Ragnar Berg was a Swedish-born biochemist and nutritionist who worked most of his adult life in Germany.
11 Facts About Ragnar Berg
2.
Ragnar Berg is best known for his theories on the importance of acid-base balance and inorganic minerals like calcium in the diet; later in life he endorsed vegetarianism and ways to prolong the human life span.
3.
Ragnar Berg promoted an alkaline rich diet and invented the alkaline dietary supplement Basica, which Volkmar Klopfer manufactured and marketed from 1925.
4.
Ragnar Berg was the son of the respected Swedish historian and archaeologist Wilhelm Berg and his first wife, Ulrika Charlotta Emerentia "Emy" Gumaelius.
5.
Ragnar Berg married Ella Buscher in 1902, and they had two sons, Gunnar Wilhelm Emil and Alf Ragnar Wilhelm.
6.
From 1909 to 1921 Ragnar Berg headed the physiology lab at the homeopathic sanatorium founded by Heinrich Lahmann at Weisser Hirsch near Dresden, researching vitamins, trace elements and the metabolism of minerals.
7.
Ragnar Berg belonged to the Nazi Party's Main Office for People's Health.
8.
Ragnar Berg was very lonely, his health deteriorated, and he spent many months in the hospital before moving to his son's home north of Hamburg, where he died a few months later of old age and metastatic prostate cancer.
9.
The model disease was gout, but Ragnar Berg traced many other "diseases of civilization" to acid-base imbalance, including obesity, arthritis, and diabetes.
10.
Ragnar Berg's theory was not accepted by the medical community but was popular in the field of naturopathy.
11.
Ragnar Berg was invited to participate at the IVU 1935 meeting in Denmark but he refused due to its anti-Nazi stance.