Udo Pollmer

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Udo Pollmer (born June 5, 1954 in Himmelpforten ) is a German food chemist and non-fiction author on nutrition. He is known for making critical statements about diet recommendations, diets and vaccinations .

Life

Pollmer studied food chemistry at the University of Munich . He has been working as a freelance science journalist and management consultant since 1981 . For several years Pollmer was a lecturer in household and nutritional sciences at the Fulda University of Applied Sciences (until 1999) and at the University of Oldenburg (until 1996). Pollmer has been the scientific director of the non-profit registered association European Institute for Food and Nutrition Sciences since 1994 . V. (EU.LE e.V.) in Munich . He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation and was instrumental in setting up the German Museum of Additives , which opened in Hamburg in 2008 and which, according to his own account, is sponsored by six associations, foundations and companies, including the frozen food brand Frosta . In 2002, Pollmer tested Frosta’s products and ingredients for additives so that the company could develop recipes for frozen food without additives in the future.

Pollmer lives in Gemmingen near Heilbronn .

Act

Health policy and nutritional advice

Pollmer regularly publishes articles and columns in magazines and appears in television and radio documentaries. Under the title “Meal” he had his own radio column on nutrition topics on Deutschlandfunk Kultur (formerly Deutschlandradio Berlin) until March 2019 . He has been a guest author at Tichys Insights since July 2018, and has published a monthly column there since March 2019.

On the website of the EU.LE e. V. he publishes videos on the subject of nutrition. Together with the employees of the EU.LE e. V. he creates specialist articles and meta-studies on nutrition topics that appear in a separate, advertising-free publication, the EU.LEN-SPIEGEL. Excerpts are also regularly published on the website. He often expresses criticism of the study methodology. Many dietary recommendations were based on observational studies that do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about causality .

Pollmer advises against excessive consumption of raw food (both animal and vegetable), since raw food is more microbiologically contaminated than cooked food and humans are a "coctivor", ie have a common evolution with cooking . In his opinion, raw food is “not healthy, just edible - just like raw eggs .” The EHEC epidemic in 2011 brought Germany the “largest bacterial outbreak after the Second World War ”. In his books (see web links), Pollmer explains that raw food, as well as excessive consumption of whole grain products, is not advisable for many people because - when eaten raw - plant fibers and grain components are difficult to digest (there in particular plant-own substances such as alkaloids to protect against Predators) can lead to excessive gas and intestinal discomfort. This applies particularly to old types of fruit and vegetables.

In a television broadcast in June 2011 Pollmer concluded in relation to the spread of EHEC the thesis: "The recommendation, as much raw fruits and vegetables to eat, consumers composed of a preventable health risk." This conception joined the SPD health policy makers and epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach with the Opposition to the argument that EHEC is also transmitted via meat, whereupon Pollmer remarked without being contradicted: "Raw foods transmit germs". Pollmer does not consider a health benefit of food rich in fruit and vegetables to be proven. Therefore, lettuce or asparagus should be viewed as luxury products.

Pollmer points out the very high nitrate content of rocket and lettuce , but explains that nitrate is a health-promoting ingredient, but that it is partly responsible for thyroid disorders.

Pollmer also sees a danger from lectins in whole grain products . Therefore, foods made from white flour are more digestible and ultimately healthier.

Pollmer warns against soy products because the hormone-like substances they contain are suspected of making men sterile. He also makes connections with behavioral disorders, allergies and dementia.

According to Pollmer, a vegetarian diet is neither healthier nor more ecological. The production of grain products, fruit and vegetables also requires bees and kills pests. In addition, organic agriculture makes a greater contribution to nitrate pollution in groundwater. “Organic” is “a production for the spoiled sons and daughters of affluent societies”.

Pollmer sees no evidence of an increased cancer risk due to high meat consumption. Pollmer rejects insects as a source of meat because of their bad ecological balance (high energy requirements for rearing, faeces, methane production ) and unfavorable ingredients ( uric acid ). He also criticizes test-tube meat with regard to its energy requirements. He also claims that the real motivation for these developments lies in the creation of artificial organs for the pharmaceutical industry.

