Budwig
Budwig diet and protocol: tips and frequently asked questions
Budwig Diet FAQ: expert answers to 138 frequently asked questions
Question 111: What are the main differences between Dr Budwig's diet for cancer patients as laid out in her "Oil-Protein Diet Cookbook" compared with her dietary recommendations for the "healthy" person specified in her second (yet untranslated) cookbook? Does a healthy person incur any risks following the strict diet?
Answer:
In her book "Krebs ein Fettproblem" [Cancer A Problem of Fats] which she wrote for the health-conscious homemaker, Dr Budwig in addition to the foods prescribed and/or forbidden in her "Oil-Protein Diet Cookbook" allows a number of items not permitted to the cancer patient.
These include foods such as eggs, whole-grain noodles, fresh fish without preservatives (which cancer patients are only allowed as a stopgap on holidays), even smoked fish (occasionally), as well as besides flax oil several other cold-pressed oils including sunflower, walnut, corn, soy, and poppyseed oil. Even sugar appears in several sweet dishes such as cakes and desserts.
The one observed risk for a healthy person following Dr Budwig's strict cancer diet with its overabundance of omega-3 fatty acids is an imbalance in the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. Dr Budwig's diet for the healthy person however should not lead to such a risk since it includes a number of sources of omega-6 fatty acids. For more tips re proper omega-3 to omega-6 balance, also see On feeling terrible & developing dry cracked skin, joint pains etc. on the Budwig diet. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)
Question 112: Can I use Greek yogurt as a cottage cheese or quark substitute?
Answer:
So-called "Greek yoghurt" is just a marketing term used in the US and/or Canada. It simply denotes a yoghurt that has been strained (so the whey is removed) which makes it into a type of quark (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strained_yogurt). "Greek yoghurt" will have a comparable protein and sulfurated amino acid content as quark or cottage cheese and will thus be fine as a substitute.
For instructions on how to make your own quark substitute based on strained yoghurt, see The basis of Dr. Budwig’s oil-protein diet: How to make the flaxseed oil plus cottage cheese/quark mixture & how to make simple homemade quark. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)
Question 113: How many sulfurated amino acids can be found in flaxseeds?
Answer:
Flaxseeds have negligible amounts of sulfurated amino acids (under half a gram per 100 g).
Question 114: When making my own linomel, are there specific ratios for flaxseed to honey to observe? Are there other substances one could mix the freshly ground flaxseed with to prevent its oxidation, such as water?
Answer:
When making linomel yourself, it would seem best to use natural organic honey which has not yet crystallized so all exposed surfaces of the ground flaxseeds will be quickly and thoroughly covered. Rather use too generous an amount than too little to avoid the occurrence of remaining air pockets of clumped flaxseed meal remaining unprotected by the honey film.
Know that natural honey has great therapeutic benefit (see Treating Cancerous Tumors with Pure Raw Honey Packs which also discusses scientific studies into natural honey as a medical and anticancer treatment).
If you can find them, use a thin-shelled flaxseed variety.
Immersing freshly ground flaxseed in a fluid medium will only protect it for a short time.
Note: The DIY flaxseed honey mix is a rather sticky affair and not particularly easy to handle. The only purpose for which it may truly make sense to prepare is in preparation for travelling when you don't wish to take a grinder along (also compare What do I do during traveling?. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)
Question 115: I am currently using organic LOW-FAT yogurt, unfortunately homogenised. Other options where I live are organic FULL FAT goat's yogurt and organic FULL FAT cow yogurt (both non-homogenised). Should I quit the low-fat homogenised version and if so, should I pick the goat's or the cow's full-fat yogurt?
Answer:
Since you are using low-fat yoghurt, there should be very little homogenized fat in your yoghurt to start with (as you are aware, homogenization is used to uniformly disperse the milk fat globules by reducing them in size). Since Dr. Budwig recommended the use of low-fat quark, the low-fat yoghurt would seem the better option.
Should you go for a full-fat alternative, the goat yoghurt would be preferable since goat's milk due to its somewhat different composition is frequently better tolerated (compare When making my own yoghurt or quark, can I use goat’s milk?).
Alternatively, there are easy ways to make your own low-fat quark from self-made yoghurt based on non-homogenised milk, see The basis of Dr. Budwig’s oil-protein diet: How to make the flaxseed oil plus cottage cheese/quark mixture & how to make simple homemade quark. Remember that quark or cottage cheese in any case would be what Dr. Budwig prescribed, compare Did Dr. Budwig actually recommend the use of yogurt in place of cottage cheese/quark?
