Walter L. Voegtlin
Walter L. Voegtlin (1904 – 1975) was an American gastroenterologist and pioneer of the Paleolithic diet.
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Biography
In the 1930s, Voegtlin and psychiatrist Frederick Lemere at the Shadel Sanatorium in Seattle promoted the use of aversion therapy to treat alcoholics.[1][2] Between 1936–1950 the facility treated over 5000 patients.[3] It has been described as the first successful treatment for alcoholism based on scientific principles.[4] In 1950, Voegtlin and Lemere reported that based on data from 4096 patients over 14 years there was a 60% abstinence at the 1-year point, 51% for two years, 38% for five years, and 23% for 10 years.[5][6]
Voegtlin was the first to publish a book The Stone Age Diet, based on the supposed principles of Paleolithic nutrition, in 1975.[7] He recommended a meat and plant based diet that eliminated dairy and grains.[8] It was an eccentric book, in which Voegtlin advocated the mass slaughter of dolphins and tigers.[7]
Food historian Adrienne Rose Johnson has commented that "Paleo leaders today have largely disavowed Voegtlin for his white supremacist, eugenicist, and generally unpalatable politics."[7]
Selected publications
- Voegtlin, W., & Lemere, F. (1942). The Treatment of Alcohol Addiction: A Review of the Literature. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol 2: 717-803.
- Voegtlin, W., & Lemere, F. (1950). An Evaluation of the Aversion Treatment of Alcoholism. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol 11: 199-204.
- The Stone Age Diet: Based on In-Depth Studies of Human Ecology and the Diet of Man (Vantage Press, 1975)
References
- Bellack, Alan S; Hersen, Michel; Kazdin, Alan E. (1985). International Handbook of Behavior Modification and Therapy. Plenum Press. pp. 20-21. ISBN 978-1-4615-7280-0
- White, William L. (1998). Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. Chestnut Health Systems. p. 106. ISBN 978-0938475071
- Miller, Peter Michael. (1976). Behavioral Treatment of Alcoholism. Pergamon Press. p. 76.
- Blum, Kenneth. (1991). Alcohol and the Addictive Brain. The Free Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-02-903701-8
- Jones, Marshall R. (1968). Aversive Stimulation. University of Miami Press. p. 15
- Reilly, Steve; Schachtman, Todd R. (2009). Conditioned Taste Aversion: Neural and Behavioral Processes. Oxford University Press. p. 452. ISBN 978-0-19-532658-1
- Johnson, Adrienne Rose. (2015). The Paleo Diet and the American Weight Loss Utopia, 1975–2014. Utopian Studies 26 (1): 101-124.
- "Extreme Diets: Fads and Facts". Medscape. Retrieved March 30, 2019.