reading

Dear readers,
Would you like to be truly happy and satisfied with your life? Then do the right thing! What that is exactly you will find out by listening to your inner voice – and by taking a good, respectful look at nature. Just look around: humans are the only creatures on earth that heat, cook, roast or bake their food – and they are also the only creatures that suffer from cancer, diabetes, heart disease or fungal disease and pine away at old age. You can only find similar afflictions with animals when they are being fed by humans or eat scraps left behind by humans. Wild animals do not have the same ailments that we suffer from when we get old.

The biggest health problems have only just arisen in our “modern” world. Why do we humans believe that we must alter the natural state of our food before eating it? Nature created everything perfectly well! Millions of years of evolution have only left us with those creatures that are able to “function” in nature: those who are intact and able to survive just the way they are. All others have become extinct. To find answers to our question we need to study nature and respect its design. The more we stray from nature’s path the more problematic our lives will become.

Most humans in the “modern” world are “very stressed” and are “always busy.” As a consequence, they mainly eat fast food and ready meals that quickly satisfy their hunger – that is not “real” food. An example: Take a fresh apple (or rather its core) and bury it in the earth – after a while you will observe the growth of an apple tree. And now take a second apple, cook or bake it and once again bury it in the earth – what arises? Nothing. It rots. Why? Because, by heating it, you removed its life force.

Natural food is meant to be consumed in its raw form, in its natural state. Eating raw foods does not take a lot of effort or time, but results in you feeling great. Your health problems will disappear and you will be awarded with a longer life. Uncooked vegetarian foods – that is not bland, monotonous or unappetizing. You just have to familiarize yourself with every green thing that grows and how to mix it to taste.

When I heard that Dr. Joachim Mutter – a studied medic, a doctor – “treats” sick people with fresh, raw foods I immediately offered my support for his book. Here is a new generation of therapists who show us the only path to health and a long life. On this way, I salute you as readers and wish you a lot of love and light!
Markus Rothkranz

Markus Rothkranz, a German by birth, has been living in the US for many years and is an author¹, speaker and activist of the raw food movement.

Preface by Prof. Dr. Franz Daschner, MD

I worked together with the author for many years, and he was one of my best assistants. He was extremely hard-working and popular with his patients and feared by his scientific opponents as he knew the whole scientific literature (e.g. on the topic of dental amalgam) better than anyone else of the world.

I will never forget the following experience I had with him: we took the train to the Robert-Koch-Institute in Berlin (in the matter of performing a scientific risk analysis for the German government on the topic of the toxicity and adverse effects of dental amalgam). At lunchtime, I was eating a meat sandwich with the utmost appetite while he opened a suitcase and took a bowl filled with green stuff that he had collected in the meadow in front of his house in the morning, which he ate with apparent delight.

Now he is publishing this wonderful book. Once again, I am amazed at his unbelievable knowledge, which he passes on comprehensibly to everyone who wants it. To be honest I have never even heard of some of many of the plants that he describes to be edible. And I have to admit that I often prefer a nice piece of meat and cannot resist one or two glasses of red wine. And I still prefer a beef and pork sandwich over a stinging nettle salad.

I read this book with great pleasure and admiration for the author but also with a guilty conscience. It is without doubt however that even those that only perform 10 percent of what Joachim Mutter recommends will live healthier and at the same time preserve our nature. Hence I am very thankful to the author for his dedication and hope this book will gain a worldwide circulation.
Prof. Dr. Franz Daschner

Prof. Franz Daschner was Head of the Institute for Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology at the Medical School of the University of Freiburg (Germany) for many years; he retired in 2006. In 1998, he was awarded the renowned title as “eco-manager of the year” and as the first doctor ever he won the German Environment Award, the highest doted price in Europe. Also, he got the highest awards from the German government for his research. Today he is the chairman of the Viamedica Foundation – a foundation for healthy medicine (www.viamedica-stiftung.de), which he founded in 2002.

Introduction

The people that come to see me only have one wish: They want to stay or rather get healthy, and want to increase their performance and vigor up until old age. To me, it is important to research, recognize and find the main causes of the diseases. When we know what causes illness, we ultimately find the best cure. This makes the concept of therapy relatively simple: Avoid main causes of illnesses – and people should also be aware of the factors that mainly benefit their health.

