Swiss physician and a pioneer in nutritional research. At his sanatorium in Zürich, a balanced diet of raw vegetables and fruit was used as a means to heal patients, contrary to the beliefs commonly held at the end of the 19th century.
He is best known for the invention of the muesli cereal, although his invention differs significantly from what is today known as muesli, and in Switzerland specifically as Bircher Müesli.
Bircher-Benner changed the eating habits of the late 19th century. Instead of much meat and white bread, he postulated eating fruit, vegetables and nuts. His ideas included not only controlled nutrition, but also spartan physical discipline. At his Zürich sanatorium off Bircher-Benner-Platz, the patients had to follow a somewhat monastic daily schedule including early bedtime (21:00), physical training and active gardening work. His theory of life was based on harmony between people and nature. Some of his ideas originate from observing the daily life of shepherds in the Swiss Alps, who lived a simple and healthy life.
He died on 24 January 1939 at age 71 from heart desease. Two of his sons continued to run the clinic, which went into possession of the Kanton Zürich in 1973. In 1994 the clinic was closed and the valuable building sold to an insurance company.
[Editor note: My family doctor trained at this clinic in the 1980s. Independent of that and long before, I started eating müesli daily for breakfast, prepared with the help of the ‘Bircher Raffel’, an instrument sold in Swiss supermarkets to grate apples and other fruit just right for the Birchermüesli].
Link to Wikipedia biography