Dr. Johannes Coy, a German biologist and cancer researcher, gave us the idea. He was a guest at Hotel Tirler. Hotelier Hannes Rabanser started talking to him: “I like talking to people, asking what they do and how they live.” It took a while longer with Coy to get more information and he explained that there was a lot of evidence that modern diseases can be traced back to a common period of origin. Napoleon is to blame. In order to strengthen his soldiers, he had supposedly mass imported sugar cane. “You’ll see, we’ll soon have to rewrite our medicine books,” Coy predicted. It could be that the time for that is now.
Sugar just has a much too bitter aftertaste. More and more researchers are coming to this conclusion. We used to sigh about people being overweight and having rotten teeth. Now regular household sugar is being mentioned in several studies as a possible trigger for cancer, depression and more recently even Alzheimer’s.
Several years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alarm: five to ten teaspoons of sugar a day is sufficient, the WHO says. Also to be avoided: constant stress, bad eating habits and a lack of exercise.
You get enough exercise with us on the mountain pasture. If you want to. For our sake, guests are welcome to leave the stress behind in the valley. And we’ll take care of the healthy diet. “It does not suit us otherwise,” says Hannes Rabanser. Gluten-free and lactose-free as well as vegetarian dishes are a matter of course for us. If possible, we also pick the herbs for our Mediterranean and traditional South Tyrolean cuisine in the garden. “We have eight beds with rosemary, mint, chives”, Hannes Rabanser adds, “only the parsley has not made it up here so far.”
And cake, ice cream, desserts? Don’t worry, you don’t have to fast with us. Our chefs just sweeten things differently. So we sweeten our Kaiserschmarren with isomaltulose obtained from beet sugar and often use galactose, a natural simple sugar that is present in the breast milk of all mammals and even protects your teeth. We make our ice cream creamier with trehalose, a natural double sugar. We bake with tagatose, which is extracted from lactose and is also tolerated by lactose intolerant people.
There is alternative sugar that is good for you, say scientists like Johannes Coy. Coy is regarded as a representative of the biological treatment of cancer and as a book author repeatedly stimulates discussion. In 1995, he discovered the TKTL1 enzyme at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). This enzyme controls sugar metabolism in aggressive cancer cells.
Coy has convinced us at the Tirler of the positive effects of the aforementioned sugar alternatives: Unlike standard table sugar, isomaltulose, trehalose, galactose and tagatose provide the brain and our muscles with sugar evenly and in a long-lasting manner. So unlike with cane sugar, there is not a fast and strong blood sugar increase and insulin output. That gives the body sustainable energy and prevents the formation of fat from excess sugar, says Coy.
Too much information at once? Too many questions unanswered? Here are some articles that we have collected that may help.
We have a comprehensive information folder for you at our hotel. So far, it has been read a lot. How do we know that? “I lay down the information folder in a special way,” says Hannes Rabanser. During the course of a day, he is constantly pushing it back to its original position, he laughs: “Because it is is always in different positions.”