Joachim, Dr. med. Mutter - Eat Green!

• Wild animals eat all of their food raw. Humans have not been doing that for hundreds of generations.

• Wild animals only eat what they themselves are able to find, kill and “prepare”. But most humans eat meat and fish although they are not able to kill animals themselves.

• Wild animals predominantly eat “wild” food not cultured food. “Meat eaters” (predators) eat other wild animals; “plant eaters” eat wild plants. Humans instead continue to eat relatively new, overbred or genetically manipulated plant species (e.g. grains, milk and milk products, soy).

• Wild animals eat their food as a whole and unprocessed. Humans split up their produce and eat or drink only parts of it (refined sugar, refined flour, juices, industrial foods).

• Wild animals move. Humans do this less and less.

These provocatively formulated descriptions of wild animals show that they are almost completely innocuous to all widespread diseases. Is that due to their natural environment or their diet? The following are comparisons between observational studies made on free-living wild animals and experiments made with wild animals living in captivity. That animals can fall ill in their natural habitats was observed in the national parks in the US: wild black bears pitch into the garbage cans stuffed with food rests. From there on out they grow fatter and fatter from previously weighing 120 kg to weighing up to 250 kg. They also die earlier and in their shorter lifespan fall ill of previously unknown diseases – the same diseases humans are increasingly suffering from since industrialization. Experiments with captive wild animals proved the observation that nutrition plays a greater role in being healthy than genes, environment or sports do.

One look into the history of nutritional science gives us a better picture of why unnatural views on the “right diet” prevail in today’s society. I want to summarize this short review under the title “trials and errors”. 9

Back in the days every farmer knew that the growth and health of his cattle was mainly dependent on the quality of their food (their diet). But these experiences were not endorsed with humans, as the human is assumed to be a “higher” developed species and hence less dependent on nature. The notion that a “menial” process such as the intake of food could have an influence on the development of our physical and mental well-being was generally rejected.

More than 100 years ago the German nutritionist Dr. Carl von Voit and his students Max von Pettenkofer and Wilbur Atwater came to the conclusion that the human is a combustion engine; and a combustion engine could only work if energy (for the sake of heat production) is ingested through food. The value of food was hence measured according to its calorie content. The more calories the food has the better. The amount of thermal energy that a human could produce from the nutrients, carbohydrates, fats and proteins, was determined in a measurement chamber financed by the Bavarian King Ludwig II.

One calorie is the amount of heat that heats a liter of water from 14.5 °C to 15.5 °C.

Fascinated by the measurements of von Voit, the American W. Atwater soon returned to the US. According to his assumption, it was only the energy content of food that is important for humans. Granted by the United States Department of Agriculture, he published a “guide” for foods that described how many calories could be bought for just 25 cents: 645 calories in the form of eggs, 2020 calories of milk, 2850 calories of cheese, 9095 calories in the form of sugar, 10285 calories in the form of wheat flour, 13720 calories in the form of corn flour.

Following this thought process, you must assume that it is pointless to eat calorie-poor eggs, fruits or vegetables while for much less money you could purchase a much greater amount of calories (in the form of sugar, wheat flour or corn flour). A heating system (back then, this is what the human body was regarded to be) does not use the expensive “mahogany wood” but rather cheap and calorie rich heating fuel.

It was only later that people realized that substances without calories were essential for a healthy life. This was first stated by the professor of physiology Gustav von Bunge from Basel in Switzerland, his famous student Emil Abderhalden and finally by Casimir Funk in his publication Vitamins in 1912 (Nobel Prize winner).

Later it was discovered that even the smallest trace of elements such as copper, manganese, molybdenum, chromium, zinc, iron, selenium or strontium had to be included in the diet so that the human and his subsequent generations could stay healthy and would not become extinct.

Up to the present day, many more micronutrients in our diet were discovered, so called “vital substances” (in German “Vitalstoffe”), as they were named by the Rostock Professor Dr. Werner Kollath (nutritionist and pioneer of the wholefood nutrition, 1892–1970). These also include active enzymes and the dietary fibers that up until recently were deemed to be useless. These are fibrous substances that are found in natural plants (not in animal products).

More micronutrients and macronutrients such as native proteins, native essential fatty acids and thousands of in part still unknown plant auxiliaries were found in unprocessed foods.

Further, in 2011, it was even proven that active genetic substance (so-called microRNA) finds its way into the body through nutrition. These can steer up to 30 % of our genetic material (DNA) in a health promoting manner. In the liver, for example, they induce a kind of “genetic switch” that reduces the amount of the harmful LDL cholesterol in the body. 10The genetic material ingested through food appears to – in the best case – be a rejuvenation for our body cells. Some therapists, for example, employ plant buds as stem cell inducers for healing.

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Calorie-rich foods generally lose most of their micro- and macronutrients during refining and peeling processes. This industrial processing of food has to this day cost the lives of billions of people or caused them to be ill. For example, they died (and still do) from vitamin deficiency syndromes such as scurvy (vitamin C), beriberi (vitamin B1), pellagra (vitamin B3 or tryptophan) and pernicious anemia (vitamin B12). Or they were (and are) not affected by absolute deficiencies but only from a “reduced supply” of micro- and macronutrients which over years and decades imperceptibly caused damages and as a consequence developed the classical widespread diseases that we know and fear today.

For decades, the opinion was that uncontrolled consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol would lead to the constriction and degeneration of blood vessels (arteriosclerosis) and hence the secondary diseases like myocardial infarction and stroke. Because of examinations of the pathological cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels people assumed that reducing the cholesterol intake should at least prevent the cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke. And as cholesterol is only contained in animal products, experts advise against the consumption of animal fats, which is especially in butter, eggs, lard and giblets. As the blood cholesterol level is increased, among others, by saturated fats the consumption of saturated fats – that are also found in animal fats (but also in coconut-, cacao- and palm fat) – was advised against. There were also observations made that the ingestion of vegetable oils that contain a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (thistle oil, sunflower oil, soy oil, canola oil, corn oil) results in a lowering of the cholesterol level.