Nature and the Nazi Diet

Preventive Nutrition in Nazi Germany: A Public Health Commentary

“…A publication by German physician Erwin Liek linked poor dietary habits to cancer risk. A 1933 article published in Odal, the monthly periodical of the German Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition, blamed unhealthy dietary habits such as consuming too much meat, alcohol, white bread, foods saturated with preservatives, and not enough fruits and vegetables on rising rates of cancer, tooth decay, kidney stones, and rheumatism (Proctor, 1999b;Treitel, 2009). Adolf Bickel, a physiologist at the University of Berlin, suggested evidence that Olympic competitors who consumed a diet rich in variety and nutritional adequacy performed optimally at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games (Proctor, 1999b).…”

Kalashnikov and Cooking-spoon: Neo-Nazism, Veganism and a Lifestyle Cooking Show on YouTube

“…If meat-free diets may not have been generally favoured by the Nazis, a natural diet that focused on the purity of food was. (On the anthroposophist method of organic farming, seeTreitel 2009. This method augured the return of a balanced relationship; a regenerated community living in harmony with nature.The magazine does also give attention to the effects of meat production and consumption on the environment, claiming that it not only causes the suffering of animals, but is also unsustainable and contributes to global warming.…”