Lelord Kordel was a Polish American

Polish American

A Polish American , is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States...

 nutritionist

Nutritionist

A nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health. Different professional terms are used in different countries, employment settings and contexts — some examples include: nutrition scientist, public health nutritionist, dietitian-nutritionist, clinical...

 and author of books on healthy living.

Born in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, in 1904, Lelord Kordel emigrated with his parents to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 as a child and grew up in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, where his father worked as a baker. After university studies in Chicago, Kordel returned to Poland to continue his studies at the University of Krakow

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. After completion of his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1930, he worked for two years as a scientific instructor and then took up a position as a research assistant to the British physician Sir William Arbuthnot-Lane

Sir William Arbuthnot-Lane, 1st Baronet

Sir William Arbuthnot-Lane, 1st Baronet, Legion of Honour was a Scottish surgeon...

, whose theories influenced his career as a nutritionist.

When Kordel returned to America in the early 1930s, he opened the California Nutrition Clinic in Beverly Hills. As an independent researcher and industry consultant, he developed programs for healthy living and pioneered concepts for dietary supplementation. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he conducted and supervised seminars on nutrition for the war effort and was active in the “Food and Nutrition for Victory” programs, for which he earned several awards.

After the war, Kordel began writing books on healthy living and nutrition. Kordel's titles include Health the Easy Way (1946), Health Through Nutrition (1950), Eat and Grow Younger (1952), Eat Your Troubles Away (1955), Cook Right – Live Longer (1962), Natural Folk Remedies (1972), Eat and Grow Slender (1977), How to Keep Your Youthful Vitality After Forty, and The Easy, Low-Cost Way to Total Beauty, (Putnam Publishing Group, 1979, ISBN 0399119140). An early book, Herbal Highlights, was copyrighted by Lelord Kordel Lectures in 1941. He created a health product company in 1949, Kordel’s Nutritionals.

While living in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, Kordel traveled widely to educate the public on nutrition and balanced diets

Diet (nutrition)

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...

. His teachings and formulations gained a wide circle of followers, including film stars such as Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...

, Eva Gabor

Eva Gabor

Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Duchess in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney's The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under...

, Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...

 and Raquel Welch

Raquel Welch

Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...

, who sought his advice on staying healthy and looking well.