TOPICS INCLUDED: • Good Nutrition • Natural Hygiene Way of Life ...

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TOPICS INCLUDED:
• Good Nutrition
• Natural Hygiene Way of Life
• Fasting
• Smoking & Tobacco
• Alcohol & Drugs
• Exercise
• Health & Society
• Personal Views of
James Hervey Johnson
• Knowledge Center
“Man is a product
of nature, a part of
the universe”.
James Hervey Johnson
(1970)
Produced for the exclusive use and benefit of the
James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust
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� www.notdoctors.com (information on treatment
and prevention of disease through
Natural Hygiene)
� www.naturalusa.com (online natural consumer
guide w/information on raw foods
diet)
� www.ash.org (vital information on all smoking-related
health problems)
� www.fasting.com (information on fasting/
fasting programs for the individual)
� www.angelfire.com (writings of Dr. Stanley
S. Bass-follows precepts of Natural Hygiene)
� www.all-natural.com (information on Natural
Health, alternative medicine, longevity, healing
methods and holistic health)
� www.ivu.com (International Vegetarian Union
web site)
� www.vrg.org (Vegetarian Resource Group
web site)
� www.vegsoc.org (Vegetarian Society web
site)
� www.rawfood.com (independent study of
Natural Hygiene courses)
� www.geocities.com (a Natural Hygiene web
site that promotes use of raw foods)
� www.vegdining.com (online guide to vegetarian
restaurants around the world)
� www.healthynet.net (history and practice of
Naturopathic Medicine)
� www.bastyr.edu (Bastyr University Naturopathic
Medicine program)
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� Shelton, Herbert M. (1951). Food Combining
Made Easy
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1963). An Introduction
to Natural Hygiene
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1968). Natural Hygiene:
The Pristine Way of Life
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1971). Exercise!
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1974). Fasting for Renewal
of Life
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1978). Fasting Can
Save Your Life
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1997). The History of
Natural Hygiene and Principles of Natural
Hygiene
� Shelton, Herbert M. Health for All
� Shelton, Herbert M. Original Natural Hygiene
Weight Loss Diet Book
� Shelton, Herbert M. Superior Nutrition
� Shelton, Herbert M. The Science & Fine Art
of Food & Nutrition
� Shelton, Herbert M. The Science & Fine Art
of Natural Hygiene
Web Sites
� www.anhs.com (American Natural Hygiene
Association web site)
� www.naturalhygieneinc.com (general information
on Natural Hygiene, diet and health)
� www.livingnutrition.com (courses in Natural
Hygiene)
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KNOWLEDGE
CENTER
In accordance with James Hervey Johnson’s
philosophy that one should conduct their own research
to discover the benefits of the Natural Hygiene
lifestyle, the following resources are provided
for your review.
Magazines/Periodicals
� Vegetarian Gourmet
� Vegetarian Times
� Veggie Life
� Vegetarian Journal
� Vegan Forum
� Vegetarian Traveler Magazine
Books
� Baker, Arthur M. Organization and Practitioners
of Natural Hygiene and a Brief History
of Natural Hygiene
� Frye, T.C. Program for Dynamic Health: An
Introduction to Natural Hygiene: the Only
True Health System
� Fuhrman, Joel M.D. Fasting-and-Eating for
Health
� Lennon, James M., Editor (1996). The Natural
Hygiene Handbook
� Shelton, Herbert M. (1946). Getting Well
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THE VIEWS OF
JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON ON HEALTH
First Edition 2000
©2000 RMK Company. All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any
means without permission of the publisher:
Appreciation
We would like to thank everyone who shared articles,
personal experiences and other items which assisted in the
publication of this book. We would like to give
special thanks to the American Natural Hygiene Society
for their contribution.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Printed on Recycled Paper
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
Great personal freedom:
Natural Hygiene is a philosophy based on
science. It is an honest look at the world. It
makes no exceptions for custom or tradition,
however venerable or long-standing. It offers
each of us an opportunity to be all we can be,
and offers us freedom from our limiting habits
of thought, word, and deed.
We choose to stay prisoners of our accustomed
habits, harmful and limiting though they
are, or we can choose personal growth and freedom.
Natural Hygiene gives us the tools and information
necessary to choose wisely and successfully.
When thinking about Natural Hygiene, one
of the first words that comes to mind is
“excellence,” because Natural Hygiene gives us
a tremendous opportunity to be all we can be. It
is a philosophy for people who are looking for
the good life—and not just a pretty good life, but
a very good life!
© 1996 by the American Natural Hygiene Society, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
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sources, recycling our wastes, protecting our endangered
wildlife, and developing alternative
sources of energy, especially solar energy.
5. Advocates a smoke-free environment
We believe that everyone has a right to a
smoke-free environment. We urge that smoking
prohibitions be strictly enforced and extended to
include all public facilities, governmental institutions,
and modes of public transportation.
6. Warns about the hazards of radiation
We believe that freedom from the hazards of
radiation is an inherent right. We support efforts
to abolish or limit the cancer-causing emissions
from potentially harmful sources, such as nuclear
reactors and weapons, food, and medical
irradiation plants, microwave transmissions,
high voltage wires, and medical and dental X
rays.
Committed to a healthful world:
Natural Hygienists will always support efforts
that protect the environment, safeguard our
natural resources, and improve the health and
quality of life for people everywhere, including
all future generations.
Nothing in this book is intended to constitute
medical treatment or advice of any type. The sole
purpose of this book is to present to the reader the
views of James Hervey Johnson on health. Mr.
Johnson had very strong beliefs on matters related
to overall health. Mr. Johnson lived his life according
to those beliefs and he attributed his good
health and longevity to his overall approach to
good health.
The beliefs of Mr. Johnson, which are presented
in this book, are based upon individuals
who knew Mr. Johnson and on his writings on the
subject. The presentation of Mr. Johnson's views
is not intended to support the use of these methods,
but instead is intended to let the reader know
what worked for Mr. Johnson and what his opinion
on various topics related to health were. Mr.
Johnson shared his beliefs on health during his life
as he hoped they would enlighten the reader and
would lead the reader to learn more and to possibly
try some of the principles which lead his life.
As each individual responds differently to diet
and lifestyle, especially in light of each individual's
own medical health and history, it is strongly
recommended that any person, prior to changing
their diet or lifestyle, consult with his or her medical
doctor.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD ......................................................... 10
INTRODUCTION ................................................. 13
CHAPTER ONE .................................................... 15
Background of James Hervey Johnson .................... 15
CHAPTER TWO ................................................... 22
James Hervey Johnson’s Philosophy on Health:
Natural Hygiene ................................................. 22
The Plant-Based Diet: The Cornerstone
of Good Nutrition .........................................................30
Recent Data Supports Johnson’s Views ...................32
The Vegetarian Diet and Prevention of Illness .......36
Do You Need Artificial Vitamins? ............................37
Fiber for Life .................................................................38
Special Benefits of Fruit .............................................39
Foods to Avoid .............................................................40
Johnson on Fasting .......................................................41
Fasting As An Adaptation for Survival ....................45
CHAPTER THREE ................................................ 57
The Natural Hygiene Way of Life: Personal
Perspectives by James Hervey Johnson ...........................57
Some Notes on Natural Living ..................................65
“Obey Natural Laws or Die” ......................................67
CHAPTER FOUR .................................................. 73
“The Poisonous Stinkers” James Hervey Johnson
on the Dangers of Smoking and Tobacco Use ..... 73
The Dangers of ETS: The Evidence
Mounts ...................................................... 75
Chemicals in ETS ....................................... 77
ETS and Breast Cancer ............................... 77
ETS and Infections ..................................... 78
under all circumstances, as a matter of science,
safety, and conscience.
We hold that individuals have an inalienable
right to enjoy the same freedom from government-sponsored
health programs that they enjoy
from government-sponsored religion. Likewise,
we are united in opposition to the establishment
of a medical/pharmaceutical monopoly which
dictates the control of national health policies.
3. Supports organic food movement
ANHS strongly supports the organic food
movement, and opposes the chemicalization of
our food supply. We strongly oppose food irradiation
on grounds of both environmental and
food safety.
4. Supports environmental protection
Natural Hygienists have long supported the
environmental movement. We insist that laws
be enforced to compel industrial conglomerates
to cease poisoning our air, soil, and water with
pollutants. Destruction of the environment for
commercial ends is a tragic example of bad business
practice. The environment is the place
from which all other material wealth is derived.
We support all efforts to protect the delicate
balance of nature by preserving our natural re-
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EXCERPT FROM ANHS HANDBOOK
Strong Advocacy
for a Healthful World
[The following article is an excerpt from Chapter Two of
“The Natural Hygiene Handbook” (ANHS, 1996). It has
been re-printed here with the permission of the American
Natural Hygiene Society.]
Over the years, the American Natural Hygiene
Society (ANHS) has taken strong leadership
positions on many important issues, including:
1. Promoting vegetarianism for nearly 50 years
In addition to being the oldest and largest
Natural Hygiene organization in the world,
ANHS is the oldest vegetarian organization in
the United States. Natural Hygienists have advocated
vegetarianism for more than 150 years,
for reasons of personal and public health, responsible
land use, and compassion for other
sentient beings.
2. Advocates freedom of choice in health care
ANHS supports health freedom—your right
to choose whatever form of health care you
wish, including the right to accept or reject any
or all treatment. ANHS strongly opposes compulsory
treatments or procedures of any kind—
including compulsory inoculation, fluoridation
of water, and forced blood tests or X rays—
CHAPTER FIVE ................................................... 79
“Mind-Destroying Poisons” James Hervey Johnson
on the Dangers of Alcohol and Recreational Drugs ......79
Alcohol ...........................................................................79
Recreational Drugs .......................................................81
CHAPTER SIX ...................................................... 83
James Hervey Johnson on Exercise ..................................83
CHAPTER SEVEN ................................................ 87
James Hervey Johnson on the Natural Health
Approach to Illness ..............................................................87
So You Have a Cold ....................................................89
CHAPTER EIGHT ................................................ 94
James Hervey Johnson on Health and Society ...............94
Sexual Health ................................................................94
Too Much of A Good Thing ......................................95
Overpopulation .............................................................99
Right to Die .................................................................100
CHAPTER NINE ..................................................101
Personal Perspectives on James Hervey Johnson .........101
Ben Edward Ackerley, Member of the American
Natural Hygiene Society ...........................................101
Roy R. Withers, Attorney at Law ............................104
Jay Dinshaw, President of American Natural
Hygiene Society .........................................................107
CHAPTER TEN ...................................................110
Conclusion ..........................................................................110
EXCERPT FROM ANHS HANDBOOK ................112
Strong Advocacy for a Healthful World ............112
KNOWLEDGE CENTER ......................................116
Magazines/Periodicals ...............................116
Books .......................................................116
Websites ...................................................117
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FOREWORD
James Hervey Johnson (1901-1988) was a San
Diego realtor and publisher well-known in his
community for his outspoken and often controversial
freethought views on religion and his advocacy
of a health philosophy known as “Natural
Hygiene.” A self-made multimillionaire, Mr.
Johnson directed that a major portion of his estate
be used to promote and publicize these views. Toward
this end, this publication will present the
views of Mr. Johnson on health, which he considered
of tantamount importance to the individual
and ultimately the public good.
Mr. Johnson’s views on health center primarily
on Natural Hygiene. No attempt will be made in
this volume to provide a comprehensive exposition
of the Natural Hygiene philosophy or to debate its
pros and cons. Rather, this publication will present
Mr. Johnson’s views on Natural Hygiene,
how he applied its principles to his own life, and
how he felt it would benefit the public at large.
Additionally, this publication will discuss how research
and studies by major public health organizations
over the past decade have tended to support
Mr. Johnson’s views. These organizations
have included the Center for Disease Control, the
American Cancer Society, the United States Department
of Health and Human Services, and the
United States Department of Agriculture
These are big questions. Almost everyone
would agree that to live a long and healthy life is
what is truly desired. James Hervey Johnson believed
he found the pot of gold. He would want
you to find it too. This was the purpose of this
book.
Once you reach your own decision, it is
strongly recommended that you share your findings
with your family and friends. Let them also
share in the benefits of good health.
“Man is a product of nature, a part of the
universe. The universe is operated under
exact natural laws. Man is a product of
millions of years of evolution. He adapts
herself to the laws of nature or he perishes”.
— James Hervey Johnson — (1970)
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CHAPTER
TEN
CONCLUSION
“Intelligent men study all sides of any
subject before forming a conclusion”.—
James Hervey Johnson (1973)
s a freethinker, James Hervey Johnson
accepted nothing without question. It
was only after years of study, careful observation,
and actual implementation of
certain health practices that Johnson concluded
that the health philosophy of Natural Hygiene
was sound. Johnson would want the reader to do
the same. Hopefully, after your own study and
practice, you will determine that you too can live
a better life through good health.
Our lives are too short to not want to extend
them by leading a healthy life. What would you
give to enjoy one more day of life, one more year
of life? What would you give to touch your
spouse or your child one more time? What
would you give to be able to function in a meaningful
and fulfilling lifestyle after eighty?
It is not the intention of this publication to present
Mr. Johnson as an infallible authority on
Natural Hygiene or his views as definitive statements
of that philosophy. Natural Hygiene is a
scientific approach to health and, as such, its principles
and practices are subject to reevaluation as
knowledge about human health and nutrition
grows. S
This too is in accord with Mr. Johnson’s views,
as he always urged people not to take what he said
without question, but to investigate Natural Hygiene
for themselves.
