The Budwig Diet and Protocol: Dieting for Cancer

In my research on cancer diets, I came across this one over and over.  The great thing about this protocol, is that everyone can do it.  It is not expensive, and it is easy to do.  What is the Budwig diet anyway?

First I would like to talk about Johanna Budwig, the person who this diet is named after.  She was a German scientist, and was given the task of studying what trans-fats do to the human body.  At the time, people didn't know if they were good, bad, or indifferent.  So she started her research, and in so doing made some very important discoveries.  If you don't know what trans-fats are, they are simply liquid fats that have had hydrogen added to them to make them solid.

We know them as margarine, Crisco, and other "so called healthy" fats that have replaced the traditional things like butter and lard.  She began to find out that these fats had very bad effects on the body at the cellular level.  They interrupt the normal process of these cells and damage them.

Is Cancer Really Affected By Our Diet?

Every week when we gather for prayer meeting, the dominant theme is to pray for our sick loved ones.  Every week we add a new person to the dreaded "C" word list.  You all know what I am talking about, it is cancer.  For the past two years, we have heard of more people than ever getting cancer.  We have been to more funerals this year than ever.  Over the course of one year, we have had a loved one die every couple of months.  It has truly been a heartbreaking year.  People of all ages, and mostly young, our neighbors two year old grand-daughter, and several friends less than 50 years old.  I will do a blog about the causes of cancer, but for now I want to discuss something that we never hear of, A CURE.

Because of all the people I know getting sick, coupled with the fact that I taught a health class last year led me to do a lot of studying.  I love to do research, and I love science, and for me it is fun to learn new things that I can share.  I love to look up things and help friends or family, another reason I am writing this blog now.  What I found out was really appalling, and amazing at the same time.  Also, recently there has been a 15-hour documentary that aired last week, in nine videos. The Truth About Cancer; A Quest for the Cure. It blew my mind, and reinforced everything that I already knew, and also gave me more information than I could absorb in one week.  So I bought them, and hopefully can share them with others. These videos interviewed real doctors, researchers, and patients that have all defeated cancer.

Vitamin C: Important For Our Health!

My journey into natural healing started a very long time ago.  It actually started because my son, who was 4 at the time had severe ear infections.  We were going to the doctor all the time.  He was so bad that the doctors put him on prophylactic antibiotics, meaning that he took them to prevent an ear infection.  By the time he was 4, his ear infections were immune to most antibiotics.  When a doctor actually tells you that there are no antibiotics left to try, it gets scary.  That is what pushed me to start researching other ways to heal him.  As I studied ways to help cure ear infections without antibiotics, I learned a great deal. One of the first vitamins I learned about was vitamin C.  I can remember thinking, why didn't anybody tell me this before?

What I learned is that vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins for the immune system.  Without it, your body can't heal itself.  I also learned that humans don't synthesize it, like most animals do.  Have you ever wondered why your dog or cat rarely get sick?  They make their own vitamin C.  I wish I did.  Since we don't, that means that we need to eat it every day. This is a water soluble vitamin, so we can't store it in our bodies. On average, we get about 80-100 mg per day, and that is enough to keep us from getting scurvy, but is that really enough?  Personally, I don't think it is enough to keep our immune system running smoothly.  Our immune system is always seeking and destroying invaders, and needs to be working well to keep us from getting sick.  Taking a supplement in the form of a good multivitamin is probably a good idea.

The Egg Confusion

The other day I was in line for the grocery store check out, when I saw the young couple in line ahead of me.  They had a lot of healthy food, some organic food, and mostly fresh veggies.  The cashier commented on what they had, and they replied that they try to eat as healthy as they can.  It was then that I spied the egg container.  It was a brand of cage-free eggs.  It made me realize, that sometimes we just don't know what the labels mean.  The brand was selling the fact that the eggs were "all natural", and vegetarian fed cage free eggs, like they were more healthy than the cheaper eggs. Were they?  And by the way, have you ever seen an egg that was not "all natural".  What does that mean anyway?

In doing some research, I found that there are several problems with eggs that we should be aware of.  I think the most important thing would be what the chickens are eating.  Whatever they eat will go into their eggs, and then we will eat them.  So what exactly is vegetarian fed, is that special?  Not really, as most chickens are fed commercial feed made from soy and corn.  So even the caged chickens eat the same stuff.  Maybe some of the better brands don't use antibiotics or hormones in their feed, which is better, but they are still eating soy and corn.  What is so bad about soy and corn you may ask.  It is GMO soy and corn, which means that either they have huge amounts of Round-up with glyphosate sprayed on them, or they are made with a BT toxin that kills insects by destroying their intestinal lining from the inside out.  That means that the corn and soy have a lot of pesticides and herbicides in them, and you are eating the eggs from the chickens who eat the poisons. 

Milk, What Kind Should I Buy?

I wanted to do a little blog about milk.  There are so many choices out there, and so many of them claim to be healthy, so let us investigate.

There is regular milk, low fat milk, organic milk, milk from local dairies, and raw milk.  What kind is the best?

 One thing that I think is the most important question to ask is "What do the cows eat?" Cows were meant to eat grass.  Most cows in America eat corn.  If you look it up, corn messes with their stomachs, and gives them infections, so most farmers give the cows antibiotics to help with their messed up stomachs.  To add insult to injury, Monsanto created a hormone to make cows make more milk, so guess what ends up in the final product.  Let's take this just a little further, most of the corn in America is GMO corn, (genetically modified) (Again let us thank Mosanto).  So regular milk has traces of antibiotics, hormones, and glyphosate (the ingredient in Round up which is in the GMO corn).  Fat free milk, including 2%, 1%, and skim are even worse, because the process the milk goes through after removing the fat makes milk practically worthless to drink.  Whatever you do, if you can help it, avoid regular milk.  This includes the fat free versions too.

