Gayelord Hauser

Benjamin Gayelord Hauser (1895–1984), popularly known as Gayelord Hauser, was an American nutritionist and self-help author, 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. Hauser was a best-selling author, popular on the lecture and social circuits, and was nutritional advisor to many celebrities.

Gayelord Hauser was born Helmut Eugen Benjamin Gellert Hauser on 17 May 1895 in Tübingen, Germany to Christian Hauser, a schoolmaster, and Agate Rothe. At the age of sixteen, young Helmut joined his older brother, the Reverend Otto Hauser, a pastor, in Chicago, Illinois; shortly thereafter they moved to Milwaukee. Young Hauser sailed to America as a steerage passenger on the SS George Washington, and underwent immigrant inspection at Ellis Island on 14 August 1911.

Not long after settling in the USA, Hauser was stricken with tuberculosis of the hip which, before the development of antibiotics in the 1930s, was almost always fatal. After several operations proved fruitless, his case was declared hopeless and Hauser consulted a naturopath, Dr. Benedict Lust. Lust recommended a regimen of warm baths, clay packs, and herbal remedies. Hauser’s condition subsequently improved and he soon followed Lust’s recommendation to seek further treatment in Switzerland to see if the new “food science” (Nahrungswissen) had anything to offer him. A 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, permanently cured.

Hauser then embarked upon studies of “food science” in order to become an expert and spread a message about “the power of food.” He studied in Vienna, Zurich, Dresden, and Copenhagen. He now returned to the USA, changed his name, and set up office in Chicago. He toured the Midwest touting 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 too much fat, excessive sugar, and excessive consumption of meat. He urged people to "enrich" their milk and food with powdered skim milk, blackstrap molasses, and brewer's yeast. He provided recipes for whole wheat muffins, breads, drinks, and yogurt. When enriched white breads were introduced in the 1950s, Hauser denounced them as “devitalized” because of the value of the removed wheat germ.

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