Quote from macho grande:
Where are your ten studies demonstrating reversal of heart disease thru adopting a plant food diet?
The only "proof" you've offered up for this claim are several well known vegans that also have something to sell.
The China Study and its methodology and conclusions has recieved plenty of valid critique. Epidemiological study (the China Study is just such a study) alone are rarely able to prove cause.
I turn the tables on you, let's see your ten CLINICAL studies.
The physicians I mentioned who promote a whole foods plant-based diet sell books and DVDs documenting their studies and instructing people how to adopt a whole foods plant-based diet. They include instructions on how to shop and read labels, how to cook a variety of foods, and how to handle eating at restaurants and friends' homes.
They do not sell nutritional supplements because these are unnecessary. They don't promote the use of medication. They're physicians committed to curing and preventing chronic illness.
Dr. McDougall provides his entire program on his web site for free if you can't afford a couple books or have no library nearby. When I was diagnosed with cancer after more than 3 years on a high protein low carb diet, I discovered all this research about the WFPBD and I emailed John McDougall from his web site with some questions. He responded personally within an hour and didn't tell me to buy his book that addressed all my questions. He attached PDFs of all seven chapters from the book that applied to my situation. So what is he trying to sell?
If you've read The China Study, you'll realize right away why there are critiques of it. Firstly, we will never be able to perform a causative study on humans demonstrating what the lab studies leading into Cornell's epidemiological study proved. Why? Because I don't believe there are any countries in the world that would allow humans to be given powerful carcinogens like aflatoxin in the doses given the lab animals in those studies, then have the group of study participants divvy up into high and low animal protein groups, and high and low plant protein groups and see if tumor promotion and cancer growth results at the astonishing levels that occurred in the lab animal studies. Secondly, there are huge powerful for-profit industries that depend on us eating meat, dairy and junk food laden diets.
Cornell's massive epidemiological study in China demonstrated a powerful
correlation between diet and cancer (as well as other serious chronic illnesses).
Correlation is not causation. The epidemiological study did, however, back up the animal studies which proved causation in a huge way, almost like turning a switch on and off.
I have several friends and acquaintances who experienced the same on/off switch effect when switching from standard American diets/Mediterranean diets/high protein low carb diets/Paleolithic diets to the WFPBD and back again. A few had type II diabetes, which vanished on the WFPBD, returned when they went off the diet, and vanished again when they went back on the diet. Same for three people I know with severe allergies and three with arthritis. One also had chronic psoriasis and had tried everything for it; it was gone within a month of adopting the diet.
Everyone I know who switched to the WFPBD experienced a drop in cholesterol levels to 160 or lower, which is significant because no one in the decades-long Framingham Heart Study with cholesterol below 150 has had a heart attack.
The problem with those whose income is derived from selling books or supplements is that they include a lot of anecdotal evidence to back up what they want to make you believe. Anecdotal evidence is me telling you what I just did about my friends. Maybe I'm just making it up. Clinical studies published in peer-reviewed journals carry a bit more weight.
Remember Barry Sears Zone Diet book? He stated that his diet helped Ironman star athlete Dave Scott win the Gatorade Ironman Triathlon at age forty because of the Zone Diet. It was a fabrication. Dave Scott: "That's the biggest false statement ever. I've never read Sears' book. I've never tried Sears' diet. It's been awful having to refute this for the past five years. I called and let a message for Sears and sent him an e-mail, and he never replied."
During the period in which Dave Scott won all six of his Hawaiian triathlons he followed a strict vegetarian (vegan) diet.
Do your due diligence and be healthy, or live (and die) with the consequences.
Here are just a few studies or links to studies published in journals.
http://www.heartattackproof.com/articles.htm
http://www.pmri.org/research.html#articles
http://www.pmri.org/research.html#abstracts
http://www.pcrm.org/health/clinres/index.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16873779
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936955
Ornish, D., et al. Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet (21 Jul. 1990) 336(8708):129-33.
Ornish, D., Scherwitz, L. W., Doody, R. S., Kesten, D., McLanahan, S. M.; Brown, S. E.; et al. Effects of stress management training and dietary changes in treating ischemic heart disease. JAMA (1983) 249: 54.
Ornish, D., Scherwitz, L. W., Billings, J. H., Brown, S. E., Gould, K. L., Merritt, T. A., et al. Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA (1983) 280: 2001.
Sumner, Michael D.; Weidner, Gerdi; Merritt-Worden, Terri; Studley, Joli; Ornish, Dean. Adherence to a multicomponent lifestyle modification program. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation (Sep./Oct. 2005) 25(5):291.
Ornish, Dean. High-fiber diet and colorectal adenomas. New England Journal of Medicine (7 Sep. 2000) 343(10):736-738.
Ornish, Dean, Brown, Shirley Elizabeth, Kottke, Bruce A., Shea, Steven, Barth, Jacques D., Bryan, Gregory K., Hokanson, John E., Austin, Melissa A., Ginsberg, Henry N., Tall, Alan R., Deckelbaum, Richard J., Hunninghake, Donald B., Criqui, Michael H., Heiss, Gerardo, Sox, Harold C. Treatment of and screening for hyperlipidemia. New England Journal of Medicine (7 Oct.1993) 329(15):1124-1128.
Gould, K. Lance, Ornish, Dean MD, Scherwitz, Larry, Brown, Shirley, Edens, R. Patterson, Hess, Mary Jane, Mullani, Nizar, Bolomey, Leonard, Dobbs, Frank, Armstrong, William T., Merritt, Terri, Ports, Thomas, Sparler, Stephen, Billings, James. Changes in myocardial perfusion abnormalities by positron emission tomography after long-term, intense risk factor modification. JAMA (20 Sep. 1995) 274(11):894-901.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/29/8/1777.full
Teuscher, T. Absence of diabetes in a rural West African population with a high carbohydrate/cassava diet. Lancet 1:765, 1987