Brian Maxwell, founder of the multimillion-dollar PowerBar empire and a former world-class marathon runner, has died of a heart attack at 51. In 1977 Maxwell was ranked the No. 3 marathon runner in the world by Track and Field News. I have been running since the late '60s. In the '70s the myth was that if you ran a marathon you were virtually immune to heart disease. Brian's death nails that myth shut. What is even more surprising is that he was a strong promoter of conventional nutrition.

Here is the list of ingredients for Power Bars:

High fructose corn syrup with grape and pear juice concentrate, oat bran, maltodextrin (complex carbohydrate), milk protein (lactose removed), brown rice, unsweetened chocolate, glycerine, natural flavors.

Please notice that the first ingredient is sugar (high fructose corn syrup) and then more sugars with grape and pear concentrates and maltodextrin. They use milk protein that is made from pasteurized milk and then processed in a way to damage the protein.

Moral of the story

Exercise alone won't cut it folks. If you eat disguised candy like PowerBars you run the serious risk of dying prematurely from heart disease. It is quite incredible to find a world class marathoner dieing from a heart attack at such a young age. That just goes to show you how powerful insulin is.

USA Today March 20, 2004