Book
Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection
Publish date:
May 25, 2021
The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat―and what it means for how we should.
The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg―a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs―was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the twentieth century, a man whose research was integral to humanity’s understanding of cancer. He was also among the most despised figures in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish homosexual living openly with his male partner, Warburg represented all that the Third Reich abhorred. Yet Hitler and his top advisors dreaded cancer, and protected Warburg in the hope that he could cure it.
In Ravenous, Sam Apple reclaims Otto Warburg as a forgotten, morally compromised genius who pursued cancer single-mindedly even as Europe disintegrated around him. While the vast majority of Jewish scientists fled Germany in the anxious years leading up to World War II, Warburg remained in Berlin, working under the watchful eye of the dictatorship. With the Nazis goose-stepping their way across Europe, systematically rounding up and murdering millions of Jews, Warburg awoke each morning in an elegant, antiques-filled home and rode horses with his partner, Jacob Heiss, before delving into his research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.
Hitler and other Nazi leaders, Apple shows, were deeply troubled by skyrocketing cancer rates across the Western world, viewing cancer as an existential threat akin to Judaism or homosexuality. Ironically, they viewed Warburg as Germany’s best chance of survival. Setting Warburg’s work against an absorbing history of cancer science, Apple follows him as he arrives at his central belief that cancer is a problem of metabolism. Though Warburg’s metabolic approach to cancer was considered groundbreaking, his work was soon eclipsed in the early postwar era, after the discovery of the structure of DNA set off a search for the genetic origins of cancer.
Remarkably, Warburg’s theory has undergone a resurgence in our own time, as scientists have begun to investigate the dangers of sugar and the link between obesity and cancer, finding that the way we eat can influence how cancer cells take up nutrients and grow. Rooting his revelations in extensive archival research as well as dozens of interviews with today’s leading cancer authorities, Apple demonstrates how Warburg’s midcentury work may well hold the secret to why cancer became so common in the modern world and how we can reverse the trend. A tale of scientific discovery, personal peril, and the race to end a disastrous disease, Ravenous would be the stuff of the most inventive fiction were it not, in fact, true.
15 black-and-white images
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I read the full book and highly recommend it as a great mix of science and history that shows how difficult it is to do good science. The history of Hitler and vegetarian ideology is also really fascinating. The book doesn't cover too much the metabolic press/pulse ideas that are better covered in books like Tripping over the Truth by Travis Christofferson, but it reads similarly to books like The Fourth Fuel: Ketones.
Authors
Image | Author | Author Website | Twitter | Author Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sam Apple |
Topics
History Entries - 10 per page
Tuesday, November 1, 1927
Sam Apple
Your Health - Herman N. Bundesen MD
Dr Bundesen warns of the dangers of sugar and starch for decreasing your lifespan and causing diabetes, kidney disease, and heart trouble, however, the Sugar Institute's payments causes him to change his mind and recommend sugar.
Sam Apple's Tweet: 15/ Less than a year before, Bundesen had warned in print that sugar should be consumed in moderation. Now, he was suggesting —among other outrageous claims—that a lack of sugar could be harmful to teeth. Had something changed Bundesen's mind about sugar? …
Bundesen -> AntiSugar
Your Health - Herman N. Bundesen M.D.
Your belt-line is your life-line. As it increases, the life span shortens and there is greater hazard from diabetes, kidney disease and heart trouble.
The man or woman who sits down most of the day and rides to work in an automobile or street car should be careful not to overeat and should take exercise regularly. Sugar and starchy foods should be taken sparingly and fats and oils should be avoided. Meat may be taken in moderation once a day. Fresh vegetables and most fruits are excellent non-fattening foods.
Dr. Bundesen will answer any health questions submitted by readers who inclose stamped self-addressed envelopes for personal replies.
Bundesen -> ProSugar
The laws in regard to the manufacture of foods, of which candy is a valuable article, are very stringent and protect you from any adulteration or undesirable substances. So, with a mind at ease, you may match your table decorations for your party with mints to follow the dessert, and you may give your children colored stick candies or bonbons.
Excitable Children
For children, whose active littel bodies make more movements in an hour than many grown-up ones do in a day, and who thus expend large quantities of energy daily, candy repairs the loss in a simple, quick, and acceptable way. The little ones need a much larger proportionate sugar ration than adults.
