I hate book reports!
But I will tell you what I got out of this book and why I changed my diet and what it has done for me. I read The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health
Anyway, I started reading The China Study diet on my way to one of those all-inclusive resorts that I could usually count on to put on about five pounds. I decided I would try eating the way the book said which was no meat, eggs, milk, cheese or processed foods (white pasta, white bread, white rice, cookies, cakes, pies, candies). Now, I wasn’t totally going by the diet, since I did taste a few desserts, had a little seafood, drank a bunch of margaritas which I’m sure had some sugar in them, and all they had was white rice.
Even with those transgressions, I came back without gaining any weight. The book said if you eat the right foods, the weight will take care of itself. Let me say that I did not just start this for the weight, but the fact the countries that eat less animal protein and processed foods, have less heart disease, cancer, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, dementia, stroke, and on and on. I thought, wow, I’m eating myself to death. Now I am 60 and have a six year old so I thought I would try to stretch this ride out to see her grow up.
I had been carrying around about 20 extra pounds for quite a few years and when I got back to the states, I thought I would give it a serious try. Soooo, for the next 8 weeks, I followed the diet much more closely (notice I didn’t say exactly. In that 8 weeks I had 3 shrimp, 2 stuffed (with cheese) jalapenos, 1 bite of lasagna, and one night I showed up at poker and all they had was pizza and wings so I ate one piece of pizza and one wing.
At the end of the 8 weeks, I had lost 14 pounds, and my cholesterol had dropped 70 points from he 230’s to the 160’s. Wow! I thought this was worth continuing. I am now down about 20 pounds, high school weight and pant size. Had to give away a lot of clothes and buy more. That was OK with me. Now, I’m a Texan, so I am not a purist. I’ll still shoot a big buck and put him on the wall, but I’ll give the meat away (unless I’m starving, of course).
On father’s day, I went to one of my favorite restaurants in Austin and had pork mole enchiladas and queso. Then I had a jalapeno burger with onion rings the next weekend. Then along came the 4th of July and I had sausage and brisket. It actually made me feel kind of crappy. When I am somewhere and there is BBQ, or something that looks delicious, but is not on the vegan diet, I will have a bite or two for the flavor, but I guess 95% of the time, there are no animal products involved.
It is harder when you go out to eat, but it is doable. You can order salads, side orders of vegetables — Olive Garden has whole wheat pasta, spinach enchiladas without cheese or cream sauce and substitute tomatillo sauce, eggplant parmesan (hold the cheese) with marinara sauce, beans, etc. I recommend reading the book so you have the motivation. Not only will you lose weight if you need to, but you will feel better. The less animal protein and processed foods you eat, the less your risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, obesity, auto immune diseases, and we can only guess what else.
There are the naysayers. I tried to think: what is Dr. Campbell’s motivation for getting people to change to the whole food plant based diet? He could make money by selling the book. He could have sold a book on diet and deviated from what his studies found. Diet books are hot sellers. Maybe he’s PETA’s pocket which one of the naysayers alleges. Why? Look at the studies. Look at the comparisons of diets and diseases around the world. I won’t be 100%. I had salmon for lunch today ( poor fishey).
Read about The China Study diet and I challenge each of you to try the diet for 3 months and see how you feel and see what happens to your lab values. What do you have to lose??
For a different view of The China Study written by Tom Moseley : The China Study – Proof or Propaganda?
– Dr. Horis Stedman is a physician practicing, playing and chewing his cud in Marble Falls, Texas.
Recommended Reading:
Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Cooking
So far I have lost 52 lbs. I have very good energy levels and when I eat a plant based diet, my hunger is greatly reduced. It is easy to not eat animal protein when you are not hungry. Try it for a week and see what you think.
Cheers
Randy asked if I was eating shredded newspaper to get the cholesterol so low. Actually, no. Breakfast is usually berries with 1 cup whole grain cereal and almond milk. If I get hungry at work before lunch, I have either some fruit, a banana or apple with peanut butter or sesame rice thins with peanut butter or spicy or roasted garlic hummus. Then for lunch, i usually have beans and brown rice, veges and brown rice, vegetarian pasta sauce over whole wheat spaghetti, or a salad and an occasional piece of salmon. then for dinner may be similar to lunch or a vegeburger. Maybe a glass of red wine, but definitely no shredded newspaper.