Forks Over Knives (4 page)

Figure 2b

Figure 2b:
Dr. Campbell then switched the rats’ diets back and forth—between 5 and 20 percent dairy protein. Whenever the rats were fed 20 percent protein, early liver tumor growth exploded; when the same rats were given 5 percent protein, tumor growth actually went down. In
Forks Over Knives
, Dr. Campbell says, “We learned that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth—just by adjusting the level of intake of that protein.”

DON’T WORRY ABOUT NOT GETTING ENOUGH PROTEIN.
One of the most common myths about a plant-based diet is that you won’t get enough protein. This is simply untrue. Plant foods contain plenty of protein, and a whole-foods, plant-based diet provides an appropriate level of total dietary protein—around 10 percent of total calories. That proportion exceeds the level required for most people.

One useful principle to keep in mind: It is impossible to structure a diet that provides enough calories but does not provide enough protein. The word for malnutrition caused by a protein deficiency isn’t even known to the vast majority of Americans. (It’s
kwashiorkor
!)

DON’T WORRY ABOUT OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS.
There are two essential fatty acids, meaning you must consume them in foods—omega-3 and omega-6. Humans have historically consumed a diet with a ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids ranging from 1:1 to 1:4. In recent years, as consumption of animal foods and polyunsaturated vegetable oils (in processed foods) has increased, this ratio has changed dramatically: The range is now about 1:25 to 1:30. As a result, many health-care professionals are suggesting that people take omega-3 supplements such as fish oil or increase their consumption of fish to correct this imbalance. But supplements cause side effects, and fish oil is not a great option because it contains cholesterol, saturated fat, and often mercury and other toxins. (There are also negative ecological implications of eating fish—see
page 38
). The better option is to eat a well-structured, plant-based diet, which reduces the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids and negates the need to increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids.

CONSIDER A VITAMIN B
₁₂
SUPPLEMENT.
Vitamin B
₁₂
is a crucial vitamin, necessary for the proper functioning of the brain and the nervous system. Most people get their vitamin B
₁₂
from eating meat or other animal-based foods. But meat is not the initial source of the B
₁₂
: it actually comes from the bacteria in the soil in which plants grow—plants that are then eaten by the animals.

Soil is often rich in B
₁₂
, and that’s how plant-eaters have always obtained most of their vitamin B
₁₂
—through the dirt that clings to the vegetables that come directly from the rich soil. However, today, food is so highly sanitized that all of this dirt is gone by the time we eat it.

People require very little B
₁₂
: The recommended daily allowance ranges from 0.4 to 2.8 micrograms. And the body stores 2 to 5 milligrams in adults—three orders of magnitude more than is needed each day—and those stores can last for several years.

The solution? Take a supplement for insurance. Check with a qualified health professional concerning appropriate dosage.

NATUROPATH PAM POPPER is the executive director of the Wellness Forum, which offers educational programs to help individuals improve their health, help employers reduce their health-care costs, and help health-care professionals enhance their patients’ diet and lifestyle. She also works with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and with Whole Foods Market, teaching the supermarket chain’s employees to improve their health using plant-based nutrition. Additionally, she is a featured lecturer in Colin Campbell’s online courses through eCornell. Her most recent book is
Solving America’s Healthcare Crisis
.

Pam, who was born in Ohio in 1956, didn’t expect to pursue a career in health. Until she was twenty-eight, she was a salesperson who smoked four packs of cigarettes daily and, until she was thirty-eight, ate whatever foods she felt like eating. “I was nutritionally unconscious,” she says. Then, eighteen years ago, a friend gave her a book by Dr. John McDougall. “I thought I was a smart person, I thought I knew a lot, but I didn’t know about this.”

She liked the book and decided to read more about the relationship between diet and health. “This is it,” she thought. “This is what I want to be when I grow up.” Today, she operates a nutrition-based private practice out of her office in Ohio and has clients all over the world.

“For me, the big change is that, before, my job was just a job. Now, I love what I do. People in the medical field usually have unhappy days, but I almost always see people get better.”

Critics of a plant-based diet, says Pam, contend that people won’t change what they eat. “But I find that the issue is that most patients are not making informed choices; doctors simply tell them, for example, that their cholesterol is too high and that they should go on statins. They don’t offer a choice.
We tell patients that they can indeed go on statins, in which case they will experience negative side effects, or they can change their diet, which won’t have side effects, won’t cost additional money, and will protect them from a stroke or heart attack. Most people aren’t being given the information this way. If they were, they’d be more likely to change.

“The other issue critics bring up is that people won’t stick with a new diet. But I see people doing it all the time. When you make big changes in your diet, your health improves quickly. Our clients tell us that they no longer want cheese, cookies, and cakes anymore. Going back to bad foods means going back to taking medications and even spending time in the hospital. They’d rather be healthy.

“A plant-based diet may seem restrictive when you first hear about it, but actually it lets you do whatever you want to do with the maximum amount of energy for all the years that you are on this planet. It’s not what’s being taken away. It’s what you’re getting.”

Most people tend to think that diseases such as cancer and coronary artery disease are the result of bad luck or bad genes. These conditions are considered incurable by many health-care professionals, since the drugs and
surgeries commonly prescribed for them only treat symptoms. The truth is, smart choices at the grocery store and in the kitchen can prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and many other conditions, and in many instances can stop or reverse them.

This section is only a summary of the relationship between serious illness and diet. For more information on the subject, see the Bookshelf (
page 199
).

The term “heart disease” is misleading, implying that your heart muscle is prone to catching ailments like the flu or the common cold—as if heart disease is something that just happens to you. Many people blame high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol on non-lifestyle factors such as family history. “My grandparents had high blood pressure,” they’ll say, “so there’s nothing I can do about it except to take medication.” But, although genetics may play a role in your disease, your grandparents may well have had high blood pressure because they ate poorly.

Here’s a frightening fact: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recently released a report based on the ten-year findings of their Cardiovascular Health Study, concluding that nearly all males over age sixty-five and females over seventy who have grown up eating a traditional, meat-based Western diet are already suffering from some form of heart disease.

In most cases, the root of coronary artery disease is plaque, a greasy, fatty deposit that builds up in arteries throughout our bodies. Healthy arteries are strong and elastic, and lined with a smooth, Teflon-like substance called endothelial tissue. Over time, as people ingest dietary fat and cholesterol, the endothelial cells become “sticky” and plaque begins accumulating. Plaque can also narrow the arterial passageways through which our blood delivers vital oxygen and nutrients to our body, which results in hypertension and, by closing off arteries, can cause cardiac arrest. Plaques can also rupture, spilling their toxic contents into the bloodstream, which activates platelets that try to control the damage by clotting. The resulting blockage can deprive the heart muscle of oxygen, causing a heart attack or even sudden death.

Although some modern medicines, such as nitroglycerin, help the heart receive more blood by chemically dilating the arteries, these address only a symptom of the real problem. Wider arteries simply mean more room for plaque to accumulate in later. Imagine commuting to work every day with a leaking tire. You can pump air into the tire every morning, but wouldn’t it make more sense to stop the leak? It’s just going to become worse and worse until the day your tire blows out on the highway.

The same goes for our bodies. How do we fix our own leaky tire—that is, the buildup of dangerous plaque in our blood? The answer is simple: Avoid animal-based foods.