Robert Barefoot

Robert R. Barefoot (born 1944) is a controversial alternative medicine proponent who advocates the use of coral calcium through his books, lectures, audiotapes and infomercials.

Background

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Robert Barefoot graduated with Honors from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology with a certificate in chemical research technology. Even though he is sometimes referred to as "Dr. Robert Barefoot",^[1] he does not possess any doctoral degree. He now lives in Wickenburg, Arizona.^[2]

Barefoot has researched enhanced hydrocarbon and metal extraction in the mining industry for which he obtained several international patents. He has also published six research papers on mineral diagenesis and analytical chemistry. Barefoot's research with Dr. Carl Reich on terminal cancer patients led Barefoot to write one of his best-selling books, "The Calcium Factor." ^[3] The book has been ranked in Amazon's top 500 sales listings.^[4]

Until 2004, he presented his products in an infomercial hosted by Kevin Trudeau.

Litigation

When the Attorney General of Maryland brought a case against the marketers of T-Up, an unproven cancer and AIDS treatment,^[5] Barefoot was called upon to be an expert witness on the use of caesium chloride on humans in conjunction with high pH therapy but was dismissed based on his lack of professional training and research in this particular area.^[6]

Criticism

According to a critical Time magazine article by Leon Jaroff, "The monthly cost of the recommended dose of Barefoot's calcium tablets is some 15 times greater than that of the ordinary drug store variety." Jaroff called Barefoot's marketing of coral calcium "one of the more successful scams of our age" and "sheer nonsense," and labeled him a "huckster". He ended his article with a call for intervention by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA):

When are the chickens ever going to come home to roost? Barefoot has been getting away with this scam for years, conning his naive audience, and presumably enriching himself along the way. Isn't it well past time for the Federal Trade Commission to step in?^[4]

Upon further analysis, it is apparent that Coral Calcium is nothing more than calcium carbonate and magnesium (there are other elements and minerals present in trace amounts) which can be bought at the local home improvement store as limestone and costs about $1.00 per bag. ^{[citation needed]}