"Interview With Albert Mosséri"

November 19th 2004, by Frédéric Patenaude

Recorded, transcribed, and edited by Frederic Patenaude.
Translated by John Boultadakis.
To read this interview in the original French, click here.

F: Mr. Mosséri, how old are you and for how long have you been practicing natural hygiene?

M: Soon I’ll be 80 years old, and I’ve been interested in natural hygiene for 60 years, so since the age of 20. It was in Egypt where I was living at the time. I started by doing research, but I didn’t find what I was looking for right away. I had to read all the authors I knew in the entire world and in several languages, — because I know several languages — and I finally found Shelton and Thompson, who came across as the most serious to me. At first I embraced naturopathy, but I gave it up because naturopathy is halfway between medicine and natural hygiene. I started publishing books when I was 20-24 years old, and when the politics in Egypt took a turn for the worst I had to immigrate to France where I practiced natural hygiene from the start.

But, natural hygiene as I am practicing it now came in stages — many, many stages. Because one must find the right diet, the right ideas — it’s not easy to find them. And when we do find them, temptations — exterior and interior — are so strong that it’s not easy to put them into practice right away. It takes years and years to be able to practice pure natural hygiene.

F: You have made a difference between naturopathy and natural hygiene. What is the difference?

M: The difference is capital. One thing the two have in common is that both are against medicines. But, as natural hygienists, we believe the cause must be eliminated, and in this way the symptoms disappear, whereas naturopaths want to use natural remedies, such as medicinal plants. We as natural hygienists reject all these natural remedies, even though they are certainly less harmful than medicines.

F: So you’ve established a fundamental difference between medicine and natural hygiene, and then between natural hygiene and other natural therapies. What then is the fundamental difference between medicine and natural hygiene?

M: The fundamental difference is that medicine fights symptoms with poisons, but does not fight the cause. In fact, medicine doesn’t understand the cause at all. Furthermore, medical science states that diet has nothing to do with sickness, which we formally contest.

F: According to you, what is our natural diet?

M: Our natural diet is what resembles most the diet of the apes — that is the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan. So there would be no animal foods, or almost none, no meat, no fish, no oysters, no sea food, and there wouldn’t be grains, because man is not meant to eat grains. Shelton published a table of compared anatomy and physiology that I have included in my book “La Nutrition Hygiéniste”. According to this table, which was proposed by great physiologists of the past century, French, German, like Cuvier, man is a frugivore. He’s not a carnivore nor an omnivore nor a graminivore. Graminivore means “who eats grains.” Grains also include bread, sandwiches, cakes, pasta, etc.

F: So what’s left is fruits, vegetables…

M: What’s left is all the fruits, all the vegetables, and the roots like potatoes, yams, Jerusalem artichokes, etc.

F: And nuts?

M: And nuts. But I don’t agree with Shelton when he suggests 120 to 200 grams (4-7 ounces) of nuts per day. I find this excessive, so I limit to 20 or 30 grams (about 1 ounce or less), and for athletes perhaps up to 40 grams (a little over an ounce).

F: And you have observed a lot of problems with people who eat more nuts?

M: Effectively, nuts (in excess) are indigestible. They cause putrid stools and gas. The majority of people that eat too many nuts have these problems.

F: But there was a time when you completely eliminated them?

M: At first I ate nuts as Shelton recommended, but when I realized how excessive that was, I went in the other direction, with doctor Lovewisdom in Ecuador. And then afterwards I reached a moderate position with nuts in limited quantities. When I say nuts I also mean sesame butter (tahini), etc.

F: A hygienist’s diet also excludes, spices, salt…

M: Oh yes, one must completely exclude spices, and condiments, mustard, pepper, salt, tobacco, alcohol, and wine.

F: So it’s a turn towards the simplest diet possible?

M: Yes, the simplest possible. And on top of that one must check out strong emotions, like grief, anger and worry — all these can cause sickness, even if your diet is perfect.

F: If a person gets sick, what should he do, according to natural hygiene?

M: According to natural hygiene, if a person gets sick, he must find the cause. And once the cause is discovered, he must eliminate the cause. But a sick person alone is not capable of finding this cause. Sometimes he thinks it’s one thing, when in fact it might be another. There are also priorities. There are secondary causes that must be completely ignored, and there are primary causes that must be eliminated first.

F: For example?

M: A primary cause might be fear, or a very bad diet. It could also be overeating, alcohol, or wine with a meal. When we drink wine with a meal, it makes the entire meal ferment, which goes out the next day in the stools in a putrefied state, with gas.

F: And the secondary causes?

M: Well the less important causes. When one eats some rice every ten days, it’s not a big deal. Even if one eats a small piece of meat every fifteen days, it’s not too bad. But I exclude fish because it putrefies very fast. Even if one rarely eats fish, I consider it very toxic. Cheese as well must be eliminated.

F: So all these secondary causes, like eating meat every 15 days, are not things you would recommend, but you say at this frequency it would not cause one to get sick?

M: Yes, it would be best to abstain from all these foods. But I am aware of human nature. It can be tempted. “The flesh is weak,” like we say.

F: And once we have found the causes?

M: They must be sought out and eliminated, and then, if possible, undergo a fasting cure, by skipping a meal, or a day, or several.

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