Dietetics, health reform and social order: vegetarianism as a moral physiology. The example of Maximilian Bircher-Benner (1867-1939)
secondary literature · 1999
LINK
SUMMARY
Peer-reviewed history-of-medicine article situating Bircher-Benner's raw-food dietetics within the late-19th and early-20th-century health-reform (Lebensreform) movement and its social order, treating his vegetarianism as a 'moral physiology' rather than as established nutritional science. Identifier metadata was verified by deterministic resolvers on 2026-06-05: PubMed esummary confirms authors Meyer-Renschhausen E and Wirz A, journal Medical History, 1999 Jul, volume 43, issue 3, pages 323-41, PMID 10885127, PMCID PMC1044148, DOI 10.1017/s0025727300065388; Crossref confirms the same title, authors, container Medical History, volume 43 issue 3, pages 323-341, year 1999. The PMC copy is a scanned-page article (pages 323-341) with no machine abstract; this source is cited for the scholarly framing carried by its verified title and scope, not for unread internal quotations. Author affiliation per PubMed: Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin.
NOTES
A scholarly secondary source used for the historical framing of Bircher-Benner’s project: a physician’s dietetic regimen advanced as a reform of life and social order, with vegetarianism cast as a moral physiology. The article’s verified bibliographic record (PMID, PMCID, DOI) is the citable anchor; the archive uses it to support that the energetic and moral claims of the system are read by historians of medicine as ideology and health-reform culture, not as validated nutritional science.