In China, we found that the lower the cholesterol levels, the lower the incidence of chronic disease. This is a crucial finding because it means that our present goal in the U.S. to reduce fat to 30% of calories is just not enough. Let's look at the facts. People in China, on average, consume less than half the U.S. recommended percentage of calories from fat and their blood cholesterol levels are still strongly influenced by dietary factors. In areas of China where diets are the most strongly plant-based, fat intake drops to close to 6% of calories, and cholesterol levels fall accordingly.

The bottom line: to optimize our ability to reduct blood cholesterol, we need to focus on diets that are rich in plant foods, very low in total fat, and very low (or totally lacking) in animal protein. In China, even small intakes of animal-based foods were associated with significant increases in blood cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease.

A Disease Profile: In China, we came to discover the differences between diseases of nutritional extravagance and poverty when we decided to find out why various diseases were clustered in the manner they were in various parts of the country. These two basic groups emerged.

Poor Societies	Rich Societies
Pneumonia	Colon Cancer
Intestinal obstructions	Lung Cancer
Peptic ulcer	Breast Cancer
Digestive diseases	Leukemia
Nephritis	Diabetes
Pulmonary TB	Coronary disease
Non-TB infectious diseases	Brain Cancer
Parasitic diseases	Stomach Cancer
Rheumatic heart disease	Liver Cancer

The most interesting factor was blood cholesterol. While high blood cholesterol was a common factor found in the diseases of nutritional extravagance, it bore little or no relationship to the diseases of poverty. Moreover, even when very low blood cholesterol levels start to rise, the diseases associated with nutritional extravagance will also rise. The diseases of nutritional extravagance in China tended to be more common in areas undergoing urbanization.

Recommended Reading:

Healing Ourselves, by Naboru Muramoto

Healing with Whole Foods, by Paul Pitchford

An Introduction to Macrobiotics, by Carolyn Heidenry

© Copyright Phyllis Parun 2005. All rights reserved.