The conventional established opinions on things that cause and cure diseases in humans often completely deviate from what practically, in real life, shows the best and safest results. This sounds provocative, but it is possible to, through the aid of few and cheap measures, significantly reduce the majority of today’s disease burden in the world. As this is not happening up to date, the question arises, whether it would be beneficial to certain interest groups to have many sick people for as long as possible. A trenchant answer was given in the Journal of the German Medical Association. In the Deutsches Ärzteblatt – the most popular medical journal in Germany – Prof. Dr. Klaus Dörner (psychiatrist and author²) criticized the following tendency:

“Competition urges the development of new markets. The aim has to be the conversion of all healthy people to sick people. Sick people being people that in order to “live healthy” believe to require therapeutic, rehabilitating and preventive manipulation in a chemical-physical as well as psychiatric manner by experts, for as long as they live. In the area of physical illnesses this is already working relatively well but even better in the area of mental diseases, especially as there is no lack of theories according to which almost all humans are unhealthy.”³

Hence the doctor keeps us to remain in a state in between those two, so he can gain.”

For decades, people have spent several quadrillions of dollars in order to prevent or cure diseases. And in fact, this partially resulted in very significant successes: in hygiene, acute infectious diseases, with emergencies, accidents and injuries. Many more lives can today be saved and preserved through intensive care medicine. And certain acute illnesses that used to be more common have become less frequent. However, medicine remains to be mostly powerless against chronic diseases. The absolute number of diseases in the world is getting bigger and bigger. By now, chronic diseases constitute to more than 80 % of all registered diseases. These include the so-called “widespread diseases.” In addition, many acute illnesses (such as heart attack, pulmonary embolism or stroke) normally occur in the course of chronic diseases (such as hypertension or arteriosclerosis).

I have already described the eight most important causes of diseases in my books that have been published so far (see bibliography, no. 49) You will find here the top important cause of diseases in this book as well as a very effective “prescription” for your health.

Presenting the backgrounds in the most commonly understandable way is very important to me. However, for the sake of scientific foundation, it is unavoidable that the text will also include a number of medical terms. The most important terminology is explained in the appendix. You will, however, be able to understand the basic statements of the book even if you are not familiar with every single term.

Part I
Why nutrition causes
diseases

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with a seed in it. They will be yours for food.

Hence the human is, above all, a continued nutritional process … Perhaps one day a scientist will discover how to make significant people out of regular children just the way the bees convert a random grub to a queen only by giving them special food, which they know how to prepare.

Most of the foods we consume today are, from a genetic perspective, not meant to be eaten by humans. While they give us energy, they lead to illnesses after years or decades of malnutrition. Due to an unfitting diet, our intestine can even produce highly toxic substances that are even more harmful than environmental toxins. (Especially ammonia or ptomaines should be mentioned here.) An inappropriate diet, this includes many of the so-called healthy diets (I will explain later on in the book), is jointly responsible for almost 70 % of all diseases, including cancer and heart attack. The German Nutrition Society (DGE) commented on the “results of the nutritional report of the DGE in 2004” (1/18/2005): “Cardiovascular diseases with 47.3 % and malignant tumors with 25.1% continue to be the most common causes of death in Germany … Excluding all mortalities associated with smoking then the illnesses where nutrition is a contributory cause are responsible for more than two thirds of all causes of death. The causes of death related to a false diet and lifestyle can be reduced with a balanced nutrition and regular physical exercise.”

Research of the past years has proven that all chronic diseases, which also include the “widespread diseases”, are mainly caused by the following two factors:

• Harmful factors (poisons, also included in foods, and artificial radiation; for further information see bibliography, no. 49)

A third complex of causes could be attributed to psychological factors that in turn contribute to a wrong choice of diet and reduced exercise and as a consequence to the propagation of widespread diseases.

The sickening effect of malnutrition is not due to “overeating” but rather to an insufficient supply of micronutrients. Micronutrients are not nutrients that contain an energy value (such as fat, protein, carbohydrates), but they are indispensable for a healthy life as well as for reproductive purposes.

These do not only include the known vitamins but also vitaminoids (e.g. co-enzyme Q1, Q10, carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, taurine, glutathion), trace elements (such as molybdenum, chromium, selenium, manganese, iodide, zinc, boron, vanadium, lithium, germanium, strontium), living raw enzymes, thousands of vegetable molecules (often called secondary plant compounds), vital polyunsaturated cis-fatty acids, genetic material (RNA and DNA) and certain types of sugar (such as ribose), that do not contain an energy value (calories). The positive effect of micronutrients has partly been discovered and researched only recently (vegetable dyes, polyphenols, phenolic acids, salvestrols, oligomers, procyanides, microRNA). The influence of countless other substances contained in natural foods on humans is, up to this day, still unknown.