This publication features a number of writings
by Mr. Johnson. His views are presented in his
own words, as nearly as possible, with some corrections
for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and
syntax.
Johnson often wrote using the editorial “we,”
instead of the pronoun “I,” and, like others of his
generation, he habitually used terms such as
“man,” “mankind,” and “men” when referring to
humanity in general. However, Johnson’s intention
was that all should benefit from Natural Hygiene.
Therefore, where Johnson is quoted directly,
the reader is urged to look past his choice of
terms and understand that his message is intended
for everyone.
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Nothing in this publication is intended to constitute
nutritional or medical advice of any kind.
Anyone wishing to try any of the health practices
discussed in this publication should first consult a
physician.
Additionally, the interested reader is urged to
contact the American Natural Hygiene Society
(ANHS) for further information about the Natural
Hygiene way of life.
The ANHS may be contacted at the following
address and telephone number:
AMERICAN NATURAL
HYGIENE SOCIETY
PO BOX 30630
TAMPA, FL 33630
(813) 855-6607
www.anhs.org
members to improve their practices of Natural
Hygiene.
The real highlight of our experience with him
came the following Summer, when the ANHS
held its annual convention in San Diego at the
downtown U. S. Grant Hotel (July 14-20, 1963).
Mr. Johnson was the busy and able Convention
Manager, which involved a multitude of details,
including even arranging and conducting the
daily scenic trips, such as to the beach, Mt. Palomar,
Tijuana, and the beautiful nearby Balboa
Park. The event was later declared the biggest
and best ANHS Convention up to that time.
Not long after this, our own little AVS
(American Vegan Society) group decided that
the strain of struggling in the economic circumstances
of 1963 San Diego—with unemployment
around nine and a half percent—made it too difficult
for us to remain there, and we returned to
New Jersey. The Treasurer position of the San
Diego Natural Hygiene Health Society was taken
over by another volunteer helper, Lois Holden.
A happy post-script is that in 1965, Lois moved
to New Jersey and married Roshan.
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President.
These meetings were held in a convenient
downtown location, generously provided by Mr.
Johnson in one of the store-front properties that
he owned. The study group was well planned;
each week one member would volunteer to research
a chapter or topic from the Natural Hygienic
writings, often drawing from Mr. Johnson’s
extensive library for source material. The member
would thus be prepared to present the subject
and, with Mr. Johnson, lead the group discussion
that followed.
There were also regular work-parties in one
of the back rooms, where volunteers helped in
informal food co-op activities, weighing and
packaging organically-grown nuts and dried
fruit that was regularly bought in bulk quantities.
We soon pitched in to help, with Freya serving
as the Secretary, Roshan as Treasurer, and
myself as Corresponding Secretary of this local
chapter of the American Natural Hygiene Society.
Eventually, we also helped Dr. Gerald
Benesh in reviving the Escondido (California)
ANHS Chapter.
James Hervey Johnson was a natural
leader, knowledgeable and a good communicator,
teacher and motivator. He was a man of
strong convictions and constantly exhorted the
INTRODUCTION
The James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational
Trust is pleased to present you with The Views of
James Hervey Johnson on Health. This work is the
first of its kind to address the opinions of James
Hervey Johnson on the subject of health. Mr. Johnson
believed in his health principles to the extent that his
legacy was to assure that his beliefs on the subject of
health would continue to be publicized well into the
future.
It is hoped that readers of this material will be provoked
and influenced to obtain knowledge and to determine
whether their health can be improved through
education and proper health practices. Whether or not
the reader ultimately agrees with Mr. Johnson's philosophy
on health is not important. Rather, the formation
of an educated and well-founded opinion by the
reader is. Mr. Johnson believed that, after the study
and practice of his health philosophy, one could not
ignore the benefits obtained.
If desired, questions or comments can be directed
to:
JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON
CHARITABLE EDUCATIONAL TRUST
POST OFFICE BOX 16160
SAN DIEGO, CA 92176
ATTN: MR. KEVIN MUNNELLY, TRUSTEE
Good luck in your education and life decisions.
Kevin Munnelly
Trustee of the James Hervey Johnson
Charitable Educational Trust
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I would say Mr. Johnson was ahead of his
time in his views on the beneficial effects of a
plant-based diet. He bravely advocated these
views in an era many people regarded vegetarians
as “visionary” and we all could learn something
from him.
Mr. Jay Dinshah
President of the American
Vegan Society
Mr. Dinshah is the Founder/President of the
American Vegan Society (1960-present), was
Executive Vice-President of the International
Vegetarian Union, Founding President of the
North American Vegetarian Society and the
Vegetarian Union of North America, and served
a total of 12 years on the Board of Directors of
ANHS, part of that time as Vice-President and
Expansion Director. He also served one and a
half years as Acting Executive Director.
In early 1962 my wife, Freya, and I moved
the headquarters of the American Vegan Society
to San Diego, where we were soon joined by my
brother Roshan and several others in attempting
to start a vegan community and other projects.
During most of this time we attended weekly
study group meetings of the San Diego Natural
Hygiene Health Society, of which Mr. Johnson
was President, with Pete Sasak as Vice-
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cheese, and orange juice. Occasionally, he’d indulge
in a bean and cheese burrito from
Roberto’s (a local San Diego Mexican fast food
chain) even though they didn’t prepare the tortilla
in a strictly vegetarian manner. That was
probably his only “vice.” He strictly avoided
sugary drinks like soda pop.
Mr. Johnson also shared his views on fasting.
His fasting routine was remarkable. He
would often go on fasts of nothing but water for
weeks on end, and he was doing this when he
was well into his eighties. The fasts also seemed
to help him deal with the cancer in his ear. After
these fasts he would be mentally alert and happy.
Knowing Mr. Johnson gave me a certain sensitivity
to and knowledge of holistic lifestyles that
I didn’t have before. If nothing else, it makes
you think about what you’re consuming and how
that will affect you later in life.
I mentioned before that Johnson was
“irascible”. Nonetheless, he had a deep concern
for the welfare of humankind, which was evident
from his strong advocacy of Natural Hygiene
and his desire to educate the public about it after
his death. In his will, he provided for a charitable
trust, one of the purposes of which would be
to publicize his views on health. The trust established
by his will is the James Hervey Johnson
Charitable Educational Trust.
CHAPTER
ONE
BACKGROUND
ACKGROUND OF JAMES
HERVEY
JOHNSON
“I work more than 12 hours a day, teach
three classes a week, preside at a philosophical
meeting, take care of a
publishing business, edit a
monthly journal, do considerable
writing and research work,”
James Hervey Johnson once told
a friend. “I walk two miles a
day, take exercises in the morning,
and run around the block before
breakfast.” — James Hervey Johnson
(1970)
Picture
of JHJ
here.
t was a personal schedule that would exhaust a
thirty-five year old, but Johnson was seventy at
the time.
Johnson attributed his remarkable vigor to
“Natural Hygiene,” a health philosophy he had
practiced throughout his adult life. “We recommend,”
he once wrote, “that the individual study
the natural health system and test it out in actual
experience. If he honestly does so, he will prove
that the natural health system is one hundred per-
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cent effective.”
Johnson had, after a fashion, struck gold by investing
his real estate profits in the stock market.
But when he discovered Natural Hygiene, he became
convinced that he’d struck gold of a more
valuable sort: good health through Natural Hygiene.
Natural Hygiene certainly seemed to have bettered
his own life. At an age by which many have
succumbed to the infirmities of “old age,” Johnson
was still single-handedly running his business, giving
lectures on health and religion, presiding over
meetings of freethought organizations, managing
several real properties he owned in San Diego, and
maintaining a vegetable garden.
James Hervey Johnson was born August 2,
1901. Accounts differ as to whether he was born
in Ohio, Oregon, or Bakersfield, California. In the
early 1900s, Johnson and his family moved to the
San Diego, California area, settling in a “tent city”
in what is now the affluent suburb of Coronado.
After the family moved to San Diego, Johnson’s
father established a successful real estate business.
Johnson received his elementary education at
the San Diego Army-Navy Academy, then located
in the Pacific Beach district of San Diego. He attended
San Diego High School, graduating at the
age of fifteen. He never attended a college or university.
Johnson’s principal education was the re-
get along with him.
It turned out that Mr. Johnson and I quarreled
as much as he and Mike Crane had, but by
and large we got along.
Mr. Johnson frequently shared his views on
diet health with me. He was eighty-five when I
met him and was suffering from skin cancer and
the effects of injuries he’d sustained in a hit-andrun
accident in 1981. Yet unlike many people of
such advanced age, he was quite vigorous and he
was able to live independently. He attributed
this to a lifetime of following a diet that was almost
strictly vegetarian and what I’d call
“holistic,” in that he emphasized nutrition’s role
in the prevention of disease. During these conversations,
he was eager to discuss his dietary
habits and offer his ideas on food.
Mr. Johnson constantly discussed the benefits
of a diet that emphasized what he called
“natural fruits;” i.e., uncooked fruits without
any kind of sweetener. I also remember him
strongly advising me against using milk, which
he considered “poisonous.” “Don’t give it to
your kids, Withers,” he’d admonish.
Nonetheless, he felt that certain cheeses were
acceptable. At the time he became my client, he
was having difficulty getting to the grocery store,
so quite often he’d ask me to pick up groceries
for him. He’d request various vegetables, string
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Hervey died. The two-year association I had
with him was for me an invaluable learning experience
and I profited from it immensely, not
only financially, but also because he served as
an excellent role model in devoting one’s life to
helping effect change through education.
Roy R. Withers
Attorney at Law
Roy Withers has been a practicing attorney
in San Diego, California since 1985. He represented
James Hervey Johnson during the litigation
instigated by Madalyn Murray O’Hair when
she attempted to take over Johnson’s Truth
Seeker Company. The complicated nature of
Ms. O’Hair’s allegations made it necessary to
interview Mr. Johnson frequently to ascertain
facts to refute Ms. O’Hair’s case. These meetings
also provided a unique opportunity to get to
know Johnson personally and learn about his
views on health.
I first met James Hervey Johnson after he
called me one day in November 1986 and told
me he’d been referred to me by a law school
classmate and friend of mine named Michael
Crane. Mike Crane had been representing Mr.
Johnson in a number of business and real estate
matters. However, Johnson was irascible and so
was Mike, so Mike recommended me to Mr.
Johnson as a person who might be better able to
sult of a lifetime of voracious reading and study.
His studies greatly exceeded what would have
been required for a college degree. By the time he
was in his 40s, Johnson had read an extraordinary
number of books on religion, history, anthropology,
philosophy, and science. Among the books
that made the deepest impression on Johnson were
the Bible, the Koran, Edward Gibbon’s The Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Iliad, and
The Odyssey, Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis,
and the works of numerous freethought authors
such as Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll.
Johnson was born and raised a Methodist. He
attended church regularly until, as a young man, he
discovered the works of Thomas Paine, a
“Founding Father” of American independence and
one of the most profound thinkers of the Enlightenment.
Paine was a deist who believed that God created
the universe, set natural laws in motion to
govern it, then set it free to operate according to
those laws. Paine rejected “revealed” religion and
any kind of religious orthodoxy, holding that reason
was the only reliable guide to the truth. Johnson’s
study of Paine’s pamphlet, The Age of Reason
convinced him that religion was against reason,
and led him to become a freethinker. Even
though Johnson eventually became an atheist (one
who denies the existence of any god), he held
Paine in high esteem for the rest of his life.
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As an adult, Johnson joined his father in the
real estate business and later became a successful
realtor on his own. He invested his profits in the
stock market and, by the time of his death in 1988,
he had accumulated a vast personal fortune.
During the 1930s Johnson served as the San
Diego County Tax Assessor. His most notable act
while serving in that office was an unsuccessful
attempt to auction off the San Diego Zoo in 1932
for back taxes owed. He was eventually forced out
of office for exceeding his authority in refunding
taxes to returning veterans.
At the age of 41, Johnson was drafted into the
United States Army during World War II. He
served briefly at an Army post in the St. Petersburg,
Florida area until he received an early discharge
due to a service-related injury.
During the 1930s Johnson discovered the Truth
Seeker, a freethought journal that had been
founded in 1873. He became a subscriber and,
eventually, a personal friend of its then-owner and
publisher, Charles Smith. In 1963, Smith transferred
to Johnson his ownership interests in the
company that published the Truth Seeker. Subsequently,
Johnson made The Truth Seeker his vehicle
for expounding on his views on religion and
health.
with his time in helping me with stock market investments.
Although earlier in his career he had
made a fortune in real estate, later in life he concentrated
almost exclusively on the stock market
and became not only a financial whiz in this
area, but he also wrote a book on successful
stock investing. The copy he obligingly gave me
became a valuable tool in my own investment
strategy.
Like many extremely wealthy people, Hervey
lived very modestly and certainly felt no need for
acquiring material things simply as status symbols.
His publication of the Truth Seeker and
other freethought literature was quite literally a
labour of love for him since these endeavors
never generated much income.
Singlehandedly, he continued the uninterrupted
publication of the Truth Seeker, the oldest
freethought journal in the United States, in existence
since 1873. He called his magnum opus
Superior Men, A Book of Reason for the Man of
Vision. Since he equated all religion with superstition,
he was militant in educating the public to
that end. In his book, he synthesized the essence
of the many arguments against religion by such
notables as Voltaire, Darwin and Robert Ingersoll
and many other lesser-known writers. His
work succinctly summarizes his iconoclastic
views and deserves to be more widely known.
I left San Diego in 1987, just one year before
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a Natural Hygienist and a devout atheist, my link
to James Hervey Johnson was especially strong
since we both had in common our rejection of
orthodox medicine and orthodox religious belief
along with our devotion to promoting these two
causes.
