Health Conscious in the Golden Era?

[klind65]

I've been wondering about what Herbert Shelton called " Natural Hygiene" in the Golden Era: Vegetarianism, fasting etc... I know Gloria Swanson was known for her advocacy of healthy measures like colonics, juicing, raw foods vegetarian foods, etc.. and I have a photo of a vegetarian restaurant from the 1940's but that is it. I have also looked through my father's old "Iron Man" magazines which had a "physical culture" section.....

Smoking and drinking were not considered egregious habits in the Golden Era, rather the sophisticated preferences of adults, so I wonder if , even though it may not have been stylish at the time, there was some movement or "underground knowledge" about natural hygiene.:eusa_doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Physical Culture" was the watchword of the very embodiment of the Golden Era health movement, the extraordinary magazine tycoon Bernarr Macfadden. If he hadn't existed, someone would have to have made him up -- teetotaler, militant vegetarian, crusader against the Prurient Pus Peddlers of the American Medical Association, and promoter of The Body Beautiful. He became very rich in the teens and twenties putting out publications which were constantly getting him in trouble with the postal authorities, but he also gave the world middlebrow stuff like "Liberty" and shopgirl rags like "True Story." But even his tamest magazines would never miss a chance to promote his beliefs. One of his humbler ambitions was to someday be elected president on a platform of Physical Culture for All, but for some reason that never happened...

(He changed his name from Bernard because he thought "Bernarr" made him sound more like a lion.)

 

[klind65]

"Physical Culture" was the watchword of the very embodiment of the Golden Era health movement, the extraordinary magazine tycoon Bernarr Macfadden. If he hadn't existed, someone would have to have made him up -- teetotaler, militant vegetarian, crusader against the Prurient Pus Peddlers of the American Medical Association, and promoter of The Body Beautiful. He became very rich in the teens and twenties putting out publications which were constantly getting him in trouble with the postal authorities, but he also gave the world middlebrow stuff like "Liberty" and shopgirl rags like "True Story." But even his tamest magazines would never miss a chance to promote his beliefs. One of his humbler ambitions was to someday be elected president on a platform of Physical Culture for All, but for some reason that never happened...

(He changed his name from Bernard because he thought "Bernarr" made him sound more like a lion.)

Thanks! This is amazing. I had no idea...

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Jack LaLanne The Godfather of Fitness

Jack LaLanne was born September 26, 1914 in San Francisco, CA and admittedly, during his childhood days was addicted to sugar and junk foods. At age 15, young Jack heard Paul Bragg speak on health and nutrition which had such a powerful influence, it motivated Jack to focus on his diet and exercise habits.

Jack was truly a pioneer, as he studied Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding, chiropractic medicine, and weightlifting, something virtually unheard of in the 1930s.

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[Paisley]

There's a book called Yoga for Americans written in 1959 that has photos of Gloria Swanson doing yoga. There are good exercises in it (I use the neck exercises every morning--they pop out a lot of kinks), advice to avoid sugar and white flour, and some questionable stuff like colonics and advice to not eat canned foods, vinegar and cold drinks.

 

[John in Covina]

This thread immediately brought to mind a picture of those "reducing machines" the ones that had the long wide strap of fabric that was placed around one's mid-section and "oscilated" the weight off the body.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

LaLanne is amazing! Probably 99.9% of what he said back then, still holds true today. On eating, he always said "Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince, and dinner like a Pauper." And "exercise is King - nutrition is Queen. Put them together and have yourself a Kingdom."

The man is still going strong!!!!

Long live Jack!!!!

 

[vitanola]

This thread immediately brought to mind a picture of those "reducing machines" the ones that had the long wide strap of fabric that was placed around one's mid-section and "oscilated" the weight off the body.

Those machines may not have been directly responsible the loss of avoirdupois, but the medical literature of the time suggests that these devices may well have indirectly aided reduction, as they "had a calming effect", were "relaxing", and "relieved hysterical congestion".

 

[HadleyH]

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, "relieved hysterical congestion".

Hysterical congestion??????

