What really characterized America in the years following World War II was its infatuation with- and intoxication by- chemicals and technology.

Advances in all fields were occurring at a dizzying pace- and the change upon change that was happening in medicine, pharmacology, chemistry, physics, and other fields would soon unleash options and intrusions that could not be ignored. What the U.S. was in fact experiencing was the inevitable friction brought on by the collision of past and future. And perhaps more than any other group,  the health foodists were caught smack in the middle of the this crossroads- frozen through philosophy and lifestyle choices in a sort of timeless Twilight Zone.

Perhaps more than ever before, alternative voices were being marginalized, ridiculed, and threatened by the powers that be. As the 1950s began, many if not most Americans were largely conforming to an entirely new set of standards and technologies as they struggled to find and define themselves in an ever changing and newly emerging world.  The health foodists stubborn adherence to an entirely “other” set of food standards stood in stark contrast to the trends of the mainstream, processed and convenience food purveyors.

Predictably, several of the same key players from earlier years continued their efforts to raise questions of substance concerning the blind acceptance of what they saw as unacceptably unhealthy changes. The publication begun in 1942 by Jerome Irving Rodale, Organic Gardening and Farming found a companion with the inauguration of a new Rodale venture, Prevention magazine, in 1950. Both were destined to become extremely important sources of information, support, and commaradarie for its readers, as well as an appreciated source of income for vendors of health foods and vitamins throughout the 1950s.  Rodale created a forum and platform and an in print place around which a marginalized community of like -minded thinkers could coalesce and be reassured that they were not alone.  Both Organic Gardening and Farming and Prevention espoused a natural, healthy food and vitamin enriched view of life and health that was in effect an island surrounded by an indifferent and often bemused mainstream ocean of “modernity”.

The influential health food writers of the decade included the much lauded Adelle Davis, who burst on to the nutrition scene with the publication of her first major book, the unapologetically and healthily enthusiastic Let’s Cook it Right in 1947.  In 1954 Davis wrote what would be her most popular and widely read book of all, the best selling Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit. 

In this era of cultural and consumer conformity the "eccentrics" (and their messages) sometimes stood out even more. The naturist and "proto- hippie", Gypsy Boots for example, made a notably memorable appearance in May, 1960 on an episode of the popular quiz show, You Bet Your Life, hosted by the inimitable Groucho Marx, promoting his natural lifestyle (including diet) to millions of amused viewers.

Other influential health promoters of the 1950s included Carlton Fredericks, aka "America's Nutritionist" who had his own radio health and nutrition show, "Design for Living", as well as Paul Bragg, and his protégé, Jack LaLanne who went on to have a popular early TV show of his own. As the decade closed, University of Minnesota physiologist Ancel Keys wrote a book with a very Adelle Davis like title, Eat Well and Stay Well, published in 1959.

Yet despite the efforts of these and other proponents, health food in  1950s America remained, at best, of marginal interest to the mainstream media. Health food stores and a handful of vitamin companies operated in the shadows of larger big city stores and companies- Davids in a world of Goliaths.

A perfect example was set by a couple in Lakewood, Colorado, just outside of Denver. Husband and wife, Margaret and Philip Isely, advocates of natural and healthy eating, started going door-to-door in 1955, providing items such as whole grain breads and sharing nutrition books and information to their neighbors. By 1963, still a few years shy of the first hippies, the couple opened their first physical health food store, which became known as Vitamin Cottage (now Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage).

What the health foodists of the 50s did do, however, in a bigger way, was draw attention and some substantive dialog to several of the more burning controversies of the day. Fluoridation of municipal water supplies was a hot topic in the popular press as well as in the Rodale publications. And of course, there was the ongoing question of DDT which was famously written about in the 1962 best selling book, Silent Spring, written by author and biologist, Rachel Carson.

In many ways the 1950s represented the calm before the storm- the 1950s was the era that gave birth to the baby boomers- that generation born between the years after World War 2 and before the tumultuous 60s. This was a time of rampant consumerism, and the selling of the "American Dream" to countless young couples who were taught to believe in the promise of a better life- usually in the suburbs where "TV dinners" and newly created and promoted "convenience" foods offered housewives a way out of the drudgery of the kitchen. The cookbooks of the day promoted mainstream foods- and ingredients.

At best, health food in the 1950s operated in a marginal and niche space. When compared and contrasted with the major national brands of mainstream American food companies and their products - from margarine to t.v. dinners to spam to velveta cheese, and sugar, sugar, and more sugar- health food more resembled small, early mammals, scurrying around in the shadows and under the feet of their behemoth dinosaur predecesors.

By contrast the health food advocates of those days usually appeared as eccentrics- or fanatics- or both. It remained for years to come to see that many of them would prove to be visionaries as well.

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