Forks Over Knives Page #4

All of that stuff...

sounds like I'm dead.

So I don't mean to, you know,

harp on the bad stuff,

but, you know,

that will all...

most of that should get better.

My goals, I'm adding in.

Which goals do you have?

I want you to reverse all

your medical diseases,

the ones that we can reverse,

and most of yours, we could.

I told you all the

risk and benefits.

Based on what I told you, I

would stop all these meds.

And I would stop these, on

top of all these risks.

Okay, that's what I'm gonna try.

You're gonna get my best...

my best effort.

I can tell you that.

You'll do good.

You'll do well.

By 1975, Dr. Campbell was

at Cornell University,

investigating what he'd

discovered in the Philippines.

Our work from the

beginning was designed,

in a sense, to do

two main things.

One, I wanted to replicate,

if possible, the Indian work,

because it was so provocative.

Secondly, if this

was really true,

I wanted to study

how does it work?

Just like the

Indian researchers,

Campbell fed half the

rats in his study

a diet of 20% casein,

the main protein

in dairy products.

The other half was

fed only 5% casein.

Over the 12 weeks of the study,

the rats eating the

higher protein diet

had a greatly enhanced level of

early liver cancer tumor growth.

On the other hand, all of the

rats eating only 5% protein

had no evidence of

cancer whatsoever.

But Dr. Campbell decided

to take these findings

a step further.

This time, instead of

keeping his test rats

on the same diet

throughout the study,

he kept them in one group

and switched their

diets back and forth

between 5% and 20%

dairy protein,

doing so at

three-week intervals.

The results were astonishing.

Whenever the rats

were fed 20% protein,

early liver tumor

growth exploded.

But when the same rats

were given 5% protein,

tumor growth actually went down.

I mean, this is so provocative,

this information.

We could turn on and

turn off cancer growth

just by adjusting the level

of intake of that protein.

Going from 5% to 20%

is within the range of

American experience.

The typical studies on chemical

carcinogens causing cancer

are testing chemicals at levels

maybe three or four orders

of magnitude higher

than we experience.

Even more surprisingly,

Dr. Campbell discovered

that a 20% diet

of plant proteins from

soy beans and wheat

did not promote cancer.

However, there's a longstanding

belief among the public

that animal protein is

important for human health.

Connie diekman supports

this position.

Ms. Diekman is

director of nutrition

at Washington University in St.

Louis, Missouri.

She's the past President of the

American Dietetic Association,

and an advisor to the

National Dairy Council.

When you eliminate animal

foods from your eating plan,

you run the risk of

inadequate protein content.

Animal proteins provide

all the amino acids

that we need for cell growth,

tissue repair, and

overall health.

Eating whole foods, it's

virtually impossible

to be protein deficient without

being calorie deficient.

Because even if you

take the foods

that have the least

amount of protein in it,

let's say potatoes,

for example, or rice.

You know, 8%, 9%.

Well, that's the figure

we more or less need.

Dr. Campbell's research

led him to a conclusion

about the way genes, chemicals,

and nutrition interact

to promote cancer.

Cancer starts with genes.

It might be genes

we're born with,

it might be genes that are

actually changed by a chemical,

so those genes become capable

of producing cancer cells.

Whether we do or

don't get cancer

is primarily related

to how we promote

those cancer cells

to grow over time.

That's where nutrition

comes into play.

They grow much more rapidly when

they were fed animal protein.

Dr. Campbell and other

nutritional scientists

have found that only a small

percentage of cancer cases

are caused solely by genes.

I think the general

consensus in my field

is that probably not more

than 1% or 2% at most

is attributed to the genes

we may or may not have.

And that's the most helpful

and hopeful information

I give people.

Because if you go through life

thinking that what

happens to you

from a health perspective

is based on your genes,

you're a helpless victim.

My diet was pretty abominable.

I thought the two

principal food groups

were caffeine and sugar.

Dr. Pam Popper is

executive director

of the Wellness Forum

in Columbus, Ohio,

and an expert in the areas

of health and nutrition.

The women in my family are

all overweight. I'm not.

I don't eat and live

like they do, you know.

So, I've changed

my health destiny

by not engaging in

the same habits.

Over the next several years,

Dr. Campbell initiated

more extensive lab studies

using various animal

and plant nutrients.

The results were consistent:

Nutrients from animal foods

promoted cancer growth,

while nutrients from plant

foods decreased cancer growth.

Yet Campbell hadn't identified a

specific biological mechanism

that caused the

effects he observed.

And it finally occurred to me

that there is no such

thing as the mechanism.

What we are looking at was

a symphony of mechanisms.

We think that nutrition

is attributed

to individual nutrients.

And that's the way

it gets marketed

and that's the way the

companies tell us, so forth.

When, in fact, nutrition,

all of it working together

to create this symphony,

the hundreds of thousands

of different kinds of

chemicals in food,

all kind of working

together nicely.

I mean, the complexity is total.

That's a holistic concept.

And I had to say to myself,

that's a very exciting idea.

Dr. Campbell realized

that his discoveries

in the laboratory

were significant, but limited.

How were these findings

relevant in people?

How do different types of foods

affect cancer and

other diseases?

Campbell needed a large-scale

population study.

He would soon find a

perfect opportunity.

So mangoes are really good.

They flavor things

really nicely.

- Okay.

- That's something...

you wanna get a riper one.

Dr. Matt Lederman and his wife,

Dr. Alona Pulde,

are among a small but growing

number of physicians

who use a whole foods,

plant-based diet

as a primary treatment

for their patients.

From shopping with

patients to teach them

how to read nutrition labels...

And I don't care what it says

on the front, the

back, or the sides...

both:
Look at the ingredients.

And that's all I care about.

To showing patients

how to prepare meals,

they are not your typical m.D.S.

Doctors Lederman and Pulde

use food as treatment

because they feel it's the

best medicine available...

medicine that not only makes

their patients feel better

but that truly

improves their health.

In 1973, the U.S. congress

passed a new farm subsidy bill.

Among other things, it

included incentives

that encouraged a massive

increase in corn production.

One of the major byproducts

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