The founders of various teachings on healthy lifestyles, the peak of activity of which occurred in the mid-twentieth century, still arouse genuine public interest . And even the inconsistency of their biographies, the controversy of the preached views, and criticism from the side of traditional medicine do not interfere with the attention and sincere curiosity of the public. One such health advocate was Herbert Shelton. Despite the fact that this man left the living world more than thirty years ago, his books still occupy honorable places on the shelves of adherents of healthy eating.
The origin of interest in fasting
Herbert McGolfin Shelton was born on October 6, 1895 in the city of Willie , Texas in a family of deeply religious parents. The boy was born premature and very weak. The health situation was also aggravated by poverty and dilapidation of the parental home, in which an immature baby was forced to fight for his health. However, fate was favorable to Herbert, and he grew up quite a strong young man.
Strict religious education did not prevent Shelton from an early age to show a keen interest in science, including health. He looked closely at the life of farm animals and paid attention to how they recover from the disease through starvation.
And only with the family moving to the larger city of Greenville, Herbert got the opportunity to truly develop his knowledge in the field of a healthy lifestyle. This was facilitated by work in a newsstand, spending time in which a young man enthusiastically “swallowed” articles on physical education, fasting, and cleansing the body. At the same time, Shelton tries to switch to raw unprocessed food - eats raw vegetables and fruits, tries to reduce his weight. Parents condemned him for these attempts, but did not interfere with them. Over the years, Herbert's father also showed a keen interest in the theories preached by his son, in the hope of alleviating his condition provoked by asthma.
Training and the beginning of literary activity
The next few years, Shelton devotes an active and in-depth study of the works of the famous nineteenth-century hygienists - McFadden, Trol, Walker, Oswald and others, and enters the study with a clergyman named Sylvester Graham, known for his commitment to the movement of hygienists and the consumption of unprocessed food. An attempt at a three-day fasting delights him, and he begins to more confidently promote his views on a healthy lifestyle.
While serving in the army, Herbert continues to study the valueological literature, and comes to the conclusion about the extreme danger of traditional medicine.
Since 1919, Shelton began to attend schools of the corresponding orientation - McFadden College of Physical Education, Crane Sanatorium, Lindlahr College of Natural Therapy and others. As a graduate student in several places at the same time, Shelton does not forget about his personal life, and in 1921 makes an offer to his beloved Ide Pape. Two years later, the couple has their first child. By that time, Herbert was awarded two academic degrees: doctors of naturopathy and doctors of naturopathic literature, and began to work as a treating doctor.
In the same period, a book was published entitled "The Basic Principles of Naturopathy", the attitude of which in various circles was very contradictory. However, all the works to which Shelton Herbert devoted his life saw the light (the author’s books are still very popular).
The idea of reviving the doctrine of hygiene
Shelton strongly adhered to the view that the doctrine of the hygiene system, successfully begun in the nineteenth century by Sylvester Graham and Isaac Jannings, should be revived. And he blamed himself for this rebirth.
Since 1925, Dr. Shelton Herbert, whose bibliography has more than a dozen books, began to write actively for popular health magazines. Most of his publications have criticized classic medicine and drug treatment. Despite the fact that, during that period of his life, Shelton turned from a believer into an agnostic, his articles contained many messages to the Holy Scripture - somewhere as an example of starvation, somewhere - as an ironic remark with a hint the insolvency of religious dogmas.
In 1927, a second son was born into the Shelton family. This period was not easy for the couple, in terms of material well-being. Herbert was arrested three times and fined for illegally practicing treatment, and in the wake of these troubles, the magazines that had previously readily published Dr. Shelton's scientific articles terminated his relationship under pressure from police and traditional medicine.
Dr. Shelton Health School
Despite legal troubles, Shelton’s popularity as a practicing hygienist grew rapidly. Therefore, in 1928, a family with two children moved to the city of San Antonio in Herbert Texas, native to Texas, and opened its first “Dr. Shelton Health School” there. Then he published his second book, entitled "Human life, its philosophy and laws." A year later, Ida gave Herbert a third child - daughter Vaylodin. This period was the most difficult for a young large family - the Great Depression did not give such scientists as Shelton a chance for a normal life, and they eked out a very miserable existence. But the doctor did not lose heart, and, tirelessly, worked on new books and publications, which gradually gained authority among the reader.
Dedication and need
He actively lectured, collecting dozens and hundreds of grateful listeners, but it did not bring money. In the early forties, he received an offer to run the author’s program on the radio, at the end of which there should have been an advertisement for a laxative drug. These conditions were contrary to the scientific and life philosophy of the famous humanist, and, of course, he refused, despite the fact that it promised a significant improvement in the material situation of the Shelton family. Herbert, whose biography is riddled with poverty and living since childhood, was so in need of money that even cleaning the school premises, washing the bedding for patients fell on his wife's shoulders.
Lecture activity. Success and failure
The following years, until 1972, Shelton spent in lectures, which he read without interruption for 10-12 hours a day. A man who promotes a caring attitude to health brought his body to complete exhaustion, relentlessly devoting himself to work. That was Shelton Herbert.
Separate nutrition, which he so actively promoted, is still the subject of a huge amount of controversy both in the scientific community and among those who practiced it. During the life of Dr. Shelton, several scandals related to his treatment method also flared up.
So, in 1942, a trial was held over him. The accusation of murder as a result of negligent actions was based on the death of a patient of the Health School, but at that time Shelton was fully acquitted.
There were equally many skeptics and critics of the hygiene movement. Herbert repeatedly ridiculed them for the way in which he passed from one principle of a healthy lifestyle to another. So, in 1945, Shelton was injured in the jaw from hitting a horse's hoof. This led to the loss of teeth and the inability to continue to consume meat, as a result, the doctor began to actively promote vegetarianism, according to many, so as not to be alone in the face of new restrictions. His refusal of sex and the conviction that a person does not need him was attributed by many to banal impotence.
Growth in popularity amid failures
However, the number of followers grew. This was due, in many respects, to Shelton's strong oratory charm. Several tricks, mastered by him at the very beginning of the lecture experience, became the key to the success of his performances. In 1948, Vivian Vetrano joined the movement.
Being a talented and successful dancer, she discovered the School of Health as a patient and became the most faithful follower of Shelton's teachings, actively studied his theory, also lectured and wrote articles. Paradoxical and almost comical was the receipt by Shelton of a grant for the creation of another School from the company Frito, producing chips. Its founder was a patient of the school and was so shocked by the results of fasting that, without hesitation, he allocated fifty thousand dollars.
The wrong ending of a right life did not refute Shelton's teachings
1978 was a fatal year for the School of Health - one of the patients died of a heart attack, and after a five-year trial, Shelton and Vetrano were charged with his death. The court sentenced them to pay the widow of the deceased about nine hundred thousand dollars, as a result of his declining years, Shelton turned out to be a sick, ruined man, whose own weakness crossed out the works of his whole life. Parkinson's disease confined him to bed for many years, during which he tirelessly continued to develop his teaching. Herbert Shelton passed away in 1985. It is safe to say that his youthful dream to revive the hygienic movement was realized.
So far, a huge number of people practice separate nutrition, despite the many debates about its practical suitability, which was proved by Shelton Herbert. All books of the author are published to this day and are in stable demand.
The founders of various teachings on healthy lifestyles, the peak of activity of which occurred in the mid-twentieth century, still arouse genuine public interest. And even the inconsistency of their biographies, the controversy of preached views, criticism from the side of traditional medicine, do not interfere with the attention and sincere curiosity of the public.