Harold S. Diehl

Harold Sheely Diehl (August 4, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American physician, anti-smoking activist, public health educator and writer.

Biography Diehl graduated in 1912 from Gettysburg College and obtained his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1916. He was director of the Student Health Service at the University of Minnesota.

Diehl's Textbook of Healthful Living, first published in 1935, went through many editions. The comprehensive text of personal and public hygiene was positively reviewed in medical journals.

The Harold S. Diehl Award was established in 1962 to honour Diehl. He died aged 81 from heart disease at United Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was a leading proponent of the relationship between smoking and lung cancer. In 1969, physician Luther Terry positively reviewed the book in the American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health, noting that "it presents the most comprehensive review available to date detailing the health consequences of this habit."

Physician Walter C. Alvarez commented, "Diehl is a great humanitarian, a great teacher, a great gatherer of facts, and a fine writer of delightful prose. I don't see how anyone can question his mass of statistics." In 1970, the book was positively reviewed in the British Medical Journal, which concluded, "cause and effect are established beyond reasonable doubt by the overwhelming weight of evidence linking cigarette smoking with serious disease... his book should effectively reinforce the movement which must one day turn public opinion against the cigarette, or stimulate the development of a safe one."

Criticism of fad diets Diehl criticized dietary fads such as the alkaline diet, food combining, raw foodism, strict vegetarianism and water fasting. Diehl suggested that most vegetarians are not really vegetarian because they consume dairy or egg products. He commented that the human digestive tract is not intended for an exclusive herbivorous diet. Health and Safety for You (with Anita D. Laton, 1954) Tobacco and Your Health: The Smoking Controversy (1969)