Photo by Chayo Mata

I have been researching for alternative and complementary cancer treatments to help speed my breast cancer recovery.  This extraordinary book “Outsmart Your Cancer” by Tanya Harter Pierce, M.A., MFFCC 2009 copy right has been a huge eye-opener.  Out of all the interesting treatments the “Flaxseed Oil and Cottage Cheese” diet by German biochemist Dr. Johanna Budwig is my favorite and want to share it with you.  I will only use this treatment in addition to my doctor’s treatment.  Dr. Stephen Malamud at Beth Israel in New York City is my oncologist and I highly recommend him, but I too have to do all I can to help my situation.  I am very interested in nutrition for health, healing and prevention.  This is why this treatment appeals to me most.  I do want to add that I only am following the diet part about the intake of the flaxseed oil, cottage cheese and fruit.  I am not restricting myself from other foods as the treatment asks for.  I love food too much and decided that I would only follow this part of the treatment eating the cottage cheese and flaxseed oil.  It couldn’t hurt.  So here I go!  I am at the end of my first month with this diet.

“Dr. Budwig held a Ph.D. in natural science, went through medical training to become a physician and was schooled in pharmaceutical science, physics, botany, and biology.  She was nominated to receive a Nobel Prize seven different times.  Her most important contribution to the world involved her pioneering research into the roles of essential fatty acids.  Her discoveries began in the 1950′s, and she illuminated a common causative factor behind many of our modern degenerative diseases, including cancer.  She discover that, as a result of modern food industry practices, we no longer eat enough good oils in their natural states, and instead, eat too many chemically altered oils that are damaging to our health.  This tends to create a situation where we become deficient in two of the most important categories of essential fatty acids: the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.  Dr. Budwig found that in order to mass produce and distribute food products high in oils (e.g., salad dressings, cooking oils, margarine, etc.), modern food manufactures put these products through chemical processes to deliberately alter the makeup of the oils.  These alterations are done because most healthful oils easily go rancid once they are processed out of the natural foods they are found in, such as vegetables, fish, seeds, and nuts.  Once these oils are exposed to heat and sunlight for  periods o time, as they would necessarily be through shipping and storage they can easily degrade into a spoiled state.  Some of the most health-damaging pseudo fats are the hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats and oils, but many of the processed poly-unsaturated fats can be harmful as well.  In researching how to most efficiently get the depleted essential fatty acids back into our bodies, Dr. Budwig found that the body’s assimilation and use of essential fatty acid was greatly enhanced when the fatty acids were combined with sulfur-based proteins.  She discovered that these anomalies were linked to a severe deficiency of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFA’s).  The omega-3 and omega-6 are fatty acids (EFAs) are called “essential” because they are critical to good health and are substances our bodies can’t make and therefore must be supplied through diet.  Certain ocean fish – particularly the oily, could-water fish such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel- are the foods highest in the omega-3 essential fatty acids, and certain seeds and nuts are the foods highest in the omega-6 essential fatty acids.  In fact, nature has provided this combination already for us since most of the natural sources of essential fatty acids, such as milk, nuts, and seeds, also contain sulfur-based proteins.  Sulfur-based proteins are also found in many other foods, such as onions, leeks, chives, garlic and yogurt.  Dr. Budwig believed she needed to quickly replenish her patients’ bodies with sufficient EFA’s and flaxseed oil was the highest source around.  Then, she search for the richest dietary source of sulfur-based proteins to go with the flaxseed oil.  She finally settled on a food called “Quark.”  Quark is common in Germany and is similar to cottage cheese and yogurt. Next to Quark, cottage cheese is the richest source of sulfur-based proteins and is the most commonly used option around the world for the Budwig cancer approach.  By combining flaxseed oil with the sulfur-based proteins, and this makes them water-soluble and much more bio-available to the body.  Dr. Budwig also discovered that there were certain vitamin and mineral “co-factors” that aided the body in its use of the essential fatty acids.  The primary co-factors are vitamins B3, B6, and C, and the minerals magnesium and zinc.  These nutrients are all required by the body to make prostaglandins.  Thus, though the essential fatty acids are the main dietary factor needed for recovery from degenerative diseases such as cancer, simply ingesting flaxseed oil alone will not work as well as combining the flaxseed oil with foods rich in sulfur-based proteins.  In fact, there is some evidence that taking flaxseed oil daily without sufficient sulfur-based proteins in the diet may even be harmful.  (This is why some recent scientific studies that test the use of flaxseed oil alone for cancer do not show results anywhere near what Dr. Budwig was able to achieve.)  In case after case, Dr. Budwig found that thoroughly mixed flaxseed oil with cottage cheese was an efficient and successful way of replenishing the body’s level of essential fatty acids.  She proved that, through the use of her special dietary approach, the anomalous greenish-yellow elements in her patients’ blood would disappear over about three months and would be replaced by healthy red blood cells.  Normal levels of phosphatides and lipoproteins would reappear in the blood as well, and tumors would disappear.  Dr. Budwig reportedly accumulated over 1,000 documented cases of cancer recoveries with her special dietary approach!

