262 THE CHINA STUDYlearned that it was possible to raise, through mailing campaigns, large
sums of money for cancer research. It seemed that many people were
interested in learning something new about cancer beyond the usual
model of surgery, radiation and cytotoxic drugs.
This budding organization was well aware of our 1982 NAS report^4
that focused on diet and cancer, and so invited me to join them as their
senior science advisor. I encouraged them to focus on diet because the
nutrition connection with cancer was becoming an important area of
research, yet was receiving very little, if any, support from the major
funding agencies. I especially encouraged them to emphasize whole
foods as a source of nutrition, not nutrient supplements, partly because
this was the message of the NAS report.
As I began to work with the AICR, two challenges Simultaneously
arose. First, the AICR needed to get established as a credible organization
to promote the message and to support research. Second, the NAS recom-
mendations needed to be publiCized. Therefore, I thought it made sense
for the AICR to help publicize the NAS recommendations. Dr. Sushma
Palmer, executive director of the NAS project,4 and Harvard professor
Mark Hegsted, who was the key advisor to the McGovern Committee,
agreed to join me in endorsing this AICR project. Simultaneously, the
AICR preSident, Marilyn Gentry, suggested that the AICR could publish
the NAS report and send free copies to 50,000 physicians in the u.s.
These projects, which seemed to me to be logical, useful and socially
responsible, were also highly successful. The associations we were mak-
ing and the exposure we were generating were aimed at increasing the
public's health. As I was qUick to find out, however, creating an organiza-
tion focused on diet as a central link in cancer causation was seen as a
threat to a great many people. It was clear that the AICR's projects were
beginning to hit the mark because of the hostile feedback coming from
the food, medical and drug industries. It seemed that every effort was be-
ing made to discredit them.
I was surprised that government interference was particularly harsh.
National and state attorney general offices questioned the AICR's status
and its fund-raising procedures. The U.s. Post Office joined in the fray,
questioning whether the AICR could use the mail to spread "junk" in-
formation. We all had our suspicions as to who were encouraging these
government offices to quash the dissemination of this diet and cancer
information. Collectively, these public agencies were making life very
difficult. Why were they attacking a nonprofit organization promoting