Campbell (the father, who was a Cornell professor of nutrition) was given an amazing opportunity to study the relationship between diet and disease in China. He had seen data that showed huge differences in cancer rates from one county to the next in China, even though 87% of the population was of the same ethnic group, the Han people, and therefore would be genetically similar. He was invited to head a team to answer these questions: Why was cancer so high in some rural Chinese counties and not in others? Why were these differences so incredibly large? (For example, the range of age-adjusted death rates from all cancers varied from 35 deaths per 100,000 people per year in some counties to 721 deaths per 100,000 people per year in other counties!) And Why was the overall cancer rate in China less than in the U.S.?
The team gathered data on 37 variables, administered questionnaires and took blood samples of 6,500 adults, took urine samples, and actually observed everything families ate over a three-day period of people around the country. It is to date the most massive nutritional study ever undertaking and involved some 20,000 Chinese workers to assist in the study.
Effects of Blood Cholesterol on Cancer
As blood cholesterol levers drop from 170 (mg/dL) to 90, the following cancers decreased (with a statistical certainty of a correlation given in parentheses): liver (95%), rectum (99.9%), colon (99%), male lung (95%), adult leukemia (95%), adult brain (95%). There was also a strong correlation (but less than 95%) for cancers of the breast, lung, childhood leukemia, chidhood brain, stomach and esophagus.These results do NOT mean that the cholesterol itself is causing the cancer but that those who eat a diet that leads to low cholesterol have much less probability of getting cancer.
For example, as the intake of meat (95%), milk, eggs, fish (95-99%), fat (95%) goes up, blood cholesterol goes up. And as the intake of plant protein (95%), soluble fiber (95-99.9%), plant carotenes, fruit, potatoes, and cereal grains go up, blood cholesterol goes down.
Effects of Blood Cholesterol on Heart Disease
The average level of blood cholesterol among rural Chinese was 127, compared to the average of 217 for Americans. Overall, the death rate from heart disease was 17 times higher among American men that rural Chinese men. (The American death rate from breast cancer was 5 times higher than the rural Chinese rates.)In southwestern Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou counties, where cholesterol levels of below 150, during a three-year period (1973-1975), not one single perons died of heard disease before the age of 65.
In summary, those Chinese counties where the diet was almost exclusively plant based, the incidence of cancer and heart disease were extremely low, where as those counties that consumed more animal products was much higher--but not as high as the meat-eating Americans.
Fat Intake and Breast Cancer
Though not part of the China Study itself, the follow chart was published in The China Study the book. Look at the strong correlation between fat intake and breast cancer among countries of the world.
I know I haven't done The China Study justice, but I wanted to point out a few good reasons for us to stick to our whole-food plant-based nutritional program.
Although I haven't looked closely at the China Study myself, I was very impressed by what I learned about it when I watched Forks over Knives. For me, more than the weight loss, it was this that convinced me I had to change the way I ate. I've gone 3 weeks now without a significant weight loss (a pound up, a pound down, over and over again) and Len hasn't lost any, but we're still determined to make these changes permanent. I feel better, so even though I don't necessarily look better on the outside, I know things are looking better on the inside. Thanks for this info--it's a good reminder of what we're doing what we're doing.
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