Lutz diet
The Lutz diet is a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet that was developed and tested by the Austrian doctor Wolfgang Lutz between 1950 and 1960 . It belongs to the low-carb diets. The diet has similarities with the Atkins diet published about ten years after Lutz, but is significantly less carbohydrate - restrictive.
theory
In contrast to Robert Atkins , Lutz does not focus on weight loss, but rather on the general health effects, the processes in the body and the prevention or treatment of chronic diseases.
In his opinion, most chronic diseases are caused by hormonal imbalances, mostly triggered by excessive insulin secretions . To this end, he designed a "hormonal 2-component theory", according to which the human endocrine system always tries to find a balance between anabolic (building) and catabolic (breaking down) hormones . Insulin is an anabolic hormone that, depending on the type of metabolism, leads to a weaker release of other anabolic hormones and / or a stronger release of other catabolic hormones when excessive release . According to Lutz, the hormonal level in the body is primarily responsible for weight loss and gain, and only secondarily the difference between the food energy consumed and consumed .
He sees evidence for his claims in theories according to which humans, as hunters and gatherers, ate predominantly meat for a very long period of time and no grain or high-glycemic carbohydrates found significant entry into human nutrition until the Neolithic Revolution about 5000 years ago . Like the proponents of Stone Age nutrition, Lutz suspects that people are not sufficiently genetically adapted to the changed eating habits. The daily carbohydrate intake should be reduced to 6 BE (corresponding to 72 g carbohydrates), old people and those with previous illnesses are advised to slowly reduce the dose starting at 9 BE (corresponding to 108 g carbohydrates).
Although the title of his book from 1967 suggests it, Lutz does not prohibit bread in general, but only for people with a history of gastrointestinal diseases, for which he considers protein fractions of the grain to be causative or deteriorating. Everyone else is allowed to take in the permitted amount of carbohydrates through bread, but because of its high KH density and the very small amount allowed for consumption, he considers it inexpedient. Lutz does not consider the concepts of the glycemic index (GI) or the glycemic load (GL) in his work , because they did not yet exist at the time the book was published.
Wolfgang Lutz claims to have treated over 10,000 patients with his diet during his 40 years of practice and to have cured numerous chronic diseases with it, including Crohn's disease , ulcerative colitis , stomach diseases , gout , metabolic syndrome , epilepsy and multiple sclerosis .
Wolfgang Lutz published statistics on the development of blood values of his patients, which are supposed to prove that critical blood values do not worsen under his very high-fat diet, but in some cases significantly improve. In particular, he claims on the basis of the numerical data that the cholesterol and uric acid levels usually improve on his diet, which is very high in cholesterol and protein. However, it cannot present any independent study results. In experiments with chickens, he was able to show that the content of total lipids, total cholesterol and phospholipids in the aorta decreased by up to 30% if the chickens were given a low-carbohydrate, high-fat and protein-rich diet.
criticism
Similar to the Atkins diet , the Lutz diet is also highly controversial, and his thesis of the purely meat-eating Stone Age people is questioned.
literature
- Wolfgang Lutz: Life without bread - The scientific basis of the low-carbohydrate diet , 16th edition, 2007, ISBN 3-88760-100-9
- Wolfgang Lutz: The Lutz diet - very healthy and slim - finally without going hungry , 1986, ISBN 3-7205-1395-5
- Wolfgang Lutz: Sick stomach - Sick intestine , 1995, ISBN 3-88760-080-0
Web links
- Wolfgang Lutz: sick stomach, sick intestine (online version)
Individual evidence
- ^ W. Lutz, G. Andresen and E. Buddecke, Investigations on the influence of a low-carbohydrate long-term diet on arteriosclerosis of the chicken , Journal of Nutritional Science, Volume 9, Numbers 2–3, 222–232
- ↑ How does the Lutz diet work? on chirurgie-portal.de, November 7, 2008.