YOLO Journal Issue 12 - Flipbook - Page 100
BUCHINGER WILHELMI,
GERMANY
Photographs and Words by Yolanda Edwards
The first time we came to Buchinger
Wilhelmi, the therapeutic fasting
clinic about an hour from Zürich in
Überlingen, Germany, in January 2022,
Matt and I were both a little nervous.
In the days leading up to our two-week
session, we ate as if we were going to
prison: rosti with cheese and bacon in St.
Moritz, dessert at both lunch and dinner,
not to mention wine and cocktails. We
spent the night before our arrival in
Zürich, where we gorged on veal and
steaks with rosti at the Kronenhalle,
one of our favorite restaurants in the
world. We imagined we were about
to go into starvation mode, and were
storing up for our stay.
100
On arrival, we met with our doctors,
who weighed and measured us, then we
had our bloodwork done in the medical
center. For the next two days we ate
in the restaurant, where our calorie
intake was brought down to 800 per
day, acclimating our bodies to less
(actually zero!) salt, fat and sugar. When
our bloodwork came back, our doctors
both—separately—said to me and Matt
some version of, “You guys really had a
food party before you came!” From there •
Above: Dr. Otto Buchinger and his
team at the first clinic in the 1920s
