204 THE CHINA STUDYcancer, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases, it's quite pos-
sible that people may never eat meatloaf and gravy again.
What has become so convincing about the effect of diet on health is
the breadth of the evidence. While a single study might be found to sup-
port almost any idea under the sun, what are the chances that hundreds,
even thousands, of different studies show a protective benefit of plant-
based foods and/or harmful effects of animal-based foods for so many
different diseases? We can't say it's due to coincidence, bad data, biased
research, misinterpreted statistics or "playing with numbers." This has
got to be the real deal.
I have so far presented only a small sample of the breadth of evidence
that supports plant-based diets. To show you just how broad this evi-
dence is, I will cover five more seemingly unrelated diseases common
in America: osteoporosis, kidney stones, blindness, cognitive dysfunc-
tion and Alzheimer's disease. These disorders are not often fatal and are
often regarded as the inevitable consequences of aging. Therefore, we
don't think it's unnatural when grandpa gets blurry spots in his vision,
can't remember the names of his friends or needs a hip replacement op-
eration. But, as we shall see, even these diseases have a dietary link.OSTEOPOROSIS
Did you ever have an elementary school teacher tell you that if you
didn't have bones, you would just be a shapeless blob on the floor? Or
maybe you learned about the human skeleton from that popular song,
" ... the ankle bone is connected to the shin bone, the shin bone is con-
nected to the knee bone," etc. At that same time in your life, you prob-
ably were told to drink milk to build strong bones and teeth. Because
none of us want to be shapeless blobs, and because our celebrities have
been paid to advertise milk's presumed benefits, we drank it. Milk is to
bone health as bees are to honey.
Americans consume more cow's milk and its products per person
than most populations in the world. So Americans should have wonder-
fully strong bones, right? Unfortunately not. A recent study showed that
American women aged fifty and older have one of the highest rates of hip
fractures in the world.l The only countries with higher rates are in Europe
and in the south Pacific (Australia and New Zealand)l where they con-
sume even more milk than the United States. What's going on?
An excess rate of hip fractures is often used as a reliable indicator of
osteoporosis, a bone disease that especially affects women after meno-