How does protein turn on the cancer-promoting genes - Essay Example

He advocated for the elimination of meat and dairy products from people’s diet in order to live long and healthy lives (Campbell, 1988). Foci are the cells that grow into cancer, however, not all foci develop into cancer, but when they are present, they are signs of cancer tumours development. When Campbell fed rats with aflatoxin, which is cancer inducing, one group of rats was fed with high aflatoxin doses, and another group was fed with low aflatoxin doses. During the promotion phase, the group that had been fed with high aflatoxin doses was fed with low amounts of protein, while the rats that were fed with low levels of aflatoxin were given more protein diet.

The results found out that the rats that were fed on low aflatoxin and high protein diet developed more foci than the rats that were fed with more aflatoxin and low protein diet, this proved to Campbell that protein activated the cancer causing cells (Campbell, 2007). According to Dr. T. Colin Campbell, the recommended daily dose of proteins for human being is 10 per cent of their energy level, this is far more than the actual dose required. When proteins levels are increased the foci development increases, however, when in the research the protein levels were reduced, foci development stopped, though when high protein diets were resumed, the foci development rate increased.

Further experiments where the protein intake was being varied showed that the levels of foci development could be varied with the varying the level of protein intake. These results showed that the cancer causing cells were dormant during the period of low protein intake and could be revived from their previous state through increasing the protein intake. However, in determining the levels above at which foci would start to develop, the research conducted experiments that showed that there was no development of foci up to the 10 percent intake.

Any protein intake above that caused increased levels of protein development; deeper studies showed that foci actually started to develop when the levels of protein uptake surpassed that which was needed by the body for a normal growth. Testing whether aflatoxin was the one responsible for causing cancer, experiments were conducted on rats where they were given varying doses of aflatoxins and then fed on either low doses of proteins that did not exceed 10 per cent, and others were fed with higher doses that were more than 20 per cent.

The results found out that there was no foci development in the rats that were fed with low protein diet even with the variation in the aflatoxin while in the specimen that was fed (Campbell & Hayes, 1976). With the further research on the different types of proteins, Dr. T. Colin Campbell found out that while the plant proteins suppressed the growth of cancer even with a high initial exposure to the carcinogenic material, animal proteins specifically casein, which is found in cow milk, was found to be an enhancing factor in promoting the growth of foci (Campbell, 2001).

The information from ‘The China Study’ research conducted by Colin Campbell with the reference from his peers brought another perspective on how high