Ok enough with the facts.  Here is the diet treatment!  I would not recommend solely relying on the diet to cure your cancer.  As I stated before I use it in addition to my doctor’s treatment and hope that it will help heal me faster.

Primary ingredient: Thoroughly mix low-fat cottage cheese (preferably 1 percent organic) with unrefined, virgin, cold-pressed flaxseed oil.  The ratio of these two items may vary depending on the severity of decease, but the minimum ratio is 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil per 1/2 cup of cottage cheese.  For patients with serious illnesses such as cancer, Dr. Budwig suggested anywhere from 3 to 6 tablespoons of flaxseed oil per 1/2 cup of cottage cheese per day.  Using a blender or other sort of electrical mixer is important to optimally mix the oil and cottage cheese and thus bind the essential fatty acids with the sulfur-based proteins.  Various fresh or frozen fruits, honey, and/or stevia can be added to the mix to make it tasty.  Lowfat or skim milk or unsweetened fruit nice can also be added.  Keep the blended mix refrigerated and eat it throughout the day.  If you are allergic to dairy products or need substitute suggestion refer to the book “Outsmart Your Cancer” page 216.

Foods to Completely Avoid

- Refined sugar (Unsweetened grape juice and honey okay)

- All animal fats

- All salad oils, including commercial mayonnaise

- All meats containing chemicals, hormones, or preservatives

- Butter

- Anything “hydrogenated” (such as margarine or fried foods)

Remember to use only unrefined, cold-pressed flaxseed oil that is sold in a dark (light-blocking) bottle and kept refrigerated at all times.  Barleans is an excellent brand and is very high-quality oil.  For best results, use the bottle liquid oil rather than capsules and keep the bottle refrigerated.  It take about 14 capsules of flaxseed oil to equal just 1 tablespoon of the bottled oil, and many times the bottles of capsules are allowed to sit on store shelves or warehouses in the heat which can cause the oil to become rancid.  Flaxseed freshly ground at home in a coffee grinder and used immediately can be added to the daily mixture.  But do not grind your flax seeds at a health food store, then drive home and expect them to still be good.  Dr. Budwig claimed that the oils in freshly ground flax seeds can go bad in just 10 to 15 minutes!   Although some people have a remarkably fast disappearance of tumors using this approach – sometimes in just a few months – others may take longer.  Dr. Budwig recommended that people using this dietary treatment for illnesses sty on it for three to five years to achieve complete healing.  According to Dr. Budwig, people who break the rules of the diet (for example by eating preserved meats, candy, etc.) may grow rapidly worse to the point where they cannot be saved.  However, some people have just used flaxseed oil thoroughly mixed into cottage cheese on a daily basis, without adhering to the other aspects of Budwig’s dietary protocol, and have still done quite well.  To be on the safe side, however, it is probably best to stick as closely to her original protocol as possible.

Here is the recipe I am following.

Mix in blender these 3 ingredients:

1 cup low-fat, organic cottage cheese  (I may cut back to 1/2 cup)

4 tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed flaxseed oil

1/2 Honey Dew fresh and cut in cubes

Outsmart Your Cancer

Outsmart Your Cancer by Tanya Harter Pierce, M.A., MFCC can be bought at amazon.com.