Budwig Diet
On self-appointed "Budwig experts"
and fake Budwig books misleading cancer patients
Copyright © 2013 Healing Cancer Naturally
Update 2023: Budwig expert Michael Bierschenk, one of the few living Budwig scholars worldwide, is the author of "Budwig Diet — How To Get It Right — The Ultimate Guide". This authoritative book has been written in collaboration with Ulla Schmid, the heart and mind behind www.healingcancernaturally.com. Designed to "fill in all the gaps" and to rectify the many errors propagated in other books and on the internet, this comprehensive work has been translated from the German and was published in April 2023 as a Kindle ebook on Amazon. It is also available (at a discount) as an downloadable PDF.
On Budwig's "pure teaching" and the rise of under- or misinformed "Budwig teachers" as well as bandwagon hoppers
Due to grassroots efforts sustained by a number of idealists, the Budwig protocol for cancer and other diseases (Oil-Protein Diet) has become a household name in the world of alternative cancer treatments.
According to Dr. Budwig, her protocol is a self-contained approach to healing cancer that must be followed wholly and complied with in all details in order to maximise chances of success.
As more and more interest in Dr. Budwig's approach was generated, a phenomenon occurred that can frequently be observed in human affairs:
Some individuals, apparently well-meaning but sorely underinformed, have started spreading "information" on the Budwig approach which can be greatly misleading and in fact counterproductive, and as more and more people engage in this type of behaviour, copying false information from other under- and misinformed sources, the effect starts snowballing until there is more half-truth found on the internet than authentic information.
And yet other individuals (typically as under- or misinformed) may jump on the bandwagon for less than purely idealistic reasons, i.e. to make money from the tidal wave of interest. And where financial interests direct or override the healing intention, trouble is assured.[1]
To give an example of the possible results of such actions:
I knew a person with colon cancer who died in March 2009 after having been diagnosed In September 2006 with colon cancer. He had refused all conventional treatment (his prognosis according to his wife at that time had been good had he submitted to surgery) and opted instead for the Budwig protocol.
However, he did not follow the original protocol as taught by Dr. Budwig but the advice of a well-known self-appointed "Budwig expert" who had modified Dr. Budwig's approach by "improving" it. So the patient added various supplements and rather than using freshly ground flaxseeds as prescribed by Dr Budwig, opted for a more convenient pre-ground (necessarily stale/rancid) flaxseed product.
Supposedly fortifying and improving the Budwig approach is something that is proposed all too often and according to Dr. Budwig, can nullify any positive effect from the authentic Budwig protocol as laid out and specified by Dr. Budwig.
While we do not know if this colon cancer patient would have lived had he followed the correct and original Budwig approach, his death certainly cannot (but likely will) be blamed on Dr. Budwig since he followed the diet only by name and not by nature.
On self-appointed "Budwig experts", "Budwig centers", fake "Budwig" books" and "Budwig" DVDs: examples
Particularly since Dr. Budwig's death in 2003, some deplorable developments can be observed.
- A fake and misleading "Budwig" book fraudulently published under her name
"The Budwig Cancer & Coronary Heart Disease Prevention Diet: The Revolutionary Diet from Dr. Johanna Budwig, the Woman Who Discovered Omega-3s" gives Dr. Johanna Budwig as the author and is described as the long-awaited follow-up to her Oil-Protein Diet.
Published in November 2010, i.e. more than 7 years after her death, this book fraudulently attributed to Dr. Budwig supposedly shares new original recipes and research.
As one can read on page 5, the genuine "project editor" of this book, however, is Dr. Armin Grunewald (Dr. Budwig's nephew who never worked with her but after her death became actively involved in the rebranding of the former Mariposas Clinic in Spain into a "Budwig Center"(?) [for an important update see Footnote [2] as well as in the creation of German-language commercial websites which in addition to her Eldi oils and basic flaxseed oil, also market various product lines under a Budwig label).
Apart from brazenly deceiving the reader about authorship, the book "The Budwig Cancer & Coronary Heart Disease Prevention Diet" is actually dangerous since it includes foods and recipes that are not appropriate and advised for cancer patients implementing Dr. Budwig's approach.
These include almonds toasted in flax oil or mashed potatoes with almond milk (anyone who knows the Budwig protocol is keenly aware that frying in flax oil is absolutely forbidden, for instance). - A misleading DVD and book
A Day in the Budwig Diet: Learn Dr. Budwig's complete home healing protocol against cancer, arthritis, heart disease & more
Produced by a Brazilian living in the US named Ursula Escher and apparently based on good intentions, this work nevertheless contains numerous errors such as regarding the use of kefir, yoghurt, sunlight, success rates etc.
The above two examples are far from exhaustive since there are other self-appointed but underinformed oil-protein-diet experts in the US, Spain and Germany, some of them undoubtedly with good intentions.
As cancer researcher Lothar Hirneise - the only person ever personally taught by Dr. Budwig - observes, following the wrong recommendations will result in the Budwig diet not working properly, if at all, and give the diet a bad name by detracting from the genuine successes of the diet.
Regarding those who pose more or less openly as "Budwig diet experts", Hirneise gives the excellent advice to simply ask them from whom exactly they have learned the Budwig protocol (and as I will add, unless it is from Dr. Budwig, Lothar Hirneise or all of Dr. Budwig's German-language books themselves, at least a little but better all alarm bells should be going off in those interested in using this approach for healing cancer).
Learning the authentic Budwig protocol
See introductory update above.
Footnotes
1 Compare Negative experiences in the alternative cancer treatment field.
2 On May 13, 2015, I received the following email:
"This is Lloyd Jenkins owner of the BUDWIG CENTER in Spain contacting you. I have enjoyed your excellent and most helpful research posted on “Healing Cancer Naturally”. I noticed this comment about our BUDWIG CENTER and Dr. Grunewald. You statement is correct when you posted it. However not any more. We have realized the Dr. Grunewald is not following the original program of Dr. Johanna Budwig. We did follow his ‘updated’ suggestions after he visited our Center for a few years. However that has all changed Ulla. We have realized that we must follow the exact and original program of Dr. Johanna Budwig to the letter. Therefore we have made several modifications to our web page and program.
If you would be so kind to update your comment and remove the references to BUDWIG CENTER such as;
"became actively involved in the rebranding of the former Mariposas Clinic in Spain into a 'Budwig Center'(?)"
that would be most appreciated
Ulla I would be pleased to contact you and discuss anything that you might like to know about our Center and program and any suggestions on how we can cooperate to promote the original Dr. Budwig protocol."
Is there a cure for cancer? After 20 years of research |
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Related sections
For an authoritative introduction to the subject including an extensive Budwig FAQ, see
Also see