The Matter of Teeth
Candy of one sort has another valuable use. Teeth, like other parts of the body, need exercise. Provided the body is supplied with the teeth-building elements, the teeth will be healthy, if used. Hard candies, such as molasses candy, and stick candy, give this exercise to the teeth and gums, and leave no residue. The chewing of hard candies, and other hard foods, helps the teeth.
The Canada Lancet, a monthly journal of medical and surgical science, the oldest medical journal in the Dominion of Canada, says:
"There is a rather widespread notion that eating candy injures the teeth. There is not the least scientific foundation for this notion. The lack of sugar is much more likely to injure the teeth, through impaired nutrition, than even its excessive use is likely to do by any digestive troubles which might result from over-use."
Hard candies, such as molasses and stick candy, give exercise to teeth and gums and leave no residue, Bundesen adds.
Sunday, April 8, 1928
TOO MUCH SUGAR FOR THE WORLD TO EAT; Once It Was a Table Luxury, Now an Effort Is Made to Dam the Vast Source of Supply
A flood of supply in the sugar industry causes advertisements to eat more to appear, deceptively leading many to early deaths from chronic disease.
WHEN New York was really new, a lump of sugar sparingly nibbled with a cup of tea was the height of luxury. Today the world and his wife, life Hansel and Gretel before the witch's castle, find themselves in a wonderland of sugar.
For every pound [of sugar] consumed a century ago, today there is 20.
In America, taking us all in all--rich man, poor man, beggar man. thlef, and babe In army--we eat of candy alone about eleven pounds apiece. In New York City, which is literally the sweetest spot on earth it is probably nearer fifteen. In a half century our confectioners have realized visions of sugar plums far beyond Victorian dreams. Where candy once meant a few hard balls or sticks in a striped paper bag, today it may mean any sort of comfit in any sort of container, from the business-like sweet chocolate of the subway news standa to bonbons in a gilded chest. The old-fashioned chocolate cream has a progeny more numerous than the fabled Belgian hare. Ice cream soda, an Invention of the 80's, abounds in America like the proverbial milk and honey of the Promised Land. Bake-shop windows are gaudy with frosted pastries that resemble nothing mother used to make. Sugar comes close to being the American staff of life. It is doubtful whether Uncle Sam would even care for his chewing gum without it.
The whole story of sugar is, however, a very short chapter in the world's history. Known for some 2,000 years, it has been in everyday use for but 200. Honey was the sweet of the ancients, celebrated in song. Sugar--odd as it now seems--they prized as a medicine, and it appears at first to have come from India, from cane or its cousin, the bamboo. As late as Nero's time a geographer was writing indifferently: "There is a sort of hard honey which is called saccharum(sugar)
The 1928 article continues, "Either it [the sugar supply] must be dammed at the source or we must somehow eat our way out." Cuba planned to limit output. The American sugar industry settled on the "eat our way out" strategy.
The article reveals that the sugar industry had recently launched "The Sugar Institute," a trade group that would "teach America how to eat more sugar." "If everyone would eat 20 pounds more a year, [The Sugar Institute] pleads, we might catch up with production."
Soon the institute will begin directly to teach America how to eat more sugar. If every one would eat twenty pounds more a year, it pleads, we might catch up with production. America has accomplished greater gourmandizing feats before. Where just after the Civil War the average citizen ate eighteen pounds of sugar a year, today he eats 119. And that does not include maple sugar, corn sugar, and honey, nor the rivers of syrup and molasses with which the national griddle cakes are inundated.
Sunday, September 2, 1928
Diabetes Deaths Rise as Sugar Sales Grow: City Health Department Reports Fatalities Up 50% for Men and 150% for Women in 30 Years.
Increased consumption of sugar is given as a probable explanation of the increased death rate from diabetes during the last thirty years, in a bulletin issued by the New York City Health Department yesterday.
Diabetes Deaths Rise as Sugar Sales Grow
City Health Department Reports Fatalities Up 50% for Men and 150% for Women in 30 Years.
Increased consumption of sugar is given as a probable explanation of the increased death rate from diabetes during the last thirty years, in a bulletin issued by the New York City Health Department yesterday. According to the bulletin, the diabetes death rate has increased 50 per cent for men during that period, and 150 per cent for women.
