I doubt that few would disagree with the observation that nutrition is one of the most confusing words or concepts in the English language. What we choose to eat also is one of the most emotionally intense topics of human discourse, ranking up there with sex, religion and politics. Yet, properly practiced nutrition, as a dietary lifestyle, can do more to create health and save health care costs than all the contemporary medical interventions put together.
I know well this story. Having started a research and teaching career in nutrition over 50 years ago, I have seen the passion, the frivolity and the arrogance over and over and over when people talk about their food choices. This topic is very, very personal. It's sad because I do not see very much progress over these last four to five decades. Lots of shouting and not much constructive thought.
It is true that we have discovered a tremendous amount of information but this does not mean discovering what it all means. Indeed, our focus on details has created an enormous pile of contradictory observations--permitting too many people to construct ideas that please their palates and wallets more than educate their brains.
I don't care to pass personal blame or pose conspiracies, for we are all participants in this great war of words of what nutrition really means. Nonetheless, somewhere there is an origin and it is fostered by our professions, my nutrition and medical research community and my clinical colleagues' medical practice community. This is not surprising. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the most influential research funding agency in the world, is comprised of 27 institutes, centers and programs and not one is named the Institute of Nutrition. Research funding is a mere pittance in a couple of the institutes and most of this is dedicated to the study of individual nutrients that I consider pharmacology, not nutrition.
Further, there is not a single medical school in the country that teaches nutrition as a basic medical science. At best, a few may have an elective course that treats the subject in a most superficial manner.
Public citizens, therefore, are left to fend for themselves against the hyped up claims of the food and drug industries.
If we are to understand the true value of nutrition, we must begin by considering the health value of whole foods, not the nutrient parts extracted from them. In that context it is whole, plant-based foods that express an effect that is far more then the sum of its parts. When done right, advanced heart disease can be cured, type 2 diabetes stopped and reversed, cancer can be prevented and, with some newer evidence, controlled after it appears. The range of diseases that can be prevented is more than impressive. The breadth and rapidity of the nutritional effect not only prevents disease but actually treats many of these diseases while restoring and maintaining health. The totality of these health effects are far more than almost anyone knows.
It is terribly frustrating when I know these effects, I know the savings in health care costs that can be had and I know the personal responses that virtually everyone experiences when they try this for a week or so. I also know that, historically, we have been slaves to a nutrition-less health information system that, in effect, is designed to keep us in mental chains, thus to maintain the status quo.
But there is light at the end of this tunnel. Former President Clinton recently discovered and used this information and, much to his credit, told his truly impressive results on "CNN" to Wolf Blitzer.
I am not sure he knows how far reaching is his contribution. It is time for the rest of the public to get to know this as well. This information is on the right side of history! Mark my word.
Home | T. Colin Campbell Foundation
Mark Hyman, MD: Cancer Research: New Science on How to Prevent and Treat Cancer From TEDMED 2010
http://www.keyvive.com/featured-stories/the-china-study-health-nutrition-and-diabetes/
The real trick to living longer is eating better. Unfortunately, many people live in what are called food deserts. There are urban areas where the only places to get food are gas stations and fast food restaurants. There aren't even decent grocery stores within a 10 mile radius in many urban places, like Detroit.
The fact that many people who live in food deserts don't have transportation doesn't exactly help.
What we need are healthy INEXPENSIVE sources of food.
We need to implement urban gardening.
We need to get the word out about the indoor gardening movement: windowsill gardening and community greenhouses, where they grow healthy food for the community all year long!
We need to endorse farmers markets.
We need to encourage small local organic farms rather than large commercialized farms that pump our food full of pesticides and antibiotics.
If we got a lot of people on board this would work!
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1900947,00.html
http://growinghope.net/
http://www.projectgrowgardens.org/
A good option for people who are fortunate to have transportation would be to top at a place like Traders Joes....which is basically the cheap alternative to whole foods-whole paycheck.
I don't shop at whole foods-whole paycheck because the owner is a jerk, and he is contributing to the main problem. The main problem being, healthy organic food is out of reach for many Americans because it is too doggone EXPENSIVE.
i have a mother who is near obesity and seems to not make the connection with her failing knees.
my dad, who is a staunch vegetarian, takes cholesterol inhibitors, and has hypertension.
somewhere in their choices, they are wrong.
when i point it out, i am the one thats being rude, and outcast-ed. go figure.
It is actually funny the way your ever-ready attack mode goes into action whenever you see Campbell's name; but in the real world Campbell’s work speaks for itself:
T. Colin Campbell, who is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, has had a long career in research (50 years), teaching and development of national/international on diet, nutrition and health. His studies have ranged from work in the Philippines developing a nationwide program for feeding malnourished children to the organization and directorship of a nationwide study on diet, health and disease in the People's Republic of China, commonly known as the China Study.
He is probably best known for his work in the China Study and as Senior Science Advisor during the formative years of the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund. AICR awarded him the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award in Cancer Research.
You said
“Yet, properly practiced nutrition, as a dietary lifestyle, can do more to create health and save health
care costs than all the contemporary medical interventions put together.”
I agree completely. In fact I don’t know why more corporations don’t focus more in this area as a way to decrease employee health costs while improving lifestyle and ultimately employee performance. There must be a way to promote good health in the work place through healthy eating and exercise.
I recently adopted the all natural healthy eating lifestyle and got rid of the processed, sugary and “diet” stuff I was consuming. As a result I have lost weight I was struggling with for years and feel so much healthier all around.
Don’t know how we all got so far off track. Seems to me we need to go back to the way our grandparents or great grandparents ate– All natural food.
Thanks again! Keep up the good work
Davinia
http://healthyeatingmenutips.com
It's unfortunate that economic interests as well as simple preferences color the discussion of what a healthy diet is to the point where it is difficult for many to get straight answers to basic questions about nutrition. I hope that articles like yours and the example of Former President Clinton will gain more prominence and help steer people towards more healthful diets.
Ken Leebow
http://www.HighSatiety.net
whole food market CEO is right about buying organic food being health care ;now if he would also understand that Obamacare is better than law of the capitalist jungle hallelujah
which reminds of the spiritual dimension e.g. Deepak's mind/body medicine
and " vedic food for vedic consciousness " " quality of food is quality of mind " : the most complete knowledge of nutrition from traditional perspective is in Maharishi Ayur Veda
http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/
Studies performed with isolated single nutrients, not found in isolation in nature, bear little resemblance to the real world and certainly should not be relied upon for any meaningful nutritional guidance.
Here is an example. Imagine feeding rats an isolated protein, never found alone in nature, such as casein, one of several cow milk proteins always found in combination with other proteins such as whey in the real world. According to the author, this would qualify as a pharmacological study, with no place in the science of nutrition. I agree. Whoops, those studies are the backbone of “The China Study.”
A description and references regarding what nature, not nutritionists, evolved humans to eat can be found in “The Wellness Project.”
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
The above is a quote from Bernarr McFadden from his 1911 Encyclopedia of Physical Culture regarding the health benefits of a natural diet. This essay was published 99 years ago and still America struggles to merge natural health,mind-body wellness, and nutrition with healthcare and the medical community. It's confounding, to say the least.
It's refreshing to hear common sense rational about food from someone in the the sciences. Thank you for your article.