The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health [Hardcover]

Thomas M. Campbell II (Author), T. Colin Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1932100385 | ISBN-13: 978-1932100389 | Edition: 1

Even today, as trendy diets and a weight-loss frenzy sweep the nation, two-thirds of adults are still obese and children are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, typically an “adult” disease, at an alarming rate. If we’re obsessed with being thin more so than ever before, why are Americans stricken with heart disease as much as we were 30 years ago?

In The China Study, Dr. T. Colin Campbell details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The report also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and opportunistic scientists. The New York Times has recognized the study as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” and the “most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.”

The China Study is not a diet book. Dr. Campbell cuts through the haze of misinformation and delivers an insightful message to anyone living with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and those concerned with the effects of aging.

[This book is also available in Spanish, El Estudio de China.]

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[These] findings from the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease are challenging much of American dietary dogma.”
—The New York Times

“Reflects the profound changes that industrialization is bringing to diet and disease patterns in China, statistics that have had an impact on reevaluating dietary policy in the United States and worldwide.”
—Washington Post

“Everyone in the field of nutrition science stands on the shoulders of Dr. 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, MD, Founder & President, Preventative 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

“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, PhD, Nobel Prize Winner; Professor of Physics and Vice Provost of Research, Cornell University

“The China Study gives critical, life-saving nutritional information … Dr. Campbell’s exposé of the research and medical establishment makes this book a fascinating read and one that could change the future for all of us.”
—Joel Fuhrman, MD, Author, Eat to Live

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 417 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books; 1 edition (December 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932100385
• ISBN-13: 978-1932100389
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,639 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2,598 of 2,791 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every doctor, teacher and parent needs to read this book! January 25, 2005

By Howard Jacobson, PhD

Format:Hardcover

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. Read more ›

1,331 of 1,430 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill? December 24, 2006

By R. Pinkerton

Format:Paperback

I love juicy steaks, delicious cheese, and big bowls of ice cream. I love to eat out at nice restaurants. And I really like eating without thinking about the operations and consequences of our dietary industrial complex. But I don't get to enjoy these things any more because I read the China Study. Like Neo in the movie the Matrix, you have a choice, take the blue pill and believe what you want to believe, take the red pill and you will be exposed to the reality of the world we live in. The China Study is the red pill.

This is a fascinating book on the capitalism, politics, and human behavior that drives the food industry. It is also frighteningly insightful into the health consequences of an affluent societies' diet. I am not a scientist so I don't know if this is good science. But I did work ten years ago as a government attorney on the USDA dietary guidelines and was surprised by the political influence and acceptance of what the author would call scientific reductionism. I also worked for a man who lived and worked until he was 100 years old, and he had a dietary regime very similar to that recommended by the China Study: not vegan nor vegetarian, but largely based on plants and whole foods rather than animal based foods. So I found this book very persuasive - in fact, too persuasive. It scared me straight so I eat healthy now and that's good for the long term...but I don't enjoy it like I used to.

258 of 284 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The China Study August 23, 2011

By Cheryl

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I first became acquainted with this book by watching a segment this spring (2011) on the Dr. Oz show. I rented the book from the library and read it thoroughly (renewed it a maximum number for times and then decided I needed to own it). My husband and I decided to change our diet and try a vegan life style. We are in our 60's and want to maintain healthy weights (we've lost 35 and 20+ lbs)over the past four months and plan to enter our older years with few health problems. It was amazing to read about all the health situations which can be prevented by eating correctly--even how cancer cells can be turned on and off.

This book provided an excellent understanding of how important it is to eat correctly and the results we will see. My biggest disappointment is that when we share our reasons for our new eating plan with friends and family they aren't more interested in exploring this book and learning about how they can become healthier. Our feeling was, after reading this book, that we couldn't afford to not do this. I think people basically don't want to make changes, even if they will be healthier.

115 of 125 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ideological Heart of the Bill Clinton Diet January 16, 2012

By F. Tyler B. Brown

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Due to recent publicity from Bill Clinton's post-surgery dietary changes, and the recent release of the film, Forks Over Knives, this 2006 book is benefitting from a resurgence of attention. After reading this book, I could only think- I wish I had found this book sooner.

I have read a lot of books on food, diet, and nutrition- and almost always they have left me disappointed. I find nutrition books are either focused only on one food type or nutrient, or push some gimmicky diet (a la the Atkins Diet), or are too esoteric and free from any grounding in sound science, or are mind-numbingly boring and poorly written.

This book from Dr. Colin Campbell is none of those things. "The China Study" takes a macro, bird's eye view of what we eat. For example, Campbell writes, "As you shall see, considering how networks of chemicals behave instead of isolated single chemicals is far more meaningful." This book is an attempt to look at the whole picture. As Campbell writes, "This is the story of how food can change our lives." Indeed it is.

