You are what you eat / The China Study

I was watching an old Jack LaLanne video on YouTube where he said something like,  "If you are what you eat,  then Americans are made of Cigarettes,  Coffee and Donuts because that is what we eat for breakfast".  Even from the grave Jack still speaks the truth.    What we eat does makes what we are.    If you eat too much refined sugars,  meat and dairy fats and processed snack foods an you will eventually have issues with your health because of that diet.    Is is not too late to move toward a healthier diet. 

Think about these statistics.  (from the US Department of Health and Human Services)

35.7% of US Adults are Obese   (78 million)
16.9% of US Children and Adolescents are Obese (12.5 million)

Note,  this is the obese percentage  (where the body mass index is greater than 30) .   In order to be considered obese,  a person who is 5feet 9 inches tall (1.75 meters) has to weigh over 203 pounds (92 kg)  anyone at this height who weighs over   169 pounds (76.65 kg) is considered overweight. If we look at the percentage of people overweight,  69.2% of Americans are either overweight or obese.    That is an incredible number.   That is more than 215 million Americans carrying around too much weight on their bodies.


I recently read a book called the "China Study" written by T. Collin Campbell, where Dr. Campbell  (a PhD at Cornell University) ,  along with his physician son, examine the relationship between the consumption of animal products (including dairy) and chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancers of the breast, prostate and bowel. The authors conclude that people who eat a whole-food, plant-based/vegan diet—avoiding all animal products, including all meats, fish, eggs, cheese and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce or reverse the development of numerous diseases.   Now this study has been controversial to say the least  (with the meat and dairy industries attacking it especially and vegans touting it as the bible) and I think that is has to be considered  and not yet taken as gospel but the authors do  make a compelling case.

They based this theory upon studies done in labs showing rats who where given "Carcinogens"  having almost no cancer when they were not fed animal protein to having cancer once they increased their percentage of proteins from animals above a certain percentage and remission when that protein was removed from their diet.   Additionally,  they worked on a study in  China where data from all causes of death for three years for the whole country was collected (from 1973 thru 1975).  Using the mortality data,  65 rural counties were chosen to study the dietary habits of the population of randomly selected people to link the causes of death in these counties with the diets of the people in them.  The study collected diet and lifestyle variables (ignoring all other factors) from inhabitants of the same counties approximately 10 years later, and found that, as blood cholesterol levels rose, so did the prevalence of "Western" diseases recorded in those counties in 1973–75.    Since the only source of cholesterol from outside of your body is from animal products,  the assumption is that there is a strong correlation between the consumption of animal products and certain diseases.    

Here is a link to a Dr. Campbell presentation where he reviews his findings. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDXxo5Sussk

 I never knew about the China Study when I became a vegetarian. The main driver for me in becoming a vegetarian was my desire to benefit my health and not compassion for animals.  I was feeling unhealthy,  pudgy, and unfit and really wanted to change the direction I was headed.     At the time I weighted 173 pounds (78.5kg)   at 5 Feet 11 Inches tall (1.8 meters).   While I was not obese,   I was heading toward high point of the BMI (body mass index)  for normal  as my BMI was 24.1 and overweight starts at 25.  If I continued with my lifestyle,  by the time I was 60 I probably would have been 180 pounds (81.6 kg) or more and would have been "overweight" according to the BMI index.  Additionally,  the extra weight would have been all fat and that would have had a detrimental effect on my health and general outlook on life. 

The transition to vegetarianism  happened over time ,  I had stopped eating red meat about a year before I  stopped eating meat completely (and very soon after eggs and fish)  and the transition itself was easier that one could expect.   I think the main reason for this was the fact that I could cook and I always was thinking about what I was putting into my body.  Recently I have been working to eliminate all dairy products from my diet.   This is easy to do at home  (though I miss Romano cheese on pasta) but it may not be so easy outside of the home especially when I travel.  So far it is 99% dairy free.    Driving past the local ice cream shop and realizing that I may never have a milk shake again kind of puts a feeling of finality on it. 




Namaste