Read The Beauty Detox Solution Online
Authors: Kimberly Snyder
CANCER RISK
A major review on diet and cancer prepared for the U.S. Congress in 1981 estimated that genetics determines only about 2 to 3 percent of the total cancer risk. That's why the incredible findings of the China-Cornell-Oxford Project, simply known as the China Project, are important to note. The China Project was the most comprehensive study on the connection between diet and disease in medical history. Funded by such prestigious organizations as the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the American Institute for Cancer Research, and spearheaded by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., a professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and a former senior science advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research, the China Project was launched in the early 1980s and ran for nearly thirty years. Dr. Campbell's research found more than eight thousand statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease. Dr. Campbell's findings were ultimately published in his book
The China Study.
How Much Protein Do We Really Need?
The World Health Organization recommends that only about 5 percent of our daily calories be from protein.
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Incidentally, that is the same percentage of protein as in human breast milk.
The RDA recommendation from the Institute of Medicine is that we take in about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram that we weigh.
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This recommendation includes a generous safety factor for most people.
The prominent nutrition expert Dr. John Scharffenberg gave an extensive presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which was ultimately published in 1982. He was quoted as saying, “Let me emphasize, it is difficult to design a reasonable experimental diet that provides an active adult with adequate calories that is deficient in protein.”
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Nathan Pritikin, the founder of the Pritikin Longevity Center in Florida, whose work has proven the incredible healing powers of a plant-based diet, once stated, “Vegetarians always ask about getting enough protein. But I don't know any nutrition expert that can plan a diet of natural foods resulting in a protein deficiency, so long as you're not deficient in calories. You need only six percent of total calories in proteinâ¦and it's practically impossible to get below nine percent in ordinary diets.”
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While there may be many different opinions on the exact amount of protein we need, one thing is clear: the average plant food supplies at least 10 percent of its calories in the form of protein, and green vegetables average about 50 percent.
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You can rest assured that on the Beauty Detox Solution, which is whole-food based and plant based, with a ton of greens, you will be getting plenty of protein! I go into more detail on this in Chapter 5.
Most notably, the China Project revealed a strong correlation between cancer and animal protein and dairy consumption.
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As Dr. Campbell explains in
The China Study
, “dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed.” The China Project, along with some seven hundred and fifty studies Campbell cites in
The China Study
, demonstrably revealed that a plant-based diet supplies more than adequate protein and calcium, as well as other important minerals and nutrients needed for health. It also pinpointed the powerful connection between dietânamely, eating animal-based foodsâand disease. As Dr. Campbell summarizes: “Plant-based foods are linked to lower blood cholesterol; animal-based foods are linked to higher blood cholesterol. Animal-based foods are linked to higher breast cancer rates; plant-based foods are linked to lower rates. Fiber and antioxidants from plants are linked to a lower risk of cancers of the digestive tract. Plant-based diets and active lifestyles result in a healthy weight, yet permit people to become big and strong.”
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HEART DISEASE
Heart disease is currently the number one cause of death for both men and women in America. According to the American Heart Association,
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cardiovascular disease affects over eighty-one million Americans for a stunning total of 37 percent of the American population.
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Dr. Dean Ornish is a Harvard Medical School graduate and a pioneer in the connection between heart disease and diet. Dr. Ornish headed up the research in the Lifestyle Heart Trial,
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in which he treated twenty-eight heart disease patients with lifestyle changes alone, without any medications or surgery. For a year the twenty-eight patients in the experimental group were asked to eat a plant-based, low-fat diet (about 10 percent of their daily calories coming from fat). They could eat as much food as they wanted from the allowable food list, which contained primarily greens and other vegetables, whole grains and fruit. No animal food products were allowed at all, except some egg white and a maximum of one cup of nonfat milk or yogurt per day. The patients exercised three hours a week and practiced various forms of stress management, like meditation and breathing exercises. During this year Dr. Ornish also tracked a control group of twenty patients that were put on a standard treatment plan for heart disease.
The results were nothing short of fantastic. Eighty-two percent of the patients in the experimental group that were eating the plant-based diet had a regression in their heart disease over the course of the year. The blockages in their arteries diminished. This group had a 91 percent reduction in the frequency of chest pain, their total cholesterol dropped on average from 227 mg/dL to 172 mg/dL and, on average, their “bad” LDL cholesterol fell from 152 mg/dL to 95 mg/dL. In contrast, those in the control group, who received the standard care, saw a 165 percent rise in the frequency of chest pain. Their cholesterol levels were significantly worse than those of members of the experimental group, and the blockages in their arteries increased by up to 8 percent.
This success inspired Dr. Ornish to expand the Lifestyle Heart Trial into the Multicenter Lifestyle Demonstration Project.
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Patients with serious heart disease enrolled in a one-year lifestyle program as an alternative to heart surgery. By 1998 two hundred people had taken part in the program. After one year of treatment chest pain was eliminated for 65 percent of patients, and after three years 60 percent of the patients continued reporting no chest pain. We can see from Dr. Ornish's research how a plant-based diet with little to no animal products has serious implications for the battle against heart disease and the restoration of health.
DIABETES
Another disease we should touch upon is diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, as of 2007 over 23.6 million Americans have diabetes, which is roughly 8 percent of the American population.
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Type 2 diabetes (also known as adult-onset diabetes, though it's becoming more and more prevalent in younger individuals) is on the rise. Diabetes treatments cost something to the tune of $174 billion in the United States in 2007.