The malnutrition addressed here also significantly promotes the sickening effect of pollutants. The consequence: Our diet plays the biggest role in the occurrence of diseases – but also in curing such afflictions or vibrant health. This is what this book is about.

The body of man is composed of what he eats

The human body consists of quadrillions of single cells and the space in between those cells (the cell interstices, mostly connective tissue). The cells, the blood and the cell interstices consist of precisely the building molecules that are supplied by the diet. A cell membrane, for example, the outer shell of the cell, consists of fatty acids. Now, if the diet consists only of rancid or toxic trans-fatty acids, then these are included into the cell membranes and significantly disturb the functions of the cells for a long time, often for months or even years. They cannot produce as much “bioenergy” and are no longer flexible. Our cells may also contain the cellular poison acrylamide which is supplied by acrylamide polluted foods or arises due to high blood sugar values as measured as HbA1c. The human body also absorbs a lot of undesirable heavy metals or chemical toxins from food.

These undesirable substances strongly disturb the metabolic processes of the cells and hence those of the organs and the entire body. They are a major cause of diseases. The quantity of these chemicals and heavy metals that are often stored in the body for a very long time, if not for a lifetime, directly depends on the nutrition and lifestyle.

People that mostly eat foods from controlled organic agricultivation or wild harvesting and reduce their consumption of animal products, present with significantly fewer harmful substances in their bodies. (However, this does not apply to products that only bear the organic certification of the European Union.) In contrast the bodies of people whose nutrition mainly consists of conventionally produced food and animal products present with a toxic load that is many times higher. These chemical substances not only deposit themselves in the body but also negatively affect the intestinal flora.

Are organic foods healthier?

On average, a person consumes about 30 tons of food and 50 tons of beverages in a lifetime. With this, we probably also ingest many pounds of harmful substances. Many of the toxins that we can detect in our body tissues originate from our food. Here we can very successfully intervene: it has been extensively proven that organically cultivated food contains significantly fewer toxins than conventional nutrition.

The reason: organic cultivation prohibits the use of artificial chemicals such as insecticides (kills insects), fungicides (kills fungus), herbicides (kills weeds), phosphate fertilizer (contains extremely toxic uranium) and artificial nitrogen fertilizer (contains poisonous cadmium). Gene manipulated vegetable foods (GMO) that are of very high risk to the health are also banned in organic farming. The quality of the soil is also significantly higher due to the amount of the humus producing earthworms and microorganisms that live within the earth. Organic farming also ensures that our drinking water is less polluted by residues of phosphate fertilizer and pesticides.

Next to their relatively low level of pollution, organic foods also present with an increased amount of health-promoting micronutrients. This is because the plants have to defend themselves against insects and pathogens (such as plant fungi) due to the absence of pesticides. They have to defend themselves as the chemicals aren’t doing it for them. And these vegetable antibodies that are predominantly formed in organic foods are very beneficial to our health. As an example, you can take a large group of polyphenols that activate our “longevity genes” (sirtuin-genes) and in animal testing proved to increase the healthy lifespan by up to 150 %. The cancer-destroying salvestrols are also found in organic foods in higher amounts. The positive effects of real organic nutrition are only surpassed by products of permaculture and wild harvesting. It should be noted, however, that food that is given the organic certification of the European Union does not have the same high quality as those of renowned organic farming associations such as Naturland, Bioland or Demeter.

People often argue that the world population cannot be fed by organic food alone. A study published by the University of Michigan under the co-direction of Catherine Badgely in 2007 showed that after a worldwide switch to organic farming, the organically produced foods would have about 75 % more calories. The result would be an amount of food that could theoretically feed a world population of 12 billion people.⁵

Does “organic” always mean healthy?

One thing needs to be clear: eating organic foods does not automatically mean that you will be healthier than “normal eaters”, because even if you buy organic and wild products but process them unwisely, then a high amount of harmful substances can be formed. For example, when you heat vegetable oil, highly toxic trans-fatty acids are formed (no matter if the oil is organic or not). Trans-fatty acids are structurally altered unsaturated fatty acids that you can’t really find in nature. They are said to be extremely hazardous to health, destroy blood vessels, make you tired and cause cancer. Trans-fatty acids are contained in most of the processed food we consume today.

