Nutritionist: Some can last 2 months on water diet

By JOHN GEREAU

Six days into his hunger strike, citizen activist Robert Schulz said he is experiencing a rare headache and is beginning to lose his stamina -- but not his commitment to starve himself until federal officials agree to debate the legality of the national income tax.

"I'm beginning to feel a little funky and am yawning a lot more than usual," Schulz said from Washington, D.C., where he and his supporters are spreading their "tax honesty" message from a customized van parked near the Washington Monument.

Schulz, 61, began his hunger crusade after an evening meal on June 30, and he said he is prepared to die unless the Internal Revenue Service or another branch of the federal government agrees to meet with his tax reform group over the income tax issue.

On Friday, a nutritionist with Glens Falls Hospital explained what Schulz may experience as he continues with his hunger strike.

Once employed as a nutritionist for the state Department of Correctional Services, Sandra McNeil is no stranger to hunger strikes like the one Schulz began one week ago.

McNeil, who is now the clinical nutrition manager at Glens Falls Hospital, said that Schulz will undergo a number of physiological changes as his body reacts to a lack of adequate nutrition brought on by the fast.

Nevertheless, she said the average person can subsist on a water-only diet for as long as 60 days, and said she has read of rare cases in which people were able to hold out for much longer periods of time.

As Schulz deprives himself of food, McNeil said his body will go into a "protection mode" and functions like blood pressure, heart rate and core body temperature will drop. His metabolism rate will slow, a condition health experts call "hypo-metabolism," and his body will begin to draw off stored fat as its main source of fuel.

Over time, he will lose his appetite altogether and will begin to exhibit fatigue and lethargy, as well as an increased sense of unresponsiveness and detachment.

Because the brain needs carbohydrates to operate properly, he will likely lose mental sharpness and could become irritable for little or no reason, she said.

"In cases of prolonged hunger strikes, the person could pay both a metabolic and a functional price," McNeil said. "Which makes you wonder how effective he will be with a political agenda."

McNeil said Schulz's age and relatively thin frame could also work against him.

On Friday, Schulz said he has the support of his family, although he said his wife, Judith, and four children do not want to be interviewed by the media during his hunger strike.

"They're quite nervous, of course, especially the kids. You have to realize that we are a very tight-knit family," he said.

During the evening hours, Schulz has been staying with his daughter, Nancy, who lives just over the border in Virginia and recently gave birth to his fourth grandchild.

Since he retired as a General Electric Co. engineer in 1986, Schulz has launched dozens of lawsuits against local and state governments, including a handful against Warren County.

Nevertheless, William Thomas, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, said he respects Schulz for standing up for what he believes in and for being a prudent watchdog of government-spending practices.

"I may not always agree with him, but you have to respect him," said Thomas, of Johnsburg. "I see a lot of talent there that I would hate to see wasted by this hunger strike."

Antonio Cerro, also a local citizen activist and a longtime acquaintance of Schulz, said Schulz is an ardent defender of the Constitution and believes that government should be responsive to the people it represents.

Cerro said he also believes the people will lose a great man if Schulz pays the ultimate price.

"It's too bad that it had to come to this," Cerro said from his home in Kingsbury. "We have a written Constitution that the judicial and legislative branches are supposed to abide by, but they lose sight of that."

Although Schulz has vowed to starve himself to death if government experts don't agree to the tax debate, McNeil said such vows rarely end in death because the person usually becomes so physically ill that he simply gives up and begins eating again.

Schulz heads the "We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education," a group that supports the premise that the 16th amendment to the Constitution was not properly ratified by the states between 1901 and 1913. The amendment gives Congress the power to collect income taxes.

Even if the amendment was properly ratified, no law was ever adopted that requires most citizens to file an income tax or employers to collect income tax from employees, the group argues.

He said the most important thing people can do is phone federal representatives and demand the face-to-face meeting that his group is seeking. The group wants to meet with government experts in a public forum in Washington on Sept. 18.

Comments, Schulz said, can be phoned in to the White House at (202) 456-1414.

"We cannot allow the government to get the idea that nobody cares, otherwise the worst may happen," Schulz said.