I had the honor of meeting Dr T. Colin Campbell at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down last weekend in Watkins Glenn, New York, where we were both invited to speak about vegan lifestyle, health, and diet. He’s pictured above with his wife Karen.

Dr Campbell is the author of the best selling book The China Study. Campbell says about his research in the Philippines “In this project, however, I uncovered a dark secret. Children who ate the highest protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer…” A 20-year research project partnership between Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine found that “People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease … People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored,” said Dr. Campbell.

In the Farm Sanctuary ‘People Barn’, I spoke to a full house about the benefits of the raw food diet, why whole and unprocessed foods are important, showed everyone how fast and easy it is to make a healthy Strawberry Kream Pie using just a handful of ingredients, from page 267 of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials, and then passed out pies to taste. Folks thought the pie was delicious. You can’t really go wrong with dates, cashews, almonds, vanilla, and strawberries.

Next, Dr. T. Colin Campbell took the stage, and reinforced many of the same concepts I had presented. He explained why taking supplements doesn’t work, and emphasized the importance of avoiding processed foods like all the junk vegan convenience foods on the market. He explained how protein turns-on cancer cells in the body.

In the USA, we promote high protein diets made up of about 80 percent protein. Most Americans eat around 50 percent protein. However, Dr. T. Colin Campbell advocates a diet of at most 20 percent plant-based protein for optimal health and longevity.

My mom and step dad came to the Farm for the weekend, and left inspired by all the great speakers and information, as did everyone! I can’t wait to visit the Farm Sanctuary again very soon.