Pollmer, who himself is quite stout, described doctors who use the body mass index as a measure of obesity as “plemplem” because “how does a doctor come up with the idea of ​​applying the same standard for women and men, for young and old? “Pollmer recommends paying attention to the body's own needs when it comes to calorie intake and not following dietary rules. French fries could also be healthy for children , because this is the best way to meet their energy requirements and the "intestinal brain" always determines which food to eat. The brain is an evolutionary protuberance of the intestine, which explains the great importance of gut feeling for the right food. Morbid obesity has many causes, Pollmer emphasizes the role of stress and viral infections. Fast food can not be a sufficient explanation for the obesity epidemic in the USA. If fast food were actually as unhealthy as it is claimed, life expectancy in Europe would be much lower.

There is usually no need to specify the amount to drink, as the feeling of thirst is sufficient to determine the fluid requirement. It is more dangerous to drink too much.

Pollmer is of the opinion that the food mess is on the rise, "especially those that are supposed to serve 'health'" and is in favor of limiting the amount of glutamate in food: "When using high-dose flavor enhancers expensive raw materials like If meat is to be replaced, from my point of view it is a fraud . "

In another interview, Pollmer recommended fighting a "hangover" with moderate consumption of alcohol the following day.

Pollmer speaks out against food supplements and fortifications with vitamins and trace elements. According to data from an observational study, higher calcium intake through supplements is associated with the increased incidence of kidney stones. He considers an additional iodine supply through iodized salt to be superfluous, and this also entails risks, e.g. B. by the formation of thyroid hormone-like substances when heating foods mixed with iodized salt.

Pollmer does not see the recommendation for a low-fat diet based on scientific evidence. In an interview with Effilee magazine , Pollmer suspects rather that "malice is a major driving force". Nutritional counseling is carried out by women and serves to destabilize women in particular, and even to finish them off. It is violence by women against women: “The nutrition counseling mania began with the aim of explaining to women that they had to become leaner because they would then be more beautiful. But now we've been seeing all over the world for fifty years that it only makes them fatter. Isn't it a good feeling to eliminate competitors by giving them advice that makes them less attractive? ”Nutritionists aim to make their customers lose weight through specific diet recommendations, which makes them sick, unbalanced, depressed and irritable.

Agriculture and animal husbandry

Pollmer justifies factory farming with the fact that animals also form packs in the wild and stay in a group in a confined space. Modern factory farming is tailored to the needs of the animals.

According to Pollmer, agricultural land currently used as pastureland cannot be used for other forms of agriculture because no other products than animal feed can be grown there.

Criticism of parties, NGOs and the media

Pollmer describes NGOs (such as Greenpeace , the BUND and Foodwatch ) as fundraising organizations that are “not concerned with health, but with health symbols that are good for getting donations or money from the state”. The media promoted this connection. The Internet is "filled with disinformation like a manure pit, from which hundreds of thousands of people suck their knowledge".

He accuses nutritionists and consumer advocates of manipulating consumers. Pollmer calls for more transparency on the ingredients of food, but is against the food traffic light . The food industry is only the victim that has to produce useless products under pressure from the food lobby.

criticism

In 2014, the Association for Independent Health Advice responded in an article in its UGB-Forum magazine to criticism of whole grain products, as expressed by Pollmer, among others. There is "little to think about" of this. Nutritionists agree that whole grain products provide valuable fiber, minerals and vitamins and therefore have a positive effect on health.

Hans Hauner , professor and head of the clinic for nutritional medicine at the Technical University of Munich , criticizes Pollmer's book Who eats healthy, dies earlier as “striking and effective in the media”, but the title has “nothing to do with reality”. The thesis that slim people die earlier than fat people is not tenable. The studies cited by Pollmer fail to take various aspects into account, which falsifies the data. In fact, according to current studies, people in the range of normal weight (BMI between 18.5 and 25) have the longest life expectancy. Whole grain products are healthy, contrary to Pollmer's claim. Even the statement that diets and exercise are mostly ineffective if you are overweight is too undifferentiated. Even moderate exercise is good for your health. It is just difficult to lose massive excess weight through exercise alone.

Critics accuse Pollmer of arguing along the lines of the food industry.

