Dr. Colin Campbell: Plant-Based Diet
Is Key To Healthy Living
By Wish
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, presented a compelling (and at times, chilling) argument Wednesday night that a plant-based diet can virtually wipe out most of the common diseases and health risks that afflict millions of Americans every year. As the second guest in the RunTex Speaker Series, Campbell spoke before a packed house of runners, vegans and a handful of skeptics at RunTex.
Campbell was introduced to the RunTex crowd by local triathlete Rip Esselstyn whose father-Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr.-was the first speaker in the series who also espoused the key to healthy living is a plant-based diet.
In that respect, Campbell didn't differ from Esselstyn whom he called "a kindred spirit." Both men are nutritional researchers who have studied the dietary and nutritional customs of cultures all over the world. Their studies and others have concluded, according to Campbell, "That all favor a plant-based diet for minimal disease risk.
While Esselstyn's primary interest is the positive effects of a plant-based diet on artery and heart disease, Campbell's presentation-It's Time to Take Our Food Choices Seriously-was more geared to making healthier choices (i.e., plant-based foods) for improved performance. He said how a vegan diet not only does not reduce strength, but cited two prominent studies that showed how it improves strength significantly. He mentioned such well-known vegan performance athletes as Ironman Dave Scott, two-time Olympic marathon Pete Pfitzinger and tennis star Martina Navratilova who all had exceptionally long athletic careers which, Campbell said, was due in part to their vegan diet
Like Esselstyn, Campbell was raised on a farm and "went to college as a meat and potatoes guy to learn how to grow cattle. I was happy to believe that the American diet was the best in the world." But what he found was much different.
In the 1950s, Campbell was part of a team of researchers who went to the Philippines to study ways to introduce more protein into the diet of malnourished children. He was initially confused why so many Filipino children were being diagnosed with liver cancer, primarily an adult disease.
What he found was that the children from the more affluent families who had the most protein in their diet also had the highest incidence of liver cancer. The poorer children who had less protein had the lowest incidence of liver cancer.
Campbell, who is a professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, delved deeper into the relationship between high protein diets and diseases. He presented two remarkable animal studies last night.
One of the studies was done on two control groups of rats. The first group was fed a diet which was comprised of 20 percent protein. The other group was fed a diet of only five percent protein. In the first group, every one of the 30 rats developed tumors and cancers. There were none in the second group.
In another two-year study of two animal groups, one was fed a diet of 20 percent protein (in this case, casein which is an experimental protein that is 87 percent cows' milk). The other group was fed a diet of five percent soy and wheat protein.
After two years, all the animals on the protein-rich diet were dead. There were no casualties in the other group.
Campbell's conclusion? "Cancer is a diet and lifestyle decision," he told the crowd at RunTex. "It is not a genetic event. Family history and genes do not matter."
Essentially, that's what Campbell's landmark, 20-year China Study also demonstrated. He and his team of researchers studied and collected data from adults in villages all over China. After analyzing the results, Campbell summarized: "People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease. People who favored a plant-based diet were the healthiest and avoided disease."
In contrast, Campbell showed that American women are five times more likely to get breast cancer and reach menopause four years earlier than Chinese women.
American men are certainly not immune. Twelve of 14 studies showed a positive association between consumption of dairy products and prostate cancer, Campbell said.
"There is little question," said Campbell, "that a plant-based diet has a broad-based effect that will prevent typical American diseases such as acne, depression, Alzheimer's, kidney stones, multiple sclerosis and heart disease."
Campbell then wondered aloud why, if the negative impact of too much protein in the diet and the benefits of a plant-based diet are true, we haven't heard more about it.
The reason, Campbell made clear, is the food industry and its powerful lobbying efforts as well as the government's irresponsible research which is often funded by the food industry.
As evidence, Campbell showed the recommendations by the Food and Nutrition Board that "to meet the body's daily nutritional needs while minimizing risk for disease, adults should consume 10-35 percent of their diet from protein."
Not! It should be less than 10 percent, says Campbell.
Another study, sponsored by such groups as M&Ms, the Dannon Yogurt Board and the soft drink industry, recommended that added sugars-soft and fruit drinks, pastries and candy-should comprise no more than 25 percent of total calorie consumption when it should be miniscule.
Clearly the blame, Campbell said, lies with the funding of such studies and the wide dissemination which he also blames on researchers who have been bought off by the food industry.
Campbell concluded his talk by admonishing the audience, "It's time we stop thinking of health coming from a pill and start thinking of health as coming from food."
Indeed.
 
 
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Dr. Colin Campbell: Plant-Based Diet Is Key To Healthy Living
by RunTex Staff, 5/19/2005 |
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