The Wholey Trilogy

My health book for this summer was The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and his son, Thomas Campbell II. This book was compelling, disturbing at some parts, and a beautiful companion piece to my other favorite environmental health books. In my dream world, all parents would be required to read my Wholey Trilogy:

The China Study
Fast Food Nation
The Omnivore's Dilemma

Now that I've joined the club (reached age 40), I now see the effects of old age and just plain old living all around me (translation = cancer, heart disease, grandparents moving to assisted living, friends' parents dying). Quite sobering! I don't know anything about the C word or heart disease, so I figured that I better learn now while I still have my faculties (questionable, I know). The author is a long time government scientist that in fact was part of the panel that discovered the link between cholesterol and heart disease.

Today, Dr. Campbell does further research by joining up with Dr. Chen and this study. What's compelling is how large it is - 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The culprit is simple - animal protein. Not fat or cholesterol, but animal protein. The Western Diet, the diet of Affluence. By the doc that helped put cholesterol in the picture in the first place. It's quite compelling.

I also like that he doesn't preach details, just advocates for a plant based diet. End of story. Period.

Fast Food Nation supplies the history of fast food and industrialization of our food supply and what we are really eating. The Omnivore's Dilemma fills in the details left out by FFN about our centralized food supply and what we are actually eating. Finally, The China Study follows up with how our food supply causes disease. Conclusion? Mass production and centralization works for widgets, car parts, even Amazon.

For food? Obviously not. This generation's children and their parents are paying the price through illness, disorders, disabilities, and the high cost of insurance.

Researchers Report Mad Cow Breakthrough

U.S. researchers say they have developed cattle that may be biologically incapable of getting mad cow disease, the Washington Post reported.

As a result of genetic engineering, the animals lack a gene that is crucial to the progression of the disease. The cattle were not designed for use as food -- rather, they were developed so human pharmaceuticals can be made in their blood without the risk that the products might get contaminated by the infectious agent that causes mad cow, the newspaper said.

The agent -- a protein known as a prion -- can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be fatal to humans.

Scientists said the animals will facilitate studies of prions, and similar techniques might be used in subsequent development of animals with more nutritious meats. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it will set more stringent standards for engineered food animals than it recently set for clones.

"This is a seminal research paper," said Barbara Glenn, director for animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

The Washington industry group represents Hematech, the Sioux Falls, S.D., company that created the gene-altered cattle.

"This shows the application of transgenics to improving livestock production and ultimately food production."

Source: Playfuls.com Science & Technology

Breakthrough?
I say band-aid.
I say band-aid with unforseen consequences! The U.S. government is ignoring the source of our food supply problems (centralized production) and promoting more designer animals that leave us in even more dire straights.

Does anyone know what a prion is? No one really does. They've been scratching their heads since I first heard of it in college. It seems to be "sort of" part virus, part bacteria. Scientists don't KNOW, but our government is eager to risk society regardles. Again, they pick and choose what they want science to stand behind.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not "pro-mad cow". It would be great if lots of people wouldn't get sick or die because of this illness, as well as the cost of killing infected herds. But wouldn't it be great to look at the science we do have, the methods and history we do have, that all point to one thing. It's time to redesign our farming methods! For health, for cost reasons, and for ethical reasons.