Based on Colin Campbell’s bestselling book The China Study.
In order to be healthy, you need to become a vegan. The physician and biochemist Colin Campbell, who has studied all his life how the way of life is associated with our diseases, is sure of this. It was he who led a large-scale study in China, which led scientists to an amazing conclusion: in order to protect yourself from cancer, obesity and cardiovascular disease, it is necessary to exclude meat, milk, eggs and other animal products from the diet. The result is the book China Study, where Campbell details his experiments and provides important nutritional advice.
Colin Campbell reflected on the dangers of food of animal origin during a project related to starving Filipino children. Then he and a group of other scientists believed that the situation could be improved if the population was able to get more protein from meat and dairy products. But wasting isn’t the only problem the researchers have tackled. Another terrible disease, liver cancer, was common among children. This disease was caused by aflatoxin contained in mold rot.
Quite unexpectedly, Campbell found that those who ate a lot of animal foods were much more likely to suffer from cancer. A series of serious experiments led the scientist to the conclusion that it is animal protein that activates enzymes in the body that allow aflatoxin to attach to DNA and cause the growth of damaged cells.
Later, experiments were carried out on completely different animals, with different carcinogens and different types of cancer. Amazingly, they all showed the same results: eating animal protein contributes to the development of cancer. At the same time, vegetable protein is completely safe. It turned out that eating vegetables and fruits can even reverse the disease.
Suffering from cancer, former Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai organized a large-scale study to find out more about the disease. Data on people with cancer were collected from all regions of the country. The results turned out to be interesting: in some regions the disease was very common, while in others it was much less common.
This gave Colin Campbell the opportunity to continue his observations. Together with his colleagues, he compared the lifestyle, nutrition, blood chemistry and physical condition of the population practically throughout China. It turned out that people often get cancer in economically developed areas, where it is customary to eat a lot of meat and dairy products. In addition, the residents of wealthy areas had increased blood cholesterol levels, and this was also attributed by scientists to the consumption of animal products.
Even before the Chinese study, many scientists noticed that the more fat in the diet, the higher the risk of developing breast cancer. But the general picture emerges only when we learn: we are talking only about animal fats.
Vegetable fats are not dangerous, which allows us to come to the same conclusion: breast cancer is associated with the consumption of animal foods.
Table: Association of breast cancer with animal fat intake.
Many experiments have given Campbell an even more complete understanding of the connection between malnutrition and our disease. For example, it turned out that people who have suffered from heart attacks can bring their cardiovascular system back to normal if they switch to a vegan diet.
At the same time, those subjects who suffered from obesity easily lost weight, giving up meat and milk.
Table: Association of cardiovascular disease with animal protein intake.
Today, more and more people are becoming vegans for ethical reasons, but now there is another argument for it. And many do report that they felt better when they switched to a whole, plant-based diet:
— Alicia Silverstone says that she managed to lose as much as 15 kg, only becoming a vegan, although before that she had tried a bunch of other diets.
– Magnificent figure, vigor, excellent health – all this, according to recognition Pamela Anderson, gives her a vegan diet.
– Famous TV and radio host Olga Shelest assures that she experienced the beneficial effects of this diet: in the show “Circus with the Stars” her fellow meat-eaters were much more tired than she.
— Michelle Pfeiffer became a vegan in 2011, and the result was not long in coming: the cholesterol level of the actress dropped by 83 points.
Read about other famous vegetarians here.
If you decide to become a vegan, you can find some practical tips for choosing the right food. .