Page 71 - Fall2013

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition know much about these children, including what
By T. Colin Campbell, PhD else they were eating.
BenBella Books, 2013 TCC's premise that animal protein is car-
cinogenic is based on a study he found in an
In an interview with the Philadelphia old journal about Indian researchers who used
Inquirer posted May 1, 2013 at philly.com, T. aflatoxin (AF), a carcinogen from moldy peanuts,
Colin Campbell (TCC) remarked that his new to provoke cancer in rats. By decreasing animal
book Whole is “sort of an explanation of why this protein (casein) from twenty percent to five per-
evidence [that he presented in The China Study] cent the researchers completely prevented the
actually works. . .since that book [The China AF from causing cancer. He began working on
Study] was published, what we know about this the same theme and his results corroborated the
is just truly dramatic.” This sort of wandering earlier results of the Indian researchers: a dose-
ramble typifies the tone of TCC’s recent offering. response curve existed for AF and cancer on a
From the first to last pages of Whole, that twenty percent casein diet, but disappeared on
“truly dramatic” promised evidence fails to ap- a five percent casein diet.
pear. It is very clear that the book lacks a strong TCC went on to prove this “heresy” in the
argument for the benefits of a plant-based diet as laboratory and got a lot of mileage out of the
well as missing much more. idea. He published several studies based on this
TCC's whole food plant-based diet, which he concept that high animal protein contributes to
considers “the ideal human diet,” avoiding ani- cancer growth, and his research was supported
mal products, salt and oils, derives eighty percent by public grants along the way.
of calories from carbohydrates, ten percent from Public monies also funded a study he pub-
fat, and ten percent from protein. lished in 1981 in this same line of research, but
Whole is simply déjà vu for those who have TCC does not talk about that in either of his
read The China Study. TCC repeats most of his books. This may be because the results of this
plant-based rhetoric, with few new twists and study cast a negative light on his low-protein
turns. The China Study has been thoroughly paradigm. In the research paper, “Effects of Low
dissected and debunked by Denise Minger and Dietary Protein and Dietary Aflatoxin on Hepatic
Chris Masterjohn in previous reviews. Glutathione Levels in F-344 Rats,” published in
So why has TCC written this new book? Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology (volume
So that we may know “the truth.” “Millions of 59, pages 196-198), TCC found that low protein
people have read about the China Study,” he diets caused a “marked retardation in growth” in
says, as he paints himself as a “heretic,” another male rats, and “a reduction in liver glutathione
Copernicus, and a hero “blasting through” the within hours of feeding which remained low for
boundaries of the scientific paradigm. The only the duration of the study.” The aflatoxin caused
thing blasting through here is a mighty off- more cancerous lesions in male rats despite the It is very clear
gassing of excessive hubris, and a lot of whin- content of the diet they ate, but the lesions were that the book
ing and complaining that his research has not “more pronounced” in the high-protein group. lacks a strong
achieved mainstream status. Now this can’t be good because glutathione
TCC claims that his path to “heresy” started is the master antioxidant in the body, and is the argument for
with an “observation” he made in the late 1970s major free radical scavenger in the brain, clean- the benefits
about Filipino children of the “best-fed families” ing up those damaging molecules. It is used in of a plant-
who consumed the most protein but also devel- DNA synthesis and repair, enzyme activation,
oped the most liver cancer. However we don’t the immune system and the nervous system. based diet.
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