The section of Nutrition in the Articles of WomensMedicineBowl.com is the last major section to be written. It’s not that I was confused– I’ve always told my daughters, “Diet wasn’t a four-letter word 25 years ago. It meant eating sensible portions of a wide variety of foods.” But the literature is baffling.

In the 1970s it seemed that every food that was studied was carcinogenic, so what were we to eat? Even in my 20’s I figured all the research dollars were being put into finding causes of cancer, so vola!, of course every study would turn up carcinogens!

In the spring of 2002, I was introduced to Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University, a titan in nutrition research. Dr. Fiona Chew of Syracuse University, whose research is in health communication, brought us together for brunch in Ithaca at, appropriately, the Moosewood Restaurant, a renowned vegetarian café. We had all worked with Dr. Sushma Palmer, president of CECHE, in varied international health projects.

Over brunch we talked about common experiences in rural Virginia, and when the conversation turned to health matters and this website I was still writing, I humbly expressed my views (and the position of WomensMedicineBowl.com) regarding the FDA – that it does NOT protect the public’s health—and the tragic state of medical care in the USA. I was speaking, and writing, as an experienced consumer and professional journalist and communicator.

To my (pleasant) surprise, Dr. Campbell was in agreement with my views. Now I know why. He had the goods, so to speak, the inside story on who is directing the government’s nutritional recommendations and which food organizations are paying the scientists from the academy who sit on the government panels.

With a 40-year career in nutrition science, Colin Campbell has sat upon the government boards determining which research projects would be funded, and he has reviewed the research results for scientific journals. His own research has received funding for more than 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed work, and he has authored more than 300 research papers. By every measure he is a titan in nutritional science, and he has played an instrumental role in how our country views diet and health.

However, as Dr. Campbell’s knowledge expanded, his new insights into diet and health were sidelined by food industry organizations, particularly the dairy and meat industries. He crossed swords with scientists from the academy who serve on the government panels and who were also on-the-rolls of the agricultural industries.

We can surmise that Dr. Campbell’s insights on nutrition were sidelined because you have never heard-and never will hear-from government sources that for optimal health, to prevent most Western diseases and to cure those diseases, you should be eating a diet of plant-based, whole-foods.

Senator George McGovern and five other powerful senators from agricultural states were defeated in the 1980 elections after a committee McGovern chaired recommended eating less fatty animal products for better heart health. The organizations representing dairy and meat industries are interested in business profits regardless of health outcomes.

And after you’ve had n number of years of bacon, eggs, and milk for breakfast, a burger and fries for lunch, and steak for dinner, and you have developed heart disease, the pharmaceutical companies are waiting in the wings with drugs to maintain your chronic disease.

For many years a few physicians have successfully reversed heart disease through diet (yes, plant-based, whole foods only, not just “occasional” beef-for-dinner). Their colleagues are annoyed, to put it mildly, when their (former) patients who they’ve put through surgery and drug therapy come back and say, “Why didn’t you tell me I could cure my heart disease by eating oatmeal, broccoli and Brussels sprouts?”

A monumental epidemiological study
The China Study research was inspired by a comprehensive survey of the occurrences of cancer throughout China which had been ordered by Premier Chou EnLai when he was dying of cancer in the early1970s. It was the largest biomedical research survey ever undertaken with data of the death rates of 12 types of cancer from more than 2,400 Chinese counties and 880 million (96%) of the citizens; 650,000 data collectors were engaged to accomplish this survey. China is genetically a fairly homogenous population, and individuals tend to remain in the village of their birth for their entire lives, in other words eating the same local foods. Given these stable variables, the statistics in the map of cancer occurrences in China were startling. Some cancers were 100 times more common in counties with the highest rates than in counties with the lowest rates of those same cancers. By comparison, in the U.S. the difference in occurrences is 2 or 3x from one part of the country to another. A key question then addressed in this study undertaken by Cornell University, Oxford University, and China’s Ministry of Health was is cancer largely due to environmental and lifestyle factors and not genetics?

Written by Dr. Campbell and his youngest son, Thomas Campbell, The China Study is a comprehensive review of the scientific literature that indicates a plant-based, whole foods diet prevents and can cure Western diseases (diseases of the affluent): cancer (breast, prostate, colon and rectal), heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, kidney stones, macular degeneration, and Alzheimer’s, and more.

Government-sponsored Illnesses
“Got Milk? Get Osteoporosis!” This is an ad campaign you’ll never see though it’s true, and there’s been evidence for over 100 years that animal protein decreases bone health. Animal protein increases the body’s acidity, and to neutralize the acid load the body draws calcium from the bones, thus weakening them. (Not strengthening them as the ads tell us and the posters plastered across school walls drill into our kids’ minds.) A review of 87 surveys in 33 countries (published in 2000) compared the ratio of vegetable to animal protein consumption to the rate of bone fractures. The more vegetables consumed the lower rates of bone fractures, until bone fractures disappear when animal protein isn’t part of the diet. The rate of hip fractures in the U.S. is only surpassed by Europe, New Zealand, and Australia where the milk consumption is even higher than America’s!

Contradictory Government Advisories
Should you fully trust the government’s Dietary Guidelines, you should also know that the “Got Milk?” campaign, along with “Pork – The Other White Meat,” “Beef-It’s What’s for Dinner,” slogans we all know, are government advertising campaigns for the nation’s agricultural sector. The USDA organizes the ad campaigns, and they’re paid for by the commodity producers. The fruits and vegetable producers have no notable ad campaigns courtesy of the USDA.

The China Study tells of the academy’s scientists who serve on government panels and make one recommendation, then with a consultant’s fee in pocket, join another official-sounding panel supported by the food industries and pronounce contradictory nutrition advice according to the food industry. It’s no wonder we’re all confused.

Set Your Own Nutrition Course-Sans Mass Media
Don’t expect to see Dr. Campbell on the talk show circuit. About 40 percent of network advertising is paid by the pharmaceutical companies, and another large chunk of ad revenues is food advertising. You won’t be eating the processed foods, nor meat and dairy, and you won’t need the pharmaceuticals. The China Study may be the last book on nutrition and “diet” you need to read. It could also prevent your having to research diseases later.