Dr. T. Colin Campbell's The China Study: Reducing Risk of Disease through a Vegan Diet | |||||||||||
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Greetings, energetic viewers, and welcome to Healthy Living. Today on our show, we are honored to introduce the esteemed T. Colin Campbell, PhD, a pioneer of nutritional research. A Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University in the United States, Dr. Campbell has spent over 40 years researching, teaching and developing diets to optimize nutrition and health. Dr. Campbell received his master’s degree and PhD from Cornell, and served as a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has served on several grant review panels of multiple funding agencies, lectured extensively, and has authored more than 300 research papers. His original research both in laboratory experiments and in large-scale human studies has brought him recognition as recipients of several awards, both in research and citizenship. Dr. Campbell is also the Project Director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project, which eventually became known as The China Study, considered the most comprehensive study on the role of diet, disease and health to have ever been conducted. In 2004, he and his son Tom co-authored the book, “The China Study,” which summarized his career’s worth of research on nutrition, which concludes that a pure, vegan diet is the most optimal for health. Dr. Campbell continues to actively participate in the development of national and international nutrition policy. Today’s show is the first of a two part series on Healthy Living featuring Dr. T. Colin Campbell and his research findings on the benefits of a plant-based diet. Dr Campbell(m): I was milking cows, typical American boy I suppose and I sort of superficially thought American diet was the best diet there was. And then I went to graduate school at Cornell University and did my doctorate dissertation along those same lines. In many ways, it was a dissertation research that was intended to promote the consumption of animal based foods: dairy, meat, eggs, milk. And it was specifically focused on protein. Dr Campbell(m): And so he and I were in the Philippines, arranging for setting up a nationwide program of feeding malnourished children. And in those days, the view was that these children who were malnourished in poor countries are nutritionally speaking, either deficient in one of two things: Either they don’t get enough calories or they don’t get enough protein. Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): They were consuming the most protein, typical Western diets. They were the richer families. HOST: When he returned to the United States, he obtained funding from the National Institutes of Health for a 27-year study that focused on the correlation between protein consumption and cancer development. Dr Campbell(m): I’m coming from the dairy farm, and here (Right, right.) the protein of cow’s milk as a problem. So then we compared it with a couple of plant proteins, plant proteins didn’t do that. So all of a sudden, it was pointing a way toward animal-based protein could be a problem but maybe a plant protein would not be. HOST: Please keep your dial tuned here to Supreme Master Television. HOST: In the 1980s, Dr. Campbell led The China Study, the most comprehensive research project on the role of diet and disease. Dr. Campbell: The Chinese in the 1970s, had established that cancer was very common in some areas of China and not in others; there were big differences. And so they surveyed how much cancer existed for about 2 dozen different kinds of cancers all across China; they published those results in early 1980s. And so because of these big differences and also because that people in these different regions tended to live in the same places most of their lives, it was a perfect setting to do a study, to go there and found out what was it that accounted for these really very different rates. And so we organized a study, it was joint funding from China, United States and Great Britain, and Cornell University, University of Oxford and two Chinese government academies were the lead Institutions. And so we did the study to measure as many things as we could, because at that time I had certain preconceived notions about what might be causing cancer. I had been working in the field for at least 20 years before that. And one I had, was that cancer was the result of the multiple factors in food, Dr Campbell (M): The second view that I had come to know was that animal protein, when it was tested experimentally, actually can enhance the growth of cancer. And so those two ideas, the multiplicity of effects together with the idea that animal protein, maybe animal foods, were a problem. So we set the study up to measure as many things as we could. Collected blood samples, urine samples, food samples, ask questions and then just amassed a really large amount of information. And from that data set, then we could go back and sort of evaluate, investigate, analyze what this information was telling us. And there it was quite remarkable because in that area of China, mostly rural China, they don’t eat much in