Fasting and Eating for Health (6 page)

Humans Were Not Designed to Eat Processed or High-Protein Foods
Our population has accepted the fact that more than half of us will die of heart attacks and more than a third will develop cancer at some point in our lives. So too is it accepted that we live and suffer with medical problems, take medications recommended by our physicians, and then die or become a physical or mental cripple in later years.

This common pattern is a tragedy of modern life, but one that can be avoided. Disease, dementia, and disability associated with aging are unnatural.

We have control over our health as we extend our life span by making different food choices. Dennis Burkitt, M.D., one of the world's most renowned physician researchers on human nutrition and a pioneer who established the value of fiber, has explained that western man has made more change in his diet over the last six or eight generations than has been made throughout the whole of the rest of his sojourn on earth.

Genetically, anatomically, and physiologically our bodies are the same as those of humans who lived in the Stone Age. What we put into our bodies is quite different. Refined supermarket food is being fed to our Stone Age bodies.

Much of the food found in supermarkets derives its calories from extracted sweeteners, sugars, fats, and refined flour. Besides the empty-calorie drawbacks and fat-producing effects of these foods, they are deficient in the vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients needed by the body to burn them for energy. Therefore, the body must continually draw on its reserves of stored nutrients, thus draining its nutritional reservoir.

Not only sweets, but also all processed foods that no longer carry with them the essential nutrients endowed by nature are deficit inducing. For example, the ingestion of processed foods has been shown to induce chromium deficiencies, even though the chromium levels may have been normal before the introduction of these refined products.13 Diets with a high ratio of refined carbohydrate to total carbohydrate induce various nutritional deficiencies. This form of high-calorie malnutrition causes the brain and nervous system to become irritable and the immune system to malfunction.14,15 This weakens our immune system and has an assortment of negative effects on our development, including heightened intraocular pressure and poor eyesight.16

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The
China-Oxford-Cornell Study
is one of the largest nutritional research projects ever conducted. This massive project, called the ―Grand Prix of Epidemiology,‖ documented the observation that in underdeveloped areas where populations consume predominantly unrefined plant foods, the degenerative diseases of modern society as well as the leading cancers are virtually nonexistent. This study confirms hundreds of other studies that have documented that most diseases of modern society originate from dietary folly.

Unfortunately, the rural societies examined in the China-Oxford-Cornell Study are more and more adopting the ―American way‖ of eating and are statistically beginning to show increasing incidence of disease.

The
China Project
dramatically demonstrates that if we plot the amount of animal foods eaten against the death rates from the leading causes of death (heart disease and cancers), all animal food consumption, even fish and chicken, raises the rates of cancer and heart disease.17 Interestingly, even small quantities of animal foods in the diet were able to trigger higher cholesterol levels, heart disease, and cancer. The evidence from the
China Project
and other confirming studies shows that the animal protein itself, not just the fat in the animal foods, causes cholesterol to rise and cancer to increase. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, head of the
China Project
, predicts that in the next 10 to 15 years research will solidly establish that animal protein is one of the most toxic nutrients for humans.

Dr. Campbell has explained, ―There is strong evidence in the scientific literature that when a reduction in fat is compared to a reduction in protein intake, the protein effect on blood cholesterol is more significant than the effect of saturated fat. Animal protein is a hypercholesterolemic agent . . . Many Americans are switching from beef to skinless chicken and other animal-based foods simply to reduce their intake of fat. However the existing evidence suggests that this makes little or no sense.‖18

It is clear that one should consume protein in quantities sufficient to meet the needs of the body, but with no extra. Excess protein affects the body in a variety of negative ways, shortening potential life span. Animal protein consumption has been linked with increased cancer rates and tumor formation as well as the acceleration of at.herosclerosis.19 Excess proteins also increase our requirements for other nutrients by reducing the uptake of folate, pantothenic acid, and pyridoxine, and by washing away essential minerals through the kidney as the kidney attempts to eliminate the extra nitrogenous waste.20 Because our physiological nature is such that we are primates, equipped with the virtually identical digestive apparatus (comparatively small liver and kidney) as the great apes, our structure is not well equipped to handle high quantities of concentrated fats and proteins. Monkeys also do poorly on high-protein diets and improve physically and emotionally when a high-carbohydrate diet is resumed.21 Relatively high levels of uric acid, ammonia, and other toxins such as phenols, skatole, and indole are formed by proteolytic bacteria, which line our digestive tract when we consume a high-protein diet.22,23 These toxic by-products elaborated by bacteria in our gut can significantly add to the toxic load the body must deal with on a daily basis and 33

can contribute to multiple disease processes.

The idea that the major diseases in prosperous countries are related to dietary excesses is becoming a majority view among those studying the question. Dr. Mark Hegsted, Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, stated before a Senate Committee, ―The risks associated with eating this diet (rich in meat, other sources of fat, sugar, and refined carbohydrates) are demonstrably large. The question to be asked is not why should we change our diet, but why not? Ischemic heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension are the diseases that kill us. They are epidemic in our population. We cannot afford to temporize. We have an obligation to inform the public of the correct food choices. To do less is to avoid our responsibility.‖24

We continue to pretend that the cause of disease is a mystery or is genetic —

beyond our control. Fortunately, this is not so. On the other hand, many, including physicians and informed laymen, are eager for excuses not to face the annoying facts so they can continue to eat in ways that are convenient and agreeable but hazardous to their health.

We Can Stop the Cancer Epidemic Only If We Change Our Diets
If we look at breast cancer as a model to illustrate why cancer incidence has skyrocketed in this century, we can observe that in spite of modern medicine there has been a slow, steady climb in the death rate from breast cancer.

