The China Study (5 page)

THE CHINA STUDY
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details while ignoring the larger context. For example, we pin our efforts
and our hopes on one isolated nutrient at a time, whether it is vitamin A to
prevent cancer or vitamin E to prevent heart attacks. We oversimplify and
disregard the infinite complexity of nature. Often, investigating minute bio-
chemical parts of food and trying to reach broad conclusions about diet and
health leads to contradictory results. Contradictory results lead to confused
scientists and policy makers, and to an increasingly confused public.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF PRESCRIPTION
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 de-
signed and conducted studies under the scrutiny of fellow colleagues or
peers. They have few or no publications in peer-reviewed scientific jour-
nals; 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 diet fad.
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-
s t a r v e d by these quick-fix plans, your head is spinning from counting
calories and measuring grams of carbohydrates, protein and fat. What's
the real problem, anyway? Is it fat? Is it carbohydrates? What's the ratio
of nutrients that provides greatest weight loss? Are cruciferous vegeta-
bles good for my blood type? Am I taking the right supplements? How
much vitamin C do I need every day? Am I in ketosis? How many grams
of protein do I need?
You get the picture. This is not health. These are fad diets that em-
b o d y the worst of medicine, science and the popular media.
If you are only interested in a two-week menu plan to lose weight,
then this book is not for you. I am appealing to your intelligence, not to
your ability to follow a recipe or menu plan. I want to offer you a more
profound and more beneficial way to view health. I have a prescrip-
t i o n for maximum health that is simple, easy to follow and offers more
benefits than any drug or surgery, without any of the side effects. This

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PROBLEMS WE FACE, SOLUTIONS WE NEED
prescription isn't merely a menu plan; it doesn't require daily charts or
calorie counting; and it doesn't exist to serve my own financial inter-
ests . Most importantly, the supporting evidence is overwhelming. This
is about changing the way you eat and live and the extraordinary health
that will result.
So, what is my prescription for good health? In short, it is about
the multiple health benefits of consuming plant-based foods, and the
largely unappreciated health dangers of consuming animal-based foods,
including all types of meat, dairy and eggs. I did not begin with pre-
conceived ideas, philosophical or otherwise, to prove the worthiness
of plant-based diets. I started at the opposite end of the spectrum: as
a meat-loving dairy farmer in my personal life and an "establishment"
scientist in my professional life. I even used to lament the views of veg-
etarians as I taught nutritional biochemistry to pre-med students.
My only interest now is to explain the scientific basis for my views
in the clearest way possible. Changing dietary practices will only occur
and be maintained when people believe the evidence and experience
the benefits. People decide what to eat for a number of reasons, health
considerations being only one. My task is only to present the scientific
evidence in a form that can be understood. The rest is up to you.
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 sci-
ence 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 igno-
rance." I plan to show you what I have come to know.
Much of my evidence comes from human studies done by myself and
by my students and colleagues in my research group. These studies were
diverse both in design and in purpose. They included an investigation
of liver cancer in Philippine children and their consumption of a mold
toxin, aflatoxin 22• 23 ; a nationwide program of self-help nutrition centers
for malnourished preschool children in the Philippines24 ; a study of
dietary factors affecting bone density and osteoporosis in 800 women
in China 25- 27 ; a study of biomarkers that characterize the emergence of
breast cancer28 . 29; and a nationwide, comprehensive study of dietary
and lifestyle factors associated with disease mortality in 170 villages in
mainland China and Taiwan (widely known as the China 5tudy).3O-33
These studies, exceptionally diverse in scope, dealt with diseases

22                            THE CHINA STUDY
thought to be related to varied dietary practices, thus providing the op-
p o r t u n i t y to investigate diet and disease associations comprehensively.
The China Study, of which I was director, began in 1983 and is still
ongoing.
In addition to these human studies, I maintained a twenty-seven-year
laboratory research program in experimental animal studies. Begun in
the late 1960s, this National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research
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 cau-
sation.
When all was said and done, my colleagues and I were honored to
have received a total of seventy-four grant-years of funding. In other
words, because we had more than one research program being con-
d u c t e d at once, my colleagues and I did seventy-four years' worth of
funded research in less than thirty-five years. From this research I have
authored or co-authored over 350 scientific articles. Numerous awards
were extended to me and to my students and colleagues for this long
series of studies and publications. They included, among others, the
1998 American Institute for Cancer Research award "in recognition
of a lifetime of significant accomplishments in scientific research ... in
diet, nutrition and cancer," a 1998 award as one of the "Top 25 Food
Influentials" by Self magazine and the 2004 Burton Kallman Scientific
Award by the Natural Nutrition Food Association. Moreover, invitations
to lecture at research and medical institutions in more than forty states
and several foreign countries attested to the interest in these findings
from the professional communities. My appearance before congressio-
nal committees and federal and state agencies also indicated substantial
public interest in our findings. Interviews on the McNeil-Lehrer News
Hour program, at least twenty-five other TV programs, lead stories in
USA Today, the New York Times, and the Saturday Evening Post and
widely publicized TV documentaries on our work have also been a part
of our public activities.
THE PROMISE OF THE FUTURE
Through all of this, I have come to see that the benefits produced by eat-
ing 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, impo-

