The China Study
By T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II

Back in the ‘70s I was pretty certain there were two things causing our western diseases: excess consumption of processed foods and animal products.  For almost forty years I have been a proponent of eating whole foods and eating lower on the food chain. But I really did not have a very strong body of evidence to back up my assertions.

T. Colin Campbell (along with his son) has come to the rescue with the delivery of this “bible” on healthy nutrition in 2006. He is as heretical as those who dared challenge the earth was flat and as revolutionary to the science of nutrition as Copernicus was demonstrating that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around.

This book was misnamed in my opinion. I had heard about “The China Study” many times and passed it off as some boring scholarly work that looked at the Chinese. Of course, had I read the bi-lines, I may have been slightly more intrigued. “The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted,” reads the headline. “Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health,’ reads the bi-line. (Thanks Mary, for dropping this book in my lap.)

This is not just one study. This is a lifetime of research, a compendium of information of the links between diets and health. The research is backed by 35 pages of footnote references. All of it leads to one general conclusion:

Eating a whole foods, plant-based diet will reduce the probability of acquiring the ravages of western disease. In the section of “Eating Right”, Campbell claims from all this research that eating a whole foods, plant-based diet will help you:

• Live longer
• Look and feel younger
• Have more energy
• Lose weight
• Lower your blood cholesterol
• Prevent and even reverse heart disease
• Avoid surgery in many instances
• Vastly decrease the need for pharmaceutical drugs
• Keep your bones strong
• Avoid impotence
• Avoid stroke
• Prevent kidney stones
• Keep your baby from getting Type I diabetes
• Alleviate constipation
• Lower your blood pressure
• Avoid Alzheimer’s
• Beat arthritis, and more…

In Campbell’s early research years, he stumbled on an interesting correlation between aflatoxin and cancer and discovered that by lowering the amount of animal protein in the diet, the cancer could be turned off. Many years of lab research bore this out in rats and mice. Using epidemiological research he continued to see the correlation over and over again. The China Study itself represents the largest human population study ever.

Now you may be thinking that you could never slog through all this research. It is written in a easy to understand format and not presented as a research paper. It is rather a synopsis of a large body of work including that of many other researches and the convergence of the same conclusions. He reviews the work of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s research on cardiac disease prevention and reversal with a similar dietary approach and Dr. John McDougall’s dietary approach to disease prevention.

So you may be wondering why we have not heard much about it? Campbell spends part IV of the book precisely answering this question. Using much of his own experience and that of others working in science, medicine, and government, he shows the system at it’s ugliest. Industry and medicine do not have your best health options as a priority. It is what makes money is what is most important. But the politics of comfort, power and ego all come into play. Reading this last section may upset you, but you will certainly understand why we have not moved forward in health in this country. And unfortunately the rest of the world wants to be like us.

If you care about your health and that of your family, read this book.

More information about The China Study at http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

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Howard F. Lyman with Glen Merzer
Scribner 1998

Howard Lyman was a cattle rancher who ran a feedlot in Montana for 20 years. He is a 4th generation farmer. He was invited to appear on Oprah Winfrey Show in April 1996. He and Oprah were sued by the several Texas cattlemen under the Texas Food Disparagement Act. During the time that the case was being tried, the Food and Drug Administration made it illegal to feed animal parts to cows (who are herbivores, after all, not carnivores).

This is the story of his life before and after ranching and how he decided to become a pure vegetarian (vegan). After nearly dying from a tumor, he realized that he had taken the wrong direction in filling his farmland with chemicals, raising cattle and expecting the US agricultural system to work. He also laments the decline of rainforest, topsoil, the family farm. He eventually became a lobbyist in Washington DC, worked to keep mad cow disease out of the US and was, at the time the book was published, the president of the International Vegetarian Union. At the time of the writing of the book he had lost 130 pounds, had a clean bill of health and felt more energetic than he had in years.

His writing style is forthright and to the point. He quotes many leading heart specialists, nutritionists and facts regarding a vegan diet.

One anecdotal story at the end brings him in contact with his rancher-days poker buddies. Of the nine, 4 were dead, 3 had heart disease, one had battled colon cancer, and another had survived prostate cancer. Several cornered him privately to ask about his vegetarianism – how to do it, how do you get enough protein, what do you eat? He was very hopeful for change after a visit to the local grocery store near Great Falls where soy milk, tofu and seitan was available to purchase.

There is still a long way to go in terms of converting meat eaters to vegans, but people like Howard Lyman are passionate about the path.

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