Blackstrap molasses

botanical

provenance:botanical

first introduced:1950

regulatory status:unregulated

context:Blackstrap molasses, the dark, mineral-rich byproduct left after sugar cane juice has been boiled down and crystallized (most of the sucrose removed), enters this bundle through the 1950-51 U.S. court record: Nature Food Centres, Inc. (Boston) shipped and promoted a specific brand, 'Plantation' blackstrap molasses (packed by Allied Molasses Co., Inc.), alongside Hauser's book Look Younger, Live Longer. Hauser's 1951 Faber edition names the corresponding UK item in the five-food list as 'black treacle.'

MECHANISM CLAIMED

That regularly eating black treacle/blackstrap molasses (with powdered brewers' yeast, powdered skim milk, yoghourt/yogurt, and wheat germ) supplies otherwise-missing vitamins and minerals that add measurable youthful years to life, per Look Younger, Live Longer.

INTERVENTIONS USING IT

Hauser's "Wonder Foods" diet (Look Younger, Live Longer)

NOTES

Blackstrap molasses is the U.S. molasses term attached to Gayelord Hauser’s “wonder foods” list, where the UK edition of Look Younger, Live Longer names “black treacle” beside powdered brewers’ yeast, powdered skim milk, yoghourt, and wheat germ. Unlike most substances in this archive, black treacle/blackstrap molasses is an ordinary, nutritionally unremarkable foodstuff; the claim under scrutiny is not that the substance is dangerous or inert, but that eating it with the other four foods does the specific, sweeping work Hauser’s books assigned it: adding measurable years of youth and life, a claim never tested in a controlled trial. Its documented use in commercial promotion is itself part of the case: a Boston retailer, Nature Food Centres, Inc., distributed a specific “Plantation” blackstrap-molasses brand alongside copies of Hauser’s bestseller, prompting two 1951 federal libel actions over whether the book functioned as unlawful “labeling” for the product.