by Justin Lelia

"When we think of how numerous and how intense the joys of living can be when we are in exuberant health and when we contrast this state of euphoria with the suffering and discomfort of disease, why do we think of the man or woman who cultivates health as a mere faddist?"
- Dr. Herbert Shelton

After a traumatic adolescence, I was constantly searching for something or someone to heal me both physically and spiritually. Needless to say, there were many let downs. Then I discovered the concepts of Natural Hygiene. Since I adopted a hygienic lifestyle, I am slowly learning how to heal my old wounds and trust life again. Allow me to introduce you to Natural Hygiene, a unique philosophy.

A passionate American scholar named Herbert Shelton, early in the twentieth century, coined the term Natural Hygiene. Shelton used the word "natural" to distinguish principles he began synthesizing as a youth. By the time he began his first book, in his early twenties, he believed that good health was not merely the absence of symptoms but a state of incredible vigor and efficiency. "The low standards that have been established by the medical profession and accepted by the public cannot be reasonably regarded as anything other than marked departures from the biologically normal," he once wrote.

In simplistic terms, Shelton stressed that we cannot escape the consequences of harmful living. The causes of disease are the incorrect lifestyles we inherit and support. Disease is not inevitable. In order for us to regain our health, we have to practice new habits confirmed by the health sciences. Instead of palliating our symptoms with food, drugs, and/or treatments, essentially, we have to train ourselves to live conservatively. For instance, Shelton urged people to secure an extraordinary amount of rest, work on their eating and exercise habits, and most importantly, to end their search for cures. Disease is the body's effort to heal itself by eliminating toxic material. It is disadvantageous to interfere with its' efforts.

Along with his work on fasting, Dr. Shelton is best known for inspiring his readers to abstain from processed and cooked foods and eat a low fat fruitarian diet. This was a half a century before the vegetarian diet became vogue. Despite the great dietary change he recommended, Shelton often stressed that we aren't simply what we eat; we are made up of more than our diets. "Air, food and water constitute the materials out of which living organisms are made, and, although the quality of the material is very important, it is not more important than the process of using it. Good digestion is as necessary as good food, and good assimilation is equally important," he stated. The quality of food is vital to our growth and healing, but it is important to study the person, instead of focusing all our attention on the foods he or she eats.

Fish is not brain food, as we've been led to believe, and protein doesn't build muscle. To employ foods with the view that "we are what we eat" is unscientific and unhealthy and will end in disappointment, Shelton stressed. Resistance exercises coupled with rest plays a far greater role in building muscle than protein does. Foods do not have the powers we credit them. Food is fuel with basic materials for growth and maintenance. More is not necessarily better. For instance, high animal protein diets have been shown to leech calcium from the bones causing a condition known as osteoporosis. Shelton proposed that the overeating of unnatural foods was one of the main causes of chronic illness. Today, with the alarming rates of nutritional related diseases such as diabetes and obesity, Dr. Shelton's lessons ring true.

Dr. Shelton's hygienic diet was not a high protein diet, but with the inclusion of uncooked nuts and seeds, which are often overlooked as high-grade protein sources, it was adequate. In his book Superior Nutrition, Dr. Shelton wrote that "the value of protein food is not to be determined solely by the percentage of protein which it contains, nor yet by the richness of its proteins in the essential amino acids, but by the value of its total food content." Nuts and seeds are richer in vitamins and mineral salts than meat and dairy products. They do not form uric acid either. Recent research has shown that a low fat, zero-cholesterol, no animal protein, and high fiber diet helps prevent or resolve many of the chronic illnesses that high fat and protein diets contribute to. Dr. Shelton's diet was ahead of its' time, and there remains no scientific reason to fear protein or vitamin B12 deficiency when abstaining from meats, eggs, or dairy.

Dr. Shelton was not a guru or esoteric "healer". He was a stout critic of modern medicine. Through his analysis, he influenced people to dismiss the myth that medicine will save them from an early death and/or add quality years to their lives. The health science system of Natural Hygiene is not a religion or institution either. It's simply a theory that makes health-care your top priority and sees through the fallacies of conventional fragmented "disease" care. If we are not living healthfully, then to some degree, we must be living destructively. In reading Dr. Shelton's work, you find that moderation in all things is not the logical way to achieve health. Moderation in healthful practices is the sensible approach.

From 1920 to the day he passed away in 1985, Shelton wrote for the cause of Natural Hygiene; a philosophy he often said he didn't discover but simply revived. He was a humble man despite being praised by the eminent Ghandi, who kept Shelton's books on fasting by his bedside during his political and spiritual fasts. I expect that in time Shelton's work will become well recognized. Today, there are millions worldwide who practice hygienic health, and there are many organizations that promote the causes of health, simply because, as Dr. Shelton often said, "Health cannot be bought, only built."