Health Benefits of Reducing Consumption of Animal Proteins
Recently I discovered an eye-opening study of nutrition known as "The China Study." Written over a decade ago by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II MD, the national bestseller advocates for eating plant-based proteins after proving a correlation between intake of animal proteins and increased cancers. This link between animal protein and cancer still is not well-recognized by most American scientists and physicians.
Many readers have heard of the "Mediterranean Diet," and there is a clear parallel between health benefits of this diet rich in plant-based foods and the findings made by the Campbell Father-Son team. For background, the Mediterranean Diet is based on traditional foods consumed by people fifty years ago in Greece and Italy; and many researchers have noted that compared to modern Americans, these people had a lower prevalence of killer diseases.
Back to The China Study, the authors contend that America's health has been failing as evidenced by prevalence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer as well as massive use of prescription drugs; and that these issues all come down to three things: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since what we eat generally is under our own control, one needs only enough motivation and discipline to live healthier once the nutrition facts are fully understood.
This is a story I believe needs to be heard, and I strongly recommend reading the book. Here is a brief overview of important dietary information and findings revealed by the authors:
* Protein, fat and carbohydrates - macronutrients - make up most of the weight of food that we consume, aside from water, with the remaining small amount being vitamin and mineral micronutrients.
* Proteins, the most sacred of all nutrients, are constructed as long chains of hundreds or thousands of amino acids, of which there are 15-20 kinds depending on how they are counted.
* In the human body, proteins wear out and must be replaced by consuming foods that contain protein. Various food proteins are said to be of different quality, depending on how well they provide amino acids needed to replace our body proteins.
* About eight amino acids that are needed for making tissue proteins must be provided by our food intake; and proteins designated as "high quality" indicate they have the ability to provide the right kinds and amounts of amino acids to make our new proteins.
* An ideal food source providing efficient building blocks for our replacement proteins is human flesh, as its protein has the right amount of needed amino acids; and while our fellow human souls usually are not for dinner we get the next highest quality protein from other animals.
* Among animal foods, the proteins of milk and eggs represent the best amino acid matches for our proteins and therefore are deemed to be of high quality.
* Plant proteins are considered lower quality because they may be lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids; however as a group plants, in fact, do contain all of them.
* Despite accepted notions that animal proteins are superior, measuring quality level of proteins solely by speed or efficiency of one's body growth is misleading. The authors present a mountain of evidence showing that "low quality" plant proteins, which allow for slow but steady synthesis of new proteins, actually are the healthiest for people to consume. In other words, it is an unfortunate leap to equate more protein quality with more health.
* The massive human study undertaken in China was in part inspired by the findings of an earlier animal study in India, in which researchers had studied two groups of rats that had been administered the cancer causing aflatoxin (a poisonous chemical produced by certain molds and often found in improperly stored commodity products such as corn, cotton seed and peanuts). The first group of "doomed" rats were fed a diet composed of 20% protein, a level near what many Americans consume; while the second group was fed a diet composed of only 5% protein. The researchers discovered that every single animal consuming the 20% protein diet had evidence of liver cancer, and every single animal that consumed a 5% diet avoided liver cancer. Given the 100 to 0 score, that study left little doubt that nutrition trumps chemical carcinogens in controlling onset of cancer.
* In their laboratory animal research program funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the American Institute for Cancer Research, the authors found that low-protein diets inhibited the initiation of cancer by aflatoxin regardless of how much of the carcinogen was administered on research animals; and after cancer initiation was completed, low-protein diets also dramatically blocked subsequent cancer growth. Dietary protein proved to be so powerful that the researchers found they could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level of protein consumed.
* Perhaps the most important discovery is that not all proteins have the same effect: casein from cow's milk promotes all stages of the cancer process while plant-based proteins, including wheat and soy, are safe and do not promote cancer even at high levels.
I recall that my dear friend and personal trainer from the Tampa Bay area often advised me in the past to "eat double meat" in order to maximize muscle growth. It seems unlikely that she is familiar with the The China Study; but the good news is that greater plant protein intake was closely linked in that study to greater adult height and body weight. It might not sound as catchy, but after reading the book I now plan to eat double plants!
We hope you benefit from reading our Tips For Your Good Health!
