in this picture. The hedge hides a Paramount parking lot. But this spot is historically significant for having been the location of the famous Nickodell Restaurant -- which was torn down in 1993 to make way for -- the parking lot! There are a few interesting tidbits about Nickodell (here). It was a star hangout, apparently having been made nationally famous by a mention in I Love Lucy. Indeed, it was where Desi Arnaz interviewed and hired William Frawley to play the part of Fred Mertz. It remained a star hangout until its last day. This was Rheo's favorite local restaurant. He initiated me to the place a few days after my arrival to live at his home. We both had -- upon his recommendation -- the prime rib sandwich. Now anyone who knew Rheo knows he didn't eat sandwiches; however, this was simply an inexpensive version of the prime rib dinner. Throw away the bread, as we did, and voila, prime rib dinner for half price! I saw any number of stars in the place including two from Happy Days -- Erin Moran who played Joannie Cunningham and Pat Morita who played Arnold. Morita was perhaps better known for his starring role as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid. It's a real shame that another great Hollywood restaurant, I should say institution, is gone.

To the left of the hedge in the previous photo can be seen the former home of KHJ/KCAL TV 9. A clear shot can be seen here. In the early 1980s a morning talk show hosted by Paul Ryan and Meredith McCrae named "Mid-Morning-LA" originated from this studio. Rheo was a repeat guest on this program (and I with him on one occasion in the spring of 1982).

From there we continued west on Melrose three blocks to Larchmont and turned left. Down about a block on the east side of the street is this office building. Here, Rheo kept his business office, run by his business manager, Freddy Lindblad. A kindly soul, a loyal hardworking assistant for Rheo, and like Rheo, a musician, Freddy made Rheo's business run. He was the person who screened potential clients for Rheo before such people got anywhere near him. When Rheo made a television appearance, the telephone number given out to the public was for this Larchmont office. Freddy handled these incoming calls. It was with Freddy my mother first spoke after she saw Rheo on television. Freddy, sensing a good potential client in my mother, got Rheo's OK and passed his personal number to her. She was then able to phone him directly to make an appointment. The rest, as they say, is history.

We then continued south on Larchmont, crossing Beverly Blvd. to South Larchmont and what is known as Larchmont Village, info here. There were two shops here in the village pertinent to Rheo Blair. Quinn's Nutrition carried a variety of his less expensive supplements. Quinn's sales representative was Dorothy North, mother of Jay North, of Dennis the Menace fame. Dorothy was a close friend of Rheo, was familiar with his products, and was able to give advice and guidance about his products to customers coming into the store. Indeed, Rheo often sent people directly to her. The other shop -- and I confess to forgetting the name -- was a high end food market where Rheo purchased his raw milk, cream, butter and fertile eggs. Both stores are now gone. It is still a very pleasant little area to visit with a farmer's market on Sunday and many fine little sidewalk cafes, where one might enjoy a good meal on a sunny summer afternoon. Lorraine and I did just that on this Sunday when we took many of the photos you have seen here.

That's all of Blair's Hollywood for now. We will continue this tour in the near future with a few more locations of relevance to Rheo's life and work.

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Copyright © 2008 - 2013 Charles Welling
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Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Rheo Blair Supplements: Nathan's Notes On Rheo Blair's Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:40:00 +0000

Following our conversation with Nathan, we now share detailed information he has from extensive notes he took during the hours spent with Rheo on the phone in the early 1970's. We have here his complete program consisting of "secrets" Rheo shared only with his advanced clients.

This will entail two posts describing first the quantity of supplements he used and and a description of each; and, second, the dietary and lifestyle regimen he got from Rheo. There will be more on what Rheo liked to call his "secrets" in the second post, putting it all together to achieve the big results.

So we begin with Nathan's Rheo Blair conversation notes on the quantities he used and his descriptions of many of the supplements.
Much of the information that follows was originally posted by Nathan in the superb forums at IronHistory.com hosted by the Joe Roark. The posts there garnered considerable interest perhaps because there seems often to be a certain mystery and mystique that surrounds Blair and his supplements. The possible reasons for this are: 1. those supplements helped produce such stunning results; 2. his most prized products were available only to his private clients; 3. All of the products were very costly; 4. Blair always talked about his "thousand dollar secrets" which also were available exclusively to his private clientele; and 5. Blair himself was something of a character, an enigma, a mystery.

Given all of the above a certain lore about him, his products and his overall program has grown since his death and the subsequent demise of his product line. Our goal is to present the facts and clarify the mystique so that all may share in the "secrets" of this pioneering nutritionist who touched so many lives both famous and private.

Please note that you may learn more from our related post What About Those Unusual Rheo Blair Supplements; you may also type the word "supplements" in the Google search box over in the right hand column of this page. Numerous articles on this site will be listed in the Google results which reference the Blair supplements. Our goal here at Rheo H. Blair; The Book is to be a comprehensive, one-stop reference for the life and work of Rheo Blair. We uncover more information information on Rheo and his supplements everyday most of which is unpublished but which we will share in due course. In the meantime, the information from Nathan provides a solid overview of the Rheo Blair program for someone wanting to improve their physique.

Nathan:

I begin by posting the total amounts Blair had people use while on the big program, specifically as the plan that I was on, which might have varied for others. Regarding digestive enzymes, I am sure Blair used them to help with digestion of the fats in his program. He was never happy with the enzyme product he had, though, and said so. I have not included the enzyme product among the descriptions of Blair products below as I don't know the exact composition of that product and don't have notes. What I do recall is that the label just said "digestive enzymes" likely some combination of bromelain, papain, amylase, protease, and tripease. Regarding calories, though, the program was essentially a low carb program to begin with, so although high in calories, most guys did not put on bodyfat with it, you kept the carb grams low, and did not count calories. If you did put on bodyfat with the protein drinks, Blair would do two things: #1- have you cut back more on carbs, and if that did not work, then, #2- have you go to a doctor and be tested for hypothyroidism.He had doctors in California who would receive the data for him to analyze, if needed, as he was not an MD and your local Dr. might decline to give him the results. Some guys would consume up to 6000 calories a day, and still remain muscular, at least by the standards of the day. When bodybuilders were trying to "cut up", Blair had them replace the milk with water in the drinks, and cut the cream in half. They would also use a lot of the amino capsules at that time. But the Digestive Enzymes (and Hydrochloric Acid) were crucial to the proper digestion and assimilation of all this fat and protein.

I have been asked about amounts I used while on the Rheo H. Blair program. Here is exactly what he had me using on the "big" program. I was only on this for a couple of months, as it was all I could afford, but my progress was the best I ever experienced, in every way. I continued to use his products for many years, and frequently spoke with him, and later Freddy, on the phone, for years after this, as I would phone in my orders. If you were a long term regular Blair student, he would even ship to you on "open account", and allow you to mail a check after you received the products. Naturally I always paid in a timely manner when he did this. The usual reason to have him ship that way was to save time in getting the products if you were low. Keep in mind that the plan shown might not be the same for everyone. At the time I was on this specific program, I was fairly lean and wanted to to gain muscular size and strength, so it would have been biased towards those needs. Note also my own editorial comments at the bottom. Here is the plan, per day, which luckily I wrote down over 30 years ago, and kept:

Vitamin A: 67,500 IU- I was taking one A+D capsule, but most of this, and the D, came from 30 Cod liver oil capsules/day. 
Vitamin D: 4,800 IU- Also mostly from the CLO, but also included in this amount is what was in the Calcium capsules. 
Vitamin E: 1,200 IU- Mixed tocopherols: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta 
Vitamin B-1: 120 mg
Vitamin B-2: 120 mg. 
Vitamin B-3: 600 mg. ( B-3 is Niacin, for anyone unaware) 
Vitamin B-5: 240 mg. (B-5 is Pantothenic Acid) 
Vitamin B-6: 1,300 mg.-B-6 is essential to protein utilization, part of this B-6 was in the digestants 
Vitamin B-12: 12,400 mcg.- this is an enormous amount, but B-12 is only assimilated as a fairly small percentage of intake .
PABA: 120 mg. (ParaAminoBenzoicAcid) 
Folic Acid: 1600 mcg.
 Choline: 5000 mg. (part of this was from the lecithin capsules mentioned below)
 Inositol: 3500 mg
Biotin: 140 mcg.
 Vitamin C: 6700 mg.- This was from the C-BioPlus product, plus some ascorbic acid tablets 
Citrus Bioflavanoids: 3000 mg.
 Rutin: 500 mg.
 Magnesium: 120 mg., as magnesium aspartate 
Calcium: 1800 mg. as citrate, lactate, gluconate, and carbonate combination
 Zinc: 150 mg.- I did not record what form this was in.
Copper 500 mcg
 Manganese: 30 mg.
 Iodine: 9 x RDA on ALTERNATE days. This was as Iocen, a liquid dulse product.
 Phosphorus: 1160 mg. - this was in the calcium and or protein products. 
Trace minerals: 25 mg
 Betaine HCL: 3470 mg.
 Glutamic Acid HCL: 1860 mg.- contained in the digestant tablets (4-7 of the tablets use per feeding) 
Pepsin: 1000 mg.- contained in the digestant tablets (pepsin is a 2nd stage digestant) 
Protein: 120 grams of protein from the protein powder, exclusive of the protein found in the milk and eggs used to make the  protein drink, and exclusive of any found in food or the liver tablet. Note the 120 grams is the protein only, not the total  weight of the powder used, which was about one cup by volume. I could have used more, as well, but Blair wanted me to use at least this much.
 Liver Extract: 60 per day. These would have contained iron and B-12, but perhaps more importantly, the intrinsic factors found  in liver, which are known to increase endurance.
 Soybro: 30 per day. The defatted tri-germ oil product. This would have naturally contained tocotrienols, octacosanol, and  other plant sterols. 
Crude Wheat Germ Fractions: 30 per day- A defatted whest germ oil product, high in octacosanol, the same as 10 minim  Prometol. Optionally, you could take 60 Soybro per day, and not this product
 Lecithin: At one time, he had me taking 45- 1200 mg. regular lecithin capsules per day. When the later, smaller high potency  lecithin p-c came out, he recommended up to 30-400mg. capsules of that type.
Amino Acids: 15 capsules per day
 L-Glutamine: 6 grams per day, as 12-500mg. capsules. 
Blair's Free Form Amino Acid Capsules: "As many as you can afford" was his quote. For someone who had unlimited wealth, the number was 60 per day.
 Digestive Enzymes: 4 to 7 per feeding, unfortunately, as previously stated, I did not record what was in these.
Softone: This was simple psyllium husk. Blair had me use 1-3 teaspoons daily, mixed in water or milk (not in with the protein drink). This is basically a Metamucil like product to help with regularity while on this diet high in dairy products, with little  fiber in it otherwise

Total: 250 capsules/tablets per day.

IMPORTANT: Blair stated that many of these nutrients should not be taken without others, notably some of the B-Complex. He was using amounts he thought would act synergistically. It would not be wise to merely pick out some of the items listed here, and take those amounts, without the others. It would be wiser to take, for example, 1/4 as much of EVERYTHING, and to use all of it, rather than full doses of only 1/4 of the items listed.

Product descriptions:

BLAIR'S SOYBRO was a tri-germ oil product from wheat, rice, and soy oils, but it was defatted (Energol -- a Hoffman/York product -- had the same combination of oils, but was not defatted). SOYBRO was made by a company called Professional Labs, located in Iowa. The idea of a defatted oil may not sound possible at first, but what was removed was the heavy lipids, leaving, and thus concentrating, the (good ) octacosanol, tocotrienols, and so on. I wondered, early on, if SOYBRO was just ENERGOL in capsules, but that was not the case, if you opened one of the SOYBRO capsules, you could tell the difference. Also, when SOYBRO became unavailable after Rheo's death, Freddy Linblad, Rheo's office manager, was able to get the liquid which the capsules contained. It was sold under the name SOIMONE, and was from the same lab that had made SOYBRO. They could sell the liquid in relatively small quantities, but they needed an order for a million capsules or so in order to do a day's production run of the capsules. Anyway, the SOIMONE was not oily like ENERGOL, did not stick to your mouth and tongue the way ENERGOL did. Based on the composition of SOYBRO, it would have contained Octacosanol, Hexacosanol, Tocotrienols, and Tocopherols, although in fairly small amounts, relative to the amount of those needed to have much effect on the human body. So taking a few of these a day would not do much. Rheo had his advanced students take 30-60 Soybro capsules per day.

BLAIR'S LIVER EXTRACT This was a low temperature freeze dried, defatted, raw liver extract in

capsule form. It was made, at one time, by a company called Reheis, in Chicago, which has not made it in many years. Rheo had told me his LIVER EXTRACT required 16-20 lbs. of raw liver to make 1 lb. of finished product, so that would be at least a 16 to 1 concentration.

