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When using the Budwig diet for cancer and other serious illness Johanna Budwig and others all stress the importance of following it closely. The Budwig Diet has to be vegetarian, and keeping away from non-listed fats, sugars and non-compliant processed foods is as important as eating the right things.
You can make the Budwig Diet as interesting as you want, and you will find it can be adapted to your personal palate by adding herbs and spices. Meals can be fresh and light, easy and comforting or spicy and exciting. Make sure you consume a wide variety of different foods throughout the day.
Extra drinks from the permitted list can be taken as desired.
Follow the Diet Closely
Don’t try to “improve” the Budwig diet, there is good reason for its structure. Even if you can only face small portions to start with that is better than missing them out. When hungry or needing a snack only eat foods that are allowed don’t cheat. The best results come from following the diet closely and staying on it; read the transcript ofthetapemade by Cliff Beckwith highlights the importance of staying with the Budwig protocol. Even after remission from illness it is recommended that you stay on the diet.
The Budwig diet “pick & mix” only for less seriousconditions:
People who are addressing less serious conditions can find that dipping into the Budwig Diet for as little as one meal per day can make a significant improvement; try replacing your usual breakfast with the Budwigmuesli of linseed oil and quark cream with fruits, ground linseed, berries and nuts and of course cutting out or considerably reducing the “bad stuff”, sugar, sweets and other sugary foods, white flour, cakes and pastries, refined foods, oils and other fats, meat, etc.,
Click for more info on the foods you must consume.
The Budwig Diet Full Daily Meal Plan
Choose foods from the list of foods you can haveand those you must eatand avoid everything on the foodsyou mustn’t eatlist.
First thing, 1 hour before breakfast, approx 7 a.m.
- 1 glass sauerkraut juice. If you aren’t used to sauerkraut this can be a bit of a shock to to the taste buds but good, freshsauerkrautmakes a pleasant juice and is easy to get get to like. While you are getting accustomed to it try adding a little pineapple or other juice.
Breakfast, approx 8 a.m.
- First a cup of tea. Throughout most of her books she specifically recommends green tea or herbal tea. No milk, no sugar, no flavoured teas; black tea is permitted “on occasion”.
- Then, after about half an hour, Linseed Muesli (click here for full recipe) which is a tasty mix ofground linseed (flax seed), chopped fresh-in-season fruit, blended quark cottage cheese and linseed oil cream (also known as FO/CC – flax oil/cottage cheese) with a little natural honey, berries and chopped nuts. It is most enjoyableand there areplentyof variations in the recipes here and in Johanna Budwig’s recipe book The Oil-Protein Cook Book to keep breakfasts interesting.
- At breakfast or lunch if you are still hungry you can have raw vegetables, wholemeal bread and up to 50 g/2 oz quality hard cheese such as Gouda, Edam, Emmental or Jarlsburg.
Mid morning 10-11 a.m,
- Fresh pressed juice. Specifically recommended carrot, celery and apple, beet and apple, radish, or stinging nettle, with lemon juice. Mix and combine ingredients to your juice to taste. Vary your choice of juices. See juice recipes.
Before Lunch NOON Optional
- A glass of champagne with ground linseed – some people mix the ground linseed with about ½ teaspoon honey with some of the champagne and drink the rest!
12.15 a.m. Lunch:
You must have a second helping of the linseed oil-quark cream for lunch. This can be as a dressing for the starter, eaten with a main course, if you feel you need one, or eaten as adessert.
- Raw salad starter. It is important to have a starterof a of raw vegetable salad which you can dress with a “mayonnaise” made from quark-linseed oil cream with lemon juice/apple cider vinegar/herbs/spices etc or avinaigretteof linseed oil and lemon. This is not a few token leaves, tomatoandsliceofcucumber but rather asaladof substance and variety with raw roots, shoots or leaves grated or chopped, or sauerkraut or similar lacto-pickles with fruits and herbs to flavour. See recipes.
- Main course. Optional. If you need the extra calories or want a bit more to fill you up have a main course of steamed or boiled vegetables with potatoes, brown rice, buckwheat or millet. These can be taken as a vegetable soup orrisotto-style dish seasoned with linseed oil-quark cream or oleolux and yeast flakes. See lunch recipes.
- Dessert(Linseed muesli similar to that you had for breakfast)– if you haven’t had a helping of quark-linseed oil cream with your salad you must have it here as a dessert.
- Try to make itdifferentfresh fruit to those at breakfast.
- If you are using the Budwig cream with your salad make sure you add ground linseed to either the salad or here with a bowl of fruitdessert.
- For flavour add a little honey, fresh fruit, spices or even a little vodka, rum, cherry or plum brandy.
- Johanna Budwig’s cookbook has lots of recipes and there are several on this site’s recipe pagesto get you started– you can even have ice cream made to her formula .
- Drink 1 cup of hot herbal or green tea
3-4. p.m. Mid afternoon:
- Drink a glass of red wine, champagne or fruit juice with 1-2 tablespoonsfreshlyground linseed. Juices specifically mentioned are pineapple, grape, cherry, blueberry and papaya juice which can be sweetened with ½ teaspoon honey. (As above some people bend the rules slightly by adding some of the wine to the linseed and honey and enjoy the remainder from the glass.)
An EarlyEvening Meal at about 6 p.m:
- A low protein, wholegrain carbohydrate, slow-release hot meal of whole grains such as brown rice, buckwheat, oat flakes, quinoa or soya flakes withcooked vegetables. You can season generously with oleolux and add a teaspoon of yeast flakesor it could be a sandwich made from homemade bread with oleolux spread.
Alternatively you can make the whole grainsand vegetables into a broth, soup, stew, risotto, curry chilli-no-carne (!) – but make sure you don’t useprocessed flavorings or sauces though spices are fine – or simply have vegetables with the cooked wholegrain carbs on the side sprinkled withyeast flakes and oleolux.
The timing and content of this meal is designed to help you get a good night’s sleep.
Later 8.30
- A glass of red wine. Johanna Budwig says you can it sweeten with a little honey if you wish …
Foods you must avoid
It is just as important not to consume the bad things as it is to stick to the good things.
You should completely avoid:
all other oils and fats (and foods made with any),
sugars (and foods made with any),
syrups (that includes agave) sweets,
refined foods, processed foods, readymade meals,
meat, eggs,
white bread, refined grains.
See full list of foods not to have. Supplements are not part meant to be used on the Budwig diet.
Click here for more info on the foods you must avoid.
