Carlton Fredericks (1910–1987) was a popular and controversial radio personality focusing on nutrition and public health with what The New York Times described as crisp diction and authoritative delivery. He was born Harold Carlton Caplan in Brooklyn, New York, changing his name at the beginning of his radio career in the early 1940s. His daily call-in and interview show for WOR in New York City, “Design for Living,” was syndicated to more than two hundred stations from 1957 until his death.
Fredericks was a pure food activist and mega vitamin advocate, sounding an alarm that big business was transforming the American food system into one where sugar (“the great white menace”), chemical additives, hormones and antibiotics administered to beef and poultry, and pesticides were removing essential vitamins and minerals from our diet and causing a variety of illnesses, a widespread feeling of discomfort, and gray hair. A strong proponent of organic food and the theory that every disease involved poor nutrition, Fredericks adamantly refuted the common belief that America was the best fed of all countries.