Prior to 1985, I knew Johnson primarily as
the publisher of the Truth Seeker and as the author
of his 1949 book, Superior Men, and had
only occasional personal contact with him. After
my move to San Diego in 1985, we became much
better acquainted and I got on a “second-name
basis” with him since he preferred to be called
“Hervey” rather than by his first name, James.
When we spent time together, he seemed genuinely
pleased to have someone around he could
relate to as a Natural Hygienist and health
seeker as well as a committed non-believer; most
others he could relate to on only one level or the
other, but not both.
That year, 1985, also marked the publication
by the American Atheist Press of my spoof, The
X-Rated Bible: An Irreverent Survey of Sex in
the Scriptures. He ordered multiple copies of my
book and advertised in the Truth Seeker, and I
very much appreciated his efforts.
I frequently assisted Hervey with the monthly
mailing of the Truth Seeker and with other routine
tasks. In turn, he was extremely generous
Johnson never married and never had children.
Reportedly, he was once engaged to a woman who
was a devout Roman Catholic. However, Johnson
was unable to compromise his strong freethought
convictions by marrying her in the Catholic
Church. The relationship ended, depriving him of
an opportunity to have a family of his own, something
he had apparently wanted very much.
Instead, he devoted his life to running his various
enterprises: his real estate business, his small
publishing company, the freethought and health
organizations he ran, and the publication of the
Truth Seeker.
The 1980s were difficult times for Johnson. In
October 1981, a fire destroyed the building he used
as his residence and his offices for the Truth
Seeker Company and his publishing and book selling
businesses. The fire appeared to have been deliberately
set, but no suspect was ever arrested.
His stock of books was destroyed, as well as many
corporate records of the Truth Seeker Company
and other small health and freethought organizations
Johnson ran. Two weeks later, he was hit by
a car, suffering a broken leg and collarbone. Johnson
endured a long and painful recovery, then resumed
his publishing and book selling businesses
even though he was 80 years old.
Johnson was diagnosed with skin cancer in
1982. True to his convictions, he tried to treat his
ailment primarily with diet, although he also
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sought medical treatment. Johnson refused to give
up, despite this ailment. He continued running his
businesses and putting out the Truth Seeker as best
he could.
In October of 1987, notorious atheist leader
Madalyn Murray O’Hair instigated a federal lawsuit
against Johnson. Ms. O’Hair and an associate
of hers named John G. Jackson attempted to claim
stock ownership in the Truth Seeker Company and
tried to oust Johnson through a shareholder’s derivative
suit. The O’Hair suit was ultimately defeated
in court, but the lengthy and complicated
legal process took its toll on Johnson while he was
alive.
Johnson died peacefully on August 6, 1988
while soaking in his bathtub to ease the pain he
was suffering due to the skin cancer. He was 87 at
the time of his death.
Those who knew Johnson personally would
remember him as methodical in running his businesses,
never without a purpose or a plan, and always
on the lookout for an honest way to make
money. He made all his decisions, whether in
business or in his personal life, after studying the
facts—as best as he could ascertain them—for
hours, days, or sometimes even years.
One long-time acquaintance remembered Johnson
as a deep and analytical thinker. In conversation,
he never interrupted or jumped to conclusions
CHAPTER
NINE
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES ON
JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON
uring his long career promoting freethought
and health through Natural Hygiene,
James Hervey Johnson touched
many lives. In the selections that follow,
people who knew Johnson personally recall him
and his influence on their lives.
Ben Edward Ackerley: Member of
The American Natural Hygiene Society
Mr. Ackerley first became acquainted with
James Hervey Johnson as a reader of the Truth
Seeker. Later, he became a close personal friend
of Mr. Johnson’s.
When members of the American Natural Hygiene
Society or various atheist organizations
learn that a generous grant from the James
Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust
has made possible the fulfillment of a pressing
need, many of them surely must wonder who this
benefactor was and what kind of person would
leave his entire, very substantial estate for the
promotion of these two philosophies. Since I am
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ico by law under the domination of the Catholic
Church. Their difficulty is the exploding population.”
Johnson viewed prohibitions against birth
control and abortion as intrusions of the church
into civil matters, since most prohibitions against
them seemed to be based on religious objections.
Right to Die
Johnson saw no need to prolong the suffering
of terminally ill patients. Thus, he advocated the
right of such patients to refuse treatment which
merely artificially prolonged life when there was
no reasonable hope of recovery.
without listening to everything the other person
had to say. He would wait patiently until someone
else finished speaking. Then, after a long pause
during which he carefully analyzed what he’d
heard, he’d give a remarkably insightful reply.
Johnson was a private individual, but if he discovered
an idea he felt others should know about,
whether in the area of freethought or health, he did
his best to pass it on for the benefit of others. He
was fearless in expressing controversial views despite
attacks he often received—sometimes physically—from
individuals who disagreed.
Johnson’s wish was that others receive the
message about the things he thought had improved
his life and would improve the world. This was
his legacy. After his death, a portion of his estate
was placed into a trust. The Trust is now known
as the James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational
Trust. The purpose of the Trust is to expose
religion as against reason and to publicize Johnson's
views on religion and health.
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CHAPTER
TWO
JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON'S
PHILOSOPHY ON HEALTH:
NATURAL HYGIENE
s the saying goes, a sound mind in a sound
body. In Johnson’s view, the two went
hand in hand. Johnson viewed the body
and mind as an enclosed system. What destroys
the body destroys the mind and, therefore, the individual’s
capacity for reasonable thinking. One
could not be a reasonable, intelligent thinker if one
ruined one’s health with unsound dietary practices
or by the use of any kind of harmful substance,
whether it be unhealthy foods, alcohol, tobacco,
drugs or anything else that disrupted the functioning
of the body in accord with the natural laws that
governed it.
For Johnson, everything one needed to achieve
a sound mind in a sound body was contained in the
philosophy of Natural Hygiene, which he described
as “a knowledge and observance of nature’s
laws.” Natural Hygiene revolutionized Mr.
Johnson’s life, and he constantly urged others to
try it.
ganizations which make the information available
at nominal or no cost. The youth, often
urged to get into a sex mess, would do well to
give up some time looking at games or TV or engaging
in worthless chit-chat and study one of
life’s most important aspects.
Remember that sex gluttony is as unnatural
and injurious as food or booze gluttony.
Overpopulation
Johnson’s views on overpopulation went
hand in hand with his views on birth control and
abortion.
He believed that legal abortion and ready access
to birth control information and contraceptives
would result in an overall healthier society
by lowering incidence of children being born
mentally and physically impaired. Additionally,
it would spare many women from ill health due
to constant childbearing.
Johnson felt his views were on the dangers of
overpopulation were easily confirmed by visiting
Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San
Diego, where he saw communities of squatters
living in paper and tin shacks. “Americans were
giving clothes and groceries to them,” Johnson
observed. “Better if they had given contraceptives
and birth control pills—prohibited in Mex-
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that they do not do so permanently, if they are
supposed to have done so temporarily. V. D. is
practically unknown among Natural Hygienists.
In the event that anyone should suffer from it,
natural methods of recovering would be used instead
of the powerful drugs. It is now claimed
that some strains of the V. D. “germs” have become
immune to the V. D. medicines.
As in other sicknesses, the prevention by following
strict natural laws is the way to be free
from V. D.
We believe that a thorough study of birth
control methods should be made by every young
person. There is considerable literature available
on the subject.
Natural Hygienists frown upon birth control
pills. Any drug that will interfere with natural
functions of the body is bound to interfere with
functions other than the sex function. And there
is an abundance of growing information that
these drugs are causing side effects, such as
blood clotting, and other injurious effects.
The suppression of frank and thorough
knowledge has led to a great deal of the terrible
suffering and wrecking of young lives now
prevalent. But there is no need for it. There are
plenty of scientific, easily read books
[available], and governmental and private or-
The roots of Natural Hygiene go back to the
early 19th Century, when a group of American
physicians began to study the relationship between
diet and human health. The results of their studies
became the basis of the Natural Hygiene system.
One of the principal leaders of the Natural Hygiene
movement during the 20th Century was Dr.
Herbert Shelton, founder of the American Natural
Hygiene Society and author of the books, Natural
Hygiene: The Pristine Way of Life (American
Natural Hygiene Society, 1968) and Health For
The Millions (American Natural Hygiene Society,
Inc., 1968), as well as several other publications on
the subject.
Johnson’s concern with health apparently began
during the last years of his father’s life, as he
witnessed his father’s health decline. “I loved my
father,” Johnson wrote years later. “My father and
I were partners as long as he lived, and I nursed
him when he was sick and was at his bedside when
he died.” In later years, Johnson spoke often of
how, during his final illness, the elder Johnson
continually implored him to put good health first
in his life.
Johnson’s concern with good health was also
influenced by his atheism, which views this life as
the only one there is. As Johnson saw it, one is
obligated not only to make life last as long as possible,
but also to ensure that the quality of that life
is as good as one can humanly make it.
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Spreading this message acquired urgency to
Johnson as, throughout his life, he saw many
friends and relatives suffer ill health and succumb
to premature death. Out of concern not only for
his friends, but for humankind as well, Johnson
concluded that he should share the results of years
of study of health and diet practices with the readers
of the Truth Seeker and the public at large.
Sometime during the 1940s Johnson discovered
“Natural Hygiene” (which, in his writings, he
sometimes referred to as “natural health”). He
tried Natural Hygiene for a year and was so impressed
with the results that he decided to practice
it for the rest of his life. Subsequently, he joined
the American Natural Hygiene Society (ANHS).
He served as president of the San Diego chapter of
ANHS and hosted its 1963 convention in San
Diego. He also developed a personal friendship
with Dr. Herbert Shelton.
One of the basic premises of Natural Hygiene
is that the human body, like any other entity in the
universe, is governed by natural laws. These natural
laws prescribe what human beings need in the
way of diet, exercise, and other physical needs.
The key to good health lies in living in harmony
with these natural laws. As Dr. Shelton once
wrote, “he only is healthy who orders his life in
accordance with the laws of life” [Health For The
Millions, Dr. Herbert Shelton (ANHS, 2d ed.
1996) at p. 96]. For James Hervey Johnson, the
teachings of Natural Hygiene provided the answer
worse than animal-like—promiscuity.
The result is venereal disease, which the public
health department says is reaching epidemic
proportions in this county and is especially serious
in the schools and colleges.
Sex freedom does not mean that the individual
can be freed from natural laws, and those
who associate with the stupid and careless diseased
persons, who pass the filth diseases
around like the booze and dangerous drugs they
use, will suffer like their associates suffer.
While the Natural Health advocates do not
believe that sex should be suppressed (because it
is a natural function), they would forego its satisfaction
rather than associate with those loaded
with the foul and very injurious sex diseases.
Such people often stink, are covered with
sores (not always) and are mentally irresponsible.
We would leave them completely alone.
Our slogan is clean bodies, clean air, clean water,
clean food, and constructive thinking. We
think man should be above the lower animals
and should manage his own destiny, not be victimized
by runaway instincts.
While it is claimed that certain powerful
drugs will bring sex diseases under control, our
information is that they do not always cure, and
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to seek to sweep sex under the rug—a very serious
error. Natural Health advocates believe in a
thorough education on the subject, free from any
artificial inhibitions.
On the other hand, certain groups have
sought and have actually thrown sex activity
completely open. They have made sex cults, exaggerated
and magnified sex. They encourage a
continuous saturation of the individual’s life with
sex. Pornographic pictures, pornographic movies,
pornographic talk, and obsession with sex.
This is a violation of natural sexual activity.
These young people, who have been suppressed
by failure of proper sex education, now
seek to get the limit. They use drugs, pot, and
booze to whip up their sex activity. Many of
them become exhausted and inferior mentally
and physically because of excesses beyond any
normal, natural, and intelligent practices.
Not the Natural Hygienist. He studies the
subject. He doesn’t whip up his sex instincts
with artificial stimulants. He doesn’t waste his
time with pornographic magazines, pictures, or
movies.
Above all, he holds his body sacred. Those
who are loaded with booze or pot or dope have
no judgment. They will associate with people
loaded with the results of animal-like—or even
to how to obey the natural laws that govern the
body.
Johnson reported that he derived extraordinary
health benefits from the Natural Hygiene system.
“My own energy is enormous, at near 70,” he
wrote to a friend. “Last night, for example, I was
to bed at 1:30 or two, up this morning at six. Year
after year my energy remains—I have hardly ever
had less than a 12 hour (work) day, and now I
work seven days a week, and on Saturdays and
Sundays (I) often (work) physically with my men
in repairing and maintaining my houses.”
Diet and fasting were the two pillars of the
Natural Hygiene system as Johnson practiced it.
In accord with Natural Hygiene principles, Johnson
believed that the proper diet of human beings
was dictated by “natural law.” In other words:
“[T]he principles of nature, the laws of science
and the truths of the universe, are just as fixed and
certain in their relation to the human organization,
in relation to life, to health, to happiness, to disease
and suffering, as they are in relation to all
things else.” [Natural Hygiene: The Pristine Way
of Life, Dr. Herbert M. Shelton (ANHS, 1968) at
page 121]
For humans, nature decrees a plant-based diet.
In Johnson’s view, obedience to this law was crucial
for anyone who desired a long and healthy
life.
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The Basic Principles of Natural Hygiene
By James Michael Lennon, Executive Director of the
American Natural Hygiene Society
Natural Hygiene is a 19th century term that
means “the science of health.” Natural Hygiene is a
health philosophy based on science—a system of
principles designed to help you maximize your
unique and individual health potential. It teaches
you how to use all of the lifestyle variables under
your control in such a way as to bring about extraordinary
potential for health and happiness.
