Walter Kempner and the Rice Diet: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

In 1934, a brilliant young scientist, Walter Kempner (1903-1997), was brought as a refugee from Nazi Germany to join the faculty of Duke Hospital's department of medicine. The first AMA presentation, in 1944, of his unconventional research in the origins and treatment of metabolic diseases provoked wide attention and considerable controversy, but the results of his strict diet regimen were undeniable. Patients flocking to Durham for the famous Rice Diet found their diabetes, kidney and cardiovascular diseases―once considered fatal―cured or greatly improved. The headline-grabbing success of Dr. Kempner's diet contributed significantly over the years to Durham's economic growth and Duke's transformation into a world-famous center for medical research and care.

From his arrival at Duke, Kempner worked to help friends get out of Germany. For several who had been scholars in pre-war Germany he found positions here. They and a few others associated with the Rice Diet became a close-knit community in exile around the central figure of Dr. Kempner. One, author Barbara Newborg, worked with him for 40 years, much of that time as his chief medical associate. This first-hand account of Kempner's life and of his work comprises two dramatic interrelated narratives. The story of a charismatic but always controversial personality and his circle of accomplished followers, and their wartime experience as refugees and exiles, will interest general readers, including thousands of "Ricers." For medical professionals and scholars, the book documents historic research that elucidated underlying principles of kidney, diabetic and cardiovascular disorders, and their successful treatment without drugs.

The book includes many rare personal photographs (which Kempner suppressed during his life) and clinical images including graphs, x-rays, eye-grounds, and photos.

The late Barbara Newborg (MD, Johns Hopkins University, 1949) was an Associate Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Duke University. She lived in Durham, North Carolina.

Florence Nash (BA UNC Chapel Hill, MA California State University, MA Duke University) was a writer and editor at Duke Medical Center for 20 years. She has published articles on medicine and humanities and is the author of two volumes of poetry.