CRUDE WHEAT GERM FRACTIONS was a defatted wheat germ oil product. Blair did not offer this on his regular price list, but did sell it to his advanced or private students. It was about three times the price of SOYBRO which was priced at approximately $50./1000 and CWGF being around $150./1000. Today a product called Prometol is the SAME product: same shape, size, and color softget; same taste, smell, and texture of the product inside. I am dead certain they are the same thing. They are a product of VIOBIN, and can be found through a lot of the big online vitamin sellers. They are not cheap but you can find them from the discounters for a little under $20/100. Blair suggested 30 per day, so, in 30 days, you would take 900 capsules, or $180. worth of that product alone. Less money, adjusted for inflation, than Blair was selling them for 30 years ago, but still expensive.

BLAIR'S LECITHIN PC- This was really not a special product as such. Blair had used regular lecithin capsules, particularly for students trying to lose weight, and when the Lecithin Phosphotidyl Choline hit the market, he started using that. Up to 45 400mg. capsules per day, on the big program. Rheo said "they make the rest of the plan work better", though he offered no full explanation. These are available a lot of places, referred to as Lecithin PC, or as Triple Strength Lecithin. They are as effective as a 1200mg. capsule of ordinary Lecithin, while having less calories and bulk, and less to digest.

Vitamin E- Blair's was a regular generic product, however, he did use the capsules which were MIXED Tocopherols, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, as opposed to the simple d-Alpha tocopherol of many capsules. He had me use 1200 IU per day when I was on the "big" program.

Vitamin C- Blair's were ordinary ascorbic acid, the common form of C available about everywhere. He had his students use large amounts on the big program. The total amount he had me using at one time was 6 grams per day, others much more.

Bio Plus This was a Bioflavanoid capsule with Vitamin C, similar capsules are available from TwinLab, Swanson, and other suppliers. Blair said this enhanced the uptake of Vitamin C, and helped with workout recovery.

Vitamins A and D Blair had me use fish liver oil capsules to obtain these. At one time, I was using 30 of the small capsules per day. He emphasized the oil should be cold processed. He also said that Vitamin A, in particular, should be from natural sources, not synthetic. He stated that the synthetic form, for whatever reason, was more likely to cause the toxic buildup problems sometimes associated with Vitamin A.

BLAIR'S B-Complex: Each capsule contained 30mg. each of B-1, B-2, and B-3(niacin), and PABA, 75mg. of B-6, 60mg. of Pantothenic Acid, 100 mcg. of B-12, 400 mcg. of Folic Acid, 35 mcg. of Biotin, and some Choline and Inositol. The difference in this product, and most others of its time, was that ALL B-Complex factors were included in it, as opposed to cheaper products which often only had the "numbered" B vitamins. It was a capsule when most of the others were still tablets. Also, when Rheo had these made, he had the amounts of each component adjusted to what he felt were the right proportions, as compared with many products which just had, for example, 25 units (mg. or mcg., whichever applied) of every nutrient, regardless of the actual needs for each.

BLAIR'S B-12, B-6, NIACIN, AND B-1/ B-2: None of these were anything out of the ordinary, the same chemical compostion as any other brand. The B-1 and B-2 came together in one capsule. BLAIR would have students use extra amounts of one or more of these, depending upon the individual's needs. He had bodybuilders and lifters use huge amounts of B-12 at times (10,000 mcg. or more), due to the fact that the body will uptake a limited % of B-12, but will uptake it in direct proportion to how much is taken. The only B-12 available at the time was cyanocobalamin, I expect Blair would also have been using the methylcobalamin form now available, if he was living. MY guess is he would have combined the two. Extra B-6 was used to help further faciltate protein assimilation, and extra niacin is known to help "distribute" nutrients throughout the body. The B-1 and B-2 capsules were to help provide extra energy.

BLAIR'S CHOLINE PLUS Blair said to use this only if you were also using the B-COMPLEX as well. I don't know his reason, but expect there was some issue in somehow being "out of balance" if you took it alone. These were Choline and Inositol capsules, 2:1 ratio of the Choline to the Inositol. Basically, it was a lipotropic (fat loss) product. This product was mentioned in PUMPING IRON (the book), as is Blair's Protein, both on page 60, with Mike Katz and Ed Corney using it. Today's substitute would just be Choline and Inositol capsules, probably separate, in order to achieve the 2:1 ratio. It is a weight loss product the way he used it. I think Rheo also used the amino acid Methionine with students needing to take off fat. If he was around today, I expect he would also be using L-Carnitine, or the Acetyl L-Carntine, and probably Conjugated Linoleic Acid for students needing to lose weight.

IOCEN This was a liquid iodine product, made from dulse. One would take a few drops on alternate days, and it would provide, in his estimation, all the iodine you would need.

SOFTONE This was nothing but blond psyllium husks, a bulk fiber product, about the same as Metamucil. Blair had students use it if they had any elimination problems as a result of his program, which was obviously low in fiber.

BLAIR'S CALCIUM PLUS and CALCIUM P-F (phosphorus free): These two calcium products, the only difference being one contained phosphorus, and the other did not, were superior to others on the market in their day. At that time, most calcium products you would see were calcium carbonate tablets, which were very difficult to digest and assimilate. Blair's was in capsule form, and consisted of calcium citrate, lactate, gluconate, and carbonate. They also contained vitamin D, and some HCL to help them be easily digested (in case you were wondering, HCL in its dry form doesn't digest anything until dissolves in liquid, such as in the stomach, which is why it did not digest the capsules while still in the bottle). Calcium carbonate is, and always was, the cheapest and least bioavailable form, so it is generally inferior to the other forms. It makes a good antacid, as it takes so much stomach acid to digest!

BLAIR'S MAGNESIUM Blair was using magnesium aspartate, when all the other formulas were the very inferior magnesium oxide. Today, magnesium asparate, citrate, and orotate are available, and are all good forms. You can find them combined with the calcium in many formulas.

BLAIR'S ZINC I don't have notes on this one, but I think he was using either citrate or picolinate, again, when everyone else was offering the cheaper and less assimible oxide form.

The three minerals listed are here are those Blair considered most important, in particular the calcium. He had students using these often without having them use the other minerals such as his IRON PLUS product. All in all, though, these products were ahead of their time.

BLAIR'S AMINO ACID CAPSULES These were famous. Many top bodybuilders used these, particularly when they were on restricted diets and trying to get cut for contests. My understanding is that Blair had these formulated to his specifications, which was with the profile of whole eggs. That is, the aminos would be in the same proportions as they would occur in eggs. They were expensive, around $600. per 1000 in the early 70s. I think the peak price on them later was around $1.00 each, and that was during a time frame when money was worth more than it is now. Part of this high price may have been due to low production, and part may have been Blair making a big profit on them. Steve Davis later had these analyzed and was selling a product he said was essentially the same for about 10% of the price Blair was getting. Not 10% less, but 10%, that is, 90% less. At the time Blair was selling his, I don't think there was any other such product on the market, so his were the only option. They did work well, even a few a day seemed to help your general well being.

Next time: Blair's Dietary Guidelines for Nathan's program.

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Copyright © 2013 Charles Welling

All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

A Conversation about Rheo Blair, Part II -- Nathan's Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 23:43:00 +0000

In Part I of our conversation about his experience with Rheo Blair, we met Nathan, a "distance" student of Rheo Blair's back in the 60's 70's and 80's.

We learned how he heard about Rheo and of his initial, modest Blair program.He had tried other lines, Weider, Hoffman, etc but eventually chose Blair's. We learn why.

And we learn of his second, more intense Blair program, including his views on some of Blair's products.

Charles: Let's clarify what the issues were in your mind at that time regarding the choice between the Weider products and the Blair products. You say that Weider claimed superiority for his products?

Nathan: Yes. Certain non-Blair products were so highly touted in the magazines of protein manufacturers, not only in ads, but in text, that an impressionable kid had to believe they were the best. By them being touted in text, what I mean is that most articles about a successful bodybuilder of the time would often include that bodybuilder testifying that he owed much of his success to, for example, Weider products. Initially they tasted awful but as time went on, with more sugar added, they tasted better. But at what cost to nutritional quality?
I recall a product named “Super Pro 101”, a canned, liquid product, which listed as its first ingredient: corn syrup. I liked the vanilla flavor, but the 30 grams of protein (later they claimed as much as 40) derived from it was at the expense of one having to also ingest a lot of empty and harmful sugar calories. Another one I remember well was “Crash Weight #7, “ I believe it was made of confectionery sugar, flavoring, and casein. Claims for it were up to a pound a day of weight gain, but even though I mixed it with things like ice cream, bananas, pineapple, raw eggs, and lots of milk, I still did not gain much weight on it. Probably just as well, because if I had gained weight, it would have probably been mostly fat.
Charles: So you're saying there was lots of sugar, empty calories, and not much in the way of results. Those are words no one would ever use about Rheo Blair! And didn't Weider also sell protein tablets?

Nathan: Yes. And here we go again: Weiders' protein tablets consisted of, I think, soy protein, probably some sugar, and flavoring, Those did have bromelain in them to assist with digestion, but I am not sure if there was actually enough to do much good, at least for me. On the other hand, Weider's BD/BU (Break Down/Build Up), was a fairly good product which included bioflavanoids and vitamin C. And everyone at that time sold the ascorbic acid form of Vitamin C since the more exotic versions like ester C and some mineral bound forms of C were not yet available. But with most other ingredients, Blair chose the best quality ingredients at the highest therapeutic level per serving regardless of cost; and no sugar, ever. Let me give you an example: if calcium carbonate was cheap, and calcium citrate expensive, Blair would choose the calcium citrate at a high dose level while the others might chose the carbonate at a lower dose level while still charging a high price. So regardless of your out-of-pocket cost, Blairs was ALWAYS the better value and most important of all - you got results! Blair's commitment to results also extended to the form in which the supplement came: he chose, for example, the more expensive and more bio-available capsule format whenever available/possible while others defaulted to the cheaper tablet format which did not always break down or at least did not do so consistently.

And let's get back to the core ingredients. The protein powders Weider and others sold were soy-based which is bad enough BUT it was also grainy and hard to mix adding insult to injury. This was where Blair's milk and egg protein was so clearly superior -- far more nutritious and easier to assimilate of course, but also easier to mix, and better tasting, particularly with the esther based flavorings he sold. To clarify, Blair himself initially sold a soy powder product (and was quickly copied and out-marketed by others). But Blair always was looking for better nutritional options for

himself and his clients. Therefore, when he found out that soy had real problems with indigestibility and was an incomplete protein and therefore an unbalanced amino acid profile, he quickly dumped soy in favor of milk and egg. Had he known soy was a goitrogen, he probably would have dumped it sooner as goitrogens can, in those with thyroid issues, disrupt the entire hormonal balance of the body, that very balance being at the core of Blair’s successful theories and results.

Charles: You are too polite about the taste of the non-Blair powders. I tried several of them in the mid-70s before I had heard of Rheo Blair. Those powders tasted vile. And they didn’t help me. Although I held my nose and drank them religiously I didn't gain a pound. But when I tried Blairs, I couldn't believe how incredibly good it tasted. Blairs' Protein was literally so tasty that it was like something that should be bad for you –but it wasn’t. And how they worked! Before and after magic. Bottom line, you can’t build a healthy body with sugar and soy. Raw organic milk and raw organic eggs DO build healthy bodies. Just ask Weston Price.

Nathan: Yes, my results were certainly not spectacular on the Weider products either, the taste was clearly inferior, and, bottom line, the bodybuilders, in many cases, were not even using them in spite of the fact they appeared in paid advertisements for those same products. Amazing!

Incidentally, I once had a problem with the Weider company when it took around 3-4 months to receive a weight training bench which was paid for in advance. It was a lot more difficult in those days to get any consumer protection, and the thing was paid for by check, so nothing like charging back a credit card. The “Weider Research Institute,” as near as anyone can tell, existed in name only, although I did not know that at the time.

Charles: Rheo didn't always get his orders shipped out promptly, God knows, but it was never anything like 3-4 months and he did do his best with all that was going on around him. We used to joke about everyone at Blair house being on "Blair Time" where the world moved at a more relaxed pace and things just didn't happen in the most efficient manner possible to the casual observer. This was something of an illusion. Truth was, he and his staff were constantly very busy and accomplished more than the average person could ever imagine.

Nathan: Well, my switch from Weider to Blair products was somewhat gradual trying and comparing them to the locally available and less expensive lines. I do wish there had been a local Blair dealer as I could get the others' products nearby and quickly. Blair products were to be found on the West Coast in health food stores, but that was not the case in small towns here on the East Coast.

