Arnold Ehret | How long was Arnold Ehret on Raw-foods?

Question: How long was Arnold Ehret on Raw-foods?

-Babyand Earl
Ehret Support Group Member
Rawinspirationdaily.com (webmaster)

The following is an excerpt from Prof. Spira’s new eBook Spira Speaks: Dialogs and Essays on the Mucusless Diet Healing System, find it HERE

Professor Spira’s Response:

It cannot be said with certainty how long Ehret remained mucusless and raw. Ehret is most known for his series of extended fasts which were scientifically monitored by Swiss government officials, where a fast of 49 days remained the world record for several decades. Suffice it to say, many people were completely blown away by Ehret’s monitored fasts.

Yet, as with those of us who push ourselves physiologically to uncover deeper levels of unrealized human potential, many health seekers thought that they should be able to accomplish similar feats without years of transition or study. But Ehret’s demonstration was not meant to be a public spectacle–like a David Blaine trick–but to challenge and show that the fundamental reasoning upon which the burgeoning Western medical establishment was being based is fundamentally erroneous.

His influence among medical professionals in Europe during the late 1800s was tremendous, as his work split early researchers into Ehretists and non-Ehretists. In addition to these officially monitored fasts, we have accounts of Ehret’s own experiences weaved into his articles/books about mucusless diet and fasting. One of the most notable accounts is of his 2 years of intensive fasting and fruit diet.

During this period he traveled, I believe mostly by foot or bicycle, with a friend around Europe and Northern Africa. These accounts show off his physical prowess as he talks about advanced feats of strength and vitality.

Arnold Ehret | Back to Nature Role Model and Mucusless Healer

There are also observations written by close colleagues and others. Ehret became a role model for early Back to Naturists as he was known for living in the woods for long periods on fruit, doing 8 hour long daily sun baths, and exercising. But how long he maintained these high levels is not known.

Kind of like Dr. Robert Morse’s 5 years living and fasting in the wilderness, or Brother Air’s multiple 9 1/2 month long juice fasts, retrospective accounts about the experience survive, but detailed ethnographic or scientific renderings of exactly what went on are not well recorded.

From what I’ve gathered from the writings I’ve read, I think that Ehret was in the process of truly adapting the mucusless diet as a sustainable lifestyle, and not only a short-term cure as it was to many of the thousands of patients he saved in his sanitarium.

As to the specific point of being raw, Ehret’s writings focus primarily on transitioning toward, and sustaining, a mucusless (mucus-free) diet, where being ‘raw’ is assumed for the higher level periods of fruit eating and fasting. For Ehret, being raw was not enough, as some popular raw items can be mucus-forming.

Yet, little mention is made about the amount, if any, of cooked mucusless or mucuslean menus he ate when he was not fasting or eating just fruits. In fact, the only place that I recall him really talking about eating what I assume to be cooked food was during his famous bloodletting experiment.

Further, many of the mucuslean menus from the Mucusless Diet were presumably added by Fred Hirsch as Ehret’s readers wanted to see examples of mucuslean transitional menus. They were items used to help heal some of the sickest patients in the world, but it is not clear the degree to which Ehret ate of such menus.

In time, as more of his untranslated and unpublished works become available, additional details about specific periods of time where Ehret was mucusless and raw may be uncovered. As one can imagine, there are many questionable writings and negative rumors about Ehret and his lifestyle.

My attitude toward most of them is that I do not, and will never, know with 100% certainty about Ehret’s daily practices because I was not there. In my opinion, such personal accounts are only useful to the degree that they help others experience the truth for themselves. I have not read it in a long time, but when initially confronted the Story of my Life, supposedly dictated by Ehret to a close female companion, it just did not sound like Ehret to me. It came across more as a piece of fan fiction than a true account. To this day its validity is quite unclear.

In sum, undeniable proof exists of Ehret’s extended fasting experiments and miraculous healings at his sanitarium. But it is unclear what his longest stint of being mucusless or raw was before his untimely and suspicious death.

Peace, Love, and Breath!

Prof. Spira

The following is an excerpt from Prof. Spira’s new eBook Spira Speaks: Dialogs and Essays on the Mucusless Diet Healing System, find it HERE