China Study, The: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health
by: T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell II
Topics include: aflatoxin dose, casein animals, animal protein consumption, with blood cholesterol, foci development, whole plant foods, animal protein intake, dietary experience, higher blood cholesterol, fat and breast cancer, based foods, based diet, cancer promotion, dairy consumption, kidney enzyme, diabetes rates, large bowel cancer, cancer initiation, our own cells
Review
"[This] elaborate study of rural Chinese gives big points to the health value of their plant-based diets." Chicago Tribune
About the Author
T. Colin Campbell, PhD, is the project director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project (the China Study), a 20-year study of nutrition and health. He is a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University. In more than 40 years of research he has received more than 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding and authored more than 300 research papers. He lives in Ithaca, New York. Thomas M. Campbell II lives in Ithaca, New York.
Reviews:
T. Colin Campbell has made a career of challenging the conventional wisdom around nutrition, and this book is the culmination of his work. His integrity, brilliance, and unflinching courage shine through every page. The main point of this book is that most nutritional studies that we hear about in the media are poorly constructed because of what the author terms "scientific reductionism." That is, they attempt to pin down the effects of a single nutrient in isolation from all other aspects of diet and lifestyle. While this is the "gold standard" for clinical trials in the pharmaceutical world, it just doesn't work when it comes to nutrition. Given that the Western diet is extremely high fat and high protein compared to most of the rest of the world, studies that examine slight variations in this diet (i.e., adding a few grams of fiber or substituting skim milk for full fat milk) are like comparing the mortality rates of people who smoke five packs of cigarettes a day vs. people who smoke only 97 cigarettes a day. Campbell's research, which he describes in a very accessible and engaging fashion, has two tremendous advantages over the typical nutritional study. First, there is the China Study itself - a massive series of snapshots of the relationship between diet and disease in over 100 villages all over China. The rates of disease differ greatly from region to region, and Campbell and his research partners (including some of the most distinguished scholars and epidemiologists in the world) carefully correlated these differences with the varying diets of the communities. It's not lazy "survey research" either - the researchers don't rely on their subjects' memory to determine what they ate and drank. The researchers also observed shopping patterns and took blood samples to cross-validate all the data. The second amazing part of Campbell's research method is his refusal to accept any finding without taking it back to his lab and finding out how exactly it works. In other words, we discover in The China Study not only in what way, but precisely how, the foods we eat can either promote or compromise our health. The book is part intellectual biography / hero's journey (although Campbell is always wonderfully humble - there's no trace of self-congratulation, just a deep gratitude for what he has experienced), part nutrition guide (the most honest and unflinching one you'll ever read), and part expose. The final section leaves no sacred cow standing, and names names! From the food industry, to the government, to academia, Campbell calmly reports on a coverup of nutritional truth so widespread and insidious that all citizens should be enraged. I have a PhD in health education and a Masters in Public Health - and I can honestly say that no book has shaken my worldview like this one. Anyone interested in health - their own, or that of their family, friends, or community - must read this book and share it. Campbell has started a revolution. Skip this work at your own peril.
The China Study describes a monumental survey of diet and death rates from cancer in more than 2,400 Chinese counties and the equally monumental efforts to explore its significance and implications for nutrition and health. Dr. Campbell and his son, Thomas, have written a lively, provocative and important book that deserves widespread attention.
Frank Rhodes, Ph.D., President (1978-1995) Emeritus, Cornell University
Colin Campbell's The China Study is an important book, and a highly readable one. With his son, Tom, Colin studies the relationship between diet and disease, and his conclusions are startling. The China Study is a story that needs to be heard.
Robert C. Richardson, Ph.D., Nobel Prize Winner,
Professor of Physics and Vice Provost of Research,
Cornell University
The China Study is the account of a ground-breaking research study that provides the answers long sought by physicians, scientists, and health-conscious readers. Based on painstaking investigations over many years, it unearths surprising answers to the most important nutritional questions of our time: What really causes cancer? How can we extend our lives? What will turn around the obesity epidemic? The China Study quickly and easily dispenses with fad diets, relying on solid and convincing evidence. Clearly and beautifully written by one of the world's most respected nutrition authorities, The China Study represents a major turning point in our understanding of health.
Neal Barnard, M.D., President, Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine
Everyone in the field of nutrition science stands on the shoulders of T. Colin Campbell, who is one of the giants in the field. This is one of the most important books about nutrition ever written -- reading it may save your life.
Dean Ornish, M.D.
Founder & President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Author, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Love & Survival
The China Study is the most convincing evidence yet on preventing heart disease, cancer and other Western diseases by dietary means. It is the book of choice both for economically developed countries and for countries undergoing rapid economical transition and lifestyle change.
Junshi Chen, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Research
Professor, Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
All concerned with the obesity epidemic, their own health, and the staggering environmental and social impacts of the Western diet will find wise and practical solutions in Dr. Campbell's The China Study.
Robert Goodland, Lead Advisor on the Environment, The World Bank Group (1978-2001)
Dr. Campbell's book, The China Study is a moving and insightful history of the struggle, still ongoing, to understand and explain the vital connection between our health and what we eat. Dr. Campbell knows this subject from the inside: he has pioneered the investigation of the diet-cancer link since the days of the seminal "China Study," the 1982 NAS report, "Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer," and American Institute for Cancer Research's expert panel report, "Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective."
Consequently, he is able to illuminate every aspect of this question. Today, AICR advocates a predominantly plant-based diet for lower cancer risk because of the great work Dr. Campbell and just a few other visionaries began 25 years ago.
Marilyn Gentry, President, American Institute for Cancer Research
The China Study is a well-documented analysis of the fallacies of the modern diet, lifestyle, and medicine and the quick fix approach that often fails. The lessons from China provide compelling rationale for a plant-based diet to promote health and reduce the risk of the diseases of affluence.
Sushma Palmer, Ph.D., Former Executive Director, Food and Nutrition Board, U.S. National Academy of Sciences
The China Study is extraordinarily helpful, superbly written, and profoundly important. Dr. Campbell's work is revolutionary in its implications and spectacular in its clarity. I learned an immense amount from this brave and wise book.
If you want to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and then take cholesterol lowering medication, that's your right. But if you want to truly take charge of your health, read The China Study and do it soon! If you heed the counsel of this outstanding guide, your body will thank you every day for the rest of your life.
John Robbins, Author of the best-selling books,
Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution
The China Study is a rare treat. Finally, a world-renowned nutritional scholar has explained the truth about diet and health in a way that everyone can easily understand--a startling truth that everyone needs to know. In this superb volume, Dr. Campbell has distilled, with his son Tom, for us the wisdom of his brilliant career. If you feel any confusion about how to find the healthiest path for yourself and your family, you will find precious answers in The China Study. Don't miss it!
Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D. & Alan Goldhamer, D.C., Authors of The Pleasure Trap
So many diet and health books contain conflicting advice, but most have one thing in common-an agenda to sell something. Dr. Campbell's only agenda is truth. As a distinguished professor at Cornell University, Dr. Campbell is the Einstein of nutrition. The China Study is based on hardcore scientific research, not the rank speculation of a Zone, Atkins, SugarBusters or any other current fad. Dr. Campbell lays out his lifetime of research in an accessible, entertaining way. Read this book and you will know why.
Jeff Nelson, President, VegSource.com (most visited food website in the world)
The China Study gives critical, life-saving nutritional information for every health-seeker in America. But, it is much more; Dr. Campbell's expos of the research and medical establishment makes this book a fascinating read and one that could change the future for all of us. Every health care provider and researcher in the world must read it.
Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Author of the bestselling book,
Eat To Live