Gayelord Hauser (1895–1984)

Gayelord Hauser (1995-1984; American/European nutritionist). The author is one of the first of the literate science publicists of the Living Food diet. In this book he perfects the idea that what we eat really matters. He shared ideas and lovers all over the world, dying in his shared Italian estate at age 84.

Of paramount importance is eating "live" plant food. He supplements with "wonder food" which can add nutritive facts easily: Brewer's Yeast (B vitamins and all trace minerals), powdered skim milk (digestible calcium), yogurt (acidophilus), wheat germ (vitamin B1, E, plus), unsulphured blackstrap molasses (iron). One of the first to advocate avocadoes with their protein, polyunsaturated oils, and vitamin/mineral of vegetables/nuts.[31]

He provides specifics of a healthy life-style asserted in the face of the fat/sugar nutrition-depleted death by industrialization relentlessly promoted by Big Business in the 1950s.

Hauser was stricken with tubercular hip as a boy, and was cured by a naturopath, Dr. Benedict Lust, who had spent his life as a missionary and had retired in the Swiss Alps where Hauser was sent to die. {Dr. Lust recommended a regimen of warm baths, clay packs, herbs and fresh foods -- the remedies of the new “food science” (Nahrungswissen). A former missionary, the monk, Brother Maier, put him on a strict diet of salads, fruit juices, vegetable broths, and herbs. Within weeks the tubercular hip went into remission. {This was before today's antibiotics....}

Hauser then devoted himself to studies of “food science” in order to become an expert and spread a message about “the power of food.” He studied in his travels, and in libraries and "private parties" in Vienna, Zurich, Dresden, Tokyo, Rome and Copenhagen. He relished and touted longevity--all sources and techniques he could find.

This book is published in the 1950s when Hauser was 84 and it promotes the value of his five “wonder foods”: yogurt, brewers yeast, powdered skim milk, wheat germ, and especially blackstrap molasses. Hauser believed in the healthful effects of “whole foods” and urged people to avoid starch, gluten, sugar, and excessive consumption of meat. When enriched white breads were introduced in the 1950s, Hauser denounced them as “devitalized.” He shows how to "grow your own vitamins" with sprouting. He provides recipes for eating potato skins and yogurt mash.

Filled with anecdotes and the miscellany of a brilliant "People" and science-loving well-guided mind. Covers more than diet, but also relaxation, physical culture, and such yoga slants as "standing on your head" (a la Lady Mendl, a soignee swami!)[137, 247]. He presents the cutting edge of science in a name-dropping manner. Who knew, for example, our "minds can be changed" [he cites Kraines and Thetford "Managing Your Mind" 234], or that Lucretius died taking a poisonous "love philter" [262].

While some of his prescriptions are slightly dated -- he calls soybeans the "wonder vegetable", and now that category is probably surpassed by the cruciferous vegetables--most of his recommendations and all of his observations remain invaluable.… (meer)