In the early 1980s, when Dr. Wolf Funfack was writing his doctoral dissertation at the Free University of Berlin, the medical world was in transition. Dr. Christiaan Barnard had just become internationally recognized for performing the world’s first heart transplant. At the time, although slightly less fashionable, Dr. Funfack was working on a more-down-to-earth and practical dissertation topic: “Obesity in Infancy and Early Childhood.” Instead of posing the question, How can I treat disease or replace diseased organs? After spending 10 years in the cardiology unit at Moabit hospital in Berlin, he took his family to Isen, in the foothills of the Alps. There he established his own medical practice. Dr. Funfack began noticing that a number of his patients were gaining weight. At the same time, he noticed a worsening of patients’ blood values, a deterioration in patients’ quality of life, and increases in disease. He treated all of his patients with the most advanced treatment methods available worldwide in nutritional medicine. But those methods seemed to work only for the short term. He also began noticing that he, too, was gaining weight and that his blood values were worsening. At that time, his wife, Birgit Funfack, was training to become a naturopath. She brought Dr. Funfack new insights, such as the theory that all physical processes should be seen as individual processes that are influenced by a multitude of factors. The two began exchanging information and experimenting to see whether small changes in their own habits would have an impact on their health and well-being. In developing their new theories, they brought in another expert: Birgit's sister, Silvia Bürkle. As a food technologist, Silvia viewed foods and their effects from a different perspective, which immensely enhanced the discussions between the three. Those events marked the beginning of Metabolic Balance®. Silvia Bürkle classified all foods by their individual components. The three founders discussed and revised their evaluations and finally checked the accuracy of their methods by testing their nutritional plans on themselves. Their success was nothing short of impressive, and word got around. Soon, everyone wanted to take part in this successful nutrition program, and Metabolic Balance® became well-known in and around Isen. Within a short time, the workload become so much to handle that the founders developed a program that would enable them to create the individual nutrition plans on a larger scale. Dr. Wolf and Birgit befriended physicians and naturopaths to help them supervise their growing list of clients. With that, Metabolic Balance® was born. The Metabolic Balance® software program is based on the German national food database. Centered on the findings of numerous medical research studies, personal research, and experience, the principles of Metabolic Balance® were developed. This complex program gets continually refined and adjusted to reflect current research. Today Metabolic Balance® is widespread. It is well-known throughout Germany and has already gained worldwide interest. The basic concept of individuality has not changed since its original creation. That individuality covers the nutrition plans, the personal supervision, and the joy the participants experience when the success of Metabolic Balance® begins to work on them.