And, as I started to get to know a few of the serious bodybuilders, I learned that many of them, especially if they were drug free, preferred Blair's products to all others, and almost no one had much respect for most other products lines, other than those with some commercial interest in them, such as the store selling them. And then it is also true that some guys I knew by the 70s were steroid users and basically had found that they gained no matter what, so they were not all that particular about what supplements they used.

Charles: Rheo called these latter the "easy gainers' and said they could eat practically anything and get big. But Rheo made his mark turning hard gainers into successful bodybuilders, over time, and taking easy gainers and doing the same practically overnight. And of course the steroid question is of huge significance and covered thoroughly by Randy Roach.

Nathan: In my case, though, determined to remain drug free, I felt I should be using the best, and while the change was gradual, by 76-77, I had finally dumped Weider and was totally on Blair's. Also, when I started earning more money, around 1977, and Blair assured me his program would get results, that's the way I went. After many years on various other products with gradual, almost indifferent results, I finally got the best, most dramatic and impressive results ever from Blair's big program.

Charles: OK so shifting away from non-Blair products let's focus on your big Blair program. Tell us what happened. And this was how long after your first, modest Blair program in 1966?

Nathan: Well, several years. Fast forward through a late 60's stage of being more interested in things like Bob Dylan music, subculture, and beautiful hippie girls with long straight hair even longer than my own shoulder length hair, to the early 70s, when I went back to the weights it was not because I needed to, but because it was something I missed. Once I was back in the workaday world, and had a full time adult type job, I decided that I could afford the Blair program, and once again contacted Rheo.

Charles: Was he happy to hear from you and happy that you were ready to "go big?"

Nathan: Yes, Rheo was very happy that I wanted to get serious both about bodybuilding and about

doing his big program, and wanted me to come to Hollywood, California for a stay at "Blair House". While that woud have been by far the best option, I had too many commitments to honor rather than go to California for a stay, and reasoned that the money that would have gone for airfare, etc. could instead be used for more supplements. So, I never went. I wish I had, though, because I learned years later about some of the things he did there, such as hydrotherapy, massage therapy, etc.

Charles: Yes, there were huge advantages in the results column of living with him during one's program.

Nathan: And yet, even at the higher level I was on, my participation was still limited by limited funds, and at $600-700 dollars per month, I was still not on some of the more elite products, and on limited doses of others. I WAS able to use good amounts of the Extra Special Protein, at what was THEN $26/lb., lots of his very unique Soybro, Liver Extract, Lecithin, HCL and B-Complex. Rheo would give me advice on both on how to use these products, and advice on training. He was always very cordial and helpful.

However, if Rheo did have had a fault, it was that he either could not, or would not, recognize that I did not have unlimited financial resources. And yet I was spending a fortune. At the time, what I was spending with him was literally as much as some people in North Carolina, my home at that time, were earning. My "Rheo bill" was more than my house payment and car payment combined! And still he wanted me to spend more.

Charles: That sounds like Rheo I knew all right! He was 100% dedicated to everyone getting the best results. But yes his program was very costly, and his special "private" products were both extremely costly to produce and virtually impossible to get anywhere else. But for those who had the resources to buy them and use them at the levels Rheo advised, the results were practically unbelieveable. This is a big reason he went after the Hollywood celebrity crowd; lots of money to spend in pursuit of dramatic results, and, for Rheo, lots of priceless free publicity when they did.

Nathan: All of that aside, and despite my limited resources, this big program was VERY effective for me. I was already a somewhat advanced trainee, and I gained probably another 15 lbs. of muscle in the first 2 months. Not only did I look better but I also FELT better on the Blair program. Felt like there was no stress in my life, despite the fact that nothing in my life had changed to cause this other than my being on the Blair program.

Charles: One reason for this is that his program helped support and strengthen the adrenal glands, those endocrines that deal with stress. Adrenal fatigue, a result of too much stress, is a big problem for many people. It sounds like his program helped you in that regard. But there's another point regarding stress and the Blair program. Rheo taught that a certain frame of mind was required for the best good bodybuilding results: peace and tranquility. Why? Because that state of mind allowed for increased blood flow and thus more nutrients reached the tissues that needed feeding for growth.

Nathan: Not only did I look and feel better, but my skin tone improved, my energy was up, and there was no longer any shaking when I worked out, even on the final, tough reps of a set. From that point on, I always ordered Blair's, at whatever level I could afford. Very expensive but worth every penny from my experience.

And so I can say that after many years on various other products with indifferent results, I got the best results ever from Blair's big program. Results, eventually tapered off; that kind of muscle gain cannot be maintained long term. But cash was ultimately the limting factor, and I had to eventually give up the big program. I continued, however, to use Rheo's products until he died and even after that got them as long as they were available from his office manager, Frederick Lindblad. When Freddie no longer had access to any Blair products, I began trying to replicate the program with other products. Some could be replaced, some could not. Soybro was the one item I never found much of a replacement for. Others were on again, off again, some company would start making a product I thought was similar to Blair's, then often stop making it, probably due to lack of market interest or high cost.

Charles: Tell us about your dietary regime while on the big program.

Nathan: First of all, Rheo's program, at least for people like me who were lean and interested in bodybuilding, was high protein, high fat, low carb. For those who needed to lose weight, my understanding is that it was still high protein, low carb, but perhaps not as much fat allowed. Rheo would probably have had bodybuilders like myself practically live off of his protein, mixed with half and half as a protein shake, or made into a pudding with heavy cream, taken maybe 6 times per day along with digestants and other supplements. But, for the moment, the question you asked is about food: Rheo was VERY much against sugar, or anything like sugar. He told me that things like dextrose, maltodextrose, maltodextrins, corn syrup, etc., were really just other forms of sugar and were to be avoided. He even felt that one should avoid honey and fruit juices, which tended to elevate blood sugar. He singled out ketchup, I remember, saying that most brands were over 50% sugar. He felt that salt need never be added to food, that enough sodium would occur naturally.

Charles: I wonder if unrefined sea salt, Celtic Sea Salt, Himalayan Pink Salt etc. were available at that time. These are superb trace mineral sources unlike refined white table salt which is toxic.

Nathan: Foods he specifically thought were good were cottage cheese (if you weren't overweight, you could have peaches or pineapple with it, but only in its natural fruit juice, never in any kind of syrup), beef- steaks, (but not too much meat, as it would throw your phosphorus to calcium ratio out of balance, which was bad for your nervous system). This phosphorus-calcium thing I have never quite understood, but he obviously did. Potatoes were also fine, if you weren't overweight. Carbs in general were to be limited but when you did have carbs they had to be complex carbs, not simple

carbs. At one time, when I was training heavy with the weights, he had me eating steak and potatoes for breakfast. Eggs were allowed almost any time, from raw to scrambled to soft cooked (not boiled, low temp soft cooked) in the shell. He was very big on eggs, and they were his choice as the food nearest to perfect. Hard cheeses were generally OK, too. He preferred to get everything in natural, unpasteurized, organic form, when possible. Raw milk, cream, and cheese, beef raised with no drugs or hormones, grass fed, etc. About the only thing I know of Rheo allowing that was artificial was the use of saccharin in his ice cream, which was made in an ice cream churn with milk, cream, Blair's Protein, and flavoring. Eggs were used in the French Vanilla version of that ice cream.

I later learned from Freddie that Rheo was very much against commercially available ice cream. Seems that it not only had loads of sugar, but lots of chemicals too, some of which, through some loophole, the manufacturers were not required to put on the label. Low carb salads were allowed, but not near the time protein supplements were taken, as the salad would interfere with digestion of the protein.

I don't know if any of Rheo's thoughts would be different now that we know more about glycemic indexes and insulin indexes. As an example, we now know that sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index level than white potatoes, I do not know if he would therefore be recommending sweet potatoes; we can only speculate on that. One thing I do know is that the human body has not undergone a radical change in just a generation or two, so what Rheo was practicing in the 60s and 70s will still work now, at least for the same percentage of people it worked for then -- and that was most people.

One critical key to understanding his philosophy was his attempt to achieve a steroid like effect by the extremely high doses of all of the B-Complex he used. He also stressed that the various parts of his program were designed to work synergistically, and therefore would be much less effective if someone tried to pick and choose from the products in his line. In a broader sense, Rheo taught me to study and think about nutrition from a scientific standpoint. He emphasized the orthomolecular aspects of nutrition, of working with the cell in mind. I learned to place value on having a diet adequate in complete protein sources. I know the importance of proper digestion and using digestants, and of the critical roles of the the B and C vitamins. And of course the utility of small, frequent meals, in place of large less frequent ones.

Charles: What advice did he have for you with regards to exercise?

Nathan: Well, one basic piece of advice he gave me -- and which I did not heed and wish that I had -- was to exercise less. Even when I explained to him that I was serious about bodybuilding, and not just general health, he said I should only train 45 minutes or so, 3-4 times a week. He did not recommend training to failure or limit, either, as he said that resulted in "training on nervous energy" - his term. He also told me not to do barbell squats. I understand that this may have had something to do with the endocrine system, but the surface reason he gave me was that "squats will develop squatter's thigh, which does not look very good" It wasn't until years later that I understood what he was talking about, that squats DO build legs, but legs that resemble tree stumps, and have little shape or aesthetic appeal. As far as the amount of training goes, I now know that I was grossly, absurdly overtraining, especially in volume, but sometimes in intensity as well.

Charles: As we approach the end of this conversation, Nathan, let's return to the Blair products and what you liked about them.

Nathan: What I liked about Blair products, aside from the fact that they were far more effective, is basically the opposite of what I did not like about Weider. All of the Blair products except for the regular vitamin C, were in capsule form, and easy to swallow. The germ oil product, Soybro, was a soft gel, so no bad taste or texture. The capsule and soft gel forms were also more likely to be assimilated versus a hard compressed pill which might go through the system without the nutrients being released. The protein powder was easy to mix and stayed pretty well suspended in the shake, less settling. When I started dealing with Blair, he was already selling the milk and egg protein, no longer the soy which he had sold earlier, so that might account for the easier mixing. One other thing about Blair was that if you wanted to use a large number of capsules, of something such as Liver Extract or Soybro, he offered up to 1000 capsule sizes, at a discount when compared with buying many small bottles.

Charles: Would you like to single out and comment on one or more specific products that you found especially effective?

Nathan: Soybro was certainly a favorite which I have never been able to replace. A company called Enzymatic Therapy made something they called Sterolplex for a while, which was similar, but generally, there has been nothing like Soybro. It had the heavy lipids removed, thus allowing the uptake of the complex sterols in large amounts, without consuming huge amounts of difficult to digest fat which occurred in the raw oils. If you took 30 or more Soybro a day, especially if you were also taking large amounts of Liver Extract, you experienced a general feeling of well being. Blair's Extra Special Protein has never quite been duplicated. It was the most effective, even though I liked the regular Blair's protein, taste wise. One product that should be mentioned to anyone trying to duplicate Blair's program as seen here, was Softone. This was a high grade psyllium husk product. It was inexpensive, but actually fairly important to the program, or at least to the program I was on, as I got very little fiber when consuming just the dairy products and meat. Psyllium and similar products are readily available of course. But my favorite Blair products, in order, and with some consideration as to how difficult they were to duplicate elsewhere would be: Soybro, Protein (regular OR Special), Liver Extract, and Calcium P-F.

Charles: Nathan, it's been a real pleasure hearing of your experience with the Rheo H. Blair program. Thank you for sharing this with us.

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Joe Weider or Rheo Blair -- Whose Protein Mix? Nathan's Story

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 22:54:00 +0000

Rheo Blair's ability to produce "before and afters" was legendary. But there were far more Blair students behind the scenes whose pictures were never taken. Today we meet one of the most dedicated of these Blair students.

Nathan first used Joe Weider's products but claims he got superior results with Blairs. We will learn of his experience.

Of great benefit to us all, Nathan remembers in detail the nutritional knowledge he gained from Rheo Blair.

Meet Nathan, 61, long time Rheo Blair student dating back to the 1960's. Nathan talks about his discovery of Rheo Blair in the original Iron Man Magazine, his experiences as a Blair student and why, having used the Weider products he switched to Blair's protein and supplements never looking back. We also chat about the Blair diet and how Nathan used it to maximize his gains. And we will find out what Rheo suggested Nathan do for exercise. In all, Nathan paints a detailed picture of his experience working with Rheo Blair.

Nathan lives on the East Coast of the U.S. He has had a lifelong interest in bodybuilding and health. He was a professional photographer for 22 years. Before that, he was in the exterminating business. Every pesticide he used in that business has since been banned and several have been tied to cancerous brain tumors. Nathan has such a tumor which forced his retirement but continues to do well as of this writing. His interest in health is both passionate and dedicated. I have never met Nathan in person but we have had a wonderful friendship these past few years sharing Rheo stories and experiences.

