T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.
I doubt that few would disagree with the observation that nutrition
is one of the most confusing words or concepts in the English language.
What we choose to eat also is one of the most emotionally intense topics
of human discourse, ranking up there with sex, religion and politics.
Yet, properly practiced nutrition, as a dietary lifestyle, can do more
to create health and save health care costs than all the contemporary
medical interventions put together.
I know well this story. Having
started a research and teaching career in nutrition over 50 years ago, I
have seen the passion, the frivolity and the arrogance over and over
and over when people talk about their food choices. This topic is very,
very personal. It's sad because I do not see very much progress over
these last four to five decades. Lots of shouting and not much
constructive thought.
It is true that we have discovered a
tremendous amount of information but this does not mean discovering what
it all means. Indeed, our focus on details has created an enormous pile
of contradictory observations--permitting too many people to construct
ideas that please their palates and wallets more than educate their
brains.
I don't care to pass personal blame or pose conspiracies,
for we are all participants in this great war of words of what nutrition
really means. Nonetheless, somewhere there is an origin and it is
fostered by our professions, my nutrition and medical research community
and my clinical colleagues' medical practice community. This is not
surprising. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the most
influential research funding agency in the world, is comprised of 27
institutes, centers and programs and not one is named the Institute of
Nutrition. Research funding is a mere pittance in a couple of the
institutes and most of this is dedicated to the study of individual
nutrients that I consider pharmacology, not nutrition.
Further,
there is not a single medical school in the country that teaches
nutrition as a basic medical science. At best, a few may have an
elective course that treats the subject in a most superficial manner.
Public citizens, therefore, are left to fend for themselves against the hyped up claims of the food and drug industries.
If
we are to understand the true value of nutrition, we must begin by
considering the health value of whole foods, not the nutrient parts
extracted from them. In that context it is whole, plant-based foods that
express an effect that is far more then the sum of its parts. When done
right, advanced heart disease can be cured, type 2 diabetes stopped and
reversed, cancer can be prevented and, with some newer evidence,
controlled after it appears. The range of diseases that can be prevented
is more than impressive. The breadth and rapidity of the nutritional
effect not only prevents disease but actually treats many of these
diseases while restoring and maintaining health. The totality of these
health effects are far more than almost anyone knows.
It is
terribly frustrating when I know these effects, I know the savings in
health care costs that can be had and I know the personal responses that
virtually everyone experiences when they try this for a week or so. I
also know that, historically, we have been slaves to a nutrition-less
health information system that, in effect, is designed to keep us in
mental chains, thus to maintain the status quo.
But there is light
at the end of this tunnel. Former President Clinton recently discovered
and used this information and, much to his credit, told his truly
impressive results on "CNN" to Wolf Blitzer.
I am not sure he
knows how far reaching is his contribution. It is time for the rest of
the public to get to know this as well. This information is on the right
side of history! Mark my word.
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