Referred to as the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" by The New York Times, this study examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as curbing obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that are widely popular in the West. The politics of nutrition and the impact of special interest groups in the creation and dissemination of public information are also discussed.
The China Study
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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
"This is one of the most important books about nutrition ever written—reading it may save your life." —Dean Ornish, MD, author, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Love & Survival
"Today, AICR [American Institute for Cancer Research] 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, AICR
"The most important book on health, diet and nutrition ever written. Its impact will only grow over time and it will ultimately improve the health and longevity of tens of millions of people around the world." —John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods
About the Author
For more than 40 years, Dr. T. Colin Campbell has been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy, the China Study, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. Dr. Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He
has received more than 70 grant years of peer-reviewed research funding and authored more than 300 research papers. The China Study was the culmination of a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.
A 1999 graduate of Cornell University and recipient of a medical degree in 2010, Thomas M. Campbell,MD, is a writer, actor and four-time marathon runner.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2,271 of 2,445 people found the following review helpful
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.
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.
1,070 of 1,156 people found the following review helpful
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.
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.
120 of 128 people found the following review helpful
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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Changed My Life!
After reading this book I changed my entire life. I gave up meat, dairy, and eggs. Not only that though, this book was instrumental in my decision to quit drinking alcohol and... Read more
Published 1 day ago by T. Schexnayder
Being Healthy
Gave this book to my husband. He was skeptical at first but it makes a lot of sense about what we should be eating.
Published 3 days ago by Karen Dalen
Well Done
This book has great health/ nutrition advise, based on completely objective, scientific research. The author also makes the book readable and interesting. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Laura
Life changing!
I recommend this book to everyone who will listen! It will change the way you eat for the better.....the information is life changing!
Published 4 days ago by Gessica Brown
changing my life
One of the best of the books on nutrition. Answers so many questions I had. Dont know what to believe about alot of things.
Published 6 days ago by Claudia Dahlke
amazing book
My doctor recommended this book and the author has conducted amazing, well run studies that give clear results on the connection between cancer and eating animal protein. Read more
Published 7 days ago by amywolves
I Got Sick From Following This Book's Protocol!
After I read this "biased" book I went on a "vegan rampage" and immediately gave up all meat and dairy products (basically went on a whole food vegan diet)for approximately 3... Read more
Published 9 days ago by J. Campbell
If you take the time to look this book on the Internet the whole study...
I bought this book and took the time after I read it to look up the study on the Internet, and found out this study was not a peer reviewed study. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Bert C
Startling reading
I never realized that some of what we eat is not healthy. This reading will make you think twice before putting some food in your mouth.
Published 11 days ago by Sue L. Jeffcoat
Good Book
It is a really good book. I am buying some more copies as gifts for friends - normally those will read the book, if they are in some healthy problem caused by living habits.
Published 11 days ago by CW
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Introduction (From Wikipedia)
The China Study is a 2004 book by T. Colin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II, a physician. It examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illnesses such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration. The book had sold 500,000 copies as of January 2011, making it one of America's best-selling books about nutrition. The China Study of the title is taken from the China-Cornell-Oxford Project, a 20-year study that began in 1983 and was conducted jointly by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, Cornell University, and the University of Oxford.
Attribution: The information appearing above in this tab is from Wikipedia:
The China Study (book). Amazon is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: CC BY-SA. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.
Reception (From Wikipedia)
Dr. Wilfred Niels Arnold, professor of biochemistry at the University of Kansas Medical Center, reviewed the book in Leonardo in 2005, praising its straightforwardness and accessibility:
Any serious challenge to the "American Diet" is bound to elicit some academic, public, and food industry opposition, which will range from mild skepticism through agitated re-evaluation to bitter disdain. What makes this particular contribution exciting is that the authors anticipate resistant and hostile sources, sail on with escalating enthusiasm, and furnish a working hypothesis that is valuable. In fact, the surprising data are difficult to interpret in any other way.
Professor Hal Harris of the University of Missouri–St. Louis's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry recommended the book in 2006 in the "Summer Reading" section of the Journal of Chemical Education: "The bottom line of this thoroughly-documented study is essentially that animal protein is not good for us—even milk, 'the perfect food.' My students (and I!) may not relish the change to a vegetarian diet, but it is difficult to refute the mass of evidence in The China Study." Also in 2006, alternative medicine practitioners Daniel Redwood, D.C. and Norman Shealy M.D., Ph.D., wrote that the book is different from most other popular nutrition books by offering strong evidence-based explanations for its claims.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, said in his documentary The Last Heart Attack in August 2011 that the book had changed the way people all over the world eat, including Gupta himself. American President Bill Clinton became a vocal supporter of The China Study. In 2010, after years of living with heart disease, he undertook the diet, eating only beans, legumes, vegetables, and fruit, effectively living as a vegan. In a short period, he dropped 24 pounds, returning him to his college weight.
Professors Frank B Hu and Walter Willett of the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, wrote in a letter to the editor in 2000, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that the China-Cornell-Oxford Project did not find a clear association between animal-product consumption and heart disease or major cancers, although in 2010, in an article, "Healthy eating guide," Willet encouraged people to choose plant-based proteins over animal sources. Willett is the principal investigator of the "Nurses' Health Study II" (established 1989). Campbell is highly critical of the first Nurses' Health Study (established 1976), calling it one of the chief sources of public misinformation about nutrition.
In a written debate with Campbell in 2008, Dr. Loren Cordain, a professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University, argued that "the fundamental logic underlying Colin's hypothesis (that low protein diets improve human health) is untenable and inconsistent with the evolution of our own species," and that "a large body of experimental evidence now demonstrates a higher intake of lean animal protein reduces the risk for gout, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, insulin resistance, and osteoporosis while not impairing kidney function." Campbell responded by questioning the implications of the evidence Cordain noted, and argued that "diet-disease associations observed in contemporary times are far more meaningful than what might have occurred during evolutionary times—at least since the last 2.5 million years or so."
Attribution: The information appearing above in this tab is from Wikipedia:
The China Study (book). Amazon is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: CC BY-SA. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.
Further reading (From Wikipedia)
- TheChinaStudy.com, book website
- China-Cornell-Oxford Project
- T. Colin Campbell Foundation
- Campbell, T. Colin. "The China Study", The Huffington Post, June 28, 2008.
- Campbell, T. Colin et al. "China: From Diseases of Poverty to Diseases of Affluence. Policy Implications of the Epidemiological Transition", Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Volume 27, Issue 2, 1992 (courtesy link).
- Campbell, T. Colin; Chen Junshi; and Parpia, Bandoo. "Diet, lifestyle, and the etiology of coronary artery disease: the Cornell China Study", The American Journal of Cardiology, vol 82, issue 10, supplement 2, 1998, pp. 18–21.
- "Professor T. Colin Campbell PhD: Animal protein (meat and dairy) causes cancer", lecture, 2005, courtesy of Google Video, accessed August 29, 2011.
- Nutrition Health Review. "The China study--what it means: an interview with T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.", September 22, 2004.
- Scrinis, Gyorgy. "On the Ideology of Nutritionism", Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, University of California Press, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Winter 2008), pp. 39-48.
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Attribution: The information appearing above in this tab is from Wikipedia:
The China Study (book). Amazon is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: CC BY-SA. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.
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- Strange Days Indeed: Memories of the Old World by Stuart Ward in Back Matter
- The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer in Back Matter
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