THE FOOD INDUSTRY HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU!

The Food Industry Has Been Lying to You!

YOU DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH!

As Americans get flooded with more information online, people begin to search for health news and updates. More and more people want to enjoy a healthy life and live

longer. So, they jump on the latest health bandwagon, try the latest dietary fad, or buy

the entire vitamin pill selections at the pharmacy.But are they really getting the

right information and advice from the experts? After years of hard work from scientists and millions if not billions of dollars to fund research and studies on wellness and cures to major illnesses, why are Americans still dying of cancers and heart disease? Why are our Asian counterparts still living longer than the average Joe? This may come as a shock to you, but the truth is you have been lied to.

First let’s look at a landmark study that came out in early 2000s. From the 1970’s until the 1990’s, a study was conducted in China that was jointly funded by the government of China, the University of Oxford and the Cornell University. The study looked into the relationship of diet and lifestyle with the mortality rates of 6,500 Chinese from 65 counties of rural China. The results of the study showed that some so called “diseases of affluence” were linked to the Westernization of their diet, particularly the increasing consumption of dairy products and animal protein that were previously uncommon in the Asian country.

 Dangers of Meat Diet

The research sounded an alarm on dairy products and animal proteins which includes fish, eggs, poultry, pork and beef. The authors concluded that those who eat a vegan or whole plant food diet, avoiding animal proteins, will have minimum risks of chronic disease. They also say those already afflicted can reverse the development of the disease. The study further endorses adequate exposure to sunshine to maintain enough levels of Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 dietary supplements for those who will completely avoid animal products.

Acidity and Your Health

After the China Study, various studies have also come out to warn people of the dangers of having a diet with lots of meat. This includes a study on the higher mortality rate of men and women who consume a lot of red and processed meat and another that links red meat with cancer and Heart Disease.

Its All Business: The Conspiracy of Silence!

With the potential impact of this information to people’s health, you’d expect these findings to receive the greatest exposure on media. But sadly, this is not the case.

Studies that paint a bad picture of meat are relegated to the inside pages of newspapers and are rarely discussed on primetime TV. Worse they are often criticized by other experts under the payroll of the food industries and labeled as extreme and

unscientific. T. Colin Campbell, one of the directors of the China Study summarized their findings in a book entitled “The China Study”. In the said book, Dr. Campbell exposed the powerful forces working behind the scenes of the scientific community. Wealthy and influential groups that stand to lose millions in revenues should the American public change their way of eating. What Campbell discussed in his book is not at all surprising considering the many industriesthat will be severely affected if the public shift to a plant-based diet. There’s the poultry and egg industry, the swine industry and the beef industry to name a few. These are not your regular small-time family owned farms but the big companies that have a lot at stake. Now some might say, there is nothing to worry about since we have medical and health experts as well as government agencies tasked to protect our interests. Right? Well, yes and no. There are some “experts” and government officials who are sincere and passionate about their job but most of the time they are sincerely wrong. Many have such a firm belief in the American way of eating that they cannot accept anything else as possibly true while some government officials start on the job with the public’s best interest at heart but due to the prevailing system, they end up making compromises along the way.

Making Us Sick Keeps THEM in Business!

One example is the new dietary guidelines from the USDA that was released early this
year. It did recommend a higher intake of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains but it
stopped short of recommending that we stop consuming processed food. So, the public
was shortchanged in learning the way to optimal health. We cannot completely rely on out government to make our health their top priority when large and moneyed industries continue to profit from our ignorance regarding the food that we eat. Medical professionals are also wittingly or unwittingly part of this “conspiracy of silence.” First of all, they are trained to heal not to prevent diseases. It is also a well known fact that many doctors are under the payroll of big pharmaceutical companies that gain huge profits from our illnesses. If the knowledge that sicknesses can be prevented or cured by nutrition comes out, then their business will be greatly threatened. The bottom-line is, they make money by keeping us sick. When it comes to mainstream media, we do

encounter some sporadic reporting on the value of eating more fruits and vegetables but it is not something they advocate. Movies and TV sitcoms often depict vegetarian characters as “weird” or “spaced out”. Television, magazines and other forms of media daily bombard us with ads of instant food, fast foods and salty or sweet snacks. Media survive on advertising revenues, and most of their advertisers are the processed and various snack food conglomerates, fastfood restaurants, dairy companies etc. They too have their own interests to protect.