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PROBLEMS WE FACE, SOLUTIONS WE NEED
tence and all sorts of other chronic diseases can be largely prevented.
These diseases, which generally occur with aging and tissue degenera-
tion, kill the majority of us before our time.
Additionally; impressive evidence now exists to show that advanced
heart disease, relatively advanced cancers of certain types, diabetes and
a few other degenerative diseases can be reversed by diet. I remember
when my superiors were only reluctantly accepting the evidence of nu-
t r i t i o n being able to prevent heart disease, for example, but vehemently
denying its ability to reverse such a disease when already advanced. But
the evidence can no longer be ignored . Those in science or medicine
who shut their minds to such an idea are being more than stubborn;
they are being irresponsible.
One of the more exciting benefits of good nutrition is the prevention
of diseases that are thought to be due to genetic predisposition. We now
know that we can largely avoid these "genetic" diseases even though we
may harbor the gene (or genes) that is (are) responsible for the disease.
But funding of genetic research continues to spiral upwards in the belief
that specific genes account for the occurrence of specific diseases, in
the hope that we somehow will be able to "turn off' these nasty genes.
Drug company public relations programs now depict a future where
each of us will have a personal ID card cataloging all of our good and
bad genes. Using this card, we will be expected to go to our doctor, who
will prescribe a single pill to suppress our bad genes. I strongly suspect
these miracles will never be realized, or if tried they will have serious,
unintended consequences. These futuristic pipe dreams obscure the
affordable, efficacious health solutions that currently exist: solutions
based in nutrition.
In my own laboratory we have shown in experimental animals that
cancer growth can be turned on and off by nutrition, despite very strong
genetic predisposition. We have studied these effects in great detail and
have published our findings in the very best scientific journals. As you
will see later, these findings are nothing short of spectacular, and the
same effects have been indicated over and over again in humans.
Eating the right way not only prevents disease but also generates
health and a sense of well-being, both physically and mentally. Some
world-class athletes, such as ironman Dave Scott, track stars Carl
Lewis and Edwin Moses, tennis great Martina Navratilova, world cham-
p i o n wrestler Chris Campbell (no relation) and sixty-eight-year-old
marathoner Ruth Heidrich have discovered that consuming a low-fat,

24                            THE CHINA STUDY
plant-based diet gives them a significant edge in performance. In the
laboratory, we fed experimental rats a diet similar to the usual American
fare-rich in animal-based protein-and compared them with other
rats fed a diet low in animal-based protein. Guess what happened when
both sets of rats had an opportunity to voluntarily use exercise wheels?
Those fed the low-animal protein diet exercised substantially more,
with less fatigue, than those fed the type of diet that most of us eat. This
was the same effect observed by these world-class athletes.
This shouldn't be news to the medical establishment. A century ago,
Professor Russell Chittenden, a famous, well established nutrition re-
searcher at Yale University Medical School, investigated whether eating
a plant-based diet affected students' physical capacities. 34, 3 5 He fed some
students, fellow faculty and himself a plant-based diet and measured
their physical performance tests. He got the same results as our rats
almost a century later-and they were equally spectacular.
Then there is the question of our excessive dependence on drugs and
surgery to control our health. In its simplest form, eating the right way
would largely obviate the enormous costs of using drugs, as well as their
side effects. Fewer people would need to wage lengthy, expensive battles
with chronic disease in hospitals over their last years of life. 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.
SIMPLE BEGINNINGS
As I look back, I often think about life on the farm and how it shaped
my thinking in so many ways. My family was immersed in nature every
waking moment. In the summer, from sunrise to sunset, we were out-
d o o r s planting and harvesting the crops and taking care of the animals.
My mother had the best garden in our part of the country and toiled day
in and day out during the summer to keep our family well fed with fresh
food, all produced on our own farm.
I've had an amazing journey, to be sure. I have been startled time and
time again by what I have learned. I wish that my family and others
around us had had the same information back in the mid-1900s that
we now have about food and health. If we had, my father could have
prevented, or reversed, his heart disease. He could have met my young-
est son, his namesake, who is collaborating with me on this book. He
might have lived for several more years with a higher quality of health.

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PROBLEMS WE FACE, SOLUTIONS WE NEED
My journey in science over the past forty-five years has convinced me
that it is now more urgent than ever to show how people can avoid these
tragedies. The science is there and it must be made known. We cannot
let the status quo go unchallenged and watch our loved ones suffer un-
necessarily. It is time to stand up, clear the air and take control of our
health.

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AHouse of Proteins
My ENTIRE PROFESSIONAL CAREER in biomedical research has centered on
protein. Like an invisible leash, protein tethered me wherever I went,
from the basic research laboratory to the practical programs of feeding
malnourished children in the Philippines to the government board-
rooms where our national health policy was being formulated. Protein,
often regarded with unsurpassed awe, is the common thread tying to-
g e t h e r past and present knowledge about nutrition.
The story of protein is part science, part culture and a good dose of
mythology. I am reminded of the words of Goethe, first brought to my
attention by my friend Howard Lyman, a prominent lecturer, author
and former cattle rancher: "We are best at hiding those things which
are in plain sight." Nothing has been so well hidden as the untold story
of protein. The dogma surrounding protein censures, reproaches and
guides, directly or indirectly, almost every thought we have in biomedi-
cal research.
Ever since the discovery of this nitrogen-containing chemical in 1839
by the Dutch chemist Gerhard Mulder, protein has loomed as the most
sacred of all nutrients. The word protein comes from the Greek word
proteios, which means "of prime importance."
In the nineteenth century, protein was synonymous with meat, and
this connection has stayed with us for well over a hundred years. Many
people today still equate protein with animal-based food. If you were to
name the first food that comes to mind when I say protein, you might
say beef. If you did, you aren't alone.
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