Uncle Wolf's Secret is an adventure in how to think about what to eat. Want to know the real reasons to follow a low carbohydrate diet? Who better to explain than veteran 'low carb' man Dr Wolfgang Lutz?To illustrate the work of Dr Lutz, Ms Bracken has chosen a semi-fictional setting and created a 'niece' to tease out the secret from her 'Uncle Wolfi' as to how he got people well again. Her doctor uncle also explains why too many sugars and starches make people ill in the first place, and which fuel the body mainly runs on and whether it matters.To teach her how his method works, Uncle Wolfi encourages his niece to think for herself and we are led on a fascinating journey to the very heart of the rationale for low carbohydrate nutrition.Dr Lutz was an Austrian consultant in internal medicine, who lived on a low carbohydrate diet himself and used it in his medical practice for around 50 years. This enjoyable book is at once clear, informative, unusual and challenging. A worthy tribute to a great pioneer!
About the Author: For Valerie Bracken, discovering the extraordinary work of Austrian consultant Dr Wolfgang Lutz was life-changing. Valerie, a writer and translator in her retirement, had worked for many years as a health professional in body work, remedial massage and yoga. With a life-long interest in the relationship between diet and health, Valerie had read widely. The challenging writing of Dr Lutz now intrigued her and she immediately got in touch with him. Dr Lutz was then 82 years of age and working both in Salzburg and London. During the next 15 years, Valerie and Dr Lutz corresponded extensively. There was much lively discussion between them and also collaboration on several publications. From the notes of Dr Lutz, in 1989 Valerie wrote a summary of his main book Leben ohne Brot (Life without Bread) for his patients in England. In 2000, Valerie did the translation work for his American book with Christian B Allen Life without Bread: How a low-carbohydrate diet can save your life. In 2003, well scrutinized by Dr Lutz, Valerie wrote My Life without Bread: Dr Lutz at 90, a biography published in 2014 with added notes. On the death of Dr Lutz in 2010 at the age of 97, it was Valerie who wrote the Obituary in The Guardian. Uncle Wolfi's Secret: a tribute to Dr Lutz by Valerie Bracken was published in 2013 and revised in 2016. In this book, Valerie's critical mind and ironic humour come to the fore and combine to facilitate understanding of the unique contribution made to medicine by Wolfgang Lutz. Valerie is married with two adult children and two grandchildren.