The Protein-Cancer Connection

I just started reading what I consider to be one of the most informative, most common-sense books on health ever written. It’s called “The China Study,” and it was authored by one of the leading scientists in the world, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. He began his research at Cornell, where he tried to find better ways to make cows and sheep grow faster and bigger. He was then involved with discovering two of the most toxic chemicals in existence, dioxin and aflatoxin. Eventually, he began to question the status quo mentality of what constituted the recommended Western diet, and the information he discovered was astounding.

Dr. Campbell pioneered the largest, most comprehensive study on the effects of diet and many types of chronic diseases in what is known as The China Study. Over the course of many years, he and his top research team gathered incredible amounts of information regarding the dietary and lifestyle habits of thousands of rural Chinese people, and compared them in many ways with the habits of Americans. This study has created a clear and comprehensive picture of exactly how diet affects all areas of health.

Even more impressive, this study is the first of its kind to clearly prove that chronic illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes type 1 and 2, and obesity are, in most cases, reversible and curable, without the intervention of drugs and toxic treatments.

Upon taking on a teaching position at Virginia Tech, he began to assist in a research project in the Philippines that worked with malnourished children. Part of the project was involved in investigating why a large number of children were dying of liver cancer, a disease that usually occurs in adults. It was thought that aflatoxin, one of the two toxins he previously worked with, was causing the problem. Aflatoxin is a mold toxin found in peanuts and corn. It’s one of the strongest carcinogens ever discovered.

Incredibly, after embarking on this project, Dr. Campbell discovered that the children whose diets were highest in protein were the most likely to get liver cancer! (To clarify, any time protein is mentioned, I am referring to animal protein, not plant-based protein.)

Shortly after, he read a research paper from India that showed how rats who were given aflatoxin and then fed a diet with 20% protein all developed liver cancer, while none of the rats that were fed a diet with only 5% protein developed liver cancer. Let this sink in for a moment. What is this study essentially telling us? It tells us that the exposure to toxins by themselves was not what killed the rats; the protein plus toxin combination is what caused the rats to die. The implications for this were enormous, as Dr. Campbell quickly realized.

Could it really be possible that protein was the reason cancer rates were rising? This would go against everything we have been taught! Wasn’t protein supposed to be healthy and contribute to strong body development, muscle development, brain development, etc.? What about all of the hysteria surrounding exposure to toxins? Does this mean that the body has a way of handling them without letting us get sick?

These shocking results led him to China, where he and a top team of research scientists gathered data on “367 variables and then compared each variable with every other variable.” They studied 65 counties and 6,500 adults across China. In the end, they had “more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between lifestyle, diet and disease variables.” In other words, this was a very thorough study.

What they found was truly incredible. The results were nearly identical to the rat experiments. Chinese people that ate a diet that consisted of more than 10% protein had significantly higher chances of developing cancer than those who ate less than 10%. Once the diet hit 20% protein, the risk of developing cancer went up astronomically.

In the end, the picture was clear. Those who consume more than 10% of their diet from animal protein are putting themselves at great risk of developing cancer – any cancer. In the near future, G-d willing, we’ll continue on with learning about this incredible study, and we’ll also see how these numbers can save your life.

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Feel free to send Racheli your questions, particularly in the areas of marriage, dating, child-rearing and women's role; write her at racheli@breslev.co.il