Today I will tell you about the landmark study that sealed the deal for once and for all about the dangers of a diet top-heavy in animal foods.
This study was reported in the best-selling book, The China Study.
The China Study, published in 2005, was written by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II, and is the definitive report about the detrimental effects of eating meat.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell is a professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and one of the directors of the China Project, which was the study that “The China Study” reported on.
The China Project is a survey of death rates for twelve different kinds of cancer for more than 2,400 counties and 880 million (96%) of China’s citizens, conducted jointly by Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine over the course of twenty years.
The book examines the relationship between the consumption of animal foods and illnesses such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration.
The authors conclude that diets high in protein, particularly animal protein (including casein in cow’s milk), are strongly linked to diseases such as heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
The authors recommend that people eat a whole food, plant-based diet and avoid consuming beef, poultry and milk as a means to minimize and/or reverse the development of chronic disease.
In the book, Dr. Campbell stated that “several studies have now shown, in both experimental animals and in humans, that consuming animal-based protein increases blood cholesterol levels. Saturated fat and dietary cholesterol also raise blood cholesterol, although these nutrients are not as effective at doing this as is animal protein. In contrast, plant-based foods contain no cholesterol and, in various other ways, help to decrease the amount of cholesterol made by the body.”
He also stated that “these disease associations with blood cholesterol were remarkable, because blood cholesterol and animal-based food consumption both were so low by American standards. In rural China, animal protein intake (for the same individual) averages only 7.1 grams per day whereas Americans average 70 grams per day.”
He concludes by stating that “the findings from the China Study indicate that the lower the percentage of animal-based foods that are consumed, the greater the health benefits—even when that percentage declines from 10% to 0% of calories. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that the optimum percentage of animal-based products is zero, at least for anyone with a predisposition for a degenerative disease.”
The authors state that autoimmune diseases are more prevalent among people who consume a diet high in animal protein, particularly cow’s milk.
They also state that the consumption of animal protein, especially cow’s milk, result in higher concentrations of Calcium in the blood, which inhibits the process by which the body activates Vitamin D in the kidneys to a form that helps repress the development of autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Campbell then goes on to list various diseases that are linked to a diet high in animal protein. These include:
Brain Diseases, including cognitive impairment, demential and Alzheimer’s.
Breast Cancer
Colorectal Cancer
Diabetes
Eye Diseases
Heart Disease
Kidney Stones
Metabolism and Incidence of Obesity
Osteoporosis
In concluding the book, Dr. Campbell stated that one of the biggest impediments to wholesale dietary changes in the U.S. “are powerful, influential, and enormously wealthy industries that stand to lose a vast amount of money if Americans start shifting to a plant-based diet.”
And so, there you have it. The most definitive study ever done on the profound detrimental effects of eating a diet that emphasizes animal food.