Forks Over Knives Page #7

But I guess I've always

liked a challenge.

We preheated the oven,

got the water going.

I just added some seasonings.

And then we add the

onions and the spinach.

I've never been a morning

person, my whole life.

And, uh, but previous

to this experience,

um, it had probably

been worse than ever.

And that entailed needing

to get up in the morning

and caffeinate myself

with cokes and red bulls

and stuff like that,

uh, before I could even

think or start to work.

We didn't make the rice noodles,

but you can just

boil them real quick

and then throw this

on top of them.

Right, right.

He's actually eating more often,

but he's eating the right

foods, and he lost weight.

So he certainly feels

much better that way.

And you can tell it in

his face, in his neck,

you know, in his belly.

It's all...

he's lost a lot of weight there.

He also has a better energy.

Um, he's waking up earlier now.

That's great, because we have

then some morning time together.

I don't have to carry anything.

You're the doctor.

Following nearly a decade

of intense effort,

Dr. Campbell and his colleagues

finally publish

their China study.

It identified no less

than 94,000 correlations

between diet and disease.

Those are big numbers

for any study.

And in the end of the day,

when we did all these

correlations in this book here,

and we looked at

the number of them

that were statistically

significant,

it was between about

When you have that large

number of correlations

then you start

analyzing each one,

if it works out as

statistically significant,

this means that if 19 out of 20

are pointing in the

same direction,

it's highly significant

and likely to be true.

Hundreds of detailed

tables and charts

were included in the study.

Each one presented the raw

data that was collected.

Then this information

was cross-referenced

in multiple ways to

demonstrate its reliability

and to show how it linked

with the 367 variables

the study examined.

I think the major message

we got out of all these

correlation analyses

is only one message.

The plant food-based diet,

mainly cereal grains,

vegetables, and fruits,

and very little animal food

is always associated with lower

mortality of certain cancers,

stroke, and coronary

heart disease.

The New York times called it

"the most comprehensive

large study ever undertaken

"of the relationship

between diet

and the risk of

developing disease."

For Dr. Campbell, he finally had

large-scale data on people,

and it was remarkably consistent

with his earlier discoveries.

Together, he found that the

scientific evidence was clear:

Whole, plant-based foods were

beneficial to human health,

while animal-based

foods were not.

San'dera nation's journey

to better health

wasn't easy at first.

It was a little hard, 'cause

I'd been eating fatty foods

and grease and

everything for 38 years,

you know, as long

as I can remember,

so it was kinda hard

to go from that

to changing the next

day completely.

I started a journal for maybe

the first three weeks,

write down my feelings

and emotions,

what I felt like...

So that other people

could know it's okay

to feel that way.

Along the way,

San'dera had strong support

from Dr. Esselstyn

and his wife Ann.

They keep in touch,

and they're like,

"we haven't forgotten

about you,"

and I know they haven't.

I really feel here

that they haven't.

"I went to Wal-Mart this day.

"I had wanted a subway sandwich,

"and I said I'm gonna get

me that meatball sub.

"I then received a call

while I was at Wal-Mart

"from Mrs. Esselstyn,

"as if they knew I was

weak at this moment.

"She stated, 'promise me

"you will not eat

anything from Wal-Mart.'

"it gave me chills to know that

she called at that moment.

"Therefore I left the store

without getting

that meatball sub."

What do you see?

While Dr. Campbell was

publishing his China study,

Dr. Esselstyn was getting

some powerful data

from the research

he'd started in 1985.

He began with 24 patients,

but 6 had dropped out

in the first year,

leaving him with a total of 18.

At the end of five years, we

had follow-up angiograms,

and 11 of the group had

halted their disease.

There was no progression.

And there were four where we

had rather exciting evidence

of regression of disease.

These results were astonishing.

The diet produced something

that medication and surgery

never had before: Actual

reversals of heart disease.

The biological mechanism

that caused these reversals

centers on the lining of

our veins and arteries...

the endothelial cells.

They are the absolute

life jackets

of our blood vessels.

You're young, and you're a

teenager, you're healthy,

you could spread those

out one layer thick,

and you'd have something

that would cover

six or eight tennis courts.

In 1988, scientists discovered

that endothelial

cells manufactured

the gas nitric oxide.

Well, what did nitric oxide do?

Nitric oxide keeps our

blood flowing smoothly

without being sticky.

It also helps to dilate

constricted blood vessels

during physical activity

and inhibits the

formation of plaque.

And most importantly, nitric

oxide is a powerful force

for eliminating the inflammation

that seems to go

with this plaque.

However, scientific

tests have demonstrated

that when we start eating

the typical Western diet,

our endothelial

cells are damaged.

When you're getting to be in

your 40s and 50s and 60s,

and you've been slaughtering

your endothelial cells,

you don't have those six

or eight tennis courts.

You may be down to one

and a half or two,

and they can't protect you.

Yet according to Dr. Esselstyn,

when we begin eating a whole

foods, plant-based diet,

the damage to our endothelial

cells not only stops,

it starts to reverse.

About five years into his study,

Esselstyn made a small

but significant change

in his patients' menu.

It started in 1990,

when he read the glowing review

of Dr. Campbell's China study

the New York times.

Dr. Esselstyn saw that,

and he invited me to

come to a conference

he was organizing in Arizona.

These two revolutionaries,

who, up until then, had been

on similar but separate paths

finally met face-to-face.

On the one hand, I'm coming

from the scientific group,

getting some ideas.

He's coming from

the clinical route

and doing some

dramatic research.

Here's the science, here's

the clinical evidence.

Put the two together,

it's amazing.

When he learned of

Campbell's research,

Esselstyn removed dairy products

from his patients' diet.

The results of his ongoing study

continued to be impressive,

and in 1995, he

published a paper

detailing them in a noted

scientific journal.

Yet one of Esselstyn's most

remarkable success stories

involved a colleague of his

at the Cleveland clinic,

Dr. Joseph Crowe.

Actually I was, um,

active, healthy,

very busy,

uh, mid-40s, absolutely,

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