Plant-based diet: elixir of life
of T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell

In the bestselling The China Study provides scientific evidence of effectiveness of a diet of plant foods to prevent and reverse chronic disease ...

Taken from The China Study (Macro Edizioni, 2011).

Throughout this long journey I came to the conclusion that the benefits produced by a diet of plant foods are much more varied and of any narcotic drug or surgical procedure used in medical practice. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, hypertension, arthritis, cataracts, Alzheimer's disease, impotence and all other types of chronic diseases can be largely prevented. These diseases, which usually occur with aging and with the degeneration of tissues, kill prematurely most of us.
In addition we now have compelling evidence to demonstrate that advanced heart disease, certain types of tumors in a relatively advanced stage, diabetes and some other degenerative diseases can be reversed through diet facts. I remember the time when my superiors reluctantly accepted the evidence that diet could actually prevent heart disease for example, and instead most vehemently denied its ability to reverse these diseases in an advanced stage. But these tests can not be ignored. Those who deal with science and medicine and mentally close to this idea not only show obstinacy, but irresponsibility.
One of the most exciting benefits of good nutrition is the prevention of diseases that are considered due to genetic predisposition. Today we know that we can largely avoid these diseases "genetic", even if we were to be carriers of the gene or genes responsible for that particular disease. But the funding of genetic research continues to touch new heights of more spending, in the belief that certain genes are linked to the occurrence of dangerous diseases and in the hope that somehow we can "delete".

The public relations programs of the pharmaceutical industry hours depict a future in which each of us has a personal identification card with a catalog of all our good and bad genes. With this paper we will all go to the doctor that will prescribe a single pill in order to suppress our bad genes. I strongly suspect that you will never get to these miracles, or, if you attempt to do so, there will be serious unintended consequences. These futuristic castles in the sky darken the already feasible and effective solutions to the problems of our health, nutrition-based solutions.
In my laboratory we have demonstrated that animal models of tumor growth can be turned on and off using the power, in spite of any strong genetic predisposition. We studied these effects in detail and we published our findings on the best scientific journals. As you will see later, these findings are at least extraordinary, and the same effects have been repeatedly reported in human subjects.
Eating the right way not only prevents the disease, but also generates a sense of health and physical and mental wellbeing. Some world-class athletes, like Dave Scott Ironman champion, axes athletics like Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses, tennis great Martina Navratilova, the world champion to fight Chris Campbell (no relation) and sixty-eight runner Ruth Heidrich found who consume plant foods low in fat allows them to achieve significantly higher results. Somministravamo to laboratory rats a diet similar to the normal American food, rich in animal protein, and then compare them with other animals fed a diet low in animal protein. Guess what happened when both groups of animals were offered the opportunity to voluntarily use the wheel to make the move. The rats fed a diet low in protein content were far more gymnastics and with less fatigue than those who followed the usual diet for most of us. The same effect was noticed by the world-class athletes have been mentioned previously.
All this should not be new to the medical officer. A century ago, Professor Russell Chittenden, a famous researcher in nutrition and said the faculty of medicine at Yale University, had conducted an investigation to determine whether a diet based on plant foods had some effect on physical students. He had administered to some students, colleagues and himself a diet of vegetables and then he measured the physical performance of all subjects, obtaining the same results that were highlighted by our rats almost a century later, and were equally spectacular results .
Then there is the question of our excessive dependence on drugs and surgery to control health. In its simplest form, eat the right way largely obviate the enormous costs due to the use of drugs, including their side effects. Fewer people should engage in their last year of life and protracted battles with the chronic disease hospitals. Health spending would fall, and clinical errors decrease with the steep fall in premature deaths. In essence, our health care system would finally protect and promote our health as it should competergli.

Taken from The China Study (Macro Edizioni, 2011).