Lack of data to back up an argument.

I love belief, often its all we have in the health circus. Many theories cannot be tested properly due to lack of funding or ethical reasons. If I make a statement that has no scientific evidence I would qualify it with "I believe" this to be true etc etc. Reading something in a book or seeing a factor such as fatty build up in arteries during autopsy does not give us answers. It points us in the direction of a research question such as "Does animal fat kill?" Categorically it does not give us an answer until we have data that significantly proves it.

If it was possible to prove it I believe (I can't 100% say yet because its not happened) that Gazza the Vegan (check my previous posts for details of the vegan crusade that is currently ongoing on twitter), would prove it and clear up any doubts myself that the rest of the world has. But he doesn't want to do that for some reason and keeps deflecting onto arguments about fires and evolution. 

Without well-designed studies, do we know that answer to the question? To Gazza belief is far more important than scientific evidence, and thats fine. It just doesn't give you any real evidence to make a wild claim such as "animal fat kills." I mean buses kill, so does that mean buses kill everyone? Making such a statement without evidence to back it up just makes it like a playground argument where you end up going round in circles. It gets even more childish when one starts spouting about being "220 lbs." Its like the "my dads bigger than your dad" argument at school...arghh I'm digging myself a big hole so lets throw some muscle around. 

Carl Sagan summed it up well when he said, "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." However for this particular vegan (remember most vegans are lovely people) it seems, "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary belief."

To date the only data Gazza has showed up with is the much debunked China Study and sadly for him it showed that meat significantly protected against heart disease. so here's some more links that also critique the work.

1. The China Study exposed: actual data does not support vegetarian health claims (at Hunter-Gatherer)
2. China Study Problems of Interpretation (at Whole Health Source)
3. Polish a turd and find a diamond? (at PaNu)
4. The China Study: Junk Science and Lies (at Robb Wolf)
5. There is no justification for a plant-only diet (at Conditioning Research)
6. Rest in peace, China Study (at The Healthy Skeptic)
7. “The China Study”, Debunked (at Theory to Practice)
8. "The China Study: Fact or Fallacy?" (at Let Them Eat Meat)
9. Destroying China (the Study that Is) (at Aspire Natural Health)
10. The China Study Discredited (at Food Renegade)
11. The Study Everyone Talks About: Part 2: The Ravaging Reviews (at Feasting on Fitness)
12. Debunking The China Study (at Crossfit 1776)
13. The Debunking of the China Study (at TJ's Gym)
14. Thoughts on Friday from the middle of the road! (at A Moderate Life)
15. A Critique Worth Reading (at For His Glory & for Our Good)
16. "T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study: Finally, Exhaustively Discredited" (at Crossfit Peachtree)
17. The China Study: Crushed by its Own Data (at The Spark of Reason)
18. China Study & T. Colin Campbell: Someone just made you their vegan bitch (at Paleo-ish)
19. The China Study: Evidence for the Perfect Health Diet (at Perfect Health Diet)
20. The China Study Has No Clothes: Smackdown Of T. Colin Campbell (at Nutrition and Physical Regeneration)
21. The slam-dunking of "The China Study" (at the shmaltz)
22. China Study Shakedown (at Natural Messiah)
23. The China Study Toppled – A Tale of the Confirmation Bias (at Lean, Mean, Virile Machine)
24. Slaying of a Hypothesis (at Animal Pharm)
25. "Epidemiology is Bogus" (at Evolutionary Psychiatry)
26. China Study Unveiled -- Not Supporting Veganism (at Primal Wisdom)
27. China fiction? (at The Heart Scan Blog)
28. The China Study - A Superb Analysis (at Primal Muse)
29. Chipping Away at the China Study (at Liberation Wellness)
30. The China study: Debunked (at Food, flora and felines)
31. Buh-bye, China Study (at The Low-Carb Curmudgeon)
32. China Study Debunked (at The Red Pill)
33. Around the Fitness Horn (at x lyssa)
34. RAW FOOD SOS sobre o China Study (at Canibais e Reis)
35. Die veblüffende Biegsamkeit von Fakten: The China Study (at Urgeschmack)
36. Veganbibelns fall (at Kostdoktorn.Se)
37. Weekend Link Love (at Mark's Daily Apple)
38. The China Study (at Kat's Food Blog)
39. Debunking junk science: goodbye china study (at abundant brain & health)
40. China Study Unmasked (at AgingBoomersBlog.com)
41. Denise Minger Refutes the China Study Once and For All (at The WAPF Blog)
42. "The China Study" Considered Harmful (at Metamodern)
43. The China Study vs the China study (at The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D.)

I know Gazza will chime in with "its a conspiracy", and that they are all anti-vegan (which they aren't, and most importantly I'm not), but remember, Campbell is pro-vegan who hid the data that proved meat wasn't the killer he thought it was. Its been quite sometime waiting for his data the shows "significant statistical" evidence that "animal fat kills," and I'm not sure its ever coming.