3 ms·
I have grave doubts about these claims. I don't have a copy handy but I seem to recall the author of "The China Study" making this claim and then presenting hi
by pravus 6y ago
I have grave doubts about these claims.
I don't have a copy handy but I seem to recall the author of "The China Study" making this claim and then presenting his lab evidence to support it. The evidence includes the admission that the laboratory mice used are a specific breed chosen for their predisposition to certain types of cancers and that they are fed diets of protein far in excess of what they would normally choose to eat. With these two factors combined he was barely able to get a statistically significant signal regarding health effects related to the long-term ingestion of protein.
He summarizes that extrapolating his results to human scale would be the equivalent of a person eating something like 2,000 hot dogs a day which he admits is ridiculous. This isn't a one-time event but an ongoing level of protein intake which would result in potentially harmful future health outcomes. His conclusion is that despite all of this, protein is a great risk to human health and the consumption of meat and meat-based products should be reduced if not eliminated.
No evidence is ever given related to normal levels of protein intake in healthy mice or humans. No mention of confounding factors like smoking, exposure to environment, or simply other dietary factors like gut bacteria. The only controls are the fact that the mice used are genetically pure and therefore many of these variables have already been eliminated.
This book has been heralded as a great example of nutrition science and why things like vegetarianism and veganism are superior to omnivorous or carnivorous diets. It has been directly contrasted with Gary Taubes' work who has pages full of analysis on many fairly modern studies using reasoned arguments against the worries about cancer and health related to meat. The laboratory science in "The China Study" was at least 30 years old and did not incorporate new information.
For the record I have been hard-core ketogenic since 2013 and pretty much strictly eat dairy, meat, and meat by-products. I am at the healthiest I have ever been in my entire life by any standard you want to measure and even if I'm wrong I am perfectly willing to continue this way of life because it is higher quality than what I was doing before.
- z3rgl1ng 6y agoThere are many studies that show a link between incidence of cancers and meat consumption as well as increased risk of heart disease[0]. The relative risk is minor, though, and you can live unhealthily on any diet. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francesco_Sofi/publication/293329136_Vegetarian_vegan_diets_and_multiple_health_outcomes_A_systematic_review_with_meta-analysis_of_observational_studies/links/59404e51a6fdcce572339749/Vegetarian-vegan-diets-and-multiple-health-outcomes-A-systematic-review-with-meta-analysis-of-observational-studies.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francesco_Sofi/publicat... for example