and their derivatives offer a desirable al- 

 ternative source of nutrition: cholesterol- 

 and fat-free calories easily put to use and 

 dissipated, and much fiber 



This was not at all the common sense of 

 yesteryear. In 1968, that annus mirabilis 

 of revolutionary thought and action, if I 

 had suggested that a grain-based diet ex- 

 tremely low in animal fat was the way to 

 go, almost everyone (including the most 

 radical) would have dismissed the idea as 

 unhealthful and dangerous macrobiotic 

 extremism. Now most of us have swung in 

 that direction, at least in our minds. Why? 

 How did it happen? 



In traditiontQ societies, new ideas per- 

 colated downward from elites to a wider 

 public. In our world, where novelty rico- 

 chets from all sides at high velocity carried 

 by the mass media, the rate of communi- 

 cation is almost instantaneous, but there is 

 still a vestige of tiie old top-down dy- 

 namic. Serious medical and nutritional re- 

 search has gradually convinced those ca- 

 pable of rational thought that the 

 low-fat/high-fiber theory is correct. 



Why didn't science reach this conclu- 

 sion sooner? The reason is simple. To dis- 

 cover the nature of optimal diet is not the 

 same as learning to cure a disease. Disease 

 kills dramatically, one person at a time, 

 and it can be studied with efficiency in in- 

 dividuals. Optimal diet reveals itself 

 through statistics and must be studied in 

 many people over long periods of time. 

 The data are notoriously unreliable be- 

 cause people are quick to lie about what 

 they put in their mouths. But these ob- 

 stacles have been laboriously and te- 

 diously overcome. First came the evidence 

 about obesity and cholesterol in the Fram- 

 ingham Heart Study in Massachusetts. 

 Then, decisively, comparative data arrived 

 from China, and the discussion was, in a 

 major sense, oven 



Since 1983, a joint Chinese- American 

 project (by the Academy for Preventive 

 Medicine in Beijing and Cornell Univer- 

 sity) has investigated the diet of 6,500 

 rural Chinese. The results show with dev- 

 astating clarity the superiority of a plant- 

 based diet. The average Chinese diet was 

 only 10 percent animal based. Less than 

 15 percent of the calories were derived 

 from fat. Chinese ate a third less protein 

 than Americans, and only about a tenth of 

 that protein was animal. Americans got 

 about 70 percent of their protein from ani- 

 mals. Chinese fiber consumption was 

 huge compared to American. Chinese, 

 moreover, typically have about half the 

 blood cholesterol that Americans have. 



And the incidence of heart disease and 

 cancer is much lower in China than here. 



The most impressive — and depress- 

 ing — statistics are tiiose that show the dis- 

 astrous effect of modest increases in ani- 

 mal-based food consumption on the 

 Chinese sampling. Heart disease and can- 

 cer rates climbed. 



All of this confirms the theory that ani- 

 mal fat and animal-based foods in general 

 produce the diseases rife in affluent West- 

 em societies. This is a negative result and 

 leads to a negative course of action: re- 

 duce consumption of animal-based foods. 

 But there is also a positive conclusion to 

 be drawn and a positive course of action to 

 be taken: Increase the intake of plant- 

 based foods, not just as a desperate alter- 

 native but as a constructive remedy, a 

 restoration of balance in what we eat. 



I am not advocating a rigorous vegetar- 

 ian regimen. But I do believe that all evi- 

 dence points to a need for radical renova- 

 tion of the way we plan meals, that we 

 must find ways of de-emphasizing meat 

 and of tilting the scales toward plant-based 

 foods. Unwavering, true vegetarianism re- 

 quires a moral commitment that only a mi- 

 nority will embrace. 



Instead, we should be revamping our 

 menus by choosing dishes rich in vegeta- 

 bles and, especially, grains. Grains supply 

 the food energy and the fiber we must 

 have to survive. They are versatile, and 

 they are major ingredients in thousands of 

 recipes people already love. The trick is to 

 put these grain-centered dishes at the cen- 

 ter of our diet, rather than the periphery. 



Something like this has already been 

 happening. The vogue of pasta is a key ex- 

 ample. So is the fi-end toward Asian stir 

 fries (despite insidiously high amounts of 

 fat from the oil used in frying) and other 

 dishes in which the central ingredient is 

 rice and in which meat, when there is any, 

 is a superaddition, almost a condiment. As 

 this kind of eating becomes more com- 

 mon, it will be less normal or mandatory 

 to plan a meal around a cut of meat, such 

 as a roast or a steak. This readjustment of 

 attitude, moderate and gradual, will have 

 the revolutionary goal of returning our 

 meals to a pattern that has been the histor- 

 ical norm for most human beings at all 

 times everywhere. The battle will be won 

 if ordinary Americans ask themselves: 

 Should we have risotto tonight? Or barley 

 with chicken? 



Raymond Sokolov is a writer whose spe- 

 cial interests are the history and prepara- 

 tion of food. 



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