Based on the information I read in “The China Study” so far, I’ve stopped drinking milk. Chapter 3 explained his early experiments where he introduced a toxin that caused liver cancer into the diet of rats… and of course they developed liver cancer. What he was able to do next was what blew me away. He was able to STOP and start the growth of cancer by varying the amount of protein (specifically, he used milk protein). Feeding them a diet of around 5% protein caused cancer to stop, increasing to 20% caused it to start growing. I think most American’s eat about 30% protein in their diets. He later shows that only animal proteins support cancer growth, plant proteins do not.
“Only REAL men have heart disease”
In chapter 5 he talks about heart disease. He explained research starting in 1946 where heart attack survivors were split into 2 groups. Group 1 continued their normal diet, group 2 ate a diet very low in fat and meat. After 8 years, 24% of group 1 was alive while 56% from group 2 was alive. After 12 years, all the group 1 participants were dead, and 38% of group 2 were alive. He also explains why we are so reluctant to adopt a plant-based diet: status quo tells us that the good old meaty American diet is best. Next he discussed the work of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. He took a group of 18 people who had suffered 49 coronary events, placed them on a low-fat, plant based diet, and had amazing results. The groups cholesterol went down from 246 to 132, and 11 years later, there has been only 1 single coronary event, and that was from a person who was not adhering to the diet. Also, 70% of the people have seen an opening of their clogged arteries! He also reviews similar work by Dr. Dean Ornish, which had similar results.
If what this research shows is true, then most of the deadly diseases we are likely to die from are preventable by changing what you eat. Drugs are neither needed nor as affective as eating right.
