Herbert McGolfin Shelton (October 6, 1895 – January 1, 1985)Oswald, Jean A. (1989). ''Yours for Health: The Life and Times of Herbert M. Shelton''. Franklin Books. was an American naturopath, alternative medicine advocate, author, pacifist,

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

, and a supporter of rawism and

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

. Shelton was nominated by the American Vegetarian Party to run as its candidate for President of the United States in 1956. He saw himself as the champion of original natural hygiene ideas from the 1830s. His ideas have been described as

quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, ...

by critics.Butler, Kurt. (1992). ''A Consumer's Guide to "Alternative Medicine": A Close Look at Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Faith-healing, and Other Unconventional Treatments''. Prometheus Books. pp. 13-14. Raso, Jack. (1993). ''Vitalistic Gurus and Their Legacies''. In

Stephen Barrett Stephen Joel Barrett (; born 1933) is an American retired psychiatrist, author, co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and the webmaster of Quackwatch. He runs a number of websites dealing with quackery and health frau ...

. ''The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America''. Prometheus Books. pp. 236-240.

Early life

Shelton was born on October 6, 1895 in

Wylie, Texas Wylie is a city and northeastern suburb of Dallas, that was once solely located in Collin County, but now extends into neighboring Dallas and Rockwall counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located on State Route 78 about northeast of centr ...

to Thomas Mitchell Shelton and Mary Frances Gutherie Shelton, who were devoted Christians. As a child, Shelton took an interest in animals, especially their habits when sick as compared to when well. He was especially intrigued by their fasting when the farm animals became sick.

Career

Shelton attended Bernarr Macfadden's College of Physcultopathy in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and interned at Crane's Sanatorium in

Elmhurst, Illinois Elmhurst is a city mostly in DuPage County and overlapping into Cook County in the U.S. state of Illinois, and a western suburb of Chicago. As of 2021, the city has an estimated population of 47,260. History Members of the Potawatomi Native ...

. He also attended Lindlahr College of Natural Therapeutics for post-graduate work and served at Lindlahr's and Sahler's Sanatoriums. Shelton later continued post-graduate work at Peerless College of Chiropractic in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

and served an internship at Crandall Health School in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. In 1921, he married Ida Pape, studied at the American School of Chiropractic, and graduated from the American School of Naturopathy with a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine. Shelton claimed that cooking food denatures it, and that a healthy body has the ability to restore itself from illness without medical intervention. Although heavily criticized by his contemporaries for advocating fasting over medical treatment, Shelton's work served as an early influence for the

raw food Raw foodism, also known as rawism or a raw food diet, is the dietary practice of eating only or mostly food that is uncooked and unprocessed. Depending on the philosophy, or type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include ...

movement. In 1922, Shelton self-published his first book, ''Fundamentals of Nature Cure.'' Seeing importance in the Hygienic Movement (influenced by

Isaac Jennings Isaac Jennings (November 7, 1788 March 13, 1874) was an American physician and writer who pioneered orthopathy (natural hygiene). Biography Jennings was born on November 7, 1788 in Fairfield, Connecticut.Orcutt, Samuel; Beardsley, Ambrose. (1 ...

and Sylvester Graham), he changed the title of this first book to ''An Introduction to Natural Hygiene.'' From 1934–1941, Shelton authored a seven-volume work ''The Hygienic System''.Smith, Andrew F. (2017). ''Food in America: The Past, Present, and Future of Food, Farming, and the Family Meal''. ABC-CLIO. p. 33. In 1939, Shelton published ''The Hygienic Review'' magazine which ran for four decades. In 1948, he founded the American Natural Hygiene Society which was renamed the National Health Association in 1998.

Legal history

A pacifist, Shelton was jailed in 1917 for making an anti-draft statement in public during the height of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1927, Shelton was arrested, jailed, and fined three times for practicing medicine without a license. These arrests continued periodically through the next three decades. He was found guilty of violating the Medical Practice Act in 1932, and served 30 days on Rikers Island. In 1942, Shelton was charged with negligent homicide and "treating and offering to treat a human being without a state medical license" for starving a patient to death. The case was never tried and the charges were later dropped. In 1978, another patient died at one of his schools, this time of an apparent heart attack. After a two-year-long court battle, Shelton lost the lawsuit for negligence and was bankrupted by the judgment. His school was forced to close as a result.

