A Clip from The China Study, by T.Colin Campbell
“…These studies document the fact that vegetarians consume the same amount or even significantly more calories than their meat-eating counterparts, and yet are still slimmer. The China Study demonstrated that rural Chinese consuming a plant-based diet actually consume significantly more calories per pound of body weight than Americans. Most people would automatically assume that these rural Chinese would therefore be heavier than their meat-eating counterparts. But here’s the kicker: the rural Chinese are still slimmer while consuming a greater volume of food and more calories. Much of this effect is undoubtedly due to greater physical activity…. but this comparison is between average Americans and the least active Chinese, those who do office work. Furthermore, studies done in Israel and the United Kingdom, neither of which represent primarily agrarian cultures, also show that vegetarians may consume the same or significantly more calories and still weigh less.
What’s the secret? One factor that I’ve mentioned previously is the process of thermogenesis, which refers to our production of body heat during metabolism. Vegetarians have been observed to have a slightly higher rate of metabolism during rest, meaning they burn up slightly more of their ingested calories as body heat rather than depositing them as body fat. A relatively small increase in metabolic rate translates to a large number of calories burned over the course of 24 hours..”
To Be Continued