a way of animal-based food and so I didn’t really expect to see much effect, to be honest about it. But in fact, when you started to look into this mountains and mountains of data, it became quite clear to me that even the introduction of reasonably small amounts of animal food on the diet began to create problems. Not just for cancer, but also for heart disease and other diseases. And that coincided with what we had been learning in the laboratory. HOST: And yet, even at these smaller percentages, they could identify a correlation between consuming more animal-based foods and higher rates of cancer and other deadly diseases. Dr Campbell (M): And that was really quite striking. That observation though, from the China Study if, standing alone, just standing alone in the scientific sense, doesn’t necessarily say a lot. I mean it’s certainly suggestive. But what made that study, what made that observation important was when you compare it with our laboratory work, when you compare it with the work of other people, in other kinds of study, (Supreme Master TV(f): Right.) then it becomes really significant. Supreme Master TV (M): Dr Campbell (M): Then I came to know Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., at the Cleveland Clinic, who had done something very similar with people, and now he’s published a book himself just in February, on reversing heart disease. And what he was able to achieve was something truly remarkable. He was taking seriously ill people with heart disease and actually just bringing the disease under control. He actually calls it “cure.” And what he ended up doing was very similar to another man by the name of Dr. Dean Ornish. The evidence now shows that we can reverse or at least control heart disease. There is quite a lot of evidence now beginning to emerge that we can control even cancer, experimentally we could do that. We got to a point where we could turn on and turn off cancer development just by giving animal protein, for example, or taking away, or replacing it with plant protein, it’s quite remarkable. Supreme Master TV (M): Dr Campbell (M): HOST: I’ve just come to a very different world view. It’s a world view that is based on holistic ideas. And so I finally got to the place where I was saying that, the closer we get to a plant-based diet, the healthier we are going to be. HOST: Supreme Master TV (m): Dr Campbell (m): We get an acidity that then pulls calcium from the bones, we start growing cancers. And so the question, if we can’t consume excess protein, the question then becomes, what’s excess? And so we put ourselves at risk by doing that. And plant-based foods, a good plant-based diet, vegetables, fruits, grains, has just about 8 to 10% protein, I mean, nature almost made it so that it was ideal. HOST: In addition, in the case of breast cancer, he recognizes the role of excess estrogen, which also arises from animal proteins and milk in particular. Supreme Master TV (m): Dr Campbell (m): So we’ve learned some things, but it’s quite controversial and debatable, if people focus on these individual studies and individual entities. When, however, you put all this together in a holistic kind of interpretation, and look at things collectively, it becomes quite clear to me that breast cancer is a disease of the West. It has been noted by many people, breast cancer starts to emerge as we start consuming more animal-based foods, especially dairy. Dairy food has certain characteristics with it that when, especially young people, in this case, young girls, are consuming dairy, for example, to hopefully to get stronger bones and teeth and to grow faster, as the ads have indicated, they actually then reach the age of menarche or their reproductive lives earlier. Boys, I’m sure, do the same thing, but we have better data for girls. So they reach the age of menarche earlier, their circulating estrogen levels are higher; they remain high as long as they consume that kind of diet; they stop their reproductive life later, they have a longer period, more estrogen exposure, all in large measure related to the kind of diet they’re consuming. So I would argue that as far as food is concerned, animal food is a problem, especially dairy food. I think we should just simply not be feeding dairy food to our young people and older people either. Plant food also has a protective effect. We know that dietary fiber and certain phytochemicals and things like this in plant foods, we know that they also tend to repress the growth of cancer or cells that would behave like breast-cancer cells. So, it means being a total vegan, essentially to really You know, get to the lowest possible risk for breast cancer. HOST: Science itself and medicine is focused on reducing things down to its details, and then attempting to take these details of individual chemicals or individual nutrients or individual diseases or individual something, I mean they really focus, focus, focus. And that to me is not really what medicine should be, that’s not health. Health and particularly nutrition is a condition that is very holistic, has comprehensive effects. I am a biochemist by training, and if you could sort of crawl inside of a cell, which I feel