Efforts to detect cancer earlier with mammograms and breast exams have not impeded the climb in statistics showing that an increasing number of women are still dying from this cancer. The failure to prevent cancer has exacted an increasing toll: as of 1993 the disease attacks one in eight women in America.

The evidence linking diet to breast cancer has been known for years. As is the case with most other diseases, however, the public is the last to know. In Japan, for example, breast cancer was rare, but Japanese women who migrated to this country soon had the same rate of cancer as American women—at least 400 percent higher than in Japan. We discovered that the decreased rate of cancer was due not to genetics but primarily to the amount of fat in the diet.

In Japan, until about 50 years ago, less than 10 percent of calories came from fat,25 compared to 40 percent in the American diet, even in the 1940s.

Today, however, the Japanese eat more and more meat, fat, and fast foods.

Predictably, the rate of breast cancer as well as other cancers in Japan is rapidly increasing.26 Similar findings have been made within the United States. For instance, studies comparing vegetarian to nonvegetarian groups show much less cancer among vegetarians, especially those avoiding dairy products.27

American Children Produce Too Much Estrogen and Androgen
Increased quantities of dietary fat cause an array of negative effects on immune function. The link between higher fat intake and the increasing occurrence of common cancers has been well established for years.28,29 The link between fat and breast cancer is also explained because it is well known that breast tumors 34

are fueled by estrogens.30 When women eat a low-fat diet, their estrogen level drops quickly.31 Fats not only increase the amount of circulating estrogens in the body, but also increase the biologic activity of the estrogen. A heightened estrogen level through life eventually takes its toll — as a cause of menstrual difficulties and increased bleeding, and as an important cause of breast cancer.

This effect of estrogen on the development of breast cancer is also indicated by the fact that women who mature early, as measured by when menstruation begins, face increased risk of developing breast cancer.32 Sexual maturation is dependent on circulating estrogen levels. Ominously, the onset of menstruation has been occurring at a younger and younger age in western societies during this century.33 The average age in the United States is now about 12 years.

According to the World Health Organization, the average age at which puberty began in 1840 was about 17.34

The early development of breast tissue and the early stimulation of this tissue with high levels of estrogen is unprecedented in the history of the human race.

This unnatural stimulation of breast tissue occurs before and during the teenage years, setting the groundwork for breast cancer later on. Feeding our children a plant-centered diet predominating in wholesome natural plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is probably the most important thing we can do to prevent them from getting breast cancer as adults. We are finally realizing that the diet we are raised on early in life has profound, far-reaching effects on our later health.

As modern young Japanese have adopted our ways of eating high amounts of fatty foods and more animal products, their age of onset of menses has gradually fallen over the last 50 years from 16 to 12.5 years.35 The onset of early maturity is an ominous sign both in males and females. As with estrogen in women, heightened levels of androgens in men at a young age set the stage for the development of prostate cancer later on.

Excess Fats Promote Cancer, While Plant Nutrients Protect Us
Comparing various populations around the world, the death rates of most cancers, especially the most common — breast, colon, and prostate—are directly proportional to the dietary fat intake.36 Dietary fat not only retards the general effectiveness of the immune system, but also encourages the absorption of carcinogens. For example, when the carcinogens in cigarette smoke are absorbed through the lung tissue, the carrier vehicle for their absorption is the fat in the blood. On a low-fat diet the body is less able to absorb and transport carcinogens. Smokers on a high-fat diet have a higher incidence of lung cancer than smokers on a lower fat diet. When we look at the diets of those who contract lung cancer and never smoke, we find a lack of fresh and raw fruits and vegetables.37

It is important to note that a diet composed primarily of fresh fruits and fresh vegetables is high in vitamins A, C, and E and high in beta carotene and selenium. These are sometimes referred to as the
antioxidant
nutrients. They are called antioxidants because they have the ability when combined with 35

apoproteins produced by the body to function as scavengers of toxins. They aid in controlling excessive production of free radicals, which are extremely reactive and destructive molecules.

New antioxidant nutrients are discovered every year, but they are not available in food supplements or vitamins. All of these protective nutrients that enable us to remain free of disease are found in the highest quantity in green and yellow plants and fresh fruits. These newly discovered phytochemicals with anticancer activity are being found in increasing numbers in fruits and vegetables. This is one of the hottest areas in nutritional research today.

When we do not eat a diet that obtains most of its calories from fruits and vegetables, we inevitably earn low levels of these antioxidants and protective phytochemicals in our bloodstream. Low blood levels of beta carotene and vitamin C have been linked in multiple studies with increases in cancer mortality, including breast cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, and colon cancer.38 A recent study reported in the medical journal Nutrition in Cancer revealed that patients who had a low beta carotene level in their blood in conjunction with a high triglyceride level had a more than tenfold increase in the risk of breast cancer.

High beta carotene and vitamin C levels in the blood are markers for high fruit and vegetable intake, therefore targeting those with a high level of the thousands of other important protective nutrients that travel along with beta carotene. We will never be able to buy them all in a health food store or pharmacy; they can be obtained only by eating large amounts of a variety of fruits and vegetables. Whenever we look at populations who consume high levels of fruits and vegetables, we find reduced levels of cancer and disease in genera1.39

Our present-day diet is responsible for most of the ill health and premature death observed today. In light of the preponderance of scientific evidence available, it would be foolish to consume a diet containing more than 20 percent fat, even though the National Cancer Institute still recommends a diet with no more than 30 percent of calories from fat. Studies indicate that diets drawing 30 percent of calories from fats have negligible effect on cancer incidence.40 To prevent cancer, fat intake must be reduced to the low levels found in countries with extremely low cancer rates, such as China, where less than 15 percent of calories are derived from fat.