The Bunches of Vitamin B's

Vitamin B is not just one vitamin, but many.  I know we have all heard of B1, B2, B6, and B12.  Sometimes they go by their names of Niacin, Thiamine, Riboflavin, etc.  There are at least 12.

These vitamins help out body by helping us to convert food to energy, as well as helping us feel like we have more energy.  They are also important to help neurotransmitters in our body and brain.  There is a lot of research that shows the B vitamins help our brain make those crucial hormones like serotonin, which is needed to keep us feeling good.  Lack of these hormones can cause depression.  Some research has shown that people who are depressed may just need to supplement with a B multivitamin.  It helps brain function by keeping us mentally sharp, and can also clear up "brain fog".

So where can we find vitamin B in our food?  In a lot of places, because there are so many B vitamins.  The common foods that you can find this in is nuts, leafy greens, eggs, good for you dairy products, and meat and fish.

Vitamin A, What It Does, and How to Get It.

So next I will be discussing the vitamins and minerals in detail.  Starting with vitamin A.

First of all this is a fat-soluble vitamin, and can only be absorbed with the help of fat.  This is important to remember, because you will want to add a little fat to help you absorb it.

Vitamin A comes in a few different forms, but we will talk about two.  The first form is Retinol, and this is absorb-able the way it is.  This form comes from animal sources.  The second form we see the most is beta-carotene, and is the plant source.  Our body converts this to vitamin A in the intestines.  I wanted to do a little research about the conversion, because what happens if our gut health is bad, does it still get converted properly?  I don't know yet.

Vitamin A has many jobs within our body.  The most famous has to do with our vision.  Children who do not get enough of this vitamin will develop poor vision and can even become blind, especially in countries where there is not enough food.  Adults will develop night-blindness, and obviously can make our vision get worse.   The vitamin is needed for gene transcription, very important to help our genes reproduce correctly.  If they don't, it may be one reason we develop cancerous cells.  This vitamin helps our immune system work properly, and also is important for healthy skin.  You may have heard people getting prescriptions for vitamin A creams for acne. It is very important for proper fetal development, and is the reason why alcoholic mothers have babies with fetal alcohol syndrome.  The children were deprived of vitamin A.  I also read that once the damage is done, it can't be helped by giving the infant vitamin A, so there is irreversible damage. So you can see why this vitamin is important.

Fat does not make us FAT

The last macro-nutrient that I need to talk about here is FAT.  This nutrient has been so vilified in our country that you would think it was poison.  So we avoid it like the plague.  There is a low-fat version of every food out there that you can buy, and it is deceptive and damaging to our health.  I will say that there are good fats and bad fats, and we will get into that at the end of this article, but we need fats in our diet.  Let me explain why.

First of all, for those of us who are trying to lose weight, eating fat makes us feel fuller longer. It takes longer to digest, and so we are not hungry right away.  If we are not hungry, we will not eat as much.  Secondly, fat is important to help us get our fat soluble vitamins; A,D,E, and K.  Did you realize that those vitamins will not get into your body without fat?  They attach themselves to fat and then pass through your intestines.  A study done tested the amount of vitamins absorbed from a salad.  One group ate the salad with no dressing. One group ate the salad with low-fat dressing, and the third group ate the salad with regular dressing.  After eating they were tested to see who absorbed the most vitamins.  Group one absorbed NOTHING.  What good was it for them to even eat the stuff. The second group absorbed some, and the third group absorbed the most.  The lesson here is to go ahead and enjoy your salad with regular dressing!

What about Protein?

The next lesson is going to be about protein.  This isn't a very long lesson, but it is good to know why we need it and how the body uses it.

Protein comes in three forms: animals, animal products, and some vegetable/grains.  As most of you already know, meat is protein.  Beef, chicken, pork, fish, etc.  are the animals.  The animal products are milk, cheese, and eggs.  The vegetable/grain sources are beans, nuts, seeds, and some grains like wheat.

Proteins contain all the amino acids that we need to rebuild our body.  Protein is needed for healthy skin, nails, muscle, hair, and for repairing and growing.  Only animal sources contain ALL the amino acids that we need and are called complete proteins.  Plant based sources don't have all the amino acids and are called incomplete proteins.

The Physiology of Fat

In order to understand why America is filled with people who are overweight, we must understand why we are overweight. This particular lesson will deal with the physiology of fat. How to do we get fat, and what causes weight gain. Since this is meant to be a type of health class/health coaching site, we will be discussing a lot about food, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and just good nutrition in general. I have personally seen food heal people, and I have seen food kill people. It amazes me that if we all just ate better, we would have a lot less sickness.

The first thing I want to talk about is the macro nutrients. There are 4: Carbohydrates, Fat, Protein, and Fiber. We will discuss the first 3 in detail, the last one not so much. The first one I would like to talk about is carbohydrates. What are carbohydrates? There are good carbs and bad carbs. The good carbs are vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and seeds. Bad carbs are things like cakes, cookies, chips, sugar, candy, and most snacks. There are some carbs that are kind of in the middle like bread, pasta, oatmeal, quinoa, and rice; if eaten in moderation.

What is the purpose of carbohydrates? They are the body's main energy source. They get broken down to glucose, which is food for our cells. Kind of like fuel for our body. The problem is that we are not that active anymore. Our body doesn't need all that fuel, so it stores the extra glucose by turning it into fat, so we will have it if we need it. If we eat carbs all day, which is a typical American diet, we will have a lot of extra fuel that our body needs to turn into fat, because it doesn't need it.