The China Study Read Online Free PDF

So our work that morning was to mix the bacteria and
the alfalfa seeds before planting. Always curious, 1 asked my dad why
it worked and how. He was glad to explain it, and 1 was glad to hear it.
This was important knowledge for a farm boy.
Seventeen years later, in 1963, my father had his first heart attack. He
was sixty-one. At age seventy, he died from a second massive coronary.
1 was devastated. My father, who had stood with my siblings and me for
so many days in the quiet countrySide, teaching us the things that 1 still
hold dear in life, was gone.
Now, after decades of doing experimental research on diet and health,
1 know that the very disease that killed my father, heart disease, can be
prevented, even reversed. Vascular (arteries and heart) health is possible
without life-threatening surgery and without potentially lethal drugs. 1
have learned that it can be achieved simply by eating the right food .
This is the story of how food can change our lives. 1 have spent my
career in research and teaching unraveling the complex mystery of why
health eludes some and embraces others, and 1 now know that food
primarily determines the outcome. This information could not come
at a better time. Our health care system costs too much, it excludes far
too many people and it does not promote health and prevent disease.
Volumes have been written on how the problem might be solved, but
progress has been painfully slow.

     SICKNESS, ANYONE?
If you are male in this country, the American Cancer Society says that
you have a 47% chance of getting cancer. If you are female, you fare
a little better, but you still have a whopping 38% lifetime chance of
getting cancer.1 The rates at which we die from cancer are among the
highest in the world, and it has been getting worse (Chart 1.1). Despite
thirty years of the maSSively funded War on Cancer, we have made little
progress.
Contrary to what many believe, cancer is not a natural event. Adopting
13
     PROBLEMS WE FACE, SOLUTIONS WE NEED

     CHART 1.1: CANCER DEATH RATES (PER 100,000 PEOPLE)1

     250

     200

     150
     DMaie
     100 • Female

     50

     O~--L--

     1972-1974 1992-1994
a healthy diet and lifestyle can prevent the majority of cancers in the
United States. Old age can and should be graceful and peaceful.
But cancer is only part of a larger picture of disease and death in
America. Looking elsewhere, we see that there is an overall pattern of
poor health. For example, we are rapidly becoming the heaviest people
on earth. Overweight Americans now significantly outnumber those
who maintain a healthy weight. As shown in Chart l.2, our rates of
obesity have been skyrocketing over the past several decades.2
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, almost a third
of the adults twenty years of age and over in this country are obese! 3
One is considered obese if he or she is carrying more than a third of a

     CHART 1.2: PERCENT OBESE POPULATION2

    35
    30
    25
    20
    15
    10
     5
     0
     1976-1980 1988-1994 1999-2000
14 THE CHINA STUDY

person above and beyond a healthy weight. Similarly frightening trends
have been occurring in children as young as two years of age.3

     CHART 1.3: WHAT IS OBESE (BOTH SEXES)?

     5'0" 153
     5'2" 164
     5'4" 174
     5'6" 185
     5'8" 197
     5'10" 209
     6'0" 221
     6'2" 233

    But cancer and obesity are not the only epidemics casting a large
shadow over American health. Diabetes has also increased in unprec-
e d e n t e d proportions. One out of thirteen Americans now has diabetes,
and that ratio continues to rise. If we don't heed the importance of diet,
millions of additional Americans will unknowingly develop diabetes
and suffer its consequences, including blindness, limb amputation,
cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and premature death. Despite
this, fast food restaurants that serve nutritionally defunct foods are now
fixtures in almost every town. We eat out more than ever 4 and speed
has taken precedence over quality. As we spend more time watching
TV,