The specifics of Natural Hygiene—
recommendations regarding diet and nutrition; exercise,
rest, and sleep; stress management; environmental
factors; self-esteem; and interpersonal relations—
change from time to time as knowledge and experience
grow. But the general basic principles are timeless.
They are as follows:
1. Health is the normal state, which all of the body’s
systems and processes seek to establish and maintain.
Some people face health challenges that cannot be
overcome without intervention, but for most people,
health is as simple as living in harmony with their biological
needs and limitations.
2. Heath results from healthful living.
Health care is, for the most part, self-care. To be
healthy, you need to live healthfully every day—
develop self-esteem and a positive attitude towards life;
Mr. Johnson advised everyone to make a
thorough study of sex (especially of birth control
methods) to enable people to make intelligent,
informed choices about sexual behavior.
The following essay, written during the early
1970s, provides a summary of Johnson’s views
on the subject of sexual health.
Too Much of a Good Thing
Sex is always a serious matter. It is nearly
the most important function of life, particularly
in the young. It can ruin your lives and it can
hinder physical and mental development, delay
economic security, and instead of the natural enjoyment
which it should bring, it can cause
months or years of unhappiness.
In sex matters, Natural Hygiene has insisted
that its students make a thorough study of the
subject. Biology and physiology of the sex functions
should be known and above all, the exact
natural laws relating to it.
There are many good objective books on the
subject, and as it is one of the most powerful
urges in nature, any time devoted to a study of its
natural laws will be perhaps more rewarding
than any other study.
It has been a policy of some religious groups
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CHAPTER
EIGHT
JAMES AMES HERVEY
JOHNSON
ON O
HEALTH EALTH AND
S OCIETY
n his various writings, Johnson commented
on a number of other matters affecting
individual and public health. The
opinions Johnson expressed on these
matters were apart from his views on diet, exercise,
and use of harmful substances, but they
formed part of what might be termed his
“global” views on health. These views will not
be dealt with in depth herein, but an overview of
Johnson’s beliefs is provided.
Sexual Health
Long before anyone knew of the dangers of
HIV and AIDS, Johnson cautioned against sexual
promiscuity because of the sexually transmitted
diseases.
Likewise, the emphasis in recent years on
prevention of teen pregnancy demonstrates the
relevance of Mr. Johnson’s views to today’s
problems.
eat a fresh, whole -food, plant-based diet; exercise
regularly; get plenty of rest and sleep; get plenty of
fresh air and sunshine; learn to handle stress; and avoid
all of the negative influences of life.
People can become sick from either inadequate intake
of essential nutrients or from excess. In industrialized
nations like the United States, most disease is
caused by excess—especially excess fat and protein.
The most common causes of death and debility—
including coronary artery disease; stroke; diabetes; emphysema;
cancer of the lung, colon, breast, and prostate;
kidney disease; osteoporosis, and autoimmune
diseases—are associated with excess intake of calories
in general, and consumption of animal fat and protein
in particular, in addition to the use of alcohol and tobacco.
These conditions of excess nutrition do not respond
particularly well to either conventional medical or
“alternative” treatments. To recover, people with these
conditions must eliminate their excesses. They need to
make radical dietary changes—eliminate the use of
meat, fish, fowl, eggs, dairy products, oil, and excess
salt and sugar, and eat a diet consisting of fresh fruits
and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Correction
of their real deficiencies—typically sleep, exercise,
and fiber intake—also are of critical importance.
3. The human body is self-generating, selfregulating,
and self-repairing.
Your started out as the minute union of two cells in
your mother’s womb; you developed into a child, and
later grew into adulthood. During all that time your
body has been going about its business, night and day,
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winter and summer, in sickness and in health, without
too much help. Your body’s capacities for growth, repair,
and maintenance are a manifestation of an extraordinary
inherent internal intelligence.
4. Health and disease are a continuum.
The same physiological laws govern life in sickness
and in health. Sick persons use the same practices,
modified if necessary, to recover health that
healthy persons use to maintain it. While there are exceptions
to the rule, things that will make a well person
sick will not make a sick person well.
Most of us have been conditioned to think that we
need to “do something” or “take something” when we
get sick. While there are instances when this may be
appropriate, most often we simply need to modify our
dietary and lifestyle choices and get more rest and
sleep.
5. The causes of disease must be removed.
There is a big difference between the symptoms of
disease (such as fever, inflammation, skin rash, dia rrhea,
vomiting, and mucous discharge) and the causes
of the symptoms (including overindulgence or poor
choice of food, overwork, exhaustion, and inability to
manage stress) which lead to a compromised immune
system. Because the body is self-healing, the symptoms
associated with acute disease are often important
processes needed for efficient healing to take place and
should not be suppressed by “taking something for it.”
cally grown on enriched soil.
We seldom have colds; when we do, we eliminate
them in a few days, and we get our vitamins
from the delicious fruits and vegetables we eat.
Pills, drugs, shots, and tonics and their cost are
not for us. We don’t need them. None of us have
invested in the greatly touted vitamin C, and
even many prominent medical doctors not only
disagree with the massive dosage program, but
even warn of possible dangers of taking the
chemicals. Drugs, chemicals, shots and medical
fads come and go, while we enjoy excellent
health without any of them.
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the juices delays complete recovery. We watch
people having coughs and excessive mucus for
months. And our colds are few and far between,
if we [don’t] transgress our known health program.
As far as vitamins are concerned, from the
beginning we have believed in eating fresh fruit,
including lots of citrus fruit and fresh vegetables,
which are supposed to be loaded with vitamins,
and this program was in effect with Natural Hygienists
long before the word vitamin was
coined.
We do not take any kind of synthetic chemical.
If we thought we needed vitamins we would
not buy them in a store. We would eat the food
that contained them. Some health food stores
sell what they call supplements. But supplement
indicates an addition to a food that has been deprived
of its natural food elements.
We think it is silly to drink milk that has been,
by processing, deprived of its available natural
benefits or vitamins, then to have a synthetic
chemical added to “fortify” it. The same applies
to white bread, denuded of its delicious germ
and skin, then “fortified” with chemical
“additives.” We like our milk fresh—that is, unpasteurized.
We like our grains whole. Both are
much more delicious, and to us, so are all natural
foods, and particularly when they are organi-
Health is much more than absence of symptoms.
In fact, the belief that health is the absence of symptoms
is dangerous. When you suppress symptoms
without eliminating the underlying causes, you run a
terrible risk. Your problem(s) may seem to have been
solved, but in the end a steep price may have to be paid
for failing to see the connection between your destructive
habits and their consequences. To recover health,
you must remove the causes of disease, allow time for
your body to respond to those causes, and avoid the
common mistake of trying to suppress symptoms.
6. Healing is a biological process.
Except in extraordinary circumstances, healing is
the result of actions undertaken by the body on its own
behalf. There are times when assistance, including
medical treatment and surgery, is necessary. But recovery
ultimately is dependent upon biological processes.
Natural Hygiene is a powerful set of health princ iples
and practices that offer you a tremendous opportunity
to be all you can be. It is a philosophy for people
who are looking for a very high level of health and
happiness!
James Michael Lennon is the executive director
of the American Natural Hygiene Society and the
editor of Health Science magazine.
© 2000 American Natural Hygiene Society, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
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The Plant-Based Diet:
The Cornerstone of Good Nutrition
Johnson’s diet resembled the dietary practices
of certain vegetarians who describe themselves as
“vegans,” although he apparently did not use that
term to describe himself. Vegans live on an exclusively
plant-based diet that eschews any kind of
animal-derived food product. Vegans avoid not
only animal flesh (red meat, fish, poultry) and
dairy products, but honey and certain gelatins of
animal origin.
However, unlike vegans, Johnson occasionally
ate eggs and cheese, and, on rare occasions, drank
non-pasteurized milk, which he believed to be the
only acceptable variety. Otherwise, his diet consisted
almost entirely of fruits and vegetables, and
when he ate fruit at a meal, he usually didn’t eat
anything else.
This type of diet, Johnson believed, provided
the body with live minerals that must get into the
blood stream to feed the cells. Johnson almost
never craved protein, but when he did, he would
satisfy this craving by eating a few nuts or beans.
His drink of choice was orange juice.
Johnson sometimes took only one meal a day,
and this might consist entirely of fruit. He wrote:
“I live on fruit and nothing else for breakfast.
Lunch may be bananas and nuts, or just bananas.
At night I eat two or three kinds of vegetables; last
extractions, including a wisdom tooth. There were
never any more than minor disabilities.)
The Natural Health system is to find out what
causes colds, or any other illness. To eliminate the
cause is the first objective. We have proven to our
satisfaction that the primary, or indeed the essential
cause of colds—and other sicknesses—is a
toxic condition; that is, a pile of uneliminated
waste materials from the metabolism and activity
of the body.
Eating too much rich food, lack of rest to give
the body a chance to digest and assimilate the food
or to eliminate the breakdown of the body cells, or
enervation, will bring on a cold, which we are
convinced is nature’s way to get rid of the toxins
which cause the trouble. Usually there is a loss of
desire for food—nature does not want to handle
any more.
The Natural Health way is to stop eating anything
for a few days, go to bed, rest completely,
and this system always works for us. We find that
the time taken to completely rest is saved in the
greater loss of time and efficiency by trying to keep
active when suffering from a sore throat, coughing,
running nose and miserable feeling of a cold.
Two or three days usually is sufficient to start
the cold victim on the way to recovery. Then several
days on a limited amount of fruit juice, and
we are feeling better than ever again. Gorging on
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vent colds. But we are always open to a scientific
test of any health subject.
However, there is a vast difference between an
actual test and the alleged tests which are almost
entirely propaganda. Our experience has been
that alleged researchers often times put on a big
publicity campaign to sell some “new discovery,”
which later on proves to be a dismal failure. The
thalidomide tragedy is an example where thousands
of children were born without arms or legs
and horribly deformed as a result of the use of this
destructive drug by gullible mothers, who had
been led to believe that the drug would be beneficial.
Where one’s life and health are at stake, it is
wise to be sure. Even a test of rats, mice, or monkeys
is not always the answer to what a drug will
do to humans. Of course, the individual could test
under exacting conditions the claims that vitamin
C will cure colds. Let him get a cold, then try the
vitamin C. Then let him go without vitamin C
(during) the next cold and see whether the (vitamin
C) method has eliminated the cold sooner.
Let him keep a record for a year of whether
taking large doses of vitamin C has prevented his
having a cold. Most people’s memories are short,
and a written record is the best way to know about
your health. (The writer has kept a written record
of every minor cold or other sickness for the last
43 years, including all colds—even the six tooth
night, turnips, carrots, celery, cooked and raw, and
lettuce and peanuts, raw. Seventy-five per cent of
my food is uncooked. Most people say I look
many years younger than my sixty-nine (years).”
“Diets like this tend to absorb the mineral, salt
and lime deposits of years (and), a low fat diet
keeps the cholesterol from forming. I use no kinds
of fats except what comes from the nuts. Occasionally
I use baked potatoes and when I do I use
salt free butter. If I use milk it is dried, non fat
powder.”
Johnson avoided all white bread and most cereals.
All grain foods, he advised, should be whole
grain, organically grown foods from enriched soils
being the best.
By his late 60s, Johnson lived more and more
on raw foods, a third of which was fruit. The rest
of his diet consisted of salads or vegetables eaten
plain. In a 1963 letter to his friend Charles Smith,
Johnson related that his life experience, backed by
long years of study, had led him to believe that
“live, fresh foods” were much more beneficial than
“dead” cooked foods, from which so many of the
minerals had been eliminated.
“I am sure,” he told Smith, “my own vigor
stems from the careful way in which I eat, and I
enjoy everything I eat very much.”
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Recent Data Supports Johnson’s Views
In 1995 the United States Food and Drug Administration
(FDA)/Center for Food Safety and
Applied Nutrition issued a report entitled Nutrition
and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans
(the “Report”). The FDA has long issued the
“Food Guide Pyramid” to illustrate the importance
of balance of food groups in daily diet .
While the Pyramid includes meats and
dairy products, it is interesting that the
FDA recommends that most of the
daily food servings be selected from
the food groups that are the largest
in the picture and closest to the
base of the Pyramid. These are
the grain products group (6-11
servings), the vegetable group
(3-5 servings), and the fruit group (2-4 servings.
Many persons may be uncertain as to what
constitutes a “serving.” The Pyramid suggests the
following:
I. Grain Products Group (including
bread, cereal, rice, and pasta)
• One slice of bread
• One ounce of ready-to-eat cereal
• One-half cup of cooked cereal, rice,
or pasta
health is so much better than the average
[person’s].”
Johnson then summed up the optimum dietary
practice for good health: “Fasting and a cleansing
diet of fresh fruit and vegetables.”
The following article is taken from Johnson’s
pamphlet, Obey Natural Laws or Die. In this article,
Johnson expounded on his views regarding prescription
or non-prescription medication or artificially-produced
vitamin C (which was becoming a
popular remedy by the early 1970s) to treat or prevent
illness.
So You Have A Cold
In recent weeks there has been considerable
controversy of vitamin C as a cure for colds, which
modern medical science has been unable to eliminate.
Dr. Linus Pauling, not a medical doctor, says
he cures his by taking massive doses of the vitamin
and, by using it regularly, prevents colds. He has
written a best-selling book and millions of Americans
have made a run on the drug stores and used
up all the available supply, making the drug and
pharmaceutical companies handsome profits.
