The China Project
The book, The China Project, written by T. Colin Campbell and his son Thomas M. Campbell II, summarizes an extensive and long-term study, titled the China-Cornell-Oxford Project (CCOP), on 6,500 Chinese citizens in 65 rural counties. The study looked at their diets, lifestyle and chronic diseases.
The authors found that the subjects of the CCOP had a significantly lower mortality rate from what the authors define as “western” diseases. The subjects of the CCOP were chosen for their genetic similarity and maintained a diet rich in plant-based food and avoiding all animal products including dairy.
The study used data from 1973-1975 death rates of western diseases in each of the same counties. The diseases included; coronary heart disease, diabetes, leukemia and multiple cancers. Ten years later data was again amassed in the same counties, collecting lifestyle and diet information and ignored other factors. The authors found a correlation between the rise in blood cholesterol and a rise in western diseases.
While the average blood cholesterol level of the Chinese citizens from the rural counties studied was 100 points lower than the average American blood cholesterol level. The rise in Chinese cholesterol level, while significantly lower than their American counterparts, still led to a prevalent rise in western diseases.
The authors concluded, from their findings, that the lower the diet in animal based products the better the health benefit. The subjects of the study on average consumed 7.1 grams of animal proteins a day, Americans consume 70 grams of animal proteins per day.
The authors say that their research, lowered blood cholesterol from a plant-based diet, can reduce the risk of autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Adopting a plant based diet could even help those suffering from diabetes reduce their insulin or even stop insulin all together.
The study also found that a healthy dose of natural vitamin D works together with the healthy plant based diet to ward off the mentioned diseases. Consuming animal proteins raises the level of acidity in the blood and tissues. Calcium is pulled from the bone to neutralize the acidity. When there is too much calcium in the blood vitamin D is activated to help support the immune system. Exposing the body to natural vitamin D keep the body healthy and disease free.
Other diseases and chronic illnesses could be prevented or their prevalence reduced from avoiding animal proteins, including diary. Diseases and illnesses such as: dementia, cancers, heart disease, eye diseases, kidney stones, Osteoporosis, and arthritis.
The authors feel that this information, adopting a plant-based diet, avoiding animal proteins and getting sufficient vitamin D, could make great progress toward healthier living and a significant reduction of cancers that are wide spread across the United States. In the book, The China Study, the authors states that according to the American Cancer Society “you have a 47% chance of getting cancer” if you are male and “if you are female, you fare a little better, but you still have a whopping 38% lifetime chance of getting cancer.” Americans have the highest rate of cancer motility in the world as well as the highest medical costs. It is the authors opinion, and is supported by their study, that Americans should rethink their diets and consider what we put into our bodies now has a long lasting affect on our health and even lower the massive medical and health care costs.