like I can do from time to time, you start looking at all these reactions and it’s like a symphony, it’s like a beautiful symphony. There are countless things that are coming together to actually create a kind of dynamic, a highly integrated dynamic, that leads to health if we give it the right resources. If we give it the wrong resources, we don’t get there. It’s really quite a beautiful story. HOST: Be sure to stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. HOST: Through extensive research, he has found that when the body is given the proper nutrients from a plant-based diet, it begins to naturally heal itself. He emphasizes the holistic approach in maintaining overall well-being. Dr Campbell(m): I mean it’s beyond our comprehension, there’s so many reactions, so many enzymes, so many this and so many… And what it turns out to be is that there’s a synergy within that system, the body is able to control Dr Campbell(m): And so, that’s almost the antithesis of science as we practice it, the antithesis of medicine. (Right) Because they’re always talking about, one drug, one, one… so forth and so on, but it’s the symphony, it’s the harmony that exists in cells that really started to impress me. And when you think of it that way, then you go outside of the cell, you, you know, look at the whole organ for example, (Right) or you look at a whole group of organs, you look at the whole body. And what you find is that with our hormonal system especially, which sends messages around and the neural system which sends messages around, what you find is that the whole body is marvellously symphonic, it’s harmony. (Right, right) And that’s really what it’s all about. And our body can actually manage health and create health and even restore health in people who have disease. It can do this, (Right, right) all we need to do is, I think, stop focusing so much on the details, think about the whole and then make sure that we consume the right kinds of food. And the body creates health on its own. (Right, right) There’s certain observations that I find really quite fascinating biologically. For one thing, advanced disease like heart disease, cancer and so forth, it takes a long time to develop but it’s reversible. (Right, right) Dr Campbell(m): That’s one thing, the second observation I would suggest is that the plant-based diet, which prevents it from going forward in the early stages, is the same kind of diet that prevents it becoming more serious at the late stages, (Supreme Master TV(f): Oh.) so all of a sudden this plant-based diet idea has more to do than just trying to prevent cancer or prevent heart disease; now we know it can be used to restore health, it can be used to treat, treat people with disease. That’s very exciting, so it’s a very different view than what we now have in medicine, (Supreme Master TV(f): Right, right) you know, so that’s one thing. HOST: This concept is supported by the joint work of medical clinician Dean Ornish, MD and visionary scientist and genome expert J. Craig Venter, PhD who found that gene expression can be altered through lifestyle changes, including a diet very high in plant-based foods. Dr Campbell(m): Supreme Master TV (f): Dr Campbell(m): Supreme Master TV (f): Dr Campbell(m): So everything starts with genes, and in a biochemical sense, these genes, DNA in this case if you will, they produce what we call RNA, the RNA then produces protein and the protein becomes the enzymes. (Supreme Master TV(f): Right.) So, and then the enzymes is what’s creating and controlling, the events that subsequently turn into either health or disease. So we start with genes, everything starts with genes. And also we have some genes, all of us have some genes that aren’t so good, (Supreme Master TV(f): Right.) and will take us down the wrong path. Dr Campbell(m): Very little or none, because even if we have some troublesome genes either from our background or from genes that have been corrupted during our lifetimes, if we have these kind of genes, they can give rise to some disease. We can control the expression of these genes. That means we can control whether or not they do produce RNA, whether they do produce protein and whether they do produce enzymes. Supreme Master TV (f): Dr Campbell(m): That’s a very exciting concept because what that means is, if we rely on the idea that genetics causes disease, that’s a very fatalistic idea. If we rely instead on the idea that we control the expression of these diseases through nutrition, that’s where nutrition comes into play. If we can do it through nutrition, that’s a very hopeful sign. Supreme Master TV (f): Dr Campbell(m): HOST: In the United States, where people receive health insurance through their employer, this benefit has become extremely expensive for corporations to continue to offer and many now are no longer providing coverage to their employees. Dr. Campbell believes the widespread adoption of a vegan diet to be the most effective way to lower health care costs. Dr Campbell(m): And so what does that do? That’s causing jobs to be lost, because, you know, the companies can’t afford the healthcare. Supreme Master TV(f): Hmmm. Dr Campbell(m): Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): I’m having some very interesting discussions with some very significant people in this country right now. All of them only talk about who’s going to pay the bill. Is it going to be the insurance company? Is it going to be the individual? Supreme Master TV(f): Hmmm. Dr Campbell(m): They talk about prevention a little bit. They use the word prevention, but that word “prevention” to me is very superficial. They often say, “Stop smoking.” Well, of course, you stop smoking. Supreme Master TV(f):
