The China Study (35 page)

EATING RIGHT: EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF FOOD AND HEALTH             229
part of our nutritional landscape, and the majority of consumers have
been duped into believing that they are buying health. This was the late
Dr. Atkins's formula. He advocated a high-protein, high-fat diet-sacri-
ficing long-term health for short-term gain-and then advocated taking
his supplements to address what he called, in his own words, the "com-
m o n dieters' problems" including constipation, sugar cravings, hunger,
fluid retention, fatigue, nervousness and insomnia. l
This strategy of gaining and maintaining health with nutrient supple-
m e n t s , however, started to unravel in 1994-1996 with the large-scale
investigation of the effects of beta-carotene (a precursor to vitamin A)
supplements on lung cancer and other diseases.2, 3 After four to eight
years of supplement use, lung cancer had not decreased as expected;
it had increased! No benefit was found from vitamins A and E for the
prevention of heart disease either.
Since then, a large number of additional trials costing hundreds of
millions of dollars have been conducted to determine if vitamins A, C
and E prevent heart disease and cancer. Recently, two major reviews of
these trials were published. 4 , 5 The researchers, in their words, "could
not determine the balance of benefits and harms of routine use of
supplements of vitamins A, C or E; multivitamins with folic acid; or
antioxidant combinations for the prevention of cancer or cardiovascular
disease."4 Indeed, they even recommended against the use of beta-caro-
tene supplements.
It is not that these nutrients aren't important. They are,-but only
when consumed as food, not as supplements. Isolating nutrients and
trying to get benefits equal to those of whole foods reveals an ignorance
of how nutrition operates in the body. A recent special article in the New
York Times 6 documents this failure of nutrient supplements to provide
any proven health benefit. As time passes, I am confident that we will
continue to "discover" that relying on the use of isolated nutrient sup-
p l e m e n t s to maintain health, while consuming the usual Western diet,
is not only a waste of money but is also potentially dangerous.

230                               THE (HINA STUDY
PRINCIPLE #3
There are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods
that are not beHer provided by plants.
Overall, it is fair to say that any plant-based food has many more simi-
larities in terms of nutrient compositions to other plant-based foods
than it does to animal-based foods . The same is true the other way
around; all animal-based foods are more like other animal-based foods
than they are to plant-based foods . For example, even though fish is
significantly different from beef, fish has many more similarities to beef
than it has to rice. Even the foods that are "exceptions" to these rules,
such as nuts, seeds and processed low-fat animal products, remain in
distinct plant and animal "nutrient" groups.
Eating animals is a markedly different nutritional experience from
eating plants. The amounts and kinds of nutrients in these two types
of foods, shown in Chart 11.2/ , 8, 9 illustrate these striking nutritional
differences.
CHART 11.2: NUTRIENT COMPOSITION OF PLANT AND
ANIMAL-BASED FOODS (PER 500 CALORIES OF ENERGY)
Animal-Based
Nutrient              Plant-Based Foods·
Foods"
-                        137
Cholesterol (mg)
4                        36
Fat (g)
33                        34
Protein (g)
29,919                      17
Beta-<:arotene (meg)
-
31
Dietary Fiber (g)
4
293
Vitamin C (mg)
1168                        19
Folate (meg)
11                        0.5
Vitamin E (mg_ATE)
2
20
Iron (mg)
51
548
Magnesium (mg)
545                        252
Calcium (mg)
* Equal parts of tomatoes, spinach, lima beans, peas, potatoes
** Equal parts of beef, pork, chicken, whole milk