Dr. Campbell, in this book, espouses a whole food, plant-based diet. He very intentionally does not refer to the diet he encourages as "vegan", due to the politically charged nature of that word, and because he is not strictly-speaking a vegan. This book is entirely apolitical. Its author makes it clear that his motivation for his dietary behaviors is purely health, not to protect animals or be a steward of the environment (although the latter he does mention as a bonus implication of his choices).

Dr.... Campbell begins his book, in the chapter "House of Proteins" laying out a convincing argument of why animal-based proteins (particularly casein, the protein found in cow's milk) are harmful to the body. To support his thesis, Dr. Campbell falls back on his life of research (most notable of which is "The China Study", which Chou EnLai, the Premier of China in the early 1970s funded when he was dying of cancer. It is the largest and most comprehensive demographic study ever conducted that looks at what people eat and their levels of general health. Dr. Campbell was one of the team of researchers appointed to conduct this study.)

Dr. Campbell never stretches the findings of his studies too far, and is quick to make clear that the correlations found in his studies does not necessarily mean causation- that is, just because populations that consume more animal fats and animal-based proteins have high incidences of "diseases of affluence" (cancer, heart disease, stroke) does not mean that these proteins cause such diseases. But the combination of the correlations, with the clear and powerful way that Dr. Campbell outlines his observations of how animal-based proteins can disrupt some of the body's most essential organic processes, allows one to comfortably make a strong probabilistic guess that these type of foods are best eliminated from one's diet.

After Dr. Campbell outlines the various diseases, their possible relationships with animal-based proteins, he arrives at suggestions in the chapters "Eating Right: Eight Principles of Food and Health" and "How to Eat."

From there Dr. Campbell answers the question that surely so many readers will have through the first half of the book, which is, "If you're right, Dr. Campbell, why am I just hearing about this stuff now?" In the chapter "Science: the Dark Side", Dr. Campbell outlines how the food industry (of which his parents, ironically, were a part- they were dairy farmers) and government agencies (some of which he used to sit on- and with which he has firsthand experience interacting) are compromised, and are not sources of sound nutritional advice. Dr. Campbell outlines the way in which powerful corporations with clear monetary interests fund these boards. It is a blatant conflict of interest that has profound implications on how and what our country eats.

The other convincing case that Dr. Campbell makes for why you do not hear his argument in the mainstream dialogue is the fact that hospital networks, who can derive up to 65% of their income from heart-related surgeries and medicines, and who employ surgeons who are faced with mountains of debt from years of study and who stand to make gobs of money from conducting surgeries, are not ready or willing to adopt preventive approaches to heart disease.

Dr. Campbell cites the case of surgeon Dr. Esselstyn, who proposed to the Cleveland Clinic a preventive "arrest and reversal" nutrition program for heart disease patients as a first step before surgery. The hospital said they had no interest in such a program according to Dr. Campbell; and yet, some of the trustees and surgeons of the very same hospital would send their own wives and children to Dr. Esselstyn for his nutritional advice. Clearly, these were people who believed in the preventative power of Dr. Esselstyn's advice, but who also had interests so entrenched that it was easier for them to maintain the status quo than adopt Dr. Esselstyn's more preventative approach.

Dr. Campbell in the chapter "Scientific Reductionism" attacks the micro focus of research that simply looks at individual nutrients and vitamins. He demonstrates how the recommendations of groups like "National Academy of Sciences Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer Committee" only "apply to foods as sources of nutrients- not to dietary supplements of individual nutrients." Dr. Campbell vehemently opposes the notion that "`specific components of the diet can be modified' to the benefit of one's health." He argues that foods like lean pork meat or fat free milk are an absurd notion that ignores the macro implications of available research: that the mere presence of animal-based proteins in your diet has the potential to disrupt important biological processes in the body, and that these harmful consequences cannot be avoided through the modification of animal proteins, but only through the elimination of them entirely from the diet.

As I noted in a review of the film, Forks Over Knives, the central thesis of this book is communicated in that work too, and something is even gained through the medium of film. Although, one should not, I believe, watch the film in light of reading the book, but rather should watch it in addition to reading this book. There is much to be gained from reading this book, from absorbing Dr. Campbell's thesis as he clearly and powerfully lays it out step-by-step.

That President Clinton's adoption of Dr. Campbell's whole food, plant-based diet has given this book a revival that it so deserves, I am forever grateful. That the former President had the choice of the best medical advice money can buy, and that he ultimately decided to follow a path Dr. Campbell sets out in this book, no longer surprises me. For anyone concerned with how what we eat impacts how we feel and how we live our life, for anyone struggling with, or at risk of: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity- I highly recommend this book. There may be a large portion of this book that you do not agree with, which is fine. Regardless of how much of this book you agree with, there will be at least morsels of sound science, delivered in a distilled, comprehensible style that you will be able to absorb, implement in your life, and benefit from. Read more ›