Through Cornell University, the Foundation offers accredited online courses that expand on his book, “The China Study”. The coursework provides a basic understanding of nutrition and explains how certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity are the direct result of the consumption of animal-based and processed foods. The course also provides practical advice on implementing a healthful plant-based diet. Another exciting feature of the Foundation is its online social network where many people who have successfully overcome deadly diseases through plant-based diets share their inspiring stories and experiences and provide support to an ever-growing community seeking to do the same. Dr Campbell(m): I’ve already had three physicians come up and tell me that, you know, they’re getting their patients to do this. One of them, he’s bought like 90 books and he gives them out to all his patients and he asked them to fill out little forms, what they think of it. And the reaction was really impressive. And so, I’m really confident that this needs to be the future of medicine. It needs to be broadcast and told to the public. Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): HOST: You are watching Healthy Living on Supreme Master Television. HOST: In addition to recommending a vegan diet for optimal health, Dr. Campbell recognizes that it is a critical component in reducing global warming. The United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization has stated in a report meat production for human consumption emits more greenhouse gases than all transportation sectors combined. Dr Campbell(m): Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): Recently there has been a suggestion made, I think two or three years ago, by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations that maybe about 20 percent or so, of all the greenhouse gases that are produced actually begin with livestock production. And that kind of startled some people, 20 percent. Actually it turns out to be much more significant than that now, according to recent information I have. Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): HOST: Methane has 72 times higher global warming potential than CO2 over a 20 year time period. Thus, minimizing methane emissions would have a faster effect in curbing the effects of global warming. Dr Campbell(m): Governments around the world are saying, “Let’s cut back on CO2 production.” The problem with that is that even if we were to cut back CO2 production by let’s say 20 percent, which is huge, and it’s probably not possible in the next ten years, even if we were to do that we’re not going to see much effect on the greenhouse gas emissions. Because the CO2 that’s already up there, it takes about 75 years, according to the numbers I’ve heard, for half of it to disappear. So it would take a long time; even if we were able to do the best we could do right now, we’ve got a problem. That’s the argument with CO2. Methane is different. Methane, instead of taking 75 years for half of it to disappear, it only takes about eight or nine years. So, number one, (Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): Let’s say for every 25-unit change in CO2 (Supreme Master TV(f): Hmm), we only need one unit change in methane to create the same effect. So controlling methane production is far more important. (Supreme Master TV(f): Definitely.) And I just had some information from my friends at the World Bank just recently, that the new figures now indicate that at least half of the greenhouse gases that are up there now, not that 15 or 20 percent, at least half, and maybe considerably more, are due to livestock production. Supreme Master TV(f): Dr Campbell(m): So it’s another whole dimension for the environmental question. There are other questions too. Soil erosion is a big problem with livestock production. Water contamination again, is a big problem. Water consumption (Waste, right) is a big problem, big problem. Livestock requires so much water to grow. Dr Campbell(m): HOST: Dr Campbell(m): Our superiority over environmental issues, superiority over nature. Somehow we’re the lead actors. And we can do what we want. And so it comes down to the question concerning morality, and knowing our place in the world, and we ought not to be where we are. (Supreme Master TV(f): Right) It’s time now to start recognizing that there’s more on this planet than human beings. Supreme Master TV (f): Dr Campbell(m): You are absolutely right. And so I think this is huge, it’s really huge, and it has so many implications, to help solve problems. HOST: The China Study |
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