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SCIENTIFIC REDUCTIONISM 277The health-conscious home has managed to create a meal that is
much lower in fat than the average American dinner, but they've done
it without adjusting their proportionate intakes of animal-and plant-
based foods. Both meals are centered on animal-based foods. In fact,
the low-fat meal actually has more animal-based foods than the high-
fat meal. In effect, this is how the nurses in the Nurses' Health Study
achieved such a wide variation in fat intake. Some nurses simply are
more diligent about choosing low-fat animal products.
Many people would consider the low-fat meal to be a triumph of
healthy meal planning, but what about the other nutrients in these
meals? What about protein and cholesterol? As it turns out, the low-fat
meal contains more than double the protein of the high-fat meal, and almost
all of it comes from animal-based foods. In addition, the low-fat meal con-
tains almost twice as much cholesterol (Chart 14.5) .14,15CHART 14.5: NUTRIENT CONTENTS OF TWO SAMPLE MEALS
Low-Fat Meal # 1 High-Fat Meal #2
Fat (percent of total calories) 22% 54%
Protein 36% 16%
(percent of total calories)
Percentage of total protein 93% 86%
derived from animal-based
foods
Cholesterol 307 165An overwhelming amount of scientific information suggests that
diets high in animal-based protein can have unfavorable health con-
sequences, as can diets high in cholesterol. In the low-fat meal, the
amount of both of these unhealthy nutrients is significantly higher.FAT VERSUS ANIMAL FOOD
When women in America, such as those in the Nurses' Health Study
and the billion-dollar 4 Women's Health Trial,I6-19 reduce their fat intake,
they do not do it by reducing their consumption of animal-based foods.
Instead, they use low-fat and nonfat animal products, along with less fat
during cooking and at the table. Thus, they are not adopting the diets
that were shown, in the international correlation studies and in our ru-
ral China study, to be associated with low breast cancer rates.