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That Dr Hay was ‘a prophet way ahead of his time’ has now been fully confirmed by the vast change in attitude towards nutrition today by many of the foremost medical authorities in both Britain and the United States. Despite all the marvels of modern medicine, despite the wonder drugs and the astronomical cost of our health services, the health of both nations is deteriorating and disease is attacking at an increasingly early age. Medical authorities are now frankly admitting that medicine is on the wrong track and are urging a switch of emphasis from curative medicine to preventive medicine – to dealing with the causes of disease instead of merely treating the symptoms. As a result, nutrition is now being promoted as the chief priority in preventive medicine. In fact, attention is now being focused as never before on the close relationship of nutrition to health, and on just such concepts as were held 60 years ago by Dr William Howard Hay, gifted surgeon and general practitioner of note. Witness the following signs and portents:

Since the 1950s, medical scientists have produced evidence of the close connection between refined carbohydrates and chemically adulterated foods and such diverse symptoms as allergies, depression, migraine, fatigue, skin diseases, schizophrenia and uncontrolled aggressive behaviour in children. The research, in particular, of Dr Théron Randolph and Dr Ben Feingold in the United States and of Dr Richard Mackarness in Britain, has been outstanding.

The McCarrison Society is pledged ‘to advance education in, and initiate, carry out and sponsor, research into the relationship between nutrition and health’. Formed in 1967, its members consist of doctors, surgeons, dentists, veterinary surgeons and community health workers. The society was named after the internationally-acclaimed British nutritional pioneer, the late Sir Robert McCarrison, whose book Nutrition and Health (McCarrison Society, 1982) should be mandatory reading for all health-conscious people. Dr Hay claimed that he owed much to McCarrison’s teachings.

In 1968, the validity of the germ theory of disease was seriously questioned for the first time in a leading British medical journal. In The Lancet of 18 May, Professor G.T. Stewart revealed its weaknesses in a revolutionary paper: ‘Dogma Disputed, Limitations of the Germ Theory’. Professor Stewart’s message was, in effect, that acceptance of the germ theory as the main cause of infectious disease has been responsible for orthodox medicine overlooking other more important, or equally important, causes such as genetic and metabolic effects, behaviour (smoking etc.), and certain nutritional deficiencies.

In the 1970s, an epoch-making book, The Saccharine Disease by Surgeon Captain T.L. Cleave, started off the present revolutionary medical preoccupation with bran and ‘fibre’, nutrition and preventive medicine. It postulated one common cause of many of the present-day degenerative diseases – the consumption of refined carbohydrates. Moreover, it has become the major reference work for the growing number of medical specialists throughout the world who believe – as Dr Hay did – that our Western-style diet is responsible for the vast amount of disease in today’s society.

Also in the 1970s, another important book, The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage or Nemesis, by Professor Thomas McKeown, contained the blunt message that more attention should now be paid to nutrition, and that the modifications of the conditions which lead to disease will achieve more than any medical intervention after the illness has begun. That, too, was Dr Hay’s message.

In 1972, the editor of the British Medical Journal exhorted: ‘We now have to learn the more subtle relationships that exist between nutrition and medicine, and how change in food habits and change in methods of food preparation may affect health. Medical education must keep pace with the rapid advance in this subject.’

In 1977, this same editor wrote: ‘Enthusiasm for fibre is sweeping the world. The journals are full of it, the popular press revels in it, and doctors take time off from prescribing it only to attend international conferences on it … in “discovering” fibre modern man is waking up to the fact that his food is systematically deprived of fibre on its journey from field to grocery shop.’

Also in 1977, the editor of The Lancet stated: ‘About five years ago dietary fibre burst into the consciousness of the medical world, having smouldered at the back of some minds for decades.’

In 1981, research carried out by the consumer magazine Which? discovered that more people than ever were clamouring for drugless treatment. (This, however, is not sufficient – people must also be willing to assume responsibility for keeping themselves fit.)

At the British Medical Association’s 150th annual dinner 14 December 1982, H.R.H. Prince Charles affirmed, in his presidential speech, with reference to drugs: ‘Wonderful as many of them are, it should be more widely stressed by doctors that the health of human beings is so often determined by their behaviour, their food, and the nature of their environment.’

In January 1983, in Homoeopathy Today, a doctor wrote that he advised his patients ‘not to eat high proteins with high carbohydrate foods’, and stressed the importance to health of recognizing the trinity of mind, body and spirit.

Also in 1983, remarkably, the potential for health of ‘fringe medicine’, now elevated to the status of ‘alternative medicine’, was being considered by a new research committee. Hospital Doctor of 14 April reported that ‘Alternative Medicine’ was to be ‘put under the scientific spotlight’ by the Research Council for Complementary Medicine, consisting of both conventional and complementary specialists. This council had been formed ‘because of growing public interest in acupuncture, homoeopathy and herbalism’. The committee believed that it would ‘help to stop the erosion of public confidence in orthodox medicine’.

In June 1983, in his speech on stepping down as president of the British Medical Association, H.R.H. Prince Charles urged: ‘Don’t over-estimate the sophisticated approach to medicine. It seems that account has to be taken of those sometimes long-neglected complementary methods of medicine.’

It would seem his message had the desired effect. On Wednesday 17 August 1983, the national press announced that in a revolutionary move, the British Medical Association was launching an inquiry into all forms of complementary medicine and that some might soon become available on the National Health Service. In the Daily Mail John Illman wrote: ‘The move marks a remarkable about-turn for the BMA, which for years has resisted what has been regarded as “quack medicine”… the background to the BMA move is the growing interest in Britain in health matters and preventive measures against illness.’

In this same article John Illman quoted Dr Malcolm Carruthers, author of The Western Way of Death: ‘There is a crisis of confidence in drugs. No medical system can afford not to take account of the public’s desire to play a larger part in determining their own medical treatment!’

John Illman also quoted Dr Anthony Fry, consultant physician in psychological medicine at Guy’s Hospital: ‘As a profession we have spent too much time giving Valium instead of teaching patients how to relax. We spend too much time treating symptoms and not causes.’ (My emphasis – D.G.) So affirmed Dr William Howard Hay, 60 years ahead of his time, throughout all his writings.

What better vindication could this prophet have than the decision of the British Medical Association to launch an inquiry into complementary medicine?

Since the 1980s, public interest in complementary therapies has continued to grow. Nutritional therapy is no longer seen as unorthodox but as an integrated part of healthcare. Governments have recognized the importance of encouraging people to eat healthily to prevent disease. In the UK, guidelines have been issued such as the ‘five-a-day’ campaign, urging us to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day because of the evidence that this may help to prevent cancer. The popularity of organic food continues to grow with supermarkets stocking an ever-increasing range of organic produce.

In 2003, a World Health Organization report recommended the reduced consumption of saturated fats, sugar and salt, especially in snacks and processed foods and drinks – these are automatically eliminated in the Hay diet.