Trans-fatty acids are predominantly contained in conventional refined liquid vegetable oils, especially in those containing a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (thistle oil, sunflower oil, soy oil, rape oil, corn germ oil, heated flaxseed oil) but also in the crust of whole-grain bread, linseed bread, whole-grain cookies, food pickled in sunflower oil (e.g. sardines, olives) or sunflower oil containing spreads. Trans-fatty acids are also found in margarine but also in roasted seeds or nuts (sesame, pumpkin seeds, sunflower, hemp, walnuts, almonds, macadamia, flaxseed). They are also found in some fish oils, fish conserves and in roasted fish.

Another poison produced in your kitchen is acrylamide. It is formed when you bake, roast or fry carbohydrates and is hence especially contained in the crust of whole-grain breads but also in potatoes, pies, chips, peanut doodles, rice cakes etc.

About 90 to 95 % of all processed foods that you can buy in stores are pretty much unhealthy – unfortunately even in organic and health-food shops. Not only conventional finished products but also those finished foods that are offered in organic supermarkets can contain a large amount of potentially harmful substances or may have been composed in an unhealthy manner. The aforementioned trans-fatty acids are also often detected in organic vegetarian spreads and pesto. They are also contained in most whole-grain breads, wheat germs or cookies as well as nut or nougat spreads. Furthermore they contain acrylamide that – as mentioned before – is predominantly in the crust of breads, cookies, chips, popcorn, rice cakes, corn bread and other baked goods, in roasted cereals and other similar products.⁶

Some people believe that when eating organic food, they will have done something beneficial to their health. However, foods such as superfine flour and products thereof (such as spaghetti), or several types of sugar, are extremely harmful – no matter if produced conventionally or organically. Civilization diseases are just as much and as surely caused by organic sugar, pretzels, candy, dried fruits, ready cereal or cookies as by the respective conventional products. The blood sugar levels are also increased by these products in an equally strong manner. The unnatural blood sugar concentrations then result in the production of the harmful acrylamide by the body.

And what about animal products?

Animals are higher up on the food chain than plants and therefore accumulate many times the amount of harmful substances in their bodies. At the same time, more toxins can be found in predators and old animals than in young animals and in those species that only eat plants. Hence it is not surprising that sharks, king makerel and tuna can present with a several thousand-fold higher load of chemicals and heavy metals than sardines and herrings. The same rule applies to land animals. And not only the meat and intestines of these animals are polluted but also eggs and milk as well as all products made from these. Hence:

If animal products such as milk, dairy products, meat, giblets, eggs, fish, crabs or oysters are frequently found on your menu, then your organs will also have absorbed more harmful substances.

Animals of organic husbandry and their products, on the other hand, are much less polluted as they do not eat any conventionally produced food that is treated with chemical additives or is genetically modified. This is not entirely the case with products that have only been given the organic seal by the European Union.

A healthy diet and a slim body – an utopia?

Journals, “how-to-do manuals”, guidebooks and websites are filled with them: Countless new and old diets, “foolproof” recipes, calorie tables, classifications of allowed or harmful meals, nutritional recommendations for different diseases, daily calory restrictions, a diet respective to the moon or biorhythm or according to ancient health technics (such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM) – this “over-feeding” of information for a healthy diet can easily confuse all that are interested in living a healthy life.

Among health guides, books about getting slim are right at the top of the bestseller lists. This has two reasons: First, there is a high demand as there are a lot of overweight or obese people. Second, obesity is one of the few widespread diseases that is seen and diagnosable easily. This is not the case with other widespread “chronic diseases” that are at least as frequent or dangerous, such as arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, chronic hyperglycemia, loss of neurons, Alzheimer’s or cancer in the first stages. These diseases are often diagnosed too late so that the disease, until visibly onset, has between 10 to 40 years to develop undetected.

A lot of the good nutritional advice is often contradictory or not very practical. One popular recommendation, for example, tells you not to eat any carbohydrates but instead a lot of animal protein and fat – others want to reduce the fat in your diet and others in turn recommend protein abstinence or only to eat fruits. Some “experts” claim that humans need meat and milk in order to live – others state the contrary and insist that grain is the best nutritional basis. Some even demonize the consumption of meat but as an “alternative to meat” recommend soy products or lupine protein. There are people who say you should only eat half of everything that is on your plate, others tell you to eat only cooked foods. Many recommend a diet according to the blood- or metabolic type – depending on the results of a blood test, some prefer a diet that is low in gluten, milk protein, histamine, nickel or other allergens.

