Gayelord Hauser

Gayelord Hauser
Hauser in 1930
Born
Helmut Eugen Benjamin Gellert Hauser

May 17, 1895
Tübingen, Germany
DiedDecember 26, 1984 (aged 89)
North Hollywood, California
Occupation(s)Naturopath, health and nutrition author

Benjamin Gayelord Hauser (May 17, 1895 - December 26, 1984),[1] popularly known as Gayelord Hauser, was an American nutritionist and self-help writer, who promoted the 'natural way of eating' during the mid-20th century. He promoted foods rich in vitamin B and discouraged consumption of sugar and white flour. He rose to fame as a self-help author, popular on the lecture and social circuits, and was nutritional advisor to many celebrities.

Hauser was supported by many film stars but was often in conflict with the medical community.[2] He promised people they could add years to their life by eating five "wonder foods": blackstrap molasses, brewer's yeast, skimmed milk, wheat germ and yogurt.[3] He was criticized as a "food faddist" and his dieting ideas were described by medical doctors as pseudoscientific and quackery.[3][4][5][6]

  1. ^ Picart, C. (2000, February). Hauser, Gayelord (1895-1984), nutritionist and author. American National Biography. Ed. Retrieved 8 Feb. 2019.
  2. ^ Kerr, Peter. (December 29, 1984). Gayelord Hauser, 89, Author: Proponent of Natural Foods. The New York Times. Retrieved 8 February 2018. "Mr. Hauser saw his ideas embraced by Greta Garbo and many other film stars from the 1920s through the 1950s. However, he was often in conflict with medical doctors who said he had little proof to back his theories."
  3. ^ a b Barrett, Stephen, Jarvis, William T. (1993). The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America. Prometheus Books. p. 79. ISBN 0-87975-855-4
  4. ^ Malmberg, Carl. (1936). The Concentrated Food Fraud. Health and Hygiene 4 (4): 7-9. "Hauser, the self-styled "Viennese health expert," is such a quack... He is the author and publisher of a number of blatantly pseudo-scientific books on diet and health."
  5. ^ Cannon, Geoffrey. (1992). Food and Health: The Experts Agree: An Analysis of One Hundred Authoritative Scientific Reports on Food, Nutrition and Public Health Published Throughout the World in Thirty Years, Between 1961 and 1991. Consumers' Association. p. 54. "Twentieth century 'food reformers' such as Gayelord Hauser and Adelle Davis had been making such claims in books dismissed by the medical establishment as 'food faddism'."
  6. ^ "Some Notes on Gayelord Hauser". Quackwatch. Retrieved 30 October 2019.