The
following information in this post I give full credit to The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted: The China
Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Wright Loss and Long-Term Health (I
must have a thing for wordy titles or something) by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and
Thomas M. Campbell II, MD. Forward by John Robbins, Author, Diet for a New America. I will cite page
numbers, which hopefully will not vary from the hard copy version of this book
because I have one of those nifty, virtual book devices.
Keep
in mind; I am taking these quotes out of the full context of the book to
provide to you tidbits of information that may promote your interest in the
concept of vegan nutrition. If you’re interested, get the book. Most libraries
and bookstores carry it. My blog serves to promote discussion and interest in
research; it is not a source of irrefutable factual information.
1. “We
spend far more, per capita, on health care than any other society in the world,
and yet two thirds of Americans are overweight, and over 15 million Americans
have diabetes, a number that has been rising rapidly” (pg.3).
Holy crap. That is
terrifying information all on its own. Think about it, if we’re making such
great leaps and bounds in medical science, why are we all so ill? How many
people do you know with high cholesterol? High risk of heart disease? Cancer? Osteoporosis?
Diabetes? How many of these people are on medications? How many of these
medications are actually reversing the effects of the disease and not just
alleviating the symptoms. If evidence was presented that a whole foods, plant
based diet could reverse your disease, improve the quality of your life, or
lengthen the life of your loved ones, would you make the switch?
2. “What
made this project especially remarkable is that, among the many associations
that are relevant to diet and disease, so many pointed to the same finding:
people who ate the most animal-based food got the most chronic disease. Even
relatively small intakes of animal-based food were associated with adverse
effects. People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended
to avoid chronic disease” (pg.6).
‘Nuff said folks. READ
THE BOOK.
3. “We
initiated more studies using several different nutrients, including fish
protein, dietary fats and the antioxidants known as carotenoids. A couple of
excellent graduate students of mine, Tom O’Connor and Youping He, measured the
ability of these nutrients to affect liver and pancreatic cancer. The results
of these, and many other studies, showed nutrition to be far more important in
controlling cancer promotion than the dose of the initiating carcinogen”
(pg.66).
The argument presented
in The China Study is
that although the carcinogen is the initiator of cancer within the body, it’s
the nutritional environment within the body that promotes the development of
cancer. Evidence is presented that a plant based, whole foods diet can prevent
the development and spread of cancerous cells. Dude. It’s worth a try, right?
4. “It
is extremely puzzling that these new government-sponsored 2002 FNB recommendations
now say that we should be able to consume protein up to the extraordinary level
of 35% as a means of minimizing chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease.
This is an unbelievable travesty, considering the scientific evidence. The
evidence presented in this book shows that increasing dietary protein within
the range of about 10-20 % is associated with a broad array of health problems,
especially when most of the protein is from animal sources” (pg. 308).
Some of the most common questions I face as a vegan are “what about protein?” or “how
are you healthy?” or “don’t you need to eat animal products to survive due to
the evolution of humans to eat animal products?”
I
get plenty of protein. I am healthy because I attempt to vary my diet. No, you
don’t need animal products to survive and be healthy. There’s plenty of
evidence out in the world that shows that vegans are healthy, often healthier
than omnivores, as long as we’re not junk-food vegans (which, honestly, I
started out as before learning how to sauté vegetables and grill eggplant
burgers. I ate two packs of Oreos in one month. That’s gross.)
Seriously,
read this book. What I have provided are only the summary passages after a
crap-ton of evidence on why a whole foods, plant based diet is the best way to
go. There’s also plenty of evidence as to why we all think large amounts of
protein are so important, how the only vitamin D you need is 15 minutes in the
sun every three days (although I highly recommend getting outside a LOT more
that than), and how big corporations are in cahoots with the government
regarding nutrition education and guidelines for purely fiscal reasons, and not
for the much more important reason of protecting the health of the American citizens.
Once
again, read the book if you want the facts. Do not make nutritional decisions
based off of this one blog post. I am not a professional. I am just a concerned
college student.
Bean
out.
Citation:
1. Campbell,
Thomas Colin, and Thomas M. Campbell. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive
Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet,
Weight Loss and Long-term Health. Dallas, TX: Benbella, 2006. Print.
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