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April 4 - May 31, 2021
We now had impressive evidence that low protein intake could markedly decrease enzyme activity and prevent dangerous carcinogen binding to DNA.
From our extensive research, one idea seemed to be clear: lower protein intake dramatically decreased tumor initiation. This finding, even though well substantiated, would be enormously provocative for many people—so much so that few if any professionals in this area of science want to talk about it or even acknowledge its existence.
According to the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein consumption, we humans should be getting about 10% of our energy from protein. This is considerably more than the actual amount required (about 5–6%). But because requirements may vary from individual to individual, 10% dietary protein is recommended to ensure adequate intake for virtually all people (note the difference between “requirement” and “recommendation”). What do most of us routinely consume? Remarkably, it is considerably more than the recommended 10%. The average American consumes 15–16% protein, while the government
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Ten percent dietary protein is equivalent to eating about 50–60 grams of protein per day, depending on body weight and total calorie intake.
This was yet another result demonstrating that a low-protein diet could override the cancer-causing effect of a very powerful carcinogen, aflatoxin.
Furthermore, a pattern was beginning to emerge: nutrients from animal-based foods increased tumor development while nutrients from plant-based foods decreased tumor development.
Cancer rates were five to eight times higher for areas where fruit intake was lowest.
On the opposite end of the carbohydrate spectrum are the simple carbohydrates, which generally are highly processed, or refined, and stripped of their fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They are typically found in foods like white bread, processed snack items including crackers and chips made with white flour, sweets including pastries and candy bars, and sugar-laden soft drinks.
The people who eat the most animal protein have the most heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. In the China Study, for example, animal protein consumption was associated with taller and heavierI people, but was also associated with higher levels of total and bad cholesterol.II
Did this progressive diet accomplish anything? After eight years, only twelve of fifty people eating their normal American diet were alive (24%). In the diet group, twenty-eight people were still alive (56%), almost two and one-half times the amount of survivors in the control group. After twelve years, every single patient in the control group was dead. In the diet group, however, nineteen people were still alive, a survival rate of 38%.
In fact, the incidence rate (not death rate) for heart disease34 is about the same as it was in the early 1970s.2 In other words, while we don’t die as much from heart disease, we still get it as often as we used to. In fact, very recent research finds that patients presenting with heart attacks are younger than ever before.35 It seems that we simply have gotten slightly better at postponing death from heart disease, but we have done nothing to stop the rate at which our hearts become diseased.
The widespread communities of nutrition professionals, researchers, and doctors are, as a whole, either unaware of this evidence or reluctant to share it. Because of these failings, Americans are being cheated out of information that could save their lives.
Waiting for the evidence to be perfect (it never will be) is an unacceptable strategy, especially when cow’s milk protein has long been shown to have other effects of serious concern, including increased blood cholesterol,45 formation of early atherogenesis (cardiovascular disease46), and promotion of experimental cancer,47 among other effects.
Fourth, of those diseases studied in relation to nutrition, the consumption of animal-based foods—especially cow’s milk—is associated with greater disease risk.
we shouldn’t miss the forest by focusing on one or two trees.
My advice is to try to eliminate all animal-based products from your diet, but not obsess over it. If a tasty vegetable soup has a chicken stock base, or if a hearty loaf of whole wheat bread includes a tiny amount of egg, don’t worry about it. These quantities, very likely, are nutritionally unimportant. Even more importantly, the ability to relax about very minor quantities of animal-based foods makes applying this diet much easier—especially when eating out or buying already-prepared foods.
If your friend had been a smoker all of his or her life and looked to you for advice, would you tell them to cut down to only two cigarettes a day, or would you tell them to quit smoking altogether? It’s in this way that we’re telling you that moderation, even with the best intentions, sometimes makes it more difficult to succeed.
Cheese consumption has increased by 150% in the past thirty years.
the incidence of obesity and diabetes is skyrocketing and that Americans’ health is slipping away, and we know what to blame: diet. So shouldn’t the government be leading us to better nutrition? The government can take no greater action to prevent pain and suffering in this country than to tell Americans unequivocally to eat fewer animal products, fewer highly refined plant products, and more whole, plant-based foods.
Doctors have virtually no training in nutrition and how it relates to health. In 1985 the United States National Research Council funded an expert panel report that investigated the quantity and quality of nutrition education in U.S. medical schools.4 The committee’s findings were clear: “The committee concluded that nutrition education programs in U.S. medical schools are largely inadequate
You should not assume that your doctor has any more knowledge about food and its relation to health than your neighbors and coworkers.
The health damage that results from doctors’ ignorance of nutrition is astounding.
Research on the causes of disease and non-drug interventions simply doesn’t occur in medical education settings.
I’d put them on the diet and they’d go back off all their pills and soon their numbers would be normal. They’d go to their doctor and say, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this before? Why did you let me suffer, spend all this money, almost die, when all I had to do was eat oatmeal?” The doctors didn’t want to hear this.
