A happy, well-nourished infant sitting on the bough of a fruit tree; advertising Avoba foods. Colour lithograph after J. Handschin, 193- (?).

Alfred Vogel, born in Aesch, Basel, in 1902, developed both the theory of naturopathy, based on religious and philosophical principles, and the practice of natural dietetics, exemplified in Avoba foods (named after A. VOgel BAsel). He advocated a reform of food from heavily refined and processed food in which chemical and mechanical rendering has robbed the ingredients of their vitamins and nutritive value, to natural foods, quoting as the epigraph to one of his publications Genesis ch. 1 v. 29 "And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat" -- Melzer et al., op. cit. He established the company Bioforce AG in Roggwil in the Swiss canton of Thurgau in 1963, the firm's best known product being Echinaforce