Arnold Ehret: Pioneer of the “Mucusless” Way of Health

Arnold Ehret (1866–1922) was a German health reformer, naturopath, and teacher whose radical views on fasting and diet made him one of the most influential figures in the early natural healing movement. Born in St. Georgen in the Black Forest region of Germany, he originally trained as a teacher and artist but, plagued by chronic kidney disease and other ailments, turned to dietary experimentation at a time when mainstream medicine offered little hope. His personal recovery became the foundation of a lifelong quest to show that food, fasting, and lifestyle—not drugs or surgery—were the keys to health.

Ehret’s philosophy crystallized in what he termed the “Mucusless Diet Healing System”. He argued that most human disease stemmed from the accumulation of mucus-forming foods in the body—particularly meat, dairy, processed grains, and starches. By contrast, he taught that fruits and green leafy vegetables were “mucusless” foods, which purified the system, restored vitality, and allowed the body’s natural healing powers to work. His approach emphasized periods of fasting—sometimes extended water fasts, sometimes shorter fruit fasts—as essential methods to “burn off” internal wastes and rejuvenate the body. Ehret claimed that fasting was nature’s universal method of healing, pointing to its use among animals when ill, and he taught a gradual progression toward lighter, simpler diets after fasts rather than a sudden return to heavy eating.

Alongside his most famous work, The Mucusless Diet Healing System (published posthumously in 1922), he also wrote Rational Fasting (1910), which laid out his protocols for short and long fasts, and The Grape Cure, in which he advocated mono-diets of grapes for their cleansing, energizing, and healing properties. These books, written in accessible, almost evangelizing prose, circulated widely in alternative health circles and influenced generations of fasting advocates, fruitarians, and raw-food enthusiasts.

Ehret lived and worked at a time when the “back-to-nature” and “vitalist” movements were gaining ground in Europe and America. He came to the United States in the 1910s, lecturing in California, where his ideas attracted both devoted students and sharp critics. Mainstream doctors dismissed him as a crank, and even within the emerging “natural hygiene” movement—a tradition of health reformers who emphasized fresh air, exercise, plant foods, and fasting—Ehret was both a kindred spirit and a controversial outlier. While the hygienists agreed with him on fasting and the dangers of meat and processed foods, many found his near-total rejection of starches and his exclusive focus on mucus-forming theory to be extreme. Nevertheless, his work influenced later hygienists, raw foodists, and even naturopaths who borrowed elements of his regimen.

Ehret’s following included students and friends who carried on his teachings after his death, notably Fred Hirsch, who founded the Ehret Health Club, and Benedict Lust, often called the “father of naturopathy” in America, with whom Ehret had some association. His message resonated strongly in early health-food circles, influencing later figures who promoted vegetarianism, fruitarianism, and fasting as pathways to both health and spiritual clarity.

His life ended tragically and somewhat mysteriously. In 1922, shortly after giving a lecture in Los Angeles, he reportedly slipped on a wet sidewalk, fell, and struck his head—dying from the injury. To his followers, the death of a man who seemed the embodiment of health and vigor was shocking, and it fueled rumors and speculation. Some suggested darker forces were at play, though the official account remains an unfortunate accident.

Despite his controversial standing in his own day, Ehret’s influence has endured. His ideas about detoxification, mucus-forming foods, and the healing power of fasting prefigured much of what later became mainstream in alternative nutrition and “cleanse” movements. Today, echoes of his philosophy appear in raw food communities, juice-fasting protocols, vegan detox programs, and holistic health practices that stress the body’s innate ability to heal when unburdened by excess. Remarkably, his books continue to be in print over a century later, ensuring that new generations are still discovering and debating the bold, uncompromising message of Arnold Ehret.

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