Budwig Diet Revision – by Duncan Crow, Wholistic Consultant

This is a direct quote from the site of Duncan Crow

Germany's Dr. Joanna Budwig is widely credited for discovering that 2 simple food items, cold-pressed flax seed oil and low-fat cottage cheese, will cure or prevent many forms of cancer and a long list of other degenerative diseases including cardiovascular diseases and skin diseases. But the 50-year old "Budwig Diet" is long in the tooth and newer data has emerged that shows where we can improve on it. (essential fatty acids references) 

Sulfur-rich protein and calcium in the "Budwig protocol" is provided by cottage cheese. Because many people can not take "dairy", let’s look more closely at the cottage cheese. Human milk is higher in whey and much lower in casein than cow milk or goat milk; casein is the main protein in cheese and cottage cheese. Caseins differ somewhat; cow milk contains a lot of alpha-casein, which because of its different properties is the main cause of milk and "dairy" indigestion in humans. Beta lactoglobulins in cow milk can also be problematic as allergens, and cow milk also contains more alpha s1-casein than goat milk. All of this explains why many people find goat milk less problematic than cow milk. 

The problematic milk components can be removed leaving low-fat whey, most of which is an exact match across the whole mammalian order. The common ingredients are more easily assimilated than any other protein and do not produce sensitivity or allergy issues. The Physicians Desktop Reference for Prescription Drugs lists one pure whey isolate as "well-tolerated by even severely milk-sensitive individuals", and practice corroborates that. 

Bottom line - although biological incompatibilities exist in foreign milk, comments that lump 'dairy' products together as problematic are sloppy; the statement does not apply to high-quality whey, and it is widely acknowledged to be the most healthy fraction of milk. 

The Budwig Diet revision uses undenatured whey instead of cottage cheese. Undenatured whey contains the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine compounds including cystine. Methionine is transformed into cysteine by the liver. Cellular cysteine is the rate-limiting factor in production of glutathione, the body's master antioxidant and detoxifier. Glutathione is crucial to life; it's involved in ATP energy generation, immune system support, liver and other organ support, reducing toxin load and oxidative stress, and importantly, it shrinks tumors when levels are maintained. More glutathione information including the role whey can play in cancer therapy is available here with glutathione references. 

Cottage cheese doesn't boast those benefits; in fact it's only a sulfur amino acid source. The Budwig Diet revision's replacement of the bio-incompatible cottage cheese with compatible cold-processed whey adheres to the principles of the "Budwig Diet", and will provide huge additional benefit. Unlike cottage cheese, cold-processed whey is mildly alkalizing to the body, and several cold-processed wheys are listed in the US PDR as a specific anti-cachexia (anti-wasting) formula. 

The flaxseed oil in the original plan provides the essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is thought to be a 'good' omega-3 oil; however, more recent science has revealed that it's a common but faulty assumption that ALA is physiologically equivalent to omega-3 essential fatty acids EPA and DHA, and that there is no known need for alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) independent of its conversion to EPA/DHA. And in adults the conversion rate is tiny; the US Environmental Protection Agency has posted this powerpoint presentation (slide 5) that explains less than 1% conversion of ALA to EPA (some sources say somewhat higher), and <0.01% to DHA. (People, this is HUGE – we’ve been hoodwinked too long!) 

Though these details have traditionally escaped the followers of Joanna Budwig and Udo Erasmus, fatty acids expert Dr. Floyd Chilton fully explains them in his book Inflammation Nation. Chilton says (page 97), "I wish I could tell you that the (ALA) in flaxseed oil could replace wild fish as a rich source of EPA and DHA but the scientific literature simply does not support this contention. ...We do the conversion but very slowly, and we also eat a lot of fatty acids such as LA that 'compete' for enzymes that convert ALA to EPA and DHA, further limiting its conversion." 

This competition is most pronounced in the common condition of low EPA/DHA and higher omega-6 fatty acid intake seen in the modern diet. Thus the omega-6 content of the flax oil, (25% of the amount of ALA) seen in the table below, also inhibits the conversion.  

Composition of flax seed oil

Budwig and her followers including Udo Erasmus also purport to supply the needed fatty acids to rebuild cell walls so they can carry more oxygen and etc., by supplying ALA; however, cell walls actually contain negligible ALA and are high EPA and DHA.

This explains why for more than maintenance you may need vastly more EPA and DHA than an ALA supplement can provide, and why fish oil supplements are more popular for inflammation. For these reasons flax oil seems a less brilliant choice for biological support in humans than it did 50 years ago.

Unlike ALA, EPA and DHA are essential to health and can reverse illness, including the coronary heart disease, skin disorders and cancer claimed by proponents of the Budwig Diet. The Budwig Diet revision ensures adequate EPA and DHA are supplied. Wild salmon oil, wild fish oil, and cod liver oil provide lots of EPA and DHA. Wild salmon oil, even minimally refined oil, has almost no impurities. Inflammation can be further reduced by adding GLA or Borage oil.

Some people may feel safer by staying closer to the original diet by adding these EFAs rather than replacing the flax oil of the original Budwig diet, but it is unwise to not include them at all, thus this Budwig Diet revision was probably inevitable.

Essential Fatty Acids References:

"Specific inhibitory effect of dietary eicosapentaenoic acid on N-nitroso-N-methylurea-induced mammary carcinogenesis in female Sprague-Dawley rats" (Carcinogenesis; 11(11): 2015-9, Nov 1990) found that EPA significantly reduced (60% versus 93.3%) mammary tumour incidence and number in rats and significantly reduced prostaglandin levels, suggesting that the breast cancer inhibition by EPA may be mediated via lipid metabolism and associated reduction in prostaglandin synthesis. 

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil significantly reduced weight loss and tumour growth rate in an experimental colon cancer cachexia system in this study: (Tisdale MJ and Dhesi JK. Inhibition of weight loss by omega-3 fatty acids in an experimental cachexia model. Cancer Res; 50(16): 5022-6. Aug 15 1990) 

"Anticachectic and antitumor effect of eicosapentaenoic acid and its effect on protein turnover" (Cancer Res; 51(22): 6089-93. Nov 15 1991) studied the effect of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) on weight loss and tumour growth in mice with cachexia-inducing colon cancer. EPA inhibited both weight loss and tumour growth rate in a dose-related manner; body weight was effectively maintained (weight loss did not occur even when tumour growth resumed), there was delay in tumour progression of growth, and overall survival was approximately doubled in EPA-treated acids, were equally efffective in inhibiting growth of these same prostate cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, with a 65% reduction in growth.

In the small double-blind, placebo-controlled study, "Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on rectal mucosal cell proliferation in subjects at risk for colon cancer", (Gastroenterology; 103(3): 1096-8. Sep 1992) 20 patients with sporadic adenomatous colorectal polyps were given omega-3 fatty acid supplementation for 12 weeks. While there was no change in the controls, the group of 10 that received fish oil containing EPA and DHA the "S"-phase cells (a reliable marker of colon cancer risk) significantly dropped in 2 weeks and stayed lower throughout the trial. Arachidonic acid (inflammatory) levels also decreased.