Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

Even today, it is so heretical that no one wants to say the obvious—that casein is the most relevant chemical carcinogen ever identified.

The most significant carcinogen, the substance that almost invariably led to cancer at 20 percent of the rats’ diet, was casein, or milk protein. Plant proteins, such as those from wheat and soy, had no effect on cancer development, even at high levels.3

mistakenly seen as describing the whole truth. When a laser-like focus is misunderstood as a global overview.

we persist in believing that, if we stay on the same path, we will eventually find those answers—instead of admitting that there is something wrong with our approach. Trapped within this paradigm, it is difficult to grasp the idea of something that reductionism cannot measure in its entirety.

Oxidation produces something called free radicals, which we know are responsible for encouraging aging, promoting cancer, and rupturing plaques that lead to strokes and heart attacks, among other adverse effects impacting a host of autoimmune and neurologic diseases.

The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible (“whole” foods). Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80 percent of you

To counteract that free radical production, plants have evolved a defense mechanism: a whole battery of compounds capable of preventing damage by binding to and neutralizing the free radicals. These compounds are known, not particularly poetically, as antioxidants.

The excess protein in our diet has promoted excess oxidation, and we no longer consume enough plant-produced antioxidants to contain and neutralize the damage.