The Natural Health (advocates)—or Natural Hygienists—are
exacting realists. We must know what
we are doing. We do not believe in magic. We do
not accept anything on faith, nor authority. We
doubt that taking vitamins will either cure or pre-
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getting rid of waste, and too much milk,
cheese and bread can cause them”.
Johnson minced no words in his assessment of
the medical profession and what he believed to be
its wrongful approach to treatment and prevention
of illness. “There is nothing in the nation,” he once
wrote, “which does so much damage as [the] perpetuation
of the ‘sacredness’ of so-called medical
‘science.’ We are a sick nation made so by …
propaganda in favor of the medical and drug monopolies,
which excludes the truth about the natural
health system.”
In Johnson’s view, improper diet was probably
the leading cause of illness, from the common cold
to more serious, life-threatening diseases. For example,
Johnson believed there was a link between
meat consumption and cancer. As he once told his
friend Lillian Starr:
“For a number of years I have been suspicious
that meat helps to encourage cancer.
As you know, I have used it only occasionally
for ten or twelve years. Statistics have
shown that Adventists, who do not use meat
or smoke, have about one tenth or so of lung
cancers that smokers do, and most people except
the Adventists and the vegetarians are
also meat eaters. It is worth studying. My
own studies have convinced me that meat is a
contributing factor. And I never miss [eating
meat]. Other things taste better and my
II. Vegetable Group
• One cup of raw leafy vegetables
• One-half cup of other vegetables
(cooked or chopped raw)
• Three-quarters cup of vegetable juice
The Pyramid recommends two to three daily
servings from the meat group to meet one’s protein
needs. However, it is evident that this requirement
can be met by substituting plant-derived foods for
meats and poultry.
For example, the FDA notes that one-half cup
of cooked dry beans (or one egg) counts as one
ounce of lean meat, so one may simply substitute
an equivalent amount of these foods for meat,
poultry, or fish. Johnson frequently substituted
two tablespoons of peanut butter or one-third cup
of nuts for meat. Kidney beans, lentils, garbanzo
beans, and black beans are other excellent sources
of protein and they can be prepared in a variety of
ways.
The FDA adds that some foods fit into more
than one group. For example, dry beans, peas, and
lentils can be counted as servings in either the
meat and beans group or the vegetable group.
These “cross over” foods can be counted as servings
from either one or the other group, but not
both.
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The FDA now recognizes vegetarian diets as
consistent with Dietary Guidelines for Americans
and sufficient to meet Recommended Dietary Allowances
for nutrients. The FDA has expressed
the opinion that lacto-ovo-vegetarians (those who
include eggs and dairy products in their diets) enjoy
excellent health, but it has also acknowledged
that the vegan diet is sufficient as long as those
who follow it are careful to ensure adequate intake
of vitamin D and calcium. Calcium is especially
important for women, teenage girls, and growing
children.
Calcium need not come from milk and other
dairy foods. The Report listed a number of good
non-animal sources of calcium, such as dark-green
leafy vegetables (kale, mustard greens, turnip
greens, and pak-choi).
Organizations cited by the FDA have found
that animal sources of nutrients can be replaced by
a plant-based diet by eating a variety of vegetables
and including in one’s diet (as Johnson did) nuts,
seeds, beans, and legumes—especially soy products.
As the American Dietetic Association stated
in its 1993 position paper, Replacing Animal
Sources of Nutrients, “soy protein has been shown
to be nutritionally equivalent in protein value to
proteins of animal origin and, thus, can serve as
the sole source of protein intake if desired.”
CHAPTER
SEVEN
JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON ON THE NATURAL
HEALTH APPROACH TO ILLNESS
ohnson believed that the majority of illnesses
suffered by people resulted from
disobedience to the natural laws governing
the body—i.e., eating an improper diet,
lack of exercise, use of alcohol, tobacco, and other
substances harmful to the human body. Additionally,
he viewed the medical profession as wrong in
its reliance on drugs and medications to treat illness.
Johnson attributed a variety of ailments to consumption
of foods and beverages he regarded as
injurious. He once wrote that a woman acquaintance
who was a heavy coffee drinker suffered
from chronic headaches. He convinced her to give
up coffee, and when she did, the headaches
stopped.
“The causes of arthritis,” Johnson wrote,
“are too much starch and sugar. It has
been proven time and again that elimination
of these things will eliminate arthritis and
rheumatism. Colds are nature’s system of
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Swimming laps 20
Wheelchair basketball 20
Basketball (playing a game)
Bicycling four miles w/in 15
Jumping rope 15
Running one and one-half miles w/in 15
Shoveling snow 15
Stairwalking 15
Anyone wishing to start an exercise program
should, of course, first consult a physician. Then
find an activity you enjoy so that you’ll stay with
it. A number of resources for those contemplating
starting an exercise program will be found at the
end of this publication.
Additional non-animal sources of nutrients
listed by the FDA in this article and in its 1995 Report
are as follows:
• Fortified soy beverages and cereals provide vitamins
B12 and D;
• Tofu processed with calcium, broccoli, seeds,
nuts, kale, bok choy, legumes (peas and beans),
greens, lime-processed tortillas, soy beverages,
grain products, and orange juice enriched with
calcium provide calcium requirements;
• Legumes (such as lima beans and green peas,
dry beans and peas, pinto beans, black-eyed
peas, canned baked beans), tofu, green leafy
vegetables of the cabbage family such as broccoli,
kale, turnip greens and collards, dried
fruit, whole grains, iron-fortified cereals and
breads (especially whole wheat), provide iron;
• Citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes, strawberries,
broccoli, peppers, dark green leafy vegetables,
and potatoes with skins improve absorption;
• Whole grains (especially the germ and bran),
whole wheat bread, legumes, nuts, and tofu
provide zinc.
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The Vegetarian Diet
and Prevention of Illness
In Johnson’s view, another important benefit of
the vegetarian diet was its role in the prevention of
illness. Johnson claimed that he rarely suffered
common ailments such as colds, and he attributed
this to his diet—especially since fresh fruit comprised
a large portion of it.
Johnson’s view appears to be supported by the
FDA’s 1995 publication, FDA Consumer. In this
publication, the FDA reported the findings of a
number of nutritional and dietary organizations,
including the FDA, with regard to the vegetarian
diet. It was noted that vegetarians were at lesser
risk for a number of ailments, including obesity,
constipation, lung cancer, alcoholism, hypertension,
coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, and
gallstones.
The FDA also cited a booklet by the National
Cancer Institute, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer Prevention:
A Guide to Food Choices (hereinafter,
Food Choices). Food Choices stated that 35 percent
of cancer deaths may be related to diet. It
went on to state that the risk of certain cancers, including
colon cancer, could be reduced by a diet
high in beta-carotene, fiber-rich foods, and cruciferous
vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, cauliflower).
ing causes of illness and death in the U. S. For example,
those who exercise regularly have a reduced
risk of ailments such as heart disease, diabetes,
high blood pressure, colon cancer, obesity, and
depression and anxiety.
The CDC also provides the following examples
of moderate exercise. [Note that many of the activities
listed below are everyday activities not usually thought of as
“exercise.”]
ACTIVITY MINUTES
Washing and waxing a car 45-60
Washing windows or floors 45-60
Playing volleyball 45
Playing touch football 30-45
Gardening (a favorite of Johnson’s) 30-45
Wheeling oneself in a wheelchair 30-40
Walking one and three-quarter miles w/in 35
Basketball (shooting baskets) 30
Bicycling five miles w/in 30
Fast social dancing 30
Pushing a stroller one and a half miles w/in 30
Raking leaves 30
Walking two miles w/in 30
Water aerobics 30
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fruit, a nap in the sun and a discussion of health
matters.” On rainy days, they would hike in Balboa
Park, where there were covered walks under
which they could keep dry between showers.
The benefits of physical exercise have been
widely known for a long time. However, it is now
known that such exercise need not be strenuous as
long as it is regular.
Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has publicized the following information:
• People who are usually inactive can improve
their health and well-being by becoming
even moderately active on a regular
basis
• Physical activity need not be strenuous to
achieve health benefits
• Greater health benefits can be achieved
by increasing the amount (duration, frequency,
or intensity) of physical activity.
[See “Physical Activity and Health, A Report of the Surgeon
General. This Report is available on the Internet at www.
cdc.gov/sgr/ataglan.htm.]
The CDC reports that regular physical activity
performed on most days of the week reduces the
risk of developing or dying from some of the lead-
The reduced risk of cancer is not the only
benefit of a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and
grain products. The FDA also noted that such diets—because
they are low in saturated fats and
cholesterol—may possibly reduce the risk of coronary
artery disease.
Do You Need Artificial Vitamins?
In the 1995 Report, the U. S. Government recommended
vitamin and mineral supplements for
certain people who have specific nutrient requirements,
such as the elderly and women of childbearing
age.
However, Johnson held that taking vitamin
supplements was unnecessary, as proper amounts
of vitamins (such as vitamin C) could be
obtained simply by eating the foods that
contained them. Of course, it is up to
the individual, with proper medical and
dietary advice when necessary, to determine
how best to meet his or her needs.
Nonetheless, the FDA’s Report noted that supplements
“are usually not needed by people who eat
the variety of foods depicted in the Food Guide
Pyramid.”
As Johnson found, animal sources of nutrients
are entirely unnecessary as long as one replaces
them with plant foods that provide the same nutrients.
As can be seen from the above information,
recent findings tend to confirm his views.
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Fiber for Life
For decades people have been hearing about
the importance of fiber in the diet. This was also
stressed in the 1995 Report. Fiber, the report
pointed out, is found only in plant foods. Excellent
sources of fiber are foods like whole-grain
breads and cereals, beans, peas, and other vegetables
and fruits.
The FDA recommended that, since there are
different types of fiber in foods, one should choose
a variety of foods daily. The Report stated that including
a variety of fiber-containing plant foods in
the diet promotes proper bowel function and reduces
the symptoms of chronic constipation, diverticular
disease and hemorrhoids, and some cancers.
The Report also recommended—as Johnson would
have—that people obtain their fiber from foods
that contain it naturally, rather than from supplements.
This again underscores the point Johnson
stressed. A plant-based diet is by its very nature
rich in the kinds of natural food fiber recommended
by the FDA. Carrots, celery, various
kinds of fruits: Johnson enjoyed these kinds of
foods on a daily basis. More and more, research
vindicates his views.
CHAPTER
SIX
JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON ON EXERCISE
“The weakness of most everyone,” Johnson
once told his friend Dr. Lillian Starr, “is lack
of exercise.”
ohnson frequently wrote of the benefits—
both physical and mental—of regular exercise.
“Physical exercise helps keep muscles and
tissues strong … few of us get enough.”
Johnson’s favorite form of exercise was a Sunday
hike on the beaches of San Diego County.
Sometimes, Johnson and his friends would hike as
far as the Mexican border or beyond.
Johnson wrote fondly of how the hikes were
not only a form of exercise, but a pleasant respite
from his heavy workdays and an occasion for socializing
with his friends as well. “We go to various
places around the county to start the hikes,
usually at the beaches in the summer so some can
wade and others swim. We have hiked, rain or
shine every Sunday for two years … two hours of
a good hike in the open, then a lunch, usually of
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individuals, the increased cost of health care for
them, and the increase in crime that accompanies
widespread drug use. Thus he sought to turn the
public away from the lure of drug use not only by
educating them as to the destruction it caused, but
also by informing people of the positive benefits of
good health that could be theirs through the practices
of Natural Hygiene.
Special Benefits of Fruit
Fruit formed a significant part of the diet advocated
by Johnson. Sometimes, his meals consisted
entirely of fruit, mangos and papayas being among
his favorites. This too was backed up by the 1995
Report, which stated that fruits like mango, papaya,
and cantaloupe were good sources of carotene,
a fat-soluble substance that is converted to
vitamin A in the intestine and liver. In humans,
Beta-carotene is the major precursor of vitamin A.
Another healthful substance that occurs naturally
in fruits is folate, which plays a role in the prevention
of anemia. This substance is found in fruits
such as blackberries, boysenberries, kiwi fruit, oranges
(another favorite of Johnson’s), plantains,
strawberries, orange juice, and pineapple juice.
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Foods to Avoid
As important as it was to consume certain
foods, it was equally important to avoid others,
and Johnson was very specific about which substances
he considered harmful. These included
meat, eggs (except for very sparing use), pies,
cakes, liquor, coffee, tea, tobacco, and salt. Johnson
was outspoken about the adverse effects of
these substances, especially alcohol and tobacco.
Johnson was concerned with Americans’ consumption
of carbonated soft drinks, especially cola
drinks, and so he tried to popularize a healthy replacement
for them. In the early 1980s, he invented
a soft drink he called “Fizzola,” a form of
sparkling grape juice. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful
in realizing the project.
Despite Johnson’s opposition to meat, those
who knew him recalled that he was never undiplomatic
about it. Whenever he was a guest at someone’s
home, he ate meat without complaint if that
was what his host or hostess served. Devoted as
he was to the principles of Natural Hygiene, Johnson
also prided himself on being a gentleman.
Most breads were also to be avoided. Johnson
wrote: “We in the (natural) health system seldom
use bread, even the best whole grain (or), milk or
cheese …”
Recreational Drugs
Johnson opposed the use of any of the socalled
“recreational drugs” that have been popular
for decades: marijuana, psychedelics, cocaine, and
other narcotics. He especially deplored their use
by the young because of the physical and mental
degradation such drugs wreaked on individuals
who should be learning to live healthy lives and
honing their capacity for rational thinking.
