Jim Anderton (CNZM)
It was great sadness that we learned of the death of Jim Anderton.
We respect our clients’ privacy, but Jim was quite open about coming to see us in 1999 which helped to get our business established.
He contacted us through a mutual friend and came out to see us one evening for a consultation. He was so ill that he could barely walk along our (flat) path and I made the comment to Kevin that I hoped he didn’t die, knowing that there was an election coming up soon. Kevin reassured me and said “you wait, before the election, they will not be talking politics but they willll be talking about Jim’s diet” which is exactly what happened.
Jim was being interviewed about the election by Linda Clark on a programme called Crossfire. At the very end Linda said to him “what is this I hear about your diet?” and Jim replied that he was “the best living advertisement for the Zone diet”. His office was inundated by calls from people from Invercargill to Kaitaia and his office passed them all on to us. This was the beginning of ProZone. There were articles in the paper and Jim sent everyone to us from Cabinet Ministers to the security guard at Parliament.
Following the election, Jim became the Deputy Prime Minister to Helen Clark in her first government. He also invited us as his guests to the State Opening of Parliament where we sat with ex Governors General and Prime Ministers. At the reception Jim introduced us to Helen Clark as his nutrition advisers. I told her we could save the country millions in the health budget. She just laughed and said that we could start with half the people in the room, which was true.
As an addendum to this, we got an interview with the then Minister of Health, Annette King’s Chief of Staff. The gentleman was very supportive and excited. He promised to get us an appointment with the Ministry of Health and said that he would come with us to “keep the buggers honest!”. And that is where we hit the brick wall. Unfortunately, as a doctor friend of our told us, the drug companies have deep pockets and it is not in their interests to make people well so we have been working with people one client at a time. We are still of the opinion that we can make a difference, that what we teach works if you do it, that it is an easy lifestyle (we are still both eating in the Zone after 20 years) and yes, we could save the country millions in the health budget if there was a Minister of Health with an open mind and the real will to make this country well.
Jim followed the Zone for many years and commented that he could not have managed his punishing schedule if he did not have his nutrition right; which I often use when people say they are “too busy” to follow the Zone. We like to think that we not only helped extend his life, but that for most of that time he had an improved quality of life.
Our condolences to Jim’s wife, Carole, & the Anderton family.
