Washington:
Nine years ago, on their 30th wedding anniversary, Hillary Rodham Clinton gave her husband a gift she hoped would ensure many more years together: Dr Mark Hyman.
Hyman was charged with helping the former president after a 2004 quadruple bypass surgery. In the time since, the doctor has become part of the Clintons’ circle of friends and advisers, but one with an important difference.
The Clintons, after all, have a small army of aides who offer political and policy advice, but not many who can tell a former and potential president to lay off the ranch dressing.
One of the first things Hyman did was to wean Bill Clinton off his previously prescribed vegan diet. Despite persistent news media reports that he is vegan, Clinton does occasionally eat fish and lean protein.
“It’s hard being a vegan to eat enough good, quality protein and not have too much starch,” Hyman said over lunch at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York. “I know a lot of fat vegans.”
Hyman, who made a name for himself advising the moneyed urbanites who retreat to Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts, met Hillary Clinton at a fund-raiser in New York when she was in the Senate. The two quickly dived into a wonky conversation about childhood obesity and his philosophy of healthful eating. “She then called me and we’ve just become friends,” he said.
In August, the two were spotted having a three-hour dinner at the West Street Grill in Litchfield, Connecticut, prompting speculation about 2016 and a New York Post article with the headline “Hillary Gets Healthy.” (Her meal, the newspaper reported: grilled salmon and fresh fruit.)
Hyman, 54, described it as a learning experience. Trained as a family doctor, Hyman, who was born in New York, moved to rural Idaho after medical school to work in a small clinic. He then worked as an emergency room doctor in Massachusetts before becoming co-medical director at Canyon Ranch.
Tabloid attention
In February, the doctor made a blitz of media appearances. But it’s his relationship with the Clintons that brought him the kind of tabloid attention that a doctor with a practice in the scenic Berkshires rarely receives.
As she contemplates another run for the presidency, few topics receive more scrutiny than Hillary Clinton’s health. And as with most female candidates, Clinton’s personal appearance often emerges as a topic of conversation. (She joked that she would name her memoir due out on June 10 The Scrunchie Chronicles: 112 Countries and It’s Still All About My Hair.)
Clinton said at an event last week that she didn’t think that being put under that type of microscope was “particularly good for the country.”
“It isolates them by putting them in a public category, where people stare at them as if they’re new breeds of human being,” she said. “Everyone’s so interested in what you had for breakfast and what your hair looks like and all the rest of it.”
Meanwhile, there remain genuine concerns about Bill Clinton’s health, even though he is svelte compared with his doughier White House years. Last month, Chelsea Clinton said her 67-year-old dad who used to famously jog to a McDonald’s and strategise over greasy steaks and tamales at Doe’s Eat Place in Little Rock, Ark. had a heart that was “much younger than it was even 10 years ago.”
Some people who have known Clinton for years, have said he looks too thin, almost frail. “He’s good,” Hyman said. “If you get people healthy, then they learn what they need to do to take care of themselves.” Hyman said his patients ranged from world leaders to the urban poor. (He has worked to teach people in poverty how to cook healthful foods, most recently in North Carolina.) He said he had made house calls for only “the Clintons and the queen and king of Jordan.”
Hyman carries packets of macadamia nut, walnut or coconut butter in his jacket pocket, and he advises busy clients like Clinton to do the same. As close as he is to Hillary Clinton, Hyman has not collaborated with the current first lady. He said Michelle Obama had been overly influenced by the food industry on her “Let’s Move!” initiative to combat childhood obesity.
“She was vilifying the food industry and talking about food, but then she called it ‘Let’s Move!,’ which sounds like ‘Let’s exercise more,’” Hyman said. When asked if Hillary Clinton agreed with this critique, he was quick to say she did not.
— New York Time News Service