Also compare Which cottage cheese is better used in Dr Budwig's FO/CC diet, organic high fat or non-organic low fat?. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)
Question 116: Which flaxseed oil offers the best quality based on the way it is manufactured? I am confused seeing proprietary methods (such as "Oxyguard" etc.) advertised which claim to provide optimum protection of the flaxseed against exposure to light, oxygen and heat during the manufacturing process — but where the oil comes at a much steeper price than others which seem to have been produced using similar precautions.
Answer:
It's true that the exposure of flax oil to oxygen, light and heat should be minimised since it turns rancid very easily. It is important to look for high-quality flax oil (as it is important to opt for the best possible quality in all foods).
Thankfully there are now several companies offering organic flax oil which has been produced applying the best possible protection from light, heat and oxygen during the manufacturing process.
One such [Germany-based] manufacturer would be www.brunozimmer.de. It seems quite unnecessary that some company would see fit to invent a fancy name such as "Oxyguard" for such precautionary measures (which typically just seems to inflate the price of the oil).
Additionally, the freshness of the oil and the way it is stored are just as important as the manufacturing method itself. If flax oil that was perfectly protected during manufacturing is subsequently stored on shop shelves where it is exposed to light and ambient temperatures, much if not most of the efforts at protecting it during manufacture would have been in vain.
Optimally, the flax oil you use would have been freshly pressed (such as within the same week) and delivered to your door in dark glass bottles.
To find the best-quality flax oil, my advice would be to look online for merchants and producers of organic flax oil. Compare how each company produces their oil, which should be stated on their websites. If not, contact them directly (although a company producing quality flax oil using quality protection processes would typically state this on their website).
All that said, know however that flax oil seems to have gotten much better in recent decades, with more manufacturers taking better precautions to safeguard its quality.
In Dr Budwig's times, her main collaborator Mr Bloching used to sell flaxseed oil which clearly was not well protected from oxidation but showed signs of partial rancidity, and Dr Budwig herself recommended purchasing flax oil in the Reformhaus [health food store] where it typically had spent weeks if not months sitting unrefrigerated on the shelves. In spite of patients using such less-than-optimal flax oil, healing successes were obtained.
For additional info see Buying quality flax oil. (credits: Healing Cancer Naturally)
Question 117: Supplements with antioxidant properties would likely be rejected by Dr. Budwig. Could even ingestion of too many natural foods with high antioxidant properties have a detrimental effect on the protocol, i. e. could too much of a good thing (antioxidant foods) be bad?
Answer:
First of all, Dr. Budwig never appears to have mentioned that "overdosing" on natural foods with high antioxidant content could be interfering with her protocol AS LONG AS they are ingested in their natural matrix (i.e. in combination with all or most other compounds nature originally provided them with). She does have reservations about concentrates, see the detailed coverage under Can supplemental antioxidants interfere with the Budwig protocol?.
Antioxidants ingested in the manner "nature intended" likely cannot be overdosed, otherwise Dr Budwig would not have prescribed freshly squeezed vegetable juices — including freshly squeezed nettle juice which exhibits powerful antioxidant activity, in fact, much higher than vitamin E[1] — as part of her protocol[2].
Interestingly, the Gerson diet for cancer[3] relies most heavily on an abundance of freshly squeezed vegetable juices, and there are a number of anecdotal cancer healing testimonials ascribing their success to fresh juicing with its high natural antioxidant content[4]. (credits: oel-eiweiss-kost.de and Healing Cancer Naturally)
(complete list of questions here)
Tip: making the Budwig mix into an extra tasty dessert while helping its digestion
A site visitor found that mixing applesauce (made from sour apples without adding sugar) gives a fresh taste and a light feeling in the stomach. The mix becomes even better if one adds some crushed cardamom. According to the ancient healing system of Ayurveda, cardamom is one of the best and safest digestive stimulants. "Applesauce and cardamom make the mix taste like a dessert."
Footnotes
1 See Stinging nettle research.
2 See Dr. Budwig: The Practical Implementation of My Oil-Protein Diet and Practical Implementation (II).
3 See Gerson.
4 See Juicing.
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For the most comprehensive and authoritative English-language coverage worldwide of the oil-protein diet & protocol developed by Dr. Johanna Budwig, see