Fat Consumption and Cancer Causes?

During the preparation of the findings of The China Study, the members of the committee agreed to point to dietary fat as the one that can cause cancers instead of animal based food. The committee also recommended the reduction of fat intake by 30% of calories. These came about as the group feared that the report would be killed off before its publication should animal-based food be directly linked to cancers in their

conclusion. 5 According to Dr. Campbell, characterizing the whole food by the individual health effects of specific nutrients was a mistake. He called this scientific reductionism.

What is Reductionism? Reductionism has spawned various flawed studies on nutrition because according to Dr. Campbell, they focus too much on the effects of individual nutrients among people who consume a highrisk diet, which includes a high percentage of animal based protein.  The famous Nurses’ Health Study found no significant correlation between reduction of fat intake and cancer prevention. Dr. Campbell said that this study has done great harm to our nutritional landscape and is a glaring example of how reductionism has caused much confusion and a huge misinformation in spite of well-meaning and honest scientists working on the project. 6

What makes this study flawed is the fact that it focused solely on fat consumption and that American women with a high meat and dairy intake were compared to Chinese,

the focus of the China Study, who were mostly plant eaters. It is however encouraging to note that some scientists of late have been using more accurate and controlled samples for their studies on dieting. One example includes the review that appeared in the journal of Pediatrics. The authors led by Amy Joy Lanou, a Cornell-trained nutritionist, concluded that there is no evidence to link dairy products or dietary calcium intake to bone health. This finding has completely shattered the “milk myth”  that even appears on children’s textbooks as gospel truth. According to Dr. Lanou, what children really need to have strong bones and maintain healthy bodies are sunshine, exercise and plenty of fruits and vegetables.  But again, hardly anybody has heard of this review as none of the mainstream media outlets reported their findings.

Enough is Enough!

If we are really serious about acquiring good health and longevity, we need to sit down

and reassess our way of eating. The problem that we face now is that Americans generally prefer “convenience over quality.” That’s according to Mark Gehlhar, a USDA Economic Researcher. That is why it is so easy for the food industries to continue to lie and manipulate the public just so to protect their interests. They continue to work on maintaining America’s addiction to processed, junk and animal-protein based foods.

From the moment of birth, an American is trained to eat processed food beginning with

the infant formula. The American child will then move on to sodas and animal based

foods. A very unhealthy diet that is so well-entrenched in our system that it leaves

making a change quite difficult to do. But if we take note of important facts on health

then it would be possible for us to somehow bring out a strong resolve to eat right. To make the paradigm shift that we so need at the moment. What important health facts should we remember? Dr. Campbell listed out in his book 8 principles of food and health. Basically it all comes down to eating more plant-based food and completely shunning processed foods rich with salt, sugar and preservatives. It is high time for us to finally listen to the wise old exhortation from our Moms to eat our vegetables. Let’s say enough to the lies that we see and hear every day. Enough is enough. Now that

we have heard the truth it can finally set us free. (The Alkaline Diet)

References:

1 Brody, Jane E. "Huge Study Of Diet Indicts Fat And Meat",

The New York Times, May 8, 1990

2 Meat Intake and Mortality: A Prospective Study of Over Half a

Million People

3 Study Links Red Meat To Cancer, Heart Disease by Patti

Neighmond, March 24, 2009

4 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010

5. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of

Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet,

Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.

and Thomas M. Campbell II, page 271

6 Ibid, page 272

7 Ibid, page 274

8New Study Shatters Milk Myth: For Strong Bones, Kids Need

Exercise, Sunshine And A Dairy-Free Diet; Physicians

Committee For Responsible Medicine

9 No Surprises: US Leads in Processed Food Consumption,

April 11th, 2010

10 The China Study, pages 223–240