The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health

by T. Colin Campbell

The effects of protein feeding on tumor development were nothing less than spectacular. Rats generally live for about two years, thus the study was 100 weeks in length. All animals that were administered aflatoxin and fed the regular 20% levels of casein either were dead or near death from liver tumors at 100 weeks.36, 43 All animals administered the same level of aflatoxin but fed the low 5% protein diet were alive, active and thrifty, with sleek hair coats at 100 weeks. This was a virtual 100 to 0 score, something almost never seen in research and almost identical to the original research in India.16 In this same experiment,36 we switched the diets of some rats at either forty or sixty weeks, to again investigate the reversibility of cancer promotion. Animals switched from a high-protein to a low-protein diet had significantly less tumor growth (35%-40% less!) than animals fed a high-protein diet. Animals switched from a low-protein diet to a high-protein diet halfway through their lifetime started growing tumors again. These findings on full-blown tumors confirmed our earlier findings using foci. Namely, nutritional manipulation can turn cancer “on” and “off.”