Part I today, we look at his discovery of Rheo Blair and his initial experiences. Nathan paints an interesting picture what it was like to work with Rheo from a distance (as distinct from my own, having lived with Rheo Blair). Take note: his experience with Rheo was in two parts; an early teenage stage with very limited financial resources (which we cover here in Part I) and a later adult stage where finances permitted him to use Blair's products more aggressively and extensively. This will be covered in Part II during which we will also cover his use of Weider products and why he completely stopped using them opting for Blair's exclusively.

Rheo Blair first came to the public's attention when he began publishing articles about his work in Iron Man Magazine. His appearances in Iron Man continued on and off for over 30 years until the early 1980's. Both the articles he wrote and the numerous mentions of him by publisher Peary Rader make for extremely interesting reading. For someone wanting to improve one's health or build a good physique, they were practically irresistible. Which brings us to Nathan. Let's get right to the conversation:

Charles: Nathan, how did you become interested in nutrition and bodybuilding? What led you to Rheo Blair and what were those first encounters with him were like?

Nathan: My interest in bodybuilding really began quite young as an interest in weight training to get into better condition for sports, and to some extent, for self defense. While I wasn't the proverbial 98 lb. weakling, I was less athletic than a lot of other kids my age. I figured weight training would help me become more athletic, so in 1964 I asked for a barbell set for Christmas. The set came with a Bruce Randall course, including pictures of Mr. Universe, Bruce Randall, which inspired my interest in bodybuilding. Then I discovered Weider magazines on the newsstands with bodybuilders (I think the first one was with Larry Scott) and girls in bikinis on the covers, and my interest in bodybuilding became more intense. Larry Scott and Dave Draper were early idols. Aside from the great pictures, the magazines clued me in to the fact that sound nutrition is intimately connected with, and critical for, building muscle. In these magazines, many of the top bodybuilders were advertising Weider products, (or in some cases, Hoffman), but in reality using Blair products! This was a stunner when I found out.

Charles: Blair (as Irvin Johnson in 1950's Chicago) was responsible for having established the crucial link between nutrition and body building success and in doing so he started the nutrition craze that continues to this day. He published his findings and results in various publications especially Peary Rader's Iron Man and later his own magazine, Tomorrow's Man. It was from these published sources that Weider, according to many accounts, noticed Blair's ideas and began formulating both his own products and marketing campaigns to go with them. So, Nathan, when you were reading ads for Weider products, not only were the bodybuilders using Blair's products, but the very nutritional concepts you found in the Weider publications, if you go back and look at who was talking about these ideas in print first, had their start with Rheo Blair.

Nathan: Exactly. In fact I discovered Rheo H. Blair via Iron Man magazine. I read every article I saw about Rheo, and often came across info about the success of his students, many of them big name bodybuilders.Of course this was in the 60 's and long after Rheo sold Tomorrow's Man Magazine. Iron Man, at that time, featured articles on the big bodybuilding stars of the day sometimes including their exact nutritional regimens which were often dominated by Rheo Blair products. This intrigued me but some time passed before I actually contacted Blair, as I was still spellbound by Weider's claims regarding the "superiority" of his products. Finally, in 1966 or 67, I contacted Rheo Blair, on the telephone, speaking to him personally.

Charles: When you first called Rheo, was he hard to reach? Did you need to schedule a phone appointment or did he converse with you right away? What were your initial impressions of him?

Nathan: I think I got him personally, the first time I called. He had stated somewhere, I believe in Iron Man magazine, that there was "literally no way to disturb him", which made me think that he had a way to turn the bell off on his phone, long before it was commonplace for people to do that. He was very cordial, and I was impressed with the fact that he was willing to take time with me. He did not offer much in the way of nutritional advice, other than to say that many of the top bodybuilders at the time were using his products, which he generally referred to as "the materials we have here".

Charles: What stands out most about him from that first phone call?

Nathan: Well, after speaking with him, I knew I simply could not afford to be on his big program (Rheo had programs to fit most budgets, but the programs with spectacular results came with spectacular price tags). Keep in mind that I was still a teen, and while I had a job, it did not pay all that well. I ordered and used some of the regular protein powder, and some liver capsules, from which I got better results than I did from the Weider soy products I had been using.

Charles: You say you ordered the "regular" protein. Did Rheo offer you his more advanced proteins? How did he describe them to you? This is an important subject since most people do not seem to be aware that there was more than one Blair's protein. These same people are frequently under the misconception that any Blair's protein must be powerful and magical in the results it produces whereas only the more expensive ones got the great results -- and even then such results required following the ENTIRE Blair program, not just adding in some protein supplement.

Nathan: Rheo did not mention any of the special proteins or other products as such, when I first dealt with him in the 60s. He would occasionally say something like "The top bodybuilders are getting amazing results by using the materials we have here.", but there was no mention of the special proteins or minerals he actually had. At this point, I feel fairly sure that was due to the fact that I had already mentioned my budget to him. I was talking about $50. a month, which would not begin to buy the special products. I suppose he felt it would be a waste of time to mention products which I obviously could not afford. Much later, in the 70s, I had the budget for some of the more elite products, and was using some of them, including the best protein, but I later learned that some products existed which I never heard of, such as the mineral orotates.

Charles: How much time did you spend on the phone with him that first conversation? And, if he did not offer you much in the way of nutritional advice, what was the conversation about? How big was your phone bill?

Nathan: The first time I was on the phone with him, in the 60s (1966, I think), we did not spend a lot of time on the phone. But it was about enough to establish that his protein and liver extract were the most important things for me, along with Soybro. As I mentioned before, it was pretty obvious that I could not afford a very high level of participation in the program at that time, maybe $50./month at most, and he basically told me not to expect miracles with kind of program. For younger people reading this, keep in mind that while $50./month is nothing today, in the mid 60s, particularly in a place like NC, that was quite a bit of money, especially for a teenager as I was at the time. I am pretty sure I had to pay my father $5. for that phone call, as that was long before cheap calling plans, and this was all the way across the country.

Charles: What was he like? His demeanor, friendliness, helpfulness, politeness, etc?

Nathan: He seemed very friendly and polite. Seemed to be in a good mood every time I spoke with him. I noticed his voice, even though I did not yet know why, I thought he sounded like a radio announcer, or someone else with a trained voice, though I probably did not know the proper definition of a trained voice at the time, either. As far as being helpful goes, that was a bit limited at this point, he subtly made it clear that he was not in the business of giving free advice, but that if I was on his program, a lot more would be forthcoming. I don't recall wording or anything after all these years, but I do remember something along the general lines of "If you start using our program, we will see to it that you know how to derive optimum benefits from it." BTW- He seemed to generally use the terms like "the materials we have here", and "our program", instead of using "I" in his sentences. I guess this was so as not to sound egotistical about everything.

Charles: Can you recall the specific (or close to) supplements and amount of each on your early Blair program?

Nathan: I think I was using 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the regular protein per day, in whole milk, sometimes with a banana or ice cream, It didn't matter that much to me about carbs, and I only knew that I needed a lot of calories and protein, I was really lean at the time and struggled to put on any weight, so it did not make me fat. I usually took that after school, then worked out, which I now know was the wrong order to do it in. I was using some Liver Extract, I think about 3-4 with each meal, so probably averaging 10-12 per day. I bought Soybro a time or two, but did not use much, maybe something like 1 per meal. I used Energol, a Hoffman product, instead, thinking it was the same thing, which, of course, it was not, as Soybro was defatted and Energol was not. One thing I wish I had known the importance of at that time, were the digestants- Peptain HCL. Back then, I was drinking up to a gallon of chocolate milk per day on top of the protein drink, and still was not gaining weight!

Charles: Rheo NEVER suggested chocolate milk to you I assume...

Nathan: No, he did not. I just drank it to increase calories and protein as I also ate huge amounts of food. If I can find a way to avoid being too graphic about it.....well, bathroom visits showed where all of that food and milk was ending up, in the form of something that would look more like it belonged in a pasture, than coming out of a human. Off topic for a moment, this is something no dietician or nutritionist has ever been able to give me a really sound answer for- if you give 2 people 3500 calories each, one defecates 1000 of the calories, and the other defecates 2000 of the calories, then the 3500 calories=1 lb. of bodyweight paradigm is completely shot down. That 3500 calorie (or calorie excess or deficit) has a flaw in it. I later learned that Rheo addressed this specifically where protein was concerned in that he recognized that the important thing was not how much protein you consume, but how much you assimilate. Thus, his rules about using digestants, consuming protein drinks and puddings slowly, chewing your regular food thoroughly, etc.

I need to clarify something here for the sake of the reader. I was on the Rheo Blair program two different times, the details of which we will get to. The first time, in 1966 as a a nearly broke teenager, and the second time beginning in 1977 when I was working in a real job and had much more money available to spend. And this next bit is important to understand -- he was more generous with the information he gave out when I as able to spend more money. For example, When I first contacted Rheo in 66, he gave me almost nothing in the way of dietary instruction, once he learned that I was really only going to be buying a little of his products. About all I got from him at that point was that his protein, liver extract, and soybro were the most important of his products for me to use. he did explain that his protein was easier to assimilate than what I had been using, that Liver Extract was about 4 times as potent as other liver products on the market, and that there was no other product like Soybro. Beyond that, while he was very cordial, etc., the conversation leaned towards "call me back when you can afford my program ", though he never used those exact words. I was, at that time, eating huge amounts of food, but not gaining weight. I wish he had stressed the importance of digestants early on, but I did not know the value of those until later.

Charles: And let me clarify for the reader that while Rheo had an "open phone policy" always willing to accept phone calls and field question from people, this inevitably meant that some people would call wanting nothing more than to pick his brain for free with no intention of purchasing anything. It seems to me it was entirely fair that Rheo provided specific advice and information tied to the level of program a person was on. Rheo had lots of what he called "thousand dollar secrets" and his clients that had access to those were literally paying thousands of dollars for his big programs.

Charles: Nathan, how long were you on your first, early program with Rheo?

Nathan: The first time I was not on Blair's program for very long or continuously; but just off and on. Again, I was young and had little money. I would place an order with Rheo, then run out of his products, and go back to buying some other brand, often Weider, but sometimes Hoffman or others too numerous to recall, because I could get them locally. Also, while Rheo was normally quick to ship, I seem to recall once when Blair was out of something, and it took some time to get the product, which also influenced me to buy locally. His products were not as widely available on the East Coast as in California, and I liked the idea of going into a store, buying the items I wanted, and having them right then. IF his products had been available where I lived, I probably would have used more of them. So, that in no way reflects on the quality of the items, but more just about convenience. It is sort of funny, because now I order almost everything, including supplements, by mail. But years later, during my second and much larger and more intense Blair program, all that changed. I used Blair products exclusively.

Next time: We take a detailed, focused look at what Nathan's intense Blair program consisted of, the products he used, what Rheo taught him about the products, Blairs dietary and exercise advice and why Nathan chose Blair's products over the other brands and never looked back.

We welcome your comments below!

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Copyright © 2012 Charles Welling

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Raw Milk: Legalize, Don't Pasteurize!

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:23:00 +0000

Raw milk. Rheo Blair's favorite food and the one that changed his life and the lives of countless others for the better. At one time, everyone drank raw milk. But with the invention of pasteurization and its alleged safety benefits, consumption of raw milk in this country almost completely disappeared. In fact, in some states it is illegal to sell raw milk. But a growing segment of the population is clamoring for increased access to raw milk, citing its nutritional benefits and recently discovered inbuilt safety mechanisms. Opponents are skeptical of such nutritional claims and believe the safety risks of unpasteurized milk are simply too high. Now comes a debate on the matter:

Harvard Law School Food Law Society Hosting a Raw Milk Debate

Join the Food Law Society tonight as it presents a debate covering the legal, health, and nutritional merits of raw milk. The participants are:

Fred Pritzker, Pritzker & Olson Law Firm
Dr. Heidi Kassenborg, Director, Dairy & Food Inspection Division, Minnesota Department of Agriculture
vs.
Sally Fallon Morell, President, Weston A. Price Foundation
David Gumpert, Author, The Raw Milk Revolution

When: Thursday, February 16, 2012, 7:15 pm – 8:45 pm
Where: Harvard Law School, Langdell South Classroom.

Harvard Law School's street address is 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.

For those who can't attend in person and are interested in watching the livestream, information will be posted on the organization's website, http://www.foodsoc.org.

The video will also be archived on this YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/HLSFoodLawSociety.

