Dr. Henry G. Bieler was a prominent American physician to the Hollywood stars.” He was widely recognized as a pioneer in alternative medicine who used non-pharmaceutical, diet-based therapies to cure or control various diseases including asthma, diabetes, and cancer.[1][2] One of his well known remedies was Bieler’s Broth a very effective detoxifying and cleansing vegetable broth.

Dr. Bieler convictions about whole foods and their therapeutic value stirred up a hornets nest with the pharmaceutical companies and the food manufacturers in Southern California. He was interviewed about his unorthodox opinion on health for an article in the Los Angeles Times. This article ruffled a few feathers in 1961 when it was released, “My position is improper foods cause disease; proper foods cure disease. Nothing else needs to be said.”

He also wrote in 1965 in his book Food Is Your Best Medicine “As a practicing physician for over 50 years, I have reached three basic conclusions as to the cause and cure of disease. The first is that the primary cause of disease is not germs. Rather, I believe that disease is caused by toxemia which results in cellular impairment and breakdown, thus paving the way for the multiplication and onslaught of other complications.”

“My second conclusion is that in almost all cases the use of drugs in treating patients is harmful. Drugs often cause serious side effects, and sometimes even create new diseases. The dubious benefits they afford the patient are at best temporary. Yet the number of drugs on the market increases geometrically every year as each chemical firm develops its own variation of the compounds. The physician is indeed rare who can be completely aware of the potential danger from the side effects of all of these drugs.”

“My third conclusion is that disease can be cured through the proper use of the correct foods. This statement may sound deceptively simple, but I have arrived at it only after intensive study of a highly complex subject: toxemia and endocrine chemistry.

”My conclusions are based on experimental and observational results, gathered through years of successfully treating patients. Occasionally I have resorted to the use of drugs in an emergency situation, but those times have been rare. Instead, I have sought to prescribe for my patients’ illnesses antidotes which Nature has placed at their disposal.”

Dr. Bieler came under the lifelong influence of Dr. Martin Fischer, a physiologist and philosopher while studying medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Due to his college experiences, the influence of Dr. John H. Tilden and his writings on toxicity he went on to study nutrition and endocrinology in hospitals and diet centers in London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Rome in 1933 and in 1935 he continued his studies in Mexico City and Honolulu. For over fifty years Dr. Bieler’s belief in the therapeutic property of whole natural foods was the cornerstone of his medical practice.

Henry Bieler was born in 1893 in Milford, Ohio. In about 1905 his family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied medicine at the Ohio-Miami Medical College and graduated with his medical license in 1916. He started his medical practice in West Virginia’s coal region, moving to Idaho in about 1922, followed by a move to Pasadena, CA in 1926, before settling permanently in Capistrano Beach, CA in 1954. Bieler practiced medicine for more fifty years, and gained a reputation as a gifted healer who was able to cure or control difficult health conditions. He died in his home in 1975.