Bioenergy and Nutrition

Jack Tips, Ph.D., N.D., CHom, C.C.N.

After 14 years of study, with leading Alternative Health practitioners and schools, Dr. Tips established a clinic in Austin, Texas in 1980. His first book The Pro Vita! Plan was published in 1987 with the most recent revision in 1993. Despite the early publication date, this book still offers leading-edge information that is not found in other publications.

This book has had more impact on how we eat and how we prepare our food than any other book before or since. It is the foundation among three books that now form the basis for our daily diet.

Tips explains that bioenergy refers to, "… the subtle energy wave forms that are as much a part of the human being as the brains and kidneys." Tips also affirms, "True healing therapies provide, in addition to the bio-energetic support, a solid foundation in the health triad of attitude, structure, and nutrition." Energy therapies are increasing in popularity. Acupuncture, Applied Kinesiology or muscle testing and Homeopathy are three of the better known energy-based therapies.

Until the publication of The Pro Vita! Plan, nutrition had only been understood or presented in terms of biochemistry. Jack Tips sets about to give us an understanding of bioenergy. While the measurement of the body's bioenergy systems takes more sophisticated equipment than that used by our established health or medical system, as individuals we can readily experience how our bioenergy system works. We can have an abundance of energy to work, play and for all life's activities if we eat the right foods and our body has the ability to properly digest those foods. On the other hand, we've all experienced a tired feeling after eating–we'd rather take a nap or rest than get up and go. Rather than give us energy, the process of digesting the food has sapped our energy. Tips uses the example of soy beans to illustrate the difference between biochemistry and bioenergy of foods. Biochemistry tells us soybeans have a high protein content. Bioenergy tells us it is too difficult for the body to break down or digest soy protein into amino acids. The chains of molecules that form the protein are just too long for the human digestive system. As a food source the soybean saps rather than boosts our energy. Fermented soybean foods are an exception as the fermentation process starts the digestive process or breakdown of the protein molecules.

Tips stresses the importance of enjoying food and maintaining a relaxed attitude. Our daily diet should not be restrictive but rather enjoyable with a wide variety of food choices. "Foods for health," he says, "are whole, vital, fresh-and delicious! Primitive peoples are guided to foods by an intuitive use of taste…a faculty lost to 'civilized' people who live on processed chemical foods…" Under the tutelage of Stu 'Doc' Wheelwright, Tips outlined a system to eat for energy. In order to keep up with Stu Wheelwright, a much older man, Tips had to abandon his high carbohydrate diet in favor of a nutritional plan with meals based on vegetables, small amounts of low-stress proteins and high quality oil-with breakfast being the most important meal of the day. His energy level soared and so did the healing ability of his clients.

Who is Dr. Wheelwright? Here is how Jack Tips, his protégé, describes him in Your Liver …Your Lifeline: "In 1986, the wonderfully brilliant, maverick biochemist and nutritionist, A.S. ("Doc") Wheelwright came to Texas to lecture and consult with people regarding health and nutrition. … Founded on Wheelwright's teachings and formulas, the Liver Lifeline program can bring profound results … Thus, it is with good confidence and great enthusiasm that I present the genius and research of a man who dedicated his life to helping others experience life more abundantly through natural health."

Wheelwright showed early signs of genius. He won the Edison Award for Applied Chemistry in high school and built a lab in the basement of the family home that was better equipped than the chemistry lab at the university.

After serving in World War II, Wheelwright returned from the South Pacific with a debilitating disease. He was not expected to live. While his wife read from the Bible and the Doctrine & Covenants of the Mormons to him, passages referring to fasting and herbs stood out for him. He felt he was given Divine guidance. He returned to vigorous health through fasting, a careful diet and herbs. "I knew I had been given the answer to my incurable illness … not only to help myself, but also, and more importantly, to help mankind return to a state of wellness!"

Wheelwright spent 40 years studying herbs, living with native healers and visiting modern health practitioners in countries from the South Pacific to Russia and from the Far East to Africa and South America. He worked on survival projects for the US Government and developed a system to measure what he called "Bio-Force." A. Stuart Wheelwright, as a master herbalist, was then able to bridge the gap between subtle energies or micro-energy measurements and herbology. More precisely, Tips explains that Wheelwright's revolutionary research measured bio-force fields of herbs, human tissues and nutritive substances. As a result of his measurements, he was then able to compute the number of synergistic or compatible combinations of herbs and other products required to reach the energy level necessary to support different body organs and systems. He tested his theories on more than 80,000 people.

Systemic Formulas Inc., a company now headed by Doc's son Stu, manufactures Wheelwright's unique herbal formulations. Tips is grateful to have these products as part of his healing practice and he is also grateful that 'Doc' Wheelwright shared so much information with him during the last years of his life. Wheelwright died in 1990. Will Thompson, a close friend, says, "When it is all written in the book of life, A.S. "Doc" Wheelwright will be summed up with the one word that typified his entire existence: LOVE!"

For more information on "Systemic Formulas" see Recommended Products.

Also see our Recommended Reading section for books by Jack Tips:

The Pro Vita! Plan and Your Liver…Your Lifeline.