Pollmer's style is seen as provocative and polarizing. He also mixes correct, justified criticism of many nutritional studies with incorrect conclusions.

The nutritionist Ibrahim Elmadfa writes: “Constructive criticism would be good, but Pollmer does not speak our language, he does not belong to our group. He's also a chemist, not a nutritionist . "

His comment , published in 2019 , in which he refers to the effectiveness of vaccination as a matter of opinion , met with criticism in social media and by the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP).

Books

  • with Eva Kapfelsperger: Eat and Die. Chemistry in our food . KiWi 270 , Cologne 1982; ibid. 1992, ISBN 3-462-02187-7 .
  • with Cornelia Hoicke, Hans-Ulrich Grimm : Be careful, taste. What's in food? With additives consumer dictionary . Hirzel , Stuttgart 1998; Rowohlt , Reinbek near Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-499-60790-5 .
  • with Brigitte Schmelzer-Sandtner: Well get it! What to know about groceries before shopping . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1998; ibid. 2001, ISBN 3-462-03014-0 .
  • with Susanne Warmuth: Lexicon of popular nutritional errors. Misunderstandings, misinterpretations and half-truths from alcohol to sugar . Eichborn , Frankfurt am Main 2000; Piper, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-492-25335-2 .
  • with Monika Niehaus : Lexicon of fitness errors. Misunderstandings, misinterpretations and half-truths from aerobics to strains . Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2003; Piper, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-492-26174-4 .
  • with Richard Friebe , Gerd Knoll: Finally eat normally! How the slimness dictatorship makes the thin fat and the fat sick . Piper , Munich 2005; ibid. 2007, ISBN 978-3-492-24942-3 .
  • with Monika Niehaus: Food Design : Panschen allowed. How our food loses its innocence . Hirzel, Stuttgart 2007; 3. A. ibid. 2010, ISBN 978-3-7776-1802-9 .
  • with Monika Niehaus: Who eats healthy, dies earlier: facts and fallacies about our food . BLV Buchverlag 2008, ISBN 978-3835403123 .
  • with Andrea Fock, Monika Niehaus, Jutta Muth: Opium for the people: natural drugs in our food. Rowohlt Taschenbuch, rororo 62635, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-499-62635-7 .
  • with Monika Niehaus, Andrea Fock and Jutta Muth: Who made the beef a pig? How food scandals are invented and used. Rowohlt Taschenbuch, rororo 62760, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-499-62760-6 .
  • Additives from A to Z, which labels conceal , Deutsches Zusatzstoffmuseum / Eule, Radebeul 2014, ISBN 978-3-9806226-4-6 .
  • with Georg Keckl, Klaus Alfs: Don't go Veggie, 75 facts about vegetarian madness , S. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-77762416-7 .

