Wednesday, July 20, 2016

MEAT MATTERS for Cancer

MEAT MATTERS

Although there are contradictory claims and experiences when it comes to
meat consumption – a reminder that each individual is unique and reacts in
their own way to certain foods – The China Study provides some important
insights. As scientists, the authors have dedicated a large portion of their lives
to examining nutrition. They set out to prove the link between diet and
twenty-first century illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and
put an end to conflicting dietary messages, fad diets and unsubstantiated
claims made by special-interest groups and government entities among others.
Their findings could make you swear off meat for good.

Published in 2004, The China Study presents the results of a twenty-sevenyear
laboratory programme and field research conducted in rural China, and
funded by reputable agencies. The research found that by lowering intake of
animal products like meat, dairy and eggs, one’s health could be significantly
improved. The China Study goes so far as to claim these results ‘prove that
eating right can save your life’.50

Campbell Sr was not always an advocate for a vegan way of life – quite the
opposite in fact. In his early days as a researcher, he worked to promote the
American diet of more meat, milk and eggs for better health. It was during a
project in the Philippines examining malnourished children that he stumbled
onto something shocking. While tasked with investigating why so many of
these children were being diagnosed with liver cancer, ironically, the goal of
his project was to make sure that they were getting as much protein as
possible. Instead, he ‘uncovered a dark secret. Children who ate the highest
protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer.’51

This discovery led him to years of research and investigation into not only
the idea that protein is not healthy, but also that it may cause cancer. In
laboratory tests on rats, he found that low protein diets inhibited the
initiation of cancer by aflatoxin regardless of how much carcinogen was given
to the rats, and that after cancer was initiated, low protein diets dramatically
blocked subsequent cancer growth. Aflatoxin, as described by the Oxford
Dictionary, is ‘any of a class of toxic compounds produced by certain moulds
found in food, which can cause liver damage and cancer’. Campbell writes:
‘In other words, the cancer-producing effects of this highly carcinogenic
chemical were rendered insignificant by a low protein diet. In fact, dietary
protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn
off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed. Furthermore, the
amounts of protein being fed were those that we humans routinely consume.

We didn’t use extraordinary levels, as is so often the case in carcinogen
studies.’52

The research also revealed that casein, which makes up 87 per cent of
cow’s milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process. The types of
protein that did not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake, were
proteins from plants, like wheat and soy.

This initial research led to what the New York Times dubbed the ‘Grand
Prix of epidemiology’ – a survey of a vast range of diseases and diet and
lifestyle factors in rural China and Taiwan. The China study revealed over 8
000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and
disease.

Based on these findings, The China Study concludes the following:

Synthetic chemicals in the environment and in your food, as problematic
as they may be, are not the main cause of cancer.

The genes that you inherit from your parents are not the most important
factors in determining whether you fall prey to any of the ten leading
causes of death.

The hope that genetic research will eventually lead to drug cures for
diseases ignores more powerful solutions that can be employed today.

Obsessively controlling your intake of any one nutrient, such as
carbohydrates, fats, cholesterol or omega-3 fats, will not result in longterm
health.

Vitamin and nutrient supplements do not give you long-term protection
against disease.

Drugs and surgery do not cure the diseases that kill most Americans.

Your doctor probably does not know what you need to do to be the
healthiest you can be.

Referring to subsequent studies, Campbell writes: ‘These findings show that
heart disease, diabetes and obesity can be reversed by a healthy diet. Other
research shows that various cancers, autoimmune diseases, bone health,
kidney health, vision and brain disorders in old age are convincingly
influenced by diet. Most importantly, the diet that has time and again been
shown to reverse and/or prevent these diseases is the same whole foods, plantbased
diet that I had found to promote optimal health in my laboratory
research in the China study. The findings are consistent.’

Studies on the effect of animal protein on tumour development
particularly interested Campbell. Having grown up on a farm and being
convinced of the benefits of this type of protein, he was flummoxed. Further
research revealed that when a carcinogen entered a cell in the body and was
metabolised by an enzyme, a low protein diet could decrease this enzyme
activity and prevent dangerous carcinogens binding to DNA. He also found
that tumours were reduced by low protein diets in several ways:

less aflatoxin entered the cell;
cells multiplied more slowly;
multiple changes occurred within the enzyme complex to reduce its activity;
the quantity of critical components of the relevant enzymes was reduced;
and
less aflatoxin-DNA adducts (bonds) were formed.

‘Just like seeds in the soil, the initial cancer cells will not grow and multiply
unless the right conditions are met. The seeds in the soil, for example, need a
healthy amount of water, sunlight and other nutrients before they make a full
lawn. If any of these factors are denied or are missing, the seeds will not grow.

If any of these factors are missing after growth starts, the new seedlings will
become dormant, while awaiting further supply of the missing factors. This is
one of the most profound features of promotion. Promotion is reversible
depending on whether the early cancer growth is given the right conditions in
which to grow. This is where dietary factors become so important. These
dietary factors, called promoters, feed cancer growth. Other dietary factors,
called anti-promoters, slow cancer growth.’53

The studies showed that the consumption of animal protein promoted
cancer growth, feeding the illness. More revealing was that when the same
tests were done on plant proteins, they did not promote cancer growth, even
at high levels of consumption. And while the tests were done on rats,
Campbell explains that they are extremely important for humans for four
reasons: ‘First, rats and humans have an almost identical need for protein.
Second, protein operates in humans virtually the same way it does in rats.
Third, the level of protein intake causing tumour growth is the same level that
humans consume. And fourth, in both rodents and humans the initiation
stage is far less important than the promotion stage of cancer. This is because
we are very likely “dosed” with a certain amount of carcinogens in our
everyday lives, but whether they lead to full tumours depends on their
promotion, or lack thereof.’54

At this point, the challenge for Campbell was that even though he had
become convinced that increasing casein intake promoted cancer, he had to
be very careful about over-generalising. His ‘provocative’ studies ‘drew fierce
scepticism’. And then came the China study in the 1980s, when Campbell
travelled to the country to compare cancer rates between the US and China.

The study examined why cancer was so prevalent in some rural Chinese
communities but not others; why the differences were so large; and why,
overall, cancer was less common in China than in the US. By examining
diseases of poverty and affluence, blood cholesterol and disease, blood
cholesterol and diet, fat and breast cancer, fat and cancer in general, the
importance of fibre, antioxidants from plants, popular diets, carbohydrates
and weight, the study found that plant-based diets were linked to lower blood
cholesterol and lower rates of breast cancer while animal-based foods were
linked to higher blood cholesterol and higher rates of breast cancer. It also
found that fibre and antioxidants from plants are linked to a lower risk of
cancers of the digestive tract. Campbell says: ‘Plant-based diets and active
lifestyles result in a healthy weight, yet permit people to become big and
strong. Our study was comprehensive in design and comprehensive in its
findings.’55

The idea that a plant-based diet can not only lower the risk of getting
cancer and other life-threatening diseases, but can also improve illness once it
has already occurred, is worth taking note of. Campbell is adamant that while
the China study does not constitute absolute scientific proof, it does provide
enough information for some practical decision-making.

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