Directions to Harvard Law
See this webpage: http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/directions.html.
Locations of parking garages can be found here: http://www.harvardsquare.com/maps.aspx
Map of walking directions from the Subway to Langdell South here: http://g.co/maps/ntgsa
Media Contact: Jonathan Abrams, jabrams@jd12.law.harvard.edu
For Interviews with pro-raw milk debaters, Sally Fallon Morell or Dave Gumpert, contact Kimberly Hartke, Publicist The Campaign for Real Milk 703-860-2711, cell 703-675-5557

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Copyright © 2012 Charles Welling

All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Rheo Blair: Raw Milk Is A Healing Food

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:31:00 +0000

What is raw milk? To Rheo Blair, known as the Nutritionist to the Hollywood Stars, it was "the world's greatest health drink." In his later years he became increasingly enamored of raw, free range eggs, specifically the yolks -- not, the whites -- but that is another subject for another time. Rheo Blair found raw milk and its therapeutic, healing benefits at an early age when it saved his life and set him off an astounding career as a pioneering nutritional scientist. And he never forgot raw milk even though he spoke far more about his protein powders and other supplements which, after all, he produced and marketed, And that is what most people remember him for. But there is a whole other story about Rheo and raw milk that has been forgotten or perhaps was never known by most. Indeed, when I lived at his home for several months in 1978, the two side by side refrigerators were always full of gallons of "Alta Dena Certified Raw Milk." (And to be sure, raw butter, cream and cheese.) But raw milk was paramount. Being aware of this aspect of his personal background -- how it healed him and altered the direction of his life -- is critical to understanding the theories, programs and products he began to develop a few years later. In the 1960's he wrote the following: "For many years, despite conscientious effort with many health and diet systems, I suffered from almost crippling poor health. It was not until I learned of the health-promoting qualities of raw milk that my life actually changed for the better. For the past 25 years raw milk has constituted the major portion of my diet."
So, as a young man, milk turned his life around.

But then he had a setback: "I am well aware that many people are unable to tolerate milk, and as a result cannot take advantage of its many beneficial qualities. In fact, surprisingly enough, I was once among this group. My reaction to milk was so serious that for a period of over three years I found it impossible to drink it in any quantity." Now it is unusual for anyone to develop a sensitivity to raw milk. But Rheo Blair's physical problems were extreme. Most people reading this will never experience the issues he did. But we are all unique because of our biochemical individuality and so we must be patient and find out what works for us. (Biochemical Individuality) is the idea that our bodies look as different on the inside as we all do on the outside. That is to say that our glands and organs are all shaped and sized unique to us and that these differences in size and shape affect their function and therefore our health -- and that such considerations which influenced a persons chemistry are critical in determining an individual’s program. This is why Rheo had great success with some people and less with others. This is always how it is). Rheo Blair found out what worked for him after much trial and error. He doggedly kept on. He realized he was on to something with raw milk and that there must be a way to make it work for him. There was, he found it and he did. And so with the help of certain supplements he learned of, coupled with specific methods he discovered of consuming milk, he was back to drinking milk and on the road to robust health. From this, he developed an entire nutritional system which he used for some in building or re-building health, and for others in building muscles. Read on:

"Milk is not the culprit. It was when I learned that an intolerance to milk is not the fault of the milk, but the fault of the individual, that I began to search for ways that would allow me to use milk once again. With the help of some leading biochemists, physicians and nutritionists I was able to come up with some very useful suggestions that not only enabled me to use milk profitably once again, but have helped many of my own students as well." Indeed, with this experience of his we see the raw material of what grew into the entire Blair program complete with protein powders and supplements. The idea was to duplicate and even improve on the results of the milk diet while consuming less actual volume of material (i.e., milk). As we will see below, the milk diet called for the consumption of 6 quarts of milk each day. Rheo sought to decrease the volume, increase the nutrients and increase the results. He called his system "concentrated nutrition."

From concentrated nutrition he went on to create his Blair's Protein Way of Life. Read on below about the milk diet and if you are already familiar with the Protein Way of Life, you will see the connection between the two at once. To put it simply, none of us would have ever heard of Rheo Blair were it not for raw milk. It's that critical. He wrote: "I believe strongly that it is not possible to attain and maintain good health unless milk is included in the daily diet, It is, simply, the finest health drink in the world." But there is a "system" involved that is the key to its success and it's that system that Rheo used to great effect throughout his career.

Here we are at a juncture. 1. The information above is relevant to anyone interested specifically in Rheo Blair's personal history, the development of his ideas and theories, and the crucial role raw milk played. It makes clear that his interests extended beyond just the usual topics associated with him, i.e. Blair's protein, Amino Acids, his products, etc. He was indeed a master salesman But there was far more depth to him than most people realize and there was a great deal of nutritional science and experience behind his programs. 2. The information below is for anyone wishing to learn more about raw milk in general and the raw milk diet or raw milk cure in particular; indeed for anyone considering introducing the therapeutic and life enhancing benefits of raw milk into their lives as Rheo Blair did in his. So with that in mind, let's take a comprehensive look and consider the following:

◙ What is raw milk?
◙ The healing powers of raw milk
◙ The raw milk diet in brief
◙ How raw milk saved Rheo Blairs life
◙ How raw milk played a critical role in saving my own life
◙ Where to get raw milk
◙ Getting Started With Raw Milk

◙ What is raw milk? Raw milk is the natural unaltered milk usually from cows, goats or sheep but in some countries it is camel or buffalo. It is not heated above the animal's highest body temperature which is usually 101-105 degrees F. (38 degrees C.) Raw milk is not pasteurized, homogenized or frozen, nor has it been altered with additives, chemicals, light or homogenization.* Here are a few important characteristics to be aware of when considering whether to drink raw milk and which raw milk. 1. Real milk comes from real cows of old fashioned breeds such as Jerseys, Guernseys, Red Devons, Brown Swiss and Milking Shorhorns, among others. The source of most commercial milk is the modern Holstein, bred to produce huge quantities of milk--three times as much as the old-fashioned cow. She needs special feed and antibiotics to keep her well. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from her pituitary gland, even when she is spared the indignities of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the udder limits of milk production. 2. Real milk comes from cows that eat real food: GREEN GRASS, for example. NOT soy, commercial feeds or corn, 3. Real milk is not pasteurizied which destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Nor is real milk homogenized, a process that breaks down butterfat globules so they do not rise to the top. Homogenized milk has been linked to heart disease. 4. Real milk contains butterfat and a lot of it. Average butterfat content from old-fashioned cows at the turn of the century was over 4% (or more than 50% of calories). Today butterfat comprises less than 3% (or less than 35% of calories). Worse, consumers have been duped into believing that low-fat and skim milk products are good for them. Only by marketing low-fat and skim milk as a health food can the modern dairy industry get rid of its excess poor-quality, low-fat milk from modern high-production herds. Butterfat contains vitamins A and D needed for assimilation of calcium and protein in the water fraction of the milk. Without them protein and calcium are more difficult to utilize and possibly toxic. Butterfat is rich in short- and medium chain fatty acids which protect against disease and stimulate the immune system. It contains glyco-spingolipids which prevent intestinal distress and conjugated linoleic acid which has strong anticancer properties. 5. Real milk products contains no additives. Powdered skim milk, a source of dangerous oxidized cholesterol and neurotoxic amino acids, is added to 1% and 2% milk. Low-fat yogurts and sour creams contain mucopolysaccharide slime to give them body. Pale butter from hay-fed cows contains colorings to make it look like vitamin-rich butter from grass-fed cows. Bioengineered enzymes are used in large-scale cheese production. Furthermore, many mass produced cheeses contain additives and colorings and imitation cheese products contain vegetable oils. **

◙ The healing power and legacy of raw milk The pharmaceutical industry gets rich making drugs that “manage” rather than “heal” disease. But a licensed M.D. had astounding success with real healing using this simple food substance from nature: Grass-fed Raw Milk. He wrote a book about his work with raw milk. The beneficiaries of his work include Rheo Blair and Blair's many clients, myself included. Let's look at Dr. Porter's work. The first rule of medicine is to "do no harm". Dr. Charles Porter practiced medicine at the turn of the 20th Century. He took to heart the words in the Hippocratic Oath "to abstain from doing harm." We know these words better as "First, do no harm." This phrase reminds us of another popular one: "sometimes the cure is worse than the disease." The problem with this latter phrase today is that modern medical cures don't typically cure but only manage the disease so one can live more comfortably and perhaps with it: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. And to be sure, the "treatments" for cancer offered by modern medicine have been described as barbaric and worse than the disease itself. The dictionary definition of "heal" is "to make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health; free from ailment." Free from ailment. Our modern drugs don't, as a rule, free us from ailments; they modify symptoms: i.e. blood pressure, etc. But once one stops taking the 'medication" the effect stops too. So one is not actually healed of the problem for which the drug is taken. Worse, the side effects can include possible damage to the organs. If you have never looked through the Physicians Desk Reference, do so. Take a look at the known side effects for any drug. This is not an insignificant matter. Beyond such usual side effects, however, is the rarely mentioned side effect nutrient depletion, and every drug is guilty of this. These drugs do not just go in and do their job; they tend to deplete the body of nutrients -- vitamins, minerals, etc., creating new weaknesses and problems. Now how is it possible to heal the body while depleting it of nutrients?

"Do NO harm." Healing, not managing; feeding, not depleting. Dr. Charles Porter was keenly interested in effecting actual cures, and doing so with one of natures finest substances: raw milk. While he surely lived by the the motto "first, do no harm," I believe he should have had a second motto: "feed the body." He successfully treated and cured thousands of patients with 6 quarts of raw milk daily using a specific regime. Under his care, his patients typically recovered from their illness, they healed. Following their use of the milk diet, Dr. Porter's patients certainly did not require any nutrient depleting medications to "manage" a disease they no longer had. This drives modern medicine nuts and they typicically dismiss it with some reference to "quackery." However, the bodies of Dr. Porter's patients had been supplied high doses of a nutrient-dense super food giving those bodies what they needed to heal on their own. The body can heal itself; it just needs the tools. The milk diet supplied those tools.

◙ The Raw Milk Diet, in brief:
• Raw milk is a nutrient dense food that gives your body the tools it needs to heal and rebuild.

• Since it is liquid, it is more easily absorbed than solid food.

• The raw milk diet is exclusive -- nothing but raw milk for a period of about 3 weeks.

• Daily intake of about 6 quarts taken on an ongoing "sipping" basis throughout the day.
• Sipping slowly throughout the day allows nutrients to constantly enter the body without compromising assimilation via digestion overload.

• High density nutrient feeding is coupled with bed rest 24/7 throughout the diet. This is impractical for some but is ideal for the truly ill.

• The extensive rest allows and enables the body to focus it's limited energy exclusively on healing, not exertion.

Anyone familiar with Rheo Blair's private client in-house programs will instantly recognize the great similarities between what he did and the features of Dr. Porter's milk diet described here including the large quantities of milk protein, the "sipping" process and the extensive bed rest. For the Porter protocol, the high quantity of milk is vital to the success of the program. Dr. Porter writes: "there is no halfway method of taking the milk diet for people who have much the matter with them. Enough milk must be taken to create new circulation, new cells, and new tissue growth, (these benefits were also specifically claimed by Rheo Blair as benefits that would result from following his program) and cause prompt elimination of the waste and dead matter that may be poisoning the system." (pp. 126-7) Rheo made an effort to take this milk system to the next level with his protein powders so as to get even more of the benefits of milk protein and nutrients into the body in an optimal and efficient manner, properly digested and assimilated by the cells of the body without over-taxing the stomach and the digestive system. In an article in which mentions the "milk cure" of the Russian Dr. Inozemtseff, (one of the many European doctors who used this method with dramatically successful results), Rheo Blair states "...how, through special nutritional supplementation, I am able to make milk a more perfect food." And by this he means his protein powder supplements and his large array of vitamin supplements. His idea was to get large amounts milk protein into the body and efficiently digested and assimilated while doing with smaller volumes of actual milk. Again, he called it "concentrated nutrition." This, in a nutshell, explains the foundation of the Blair system. And, to my knowledge this is the first time this explanation of his system and it origins has been put in writing, anywhere.

◙ How raw milk saved Rheo Blair's life. Rheo Blair fashioned for himself a career as a famous nutritionist, active between 1950 and the early 1980's. But, like many who go into the nutrition field, his childhood was marred by illness and weakness resulting from a freak accident in which he lost the function of one of his kidneys. He became one very sick young man and was so weak he couldn't hold his head up in class and was finally removed from high school as an invalid. He began to try anything and everything in a desperate attempt to recover his health. He tried exercise but to no avail. He went on many diets including the carrot juice diet, a vegetarian diet, etc. As he said, he tried them all. Now while certain of these approaches might work for someone else, they did not work for him. We are all different in our body chemistry and what works for one will not necessarily bring the same results for the next. So Rheo finally heard about and tried the milk diet. It worked perfectly for him. For the first time in years his respiratory and sinus problems cleared up. His chronic fatigue and weakness turned into energy, vim and vigor. He put on weight in the form of muscle, not fat. He got a job and for the first time in over a decade began to lead a normal life. Over the next few years he developed a nutritional regime for which he became famous that included high levels of protein, supplements, and rest, 24/7 and physical therapy designed to increase the circulation of the blood. He achieved many miracles during his career. At the base of his philosophy and methods was always the milk diet. The high levels of milk supplied high levels of protein. The supplements supplied additional nutrients and aided in the assimilation of the milk and working with the milk to improve the endocrine organs and by doing so dramatically alter the chemistry of the body. The bed rest allowed for better healing and growth.