Awards

  • 2008: Udo Pollmer is among the 40 most prominent natural scientists in the Cicero magazine ranking among “Germany's most important thought leaders”.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The EU.LE team , website of the EU.LE e. V. Retrieved December 25, 2011.
  2. ↑ Pollmer, Udo. In: Website of the Giordano Bruno Foundation. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Section "Sponsors and Partners" on the website of the German Additive Museum, accessed on January 27, 2015.
  4. ↑ A look at the small print - topic of the program "Gammel ade" , 3sat ; Served ice cold ( Memento from August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Fire one ; German Additive Museum ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Hamburg Magazin.
  5. ^ Holger Douglas: Deutschlandfunk without Udo Pollmer. In: Tichy's insight. May 3, 2019, accessed on September 23, 2019 (German).
  6. ↑ a b c "Nutrients like in a handkerchief". In: Kreiszeitung.de. January 23, 2013, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Video - Udo Pollmer on the importance of the kitchen for human evolution , In: Website des EU.LE e. V. Accessed January 8, 2012.
  8. ↑ Udo Pollmer, Manfred Stein: Vegetable raw food is healthy - is that correct? In: Website of the EU.LE e. V. Accessed January 8, 2012.
  9. ↑ Die Bienenbütteler Biokeime, website of Deutschlandradio Kultur. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  10. ↑ a b c Marcel Malachowski: Bio is a production for the spoiled sons and daughters of affluent societies. In: Telepolis. October 27, 2018, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Jürgen Luck: Receiving: cleared up food myths - Black Forest messenger. In: Black Forest Messenger. January 25, 2019, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Vegetable patch under general suspicion of June 10, 2011, Handelsblatt.de. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  13. ↑ a b Helene Aecherli: Udo Pollmer in an interview: "The body takes what it needs". In: observer.ch. May 3, 2013, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  14. ↑ a b c Udo Pollmer: "Most people are not too fat". In: BRIGITTE Digital. August 10, 2008, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  15. ↑ a b c d "I am not an opponent of organic". In: Frankfurter Rundschau. January 19, 2013, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  16. ↑ a b Udo Pollmer: Iodine - From Deficiency to Excess. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. January 21, 2006, accessed July 15, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Anne Sailer: Bad vegetables - Why the plant substance lectin can make us sick | MDR.DE. In: mdr.de. July 7, 2019, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  18. ↑ a b c Udo Pollmer - "Vegan nutrition is unethical, unhealthy and unecological." In: LECKER.de. July 10, 2015, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  19. ↑ C. Landolt: "Vegetarians think they are something better". In: 20min.ch. April 25, 2014, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Christoph Lövenich: Much argumentative meat on the bone. In: Novo arguments for progress. December 17, 2015, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  21. ↑ "You can eat a little salad" ( Memento from August 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved on July 4, 2020.
  22. ^ A b Hans Kantereit: "The appetite is the modern original sin" In: zeit.de. June 27, 2013, accessed July 1, 2013.
  23. ↑ a b c "The body gets it". In: WORLD. December 6, 2005, accessed June 30, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Kirsten Niemann: Udo Pollmer: The Antichrist of Eating Culture. In: Handelsblatt. January 6, 2006, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Günther Brandstetter: Nutritional style: "It's about feeling morally better" - derStandard.de. In: The Standard. March 21, 2017, accessed on September 23, 2019 (Austrian German).
  26. ↑ Cathrin Kahlweit: "Good is what gets". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 11, 2010, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  27. ↑ 5 questions to Udo Pollmer ( Memento from October 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Website of the Das-ist-drin-Blog. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  28. ↑ Lice poop and intestines: Udo Pollmer eats normally ( Memento from July 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ Nutritionist recommends alcohol for hangovers. In: WORLD. January 1, 2006, accessed June 30, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Hans Kantereit: Basically, it is just howling! In: Effilee. Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
  31. ↑ "You can eat the salad!": A conversation with Udo Pollmer. In: desired. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
  32. ↑ a b Jan Grossarth : Udo Pollmer: The Veganer Eater. In: faz.net. March 22, 2015, accessed June 30, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Dipl. Oec. troph. Wiebke Franz, Dipl. Oec. troph. Hans-Helmut Martin: the all-clear for whole grains. In: Website of the Association for Independent Health Advice e. V. Accessed June 30, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Do slim people die earlier? In: t-online.de. September 17, 2008, accessed June 30, 2020 .
  35. ↑ a b Bernd Leitenberger: A little more modesty and self-criticism. In: Bernd Leitenberger's blog. May 29, 2012, accessed on September 23, 2019 (German).
  36. ↑ The coffee is ready. In: freie-radios.net. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Stefan Löffler: Science disrupts food. In: falter.at. November 21, 2001. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
  38. ↑ Diaphanoscopy: Do we need the AfD? Podcast. In: der Freitag: Community. of Freitag Mediengesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, September 15, 2019, accessed on September 16, 2019 .
  39. ↑ Udo: vaccinating? Well, meal ... In: I have no idea about Garnix. Udo Endruscheit, August 30, 2019, accessed on September 16, 2019 .
  40. ↑ Bernd Harder : On the wrong track. Udo Pollmer fables pseudo-sarcastically about vaccinations. In: GWUP | The skeptics. Blog. Society for the Scientific Investigation of Paraweek eV (GWUP), August 30, 2019, accessed on September 16, 2019 .
  41. ^ Cicero list - Germany's most prominent natural scientists (PDF; 1.4 MB), In: Website des EU.LE e. V. Retrieved December 25, 2011.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pollmer, Udo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German food chemist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th June 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Himmelpforten