Today, Dr Bircher’s muesli is the symbolic breakfast of Swiss cuisine and has conquered the world. However, conventional medicine originally turned up its nose at this raw food recipe. Everyone knows it, many consume it regularly, but only a few know the origins of this speciality – the revolutionary idea of a Swiss doctor. Birchermüesli is one of the best-known and most popular Swiss dishes. At the end of the 19th century, middle-class society was convinced that eating fresh fruit and vegetables should be avoided in order to prevent infections and digestive problems. It was considered better to eat meat, which was considered richer and more nutritious. A Swiss doctor was of a different opinion: Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner from Aargau firmly believed in the health benefits of a raw food diet and considered cooked and processed foods to be harmful. In 1895 Bircher-Benner treated a patient’s persistent stomach pain with a diet of raw vegetables. Bircher-Benner then began to use ...