EATING RIGHT: EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF FOOD AND HEAlTH                231
As you can see, plant foods have dramatically more antioxidants,
fiber and minerals than animal foods. In fact, animal foods are almost
completely devoid of several of these nutrients. Animal foods, on the
other hand, have much more cholesterol and fat. They also have slightly
more protein than plant foods, along with more B]2 and vitamin D, al-
t h o u g h the vitamin D is largely due to artificial fortification in milk.
Of course, there are some exceptions: some nuts and seeds are high in
fat and protein (e.g., peanuts, sesame seeds) while some animal-based
foods are low in fat, usually because they are stripped of their fat by ar-
tificial processing (e.g., skim milk). But if one looks a little more closely,
the fat and the protein of nuts and seeds are different: they are more
healthful than the fat and protein of animal foods. They also are accom-
p a n i e d by some interesting antioxidant substances. On the other hand,
processed, low-fat, animal-based foods still have some cholesterol, lots
of protein and very little or no antioxidants and dietary fiber, just like
other animal-based foods. Since nutrients are primarily responsible for
the healthful effects of foods and because of these major differences in
nutrient composition between animal- a n d plant-based foods, isn't it
therefore reasonable to assume that we should expect to see distinctly
different effects on our bodies depending on which variety of foods we
consume?
By definition, for a food chemical to be an essential nutrient, it must
meet two requirements:
• the chemical is necessary for healthy human functioning
• the chemical must be something our bodies cannot make on their
own, and therefore must be obtained from an outside source
One example of a chemical that is not essential is cholesterol, a com-
p o n e n t of animal-based food that is nonexistent in plant-based food.
While cholesterol is essential for health, our bodies can make all that
we require; so we do not need to consume any in food. Therefore, it is
not an essential nutrient.
There are four nutrients which animal-based foods have that plant-
based foods, for the most part, do not: cholesterol and vitamins A, D
and B12 • Three of these are nonessential nutrients. As discussed above,
cholesterol is made by our bodies naturally. Vitamin A can be readily
made by our bodies from beta-carotene, and vitamin D can be readily
made by our bodies simply by exposing our skin to about fifteen min-
u t e s of sunshine every couple days. Both of these vitamins are toxic if

232                          THE CHINA STUDY
they are consumed in high amounts. This is one more indication that it
is better to rely on the vitamin precursors, beta-carotene and sunshine,
so that our bodies can readily control the timing and quantities of vita-
m i n s A and D that are needed.
Vitamin B12 is more problematic. Vitamin B12 is made by microor-
ganisms found in the soil and by microorganisms in the intestines of
animals, including our own. The amount made in our intestines is not
adequately absorbed, so it is recommended that we consume B12 in food.
Research has convincingly shown that plants grown in healthy soil that
has a good concentration of vitamin B12 will readily absorb this nutri-
ent. lO However, plants grown in "lifeless" soil (non-organic soil) may
be deficient in vitamin B12 . In the United States, most of our agriculture
takes place on relatively lifeless soil, decimated from years of unnatural
pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer use. So the plants grown in this soil
and sold in our supermarkets lack B12 . In addition, we live in such a
sanitized world that we rarely come into direct contact with the soil-
b o r n e microorganisms that produce B12 . At one point in our history, we
got B12 from vegetables that hadn't been scoured of all soil. Therefore, it
is not unreasonable to assume that modern Americans who eat highly
cleansed plant products and no animal products are unlikely to get
enough vitamin B12 .
Though our society's obsession with nutrient supplements seriously
detracts from other, far more important nutrition information, this is
not to say that supplements should always be avoided. It is estimated
that we hold a three-year store of vitamin B12 in our bodies. If you do
not eat any animal products for three years or more, or are pregnant or
breastfeeding, you should consider taking a small B12 supplement on
occasion, or going to the doctor annually to check your blood levels
of B vitamins and homocysteine. Likewise, if you never get sunshine
exposure, especially during the winter months, you might want to take
a vitamin D supplement. I would recommend taking the smallest dose
you can find and making more of an effort to get outside.
I call these supplements "separation from nature pills," because a
healthy diet of fresh, organic plant-based foods grown in rich soil and
a lifestyle that regularly takes you outdoors is the best answer to these
issues. Returning to our natural way of life in this small way provides
innumerable other benefits, as well.