◙ How raw milk played a critical role in saving my own life. In 1978 at the age of 16 I was put under the care of Rheo Blair. My own situation was quite similar to his as a child (although I had not lost a kidney). My parents were terribly concerned such that I was removed from school and taken to stay with Rheo Blair at his home in Hollywood on a 24/7 basis. Now I hasten to add that the program I followed was not the milk diet as described by Dr. Porter. But the similarities were substantial and, as I mentioned earlier, the basis for the core of the Blair system was the milk diet. All day long I remained in bed (though I insisted on being out of bed from time to time -- try to keep a teenager down!) All day long I sipped a milk and egg based non-denatured protein mixed with raw milk or a pudding made from both raw milk and raw cream. With this I took supplements to enable and enhance the milk/egg protein my body was being flooded with. I did some minor working-out with barbells. My un-retouched photos are below; you may judge for yourselves. The period between the photos is 90 days. Were it not for the milk diet, this would never have happened and I would not be writing this blog.

Not only did I gain 35 pounds of muscle, my complexion cleared up, my respiratory and sinus problems went away, my hair took on a new luster, my energy went through the roof, I stopped getting the frequent. I was brand new. Reborn. In my before state, Rheo, who grew up on a farm, said I "looked like a chicken getting ready to die." In my after state, an author who included my story in a book published some years ago, described me as an "adolescent hunk." Chicken getting ready to die ----> transformed into an adolescent hunk. The power of raw milk, rest and nature. The power of the body given what it needs to heal, transform and grow. Now, dear reader, you know something about the person behind this blog and why I am so interested in what I call "real" milk, real food and indeed, real health. I am blessed to be married to someone who shares my passion for the wisdom of nature and the goodness of raw milk. Lorraine drinks it daily and says she could not live without it. I have seen her own health transform over the past few years as raw milk has become a staple for her. Bottom line of this post: real milk both feeds and, where necessary, heals, the body. Raw grass-fed milk is real food.

If you would like to obtain your own copy of the Milk Diet book, which at 250+ pages goes into far more detail than I can here, including exactly how it the diet works, details on the immune factors in colostrum, and much, much more, please click on the link below to order directly. I have included some additioanl helpful sources of information on the milk diet.

◙ Milk Diet, as a Remedy for Chronic Disease
◙ The Untold Story of Milk, Revised and Updated: The History, Politics and Science of Nature's Perfect Food: Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows
◙ The Raw Truth About Milk
◙ Lancet Article on the therapeutic properties of milk (1869)

◙ Where to get raw milk. The single best resource of where to find and buy raw milk, a state by state guide, is found here: Where can I find raw (real) milk? It is a superb resource supplied by the Weston Price Foundation.

◙ Getting started with raw milk. Finally for those needing further insight and ideas on how to approach the use of raw milk as a beginner and what to expect, there is no better concise guide than that written up at the Organic Pastures web site. I reproduce it below but they get all the credit. It is important and useful information:

Raw Milk and the Human Immune System Every human is different when it comes to raw milk consumption. Most people who are lactose intolerant drink raw milk with no problem at all, but there seems to be a very small number of people who either need more time to re-colonize their gut with lactase-producing bacteria, or have some other challenge and continue to struggle with lactose intolerance. This subcategory of people appears to be very small. Research is underway to discover why some people have such a hard time consuming even raw milk. Every race and people from every continent and background can drink raw milk with that very rare exception as noted. In one study conducted in Michigan it was found that about 90% of people suffering from lactose intolerance with pasteurized milk or dairy products could drink raw milk with no problem at all. Studies at OPDC farmers markets confirm that research data.

Preparing for raw milk - If you are one of the many people seeking raw milk because you have a weak immune system and want to make it stronger, you are at the right place. However, do not expect your immune system to be strong overnight. It may be a struggle for you and it could take time. If you have a leaky gut and perhaps many food allergies, you will need to repair and heal the walls of your digestive tract prior to being able to consume raw milk or other foods as a normal gut would. So be patient and perhaps as a first step try drinking raw milk kefir (OPDC Qephor™ is pre-digested and easier to digest and consume…try making delicious smoothies.). As you take baby steps to repair your gut walls, you will rebuild immunity to bacteria, increase your gut biodiversity and enhance your enzyme production.

For some very good gut rebuilding advice please read “GAPS” by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride MD. She will guide you through the nutritional steps you will need to get your gut working again so you can digest properly.

Immunity is earned - For normal digestive tracts, raw milk is wonderful and very effective at rebuilding your immune system and overall digestive ability. But remember, this is something that takes time. Modern Americans are subjected to harsh antibiotics, sterilized foods, preservatives, GMOs, chemicals in our air, water, food, kitchens, work environments, cars, soils and everywhere else. Our natural immunity has been compromised, and it may take patience to rebuild it. A strong immune system means that your body has “earned" its own ability to do battle and protect itself. Earning means it is not for free and it is harder for some people than others, so take it easy as you take positive steps to heal your gut and reestablish the balance of your inner ecosystem.

Ideas for slower going - A baby step could be drinking very small amounts of raw milk (six ounces for an adult) every few hours to see how things go prior to going hog wild and drinking delicious full cups of raw milk. Remember that raw milk is a bio-diverse food containing many different wonderful bacteria, enzymes, and other living components. Your gut may take some time to get used to this living food. Common signs of your body saying "slow down" on your initial consumption of raw milk might be: gas cramps, a mild feeling of malaise, a low grade temp, diarrhea or other immune adjustment signs or symptoms. This is considered normal for some new raw milk consumers; it is a message to slow down and let the process proceed slower.

Baby steps for a big reward - OPDC tests its products for pathogens and they have never been found in our raw milk products. This does not mean that good bugs found in raw milk – which may be very strange and new to your body – may not challenge your system and make your immune system do some push-ups. So take your time if you are new to raw milk and take baby steps. Your body will do much better if given time to adjust. Welcome to immune system responsibility and strength. It is earned and highly rewarding.

Again, thanks to Organic Pastures for writing these suggestions on getting started and which I have borrowed from their site. They are the premier raw milk supplier in business today. Visit their website for much more information.

*Raw milk definition: http://www.rawmilk.org/raw-milk.php

**Detailed raw milk description: http://www.realmilk.com/what.html

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Copyright © 2012 Charles Welling

All rights reserved.

Information found on Rheo H. Blair: The Book is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider. It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

Randy Roach Part III: A Blind Man WIth NO Limits

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Welling) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:52:00 +0000

Randy Roach in his office, January 2012

With this post, we conclude what has become a truly fascinating conversation with Randy Roach. The entire interview, all three parts totaling nearly 15,000 words, may be read start to finish on its own page, here; Part III begins directly below.

But I first want to express my profound gratitude to Randy for being receptive to actually putting all this information about him, much of it never before published, out there for all of us to enjoy and learn from. Knowing something of the author makes his work all the more meaningful and fulfilling to read. Randy has also supplied several brand new photos including the beautiful pic you see of him in his office on the left as well as others, seen below. I have had nothing but fun throughout the whole process of back and forth with someone I am privileged to call a friend. Randy, for all of us, thank you.

At the end of Part II, Randy was telling us about some of the fine people who had been very helpful to him in making Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors possible. He concluded with the words "So, a lot of good people were involved in this project." We pick up that conversation now with Part III.

_________________

Charles Welling: Two of those key good people, as you have told me, are Ron Kosloff and Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale. Tell us about how you came to know these gentlemen and what role they played in convincing you that your article for Sally Fallon should be expanded into a full blown writing project for a book?

Randy Roach I was given Ron Kosloff’s contact in 2003 by Bob Gajda pronounced ( “Guy-Da”). Bob has become a good friend, but my first attempt to interview him was actually wild…funny wild that is. Bob can talk a mile a minute in five different directions at once. He holds a doctorate in bio-mechanics and is the Director of the Gajda Health Plus Network in Palatine, Illinois. Bob actually has become a huge supporter of the project.

Anyway Bob had purchased supplements from Ron Kosloff who owned NSP Nutrition (Natural Source Products). Ron is a loyal student to the late Vince Gironda who also had a hand in the launching of NSP back in the early 1970s. Ron had distributed for the east since the mid 1970s and bought NSP upon the death of Ray Raridon in the 1990s. Ron is a big proponent of what has become labeled as Old School Bodybuilding Nutrition.

Obviously, I needed to talk to Ron about NSP and Vince Gironda. Ron is very passionate about both subject matters and was even emotional on occasion when reminiscing. He gave me tons of his time about Vince. He even came up from Detroit to my place a few times along with a host of others from various locations in Canada and the US to shoot some Gironda training videos in my private training facility.

Ron saw how much effort I was putting into the article and wanted the project to carry on into a small booklet or book. He wanted to see Vince’s memory live on. He kept encouraging and nudging me in that direction when I had no intention of doing so.

With Mauro Di Pasquale, who came into the picture shortly afterwards, he seemed to have seen more in me than I did at the time. I couldn’t understand why this man with the most intimidating resume who didn’t know me at all had all this confidence in me. He never asked whether I was considering carrying the project into a book, he basically told me that this material had to be a book and I was just the man to write it. Anything I needed, I was simply to ask him.

Remember, at that time around late 2003 or so, it was still an article in my mind. The request came early in 2002 from Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation and I began collecting data around mid 2002. So, I had spent over a year of research on that subject of bodybuilding nutrition history. Mauro said he wasn’t aware of anyone who had done anything of that nature before or had collected that much data on the topic and that is why he believed it should be pursued much further than an article. And he wasn’t thinking a small book either at that time. I believe it was also Mauro who predicted more than one volume as well. As you are aware, Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale wrote the foreword for Volume I.

Charles: Was there an "aha" moment, a defining moment of clarity where you realized "I have to make this a book?"

Randy Roach Funny, I guess it was Ron Kosloff and Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale who had the actual “aha” moments before I did. I can’t recall any particular “aha” moments for me personally, but those two gentlemen had definitely convinced me sometime before the article was published in late 2004 to do some type of book. This kind of made things tough on Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation. When I decided to create a book, I just kept drafting and drafting, adding and adding, until I had this huge unedited blurb of historical bodybuilding nutrition data. I intended to go over it thoroughly and trim it down, have it edited and such, but before doing that, I submitted it to Sally for her to give it a look over. She ended up doing all the dirty work on the piece and called the article “Splendid Specimens,” not exactly my choice for a title. However, I thought she had earned the right to name it what she wanted since she did so much work on it. I was actually grateful since it freed me to begin writing the book. So, I kind of lucked out there.

Speaking of naming articles though, I hadn’t necessarily cornered the market on title flair either. I was originally planning to call the article and the book, “The History of Nutrition in Bodybuilding.” Dr. Kaayla Daniels, author of, “The Whole Soy Story,” liked the article and we chatted on the phone about it. She thought I may have a bigger audience than I was figuring on and asked me what I had planned to call my book project. When I told her, “The History of Nutrition in Bodybuilding,” she thought it sucked. Kaayla didn’t seem to be too shy about telling me this. I didn’t care, I kind of liked her straight forward manner.

Cover, Volume I

That night while laying in bed, I thought to myself, “Okay, what the hell do I call this thing then?”   I recall thinking that it was such a deceptive or “smoke and mirrors” industry I was writing about. I liked the “smoke and mirrors” angle, but it needed something else to it. I thought of, “Bodybuilding, Smoke & Mirrors,” but it still didn’t click with me. As soon as I said, “Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors” in my head I knew I had it. Kaayla liked it as did my friend from Chicago, Terry Strand, as soon as he heard it. That was I believe back in 2005.

Charles: So, beginning in 2002 and by 2005 you had a title set. Just how much time were you spending on writing the book? How did you get the time for such a project?

Randy Roach Well, I did come up with my book title in 2005, but in January of that year I lost the rest of my eyesight right in the middle of the project. From July of 1993 until October of 2004 I worked as a senior computer programmer for Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA), an international environmental engineering firm. I knew by mid 2000 that my days were numbered as a programmer with my sight going South on me. I had indicated to a few of the shareholders that I would eventually be leaving. I was training about six of them around this time including the president, Ed Roberts.