Johnson witnessed the explosion of drug use
over several decades. In the 1960s,
the use of marijuana and the so-called
“psychedelics” (LSD, peyote, mescaline,
and various synthetic copies), became
widespread. In the 1980s, cocaine
became the drug of choice
among the more well to do and the use
of crack, crystal methamphetamine,
and so-called “designer drugs” reached epidemic
proportions. Along with this rise in the use of cocaine
and crack came an explosion of crime, which
affected not only urban areas, but—by the end of
the decade—rural areas as well.
Johnson pointed out that these drugs destroy
the body, on which the mind depends, and thus destroy
the individual’s capacity for rational thinking.
These drugs not only destroy the individual’s
health, they damage society, which suffers due to
the loss of economic production of drug-addicted
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school board for the ban on beer sales at the stadium.
Even though Johnson’s suit was not successful,
he managed to publicize the problems associated
with alcohol consumption at the stadium.
Were his views on drinking sound?
In the past few years, it has been found that
there seems to be a lower incidence of heart disease
in individuals who consume “moderate”
amounts of alcohol. According to the American
Heart Association (AHA), “moderate” means one
to two drinks a day for men and one drink a day
for women.
Nonetheless, the AHA cautions that increased
consumption of alcohol carries with it a host of ailments,
including alcoholism, hypertension, obesity,
stroke, cardiomyopathy, a number of cancers,
liver disease, accidents, suicides, and fetal alcohol
syndrome. Some individuals have an inherited
predisposition to conditions such as hypertriglyceridemia,
pancreatitis, and porphyira, or familial
predisposition to alcoholism. These persons
should not drink at all. In consideration of these
risks, the AHA declined to issue guidelines to the
general public that could lead some persons to start
drinking, or to increase their drinking.
Thus, in spite of recent favorable publicity for
moderate alcohol consumption, Johnson’s belief in
total abstinence from alcohol seems vindicated.
As Johnson said, “Intelligent people don’t subject
themselves to this poisonous practice.”
Johnson On Fasting
"There is nothing like a fast to rejuvenate
the body and mind, to eliminate any toxic
materials and give the organs a rest. One
feels very young again, and the mind works
faster and better than before". - James
Hervey Johnson (1973)
True fasting is the total avoidance of anything
by mouth. More liberal fasting would allow the
consumption of liquids. The strongest methods of
fasting under this liberal view would include only
water. The more lenient method of fasting would
allow juices made from fruits and vegetables as
well as herbal teas.
Mr. Johnson, when he fasted, only consumed
distilled water. Johnson believed that only distilled,
or rain water, should be used, as other
sources of water contained minerals. Over time,
Johnson believed that these minerals would accumulate
and effect the body's function. Johnson believed
that these minerals accumulated in the organs,
including the brain. Johnson believed that
the accumulation of these minerals over time
would ultimately clog or interfere with the circulation
of blood and the removal of wastes.
Johnson believed that fasting was the greatest
natural healing therapy. Johnson believed that
fasting was nature's remedy for many of the problems
one experiences with their health. When
Johnson first discovered fasting at the age of fifty,
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in 1951, he claimed that fasting allowed his body
to perform properly and provided him with the energy
he needed to maintain his sixteen-hours a day,
seven days a week, work schedule.
Johnson believed that there was nothing like a
fast to rejuvenate the body and mind. He believed
that fasting eliminated toxic materials held by the
body and that it gave the body's organs a chance to
rest. After cleansing, Johnson believed that the organs
functioned better and thus lead to better
health for the individual.
Johnson regularly fasted on weekends and during
those times that he infrequently caught a cold.
After just a few days of fasting, Johnson felt better.
He consumed only distilled water. After fasting,
Mr. Johnson was rejuvenated in body and mind.
Johnson fasted regularly for longer periods of
time. Every five years Johnson fasted for 30-40
days at a time.
Johnson's fasting, his belief in it and his desire
to educate people on the benefits of fasting
stemmed from a study of the available literature on
the subject. Johnson's belief in fasting, however,
primarily stemmed from his overall understanding
of "Natural Hygiene" and the workings of the
body, and most importantly, from his own personal
experiences when fasting. Johnson stated:
CHAPTER
FIVE
“MIND “MIND-DESTROYING
ESTROYING POISONS POISONS:”
:”
JAMES AMES HERVEY
JOHNSON
ON O THE
DANGERS
OF ALCOHOL
AND
RECREATIONAL
DRUGS
iewed as harmless by millions, Johnson regarded
alcohol and “recreational drugs” such
as marijuana as evil substances that destroyed
both the physical and mental health of the
user. He campaigned against their use in his writings
and before public hearings.
Alcohol
Johnson opposed all use of alcohol, which he
often referred to as “mind-destroying poison.” He
was active in opposing its sale in public places,
such as the San Diego stadium.
In 1964 Johnson filed a suit to keep beer from
being sold in the stadium, where,
as he pointed out teenagers attended
events and which is located
near schools, hos- pitals, and a
heavily traveled freeway, where
alcohol-related ac- cidents were
likely to occur. He also solicited the support of the
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It concludes there’s about a doubling of risk
among passive and active smokers. The study
found long-term exposure to second-hand smoke
significantly put pre-menopausal women at risk of
breast cancer.
ETS and Infections
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) provides the first evidence that secondhand
smoke promotes pneumococcal disease.
It found that “nonsmoking patients were 2.5
times as likely to be exposed to environmental tobacco
smoke as nonsmoking controls.”
For additional information on ETS or any other
tobacco-related health hazard, the interested reader
should contact Action on Smoking and Health at:
ASH
2013 H STREET NW
WASHINGTON DC 20006
(202) 659-4310
"From a person who knows by testing, no
one can make me believe that fasting is in
the slightest injurious. I follow the Natural
Hygienic system, and among such followers
there are hundreds who benefit from
fasting".
Johnson believed that those who did not include
fasting into a proper nutritional program
were not as healthy physically or mentally. He believed
that sicknesses and illnesses were more
prevalent in individuals who did not regularly fast.
Johnson stated:
"Fasting is added insurance and I have no
need for doctors or drugs".
In 1951, when Johnson started fasting, his beliefs
were not understood or widely accepted.
Based on the surge of this practice in Europe and
North America since then, it would appear that
Johnson was ahead of his time. The benefits attributable
to fasting are now well documented and
are promoted by an ever increasing number of
medical professionals.
It is also, however, quite evident that when
fasting is discussed, disclaimers and cautions always
appear. It is recommended that, before fasting,
you seek medical advice especially if you are
currently under the care of a medical doctor. It is
recommended that you fast only under professional
supervision. This is good and cautious ad-
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vice and is the recommendation of this work.
However, Johnson would have wanted you to first
study the topic. Discuss it with your family,
friends and associates and your medical doctor, although
he distrusted the medical community. After
being properly educated, Johnson would have
wanted you to experiment with fasting, while, of
course, maintaining a "Natural Hygiene" way of
life.
Through education and experience, Johnson
believed that the individual would agree that fasting
was quite beneficial to the proper workings of
the body and that it should become a regular part
of one's life. Fasting, however, is only a component
of Johnson's overall health and the concepts
of "Natural Hygiene".
of $2.6 billion, annual morbidity-related productivity
savings of $900 million, and annual benefits of
reduced mortality of $24.6 to $39.7 billion.
New information is constantly being developed
on the dangers of ETS. The following items, reprinted
from the April-May 2000 issue of the Action
on Smoking and Health (ASH) Review, report
some of the most recent findings.
Chemicals in ETS
Chemicals used to make paint stripper and
rocket fuel are among a list of 600 toxic substances
legally found in cigarettes, the British government
has revealed. Their list includes acetone, used to
make paint stripper; ammonia, contained in toilet
cleaners; butane, a form of lighter fuel; and betanaphthyl
methylether, more commonly known as
mothballs.
Nonsmokers also must risk inhaling hydrogen
cyanide, the poison used in gas chambers; methanol,
a rocket fuel; arsenic and carbon monoxide,
the poisonous gas in car exhausts.
ETS and Breast Cancer
The largest study of its kind has confirmed a
link between second-hand smoke and breast cancer.
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death syndrome, and lung and nasal sinus cancer.
Health risks for the young include childhood induction,
exacerbation of asthma, bronchitis and
pneumonia, middle ear infection, chronic respiratory
symptoms, and low birth weight. Besides the
damage smoking did to individuals’ health, Johnson
publicized the evils smoking created for society:
increased health care costs for victims of
smoking-related illness, loss of life and property
due to smoking-related fires, and the economic
losses that resulted when smokers missed work
due to illnesses caused by their habit.
This has been corroborated by a 1993 study by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). In that year, the CDC estimated that the
health care costs associated with tobacco use totaled
$50 billion. Of that figure, $26.9 billion was
spent for hospital costs; $15.5 billion for doctors;
$4.9 billion in nursing home costs; $1.8 billion for
prescription drugs, and $900 million for home
health care expenditures. The Office of Technology
Assessment calculated the costs to society attributable
to smoking in 1990 at $68 billion, based
upon $20.8 billion in direct health care costs and
$6.9 billion in lost productivity from sickness and
disabilities and $40.3 billion in lost productivity
from premature deaths.
The CDC also estimated that the annual benefits
from reduced smoking-related disease could be
$8 to $43 billion. These benefits would be
achieved through annual net medical cost savings
Fasting As An Adaptation
For Survival: New Views
In the following article, re-printed with the permission
of the American Natural Hygiene Society
from the May/June 2000 issue of Health Science
magazine, you will discover the latest findings on
fasting by two experts in the field.
FASTING
by Douglas Lisle, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer, D.C.
Fasting is a multi-faceted adaptation because
it involves both physical and psychological adaptations.
Human beings, and other living things, have
been characterized as living “machines.” In fact,
the concept of human beings as being sophisticated
machines dates back as far as the mideighteenth
century, to the French physicianphilosopher
Julien La Mettrie.
Early physician-scholars such as La Mettrie
could not help but be impressed by the intricacy of
our many survival mechanisms that are obvious to
the trained eye. Our eyes, ears, heart, lungs, and
many other physical features are marvelous mechanical
devices, meticulously designed by nature
to aid in our survival and/or reproduction.
More impressive still is the fact that these
mechanisms work together, in an orchestrated
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fashion. When we start to jog, our heart increases
its pumping action, and our lungs work harder—in
exquisite coordination with the heart. The parts
work together for the “common good,” which is
our survival or reproductive potential. Biologists
have a word for these parts—these components of
our natural design. They are called adaptations.
Modern health professionals are astounded
when they discover what the American Hygienic
physician-philosopher Herbert Shelton described
decades ago: that water-only fasting is an adaptation—and
is one of the most powerful healing adaptations
of the human design!
Examples of Adaptations:
A living creature, such as a human being, can
be thought of as a large, intricate machine, comprised
of many “minimachines”—each of which
are themselves adaptations. For example, our
tongue is clearly an adaptation, in that it is an intricate
machine, designed by nature to assist our
survival prospects.
Actually, the tongue is not a single entity, but is
itself composed of many distinct parts, each of
which is a component of the fabulous “tonguemachine.”
Each part—a taste bud, for example—
is an important component of the overall design.
Our ability to taste sweet things, for example, was
part of nature’s design in order to encourage our
ancestors to eat ripe fruit and other sweet-tasting
The Dangers of ETS:
The Evidence Mounts
In addition to publicizing the evils of active, or
“mainstream” smoking, Johnson warned long ago
of the health hazards of “second-hand” or
“passive” smoking: breathing the smoke exhaled
by others. This is also termed “environmental tobacco
smoke,” or “ETS.”
As early as 1963, Johnson was publicizing this
additional negative effect of smoking. Johnson
campaigned vigorously for bans on smoking in
public buildings. When he noticed people smoking
in the downtown San Diego Post Office, despite
posted regulations that prohibited it, he initiated
a complaint that was eventually successful in
getting the prohibition enforced.
Since the 1980s, passive smoking has been
cited as a major source of indoor air pollution by
organizations such as the World Health Organization
(WHO), the United States Department of
Health and Human Services (USDHHS), and the
California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal.
EPA). In 1990, the U. S. Surgeon General’s Report
stated that involuntary smoking was a cause
of disease in never-smokers as well as smokers
It is now widely known that passive or secondhand
smoking is linked to a variety of fatal and
non-fatal diseases, including, but not limited to,
acute and chronic heart disease, sudden infant
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dence was not considered sufficient to establish the
associations as causal.
Subsequent reports of the Surgeon General on
smoking and health have expanded and strengthened
the conclusions of the 1964 Report on active
(i.e., the smoker’s direct use of tobacco products)
smoking and document the benefits of quitting
smoking.
The U. S. Surgeon General’s 1990 Report on
the Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation concluded
that smoking cessation has major and immediate
health benefits for men and women of all
ages, with or without smoking-related diseases.
Former smokers live longer than those who continue
to smoke do, and they have a decreased risk
of cancer, heart disease, stroke, or chronic lung
disease.
This health risk is not limited to smoking, but
extends to so-called “smokeless” tobacco as well.
The Surgeon General has also cited studies that indicate
that use of smokeless tobacco can lead to
problems from bleeding gums to cancer.
“A fool on
one end . . .
“POISONOUS STINKERS”
. . . a fire on
the other.
foods. Our ability to taste bitter things is part of
nature’s way of discouraging our consumption of
substances that might be poisonous. Working together,
the many “mini-machines” within our taste
preference system (which includes the tongue and
our sense of smell) assist in guiding our behavior
toward survival-successful ends.
