I’m currently reading the book “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M Campbell. It’s a plug for a natural, whole food diet but based on the most phenomenal good science and written by someone you wouldn’t expect to advocate plants and whole foods. Colin Campbell grew up on a farm, studied to be a vet, became a very prestigious researcher and early in his career scoffed at vegetarians! But since doing an enormous amount of research into our typical Western diseases such as cancer and obesity, he’s become an advocate for whole food diets.
He states that the typical Western diet contains too much fat, too much animal protein and too much refined carbohydrate. Unfortunately this diet leads to inflammation and fat production which in turn leads to typical Western diseases such as heart disease and cancer, arthritis and diabetes.
Compare this to a whole food, predominantly plant-based diet, which is anti-inflammatory encourages heat production (thermogenesis) rather than fat production and with which we can actually eat more calories but maintain a lower weight.
Here’s a quote from the book:
“Almost all of us in the United States will die of diseases of affluence. In our China Study we saw that nutrition has a very strong effect on these diseases. Plant-based foods are linked to lower blood cholesterol; animal 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. Our study was comprehensive in design and comprehensive in its findings. From the labs of Virginia Tech and Cornell University to the far reaches of China, it seemed that science was painting a clear, consistent picture: we can minimize our risk of contracting deadly diseases just by eating the right food.”
So it’s not about the calories, it’s about the quality of the calories. For a convincing argument on the association between diet and death, I highly recommend The China Study.[subscribe2]
