108 THE CHINA STUDY ings to see what other researchers have found regarding diet and health As our research findings expanded from the specific to the general, the picture has continued to enlarge We now can look at the work of other scientists to put my findings into a larger context As you shall see, it is nothing short of astonishing DISEASES OF AFFLUENCE HERE IN AMERICA, we are affluent, and we die certain deaths because of it We eat like feasting kings and queens every day of the week, and it kills us You probably know people who suffer from heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's, obesity or diabetes There's a good chance that you yourself suffer from one of these problems, or that one of these diseases runs in your family As we have seen, these diseases are relatively unknown in traditional cultures that subsist mostly on whole plant foods, as in rural China But these ailments arrive when a traditional culture starts accumulating wealth and starts eating more and more meat, dairy and refined plant products (like crackers, cookies and soda) In public lectures, I start my presentation by telling the audience my personal story, just as I have done in this book Invariably, I get a question at the end of the lecture from someone who wants to know more about diet and a specific disease of affluence Chances are that you yourself also have a question about a specific disease Chances are, too, that this specific disease is a disease of affluence, because that's what we die of here in America You might be surprised to know that the disease that interests you has much in common with other diseases of affluence, especially when it comes to nutrition There is no such thing as a special diet for cancer and a different, equally special diet for heart disease The evidence now amassed from researchers around the world shows that the same diet that is good for the prevention of cancer is also good for the prevention 109 I 110 THE CHINA STUDY of heart disease, as well as obesity, diabetes, cataracts, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's, cognitive dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis and other diseases Furthermore, this diet can only benefit everyone, regardless of his or her genes or personal dispositions All of these diseases, and others, spring forth from the same influence: an unhealthy, largely toxic diet and lifestyle that has an excess of sickness-promoting factors and a deficiency of health-promoting factors In other words, the Western diet Conversely, there is one diet to counteract all of these diseases: a whole foods, plant-based diet The following chapters are organized by disease, or disease grouping Each chapter contains evidence showing how food relates to each disease As you go through each chapter, you will begin to see the breadth and depth of the astonishing scientific argument favoring a whole foods, plant-based diet For me, the consistency of evidence regarding such a disparate group of diseases has been the most convincing aspect of this argument When a whole foods, plant-based diet is demonstrably beneficial for such a wide variety of diseases, is it possible that humans were meant to consume any other diet? I say no, and I think you'll agree America and most other Western nations have gotten it wrong when it comes to diet and health, and we have paid a grave price We are sick, overweight and confused As I have moved on from the laboratory studies and the China Study and encountered the information discussed in Part II, I have become overwhelmed I have come to realize that some of our most revered conventions are wrong and real health has been grossly obscured Most unfortunately, the unsuspecting public has paid the ultimate price In large measure, this book is my effort to right these wrongs As you will come to see in the following chapters, from heart disease to cancer, and from obesity to blindness, there is a better path to optimal health I Jl ~ l t Broken Hearts PUT YOUR HAND on your chest and feel your heart beat Now put your hand where you can feel your pulse That pulse is the signature of your being Your heart, creating that pulse, is working for you every minute of the day, every day of the year, and every year of your entire life If you live an average lifetime, your heart will beat about billion times l Now take a moment to realize that during the time it took you to read the above paragraph an artery in the heart of roughly one American clogged up, cut off blood flow and started a rapid process of tissue and cell death This process is better known, of course, as a heart attack By the time you finish reading this page, four Americans will have had a heart attack, and another four will have fallen prey to stroke or heart failure.2 Over the next twenty-four hours, 3,000 Americans will have heart attacks,2 roughly the same number of people who perished in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 200l The heart is the centerpiece of life and, more often than not in America, it is the centerpiece of death Malfunction of the heart and/or circulation system will kill 40% of Americans,3 more than those killed by any other injury or ailment, including cancer Heart disease has been our number one cause of death for almost one hundred years This disease does not recognize gender or race boundaries; all are affected If you were to ask most women what disease poses the greatest risk to them, heart disease or breast cancer, many women would undoubtedly say breast cancer But they would be wrong Women's death rate from heart disease is eight times higher than their death rate from breast cancer 5, 111 112 THE CHINA STUDY If there is an "American" game, it is baseball; an "American" dessert, apple pie If there is an "American" disease, it is heart disease EVERYONE'S DOING IT In 1950, Judy Holliday could be seen on the big screen, Ben Hogan dominated the world of golf, the musical South Pacific won big at the Tony Awards and on June 25, North Korea invaded South Korea The American administration was taken aback but responded quickly Within days, President Truman sent in troops on the ground and bombers overhead to push back the North Korean army Three years later, inJuly of 1953, a formal cease-fire agreement had been signed and the Korean War was over During this period of time, over 30,000 American soldiers were killed in battle At the end of the war, a landmark scientific study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association Military medical investigators had examined the hearts of 300 male soldiers killed in action in Korea The soldiers, at an average age of twenty-two years, had never been diagnosed with heart problems In dissecting these hearts, researchers found startling evidence of disease in an exceptional number of cases Fully 77.3% of the hearts they examined had "gross evidence" of heart disease.? (In this instance, "gross" means large.) That number, 77.3%, is startling Coming at a time when our number one killer was still shrouded in mystery, the research clearly demonstrated that heart disease develops over an entire lifetime Furthermore, almost everyone was susceptible! These soldiers were not couch-potato slouches; they were in top condition in the prime of their physical lives Since that time, several other studies have confirmed that heart disease is pervasive in young Americans s THE HEART ATTACK But what is heart disease? One of the key components is plaque Plaque is a greasy layer of proteins, fats (including cholesterol), immune system cells and other components that accumulate on the inner walls of the coronary arteries I have heard one surgeon say that if you wipe your finger on a plaque-covered artery; it has the same feel as wiping your finger across a warm cheesecake If you have plaque building up in your coronary arteries, you have some degree of heart disease Of the autopsied soldiers in Korea, one out of twenty diseased men had so much plaque that 90% of an artery was blocked.? That's like putting a ... disease The evidence now amassed from researchers around the world shows that the same diet that is good for the prevention of cancer is also good for the prevention 109 I 110 THE CHINA STUDY of... moved on from the laboratory studies and the China Study and encountered the information discussed in Part II, I have become overwhelmed I have come to realize that some of our most revered conventions... say breast cancer But they would be wrong Women's death rate from heart disease is eight times higher than their death rate from breast cancer 5, 111 112 THE CHINA STUDY If there is an "American"