By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Ebba Waerland was a natural foods advocate and healer from Sweden who gained international fame during the mid-twentieth century. The Waerland dietary system—named after her husband, physiologist Are Waerland—emphasized whole, natural foods over processed, nutrient-deficient ones, and it was very successful and popular in Europe. For the U.S. edition of her 1961 book, Rebuilding Health, Ms. Waerland asked American nutrition giant Dr. Royal Lee to write the foreword, which is presented here. In it Dr. Lee laments the assumption by modern civilization that industrially processed food is harmless—that “in some miraculous way, [the body] can transmute demineralized, devitaminized foods into healthy tissue.” A short biography of Ms. Waerland, from the book’s jacket, is included along with Dr. Lee’s foreword. From Rebuilding Health: The Waerland Method of Natural Therapy, 1961. Reprinted by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Health.
Foreword to “Rebuilding Health: The Waerland Method of Natural Therapy”
By Royal Lee, DDS, President, Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research
An interesting phenomenon of present-day civilization is the general ignorance of the first principles of nutrition; people do not seem to be aware that the body depends for its health upon the integrity of the food supply. It is taken for granted that the body, in some miraculous way, can transmute demineralized, devitaminized foods into healthy tissue.
We have 750,000 deaths per year from cardiovascular disease, which is 98 percent preventable and which may be described as the American beriberi because so much of it is unquestionably due to the use of white, bleached flour and refined sugar.
In 1941, after spending ten years in China, Dr. I. Snapper reported the almost complete absence of cardiovascular disease there. He attributed its absence to the use of soybean products, and this finding is corroborated by the discovery that unsaturated fatty acids in natural oils block cholesterol accumulation. Autopsies of our soldiers in Korea revealed that 76 percent were found suffering from coronary disease at an average age of twenty-two. Korean soldiers were completely free of the condition.
It is becoming clear that the leading cause of death in America is malnutrition. Malnutrition arises from the use of spurious foods: hydrogenated fats, synthetic glucose, chemicalized bread made from degerminated flour, pasteurized milk that has had its mineral-assimilating enzymes destroyed. Arthritis, for example, is closely related to nutrition. The only test animals ever to have incurred arthritis have been those fed on pasteurized milk and cooked foods; arthritis always has followed such a diet.
We say, therefore, more power to Mrs. Waerland. She is preaching the gospel of natural living. She insists on cleansing the poisons of civilization from the system and on rebuilding the body with the right foods. She has built clinics in three countries, she has restored health to thousands, and in this remarkable book, she tells her secrets.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
January 1961
[Dr. Royal Lee][spacer height=”20px”]
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[Front inside flap of book:]
This is the testament of a remarkable woman healer who practices natural therapy with spectacular results. It appears at a time when sickness is rampant despite all our expensive health facilities, public and private.
Ebba Waerland was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 15, 1899. She was a sickly child whose own case history—given here—is extraordinary in that she was able to survive at all. Active in social work in both world wars, she married in 1946 the famous European nutritional physiologist Are Waerland, founder of the dietary system and way of life that bears his name. She became his closest coworker until his death in 1955. Sanatoriums where thousands of patients who had reached the end of the road have been restored to health and usefulness by following the Waerland therapies are to be found today in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, and Iceland. The therapies are outlined in these pages.
[Back cover:][spacer height=”20px”] [Photo of author, with caption:] Ebba Waerland, author of Rebuilding Health. (See original for image.) [spacer height=”20px”] [Title page:][spacer height=”20px”]The Waerland Method of Natural Therapy, With Case Histories
By Ebba Waerland
Translated from the Swedish by Isabella M. Gibbs.
Foreword to the American edition by Royal Lee, DSS.
All content from Rebuilding Health: The Waerland Method of Natural Therapy, The Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1961. Reprinted by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Health.
