[Instinct therapy--raw food with meat with exclusion of milk products. Report No. 16]

Instinct therapy is a diet consisting exclusively of food in its natural form, which has not been subjected to cooking, preserving or seasoning. Dairy products are forbidden. Indications are numerous and rather imprecise including especially cancer. Burger developed Instinct therapy in 1964 as a diet according to his own philosophy. 1980 he left Switzerland because the practice of "metasexuality" had caused him problems with the law. He founded a school of Instinct therapy in 1982 in France and published his book "La guerre du cru" (The Raw Food Fight) in 1985. In Switzerland, Besuchet took on the teaching of Burger in 1978 and was very active in giving lectures. He died in June 1985 of mediastinal cancer. According to Burger, man originally ate raw food and his instinct has not evolved since those pre-historic times, but has been "artificially modified" by cooked food and the consumption of non-human milk. If man could re-develop his natural instinct and eat only fresh food, which is not prepared in any way, he could solve his health problems and restore defenses against diseases such that these could become beneficial. Cooked food, milk and cereals are thought to be the cause of cancer but instinctive eating would help to avoid or to cure cancer. No preclinical or clinical trials have been carried out. The theories of Burger and Besuchet are based on unverifiable personal experiences.