By the summer of 2004, I could not see well enough to carry out my job function as I thought it should be performed. Although I was sincerely concerned over the fate of a very large program I had built for them, I told Ed that I was going to quit at that point. I remember him coming up from the gym and sitting down. He said, “You just can’t quit, what if the rest of your sight goes?” I told him that was unlikely to happen. He basically said that I was quitting due to my loss of eyesight so I was entitled to disability. I had no idea that I had such an option. He then said that they had been paying for insurance on me for the past 10 years and I was entitled to it. In fact, the very next day I received a call from our HR department due to Ed’s orders.

To make a long story short, I was granted about 3.5 years of disability receiving 80% of my wage. This was a totally unexpected turn of events. I was ready to just quit and let the chips fall where they may in terms of making a living as a trainer and hopefully writer. Writer was still kind of a pipe dream at that point since I think my article was just published.

I was worried over what the insurance company would want me to do. Of course I had those old stereotypical thoughts of them rehabbing me into advanced basket weaving or something like that. They do try to refit you into the job market. I knew programming was out and told them that there was no way I could be set up to continue programming at the level I was doing at CRA.

I said I wanted to be a trainer and a writer. Now, who was going to teach me to be a trainer and write books blind? So…they let me rehab myself. Ironically, three months after I officially left CRA in October of 2004, I lost the rest of my eyesight; just what Ed was concerned about. This threw me for a loop. I had experienced periods of no sight several times over the years, but it always came back in a few days or so. However, this time it did not return. Nonetheless, the immediate stress of earning money was removed thanks to Ed Roberts and CRA.

So, for the next three and a half years, I stumbled around my gym and keyboard learning to train and write as a blind dude. It was frustrating at times, but at least the first volume of “Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors” was basically financially subsidized for over three years. At the end of 2008, almost six months after Volume I was released, I terminated myself from the long term disability. I remember the insurance rep being a little shocked as he wasn’t use to people removing themselves from financial support. However, I wanted to make it on my own. I told him I didn’t want anyone looking over my shoulder all the time. He just laughed and said we are not watching you. I guess they were not all that concerned since they let me do what I wanted anyway. I was grateful to them.

Charles: So, you have been self employed as a trainer and writer since the end of 2008?

Randy Roach Yep. It was both a scary and great feeling not to have to answer to anyone. I could do as I pleased. Again, this is when a lot of good people stepped up around me to keep things going.

Charles: Was it financially tough without the subsidy or your previous programming wage?

Randy Roach Yeah, it was definitely tighter on the income. However, I did manage to pay off my house and gym plus create a bank account in order to publish the book. At that time, I was anticipating about a $30,000 outlay just to print 3,000 hard cover copies.   This of course was before I decided to go with Authorhouse and print on demand.


Randy works with Sifu David Moylan*

I had to learn a balance between training and writing. Training brought in money, writing did not. I was, however, beginning to receive royalties, but that went to recovering what I had put out of my own money. Someone had accused me of being financed by the Weston A. Price Foundation which pissed me off since I have received no money from anyone. As mentioned earlier, I have invested about $55,000 of my own money over the past 9.5 years. It isn’t’ really all that much when you look at the time span, but the vast majority of it went out from about 2007 onward. I’ll get it back. You have to invest money to make money or at least show some confidence in what you’re doing.

Charles: Randy, where did you train these people?

Randy Roach I have always maintained my own training facility since I was a kid. Whether it was in my parents, sister’s, friend’s, or my own basement, I always collected and built equipment. I was probably one of the youngest guys in Canada at 23 in 1982 who had his own Olympic barbell set and custom built power rack in a house basement. Olympic bars and power racks were in most part confined to hardcore, commercial gyms at that time.

I always dreamed of having my own home with a great basement gym. That opportunity presented itself in the fall of 1998. I knew my sight wouldn’t last forever and that I would eventually have to look at making a full time living as a trainer, so I had a house built with a raised basement ceiling and just one support beam with nothing else cluttering the room. I had all the appliances, furnace, water heater and such placed in a back corner room.

Randy Roach Gym, Waterloo, Ontario. Photo taken January 2012

Between the basement and connected garage, I placed a world class gym of over 1200 square feet. I focused on paying off the gym and the house as fast as I could. I felt in my mind that it was a race between paying off the house and going blind. I realize now that was not necessarily a constructive mindset to carry.

Randy Roach Gym, free weights

I have spent the past 13 years building and rebuilding the gym. As I said, it is a world class commercial facility. People are literally shocked when they go down there. In my own biased opinion, it is the best facility around per square foot. The only private club that rivals it is that of a good friend of mine, Mike Petrella, who lives and operates in St. George. However, Mike is not a rival. He is more like an associate since we both engage similar endeavors. He and Josh Trentine were highly responsible for helping move my gym to the next level in equipment. Right now, I am the most pleased with the gym as I have ever been.

Charles: Is it tough training blind?

Randy with Sifu David Moylan*

Randy Roach My own workouts were not a problem as I hadn’t been able to see myself in a mirror for years and never really visually focused on anything physical anyway. It was the personal training that concerned me. I was worried how clients would respond to hands-on training, especially the women. Fortunately, it worked out better than I thought. People like the extra attention I have to focus on them. I soon found that I was better off totally blind than just visually impaired. While I was losing my eyesight, I didn’t use hands-on so I began to miss many things in terms of poor performance and technique. I was also surprised at how much you can detect with proper hand placement. It has worked out thus far.

Charles: So I am guessing it was when you left CRA in October of 2004 that you went to work in earnest on Volume I? How did you organize yourself on a daily basis in terms of balancing time between speaking with sources, transcribing those conversations into research notes and actual writing? And balancing this with training clients? It sounds to me like you are highly organized and efficient and that time organization may never have been an issue.

Randy Roach That is actually quite funny since I am not organized in many ways at all. Remember, I am the programming guy who never wrote a flow chart? I often do most things by the seat of my pants. I started this habit when my sight began to diminish years ago. I more or less just visualized everything in my head and often that could get chaotic.

Now, when I left CRA feeling that I could apply almost full time hours to the book, it was only about three months when the rug got pulled out from me with the loss of my sight in January of 2005. We were replacing my living room floor and I should have kept away from that environment. All the crap that kicked up swelled my cornea. This had happened before so I didn’t panic or even think much of it because I thought it would come back like it always had over the previous 18 years or so.

When I realized it wasn’t coming back, I became quite alarmed over how I was going to proceed. I could no longer pick up any book, magazine, or printed article and put it on my magnified screen. This was very frustrating. I did learn pretty

Fortunately, a lot of data came available electronically through the net. Others did their best to send their contributions in that format as well. As mentioned earlier, many were reading to me and eventually I used scanners to read to me as well. I used the drafts component of Microsoft Outlook to save notes as I went. I think I am closing in on 3000 drafts saved there. I would search many things on the net, block and paste it into a email, read it, then save it as a draft. The drafts are sorted by subject and I always keep my Outlook open for email use so the notes are readily available. Although I have developed my own techniques, I still need help.

At times I would be twiddling my thumbs waiting for someone to drop over because an answer was sitting inches from me in a book, but I couldn’t just pick it up and peek at it. This has changed to some degree as I’ll get to in a bit.

Randy Roach dumps his "Arnold A-Shirt!"

A lot of information for Volume II came first hand through extensive interviews. I have conducted hundreds of interviews over the past 9 years with some continuing since 2003 and 2004. I must have exchanged hundreds of emails with Ken Sprague since July of 2006 before finally speaking to him late in 2011. The same with Jeff Everson. Both of these guys shared extensive personal information without ever meeting or talking to me. That is the first time I had ever made such trusting friends in that manner. I still haven’t spoken to Jeff.

I have no idea of how many different people I have spoken to. I have been speaking to Wayne DeMilia regularly since 2004. He is a wealth of information on the industry as is Boyer Coe who has become a good friend as well. There are just oo many to mention. I would take notes as fast as I could as they spoke. They didn’t seem to mind me calling back for verification. This was necessary anyway since you need to talk to them several times from various angles to get things as accurate as possible. Remember, I am dragging these guys back decades to best recollect what had happened and when. Ken Sprague has been rummaging through all his court and lease records for me. In fact, he just found another today. Again, Ron Koeberer flew across the country on a data hunt and obtained court documentation through other avenues.

Often trying to put a chapter together, I am talking with up to seven different people several times trying to get all sides of a subject. I am doing that right now as we are conducting this interview. Again, I have no real method to my madness so I guess it is just madness. However, I know it always comes together when I need it to. I think Volume III has the potential to be the best of the three volumes if I continue to ride the madness. Wayne still thinks I am going into four volumes, but I say no. Any fourth volume would be a book on what I will have learned over the 12 year process.

Charles: You mentioned that things have changed a bit for you? How? In what manner?

Randy Roach Back in 1985 when I temporarily lost all of my eyesight, I also stopped producing tears. For the next 24 years I had to put artificial tears in my eye every 10 to 15 minutes. No shit, I spent all day putting these tears in no matter where I was. This was a a royal pain in the ass. The artificial tears had preservatives in them that even the specialists in Boston didn’t like since I was using so many of them. I ended up using my own urine as tears to rid myself of the preservatives. Now, I didn’t’ receive too much support over that from the medical orthodoxy, but I had pretty much lost any hope or confidence in that field since they had made a mess of me.

Anyway, about just over two years ago, I began using an oil /herb mix called scargone as a tear. I thought it may lube better and last longer than 5, 10 or 15 minutes if I stretched it. Well, it worked and lasted up to two hours. This was so much more convenient. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to see that some of my sight started to come back. It would still fluctuate wildly, but I was getting some back. I was worried that I may lose my source if Eva ever stopped making her blend so I switched to raw butter. This was actually the advice of Dr. Aajonus Vonderplantiz. The butter seemed to work even better and I liked the idea of using a raw food with its healing properties.

Bowl of melted butter

The white wall that I was staring at from 2005 to 2009 cleared to the point where I didn’t have to always use my white cane in the gym. It continued to where I could read the large print on my computer screen. Now, it can change within hours, but it is good to see that it has potential for coming in again. I still need my cane outside of my home and this has kept me from traveling. That and the fact that I have to keep this glass jar of raw butter gently melted beside me on a coffee warmer. I have gone up to four hours without another drop of raw butter. I have hopes of getting more back. Well, att least to the point where I can surf porn again. Haha That is probably what made me lose my sight in the first place.

Charles: Can you elaborate more?

Randy Roach On the butter or the porn?

Charles: The porn…I mean the butter.

Randy Roach Okay. I was originally going to use coconut oil since I tried it and the oil feld good and served as a great lubricant. I thought I would bounce it off Aajonus since he also had to deal with extensive cornea scarring from a cancer I believe. He had used raw egg whites to reverse some of that scarring. He thought the coconut oil may be too aggressive in its detoxification effects and recommended the raw butter instead. Raw fats pull toxicity from the body and you have to be careful as to how you approach any type of body detoxification. Sometimes people learn this the hard way.
I also firmly believe that drugs do not and can not heal anything. They just don’t have that capacity any longer since all their natural healing components if derived from the botanical world have been removed or chemically synthesized. Drugs often just block a natural bodily function in order to invoke their affect. This is exactly what statin drugs do; they inhibit the liver’s natural production of cholesterol. I mean our livers have been producing this essential multifunctional compound since the origins of our being, yet this arrogant group of private medical/financial politicians summarily ruled the human body to be in error with this process and decide to make hundreds of billions of dollars off a group of bullshit drugs that do nothing but elevate your risk of cancers. And to make things much easier for them, they purchased the ruling elite and had them ban all things natural so we have to run around like criminals to get raw dairy.However, that is another story.

As I mentioned earlier, I also use urine as a tear. As bizarre as this sounds, I couldn’t’ help but just shake my head when I found out the main ingredient in an old eye drop I used decades ago, called “Murine” was “Carbamide,” a synthetic version of urea. Take the “M” off “Murine” and what do you get…“Urine!” The pharmaceutical industry knows all about urine and its thousands upon thousands of constituents many of which they are clueless in terms of their functionality.

Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski identified specific peptides in blood and urine which appeared to have a varying relationship with cancer. He called these protein fragments, “Antineoplastons” and began treating cancer patients with them. Of course, like anyone who challenges the cancer orthodoxy, he has been professionally crucified for his efforts.

About two years ago my brother, Tom, burnt himself on a hot weld while working out in the country. He didn’t have any immediate facilities around him where he could go. He had done this a year earlier and the burn left a scar. Tom knows what I mess around with and is open to many things so he called me from his truck and asked what I thought he should do. He had already been thinking of the urine, but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. I just told him to piss on a clean rag and wrap his hand with it. He said the burn was every bit as bad as the one he had sustained the year before that basically went untreated. He was surprised to find out the next dday that the burn was virtually gone. For those who are still a bit squeamish over dropping their pants and self dispensing, raw honey workds very well also.

