colitis and insanity. Fletcher believed that his system could improve bowel movements; however, the bowel must have a certain amount of indigestible bulk to stimulate it to action. Health writer Carl Malmberg noted that Fletcher's extreme diet of chewed food was almost a liquid diet that does not provide "even a minute quantity of th[e] necessary bulk". For this reason, Fletcher's system is potentially dangerous and may be responsible for "constipation of the most serious kind". Physician Morris Fishbein noted that the result of Fletcher's system was a "thorough disturbance of the entire body and the development of intoxication and general disability." Publications Menticulture or the A–B–C of True Living (1896) Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought (1898) The Last Waif, or Social Quarantine: A Brief (1898) The New Glutton or Epicure (1903) The A.B.–Z. of Our Own Nutrition (1903) Fletcherism: What It Is or How I Became Young at Sixty (1913) References Further reading Gardner, Martin, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, page 221. The New York Times, "Horace Fletcher Dies in Copenhagen", July 14, 1919 External links How Many Times Should You Chew Your Food? - Mary Roach 1849 births 1919 deaths American health and wellness writers American nutritionists American self-help writers People from Lawrence, Massachusetts Pseudoscientific diet advocates