Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life

Based on more than 40 years of clinical research, this illuminating book unravels the mysteries of nutrition and shows that changing the way we eat can help us feel better and live longer. It describes how a low-carbohydrate/high-protein diet can prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, as well as increase strength, endurance, and muscle mass.

• Foreword to the First English Edition

W. Lutz's book "Life Without Bread" has seen nine German editions and is now available in English. Although its provocative theories have found not only agreement but also opposition it nevertheless always offers stimulating reading . The twentieth century has been dominated by the "lipid theory" of arteriosclerosis. This theory assumes that the leading causes of death (heart attacks, strokes) which are complications of arteriosclerosis are adversely affected by lipids such as cholesterol and "saturated" (animal) fats but are counteracted by unsaturated vegetable fats. The theory is accepted by leading scientific organizations and supported by powerful commercial interests . Lutz's ideas have challenged the lipid theory which also some others (like myself) believe to be bullton sand. Lutz's treatment of the subject of carbohydrates vs protein-fat consumption is quite ingenuous. He studied the evolutionary development of food consumption and concludes that during the last 5,000 years a relatively sudden change has occurred by the introduction of high amounts of starches. On this basis he favors the return to the early practices to which man was accustomed. He claims that a protein-fat diet has advantages in the treatment of many conditions. Lutz's approach is controversial but his ideas deserve to be tested.

Hans Kaunitz M.D.

Clinical Professor of Pathology (retired)
Columbia University, New York

• Foreword to the Fifth German Edition

The first edition of this book appeared in 1967. It was a courageous feat, at a time when fat was held to be responsible for coronary infarction and many other diseases, to recommend the restriction of nutritional carbohydrate to 60 - 70 grams per day. An organization supported by the German government had even stated, without offering plausible supporting evidence, that an office employee "requires" 350 grams of carbohydrate daily ... Lutz stirred up a hornet's nest! In the ensuing years evidence from other sources and his own extensive experience have confirmed the value of his concept. "Leben ohne Brot" has become almost a slogan and the appearance of this fifth edition is convincing evidence of the impact caused by Lutz's ideas on the medical and lay public.

This book is intended primarily but not exclusively for the medical profession. Observations on his own person combined with clinical experience were the starting point for the "Life without Bread" programme. Even those who can not entirely accept Lutz's concepts and hypotheses regarding pathogenesis cannot afford to ignore this book. Clinical observations cannot be talked out of existence nor should they be dismissed simply because they conflict with one's own theories. The value of a diet can only be judged on the basis of clinical experience and practical success, and does not depend upon biochemical and physiological explanations.

Lutz's book challenges physicians to gather data on a "Life without Bread". It is an appeal to us to document results in the prophylaxis and therapy of adiposity, peptic ulcers, ulcerative colitis, hepatitis, arteriosclerosis and coronary infarction as well as to record our form of diet on which mankind lived for at least two millions years.

Prof. Hans Glatzel, Gross Groenau, Luebeck
Specialist in Internal Medicine,
Formerly Head of the Department of Clinical Physiology at the Max Planck Institute for Nutritional Physiology, Dortmund, West Germany