I'm reading a great book on the relationship between diet and disease, The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. In one chapter he discusses his experience as a research scientist involved in understanding the connection between the food populations consume and illnesses. His work goes as far back as the late 1970's. Some of what goes on behind the scenes is fascinating.
Dr. Campbell was asked to serve on the Public Nutrition Information Committee in 1979. This was organized within the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and Medicine. One of the responsibilities of the committee was to "decide what is sound nutritional advice to give to the public." The intention was to identify nutrition quackery. Campbell was the only member of that committee not to have ties to food and drug companies. The others "earned" consulting fees from various animal foods companies. After two meetings Dr. Campbell was asked to leave.
A few years later Campbell was asked to become part of the American Institute for Cancer Research. At the time there was research linking diet and cancer. However, this research was a threat to too many people. The US government even got involved and did everything they could to quash this information. Essentially, they were attacking a nonprofit organization doing cancer research. Turns out that the American Cancer Society even went after them. They did not like anyone competing with them for funds and they did not want to shift the focus of research away from medical treatment and towards a more healthy diet.
Campbell learned that the medical establishment is "in the business of treating disease with drugs and surgery after the symptoms appear." This is anything but a holistic approach. Scientific reductionism happens when the focus turns to individual nutrients instead of whole foods. Billions of dollars were spent looking at the effects of fat or individual vitamins, when they should have been looking at whole systems. It does not help to isolate chemicals and food components, taking the results out of context.
The China Study takes information from whole populations with the same genetic background and demonstrates that cancer is due to environmental and lifestyle (diet) factors. John Robbins, in his book Healthy At 100, takes a similar approach when he writes about the Hunza in Central Asia, the Abkhasia in Russia, and the Japanese of Okinawa. These people regularly live to be 100. What is it about their cultures that make them so healthy? Do you think it is a low fat diet? Or they take vitamin C pills? The answer is to be found in the whole, not the parts.
Dr. Campbell was asked to serve on the Public Nutrition Information Committee in 1979. This was organized within the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and Medicine. One of the responsibilities of the committee was to "decide what is sound nutritional advice to give to the public." The intention was to identify nutrition quackery. Campbell was the only member of that committee not to have ties to food and drug companies. The others "earned" consulting fees from various animal foods companies. After two meetings Dr. Campbell was asked to leave.
A few years later Campbell was asked to become part of the American Institute for Cancer Research. At the time there was research linking diet and cancer. However, this research was a threat to too many people. The US government even got involved and did everything they could to quash this information. Essentially, they were attacking a nonprofit organization doing cancer research. Turns out that the American Cancer Society even went after them. They did not like anyone competing with them for funds and they did not want to shift the focus of research away from medical treatment and towards a more healthy diet.
Campbell learned that the medical establishment is "in the business of treating disease with drugs and surgery after the symptoms appear." This is anything but a holistic approach. Scientific reductionism happens when the focus turns to individual nutrients instead of whole foods. Billions of dollars were spent looking at the effects of fat or individual vitamins, when they should have been looking at whole systems. It does not help to isolate chemicals and food components, taking the results out of context.
The China Study takes information from whole populations with the same genetic background and demonstrates that cancer is due to environmental and lifestyle (diet) factors. John Robbins, in his book Healthy At 100, takes a similar approach when he writes about the Hunza in Central Asia, the Abkhasia in Russia, and the Japanese of Okinawa. These people regularly live to be 100. What is it about their cultures that make them so healthy? Do you think it is a low fat diet? Or they take vitamin C pills? The answer is to be found in the whole, not the parts.
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