Graduate Spotlight
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Charles Bens, PhD in Holistic Nutrition
“Being Average Could Be Dangerous to Your Health”
Author, speaker, behavioral researcher and corporate change–agent Charles Bens is living proof of the human spirit’s ability to reinvent itself. To spark their own creative visualizations, he enjoys reminding executive audiences that he earned his first graduate degree at age 50. Then, breathing new energy into his MS in organizational decision-making politics and strategy, a decade later Charles earned his PhD in Holistic Nutrition.
He has written eight books, more than 200 articles, and created three university courses. His two most recent books are Healthy at Work and The Healthy Smoker: How to Quit Smoking by Becoming Healthier First. His goal is to change people’s minds about smoking.
“Smokers, particularly the young ones, may feel invincible, immune to the innumerable problems that smoking causes — until they realize that their own smoke–damaged DNA also damages that of future generations, in new ways that we continue discovering year by year.”
His message is that as smokers decide to improve other habits that are easier to change, smoking cessation is far less traumatic. For many it becomes a natural evolution.
This is very good news for individuals, corporations and for our tiny planet! His CCNH dissertation, entitled Changing Personal Nutrition Behavior, applies advanced adult education techniques that can help accelerate the large-scale adoption of healthier eating habits within employee group settings.
Adding self–tests, humor and attitudinal shape–shifting techniques to balance the requisite sad statistics on the monetary and human costs of “being ‘average’,” clearly this long-time college instructor knows how to be a catalyst for change.
“Awareness, assessment, knowledge and commitment are our keys to personal transformation,” he shows–and–tells corporate audiences of all sizes. His teachings have motivated thousands of employees at all levels to discover their own cognitive turning point — often, he adds, within a matter of hours!
How did he discover Clayton College? For years as a professional researcher, Charles repeatedly encountered the pioneering spirits of our school’s founder, Lloyd Clayton, ND, and CCNH’s founding naturopathic research director, the late Emanuel Cheraskin, MD, DDM.
“As a retired clinician–turned–naturopath Dr. Cheraskin helped identify the ‘mood/food connection’ by researching entire families’ health habits rather than just individual students. And,” Charles adds, “while traditional schools were still teaching the ‘old’ food pyramid, CCNH used different approaches long before the national nutrition standards evolved.”
Over several decades Charles has remedied various health conditions for himself, family, friends and colleagues by diligently learning about natural health alternatives — supplements, food choices, exercise and stress management, to name a few. “My library has shifted from an 80/20 ratio of management books and holistic health books to 20/80, a complete turn–around. My consulting business is also shifting this way.”
What the world needs is more corporate wellness programs that explore “unconventional” ways to avoid chronic illnesses through preventive approaches, he concludes, observing that his doctoral expertise provides the peer recognition needed to do just that!
“With professional organizations such as National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, I develop wellness programs that combine psychoneuroimmunological with orthomolecular approaches. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate in this way with the Clayton Alumni community as well.”
For more information, see www.behealthyatwork.com and www.thehealthysmoker.net.
This article was based on an interview with the graduate.
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