As an Olympic medallist and New York City marathon champion athlete, Rod Dixon had always assumed he was “bulletproof” and he had the athletics results to prove it.
But a visit to his doctor in late-2010 for his biennial check-up revealed some startling revelations that gave him a huge scare and led to a new sugar-free life.
“I was told some of the profiles were higher than they should be, based on my athletic and physical condition,” recalls Rod from his home in California. “These profiles could be a pathway towards diabetes and certainly other issues, such as potential liver and kidney damage, all within 18 months to two years.”
In an effort to manage Rod’s problem, his doctor suggested prescribing a course of medication he would have to take for the rest of his life.
“I thought, this could be interesting to continue with what I am doing and just see how progressive it could be and where it might take me,” says Rod. “I have two choices – go on medication for the rest of my life or understand how potentially dangerous food and beverages had become in this world of fast food, soda and processed foods.”

The Kiwi athlete, who moved to California 12 years ago, won the New York City Marathon in 1983 (below).

Instead of medication, Rod called his friend Jerry Attaway, the former strength and conditioning coach for the San Francisco 49ers American Football team. Jerry advised him to maintain his existing nutritional habits for six months, but to write everything down.
At the end of a six-month period, Rod discovered some brutal facts.
“My blood pressure revealed some serious cardiac issues and a potential list of other related health issues with my kidney and liver,” admits Rod (65). “I was five to six kilos overweight and I was heading round and round the plughole in a circle of death.”
Rod was consuming at least four to five high-sugar energy drinks per day, plus sugar “hidden” in snacks and cakes. He found sugar in his yoghurt, as well as many food items with added high fructose corn syrup. He’d have three teaspoons of sugar in his morning coffee and added sugar to his breakfast cereal. In the evening, Rod was consuming at least three or four whiskeys with three to four bottles of cola (10 teaspoons of sugar in each 350ml). This was just the start of the discovery that he was consuming 437g of sugar per day, which equates to 109 teaspoons.

Rod used to rely on high-sugar energy drinks to help him get through each day.
His sugar intake was running at dangerously high levels and his health was starting to suffer.
“Jerry was horrified,” says Rod. “My blood pressure was 135/93. I had pre-gout symptoms, sleeplessness and frustration. I was constantly tired. I was a sugar-alcohol addict craving both every day just to function.”
After relocating from New Zealand to live in California in 2004, Rod had “slowly slipped into the American way of life”. Convenience and processed food and a greater alcohol intake started to take a grip. Over time, his daily exercise regime began to suffer and he often needed three or four bottles of high-sugar energy drinks just to make it through his long mountain bike rides.
“I was coaching a group of marathon road runners at the time and they would say to me, ‘It looks like you’ve got a bit of a hangover today.’
“I would say to myself, I wasn’t an addict because I didn’t drink between 10am and 2pm every day. Who was the only person I was fooling?” The thunderbolt from his doctor prompted immediate action in the former New York City Marathon winner. The very first thing he did was pour all the alcohol and sugary drinks down the sink. Rod also looked back to his time growing up in Nelson eating simple, wholesome organic food from his grandparents’ farm.
Taking medication for the rest of his life was not an option. Rod knew he had to treat himself, seeking knowledge and information to understand the issues and cause. He chose to transform his diet. The granddad-of-four swapped trips to the supermarket for the health food store and the farmers’ market, and says he adopted a simple philosophy.
“If it doesn’t have the word organic in it or if I couldn’t pronounce the word of any ingredient, I wasn’t eating it.”

The 65-year-old has been sugar-free for three years, but says weaning himself off the sweet stuff was “difficult”.
He admits the first six months were “difficult” and he went through some “bad patches” craving sugar. However, he used the approach that served him so well during a glittering running career in the 1970s and 1980s – when he was one of New Zealand’s most beloved sports stars.
“I had to learn how to eat organically,” says Rod. “That took a lot of time and energy, but it was no different to the discipline showed in my running career.”
Now more than three years on, he is a transformed man who is happy and content.
Alcohol-free, apart from an occasional glass of wine or beer, Rod is also sugar-free, fat-free and free of processed foods.
“I ride and run free, I sleep free and wake free of stress and that dread of the day ahead,” he tells. “I’m free of my past dietary dysfunction and I did it without the drugs to mask the real issues of dysfunction. “My bike rides now are the same duration sugar-free and I can ride the hills faster and with less recovery time than in my sugar days.”

Rod is back on track and spreading the word of good nutritional choices via his KiDSMarathon Foundation.
He is currently putting his energy into his KiDSMarathon Foundation in which children are empowered to embrace health and fitness, and make good nutritional choices.
Operating in five US states, Rod’s foundation is making a firm stand against the sugar epidemic. Not one of the 630 schools that have adopted his programme over the last three years has a vending machine, snack shop or serves fizzy drinks.
Rod is immensely proud of his foundation, which has also reached schools in Nelson and parts of Counties Manukau. But education can only achieve so much.
“New Zealand has a very high type 2 diabetes concern in addition to obesity levels that are among the highest in the world,” he says. “Education is often said to be the answer, but it’s only one segment of the circle. My take is that food and beverage regulation is the major segment to halt this epidemic.”
As for Rod, he has personally seen the dangers of sugar.
“The best investment I made was in my health,” he adds. “The balance I now have in my life has got me back on track.”
Words: Steve Landells