"Hand in hand with this has been a corresponding increase in the per capita consumption of sugar," the bulletin continues, "so that it appears probable that we, especially the ladies, are overtaking our bodies with too much sugar."
The average number of deaths per year for the five-year period ended with 1902 is given as 395. Averages for successive five-year periods from then to the present are given as follows:
1902-1907, 588;
1907-1912, 748;
1912-1917, 1,049;
1917-1922, 1,122;
1922-1927, 1,359;
The suggestion that women particularly are eating more sweets gained added interest by its contrast to conclusions drawn in London following the drop of the cocoa market. Recent dispatches gave the explanation that cigarettes have leargely displaced candy in the diet of young women, thus diminishing the demand for cocoa. But in this country, it would seem from the Health Department's view, sugar has not been similarly affected.
Tuesday, March 26, 1929
Sugar Makes Eating a Joy - Why eat unflavored, unappetizing foods?
The Sugar Institute makes sugar sound like the best thing since sliced bread. "The only safe rule for a healthful diet is to eat as large a variety of foods as possbile, including healthful cereals, fruits and vegetables made appetizing to the taste by the judicious use of sugar."
A change is coming over the well-informed eating ideas of this country. For a time, food faddists tried to make us believe that we had to eat all kinds of things we didn't like in order to be healthy.
Good sense is beginning to assert itself and we now know that the foods that are good for us may also be the most enjoyable. In fact, if we don't like the healthful foods, we probably won't eat them.
Prominent medical and other scientific authorities are now reminding us that appetizing flavors may be developed and improved by sugar. One well-known scientist, for example, states that "fruit flavors are developed by sugar. Fruit acids are softened by sugar."
The only safe rule for a healthful diet is to eat as large a variety of foods as possbile, including healthful cereals, fruits and vegetables made appetizing to the taste by the judicious use of sugar. Sugar is not only nutriment in ints least costly form. It is Nature's perfect flavor. Sugar develops the appetizing quality of nearly all fruits. Desserts of fresh or cooked fruits are growing more and more popular. Modern candy containing fruits, nuts and pure sugar is delicious and satisfying at the end of a meal.
No one should overeat or under exercise, but everyone, in order to be healthy, should eat plenty of healthful foods and enjoy them.
The Sugar Institute Advertisment
Friday, June 7, 1929
Show the children how to like vegetables - The appetizing wonder of a dash of sugar added to the water while cooking
The Sugar Institute recommends adding sugar to get children to like vegetables such as carrots or spinach.
A NEW way has been discovered by four famous cooking authorities to help children like the healthful vegetables, "Children as a rule, "say these experts, do not like vegetables. Especially carrots and spinach, so rich in vitamins and so healthful. A dash of granulated sugar added to the water in which these vegetables are cooked, makes an entirely different and more appealing thing of them."
These experts point out that the addition of sugar in correct amounts, and the use of only a little water in cooking, enhances and develops the piquant vegetable flavors. Sugar adds a freshness of favor both to vegetables that are slightly wilted and to canned vegetables, and it increases the food value of the vegetables. Just try these two new recipes and notice what a difference in flavor the sugar makes.
BUTTERED CARROTS-Cook five or six medium-size carrots tender in boiling water to which a dash of sugar has been added. Slice, and reheat in a pan with 2 teaspoons of butter, 1 level tablespoon sugar, pepper and salt. Let the carrots simmer 10 minutes in this butter dressing.
The wonderful thing about sugar as a flavorer is that it makes food so tasteful and delicious that children and adults will eat enough. Use a dash of sugar in cooking most vegetables, fruits and meats. Most foods are more delicious and nourishing with sugar. The Sugar Institute -Advertisement.
Friday, October 4, 1929
Five reasons for sugar in the diet - Scientist talks about this healthful food
The Sugar Institute claims that sugar is healthful and a "staple fuel for keeping the human body active"
ONE OF THE great food scientists of the country told us not long ago, "Sugar not only has an important use in the diet of nearly everyone--it has five distinct uses.
"First of all, it is a great conserver of many foods, especially fruits. In the second place. as a flavoring substance, it is most valuable in making nearly all foods much more appetizing. In this way it leads to the eating of a more balanced diet. The third point I would call to your attention about sugar is its value as a satiation factor. Ending a meal with a sweet gives a sense of satisfaction--of having had just enough.
