12 THE CHINA STUDYwooden barn floor in front of us and then opened a box containing fine
black powder. The powder, he explained, was bacteria that would help
the alfalfa grow. They would attach themselves to the seeds and become
part of the roots of the growing plant throughout its life. Having had
only two years of formal education, my father was proud of knowing
that the bacteria helped the alfalfa convert nitrogen from the air into
protein. The protein, he explained, was good for the cows that would
eventually eat it. So our work that morning was to mix the bacteria and
the alfalfa seeds before planting. Always curious, 1 asked my dad why
it worked and how. He was glad to explain it, and 1 was glad to hear it.
This was important knowledge for a farm boy.
Seventeen years later, in 1963 , my father had his first heart attack. He
was sixty-one. At age seventy, he died from a second massive coronary.
1 was devastated. My father, who had stood with my siblings and me for
so many days in the quiet countrySide, teaching us the things that 1 still
hold dear in life, was gone.
Now, after decades of doing experimental research on diet and health,
1 know that the very disease that killed my father, heart disease, can be
prevented, even reversed. Vascular (arteries and heart) health is possible
without life-threatening surgery and without potentially lethal drugs. 1
have learned that it can be achieved simply by eating the right food.
This is the story of how food can change our lives. 1 have spent my
career in research and teaching unraveling the complex mystery of why
health eludes some and embraces others, and 1 now know that food
primarily determines the outcome. This information could not come
at a better time. Our health care system costs too much, it excludes far
too many people and it does not promote health and prevent disease.
Volumes have been written on how the problem might be solved, but
progress has been painfully slow.
SICKNESS, ANYONE?If you are male in this country, the American Cancer Society says that
you have a 47% chance of getting cancer. If you are female, you fare
a little better, but you still have a whopping 38% lifetime chance of
getting cancer.^1 The rates at which we die from cancer are among the
highest in the world, and it has been getting worse (Chart 1.1). Despite
thirty years of the maSSively funded War on Cancer, we have made little
progress.
Contrary to what many believe, cancer is not a natural event. Adopting