Ineresting, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, there is NO link between illness and death, This type of medicine has been around for 5000 years. Who is to say they are wrong.

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If you do what you've always done,
You'll get what you've always got.
www.meridiankinesiology.co.nz

and the
Response to T. Colin Campbell

4 ounces of meat is the correct amount for the average person. The problem comes from having a 16 ounce steak, which contains more than double the amount of protein the body actually requires, therefore, since the body can't store protein, the liver is forced to deal with the excess. If this is repeated on a daily basis, the liver becomes toxic. PBD.

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Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)

Actually, the body can store protein in the form of muscles. But we have to be developing muscles to have this capacity.

The liver is not forced to deal with excess protein. It was MADE to deal with such excesses and having to do this daily does not make it toxic. Protein in the diet is digested and absorbed as amino acids (and probably some short peptide chains). Any excess amino acids are simply deaminated (amine group removed) leaving a carbon chain for lots of other uses. Nothing toxic there. It's all part of the job which can be going on even if excess does not exist. For example, in negative calorie states (even as simple as missing a meal in the course of the day), the liver maintains blood glucose levels by first using up its glycogen stores. Then it breaks down protein to convert some amino acids into glucose. This would be the same mechanism by which it breaks down excess amino acids from the diet.

(Besides, dealing with excess amino acids does not come only from meat eating. It can come from any protein source. So meat itself is not the only "culprit," if indeed, excess is to be considered a culprit.)

I find the concept that our organs get overworked by normal processes to be quite strange. Another version that is still common is that excess protein would harm the kidneys. But the kidneys, just like the liver, was made to deal with such everyday situations. Should we then limit our breathing so our lungs do not get overworked? or limit our activity so our hearts and muscles do not get overworked? or be completely sterile so that our immune systems do not get overworked? (or even limit our thinking so our brains don't get overworked? )

To say that we should decrease such normal workloads of our organs or systems is the very opposite of "use it, or lose it." For sure there are limits for excesses that the body can handle at a certain point in time, but even such limits can be pushed higher if the body is given the chance to adapt, the body eventually being able to handle even greater "excesses."

Gerry