Gerson believed that cancer and other degenerative and autoimmune diseases are caused by chronic malfunctions in cell metabolism, and that they can be effectively treated by restoring proper cell functioning through a diet which is high in potassium and low in sodium. He advised a diet of fresh vegetables and fruit, with minimum cooking and ideally without animal or dairy products, fats, or sugars.

Professor Richard Kefford, director of the Westmead Institute of Cancer Research is particularly concerned about cancer patients persuaded to undergo the diet

which involves the use of ground coffee enemas which can cause colitis (inflammation of the bowel), fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and in some cases septicaemia. The US FDA has warned against this regime, which is known to have caused at least three deaths.

The diet is (perhaps not remarkably) similar to the change in eating patterns recommended by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Further reading

• A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases and the Cure of Advanced Cancer, by Max Gerson, M.D. The Gerson Institute; 6th edition. (ISBN 0961152621)
• Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless, by Howard Straus. Quarry Press, 2002. (ISBN 155082290X)
• Krebskrankheit, ein Problem des Stoffwechsels ("Cancer, a problem of metabolism"), Medizinische Klinik No. 26, June 25, 1954, Munich , Germany