China health study

CHINA HEALTH STUDY
The China Health Study, touted as the grand prix of epidemiology studies, challenged modern dietary assumptions in the early 1990s. Sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Chinese Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, the study correlated average food and nutrient intakes with disease mortality rates in 65 rural Chinese counties. The typical Chinese diet included a high proportion of cereals and vegetables and a low amount of meat, poultry, eggs, and milk. Less than 1 percent of deaths were caused by coronary heart disease, and breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and other malignancies common in the West were comparatively rare. . Among the researchers’ chief findings:
• Fat consumption should ideally be reduced to 10 to 15 percent of calories to prevent degenerative disease, not 30 percent as usually recommended.
• The lowest risk for cancer is generated by the consumption of a variety of fresh plant products.
• Eating animal protein is linked with chronic disease. Compared to the Chinese who derive 11 percent of their protein from animal sources, Americans obtain 70 percent from animal food.
• A rich diet that promotes early menstruation may increase a woman’s risk of cancer of the breast and reproductive organs.
• Dairy food is not needed to prevent osteoporosis, the degenerative thinning of the bones that is common among older women.
• Meat consumption is not needed to prevent iron-deficiency anemia. The average Chinese consumes twice the iron Americans do, primarily from plant sources, and shows no signs of anemia.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a Cornell biochemist and principal American director of the project, noted, “Usually, the first thing a country does in the course of economic development is to introduce a lot of livestock. Our data are showing that this is not a very smart move, and the Chinese are listening. They’re realizing that animal-based agriculture is not the way to go.”
Source: Chen Junshi, T. Colin Campbell, Li Junyao, and Richard Peto, Diet, Life-Style, and Mortality in China (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990). and Jane Brody, “Huge Study of Diet Indicts Fat and Meat,” New York Times, May 8, 1990.

No comments yet.

Post your comments here

Name:
Comment:
3 + 6 =
No URLs are accepted, no html tags, no spammers!