From Amanda's very early writing (1990s to early 2000s), shared as it was originally written.
recharge your life battery
Occasionally, we come across life changing pieces of information. This column is about the research of Dr Johanna Budwig - a German professor , scientist and biochemist and a Nobel prize nominee (seven times).
A research pioneer in the field of fats and cancer and health, Dr Budwig has since the 1950's been helping people recover from cancer without surgery or drugs. She has a very stringent treatment regime and her fat/protein rich nutrition component is well recognized in Europe and the USA , and her research has been validated by several Nobel prize winning scientists since.
Not only are her research findings important for cancer sufferers, it also has enormous impact on everyday wellness and peak body functioning. It can improve fertility, reduce arthritic symptoms, help diabetes, decrease some allergic reactions, minimize PMT, relieve asthma, increase feelings of relaxation and may well be to the fountain of youth!
I first heard of Dr Budwig's work from an American friend of mine , who after a career as a very successful business man, has devoted his time to exploring the most effective ways for maximising wellness and developing our full physiological potential - in other words, how to live longer , better, happier and neutralise the myriads of toxins that we are exposed to daily in modern lifestyles. If you are interested in this or in possibly controlling cancer or reducing your chances of developing cancer , read on!
First we need to understand the truth about fats. I'll try to simplify this as much as I can. There are 'good fats' and 'bad fats'!
The most important fact about fats is that we need them. Not all fats are bad. There are two types of fat - saturated and unsaturated. The saturated fats are found in meat, butter, eggs, fish, and chicken and are high in cholesterol. (Not so great!)
The unsaturated fats are found in either vegetable products or oils such as sunflower, sesame, safflower, corn and flaxseed oil. They have no cholesterol and are high in two essential fatty acids - omega 3 and omega 6 fatty aids. What we don't know and desperately need to know is that these essential fatty acids are critical for wellness - each cell in our body relies on these to reproduce without mutating and to breathe normally. We also don't know that we can make our own omega 6 from the foods we eat but we cannot manufacture (unless pregnant) omega 3 fatty acids.
Deficiencies in omega 3 fatty acids are linked to almost all the degenerative diseases afflicting us today; as well as cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, diabetes, skin conditions, stress and arthritis.
The non essential mono unsaturated fatty acids are found in olive and other oils. These are OK - not really good or bad.
So what does this mean you ask? It means that in our society most people need to add more highly unsaturated fats to their diets.
And the best way to do this according to Dr Budwig, Udo Erasmus (a world authority on fats and oils) and several other nobel prize winning scientists, is to follow this formula: once a day take 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil (per 45kg of body weight) - it must be pure, organic and unrefined, and the sort that you must keep refrigerated and in the dark. (Australia produces under the right conditions, the best flax oil in the world - at Stoney Creek Oil products). Mix it well with one or two tablespoons of cottage cheese or yogurt or quark or tofu (all protein) so that it emulsifies (blends completely) and eat it - on your museli, cereal or just by itself.
This flaxseed oil is one of the best sources of omega 3 fatty acids available and by blending it with cottage cheese , yogurt or tofu , it is more easily absorbed by the body and acts like jumper leads - recharging your body's batteries.
Dr Budwig's proven three step process for recharging your life battery is 1.the flaxseed oil, mixed with cottage cheese, tofu etc; 2. look at all food products that have a shelf life and if you see hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats put it back on the shelf - I'll explain why in the next article and 3. eat more vegetables and fruit.(we all knew that anyway).
There are two more issues we need to know to make sensible decisions about eating to live well. The first is that to preserve and increase the shelf life (by stopping the oil going rancid) of many commercially available food products that contain polyunsaturated oil, the oil must be refined or treated ( they are heated to high temperatures and become 'hydrogenated').
This hydrogenation of unsaturated oils not only saturates them, but also creates trans fatty acids which are thought to be carcinogenic.
(Preservatives, also added, act as 'respiratory poisons' which basically suffocate the cells and stop the recharging of our life batteries .)
They suggest that we avoid eating foods with fats that have been treated to increase shelf life. And beware foods with 'hidden saturated or treated fats' like cakes, biscuits, pastries, sausages and luncheon meats! Look very carefully at the lists of ingredients - if there are oils you can be pretty certain that they are hydrogenated. (PS margarine falls into this category - so if you thought you were being responsible and improving your health by eating margarine, a substantial body of research suggests 'stop using it now!)
The second issue is that our bodies run as one giant electrochemical circuit. In other words, chemically generated electric currents make our hearts pump, our nerves send messages, our cells regenerate and reproduce, and our foods to be metabolised. So our bodies are electrically 'charged' and function much like cars. Like cars, we also have a 'car battery' - a source of the power that drives us.
Highly unsaturated fats are full of electrons which are the things that can (very simply put) recharge our life batteries. Flaxseed oil when mixed with cottage cheese/yogurt/tofu release lots of the electrons which make the fats very useful to individual cells in the daily renewal process of life. Hyrogenated fats have their electrons destroyed by the preserving process.
Electrons have a great attraction for oxygen and stimulate the 'breathing' of our whole bodies. They are supposed to give us a feeling of wellbeing and 'lightness'.
Whether a cell thrives or dies appears to be determined by how fat and protein associate with it. Here's an interesting tidbit - the male sperm has over a thousand times more sulphurated protein (as in cottage cheese) than any other cell. The female ova has bucket loads of highly unsaturated fats (like flax oil).
At the instant of fertilisation, respiration of the cells increases a thousandfold (that is the cells start panting! and breathing in buckets of oxygen) and start reproducing at an amazing rate. I assume a similar effect occurs in normal cells when they are fed the flax/protein mixture - they regenerate and reproduce perfect cells (as long as the genetic code and a million other factors are OK!).
But wait - there's still more!! Sunshine is a great source of electrons. Of course, the oil/protein combo is the ideal mechanism for storing the sun's energy/electrons. So make sure you spend time in the sun (with sunscreen of course) to gather up all those little battery chargers!
She's convinced me folks! I've got my whole family on this regime and any of my friends who are still talking to me! If you can't bear the taste of the combination, mix it with a little pure (from a health food shop) honey or some tamari or soy sauce. Hey, it's only one or two tablespoons a day - and it seems to affect every one of our cells, and if you read these scientists more extensive scientific research - you'll be convinced as well!
So, to be optimally well, to maximize our human physiological potential, from a nutrition aspect, one of the things we need to do is eat fats
(especially essential fatty acids) blended with the protein I mentioned, eat more fruits and vegetables; and avoid supermarket items with long shelf lives.
PS. cook in pure, unrefined, cold pressed sesame or safflower oils that come in dark bottles. Do not cook with flax oil as the omega 3 is destroyed in the heating process.