We are built of literally thousands of these
mini-machines—adaptations—which are the
mechanisms that aid our survival or reproduction.
This idea is not new to health professionals, as
they clearly recognize that our eyes, ears, heart,
and lungs are part of the overall “survival machine”—our
body.
However, few health professionals recognize
that n addition to observable parts, adaptations
also come in an altogether different form. Adaptations
do not have to be physical structures, such as
eyes or ears. They also can be in the form of behavioral
tendencies—coded into our nervous systems,
as part of our natural design. Such behavioral
adaptations are every bit as crucial to our
survival as are our eyes, heart, and lungs.
Behavioral Adaptations:
Consider your behavioral inclination toward a
pesky mosquito drilling into your skin. Probably,
you slap at the pest. Slapping at mosquitoes is an
example of a behavioral adaptation. It is an exquisitely
coordinated movement of muscles and
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sensory feedback, made possible by our natural
design. Nature punishes us with unpleasant feelings
if we can’t or won’t slap at the mosquito and
rewards us with a small feeling of relief when we
do. This is not a learned, or taught, tendency. It is
a genetically-mediated feature of the circuitry in
our brains. All children, the world over, slap at
mosquitoes automatically—a telltale sign of a
naturally designed behavioral tendency. In other
words, slapping at mosquitoes is an “adaptation.”
Many behavioral characteristics and bodily responses
are components of our natural design.
Coughing, sneezing, vomiting, fever, and inflammation—while
they may not be pleasant—are adaptations.
They are sophisticated responses of the
body, designed into our nature, in order to assist
our health and healing. The artificial suppression
of such adaptive mechanisms, such as suppressing
a cough or a fever with medication or other
means, is almost always a step away from health.
It is not well known that fever, inflammation,
coughing, and vomiting are health-promoting adaptations
that require judicious management.
Among better-educated health professionals, it is
understood that artificial suppression of these
adaptive responses may provide pain relief—but at
the potential compromise of overall health. The
wise professional will attempt to understand what
is causing these adaptations to be activated, and to
remove such causes—rather than merely attempting
to suppress symptoms. But while fever, inflam-
CHAPTER
FOUR
“THE
P OISONOUS STINKERS STINKERS”
JAMES AMES HERVEY
JOHNSON
ON O THE
DANGERS
OF S MOKING AND TOBACCO
USE
ohnson probably considered smoking a
more dangerous and offensive health hazard
than eating meat. He considered
smoking to be one of the most foolish, dangerous,
and destructive habits known to humankind.
“Poisonous stinkers” was a favorite term Johnson
used for cigarettes; another was “a fool on one end
and a fire on the other.” Over the decades since
the United States Surgeon General’s groundbreaking
1964 report, medical research has continually
validated Johnson’s uncompromising views on this
subject.
In 1964, the Report of the United States Surgeon
General’s Advisory Committee (US PHS
1964) stated that cigarette smoking was a cause of
lung cancer and laryngeal cancer in men, a probable
cause of lung cancer in women, and the leading
cause of chronic bronchitis. Other diseases,
such as emphysema and cardiovascular disease,
were also found to be associated with cigarette
smoking, although at the time, the available evi-
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shortly if not killed first. All “dead carcasses”
to Hygienists. We do well without any of it.
We like our food live and fresh, as it is, not
disguised with synthetic chemicals. Vitamins are
expensive, costing several dollars a bottle. We
don’t need them; ours come direct from the
fresh, natural, live food we eat.
Living according to natural laws, we don’t
have to buy medicines and drugs, pay big medical
bills, or go to hospitals. We invite you to try
our methods for yourself.
mation, and other symptoms are finally becoming
recognized as adaptive processes, the importance
of the loss of appetite, characteristic of many disease
processes, is largely unappreciated.
A Multi-Faceted Adaptation
As Herbert Shelton noted in his long out-ofprint
1928 book Human Life: Its Philosophy and
Laws, “Fasting has its origins in the dim uncertainties
of the long forgotten past when the first
wounded animal found that it had no desire for
food.” In other words, fasting is an ancient adaptation.
It is also a multi-faceted one, because it
involves both physical and psychological adaptations.
Few health professionals are aware of the
many, truly astonishing, physical adaptations that
result from water-only fasting. Most believe that
water-only fasting is simply “starving,” and that
little or no benefits result from such and experience.
In reality, water-only fasting is dynamic, complex,
and involves many health-promoting processes.
For example, studies have indicated that
immune function is significantly enhanced during
water-only fasting, an effect that few would suspect.
There is also an enhanced mobilization and
elimination of toxic products, including poisons
such as PCP, dioxins, pesticide residues, and other
pollutants. The evolutionary reasons for this bene-
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fit are uncertain. Probably, in the dim uncertainties
of the long-forgotten past, life-threatening infections
and exposure to naturally-occurring environmental
toxins were serious threats to the survival
of our ancestors. These threats may have resulted
in the development of health-promoting adaptations—one
of which was water-only fasting.
In addition to many documented physical adaptations
associated with water-only fasting, there
is also an obvious psychological one as well. Often
when we are ill, we lose our appetite. Like
many other animals, we don’t feel much like eating
when we get sick—and this is hardly an accident.
It is clearly a component of our natural design—
the psychological component of the fasting
“machine.” Like our tongues, the fasting process
is multi-faceted—a “packet” of adaptations all
working together. The natural adaptation of water-only
fasting starts with a desire to refrain from
eating, and results in many health-promoting automated
processes. Few health professionals ever
have considered that the lack of appetite that accompanies
illness is actually a component of such
a complex adaptive mechanism. As a result, honoring
this adaptive tendency is rarely encouraged.
In fact, it is often actively discouraged.
An Understandable Error
When an unwell animal fasts, it is quietly fighting
for its life. The lack of appetite is a component
of a finely coordinated strategy of the body to re-
the natural foods. It costs extra to refine, to buy
high-priced chemicals to mix with food, to test out
the chemicals that make it taste good, to preserve
it, make it appealing to the eye using artificial coloring,
to print eye-catching labels and packages to
compete with the other foods after the consumer’s
dollar. Billions of dollars are spent in newspaper,
TV, and billboard advertising to induce the gullible
to buy various high-priced food and drink concoctions,
some of it highly injurious. The billions
in cost of advertising are added to the price.
Oranges and apples need none of this. Carrots
and potatoes look just as good in a paper bag as if
they were in an expensive package. Celery looks
good in its natural state.
All fruits look and smell and taste delicious.
Beans can be bought at low prices in bulk. Who
would want to put artificial coloring or flavor on
lettuce?
Meat is expensive; it has to be “cured.” refrigerated,
often doctored with preservatives, sometimes
colored. The animals are often given hormones
and shots of chemicals to make them put on
weight fast, and even given a lot of salt to make
them fill up with watery flesh.
We are warned about the mercury in swordfish.
Shark is disguised under the name
“grayfish.” Probably a lot of poultry, which had
outlived its egg-laying usefulness, would die
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The manufacturers don’t stress the chemicals
and you may have to put your glasses on to read
the small print. The long Latin names may disguise
a name for something like plain lye into a
long-sounding scholarly looking word.
The chemical is put in the bread, for example,
to keep germs from eating it. It won’t spoil because
the germs which cause spoilage would die if
they ate it.
Salt is the common preservative. It keeps food
from spoiling because the life that would eat the
food cannot survive in the salt. Man, being a bigger
organism, can live because the proportion is
small, and he drinks a lot of water to dilute the effects
of the salt or other preservatives. But we
have found that over a period of time, they are injurious
to man also.
So we eat the best food we can find — natural
food — and we are healthier for it. Every one we
know who has given the plan a fair trial obtains
the same results.
We have found that we are healthier and enjoy
life more when we engage in vigorous physical activity.
One of the great advantages of following Natural
Health methods — not previously touched
upon — is the economic advantage. There is a
great difference in cost of the processed foods and
store health as quickly as possible. Rest is an additional—and
integral- component of this strategy.
Not only do sick animals often fast, they also rest
while doing so. Fasting and resting help to assist
the healing process. However, once an animal begins
to recover, two marked behavioral changes
occur. First, the animal becomes more active.
Second, the hunger drive returns, and the animal
begins to seek food and eat. Activity and eating
are the visible signs of a creature returning to
health.
It is hardly surprising, then, that humans have
confused the connection between eating and the
regaining of health. Observing that increased appetite
and health go hand-in-hand after illness,
many people have mistakenly assumed that an increase
in food intake causes the regaining of
health. In reality, they have it backwards. It is the
increase in health that results in the reappearance
of hunger! Sadly, this connection has been missed
by most health professionals. This is not surprising,
as other adaptations also have been misconstrued
and mismanaged throughout history—
including fever, inflammation, and vomiting. The
natural desire to refrain from eating when ill is
simply another example of a misunderstood adaptation.
A Voluntary Adaptation
If the natural desire for water-only fasting
when ill were to become better respected, this
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would be a positive step. Instead of being forcefed
chicken soup, people with a condition resulting
in the need to fast would be managed quite differently.
However, water-only fasting is an unusual
adaptation in that it does not require the loss of
appetite associated with acute illness. Fasting
also can be undertaken voluntarily.
Unlike other health-promoting adaptations—
such as fever or inflammation—a water-only fasting
process can be started with merely a behavioral
decision. As such, it is possible to invoke this
multi-faceted healing process without the loss of
desire for food. As you might imagine, few health
professionals have ever considered this possibility—and
rarely have the slightest clue about the
positive effects of such a strategy. Unless one suspected
that fasting was a complex, multi-faceted
healing adaptation, one would never choose to fast
without a crisis involving a naturally-reduced hunger
drive. However, this ancient mechanism, designed
by nature to assist healing processes during
crises, also works well when we are not in a crisis.
Overcoming Excesses
It is now recognized that, in the industrialized
world, most diseases are due to dietary excesses—
especially of animal products and processed foods
(such as oils and refined sugar). It turns out that
voluntary, water-only fasting is often magnificent
in its ability to assist the body in healing from the
consequences of these excesses.
The result of the studies, the testing, and the
observations is what we term Natural Health, a
knowledge and observance of nature’s laws. No
rule is worth anything if by following it the desired
results are not obtained.
And we have proved, over and over, that Natural
Hygienic rules work. And by the same token,
we have seen that other popularly followed health
methods do not work. The examples are before
our eyes continuously.
In some circles, and from those who know little
about our health rules, there has been a policy of
characterizing us and our rules as “faddists,”
“health nuts,” and “impractical.” The opposite is
the case. We demand sound proof in practice. A
theory is worthless to us if it cannot be proven to
us.
Our health is better when we use a great abundance
of fresh fruit and vegetables, when we avoid
all the concocted, processed, chemicalized, highly
concentrated, highly seasoned foods made to keep
on shelves until sold in bottles, cans, and packages.
It is wise to look at the fine print on the containers
and note the wide variety of chemicals in
many foods. The law requires the designation because
the chemicals are often poisonous, but not
seriously injurious in small quantities, except over
a long period.
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The Eskimo can eat, and relish, raw blubber.
During thousands of years those who could not
handle it died off, leaving the blubber-eaters to
survive. The heavy fat diet gives them the fuel to
help them fight the great cold in their environment.
San Diegans would probably die in a few months
on a diet of blubber.
The Eskimo has learned by trial and error, and
like millions of humans, those who did not follow
natural laws, those who failed, paid the price of
evolution, which eliminates those who fail.
The absolute rule: obey natural laws or suffer,
die, and your kind will be eliminated. The fate of
the enormous dinosaur is a classic example. To
Natural Hygienists, an example staring us in the
face is the death of a man possessed of all the
knowledge of modern medicine, in the prime of
life.
So we seek to know the laws of nature, particularly
those relating to health and to life itself. We
have had great success in finding out many of
them. For more than a century doctors and others
who were not satisfied with the medical methods
(which did not prevent people from being sick and
dying young or in the prime of life) have been
probing the reasons for sickness and early death.
The observations have been on human beings.
Fasting results in weight loss, elimination of
excess cholesterol, triglycerides, and uric acid, as
well as accumulated environmental toxins. Often,
growths and tumors associated with dietary
excesses, such as fibroids and cysts, are reabsorbed.
Inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis,
colitis, asthma, and hepatitis, often are greatly
improved or resolved. Many enzymatic functions
of the liver and other organs, including the insulin-resistance
characteristic of diabetes, can rapidly
normalize. For most adult-onset diabetes patients,
medications become unnecessary.
Hypertension, the leading cause of doctor visits
and of prescription medication use in America, is
almost always rapidly resolved during supervised
water-only fasting. In over 250 cases of hypertension
seen at the Center for Conservative Therapy
over the past 16 years, almost all were able to
achieve a blood pressure level after fasting that
eliminated the need for medication. Our ongoing
research is beginning to provide explanations for
these spectacular results.
Fasting also assists in an extremely important
normalizing process—a process we call taste neuroadaptation.
Many modern foods are not the
normal foods of our species—they are foods that
have been altered to create unnaturally intense
taste responses. As a result, most of our modern
foods are high in processed sugar, fat, and salt.
Our taste buds adapt to these abnormal-butappealing
foodstuffs, making the consumption of
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whole natural foods less palatable by comparison.
Water-only fasting helps to rapidly re-sensitize the
palate, so that healthful foods can be fully enjoyed
again. Of the many benefits of water-only fasting,
this is, for many people, one of the most important.
Proper Supervision Vital
Supervision is an important component of a
water-only fasting experience. During a fast,
many powerful adaptive processes are put into
motion—some with potentially unpleasant and/or
disturbing characteristics. Clinical experience
and laboratory data often are needed to distinguish
between a positive healing process being
generated by the body, and a possible physiological
compromise. For this reason, it is recommended
that fasting only be undertaken under
the supervision of a physician with appropriate
training.
