Whole plant-based diet – the best vegetarian diet, or just another trendy concept?

More recently, the grandmothers of modern vegetarians have learned how to cook sweets without baking, herring under a nori fur coat and began to buy seasonal grass for green cocktails on the market – but at the same time, the West has already begun to criticize both vegetarianism and a raw food diet, putting forward new theories about food: “pure nutrition”, color and gluten-free diets and more. However, only a few out of hundreds of hypotheses have the same convincing scientific justification, long-term and extensive research of facts and relationships, as a whole plant based diet (Plant based diete), proposed by the doctor and described in his best-selling books – “The China Study” and “(five)healthy food”.

Vegetarianism – harmful?

Of course not. However, a vegetarian or raw food diet is not synonymous with a healthy diet. Even though vegetarians are less at risk of so-called “abundance diseases” (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer), they have higher death rates from other diseases.  

A raw food, vegetarian, sports, yoga, or any other diet is not 100% healthy just because you replace all animal with plant. Statistically, the Greens are simply more concerned about their health than everyone else. However, there are a lot of problems with plant-based nutrition. For example, vegetarians come to me with digestive problems (constipation, diarrhea, IBS, gas), overweight/underweight, skin problems, low energy levels, poor sleep, stress, etc. It turns out that something is wrong in the classical approach to plant-based nutrition?  

CRD is no longer a vegetarian and not yet a raw food diet

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People become vegetarians for a number of reasons: religious, moral and even geographical. However, the most conscious choice in favor of a plant-based diet can be called a balanced approach, based not on belief in the miraculous (and even more so divine) qualities of cucumbers and tomatoes, but on the study of an impressive amount of facts and studies that confirm them.

Who would you rather believe – those who spew high-flown esoteric phrases, or a professor of biochemistry and nutrition at one of the best universities in the world? It is difficult to understand medical sites without special education, and checking everything on yourself is unsafe, and there may not be enough time.

Dr. Colin Campbell has done a great job of dedicating most of his life to it and making it much easier for you and me. He incorporated his findings into a diet he called CRD.

However, let’s see what’s wrong with traditional vegetarianism and raw food. Let’s start with the basic principles of the CRD. 

1. Plant foods should be as close to their natural form as possible (i.e. whole) and minimally processed. For example, not all vegetable oils that are present in traditional “green” diets are whole.

2. In contrast to mono-diets, Dr. Campbell says that you need to eat varied. This will provide the body with all the necessary nutrients and vitamins.

3. CRD eliminates salt, sugar and unhealthy fats.

4. 80% of kcal is recommended to be obtained from carbohydrates, 10 from fats and 10 from proteins (vegetable, those that are commonly called “poor quality” *).  

5. Food should be local, seasonal, without GMOs, antibiotics and growth hormones, without pesticides, herbicides – that is, organic and fresh. Therefore, Dr. Campbell and his family are currently lobbying for a bill to support private farmers in the US as opposed to corporations.

6. Dr. Campbell encourages cooking food at home whenever possible to avoid all sorts of flavor enhancers, preservatives, E-additives, etc. Most of the products in health food stores and “vegetarian things” are often industrially processed foods, convenience foods, snacks, semi-prepared or prepared meals, meat substitutes. To be honest, they are no healthier than conventional meat products. 

To help the followers of the CJD, Leanne Campbell, the wife of Dr. Campbell’s son, has published several cookbooks on the principles of the CJD. Only one was translated into Russian and published quite recently by the MIF publishing house – “Recipes of Chinese Research”. 

7. The quality of food is more important than kcal and the amount of macronutrients in it. In classic “green” diets, low-quality food is often present (even on a raw food and vegetarian diet). For example, in the US, most soy is GMO, and almost all dairy products contain growth hormones. 

8. Complete rejection of all products of animal origin: milk, milk products (cheese, cottage cheese, kefir, sour cream, yogurt, butter, etc.), eggs, fish, meat, poultry, game, seafood.

One of the main ideas of the MDGs is that health is available to everyone. But because of the simplistic (or reductionist) approach, many are looking for a magic pill for all diseases and quick cures, causing even more damage to their health and side effects as a result. But if a carrot and a bunch of greens cost as much as expensive medicines, then they would be more willing to believe in their healing properties. 

Dr. Campbell, being a scientist, nevertheless, relies on philosophy. He talks about a holistic approach to health or holism. The concept of “holism” was introduced by Aristotle: “The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.” All traditional healing systems are based on this statement: Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, ancient Greek, Egyptian, etc. Dr. Campbell did the seemingly impossible: from a scientific point of view, what was true for more than 5 thousand years, but only “inner instinct “.

I am glad that now there are more and more people who are interested in a healthy lifestyle, study materials and have critical thinking. More healthy and happy people is my goal too! I am grateful to my teacher Dr. Colin Campbell, who combined the Law of Natural Integrity with the best achievements of modern science, changed the lives of millions of people around the world for the better through his research, books, films and educational . And the best evidence that the CRD works are testimonials, thanks, and real stories of healing.

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* The “quality” of a protein is determined by the rate at which it is used in the tissue formation process. Vegetable proteins are “low quality” because they provide a slow but steady synthesis of new proteins. This concept is only about the rate of protein synthesis, and not about the effect on the human body. We recommend reading Dr. Campbell’s books The China Study and Healthy Eating, as well as his website and tutorials.

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