Hysterical congestion vitanola? lol buahahaa


(sorry vitanola i'm not laughing at you, its just that the word... hysterical congestion is precious! lol [huh] )

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Perhaps a bit before the "Golden Era", but research John Harvey Kellogg, the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the origins of Corn Flakes.


Lee

 

[Carlisle Blues]

hysterical congestion relief

 

[Fletch]

It should be remembered that bodybuilding was pretty well stigmatized in LaLanne's time. When he went into business as a trainer, most of his clients were middle-aged men who assumed he was a prostitute.

"Muscle mags" were also kept in business mostly by males who wanted to look at other males per se. (For some reason that probably only Susan Sontag could have figured out, collecting pop music on 78s seems to be associated fairly often with muscle-mag aficionados.)

As far as food-related health crazes go, they have been with us for a long time, but until the 1970s at any rate carried a strong whiff of fanaticism or crackpottery. Still, the crackpots were often great entrepreneurs, and managed to market some of their principles to the mainstream in various ways. Among these were men like Kellogg and Post. Yes, there was a time when no one in his right mind would breakfast on "flakes."

 

[John in Covina]

Diet and excercise remains the best way to health for many of us that are a little outside that height and weight chart. Yet we still seek diet and excercise in a pill.

As time goes on the fascination of various specialty diets (the grapefruit diet), programs and supplements shows some may help but they don't take the place of: diet and excercise as Jack suggested.

 

[J.L. Picard]

A little bit later came Bill Pearl. I had a chance to meet him. I was impressed by the fantastic shape that he still was in his later years. Still getting up at 4:30 AM, hoping on the bike and going on with his routine on a daily basis.

Un Grand Monsieur...

 

[klind65]

It should be remembered that bodybuilding was pretty well stigmatized in LaLanne's time. When he went into business as a trainer, most of his clients were middle-aged men who assumed he was a prostitute.

"Muscle mags" were also kept in business mostly by males who wanted to look at other males per se. (For some reason that probably only Susan Sontag could have figured out, collecting pop music on 78s seems to be associated fairly often with muscle-mag aficionados.)

As far as food-related health crazes go, they have been with us for a long time, but until the 1970s at any rate carried a strong whiff of fanaticism or crackpottery. Still, the crackpots were often great entrepreneurs, and managed to market some of their principles to the mainstream in various ways. Among these were men like Kellogg and Post. Yes, there was a time when no one in his right mind would breakfast on "flakes."

Yes, this is how I rather thought it was. I recall, as you mention, the "sunflower seeds/alfalfa sprouts" health food subculture of the '70's, then I guess we began to get "organic" foods in the 80's?...

However aside from physical culture and vegetarianism, I was told that neither food crops nor cattle were "poisoned" in the Golden Era. By poisoned, I mean crops sprayed with insecticides or pesticides, and animals injected with antibiotics and growth hormones....i.e. the horrors of factory farming. As I understood it, these practices began after WW2 in this country and continue still but along now with the alternative "organic" foods which are free of these poisons. If I am correct, then even though people ingested more fats, meats and carbohydrates, refined flours, alcohol, tobacco and sugar than we today feel is salubrious, at least those food items were not as toxic as they later became.

 

[John in Covina]

fftopic: Sunflower seeds, I had heard that there are problems for some people and animals with sunflower seeds. It's like an allergy addiction, where the seeds ratchet up the person in a nervous way and the same goes for some parrotts. I have heard of vets telling people not to feed sunflower seeds to them it make them so agitated they pull their own feathers out!

 

[Carlisle Blues]

fftopic: Sunflower seeds, I had heard that there are problems for some people and animals with sunflower seeds. It's like an allergy addiction, where the seeds ratchet up the person in a nervous way and the same goes for some parrotts. I have heard of vets telling people not to feed sunflower seeds to them it make them so agitated they pull their own feathers out!

Yes John you are correct:



Tingling of lips, laryngeal oedema, generalised angioedema, generalised urticaria, bronchospasm, abdominal pain (Noyes et al. 1979 [440]).

Diffuse pruritus, urticaria, angioedema, nausea and vomiting, chest tighness and wheezing followed by vascolar collapse and loss of consiousness in one patient and diffuse pruritus, urticaria and facial angioedema in another (Halsey et al. 1986 [975]).

