The Budwig Diet – A Biography of Dr Johanna Budwig
Dr. Johanna Budwig was one of the most important biochemists in Germany who is remembered mostly for her incredible discoveries into the effect that diet can have on a number of serious diseases including cancer. The Budwig Diet, which she created to help to combat and treat cancer in patients, was the culmination of an entire career’s worth of work.
Her work with cancer patients led her to become recognized as one of the leading cancer researchers in Europe. Her work was so widely respected that she was even nominated for the Nobel Prize on seven occasions. She spent a large part of her life trying to help cancer patients and those with other terrible illnesses, and she managed to achieve remarkable success with her natural treatment program.
Before the Budwig Diet
Dr. Budwig was born in 1908 and died at the age of 95 following a fall. Before her discoveries into the effect that diet can have on the body, she was a leading biochemist who was widely respected by her peers. She held a Ph.D. in Natural Science, a doctorate in physics, and was a qualified pharmacologist and chemist. She was also the chief expert consultant for drugs and fats at the Federal Institute for Fats research.
Dr. Budwig was a specialist in the role that fats played in the diet. Although we are now mostly aware of good and bad fats and how important they are, Dr. Budwig was making these discoveries a long time before they became accepted knowledge. She even lectured on the importance that essential fatty acids held in the modern diet over 40 years ago.
On top of this, she was a published author. She wrote mainly on her discoveries with fats and the natural cure for cancer, and published such books as ‘The Oil Protein Diet Cookbook’ and ‘Cancer – the Problem and the Solution’ which has been translated into English.
Important Discoveries
It was Dr. Budwig’s research surrounding different types of fat that were the trigger for her research into the cure for cancer. Most importantly, Dr. Budwig became aware of the potentially serious problems with the modern diet. Namely, it was composed of a great quantity of over-processed foods that contained high levels of hydrogenated fats. According to Dr. Budwig, this and the lack of essential fatty acids in the diet were likely to be one of the major causes of serious illnesses in the developing world.
As a result of this research and discoveries into the presence of fats in the modern diet, Dr. Budwig set about researching how these could be affecting cancer patients and sufferers of other serious diseases. She was sure that not only could diet help people to lead more healthy lifestyles but that it could actively help to treat those people who were suffering from diseases. Now all she had to do was prove her theory.
Key Research
So began Dr. Budwig’s research into cancer patients in her attempt to discover what was making them ill and how they could be potentially cured. The majority of her research was made in the blood of cancer patients. She analyzed this because she was sure that it held the secret to her ideas surrounding a potential cure for cancer.
After years of research, she made a number of important discoveries into the blood of cancer patients and how it differed from that of healthy people. The main findings she made were that the blood of cancer patients lacked the same levels of lipoproteins, phosphatides, hemoglobin, and Omega 3 as those found in the blood of healthy people.
In addition, she discovered that cancer patients had a strange greenish-yellow substance in their blood that she could not find in the blood of healthy people. She realized that getting rid of this substance was key to the recovery of cancer patients. And it was through the diet of the patients that she was adamant the process could take place, allowing her to reverse the process.
Treatment Begins
Dr. Budwig came up with a treatment program that was based on nothing more than giving patients a diet based on two simple ingredients: flaxseed oil and quark. In combination with these ingredients, patients would also have to follow a strict diet free of many types of unhealthy foods, get outside in the fresh air and take gentle exercise, and be exposed to a lot of sunlight.
Flaxseed oil was chosen by Dr. Budwig because it contains a very high level of Omega 3, as well as being easily tolerated by the majority of people. Quark, a substance similar to cottage cheese, was chosen for its high levels of sulfurated protein. The two were required in combination in order to help the absorption of the flaxseed oil into the body.
Immediate Results
Almost immediately, improvements were witnessed in her trial patients. After just three months, her patients began to improve in health and strength, and the strange substance in their blood began to disappear at the same time as the nutrients began to rise. Dr. Budwig had found her cure for cancer, and set about making the details of the Budwig Diet readily available.
Disagreements
But her protocol was not greeted by everyone. The cancer industry did not accept her results, and the Central Committee for Cancer Research ended up taking her to court over her claims. However, the case was thrown out following the acceptance that her findings were backed up by solid research and results. She stuck to her belief that cancer could indeed be prevented and even cured through diet alone, as long as the strict diet was adhered to.
The Budwig Diet is still not accepted by the medical community as a whole. However, there are many who accept that Dr. Budwig made some incredible discoveries throughout her lifetime, and who hope that in time her findings will become more widely accepted so that more people can discover the benefits of her revolutionary diet.