Corn oil and skim milk

Reflections on voluntary service rather than military service

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During the summer of 1959, I attended a family reunion with my future wife. Each family brought an abundance of food and spread it on a table for everyone to enjoy. I, however, was on a strict diet of corn oil and skim milk and unable to eat any of the appealing delicacies available. As I sat at the table and drank my corn oil “milk shake” while everyone else was enjoying the array of food, many people looked at me as peculiar. What they didn’t know was that I was participating in a research program with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. I was allowed to leave the NIH Clinical Center for brief holidays or weekends but with strict instructions to eat nothing but my prescribed diet of corn oil and skim milk.

Following my graduation from Goshen (Ind.) College in 1958, I entered voluntary service with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) as a normal control patient at NIH to satisfy my draft obligation as a conscientious objector (CO) to military service. Choosing to be a CO was based on my belief that being a follower of Jesus Christ means to show unconditional love to all people. In doing this we must follow Christ’s command of returning good for evil. My parents taught me this Anabaptist precept as I grew up during World War II.

My father was drafted into the army during World War I, and since there were no provisions for COs at that time, he suffered a great deal for his religious objection to military action. Because of his unpleasant experience in the army, my father was grateful for the new provisions of alternative service granted to COs during World War II and thereafter.

I was comfortable and confident with the decision to choose voluntary service with MCC rather than military service. Even though there is currently no selective service draft that forces one to make a choice regarding participation in military service, it is important for each young person in the Anabaptist tradition to wrestle with the issue just as seriously today. I urge those who claim to be COs to consider serving a year or two in voluntary service as an expression of their conviction and willingness to serve others in a peaceful role.

Between the 1950s and the 1970s approximately 25-30 normal control patients were at NIH at any one time. While there, we were assigned to participate (after signed consent for each study) in studies in mental health, heart or metabolic diseases. The normal control patient served the medical researcher by being able to observe a healthy person’s response to various environmental, dietary and experimental medicines, compared with patients with specific medical conditions. Both kinds of patients were studied at the same time. Clinical investigators at NIH, then and now, consider the normal control patient a vital factor in research to unlock the mystery of diseases.

One study in which I participated while at NIH was the early investigation of what effect cholesterol has on heart disease. The study involved being on various strictly controlled diets. One phase of the program was eating the same solid foods each day for periods of several weeks. Another phase of the program was a nine-week diet of nothing but corn oil and skim milk, which was formulated to keep my weight constant. Following the corn oil diet, I was given a combination of coconut oil and skim milk for six weeks and finally a combination of fish oil and skim milk for two weeks. While on these diets, my metabolism was monitored with frequent blood tests and analysis of bile from my small intestine to evaluate my liver function. This study also served as a good test in self-discipline, as I never strayed from the prescribed diet.

Other volunteers served in many studies requiring self-discipline and some discomfort, but we were all respected and appreciated for our willingness to serve our country in helping find better ways to fight diseases. In a March 26, 1960, article in The Saturday Evening Post, Dr. Jack Masur, director of the Clinical Center at NIH, described the normal volunteers as “our most precious resource.” Recently, Robert Shamburek, M.D., a current investigator in cholesterol metabolism at NIH, said he regards the normal control patients as “gold” in his clinical research.

While at NIH, the normal control patients also volunteered in child-care programs, providing activities for the children who were patients there. Others, including me, worked in the research labs with the investigators. With this experience and my previous premed study at Goshen, I enrolled in medical school after my service at NIH and practiced primary-care medicine until my recent retirement. During this time I prescribed some of the medical discoveries I had helped develop while serving as a normal control patient.

As I reflect on my voluntary service, I thank God, MCC and the U.S. Selective Service System for giving me the opportunity to contribute my service to our country and humankind in helping improve life through medical research rather than military service. One person alone cannot cure all diseases or stop all the violence in the world, but one may never know what the future may bring from willingly contributing to the needs in our world by serving in voluntary service as opportunities arise. The next time you see a person swallow a pill to control their cholesterol, remember that it may have become possible because someone took corn oil and skim milk “in the name of Christ.”

James L. Conrad is a member of Perkasie (Pa.) Mennonite Church.

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Additional Notes

NIH continues to enlist normal control patients for its research but not through MCC or Brethren Voluntary Service.

Because this experience was one where many friendships were established in the MCC and BVS units, a reunion of NIH normal control patients, who served through these two agencies, is being held at NIH in September.

This will be a time to reminisce, tour the NIH facilities and hear from some of the investigators how the normal control program has benefited their research.

Anyone interested in more information about the reunion may contact James Conrad at nihcontrol@yahoo.com or via USPS at 1511 N. Ridge Road, Perkasie, PA 18944.