Adolphus Hohensee (1901 – October 5, 1967)[1] was a naturopath, fraudulent nutritionist and quack from the twentieth century.
Career
Hohensee described himself as a doctor but held no valid qualifications. It was discovered that his "Doctor of Naturopathy" degree was obtained from two schools he never attended.[2]
He campaigned against processed foods and advertised his mineral and vitamin supplements as a cure for disease.[3] Hohensee was known as the "Peppermint Tea Medicine Man".[4] He was the president of Scientific Living, Inc., and managed a company that manufactured health foods, El Rancho Adolphus Products in Pennsylvania.[5] He was known to lecture and promote dubious claims about his health food products. In 1952, he advertised his peppermint tea as a cure for "gall stones, colic, flatulence, headache, rheumatism, high blood pressure, arthritis, prostate trouble, lumbago, fits, convulsions, colitis, tuberculosis, asthma, pin worms and tape worms."[5]
Hohensee had repeatedly violated the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.[5] In 1955, Hohensee and his companies were charged on seven counts of a Federal Grand Jury indictment for misbranding their food products. The companies were fined and Hohensee was sentenced to a year in prison in 1957.[4] Susan Gilbert in Medical Fakes and Frauds noted that "Hohensee was convicted of fraud in 1957, but even before then he was exposed as a hypocrite. A photographer for the Houston Press caught Hohensee in a restaurant gorging himself on processed bread and fried fish and quenching his thirst with beer."[3] In 1962, he was given an eighteen-month prison term for selling honey under false pretences.[2]
Hohensee was influenced by the Bates method and authored the book, Better Eyes Without Glasses (1944).
