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THE CHINA STUDY
CHART 14.2: PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL PROTEIN
THAT COMES FROM ANIMAL FOOD
o Plant Protein
.Animal Protein
Nurses US China
average of about 15-16%. To give these figures some perspective, the
recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is only about 9-10%.
But even more importantly, of the protein consumed by the nurses in this
study, between 78 % and 86 % comes from animal-based foods,9 as shown in
Chart 14 .2.8,^9 Even in the group of nurses that eat the lowest amount of
total protein, 79% of it comes from animal-based foods.^9 In other words,
virtually all of these nurses are more carnivorous than an average American
woman. They consume very few whole, plant-based foods.
This is a crucially important point. To get further perspective, I must
return to the 1975 international comparison by Ken Carroll shown ear-
lier in Charts 4.7 to 4.9. Chart 4.7 is reproduced here in Chart 14.3.
This chart became one of the most influential observations on diet
and chronic disease of the last fifty years. Like other studies, it was a
Significant part of the reason why the 1982 Diet, Nutrition and Cancer
report recommended that Americans cut their fat intake to 30% of total
caloric intake in order to prevent cancer. This report and other consen-
sus reports that followed thereafter eventually set the stage for an explo-
sion of low-fat products in the marketplace ("low-fat" dairy products,
lean cuts of meat, "low-fat" sweets and snack foods).
Unfortunately, the emphasis on fat alone was misguided. Carroll's
study, like all the other international comparisons, was comparing
populations that mostly ate meat and dairy to populations that mostly
ate plants. There were many more differences between the diets of these
countries than just the fat intake! What Carroll's graph really shows is