Eat More Greens, Part 2
- excerpts from The China Study, by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, MD, PhD.
- Dr. Campbell has spent over 40 years as a scientific researcher doing Federally funded studies for organizations such as the American Institute for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society and the National Institute of Health (NIH). He has spent over 45 years as a dietary scientist, and has published 450 peer-reviewed scientific papers. This book is the culmination of his life's research, and in it he reveals the Truth and Myths about plant-based and animal-based diets. Published January, 2005, BenBella Books.
"Real science has been buried beneath a clutter of irrelevant or even harmful information - junk science, fad diets and food industry propaganda. I want to change that... The provocative results of my four decades of biomedical research, including the findings from a twenty-seven year laboratory program (funded by reputable funding agencies) prove that eating right can save your life... findings demonstrate that a good diet is the most powerful weapon we have against disease and sickness." - pp 1-2.
"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. We fall prey to heat disease as often as we did thirty years ago, and the War on Cancer, launched in the 1970s, has been a miserable failure. Half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, and over 100 million Americans have high cholesterol." - pg. 3.
"... dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed... But that's not all. We found that not all proteins had this effect. What protein consistently and strongly promoted cancer? Casein, which makes up 87% of cow's milk protein, and promoted all stages of the cancer process. What type of protein did not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake? The safe proteins were from plants, including wheat and soy. As this picture came into view, it began to challenge and then to shatter some of my most cherished assumptions." - pg 6, italics by the author.
"... more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease! ... people who ate the most animal-based foods 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. ...The health implications of consuming either animal or plant-based nutrients were remarkably different." - pg. 7, italics by the author.
"... heart disease, diabetes and obesity can be reversed by a healthy diet. Other research shows that various cancers, autoimmune diseases, bone health, kidney health, vision and brain disorders in old age (like cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer's) are convincingly influenced by diet. Most importantly, the diet that has time and again been shown to reverse and/or prevent these diseases is the same whole foods, plant-based diet that I had found to promote optimal health in my laboratory research and in the China Study. The findings are consistent." - pg. 7, italics by the author, boldface added.
"Yet despite the power of this information, despite the hope it generates and despite the urgent need for this understanding of nutrition and health, people are still confused... I will tell you why... The answer has to do with how health information is generated and communicated and who controls such activities... I have seen what really goes on... The distinctions between government, industry, science and medicine have become blurred. The distinctions between making a profit and promoting health have become blurred. The problems with the system do not come in the form of Hollywood-style corruption. The problems are much more subtle, and yet much more dangerous. The result is massive amounts of misinformation, for which average American consumers pay twice. They provide the tax money to do the research, and then they provide the money for their health care to treat their largely preventable diseases." - pp. 7-8, italics by the author, boldface added.
"After four decades of scientific research, education and policy making at the highest levels in our society, I now feel I can adequately integrate these disciplines into a cogent story." - pg. 8.
"If you are male in this country.. you have a 47% chance of getting cancer. If you are female... 38% lifetime chance of getting cancer... cancer is not a natural event... Old age should be graceful and peaceful." - pg. 12.
"... the World Health Organization ranked the United States thirty-seventh best in the world according to health care system performance." - pg. 17.
"The irony is that the solution is simple and inexpensive. The answer to the American health crisis is the food that each of us chooses to put in our mouths each day. It's as simple as that. Although many of us think we're well informed on nutrition, we're not. We tend to follow one faddish diet after another." - pg 19. See "Who's Your Guru?" - http://annwigmore.com/news/LivingFoodsNews20050709.htm
"... millions have adopted high-protein, high-fat diets based on books such as Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Protein Power and The South Beach Diet. There is increasing evidence that these modern protein fads continue to inflict a great variety of dangerous health disorders. What we don't know - what we don't understand - about nutrition can hurt us." - pg. 19, boldface added.
"... far too often, we scientists focus on details while ignoring the larger context... we pin our efforts and our hopes on one isolated nutrient at a time... We oversimplify and disregard the infinite complexity of nature." - pp. 19-20.
"Most of the authors of several best-selling 'nutrition' books claim to be researchers, but I am not aware that their 'research' involves original, professionally developed experimentation. That is, they have not designed and conducted studies under the scrutiny of fellow colleagues or peers. They have few or no publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals; they have virtually no formal training in nutritional science; they belong to no professional research societies; they have not participated as peer reviewers. They do, nonetheless, often develop very lucrative projects and products that put money in their pockets while leaving the reader with yet another short-lived and useless fad diet.
"If you are familiar with the 'health' books at your nearby bookstore, you have likely heard of Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, The South Beach Diet, Sugar Busters, The Zone, or Eat Right for Your Type. These books have made health information more confusing, more difficult to grasp and ultimately more elusive. If you aren't fatigued, constipated or half-starved by these quick-fix plans, your head is spinning from counting calories and measuring grams of carbohydrates, protein and fat... This is not health. These are fad diets that embody the worst of medicine, science and the popular media." - pg. 20.
"The scientific basis for my views is largely empirical, obtained through observation and measurement. It is not illusory, hypothetical or anecdotal; it is from legitimate research findings. It is a type of science originally advocated 2,400 years ago by the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, who said, "There are, in effect, two things: to know and to believe one knows. To know is science. To believe one knows is ignorance." I plan to show you what I have come to know." - pg. 21.
"... my evidence comes from human studies done by myself and by my students and colleagues in my research group... In addition to these human studies, I maintained a twenty-seven-year laboratory research program in experimental animal studies... investigated the link between diet and cancer in considerable depth. Our findings, which were published in the highest quality scientific journals, brought into question the very core principles of cancer causation." - pp. 21-22.
"... the benefits produced by eating a plant-based diet are far more diverse and impressive than any drug or surgery used in medical practice. Heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, stroke and hypertension, arthritis, cataracts, Alzheimer's disease, impotence and all sorts of other chronic diseases can be largely prevented. These diseases, which generally occur with aging and tissue degeneration, kill the majority of us before our time.
"Additionally, impressive evidence now exists to show that advanced heart disease, relatively advance cancers of certain types, diabetes and a few other degenerative diseases can be reversed by diet... Those in science or medicine who shut their minds to such an idea re being more than stubborn; they are being irresponsible." - pp. 22-23, boldface added.
"... eating the right way would largely obviate the enormous costs of using drugs, as well as their side effects... Health care costs would drop and medical mistakes would wane as premature death plummeted. In essence, our health care system would finally protect and promote our health as it is meant to do... The science is there and it must be made known... It is time to stand up, clear the air and take control of our health." - pp. 24-25, boldface added.
These excerpts were taken from from The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, MD, PhD, with Thomas M. Campbell II, 417 pages, 35 pages of reference footnotes, and a 12 page index. It's full of charts, graphs and references; all of Dr. Campbell's supporting documentation. You can expect to see more quotes in this newsletter from Dr. Campbell's book, or you can get "the rest of the story" for yourself: The China Study, from Amazon.com
The proposal is for federal regulations to mandate the 'pasteurization' of all greens. And as bad as that sounds, it gets worse: the FDA has started using the word 'pasteurize' as a euphemism or cover for what they really are up to, which is irradiation. I've seen this coming (they've already mandated 'pasteurizing' almonds -- burning them with carcinogenic, banned rocket fuel... yes, really!) -- but they've sprung it on us, revealing their plan only recently, and allowing only untill Monday, Dec. 3 for public comment. (In the past, the FDA had comment periods of several weeks or even months. This is obscene! 