Raw unprocessed foods, especially fats, have a natural and gentle healing capability. Food really is medicine so why mess it up? Well, for one thing, you can’t patent food so why promote its raw healing capabilities. Food has the longest historical precedence as a healing agent. It is just that our chemically forged culture has been on a purposeful dietary dumb-down from our physicians, dieticians, through the whole general public for the past 100 years.

For me, I allowed mainstream medicine its chance for over 20 years before I opted for alternative measures. The frequency at which I had to use the artificial tears often irritated my skin as they would spill out over my cheek. The raw butter and urine does not bother my skin. In fact, the urea in urine is admitted to be one of the best natural moisturizers. I hear Madonna uses it on her skin. I still use the urine to flush out the butter if the butter builds up too much in my eye. As mentioned, chemicals can mask symptoms, but they do not cure. Raw foods have healing capability and this is probably why Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.” We know for a fact that the body heals itself with its own intrinsic knowledge. We are kept alive by foods. Food is information and I believe in keeping the language open and clear by not processing and cooking the words. The subject is just too extensive and probably not fully understood by anyone..

I don’t know where my eyesight will be in the future, but I know chemicals are not the answer.

Charles: So, would you say these past 7 years have been the toughest you’ve had to ever deal with?

Randy Roach I would say it was a more challenging time for me, but not necessarily the toughest. I mentioned in Part 1 of this interview the two barrages of surgeries I had first in the mid to late 1960s and the second in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When you are in your late teens and early 20s the last place you want to be is patched up blind laying around in a hospital for a month at a time.   That second cluster of botched surgeries I would say were the toughest time of my life.

Volume II is dedicated to three individuals who passed away within a six month window late in 2010 to mid 2011. One of those was Fred Kropf. Fred was my best friend growing up and the best friend one could have had under my circumstances. When I was stuck down in Toronto’s St. Michael’s hospital all the time for lengthy periods, Fred was down there (along with other friends) all the time. The bastard would make me laugh knowing it hurt like hell after an operation. I never had to worry about money or anything because of his generosity.

It was hilarious some of the things he would do during his workouts in his basement. He would lay on his back on a bench and somehow get a 200 lbs or so barbell up locked in his toes and start doing free weight leg presses. In between his sets, he would smoke a cigarette. Then we’d go drink beer. The Saxon brothers would have been proud of us. He didn’t care I was half blind at the time, he would let me drive his vehicles both on and off road. He was crazy at times. He would hit a jump in his jeep at 30 miles an hour just to see how airborne he could get us!!!     He had a lot of friends and we all miss him very much.

Charles: Your Dedication also includes the following: "To Dr. Michael Haynes, one of the very few I called Mentor. He alone invoked the biggest change in my thinking and life direction." This sounds critical if we are really going to get to know Randy Roach. Would you care to tell us about Michael and the role he has played in your life?

Randy Roach Hmm.I am not sure how much I want to go into Dr. Michael Haynes at this time. He was definitely an amazing man with extraordinary abilities. I have to say that I had never met anyone like him before back in late 2003. He certainly did have a profound influence on me and how I would look at life from that point in time onward.   I do appreciate you asking Charles and I will write more on Michael in the future. The substance and quality of my project grew substantially because of Michael.

Randy and Ron, superb raw-diet specimens

Charles: And another friend is that beautiful dog sitting at your side in this picture at the right. I bet there's a story behind him?

Randy Roach He is a great dog, but he isn’t mine. Ronin, we call him Ron, belongs to my tenant, Tristan. Ron is a Doberman that weighs close to 95 lbs., 85 lbs. muscle and 10 lbs. teeth.

Charles: Does Ron eat raw food also?

Randy Roach Yep, he eats about 90% raw beef, eggs, and dairy, with the rest of the 10% made up of postman, couriers, and occasional clients. He is a friendly guy, but has a big bark that does scare people at times.

Ron hopped into the picture taken in my office. Actually, we tried to get him to pose, but we couldn’t get him to stop looking over at his agent, Tristan.

Charles, you must hold a special status with me since I hate my picture taken, but I did so for this interview. My friend, Patti Fievoli, loves shooting photos and has taken quite a few of my gym. In doing so, she pulled me into more than I intended.

That biceps shot in Part 2 was taken just two weeks after the Christmas holidays and I have already received some digs about the tank top with Arnold on it that I won’t repeat. Steve Speyrer, the guy who reads me gay porn over the phone, also asked me where I came upon that shirt. Actually, Steve is a top seasoned trainer out of Louisiana. The truth is that I have never worn the damn shirt before. My brother, Tom picked it up for me as a gift from Venice Beach back in 1988. Patti took a shot of me wearing a black tank top, but I kind of blended into the dark background. So, I remembered having that white one in my closet for years and I grabbed it for a pick...I Should have put it on the dog.

Charles: Speaking of pics and Arnold, how did you get away with using Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover of Volume II?

Randy Roach I originally had this concept of a cover with Ed Corney and a ghost image of Arthur Jones’s face in the baqckdrop. The problem was that I wanted the same picture of Ed Corney as used on the cover of “Pumping Iron.” It is an iconic shot that captured 1970s bodybuilding. I needed to get George Butler’s permission and I had my doubts. In the meantime, Boyer Coe gave me the green light on anything of his and he did have some awesome shots that I liked. However, Boyer pushed hard for me to get the Corney shot.

Cover, Volume II

I was having trouble getting a hold of George Butler because he travels so much working on his film projects. I resorted to asking Wayne DeMilia to helping me again. Wayne originally connected me with George in the first place for interviews. The men have been close since 1975 or so. I remember Wayne calling me and saying something along the lines of:

“Okay, I have some bad news and some good news. George is hesitant in allowing you to use the shot of Ed Corney because it is so tightly sewn to Pumping Iron. George said to ask Randy if he would like a photo of Arnold instead!”

Then I said something along the lines of, “Wel...OKAY!!!!”

We never thought anything of Arnold because we just never felt that would or could ever happen. So the concept remained but now it would have Arnold at the forefront and Jones in the backdrop. Ron Koeberer found the shot we used and George gave permission to publish it as long as I placed the proper credit and copyright for that photo inside the book.

My friend and computer guy, Chris Pearcey, helped me develop the first cover and knows very well how to work with me. He knew what I wanted and began drafting prototypes. He added his touch and we came up with about three to choose from. Then one of my clients, Gary Neeb who is a professional in the marketing and advertising field, brought out the final details. I knew I had it when another friend and bodybuilding champion, Josh Trentine, said it was by far the best bodybuilding photo concept he had ever seen. We are all very happy with it.

Thanks very much to George Butler.

Charles: So the Arnold pic for the cover was an unexpected bonus. Were there any

other unexpected turns of event during the research and writing of the books

that merit some mention?

Randy Roach The biggest change of events other than the sight going in the crapper was when the book went from one volume to two, then two volumes to three. They were totally unplanned. Remember, I told you that I do most things by the seat of my pants.   When I first came to the realization that I couldn't finish the project in one volume, I was already into the 1990s trying to unravel the METRx and EAS web with the help of Jeff Everson. I didn't know where I would split the book, so I did a word count and low and behold the mid point came pretty much at the end of the 1960s. I remember thinking at the time that I probably couldn't have intentially planned that any better
if I had tried.   It was the perfect break. The same thing happened when Wayne DeMilia told me that one book would not be enough for the 1970s and 1980s. Now, Wayne still believes that one book is not enough for the rest, but I want it to be.

I had another last minute change of events for Volume II. The book actually ended with Charles Frazer, a vegan athlete who wrote some articles for Iron Man back in the 1970s. I was finished and about to begin the editing process when I received an email from Richard Tucker from New Zealand. He was thanking me for mentioning him briefly in Volume I. Richard had written a book back in 1974 called, "Biblical Nutrition." I was pleasantly surprised since I had tried to track him down several years earlier. We began some email exchanges and I came to realize that he was a raw food eater as I am. I asked him if he was eating this way back in the 1970s. Not only was he eating raw, but much of his diet consisted of raw animal products.

See, I have made it clear for the past years that I am a raw food proponent. However, just because I eat that way, I could not inflict this into my book projects any more than it was being portrayed within Iron Game history. Ricard was not only eating raw meat as a staple back in the 1970s, he had also grown up in Chicago and trained with Bob GAjda, Terry Strand and the boys at the Duncan YMCA during its heyday.   He had also interacted with Arthur Jones back in the spring of 1972. Richard was a natural fit to balance off Charles Frazer in my last chapter. Richard Tucker is a chiropractor with years of training and diet under his belt. I want to get him on Carl Lanore's Superhuman Radio show sometime.

Charles: Raw animal meat is about as controversial a subject as one is likely to encounter in the nutritional food wars. I remember Rheo Blair one time telling me that if I ate raw hamburger, it would make me very strong. But legally, he said, he could not tell me to do that (and I had no interest in doing so at 16 but have done so since). What are some of the similarities and or differences between Richard Tucker, and Dr. Aajonus Vonderplantiz. How have each influenced you?

Randy Roach Both men are highly educated in the history of nutrition and where raw foods were a key factor in the cultures throughout history. Both would probably agree that 21st century Western culture is most likely the most nutritionally retarded mass of humanity to ever grace the planet. I was impressed with the fact that Ricard was already reading on Dr. Weston A. Price in high school back in the late 1960s. Both men had also experimented with many ways of eating including veganism.

I know more of Aajonus than I do of Richard right now. Richard, as mentioned, is a practicing chiropractor who eats I believe about 80% raw. I don’t think there is anyone out there as strict as Aajonus. Raw food research is his life and I don’t think he bgudges from his raw menu other than perhaps to conduct an experiment. He has written two books and has derived dozens of remedies composed of various combinations of raw foods for healing purposes. He carries a large cancer based clientele.

It is always great to connect with guys who have been doing it for decades and happy with what they are doing. Both men state that nothing makes them feel better than raw animal foods.

Charles: Well, it sounds as though you have connected with a good number of people on this project of yours. Volume II of Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors was released in late November of 2011. How is the book doing out there?

Randy Roach I won’t really know officially until the beginning of march this year. That is when the publisher releases their statements. However, from all sign I believe the book is selling very well. I had a lot of people watching for it who read Volume I. Paul Solotaroff of Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone gave me a great plug in his latest article in Men’s Journal. It is the February, 2012 issue in an article they called, “The dawn of Huge.” Muscle & Fitness which is probably the most circulated bodybuilding magazine is doing a review on the book in their March issue which should be out next month. Health and Strength over in the UK is also going to review as will more publications as time goes by. The book is still early in its release and it takes most people a month just to read it. We have posted already a good number of endorsements and reviews on my site at www.randyroach.ca.

Charles: Let's conclude our discussion by finding out how these books have changed your life. Can you share two or three principal lessons you have learned as a result of your research and writing experience over the past decade? And can you tell us, finally, in what ways you have evolved and grown over the past decade -- and -- what might the next decade hold for you?

Randy Roach Sure, leave the toughest question for last!

The past 10 years have in fact been an amazing experience for me. I would have never dreamed back in 2002 that I would have two books of such volume and be given the credit I’ve received. Had you told me that I would be on the radio close to 30 times I would have laughed and called you absolutely delusional. Just thinking of making a living on my own outside of the secure programming job I had was almost more than I could handle. However, here we are in 2012.

I have grown more in these years than at any other point in my life. ‘I’ve learned to never say “never” and don’t think you know everything or anything as a certainty. Looks can very much be deceiving. There is always another perspective for almost all situations. Trying to write any historical documentation on the Iron Game industry and remain objective is not easy. This is a very convoluted industry with so much polarity amongst its factions and a good eal of animosity separating them. Nonetheless, I have still had the pleasure of meeting a lot of great people on the way. I have had to learn how to best put my own judgements aside and tell the stories from the varying opinions. Obviously, I have interjected myself to some degree which is certainly an author’s prerogative. There are a number of things I have written that I did not necessarily believe or support, but still felt it needed to be stated.

Michael Haynes and others like him who now seem to surround me have been guiding forces over this venture of mine. I am grateful for them and this experience. Hell Charles, how do you think I met you??

I will write more on my learned experiences probably in a few years. However for now, the story still continues…

Thank you Randy. We look forward to Volume III and to your many radio and magazine appearances in the years ahead!

*Sifu David Moylan, pictured above in the training photos with Randy Roach, is owner of the Waterloo Kung Fu Academy

ALL images of Randy Roach, his office and his Gym, seen in this post, were supplied by Randy Roach for Charles Welling. They have never been previously published. They were all produced in January, 2012.

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