Dr. Kracker

It isn’t often that a new book totally surprises me and radically changes my thinking. But since writing my last “Salmon & Sardine Spread/Omega 3 ” blog, I’ve read Colin Campbell’s The China Study, a book that did both. It’s inspired me to completely change my views of diet, nutrition and health.

When I first heard about China Study, I assumed it was one more comparison of diets in low-income societies, with conclusions that would be difficult to apply to my life here in Austin, Texas. However, the findings in this book provide an extensive view of the relationship of protein consumption to chronic disease — heart disease, cancer and diabetes, to name the big three — in all levels of Chinese society, from the underdeveloped rural areas to the very modern, urban zones; moreover, these findings confirm research that Colin Campbell had seen in other studies linking the consumption of animal protein to an increase in chronic diseases. The actual study of Chinese diets is only a small part of the book.

So what exactly rocked this omnivore’s worldview? According to Campbell’s research, chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes are, for the most part, preventable, and in the cases of diabetes and heart disease, reversible by diet alone. I’ve written previously about the impact whole grains can have on lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease (equal to that of statin drugs!). Campbell’s findings further reinforce both the personal and worldwide health benefits of a plant based diet, one that avoids all animal protein and includes unrefined, whole foods. This diet can eliminate the costs and sufferings of these major diseases, both of which are substantial and rising, as we’ve learned from recent reports.

When I was writing about fish, my thinking was that as long as we employ a certain balance, we can responsibly enjoy a diet with reasonable amounts of dairy and meats. This means regular exercise, moderate portions, and adding long chained fatty acids — the Omega 3’s — to the diet to counter the effects of the cholesterol.

However, Campbell characterizes this as “reductionist” thinking — an attempt to reduce diet and good health to a matter of a few nutrients, vitamins or magic bullets. I had also assumed that a cholesterol level of around 200 was fine, as long as all other indicators (like high levels of HDL and low triglycerides) were all great. But it turns out that with a vegan diet, a cholesterol level can be taken below 150 — without having to resort to expensive, drugs with their potential for side effects.

A vegan diet isn’t that radical or threatening a change to me. I know how to cook. When I’m alone and not cooking for the family, salad is my everyday food. I’ll miss cheese, but I’ve been cutting back on cheese for years, (with a few occasional binges). For meat substitutes, there are the concentrated proteins of seeds and legumes, as well as the protein that is part of every fruit and vegetable. The typical American diet is so rich in animal protein that it usually delivers more than twice as much protein as even a growing child needs, and we’ve all been brain washed into believing that protein is a better than carbohydrates. As a baker, I’ve always resisted the belief that carbohydrates are evil, and now I can return to my whole grains and brown rice! (This change will be harder on my wife and kids because they haven’t read the book and are not as persuaded by its overwhelming data. But they won’t go hungry!)

China Study also provides a history and overview of health and diet that are excellent reading. Campbell traces a discussion of meat in the diet back to the teachings of Plato, who said in no uncertain terms that we eat meat at our own peril. Plato observed that diet directly affected the individual’s health, but with deeper insight, Plato recognized that the extra grazing land required for a meat-based diet meant that the city-state must sacrifice its compact, democratic nature and become imperialistic and expand to accommodate the need for more land to raise animals. Conquest and democracy are not enduring bedfellows. It doesn’t require much imagination to see the parallels to the present and recognize the moral questions our world faces regarding the amount of land dedicated to corn to satisfy a carnivorous diet when many people still go hungry.

Although not mentioned in the book, one of favorite whole health visionaries is Dr. Sylvestor Graham, the earliest US dietary reformer that I know of. He upset bakers by declaring that the public should bake their own bread (the beginning of the graham cracker) to avoid the empty calories of white bread, and he enraged butchers by telling his followers to avoid meat and to become vegetarian. Dr. Graham loses some points with me because he came to his dietary commitments by way of some quirky Victorian sexual prohibitions, but even so, I respect the fact that even if his followers were sexually repressed, they were at least healthy of body.

China Study has also made me reevaluate the concept of insurance. As a small company, Dr. Kracker has substantial health insurance costs, even with significant deductibles. Health insurance has always struck me as a very pessimistic commodity. But if we know that cholesterol is a predictor of chronic diseases, which are the most costly to insure and to treat, I think it makes sense to link our insurance payments to our cholesterol levels. Those with cholesterol levels below 150 pay less, those with higher pay more. Then it becomes our choice to follow the healthy diet or to ignore it and to pay the higher premium costs. As an optimist, I want to feel that I can take control of my own health and well-being!

So why is this information not more widely known? I’m usually one to resist conspiracy theories, but much of the later part of China Study details how diet’s link to the prevention and cure of chronic disease has been suppressed or ignored. The meat industry, the dairy industry, and health care and hospitals have little interest in profound changes.

For food producers, it’s about increasing demand for the meat and dairy products.

For the medical industrial complex, it’s about the sales of drugs to fix what is wrong with our bodies without challenging the lifestyle and diet that cause chronic disease.

And at the professional level, too many health care providers are threatened by the simple message of “change your diet and be healthy.” There is too little money in this. There is no surgical intervention. There are no patented drugs to sell. To prove his point, Campbell relates the story of ace heart surgeon Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn who wanted to promote dietary awareness as an alternative treatment at the Cleveland Clinic where he had been a resident heart surgeon. Dr. Esselstyn saw that his surgical fixes were not creating lasting cures, but his experimental diets did reverse heart disease. His colleagues would not send their patients to Dr. “Sprouts,” (as they began to call him), but they sent their family members for consultation and life style changes when they showed heightened risk of heart disease. In all fairness to doctors, Campbell does point out that they receive only a limited exposure to nutrition and diet during their studies, and given the drive toward specialization in medicine, there is an unfortunate ignorance of holistic thinking about disease and cures. But I do fault doctors and the medical establishment for not pursuing the latest research and for not being willing to question their own belief systems, especially in view of the increases in chronic disease. Our modern medicine has only been able to partially ameliorate the problem and prolong lives, but it has not even begun to reverse the increase in chronic disease.

But ultimately, we have only ourselves to blame for this predicament. As the final consumers of food and medicine, the fact is most of us want to have our cake and to eat it, too. (Literally!) So how will this life-enhancing, life saving, socially responsible message get out?

Word-of-mouth and the internet are tremendous tools. While the food industry’s interest could be construed as a conspiracy against change, the power of the internet can make certain that all ideas will be diffused and examined by millions of critical eyes. In closing, all I can say is that I urge anyone who is interested to read The China Study!