"Perhaps the best known use of sugar is as a staple fuel for keeping the human body active. Sugar is more rapidly digested than starch, and it ranks with starch as a vital food for every normal person.
"The final point about sugar is its adaptability as an emergency fuel. Sugar is rapidly absorbed in the system It is always helpful to get the opinion of a recognized authority on any important subject. In a day when food fads are so much in evidence it is a part of wisdom to discover exactly how important sugar is in the diet of all of us. The sensible way to well-being is to eat all kinds of healthful fresh and canned fruits and vegetables, sweetened to taste. Remember the value of puddings, ice creams, and cakes for dessert. A bit of sweet makes the meal complete. The Sugar Institute. -- Advertisement
Thursday, January 2, 1930
It's very easy to catch cold when you are tired out - Before going home from work eat or drink something sweet and see how this nourishment "picks you up"
The Sugar Institute pushes a lie that "The "dead tired" feeling can be avoided by eating or drinking a wholesome sweet food such as a soda fountain beverage, ice cream, candy, or sweet cakes. These are quickly digested and the energy in the sugar is quickly available to renew vigor."
It does not pay to go home "dead tired." Your system, in such a condition, has virtually no resistance. As a result you may get chilled--then comes a cold.
The "dead tired" feeling can be avoided by eating or drinking a wholesome sweet food such as a soda fountain beverage, ice cream, candy, or sweet cakes. These are quickly digested and the energy in the sugar is quickly available to renew vigor.
At this time of the year diet plays an important part in the maintenance of health. Foods should be chosen for vitamins, minerals and roughage. For quick fuel and palatability, sweet foods should be included. Most foods are more delicious and nourishing with sugar. The Sugar Institute.
"Good food promotes good health"
Friday, January 3, 1930
Vitality is Low Among Workers at Four O'Clock - Fatigue During This Zero Hour Can be Overcome by Sugar
"Medical men have made many experiments with workers and sugar foods in mid-afternoon and have
found the results most satisfactory. The "athelete's cocktail"-- is most invigorating."
Finishing the day's work "dead tired" is neither wise nor necessary.
Everybody knows that a fatigued system is readily susceptible to the common ills. To maintain vitality during the last half of the day is therefore essential, not only for the sake of health but eflicient work.
One of the simplest ways to combat fatigue is eating -a food or drinking a beverage that contains
refined sugar. Candy, ice cream, cookies and cakes are ideal in this respect. Best of all they can be bought readily and cheaply everywhere.
Medical men have made many experiments with workers and sugar foods in mid-afternoon and have
found the results most satisfactory. The sugar quickly nourishes the body without taxing the digestive system. When the body is nourished in this way, fatigue disappears.
Such sweet snacks as those previously mentioned can be kept in one's desk and eaten while at work.
For a sweet beverage, a glass of water containing sugar-- the "athelete's cocktail"-- is most invigorating.
Many famous athletes drink this prior to a hard game.
Most foods are more delicious with refined sugar. The Sugar Institute.
Saturday, January 4, 1930
Too many of our meals are lacking...Lacking in what?
Sickening Big Sugar Propaganda says that "as a matter of fact, sugar is an essential in the diet." It then mentions that dietitians use sugar combined with vegetables to enhance the taste and healthfulness.
"Every time I go to the Brows for a meal, I leave the table not entirely satisfied," said a man to his friend. "Why is it...they seem to set a good table."
"I agree with you," replied his friend, "and I'll tell you what their meals lack. It's sugar."
Nothing takes the place of sugar in satisfying the appetite. And it is natural that our systems crave sugar. We have learned to expect it in fruits and vegetables, which, if fresh and ripe, abound in flavorful sweetnes. But too often, these foods reach us lacking in sugar. A clever cook senses this and replaces it in cooking, or tops the meal with a sweet dessert.
As a matter of fact, sugar is an essential in the diet. Not only for the energy it supplies, but for its value in making essential foods more palatable. Dietitians will tell you that it is correct to add a dash of sugar to carrots, peas, spinach, cabbage and tomatoes while they are cooking. Such flavored foods are eaten with keen relish.
