The China Study

I don't know about other parts of the country, but here in the Bay Area there has been a huge amount of press in the last couple days about a recent government-sponsored breast cancer study which found that there is "no benefit from a mega-fruits-and-veggies diet over the US recommended servings of 5 fruits and vegetables a day [in preventing the return of breast cancer]." The research was kicked off by a $5 million grant from the late Wal-mart heir John Walton and got an additional $30 million in support from the National Cancer Institute.

Half of the women in the study were instructed to eat the normal suggested servings of "5 a day" while the other half were instructed to eat "5 vegetable servings, 3 fruit servings, 16 ounces of vegetable juice and 30 grams of fiber." All of the women in the study were allowed to eat meat, but were told to get no more than 15-20% of their calories from fat, a goal that they were ultimately unable to achieve. The researchers, while admitting that they need to "go back to the drawing board," seem to be focusing primarily on the fact that the women in the study ate too much fat and that perhaps this is the real "trigger" for recurrence.

While I will definitely be interested in learning conclusively if and how diets high in fat contribute to cancer recurrence, I think that researchers would be remiss in not focusing as well on the women's meat consumption. The reason that I say this is because of a fascinating book I just read called The China Study (I added a link to the book in the upper right corner of my blog). The book was actually recommended to me by my oncologist, who is a firm believer in the role of nutrition in maintaining health. I finished reading the book last week and when I met with Dr Gullion today I asked him whether he really believes that the information in the book is credible; I wanted to get an opinion from a highly-qualified medical/oncology professional rather than just assuming that what the author wrote is correct. And since Dr Gulllion spend 20 years at UCSF practicing oncology before relocating his practice to Marin about 10 years ago, I consider him to be "highly qualified." His answer was "Absolutely! The author [Dr Campbell] has been around for many years and is highly-respected. And the studies which he references are all highly-regarded and very legitimate."

The underlying premises of the book are:
1) While protein is a critical building block of life, Americans eat WAY more protein than is necessary for optimal health (and often at the expense of other critical macro-nutrients, such as carbs), PLUS
2) The majority of the protein that we eat comes from animal sources (beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, etc), rather than plant-based sources (beans, grains, vegetables -- yes, even foods like spinach contain protein!)
3) An extraordinary number of research studies have been done which show a significant correlation between eating animal proteins and fat and developing typical "Western diseases" (such as diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer and numerous other cancers)
4) In order to maintain optimal health and avoid typical Western diseases we need to move toward a "whole foods, plant-based diet." [Note: "Whole foods" simply refers to actually eating spinach, for example, rather than trying to get the same nutrients in spinach from popping supplements]

Here is a summary of the book:

Early in his career as a researcher with MIT and Virginia Tech, Dr. Campbell worked to promote better health by eating more meat, milk and eggs -- “high-quality animal protein … It was an obvious sequel to my own life on the farm and I was happy to believe that the American diet was the best in the world.”

He later was a researcher on a project in the Philippines working with malnourished children. The project became an investigation for Dr. Campbell, as to why so many Filipino children were being diagnosed with liver cancer, predominately an adult disease. The primary goal of the project was to ensure that the children were getting as much protein as possible.

“In this project, however, I uncovered a dark secret. Children who ate the highest protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer...” He began to review other reports from around the world that reflected the findings of his research in the Philippines.

Although it was “heretical to say that protein wasn’t healthy,” he started an in-depth study into the role of nutrition, especially protein, in the cause of cancer.

The research project culminated in a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, a survey of diseases and lifestyle factors in rural China and Taiwan. More commonly known as the China Study, “this project eventually produced more than 8000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.”

The findings? “People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease … People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored,” said Dr. Campbell.

In The China Study, Dr. Campbell details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, and also its ability to reduce or reverse the risk or effects of these deadly illnesses. The China Study also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and irresponsible scientists.

So, after reading The China Study, I tend to look at the results of the breast cancer study mentioned above with a bit of skepticism. I guess I have a hard time believing that a diet of fruits and vegetables isn't beneficial in helping to prevent cancer, and unfortunately, this is exactly what the study results imply. I think that the real insight of the study is that fruits and vegetables -- even at mega doses -- are not enough to overcome the bigger "sins" of a typical Western diet which includes huge amounts of animal protein and animal fat, both of which contribute to disease (if you believe what The China Study proposes, as I do.)

In fact, I am beginning to believe that this was at least a contributing factor to why I got cancer. All these years I thought that I was a fairly health eater -- lean chicken or fish instead of fattier beef; skim milk rather than whole; poached eggs rather than scrambled -- but the reality is that a huge portion of what I ate was animal-based. This fact really dawned on me as I was reading the book and simultaneously thinking about what I was going to make my family for meals each day. I began to realize just how much of our diet has traditionally come from animal products -- especially my kids, who practically have an allergic reaction to any vegetable other than broccoli and cucumbers! Foods such as yogurt, cheese, cow's milk, chicken, fish, eggs...one or more of these have been a part of almost every single meal that we have eaten in the past. And until my nutritionist instructed me to "make 75% of every meal fruits and/or vegetables," I fully admit that our meals were more likely to be the other way around (e.g., 75% animal-based.) And as I began to look around, I realized that the author is right -- this is the way that almost all American's eat!

So, of all the books that I have mentioned on my blog so far, this is probably the most important one to read. It will absolutely make you re-think your own food choices or at a minimum make you much more aware of the true origins of your meals. As always, I am not trying to tell anyone what or how they should eat...I am simply sharing the info that I have learned on my own quest for better health. And I'll be the first to admit that changing eating habits from being animal-based to plant-based at the age of 39 is ridiculously hard... But, then again, there is nothing like getting cancer at the age of 38 to provide the proper perspective!