EATING RIGHT: EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF FOOD AND HEAlTH                233
PRINCIPLE #4
Genes do not determine disease on their own.
Genes function only by being activated, or expressed,
and nutrition plays a critical role in determining which genes,
good and bad, are expressed.
I can safely say that the origin of every single disease is genetic. Our genes
are the code to everything in our bodies, good and bad. Without genes,
there would be no cancer. Without genes, there would be no obesity, dia-
betes or heart disease. And without genes, there would be no life.
This might explain why we are spending hundreds of millions of dol-
lars trying to figure out which gene causes which disease and how we
can silence the dangerous genes. This also explains why some perfectly
healthy young women have had their breasts removed simply because
they were found to carry genes that are linked to breast cancer. This
explains why the bulk of resources in science and health in the past
decade has shifted to genetic research. At Cornell University alone $500
million is being raised to create a "Life Sciences Initiative." This initia-
tive promises to "forever change the way life-science research is con-
d u c t e d and taught at the university. " What is one of the main thrusts of
the program? Integrating each scientific discipline into the all-encom-
passing umbrella of genetic research. It is the largest scientific effort in
Cornell's history. 11
Much of this focus on genes, however, misses a simple but crucial
point: not all genes are fully expressed all the time. If they aren't activat-
ed, or expressed, they remain biochemically dormant. Dormant genes
do not have any effect on our health. This is obvious to most scientists,
and many laypeople, but the significance of this idea is seldom under-
stood. What happens to cause some genes to remain dormant, and oth-
ers to express themselves? The answer: environment, especially diet.
To reuse a previous analogy, it is useful to think of genes as seeds. As
any good gardener knows, seeds will not grow into plants unless they
have nutrient-rich soil, water and sunshine. Neither will genes be ex-
pressed unless they have the proper environment. In our body, nutrition
is the environmental factor that determines the activity of genes. As we
saw in chapter three, the genes that cause cancer were profoundly im-
p a c t e d by the consumption of protein. In my research group, we learned

1
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234                          THE CHINA STUDY
that we could turn the bad genes on and off simply by adjusting animal
protein intake.
Furthermore, our China research findings showed that people of
roughly the same ethnic background have hugely varying disease rates.
These are people said to have similar genes, and yet they get differ-
e n t diseases depending on their environment. Dozens of studies have
documented that as people migrate, they assume the disease risk of
the country to which they move. They do not change their genes, and
yet they fall prey to diseases and illnesses at rates that are rare in their
homeland population.
Furthermore, we have seen disease rates change over time so drasti-
cally that it is biologically impossible to put the blame on genes. In
twenty-five years, the percentage of our population that is obese has
doubled, from 15% to 30%. In addition, diabetes, heart disease and
many other diseases of affluence were rare until recent history, and our
genetic code simply could not have changed significantly in the past 25,
100 or even 500 years.
So while we can say that genes are crucial to every biological process,
we have some very convincing evidence that gene expression is far more
important, and gene expression is controlled by environment, especially
nutrition.
A further folly of this genetic research is assuming that understanding
our genes is Simple. It is not. Recently, for example, researchers studied
genetic regulation of weight in a tiny worm species. 12 The scientists
went through 16,757 genes, turning each one off, and observed the ef-
fect on weight. They discovered 417 genes that affect weight. How these
hundreds of genes interact over the long term with each other and their
ever-changing environment to alter weight gain or loss is an incredibly
complex mystery. Goethe once said, "We know accurately only when
we know little; with knowledge doubt increases." 13
Expression of our genetic code represents a universe of biochemical
interactions of almost infinite complexity. This biochemical "universe"
interacts with many different systems, including nutrition, which it-
self represents whole systems of complex biochemistry. With genetic
research, I suspect we are embarking on a massive quest to shortcut
nature only to end up worse off than when we started.
Does all this mean I think that genes don't matter? Of course not. If
you take two Americans living in the same environment and feed them
exactly the same meaty food every day for their entire lives, I would not