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Besides greatly increasing the risk for heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes comes with such terrifying complications as blindness, amputation and kidney disease.
The good news is that studies show that the diet we choose to eat can not only prevent diabetes, but it can treat diabetes, as well. Dr. James Anderson is a prominent medical doctor studying diabetes and its treatment with diet. One study he conducted examined the effects of a mostly plant-food diet that was rich in fiber and carbohydrates and low in fat.
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It involved twenty-five type 1 diabetics and twenty-five type 2 diabetics in a controlled hospital setting. (Type 1 diabetics cannot produce insulin, and it would seem far less likely that these patients would garner any benefit from a dietary change alone.) All the participants were not overweight, and 100 percent of them were taking insulin shots to regulate their blood sugar levels. For the first week all the patients were fed the standard diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association, which included meat and dairy products. For the next three weeks the patients switched over to a plant-based, mostly vegetarian diet. Dr. Anderson then studied the effect of the new diet on the patients' blood sugar and cholesterol levels, as well as on their weight and medication requirements.
Plant Foods Decrease Colon Cancer Risk
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of the World Health Organization, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and the second most common cancer in women worldwide. Almost 60 percent of the cases occur in developed regions.
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In one study researchers compared environmental factors and cancer rates in thirty-two countries and found a strong correlation between colon cancer and meat intake.
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This study found in particular that regions where more animal protein, more sugar and fewer cereal grains were consumed had far higher rates of colon cancer.
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Studies show that eating more fiberâwhich is found in plant foods onlyâdecreases your risk of colon cancer. A large study in 2003 by the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)
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collected data on fiber intake and colorectal cancer in five hundred nineteen thousand people across Europe and found that the 20 percent of people that consumed the most fiber in their diet (about thirty-four grams per day), had a 42 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer than the 20 percent who consumed the least fiber in their diet (about thirteen grams a day).
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Given its widespread prevalence, colon cancer affects all of us. I have many fond memories spending time as a child with my grandmother on my father's side, Nana, who taught me how to knit and paint with acrylic and oil paints on canvas. Nana took her fiber supplement every day but did not eat a lot of vegetables and fruits that are naturally high in fiber. Nana passed away from colon cancer in 1996, at the young age of sixty-four.
True Beauty Story
BARBARA MULREADY IS A CLIENT OF MINE IN HER EARLY FORTIES. SHE IS TALL
, with long blond hair, has a fit body and stays within five pounds of her ideal weight. However, when I met her, she had very shallow, dark circles under her eyes, which gave her a permanently tired expression. The nasolabial fold between her nose and her mouth was also very deep, and her cheeks looked sunken. The words that come to mind to describe how she looked at that first meeting we had at a tea café were unfortunately “beat down.”
Ironically, Barbara is a personal trainer. She gives advice to
her
clients on how to eat, but she could tell something was off with her own diet, and she sought out my help. Her energy was very low, she was often irritable and emotional, and she did not have regular, adequate bowel movements. When I looked into her eyes, I saw a deflated version of the real Barbara, as if a wet cloth had been laid over her true radiance.
When I looked at her diet, I saw that she was eating small meals five to seven times a day, and that most of her mini meals included some kind of lean animal protein. As a result of eating such a high-protein, acidic diet, outwardly her body was fairly toned and thin, but inwardly she was aging at an accelerated rate, as told by her shallow, uneven skin and constant struggle to get through the day.
As a personal trainer and gym rat, she was led to believe that she had to constantly consume animal proteinâchicken breast, egg white, tuna, whey protein, etc.âin order to maintain her muscle tone and get the most out of her workouts. But she never learned how acidic this type of diet made her body. We started transitioning her diet to incorporate more easily assimilated sources of plant protein, such as hemp protein and high-protein algae (chlorella) tablets, after her workouts and started cutting back on the amount of acidic animal products she consumed. We started with small steps, and she quickly saw her energy increase and her skin improve.
Today Barbara still eats some animal proteinâshe loves fish, eggs and some chickenâbut she eats nowhere
near
the amount of these foods that she used to eat. She also shifted to eating those foods later on in the day. Ironically, her body became even more toned as old acidic waste was eliminated and oxygen was able to circulate to her muscles more as there was now less pressure on her veins and arteries from gas created by fermentation. Her energy is now so high that she lasts all the way into the night without any caffeine, and her skin has drastically improved, achieving a healthy glow. Her blond hair now has a healthy sheen, as opposed to the brittleness it once had, and the circles under her eyes have greatly reduced. She looks years younger. And yes, she is now going to the bathroom regularly! Best of all, she is smiling and laughing again, and she feels much younger, lighter and happier.
After just three weeks on the plant-based diet, the type 1 diabetic patients were able to lower their insulin medication by an average of 40 percent. Blood sugar profiles greatly improved, and their cholesterol levels dropped by 30 percent.
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Of the twenty-five patients with type 2 diabetes, twenty-four were able to discontinue their insulin medication!
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That means only one out of twenty-five type 2 diabetics in the study had to stay on insulin medication as a result of switching to a plant-based, high-fiber and low-fat diet for only three weeks!
A group of research scientists at the Pritikin Center also studied the effects of a plant-based diet low in fat, along with exercise, on diabetic patients. Of the forty patients that were all on medication at the start of the program, thirty-four were able to discontinue all medication after only twenty-six days.
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