Hygienic physicians certified in fasting supervision
by the International Association of Hygienic
Physicians must hold a valid license as a primary
care physician (M.D., D.C., D.O. or N.D.) and
complete a six-month residency in fasting supervision
at an approved facility. With appropriate
training, a supervising physician can help ensure a
safe and effective fasting experience.
Fasting, as defined by Hygienic physicians, is
the complete abstinence from all substances except
pure water in an environment of complete rest.
“Obey Natural Laws or Die.”
This essay appeared in a pamphlet of the same
name that Johnson wrote in the early 1970s to
summarize his views on Natural Hygiene.
A few days ago a prominent medical doctor
died. He was highly honored and held important
positions in a number of medical associations and
hospitals.
Without doubt, he was fully educated in all of
the most modern techniques of the latest medicines
and drugs and had every benefit obtainable from
them, and the aid of his fellow doctors and all the
most expensive facilities of the hospitals.
Surely, he had the benefit of everything that
modern medical knowledge could offer. His
knowledge of drugs and medicines was evidently
complete. He was 49.
The Natural Health advocates, who use the
designation of Natural Hygienists for identification,
cannot be satisfied in following the methods
of modern medicine. There are too many examples
of early death and sickness of those who do.
Man is a product of nature, a part of the universe.
The universe is operated under exact natural
laws. Man is a product of millions of years of
evolution. He adapts himself to the laws of nature
or he perishes.
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high prices. The Indians carried this fine food
with them on their marches or their hunts. The
Tarahumaras, the great Mexican Indian runners,
use it mixed with a little water.
At times parched wheat makes a good cereal.
My preference is for sweet corn, when dried
and parched.
My ancestors used to dry berries, tame and
wild, and they dried apples by peeling them in long
strings and hanging them in the kitchen. Parsley
and herbs were dried for tea, and sassafras root,
which grows wild in the west, made a delicious
drink. I don’t see why tea has to be imported from
Asia and coffee from South America, when these
herb teas, much more delicious and almost free for
the preparing, are available.
I made juices from wild grapes, elderberries,
and wild cherries. I picked bushels of wild berries
and nuts.
But organic gardening can provide everyone
with a bountiful supply of fruits and vegetables at
very little cost.
The “complete rest” component of fasting is important
because even moderate activity can double
caloric usage and reduce the effectiveness of the
fast. Clinical research has indicated that the detoxification
process, as well as other important
healing processes made possible by fasting, may
be significantly compromised by excess activity.
Resting is a critical component in ensuring that a
fast is both a safe and effective experience.
The Lost Adaptation
At the Center for Conservative Therapy, we like
to describe water-only fasting as “the lost adaptation.”
While creatures all over the Earth routinely
make use of this powerful healing strategy, they
often must do so because they are so ill that they
cannot successfully obtain food. Modern humans,
in contrast, are rarely faced with this situation.
Today, no matter how sick we get—even if we are
lying in a hospital bed—food is brought by others
up to our very mouths. And it is usually highlystimulating
food. The idea of fasting, even if we
are inclined to do so, is strongly resisted. Wellmeaning
(but misguided) friends, relatives, and
health professionals urge us to eat—so we can
“get better.”
Similarly, when we are not acutely ill, the idea
of water-only fasting seems absurd. It goes
against our ancient, natural programming, which
encourages us to make sure we get plenty to eat
now—because in or natural, ancestral environ-
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ment there might not have been any food available
again soon. Most people fear that if they fast for a
few days, dire things will occur, or they believe
that the average person can fast only a few days,
perhaps a week. The concept of fasting for a week
or two—or longer—for health benefits seems ridiculous
to them. It also seems ridiculous to the
typical health professional—unless he or she understands
that fasting is an adaptation. It is amazing
that such a powerful and useful adaptation is
virtually unknown—as amazing as if we collectively
decided to refrain from slapping mosquitoes.
An adaptation that facilitated the survival prospects
of a great many of our ancestors has been
very nearly “lost.”
But times are changing. With the publication
of Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s recent book, Fasting and
Eating for Health, a modern and thorough review
of the benefits of fasting has been articulated. And
at the Center for Conservative Therapy in California,
our nine staff doctors (with assistance from
Cornell University scientists) have worked together
to generate and publish scientifically credible
research that documents the benefits of fasting.
It is our hope that our efforts will result in a
greater awareness and appreciation of this remarkable
process. The utility of fasting may then
be widely “found”—both by health professionals
and by the patients who will ultimately reap the
benefits. — © 2000 American Natural Hygiene Society—
All Rights Reserved—
Lunches:
Cabbage, peanut butter
Cabbage and carrots
Melon and cheese
Salad of lettuce, carrots,
a few nuts, and some
cheese
Grapes, some nuts, and cheese
Bananas, squash, peanuts
Sapotes, a few nuts, and cheese
(Ed. note. The remaining pages of this essay have been lost.
However, the above list provides a representative sample of
the types of foods Johnson used on a daily basis.)
Some Notes On Natural Living
Johnson probably wrote the following essay
sometime during the early 1970s, when concern
for the environment was capturing the public
imagination and many people were becoming interested
in “getting back to nature.” Here, Mr.
Johnson gives his perspective on that subject.
I come from pioneer stock. In those days there
was no welfare, no free food, no corner grocery
and people had to subsist on what they had.
One of the lessons the pioneers learned from
the Indians was the use of parched corn, roasted
until it cracked, but not burned. With good teeth it
can be eaten like peanuts. If necessary it can be
ground and makes a delicious cereal—better than
any of the packaged cereals which sell for such
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The guests at the birthday dinner are healthminded
and they all expressed enjoyment of the
meal.
Most of my diet consists of uncooked vegetables.
Some peanuts are slightly roasted. No fruit
is ever cooked. Except for some peanuts, no nuts
are roasted.
Our birthday dinner consisted of three salads:
lettuce and tomato, cole slaw, carrot and raisin
(dressing was made with cold pressed soy oil, orange
juice and brown sugar), baked Tahiti squash,
cooked vegetables, several varieties of nuts and
several kinds of cheese.
Following are some of the samples of the
meals I use. I enjoy eating, always fill up, and am
always ready for the next meal.
Breakfasts:
Oranges and small
sapotes or just oranges
Grapes, sapotes
Guavas
Cantaloupe
Oranges, grapes
Persimmons, guavas
Persimmons
Casaba melon
Oranges, raisins
Orange juice, persimmons
CHAPTER
THREE
THE HE NATURAL
HYGIENE
WAY
OF LIFE LIFE:
PERSONAL
ERSONAL P ERSPECTIVES
BY JAMES
HERVEY
JOHNSON
n the following selections, Johnson discusses
his views on the benefits, both immediate and
long-range, of the vegetarian diet and periodic
fasting to cleanse the body. He also offers his
views on natural living and what is now termed
“holistic” health methods.
Letter to Editor, Midnight, Feb. 15, 1973:
Although apparently a tabloid, the publication
“Midnight” printed letters on serious topics. The
text of this letter has been edited to delete references
to articles and letters Johnson had previously
read in Midnight, and references to photographs he
enclosed with it which are no longer available.
Intelligent men study all sides of any subject
before forming a conclusion. Every five years I
take a 30 to 44 day fast, using only distilled water,
and not a great deal of it, enough to satisfy thirst,
and some times a little more when, I do not crave
it, but think it should be used. I have taken five
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such fasts, and expect to take them every five years
of my life, and I expect to live to be 100.
There is nothing like a fast to rejuvenate the
body and mind, to eliminate any toxic materials
and give the organs a rest. One feels young again,
and the mind works faster and better than before.
My first long fast was in 1951, my last one
about the time of my 71st birthday last year.
There is nothing detrimental about such fasts, and
they are on the other hand very greatly beneficial
in all respects.
I take short fasts if I get an infrequent cold. A
few days and I feel better than before. From a
person who knows by testing, no one can make me
believe that fasting is in the slightest injurious. I
follow the Natural Hygienic system and among
such followers there are hundreds who benefit
from fasting. I know scores who have done so.
At 71, I feel much younger. My bodily functions
are unimpaired. I work sixteen hours a day.
Those who do not follow our system of health are
not as healthy, many are sick and ailing and many
of those I knew are dead, some in convalescent
hospitals.
During my fasts I lose about 40 pounds weight.
Scores of people tell me that I look much younger
that my 71 years.
1 lb. almonds 1.25
4 lbs. cheese 4.06
1 lb. Brazil 0.97
1/2 lb. butter 0.52
1 loaf whole wheat very special bread 0.75
1 lb. brown sugar 0.19
4 large Jicama (Mexican root vegetable) 1.00
2 packages frozen peas 0.41
4 packages mixed vegetables (frozen) 1.16
Dinner at smorgasbord 1.85
TOTAL: $35.47
This included a birthday dinner at which there
were eight guests, another two dinners with a
friend at my house and $1.85 paid for my dinner
when I took guests to a smorgasbord restaurant,
so we and they could have plenty of salads.
I want to stress that there was no effort to
economize.
Ordinarily, I do not use bread or butter, but
some bread was brought by a friend, and butter
and cheese were for the party. The frozen vegetables
were because of the guests and lack of time to
prepare a large dinner from fresh vegetables.
Friends and employees are always invited to help
themselves to the fruit.
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panying costs. Allowance was made at market
prices for foods from my own few trees, or for
foods brought by friends.
Mr. Johnson prepared the following table in
the early 1970s, and the prices listed are, of course,
not current. However, the reader is urged to compare
today’s prices for the fruits and vegetables
listed below with the prices for meats and processed
foods. A substantial savings should be noticed,
especially if the comparison is done at small,
independent produce markets or farmer’s markets.
ITEM PRICE
15 lb. sapotes (custard apples) 1.50
8 heads of cabbage 1.38
5 lb. guavas 0.75
18 lb. carrots 1.75
10 heads of lettuce 1.50
2 heads celery 0.70
5 lb. peanuts 2.35
30 lb. persimmons (including a lug 4.50
2 lb. bananas 0.25
24 lb. grapes (a lug box) 3.00
13 lb. tomatoes (half a box) 1.25
6 cantaloupes 0.60
4 lb. raisins 1.38
9 lbs. squash (Tahiti) 1.20
2 lbs. cashew nuts 1.20
We Hygienists never use medicines or drugs of
any kind. We use mostly fresh fruit and vegetables,
nuts and some whole grains, and distilled or
pure rainwater. We do not use liquor, tobacco,
coffee, tea, cola, refined products, milk, meat, salt,
white sugar, white bread, and in fact we use almost
no processed, packaged, canned or bottled
goods. And we have excellent health.
For my own use I have studied for many years
all of the health programs that will keep me well
and give me a long healthy life. The fasting is an
added insurance. I have no need of doctors, drugs
or medicines.
I enjoy immensely my simple meals, I walk several
miles a day for exercise instead of driving my
car. I have no catarrh, no arthritis, no rheumatism
nor any of the other diseases so many people
my age complain of. My bowels operate perfectly,
my lungs are good, I have no such thing as indigestion,
headaches and not the slightest fear of the
so called epidemics of London, Asiatic, Hong
Kong or other kinds of colds called flu. although
after the holiday gorging season my employees,
friends and business associates have them.
I am convinced, beyond the slightest doubt that
my fasts are beneficial.
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60�
Untitled Essay, ca. 1971:
The following essay, written when Johnson
was 70, provides more insight into how Johnson
practiced Natural Hygiene in his daily life, and
shows the type of diet he followed to guarantee optimum
health.
I eat foods that experience has proven to be the
best for vigorous health. They are Mother Nature’s
production. Besides being the best, they are
inexpensive. I do not buy foods for economy, nor
primarily for taste, but those I eat must taste good
in their natural condition.
I find that all or most of the bottled, canned,
packaged, manufactured, chemicalized,
“enriched”, highly advertised foods are not only
very expensive, but they are not as good, and often
far worse than Mother Nature’s productions and
man’s adaptation to their use.
At 70 I am in vigorous health, work more than
12 hours a day, teach three classes a week, preside
at a philosophical meeting, take care of a publishing
business, edit a monthly journal, do considerable
writing and research work. I walk two miles
a day, take body exercises in the morning, and run
around the block before breakfast.
Many of the people I knew have died, others
are invalids or not able to do much.
Having noticed an article in Mother Earth
News regarding a Chinese food diet, I determined
to keep a record of the foods used and their costs
for a month on what those of us who follow it call
a natural health diet. We do not use bread, meat,
eggs, milk, salt, white sugar, margarine, pastry,
cakes, cereals, tobacco, liquor, bottled drinks, coffee,
tea, cocoa, candy and nearly all of the commercial
packaged, commercialized foods.
Being very busy I do not have time to shop for
foods and have to either depend upon others to get
them for me or take what is easily available in the
markets.
All my life I have done some organic gardening
and I still get some bananas, guavas, sapotes
(a tropical fruit Johnson sometimes referred to as a
“custard apple”), figs, peaches, from trees I
planted in previous years. Now, [although] confined
to a small city lot covered with a ten room
house, parking and storage, [I have] a small strip
of ground 30 feet long by one foot wide upon
which I raise quite a bit of sweet corn, or carrots,
and turnips. People are surprised. I mention this
to encourage others with only limited earth to use
it. I bury all leaves, clippings around my trees and
in any land available. A 20x40 plot will raise a
very large amount of fresh vegetables if it is enriched
by burying organic material.
During a thirty-day period in November and
December I used the following foods at the accom-
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