If we are all eating healthier, why are Americans stricken with heart disease and Type II Diabetes more that we were 30 years ago? Even as the “low carbohydrate” craze sweeps the nation, two-thirds of adults and children are considered obese.
In 2005 a research book called “The China Study” came out examining the link between the consumption of animal based diets and many chronic diseases. This China “project” was a survey of death rates for twelve different kinds of cancer. The following is a partial list of diseases linked to diet: cancers of the breast, prostate and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration. The study examined the relationship between mortality rates and different dietary, lifestyle and environmental characteristics in 65 rural counties in China.
Drawing on the project findings in rural China, but going far beyond those findings, The China Study also examined the source of a lot of “nutritional confusion” created by powerful lobbies, government entities and opportunistic scientists. The New York Times has recognized the study as the “Grand Prix” of epidemiology and the most comprehensive large study undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.
The authors recommended people eat a “whole” plant-based diet and avoid consuming beef, poultry, eggs, fish and milk as a means to minimize and or reverse the development of chronic diseases. Also recommended was adequate intake of sunshine in order to maintain sufficient levels of vitamin D and consider taking the supplement Vit.B12 in cases of complete avoidance of meats. Their opinion is that there are virtually no nutrients in animal based foods that are not better provided by plants.
What about our genes? Don’t they play a role? Genes do not determine disease on their own; they must be “activated”. Nutrition plays a critical role in determining which genes, good and bad, are activated.
We are all aware that consuming animal based protein increases blood cholesterol levels. In contrast, plant based foods contain no cholesterol and in many instances actually help to decrease the amount of cholesterol made by the body.
The China Study is not a diet book. We are bombarded with conflicting messages regarding health and nutrition. The market is flooded with popular titles like “Adkins” and “South Beach”. The China Study challenges the validity of these low carbohydrate fad diets. The China Study presents “The Principles of Food and Health”:
- Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless foods.
- Vitamin supplements are not a panacea for good health.
- Virtually no animal based nutrients are better than plant based.
- Nutrition can substantially control the adverse effects of chemicals.
- Nutrition that prevents disease in its early stages can also halt or reverse it in its later stages.
- Nutrition that is beneficial for a particular disease will also support good health across the board.
- Good nutrition creates health in all areas of our existence.
