A Cure for Cancer?

Kathy Freston is a blogger at The Huffington Post, not one of my regular reads. But I read Kathy Freston's blog because she writes well about the connection between health and a vegan lifestyle. She comes from a "New-Agey" perspective (my opinion) that shows up in her books on wellness and lifestyle, but she definitely does her research when it comes to veganism and health.

She is beginning a new series of interviews with well-known doctors and researchers on the health benefits of a plant-based diet. The first was published today and she has started at the top of the mountain, interviewing Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, a book based on the largest study ever undertaken on the connection between diet and health. (Dr. Campbell became a vegan as a result of his own research. 'Ya 'gotta love scientists who have an objective commitment to evidence when it leads them away from where they've been all their lives.)

In the interview, Dr. Campbell affirms what he wrote in his book—that casein, which makes up 87% of beef protein and milk/dairy products, is the number one dietary cause of cancer. And the case isn't a lot better for other non-beef meat protein. Here's a snippet from the interview:

KF: This is sounding like it's a cure for cancer; 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 loathe to even want to 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.

Did you see that? A cure for cancer! You would think this would make the headlines of every news outlet in the world. Dr. Campbell has never been afraid to implicate government and medical establishments for their unwillingness to follow the trail of evidence or participate in research that would support nutritional protocols.

No one is trying harder than Lance Armstrong to find a cure for cancer vis-a-vis his Livestrong Foundation. I noticed yesterday that Lance wrote a strong back-cover recommendation for Rip Esselstyn's book, The Engine 2 Diet—a vegan diet book. Esselstyn is the son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn who wrote Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (based on a vegan, plant-based diet). Rip was a professional tri-athlete for 10 years before becoming a firefighter in Austin, Texas. (His firehouse in Austin—Engine 2—has become almost completely plant-based with tremendous reductions in weight and cholesterol counts among his fellow firefighters, and has garnered national media attention.) He knew Lance Armstrong through professional athletics and their Austin connection, so Lance was happy to write a rec for Rip's book. So here you have one of the world's leading cancer fighters writing a recommendation for a plant-based diet book in spite of the fact that he doesn't follow a plant-based diet himself nor does he use his bully pulpit to press for more scientific research into the power of plant-based foods to cure cancer. All this in the face of T. Colin Campbell, one of the world's smartest scientists (in this area) saying, "Yes, diet represents a cure for cancer."

It's all very puzzling.

Anyway, I hope you'll read Kathy Feston's short interview with Dr. Campbell. It's very encouraging to read the hopeful words of one who has done so much research on why we get cancer and how it can be prevented and cured. The interview is here.