My name is Ben Rockefeller. I edit HealthViaFood. I am a technical writer and commercial translator. I also have experience in IT (information technology), developing application software and setting up accounting systems.

I am 61 (in this picture), in rude health, and happy to be healthy, no pains, no indigestion, and no insominia. My passion and my hobby is simply maintaining my health myself. Some day I will lose my health, but I would like to live to be one hundred years young or at least to die in good health. In part, this site is my record of how I hope and intend to do that, in case I forget what I am doing.

I watched both my parents die in great pain and suffering. This left me with a profound skepticism of the conventional medical model and practices. Fond memories of my youth with them are still part of me. I am lucky that they gave me a lot of advantages, but their greatest gift to me was the encouragement to think for myself, independently of the crowd.

I am not here to complain, to criticize, or to demonize anybody, but to offer specific, practical, positive information that you can use to maintain your health yourself, gently and naturally, via your food. 

More than ten years ago, I had my own little health complaints, cracking joints in the morning; bruises that appeared from nowhere, then disappeared, and then re-appeared; and excess weight. They were not severe, but I believed that if I did nothing, then they would only get worse. The only variable I had open to me was what I ate. So I read a lot of books and learned to cook and to alter my eating habits, for my health, based on ideas that I found in books. Gradually, over months and years, my health improved measurably. I lost almost one fourth of my weight – without trying to lose weight.

Besides a certificate from an (accredited) part-time nutrition school in Belgium and self-study, why believe me about your health via your food? What qualifies me as a health coach? 

Because these ideas work, and I am simply the messenger. If you doubt this, then the books and other publications cited in the articles are the references. 

We have a food industry that takes almost no account of health at the same time that we have a health industry that takes almost no account of food. It does not matter what country you are in nor what language you speak. Even the World Health Organization points out that there are more people on earth who are obese than people who are starving. Many of the obese are malnourished. This makes no sense to me. 

The body is a garden, not a machine, but my garden is not your garden. The key concept, which can be difficult for many to grasp, is biochemical individuality. Specifically, there is no one set of healthy eating habits that is healthy for everybody. What is effective for me may not be effective for you. I suggest that you be skeptical. You do not need to believe me. You can check facts yourself and verify, doing your own research. 

I am merely an armchair, amateur scientist. Regarding the science, particularly the biology (physiology) of digestion and metabolism, attributing cause-and-effect is never certain, but relevant questions are :

• What is the science, and who is the scientist?
• What is any personal interest or point of view of the scientist or their sponsor?
• Is the science, as described by the scientist, based on a grand theory, or is it based on the observations (or trial and error) of the scientist?
• What are the specific observations  (or the trial and error)? If the observations are not direct, then who made the observations?
• Have others repeated these observations?
• Is it possible to prove that the conclusion is false, for example in a controlled experiment or with possible contrary observations? If not, then what is the proof of the theory?
• Can the science be used to predict anything with any accuracy?
• Is it new?

By the way, I am not acquainted with the family that exploited petroleum and undermined honest medical education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Perhaps my ancestors were acquainted with them, but if so, I never met them, and they did not fit in. My hobbies are reading, watching films, bicycling, cooking, traveling, and keeping myself healthy. 

If you have a medical condition, see a doctor. Nothing in this site is intended to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.