It is your duty to see that your family has sugar in the correct amount. It can be judiciously introduced in the diet--as a flavor and in wholesome desserts. The Sugar Institute, 129 Front St., New York.
"Most foods are more delicious and nourishing with Sugar."
Monday, January 6, 1930
Reducing may ruin good looks - Extreme dieting is also dangerous to health
The Sugar Institute uses a famous doctor to push fears about losing weight. "The craze for thinness is an attempt to modify the process of nature." It's almost amazing to hear the same arguments today. "In reducing, decrease the quantity of all foods, but enjoy variety."
A FAMOUS doctor discusses the effects of extreme weight reducing on the skin. Frequently,
he says, "the face takes on an anemic look. Healthy color is absent and a sallow tinge gives the distinct appearance of weariness and age." He says that the loss of only few pounds by a middle-aged person will often "make the skin of the face wrinkled and baggy." After excessive reducing this is noticcable also on the hands.
Besides, skinniness is unbeautiful. "Essentially," says an eminent doctor, "the curve is fundamental to beauty. ... The really beautiful consists of that which is healthful and efficient."
He goes on to warn us that "The craze for thinness is an attempt to modify the process of nature."
Women to be beautiful should be natural and healthy, and it is dangerous not only to good looks but to health for women, girls or men to try to standardize their weights. Eat plenty of varied nourishing foods. Everyone needs a certain amount of fat in the tissues of the body. Don't forget the value of sugar in making other foods tasteful and enjoyable. There is no substitute for sweetness as a food and flavor. In reducing, decrease the quantity of all foods, but enjoy variety. Health is necessary to
beauty. The Sugar Institute.
-Advertisement.
Wednesday, February 5, 1930
"Rounded Slimness" Decree of Fashion - Changes in Style Demand Return to Normal Diet
"To avoid monotony in the diet, many foods can be improved by a little sugar. This is especially true of vegetables which often are tasteless." - Advertisement by The Sugar Institute
The flat, skinny figure is no longer in vogue. Slimness is to be desired, but in the words of an international authority "rounded slimness" should be the goal of every woman.
In attaining "rounded slimness," diet plays a very important part. Foods formerly avoided are recommended in every day's menu. These include meat, eggs, milk and plenty of vegetables and fruit. Cereals with milk or cream and sprinkled with sugar are also important in the diet for "rounded slimness."
Particular attention should be paid to desserts. Puddings, custards, fruit pies and ice cream not only have food value but complete the meal in a most satisfying way. Candy is also an ideal dessert. And for variation try cream cheese and crackers with jelly or jam.
To avoid monotony in the diet, many foods can be improved by a little sugar. This is especially true of vegetables which often are tasteless because they do not reach the home immediately after they are picked. For example--spinach, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage and peas are much improved in flavor by adding a dash of sugar. A pinch of salt to a dash of sugar is a good rule to follow.
Aside from the enjoyment that sugar brings, it plays two important roles. First, it furnishes energy; and second, it helps consume excess fat which might otherwise be added to the body. Good food promotes health and beauty. The Sugar Institue.
Advertisement.
Tuesday, April 8, 1930
New Way to Prepare Lamb Chops - Addition of Novel Seasoning Improves their Flavor
The Sugar Institute recommends adding sugar to lamb chops or vegetables with the justification that "Doctors approve the use of sugar as a flavor on these essential foods because it arouses the appetite to eat more of them. Good food promotes good health."
This new method really begins before the chops are put on the broiler or in the pan.
First make a mixture of 3/4 teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful sugar, 1 teaspoonful vinegar or lemon juice and 5 tablespoons of salad oil. Pour this over the chops and let stand for a few minutes, then fry or broil them and you will be delighted with the way this seasoning heightens the flavor of the lamb. If you wish you can use the mixture to baste the chops as they cok.
The sugar is a most important ingredient of the mixture just describes because it blends the salt, lemon juice and oil into a smooth, piquant goodness.
A dash of sugar to a pinch of salt is a good rule to follow in many other kinds of cookery. In cooking vegetables this combination noticeably and pleasantly emphasizes the flavor of carrots, spinach, string beans, cabbage and peas. Doctors approve the use of sugar as a flavor on these essential foods because it arouses the appetite to eat more of them. Good food promotes good health.
The Sugar Institute Advertisement