Dietary Lifestyles – Natural Hygiene

The natural hygiene movement began around 1850 and has several mutations and philosophies, which range from rational to extremist. The most recent promoter of the movement is Herbert M. Shelton, who ran an unaccredited "school" in Texas from 1928 to 1981. After the school closed, in 1982, a federal court awarded US$873,000 to the family of a patient who died while being treated at Shelton's school. In the last month of his life the patient had lost 50 pounds and was the sixth person to die in five years while undergoing treatment at the school.

Despite this fact, new offshoots of Shelton's principles continue to this day, and the Natural Hygiene movement is still strong. It is quite possible that you will have patients who follow the philosophy, either for weight loss or general health.

What is the Philosophy of Natural Hygiene?

The natural hygiene movement is actually made up of many types of diets (such as food combining, raw food, fruitarian, sproutarian, and juicearian) but the basic premise of the philosophy is that eating foods in correct combinations aids digestion; incorrect combinations can lead to health problems. Most natural hygiene diets promote the consumption of certified organic foods; advise people to avoid canned and processed foods, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and other stimulants; discourage drinking beverages with meals; and encourage vegetarianism. The philosophy arranges foods into seven categories: vegetables, melons, sweet fruits, sub-acid fruits, acid fruits, proteins, and starches.

Food Combining

Food combining is the main philosophy in a standard natural hygiene diet. The diet specifically dictates which foods can be combined and restricts certain foods to certain times of day. For example, nothing but fruit should be consumed before noon, and it should not be mixed with proteins or starches; sweet fruits should not be mixed with acid fruits; and melon should always be eaten alone. Although proteins or starches, each of which can be eaten with vegetables, can be consumed any time in the afternoon or evening, they should not be eaten together.

The theory hypothesizes that since fruits digest quickly, starches slowly, and proteins digest even more slowly, mixing all of these items in one meal will cause food to ferment in the stomach and create digestive upset. Hence, you feel tired after eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal because your body is using too much energy to digest the mismatched food. Another example is fruit salad. According to the theory, these salads are unsettling because they combine all types of fruit (sweet, sub-acid, and acid) and often include melon, which should always be eaten on its own.

Raw Food Diet/Living Food Diet

These diets follow a slightly different version of the vegan food combining philosophy described above: they maintain that the body will lose valuable enzymes if food is cooked. In order to maximize vitamin absorption into the body, it recommends that all food be consumed raw. Advocates believe that, before the invention of hunting tools, humans in their original state would have had access to only raw vegetables, fruit, and nuts.

If 75 to 100% of a person's total food consumption is raw food, he/she is sub-classified as a raw foodist or living foodist. The living food philosophy is different from the raw food philosophy because followers eat mainly sprouted seeds and nuts (although not tomato sprouts, which are toxic). This diet also contains a number of juices, which increase the calorie, vitamin, and natural sugar intake.

Fruitarian/Sproutarian/Juicearian

These three extreme diets are offshoots of the raw food or living food diets. Fruitarians eat only fruit and seeds. Some natural hygiene followers claim the diet is to be used only in short-term fasting, to help cleanse the body of toxins or to recover from illness. Sproutarians eat mainly sprouted foods, and juicearians consume only fresh fruit and vegetable juices. Healthy? What do you think?

Natural Hygiene and Healthcare

The premise of natural hygiene is that conventional medicines are poisonous. To combat illness, patients are encouraged to fast or to correct the diet with healthy foods in the proper combination. The philosophy also encourages procedures like hydrotherapy, a controversial treatment using water to "cleanse" the body with colonic irrigation.

Natural hygiene also opposes immunization, fluoridation, and food irradiation on the grounds that they are unnatural and that they cause chemical additives to enter the body. Some advocates encourage the use of vitamins, while others claim that a good diet does not require them.

The good news is that many online sources of information on natural hygiene are now encouraging advocates to consult with a healthcare practitioner before embarking on these life-altering regimes.

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