strength. Psychologically, they provided users with an aggressive, contentious mindset very useful
in competition and training. The fact that they swept through the bodybuilding and other sport
communities where getting a competitive edge was so important to winning was not surprising.
Unfortunately, steroids were found to have some severe side effects. Moodiness and an
unhealthy aggression toward others that could extend to violence (known as “roid rage”) were
widely reported in sporting journals. Links to heart disease, liver cancer, kidney disease and
sterility were also discovered. With the evidence mounting, there was little choice but to shut
down their use in the international sporting arena.
It was into this void that I stepped with the high fat, Anabolic Diet I’d been working on. It
was not an easy task. The World Bodybuilding Federation wanted their athletes to get clean
but maintain muscle mass and stay cut up and in competition shape. This was a tall order.
One of the major problems was to get the hormonal systems of the bodybuilders back on
track, producing testosterone naturally. This was very difficult because steroids shut down the
testosterone-producing system in the body. The hypothalamic, pituitary, testicular axis (HPTA)
ceases to function, and you may need to go to extreme measures to get your testicles working
again. It often takes a long time to recover and, in some cases, a user may never recover and be
doomed to treatment with artificial steroids or testosterone for the rest of his life.
Steroids can also make the athlete lazy. He’ll get growth with marginal training methods but
find the road much tougher when he gets off steroids and has to do all the work himself. Anabolic
diet or not, it may take him awhile to get back up to speed with proper training methods.
Then there’s the diet itself. Like any diet, if you don’t follow it, you’re not going to get results.
Some bodybuilders who’d been cruising on steroids for a long time found it difficult to replace
the ease of steroids with a diet which required some commitment.
Finally, some people chose to believe that a natural program could replace steroids immediately
and offer the exact same results. There is no way this can occur. Over a short time period, no
diet is going to replace steroids. But over the long term, the Anabolic Diet has proven to be a
very effective alternative to steroids, providing the same kind of results without the “Russian
Roulette” nature of steroid usage.
By 1990, I’d come out with my book, Beyond Anabolic Steroids, and begun to provide articles
for a variety of fitness and bodybuilding publications on the subject. The response to the Anabolic
Diet was remarkable. In a world where steroids are a real gamble, both in terms of competition
and health, the Anabolic Diet gave the bodybuilders who used it that natural edge they were
looking for.
But I’m no “Just Say No” crusader in this area. Hysteria is not my stock in trade. Anabolic
steroids do have their place. In fact, I’ve recently been involved in research testing steroids for
use in AIDS patients. They could play a role in maintaining body mass and stengthening the
immune system in these patients, thus allowing them to better resist the opportunistic diseases
that are so deadly to them.
6 THE ANABOLIC DIET