Death

By 1972, at the age of 77, Shelton became bedridden from a degenerative neuro-muscular disease believed to be

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. He died thirteen years later, unable to improve his own health despite many attempts. His peers were shocked to see him unable to walk, speak normally, or write. Towards the end of his life, Shelton continued his involvement in Dr. Shelton's Health School. In the time that the school was in operation, over 40,000 people were treated for various ailments, with most recovering with the help of

water fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see "Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after com ...

. The school operated for 53 years, closing in 1981. In 1989, four years after his death, a biography of Shelton called ''Yours for Health: The Life and Times of Herbert M. Shelton,'' was published by Jean A. Oswald.

Bibliography

*Shelton, Herbert M. ''A Month of Menus: Featuring Natural Non-animal Foods, Deliciously And Healthfully Selected in Compatible Combinations, With A Minimum of Prepartion''. The American Vegan Society. (1968). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''An Introduction to Natural Hygiene''. (1972). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Animal Foods''. The American Vegan Society. (1968). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Basic Principles of Natural Hygiene''. (1949). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Colds (Acute Coryza) and Related Subjects''. (1958). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Facts About Fasting''. The American Vegan Society. (1968). * *Shelton, Herbert M, Cridland, Ronald G, MD. ''Fasting Can Save Your Life''. (1978). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Fasting for Renewal of Life''. (1995). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Food and Feeding''. Kessinger Publishing Company (Jan. 2003). *Shelton, Herbert M. et al., ''Getting Well''. Health Research. UPC/ (June 1993). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Health for All''. (1930). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Health for the Millions''. (1968). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''History of Natural Hygiene and Principles of Natural Hygien: Teachings of Doctors Jennings, Graham, Trall and Tilden''. (Jan. 1996). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''How to Get Well And Stay Well''. (1978). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Human Beauty: Its Culture and Hygiene''. (1958). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Human Life: Its Philosophy and Laws: An Exposition of the Principles and Practices of Orthopathy''. *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Hygienic Review''. (Sep 1996). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''The Hygienic System, Vol. I: Orthobionomics''. (Sep. 1934). * Also available fro
SoilandHealth.org
* *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Hygienic System, Vol. IV: Orthokinesiology''. (1935). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Hygienic System, Vol. V: Orthogenetics''. (1937). * *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Hygienic System, Vol. VII: Orthopathy''. (1937). *. *Shelton, Herbert M. ''The Joys of Getting Well''. (1957). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''The Liver and Its Complaints''. (Sep. 1996). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Living Life to Live It Longer''. *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Natural Hygiene: Man's Pristine Way of Life''. Library of New Atlantis, Incorporated UPC/ (Feb. 2003). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Natural Hygiene: The Pristine Way of Life'' (1968). *Shelton, Herbert M. / Willard, Jo / Oswald, Jean A. The Original Natural Hygiene Weight Loss Diet Book. (New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, Inc, 1986). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Rubies in the Sand''. (1961). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''The Science and Fine Art of Fasting''. *Shelton, Herbert M. ''The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene''. American Natural Hygiene Society. (1994). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Science and Fine Art of Food and Nutrition''. American Natural Hygiene Society. (1996). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Superior Nutrition''. Willow Pub. (1994). *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Syphilis: The Werewolf of Medicine''. *Shelton, Herbert M. ''Vaccine and Serum Evils''. (Sep. 1996). *Shelton, Herbert M. et al. ''The Virgin Birth: The Famous Debate Between Herbert M. Shelton and George R. Clements''. Health Research. (Jan. 1998).

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelton, Herbert 1895 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American politicians Activists from Texas American health and wellness writers American medical writers American male non-fiction writers American medical researchers American nutritionists American pacifists American veganism activists American Vegetarian Party politicians Candidates in the 1956 United States presidential election Fasting advocates Naturopaths Orthopaths People from Wylie, Texas Pseudoscientific diet advocates Raw foodists