Johanna Budwig

Johanna Budwig ( listen ^{? / I} ) (born September 30, 1908 in Essen ; † May 2003 in Freudenstadt , Baden-Württemberg ) was a German pharmacist , author and biochemist who became known for her oil-protein diet . It took the assumption that cancer through an oil-protein diet is curable. The so-called "Budwig Diet" is based on the one hand on the recommendation to eat certain foods and on the other hand on the prohibition of certain foods. It was originally intended as a diet for hepatitis patients. This special form of a cancer diet is not recognized in modern evidence-based medicine , but is widespread and used in alternative medicine circles . Budwig not only did research in the alternative medical field, but also applied for a patent in 1982 that recommends the use of ruby lasers in nuclear power plants in order to increase the capacity of the cooling water to absorb radioactivity.

The Budwig Diet

The consumption of linseed , cold-pressed linseed oil , quark and cottage cheese is particularly recommended . Flaxseed contains many unsaturated fatty acids , especially α-linolenic acid . In Budwig's opinion, flaxseed oil must be part of the diet because it is essential and humans cannot produce it themselves. Quark and cottage cheese are important because they contain many sulfur-containing amino acids , which make fatty acids more soluble and absorbable.

The Budwig diet avoids meat , fish , butter , canned foods, margarine , pasta , frozen food and sugar . The aim of the diet is difficult to digest and difficult digestible fats in the diet off. They are replaced by easily digestible, unsaturated fats , which should make up a major part of the diet. Unsaturated fatty acids serve as antioxidants , as they can "detoxify" free radicals , as well as building materials for cell membranes. Budwig analyzed all naturally occurring fats and oils for their optimal composition. Quark with linseed oil therefore forms part of this energy-rich food in variations. In addition to sauerkraut juice , fruit and nuts (no peanuts ) and vegetables are consumed. Many fresh vegetables are used raw and steamed. Canned foods and preserved vegetables should be avoided. Fat is used in abundance, but always in combination with protein (e.g. quark with linseed oil). The combination forms the basis of this diet in different variants.

Budwig's oil-protein diet is based on an approximately 80-year-old hypothesis of the Nobel Prize for Medicine Otto Warburg on the development of colon cancer, the so-called Warburg hypothesis , which was previously neither refuted nor proven and was only confirmed in 2006 in a laboratory test on mice could.

Budwig concluded that the anaerobic metabolism of the tumor cells could be led back to the aerobic metabolism with the help of targeted nutrition . According to Budwig, the mixture of sulfur-containing proteins, such as those found in quark or cottage cheese, together with polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as those found in flaxseed, has an impact on the cellular respiration of the tumor tissue. However, Budwig was unable to provide any proof of the described effects on the metabolism of cancer cells.

Criticism of the Budwig diet

Oncologists and nutritionists believe that diet is incapable of curing cancer. Reports of healing success are considered anecdotes as there are no scientific studies on these reports and the possible effectiveness of this diet in cancer. As a diet that accompanies effective therapy, however, it can be accepted if the enzyme TKTL-1 is detectable , since it is not to be expected that this diet alone will result in malnutrition or malnutrition . The diet is one-sided in its composition.

Johanna Budwig assumed a general cancer-inhibiting effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids, but ignored the difference between omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids that had been proven in the meantime . Numerous studies point to the cancer-promoting effects of an excessive intake of omega-6 fatty acids, whereas omega-3 fatty acids seem to have cancer-inhibiting effects. Budwig's hypothesis that polyunsaturated fatty acids principally deactivate cellular respiration in cancer cells and thus cause them to die is not tenable. Against this background, the traditions of Budwig regarding the healing successes in cancer could be traced back to the comparatively high omega-3 and low omega-6 content of the linseed oil she used .

The researcher Michael Ristow , who works on similar topics, contradicts this .

Budwig cream

The "Budwig cream" is the basic component of the nutritional recommendations according to Budwig. It is made from linseed oil and low-fat quark in combination with honey. Flaxseed mixes, fruits or nuts can also be added. There is also a vegan variant of Budwig cream, which contains flakes such as brown millet or oat flakes as the main ingredient.

Works

• HP Kaufmann, J. Budwig: On the biology of fats V: The paper chromatography of blood lipoids, tumor problem and fat research. Chemical State Investigation Office North Rhine-Westphalia and the German Institute for Fat Research. Munster in Westphalia. Article published in Fette und Seifen No. 54, 1952, pp. 156-165.
• The elementary function of respiration in relation to autoxidizable nutrients . Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1956.
• Cancer - a fat problem, correct choice and use of fats . Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1956.
• The fat syndrome: the fundamental importance of fats and other lipids . Self published in 1959.
• The effects of lipid metabolism on the functioning of the sensory organs ; Text excerpt from: Das Fettsyndrom . Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1959.
• Oil and protein diet . Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1965.
• Cosmic forces against cancer, electron biology . Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1966.
• Laser beams against cancer, resonance phenomena as an anti-entropy factor in life . Hyperion-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1968.
• The death of the tumor . 2 volumes. Self published in 1977.
• Photo elements of life, also to overcome the disease from cancer . Resch, Innsbruck 1979.
• Cancer, the problem and the solution . Sensei-Verlag, Kernen 2000.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official website ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Peter Wolf: New ways in cancer therapy. Hanover: Naturasanitas. 2008, p. 74. ISBN 978-3-9812416-0-0 .
3. ↑ ARD report on cancer diets (2006) ( Memento from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ J. Budwig: cancer. The problem and the solution. The documentation. 6th edition, Kernen 1999
5. ↑ z. BIM Berquin et al: Modulation of prostate cancer genetic risk by omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. In: J Clin Invest. Volume 117, Number 7, 2007, pp. 1866-1875. PMID 17607361 or DP Rose DP, JM Connolly: Effects of dietary omega-3 fatty acids on human breast cancer growth and metastases in nude mice. In: J Natl Cancer Inst. Volume 85, Number 21, 1993 pp. 1743-1747, PMID 8411258
6. ↑ “Michael Ristow doesn't want his work to be interpreted as an advertisement for extreme forms of nutrition. 'Nutritional therapy would be an elegant solution,' he says. So far, however, no positive result has been achieved in this way. ”, Berliner Zeitung , February 11, 2006
7. ↑ Dr. Johanna Budwig GmbH & Co. KG: Budwig Creme recipes: For the perfect start to the day. Dr. Johanna Budwig GmbH & Co. KG, accessed on August 2, 2019 (German). 
8. ↑ Dr. Johanna Budwig Foundation: Basic recipes from the oil-protein diet . Knaur Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-426-65791-1 , p. 28 ff., 62 ff .

Web links

• Literature from and about Johanna Budwig in the catalog of the German National Library
• Budwig Foundation
• Berliner Zeitung: Warburg hypothesis and critical comment on the oil-protein diet according to Budwig