For more responsible citizens in our country

"For more responsible citizens in our country". Heilpraxisnet.de in conversation with Uwe Knop, the author of "Hunger and Lust".

(22.09.2010) Uwe Knop has been working for ten years as a medical PR expert for advising companies and institutions in the health sector, for example for drug manufacturers and health insurances. As part of the associated
As well as the "nutritional study tsunami", "Literaturserations" daily flushes "new nutritional knowledge" into his inbox.

His work provides him with daily fresh study material as well as the knowledge about mechanisms how public opinions are made and come into the heads of the people. And now readers of his book "HUNGER & LUST- The First Book of Culinary Body Intelligence", which has just been published in the extended new edition in Vito by Eichborn's Edition BoD, can now benefit as well.

For Knop, there are no general dietary recommendations. The eating truth is only in each body itself. Every human being is different and only he can find out his personal healthy eating habits. Intuition and confidence in one's own body feelings are essential.

Dear Mr. Knop, in your book "Hunger and Pleasure", you argue that food intake should no longer be based on rational aspects, but that you should listen more to your own feelings, no matter what you eat or drink. How did you come to this conclusion and what motivated you to write a book about it??

For the first book on Culinary Body Intelligence, I critically analyzed more than 500 study results for the years 2007 to 2010 - in these 4 years, almost all study material with public relevance. More than 200 of these study results now support the core thesis in HUNGER & LUST: In the field of nutrition, there is no evidence for any of the common rules. Exactly the opposite is the case: we know that we do not really know anything. Therefore, the nutritional recommendations change in a regularity. Ergo: Forget about any nutritional rules and trust exclusively on their individual body feelings, the real hunger and the desire, because it applies: Every person is (s) t different. My motivation to write a book is quick to explain: I want to help people to enjoy more life, enjoyment and freedom of eating by strengthening the book in their confidence in their own bodies - for more responsible citizens in our country. Because it's just pitiful how the overrunning nutritional propaganda attempts to patronize people in their actions - and based on a scientific foundation as durable as a snowman in the blazing midday sun in midsummer.

In your opinion, how did you evolve into a purely mental diet, when, as you say, hunger is the main motivation for life support? What is your thesis that it has even come to the point where people no longer trust their own body feeling?

The overriding dietary propaganda of the last decade has been the key factor that has led to a predominantly mind-based diet in many people. When, in constant repetition, the sermons of the food popes pound on people, then someday they let themselves be influenced and thinks: "Well, if all write again and again how healthy is fruit and vegetables, that red meat causes cancer and makes sugar thick, then there must be something to it. "This pseudo-scientific half-knowledge creeps into the back of the head after some listening and activates the bad conscience:" Oh, better take the healthy option. "And the more the eating behavior is mind-controlled, the faster one loses the feeling for true hunger. At some point you can no longer feel what real hunger feels like. And then the rational diet solidifies "true to the rules". A vicious circle - from which one should break out. So my tip: Get to know your real, the organic hunger again and trust the food only your body. Because just ask yourself: who else but your body should know which food is healthy & good for YOU? Nobody.

As you wrote and emphasized in other interviews, there is no scientific evidence to support your recommendations. In your book it is easy to see that studies are countered by counter-studies and can only ever show a small section of reality. How do you personally stand for studies? Think this is necessary?

In the field of nutrition, you will seek scientific evidence for any recommendations such as the needle in a haystack - because there is no reliable evidence, but only vague conjecture. This missing cognitive foundation is systemic: nutritional studies are almost exclusively observational studies. They bring almost nothing. Because what comes out? Always only statistical correlations WITHOUT cause-effect-proof. As an example: just as researchers have observed better overall health among red wine drinkers and therefore like to propagate a glass of wine daily, so they could also find the statistical connection that a breakfast in fed slippers is related to overweight. After that nobody looks for it. Perhaps because people would laugh at it if the subsequent recommendation were: Do not eat breakfast in lined slippers to avoid being overweight? Probably. Ergo: In the field of nutrition no healthy person needs even a single study result, because the results are no more than pure speculation. Not to mention the statistical bending of results. But this "data-fining" does not make the speculations true, quite the contrary: The "healthy" nutritional propaganda becomes even more absurd. (Editor's note: see PDF sample "1.Easter eggs are the better medicine")

We could imagine that it would be a relief to many people who have been trying different diets for years but may be an affront to some dietary types. How are the reactions to your book so far?

Basically very positive. Many people I speak from the heart, following the motto: "At last I feel confirmed in my natural diet and no longer let myself be persuaded by the whole food nonsense a guilty conscience." Who, however, certain diets with certain rules often as a kind of "replacement religion "Has discovered for himself, who will certainly have his problems with the completely liberal approach of the culinary body intelligence - because I recommend nothing at all. Except to listen to the own body. However, if you like food better by the rules, you should eat according to your "nutritional philosophy". The main thing, the human feels really comfortable in his skin. For I do not want to serve up a "new eating truth" in my book, but the reader should then decide for himself: Do I continue to believe in nutritional rules or do I just trust my body while eating? Everyone should do what is good for them.

If, as you emphasize, dietary rules that apply to all people are nonsense, then institutions like the German Nutrition Society (DGE) would not be necessary either?

No, not at all. Because the influence of the DGE is great - but unfortunately affect the local nutrition experts in the wrong direction, because their main job is the rational mediation of pseudo-scientific half-knowledge. The ladies and gentlemen should better use their "medial power" for the good of the people in our country. Therefore, I find it welcome that the DGE of my thesis "only eat what you feel like, if you are really hungry" in the core agrees: "quite fundamentally and for healthy people his thesis is probably correct," said Antje Gahl, spokeswoman for the DGE , Unfortunately, many people have lost access to the feeling of hunger. Because of these welcome DGE insights, it would only be consistent if nutrition experts focus more on awareness-raising campaigns that give people a sense of their true hunger - rather than rational knowledge transfer that has no effect, because hardly anyone will follow any dietary rules anyway holds. Incidentally, in HUNGER & LUST readers will find the basic recommendations on how to regain their true hunger - also in order to differentiate this essential feeling of life preservation from "hunger-free food" in the future. (Editor's note: see PDF reading "Recommendation DGE Campaigns Real Hunger" and "3.How do I recognize the real hunger")

Their findings appear to be extremely logical when reading the book, but they contradict the "mainstream" of nutrition science and public art, so far as nutrition is concerned. Are there any other approaches or publications that go in the same direction as yours??

Surely there is that. But unfortunately I do not recommend them, as I have not read another book written in this way.

What is available for people who have further questions about their suggestions? Hold lectures or participate in public discussions?

Yes, for example, in the near future: On October 5, the "Anti-Diet Club" of Kölner Stadt Anzeiger invited me to a lecture and on October 23 I will be on the "German Wellness Days" in Wiesbaden about my book and the theses to report. I am looking forward to the direct dialogue with interested, responsible citizens.

What are your other plans? Schedule more publications?
The pile of new, exciting literature has grown rapidly in the three months since the completion of the expanded new edition. Therefore, it may well be that I write the third extended edition in 2011 - which can certainly convince the very last doubters that dietary rules are nonsense and when eating only one thing counts: full confidence in the intuitive body feelings hunger and desire. Mr. Knop, how are you grateful for this interview and wish you all the best. (Tf)