POSTED ON 8 DECEMBER 2010 BY BRODRICK KENT

Dr. T. Colin Campbell is a GIANT is the field of nutrition research. He has dedicated his life to investigate the relationship between nutrition and disease with a personal and particular interest in how diet effects the cancer process. Dr. Campbell is a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He has authored over 300 original peer reviewed and published projects and has received over 70 grant years of funding mostly by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the research arm of the federal government of the United States of America.

Dr. Campbell's legacy The China Project, better known as The China Study was a culmination of a twenty year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. The China project is the most comprehensive study on human nutrition and disease association ever conducted. Gold standard in design, The China Study produced over 8,000 statistically significant associations between certain dietary factors and disease. In particular the project evaluated the influence of animal based protein consumption on cancer development and heart disease. 

The monumental China survey tabulated the death rates for twelve different types of cancer for more than 2,400 Chinese counties and 880 million (96%) of their citizens. The cancer survey formed a large geographical picture (the China cancer atlas) illustrating that certain diseases were localised due to the unique conditions that exist in rural China. There were significant differences in certain disease events from one region to the next. Various cardiovascular disease rates vary by a factor of about 20-fold from one place to another, while certain cancer rates varied by several hundred-fold.

This uniquely presented China as ‘living laboratory’ to study nutrition, lifestyle and its relationship to degenerative disease in way never seen before. Dr. Campbell and his team selected 6500 adults from 65 counties (provinces) and the stage was set to collect data in conditions that may never been seen again due to the complex environment within which we choose our foods today.
An important element to this research project was that 90% of the people studied lived in the same area their whole lives and due to deeply held traditions and the fact that the transport of external food supply was absent, the Chinese people ate locally grown produce (an important factor). 

When The China Project began it was well documented that, at the time in China the Chinese people were not eating refined carbohydrates or excess fat, because China had been a closed society for decades and there were no American or Westernised influences. It was observed that the Chinese people were all eating authentic plant based diets and the only variation in the diet was the amount of animal foods consumed. This was a very important fact, because it allowed the researchers to measure differences in health outcomes based on very small deviations in the amount of animal protein consumed.

The results were astonishing, the more animal protein consumed the higher the disease rates and in particular cancer and heart disease. This would be an outrageous conclusion, big business meat and dairy in more developed countries have had us swimming in message for decades that animal based protein is the secret to optimal health and vitality! Could the quality of the animal foods be the difference? It was also documented that Westernised farming methods had also not yet been introduced at this time in China and the Chinese people were consuming very pristine animal products, this would be considered organic by today’s standards and still the relationship held. The more animal protein consumed the higher the disease rates. The same disease events were non-existent in rural China where people ate plant based diets, consisting of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Researches have known for some time that genetics actually plays a very small role in terms of health outcomes from diseases such as heart disease and cancer. An individual may have a gene, but that gene need not express. It is evident that certain dietary factors turn genes on and off. Another important fact from China was that 87% of people studied were from the same ethnic group, the Han people, yet they all had varying health outcomes dependent on their dietary preferences. This finding ruled out genetics influences and narrowed the causative factors down to one very small variation, that was, the amounts of animal based foods eaten.

The China findings were consistent with earlier research conducted by Dr. Campbell and his colleagues in the Philippines. Children were dying from liver cancer (normally an adult disease) thought to be caused by protein deficiency. It was here Dr. Campbell made a dark discovery, that was, the children who were from more affluent families and who were consuming the most animal based protein had the most cancers. These findings turned everything Dr. Campbell had learnt to date upside-down, as it was evident that the solution (protein) was actually the problem. Professor Campbell’s career took some sharp turns at this point. However, with an opened mind, ethics and the willingness to ask the big questions that truly went against everything he believed and against conventional thinking, it was here that he began 27 years of animal experiments studying the cause and effect relationship and how protein directly promotes cancer at every stage. In particular animal protein, as he discovered plant protein had NO effect on cancer development. 

The animal experiments proved to be profound! After reviewing other research conducted in India Dr. Campbell hypothesised that it was not only excess protein that promotes cancer, but in particular animal protein. In short, rats were injected with a known chemical carcinogen (aflatoxin) and then fed either a 5% or 20% protein diet consistent with the average daily intake most people consume in the West. One group of rats were fed casein that comprises of 87% cows milk protein and the other two groups were fed plant based protein, that of soy and gluten. At 5% protein cancer was non-existent, however, at 20% cancer was turned on 100%. It was 100 to 0 score, leaving no doubt that nutrition sparked chemical carcinogens in controlling cancer. The protein that was responsible for having this effect was casein - cows milk protein - which promoted cancer at all stages while the plant proteins had no effect on cancer development..... In fact, every single animal that was fed the 20% diet had evidence of liver cancer, while every single animal on the 5% diet avoided liver cancer! 

There are some profound consistencies within Dr. Campbell’s life’s work that have some serious implications for diet and long-term health. From the Philippines to his laboratory experiments and onto the monumental China Project, when animal based protein of any description exceeded a certain threshold in the diet the rates of cancer and heart disease ran parallel with increased protein intake. Cancer and heart disease are the leading causes of death in the West today.

Dr. Campbell’s legacy The China Study is an intelligent book everyone must read on the discoveries and life‘s work of a man who has been truly at the forefront of nutrition research for decades and who has a genuine desire to inform readers on why they are so confused as to what constitutes the right diet...“After a long career in research and policy making, I now understand why Americans are so confused. As a tax payer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health and disease are wrong. I propose to do nothing less than redefine what we think of as good nutrition. The provocative results of my four decades of biomedical research, including the findings from a 27 year laboratory program (funded by the most reputable funding agencies) prove that eating right can save your life”.
Brodrick Kent 12/10/10

References:

1. Chen, J., Campbell, T. C., Li, 3. and Peto, R. 1990. Diet, life-style and mortality in China. A study of the characteristics of 65 Chinese counties. Oxford, UK; Ithaca, NY; Beijing, PRC: Oxford University Press; Cornell University Press; People’s Medical Publishing House.

2.Campbell, T. C., Campbell, T. M., II. 2005. The China Study, Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Inc.
3.Campbell, T. C., Chen, 3., Brun, T. et al. 1990. Can developing nations avoid the diseases of affluence? The case in China. In: Brun, T. and Latham, M. (eds). World food issues. Vol 2. Ithaca, NY: Center for the Analysis of World Food Issues, Program in International Agriculture; 56-63.

4. Campbell, T. C., Chen, 3., Brun, T. et al. 1992. China: from diseases of poverty to diseases of affluence. Policy implications of the epidemiological transition. Ecol. Food Nutr. 27:133-144.