Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World by Kathy Freston Page A
Authors: Kathy Freston
Tags: food.cookbooks
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responsible for its cancer-promoting property, is similar to most other animal-based proteins. They all have what we call high “biological value,” in comparison, for example, with plant-based proteins, which is why animal protein promotes cancer growth and plant protein doesn’t.
KF: Isn’t anything in moderation okay, as long as we don’t overdo it?
TCC: I rather like the expression used by my friend Caldwell Esselstyn, the Cleveland Clinic surgeon who reversed heart disease and who says, “Moderation kills!” I prefer to go the whole way, not because we have foolproof evidence showing that 100 percent is better than, say, 95 percent for every single person for every single condition, but that it is easier to avoid straying off on an excursion that too often becomes a slippery slope back to our old ways. Moreover, going the whole way allows us to adapt to new unrealized tastes and to rid ourselves of some old addictions. And finally, moderation often means very different things for different people.
KF: Are you saying that if one changes their diet from animal-based protein to plant-based food that the disease process of cancer can be halted and reversed?
TCC: Yes, this is what our experimental research shows. I also have become aware of many anecdotal claims by people who have said that their switch to a plant-based diet stopped or even reversed their disease. One study on melanoma has been published in the peer-reviewed literature that shows convincing evidence that it is substantially halted with this diet.
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Switching to a plant-based diet, even after years of poor nutrition, may halt cancer growth.
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KF: How long does it take to see changes?
TCC: It is not clear, because carefully designed research in humans has not been done. However, we demonstrated and published findings showing that experimental progression of disease is at least suspended, and even reversed, when tumors are clearly present.
KF: Consider a person who has been eating poorly his whole life; is there still hope that a dietary change can make a big difference? Or is everything already in motion?
TCC: A variety of evidence shows that cancers and non-cancers alike can be stopped even after a person has consumed a poor diet earlier in life. This effect is equivalent to treatment, a very exciting concept.
KF: This is sounding like it’s something akin to a cure; is that the case?
TCC: Yes. The problem in this area of medicine is that traditional doctors are so focused on the use of targeted therapies (chemo, surgery, radiation) that they refuse to even acknowledge the use of therapies like nutrition and are loath to even do proper research in this area. So, in spite of the considerable evidence—theoretical and practical—to support a beneficial nutritional effect, every effort will be made to discredit it. It’s a self-serving motive.
KF: What else do you recommend we do to avoid, stop, or reverse cancer?
TCC: A good diet, when coupled with other health-promoting activities like exercise, adequate fresh air and sunlight, good water, and sleep, will be more beneficial. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
*Just a note here: This is very exciting information, but it is in no way encouragement to refuse traditional treatment. If you are dealing with cancer, please make your health and medical decisions with your doctor.
What sticks with me more than anything is the concept that animal protein could feed cancer cells like fertilizer feeds a lawn. So those chicken patties and barbecue ribs I grew up loving literally help cancer grow in the body. This is a subject that means a lot to me because I have so much cancer in my family—my father died from melanoma at sixty-four—and I often wonder how a good healthy diet might have changed the course of things for him. I feel so empowered knowing that there is such a practical, effective thing we can do to fight cancer: we can change our diet from
KF: Isn’t anything in moderation okay, as long as we don’t overdo it?
TCC: I rather like the expression used by my friend Caldwell Esselstyn, the Cleveland Clinic surgeon who reversed heart disease and who says, “Moderation kills!” I prefer to go the whole way, not because we have foolproof evidence showing that 100 percent is better than, say, 95 percent for every single person for every single condition, but that it is easier to avoid straying off on an excursion that too often becomes a slippery slope back to our old ways. Moreover, going the whole way allows us to adapt to new unrealized tastes and to rid ourselves of some old addictions. And finally, moderation often means very different things for different people.
KF: Are you saying that if one changes their diet from animal-based protein to plant-based food that the disease process of cancer can be halted and reversed?
TCC: Yes, this is what our experimental research shows. I also have become aware of many anecdotal claims by people who have said that their switch to a plant-based diet stopped or even reversed their disease. One study on melanoma has been published in the peer-reviewed literature that shows convincing evidence that it is substantially halted with this diet.
----
Switching to a plant-based diet, even after years of poor nutrition, may halt cancer growth.
----
KF: How long does it take to see changes?
TCC: It is not clear, because carefully designed research in humans has not been done. However, we demonstrated and published findings showing that experimental progression of disease is at least suspended, and even reversed, when tumors are clearly present.
KF: Consider a person who has been eating poorly his whole life; is there still hope that a dietary change can make a big difference? Or is everything already in motion?
TCC: A variety of evidence shows that cancers and non-cancers alike can be stopped even after a person has consumed a poor diet earlier in life. This effect is equivalent to treatment, a very exciting concept.
KF: This is sounding like it’s something akin to a cure; is that the case?
TCC: Yes. The problem in this area of medicine is that traditional doctors are so focused on the use of targeted therapies (chemo, surgery, radiation) that they refuse to even acknowledge the use of therapies like nutrition and are loath to even do proper research in this area. So, in spite of the considerable evidence—theoretical and practical—to support a beneficial nutritional effect, every effort will be made to discredit it. It’s a self-serving motive.
KF: What else do you recommend we do to avoid, stop, or reverse cancer?
TCC: A good diet, when coupled with other health-promoting activities like exercise, adequate fresh air and sunlight, good water, and sleep, will be more beneficial. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
*Just a note here: This is very exciting information, but it is in no way encouragement to refuse traditional treatment. If you are dealing with cancer, please make your health and medical decisions with your doctor.
What sticks with me more than anything is the concept that animal protein could feed cancer cells like fertilizer feeds a lawn. So those chicken patties and barbecue ribs I grew up loving literally help cancer grow in the body. This is a subject that means a lot to me because I have so much cancer in my family—my father died from melanoma at sixty-four—and I often wonder how a good healthy diet might have changed the course of things for him. I feel so empowered knowing that there is such a practical, effective thing we can do to fight cancer: we can change our diet from
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