Last but not least there are also the official authorities responsible for nutrition or organizations of industrial nations that publish recommendations to ensure a “balanced and substantial diet” for their citizens. But most people don’t even know what the recommendations, for example, of the German Nutrition Society actually look like. This takes place also for other countries. An army of qualified “nutrition experts” and dietitians try to make their newest dietary knowledge accessible to the public through governmental institutions, media, hospitals or schools. The nutritional landscape is at every opportunity flooded with campaigns such as “5-a-day fruit & veggies” or a vast array of recipes and cookbooks. On top of that: the medical and pharmaceutical industries and health insurances have been investing a lot of time and money in research, prevention programs and therapies for decades.

They all have the best intention and claim that with their proclaimed diet, people would get healthy or at least would not fall ill. Even doctors are often not sufficiently informed about the importance of nutrition that it has for human health; a medical education does not include dietetics. While many doctors assume that the diet is a factor in the emergence of human diseases, they do not believe that a healthy diet is actually able to heal diseases. Just an example: cancer patients are often told: “you can eat whatever you like!” It’s clear that the majority of the people are confused and resign, become indifferent and continue to eat what is offered by major food companies.

Research results: what is a healthy diet?

In order to obtain a profound answer to the question of what is a healthy diet, people should consider the results of animal testing, observational studies on humans, nutritional experiments as well as successful historical traditions.

Archeological studies impressively show that our ancestors who lived more than 10,000 years ago hardly showed any signs of caries, tooth displacements and other widespread ailments. The beginning of settlements and cultivations about 6,000–10,000 years ago and the increasing consumption of new food, like grain and milk products, went hand in hand with the first development of signs of arteriosclerosis and joint damage. But there was still no sign of cancer 5,000 years ago. (This was published in the American scientific journal Nature Reviews Cancer.) Why is that the case?

Countless scientific nutritional experiments on animals in the past 100 years draw a consistent picture:

When animals (regardless of their species) are given human food that is part of the typical “Western diet” they soon begin to develop the same diseases we “civilized” humans suffer from. For example, arteriosclerosis, cancer, myocardial infarction, high blood pressure, gall and kidney stones, joint degeneration, tooth decay, obesity, osteoporosis, neurodegeneration, diabetes, … This also includes afflictions that arise in the next generation: tooth displacement, narrow pelvic bones (lead to complicated births with females) or a nasal cavity that is too narrow (leads to reduced nose breathing) as well as behavioral disorders, retarded development, excessive aggressiveness or apathy. In an experiment carried out by Dr. Francis Marion animals required 100% natural food for three generations for all these damages to be reversed.⁷

Why have wild animals survived for centuries?

In comparison: How are those wild animals doing whose habitat (such as the jungle) has yet to be destroyed by human influence? From the point of view of these spared (so far) wild animals or naturally kept pets, our discussions on diseases or dietary rules must seem absolutely ridiculous. Please take the following with a little bit of humor:

Dr. Joachim Mutter

Eat Green!

The Health Revolution
on Your Plate

Preface by Prof. Dr. Franz Daschner
Foreword by Markus Rothkranz
Postface by Sabine Spitz

VAK Verlags GmbH
Kirchzarten bei Freiburg

Contents

Foreword by Markus Rothkranz

Preface by Prof. Dr. Franz Daschner, MD

Introduction

Part I
Why nutrition causes
diseases

The body of man is composed of what he eats

Are organic foods healthier?

Does “organic” always mean healthy?

And what about animal products?

A healthy diet and a slim body – an utopia?

Research results: what is a healthy diet?

Why have wild animals survived for centuries?

Dr. Joachim Mutter

Eat Green!

The Health Revolutionon Your Plate

Preface by Prof. Dr. Franz DaschnerForeword by Markus RothkranzPostface by Sabine Spitz

VAK Verlags GmbHKirchzarten bei Freiburg

Contents

Foreword by Markus Rothkranz

Preface by Prof. Dr. Franz Daschner, MD

Introduction

Part IWhy nutrition causesdiseases

The body of man is composed of what he eats

Are organic foods healthier?

Does “organic” always mean healthy?

And what about animal products?

A healthy diet and a slim body – an utopia?

Research results: what is a healthy diet?

Why have wild animals survived for centuries?

The Health Revolution
on Your Plate

Preface by Prof. Dr. Franz Daschner
Foreword by Markus Rothkranz
Postface by Sabine Spitz

VAK Verlags GmbH
Kirchzarten bei Freiburg

Part I
Why nutrition causes
diseases