Anaphylaxis beginning with abdominal pain, followed by pharyngeal pruritis and facial oedema with nasal congestion and finally generalised urticaria and impaired respiration (Kanny et al. 1994 [376]).

Symptoms ranging from itching of the mouth, ears and eyes, cough dyspnea, generalised urticaria, angioedema (Axelsson et al. 1994 [270]).

Anaphylaxis with laryngeal oedema, dyspnea, vomiting, generalised urticaria and hypotension (Iwaya et al. 1994 [366]).

Oral pruritus (8/12), anaphylaxis (4/12), angioedema of lips/mouth (4/12), gastrointestinal symptoms (3/12), urticaria (2/12), and rhinoconjunctivitis 1/12 patients (Garcia-Ortiz et al. 1996 [753]).

Vomiting and hypotension; urticaria and angioedema; itchy mouth; anaphylaxis; angioedema and fever in 5 patients (Kelly et al. 2000) [87].

Anaphylaxis 15 minutes after eating a bread roll with sunflower seeds (Asero et al. 2002 [973])

 

[Paisley]

However aside from physical culture and vegetarianism, I was told that neither food crops nor cattle were "poisoned" in the Golden Era. By poisoned, I mean crops sprayed with insecticides or pesticides, and animals injected with antibiotics and growth hormones....i.e. the horrors of factory farming. As I understood it, these practices began after WW2 in this country and continue still but along now with the alternative "organic" foods which are free of these poisons. If I am correct, then even though people ingested more fats, meats and carbohydrates, refined flours, alcohol, tobacco and sugar than we today feel is salubrious, at least those food items were not as toxic as they later became.

Slightly fftopic: :

After WWII, the chemical age of gardening began. This is when roses got their reputation for being tender and fussy: some of the modern hybrid teas and floribundas couldn't grow without lots of fertilizer and bug spray. The great old garden roses that came west with the pioneers, that grew almost untended, that covered arbors and smelled divine, were forgotten until the 90s. Even now, my father (b. 1930) thinks the only good bug is a dead bug. I'm not entirely opposed to chemicals, but plants that can't survive without them don't have a place in my yard.

 

[docneg]

I've been wondering about what Herbert Shelton called " Natural Hygiene" in the Golden Era: Vegetarianism, fasting etc... I know Gloria Swanson was known for her advocacy of healthy measures like colonics, juicing, raw foods vegetarian foods, etc..

Here’s a quick way to sort it out:

Naturopathic medicine, as an organized school of natural medicine, began in the early 1900s with a school in New York founded by Dr. Benedict Lust. The curriculum, besides standard health sciences, included hydrotherapy (applications of hot and cold water) methods from Germany, manual therapies and manipulation from American Osteopathy and Chiropractic, therapeutic exercises, dietetics based on natural foods and concentrated nutritional supplements to augment them, fasting and internal cleansing to detoxify, and botanical (plant-based) medicines. By the 1930s, naturopathic doctors were licensed in two dozen states.

Herbert Shelton and his followers split off from mainstream Naturopathy by emphasizing only fasting and detoxification and a raw food diet. They called it “Natural Hygiene”.

Bernarr MacFadden emphasized exercise and diet over other methods, and called his version “Physcultopathy” (!) after his “Physical Culture” magazine. He established a number of Physical Culture Hotels where people came to regain their health (and they did, no matter how silly the name).

Paul Bragg was a naturopathic doctor who tended to many Hollywood notables such as Gloria Swanson and Robert Cummings, who popularized the natural health practices. He cured my great-grand-uncle, who himself became a noted health lecturer (V.E. Irons).

Some naturopathic doctors developed in a more medical direction in the late 1940s, increasingly using standard diagnostic tools and emphasizing the use of oral (although natural) medicines over physical therapies like hydrotherapy. This caused a split between the “nature cure” advocates who simply wanted to teach health maintenance, and those who emphasized full medical training and who simply used natural substances as substitutes for synthetic drugs.

This is a fight that is still going on, by the way, but at least you have some perspective on the health world of the Golden Age.