Beatrice Trum Hunter

Hunter was diagnosed with metastatic cancer in 2014. She died in a nursing home on May 17, 2017, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, age 98.

Hunter was married to John Hunter, the son of photographer, Lotte Jacobi; they divorced in 1977. She resided in a farmhouse with 78 acres (32 ha) of land in Deering, New Hampshire. Her house was heated by a wood-burning stove. Her passion for natural foods developed after reading the book 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs.

Hunter was food editor of Consumers' Research Bulletin magazine. She authored The Natural Foods Cookbook in 1961. This was one of the first works published on natural foods, a decade before the natural foods movement was popularized in the United States. Hunter warned against the consumption of artificial additives, processed foods and preservatives, excessive sugar and the dangers of pesticides. Hunter was one of the earliest opponents of pesticides. She sent some of her research to Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring.

In 1961, when The Natural Foods Cookbook was first published, Hunter attracted criticism from dietitians and nutritionists because she was not using processed foods. Others thought she was a "crank". However, the book sold well and became a classic in the natural and organic foods movement. It was heralded as the "nation's first healthful natural foods cookbook". Frances Moore Lappé was influenced by the book.

Beatrice Josephine Trum Hunter (December 16, 1918 – May 17, 2017) was an American natural foods campaigner and writer.

Hunter was born on December 16, 1918, in Brooklyn to Gabriel Trum, who worked as a silk cutter in a dyeing plant, and the former Martha Engle. Hunter had one older sibling, Jeanette Trum Granoff who died in 2009. Hunter was educated at Richmond Hill High School in Queens and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1940 with a B.A. in English literature. She obtained an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. She worked as a public school teacher in New York and New Jersey.