I mixed up the order of the talks on day 2 of Healthfest. I actually saw Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s talk second and then Lani Muelrath’s lecture.

The Origin and Meaning of Whole

Dr. T. Colin Campbell

Dr. Campbell is best known for the book the China Study, the book he wrote with his son Thomas Campbell, after 40 years of research. Dr. Campbell is very much a college professor. There are no theatrics in his lectures, but he speaks eloquently and intellectually. This particular lecture referenced the works of a number of studies and emphasized nutrition confusion. Let’s face it there are so many conflicting reports which lead to misinformation and mistreatment of illness.

He stands behind his research and the research of others to defend his message that a whole food, plant-based diet has medicinal, healing  and preventive effects on the body.

From my notes:

• Diet, Nutrition and Cancer (1982 report by the National Academy of Sciences) – high fat diet is associated with increased susceptibility to cancer.
• From the highly respected Cochrane Reviews published in 2008, “Beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E given singly or combined with other antioxidant supplements significantly increase mortality.” There is no evidence to support the theory that vitamin supplements work. Get vitamins by eating a varied WFPBD
• “Long-chain and shorter chain omega-3 fats do not have a clear effect on total mortality combined cardiovascular events, or cancer.” (Hooper 2006) – study showed that supplements might actually be increasing cancer risk

• Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, fish intake, and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (Kaushik 2009) – 3 million studied, 9380 new cases of type 2 diabetes; no evidence that eating a diet higher in long chain fatty acids and fish reduces the risk for diabetes. Rather it might be concluded that it may increase the risk.

• Supplements are a 32 billion dollar a year industry

• The Effect of Vitamin E and Beta Carotene on the Incidence of Lung Cancer and Other Cancers in Male Smokers (NEJM 1994) – studied 29,133 male smokers 50 to 69 years of age from southwestern Finland to determine if supplementation with alpha-tocopherol (Vit E) and beta carotene would decrease risk of lung cancer since epidemiological studies have shown a diet rich in these nutrients are associated with a decreased risk in this type of cancer. After 5-8 years of dietary supplementation there was no decrease in the incidence of lung cancer. Actually the study raised the question as to whether or not the supplements have harmful effects.
• There are 10-100 trillion cells in the body.
• Stop Feeding Your Cancer by Dr. John Kelly – what happens in rats happens in humans

Those are just some tidbits of information. Obviously the studies I cited from Dr. Campbell’s talk are much more in depth. I looked them up and read through some of them. Whether you believe in the information or not I will tell you I do think we are being fed a line of bull from the healthcare industry in order to sell, sell, sell particularly when it comes to supplements.

It’s really difficult to know what’s true and what’s not true. However, if we look at it from a purely common sense perspective and think back to a time when people subsisted off of what was grown in the ground or raised on their land you didn’t encounter many of the illnesses that plague our society today, namely cancer, obesity and heart disease. Sure people became ill and died and those diseases existed, but not in the numbers they do today.