The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health Hardcover – December 11, 2004

I'm posting this two years after reading The China Study and what subsequently followed was radically changing into beimg nearly 95% of the time vegan all the time. This book was a game changer for me. If you find the book hard to follow or understand, buy the audio version because I think you will find it's easier to understand and follow. As a engineer and scientist, I followed up and read some of Campbell's journal papers. I was stunned by the findings enough to have a paradigm shift in what I would choose to eat forever more. Like a smoker that quits a bad habit overnight, I did the same with what I ate. No more fast food, added sugar, junk, cows milk, etc. I dumped the western diet and my 50yr habit of what I ate since birth to simply eating...plants. Whole, organic plants is my food of choice. Over a period of 6 months I lost about 52 pounds, my weight dropped from 224 to 172, being 5ft 8in male, this was noticeable to all I new. Seeing is believing. My blood screening numbers are all normal except for B12 and Vit D were found to be low; so I take supplements for only those two things and feel fantastic. Im going on to my 3rd yr now after reading this book and changing to whole plants I feel like I did when I was in grade school with energy and skip in my step. Im writing this with the hope that it gives someone inspiration that they (you) too can do it too. Never being a gym person, I've recently begun to add modest exercise 1 or 2x per week in the past 6 months which makes me feel additionally very good after a 45 min workout. But absolutely, the biggest bang for my my health and feeing good comes most definitely in what I choose to eat. Don't get me wrong, I love chicken wings, cheeseburgers, fries, cookies, cake and pie, but they don't love me. I'd say 90% of what's in a supermarket and 95% of most restaurant menus in the US wont meet a true whole foods, plant based diet. If I were to give advice as to where to start, I would suggest after reading the China Study two things: theres a retired Dr. Esselstyn from the Cleveland Clinic that had a simple breakfast cereal he made at home. My version of it goes like this: 1-1.5 cups of raw oatmeal, sliced fresh strawberries, blueberries, figs, dates, rasins, prunes, add fresh blackberries and/or raspberries or whatever fruit you want. Add ground flax seed and chia seed. Add a sliced banana or two. Add unsweetened and unflavored almond milk. Stir the almond milk so it gets mixed in the raw oats. Wait 5 min then eat. Its very filling. I use all organic produce and oats now to avoid pesticides. The other thing I do is make 2-liters of green smoothies and drink it all throughout my day. I change up the frozen fruit in the smoothie (I'll use frozen mangos, pineapple, strawberries...for leafy green I may use a combo of baby spinach, kale, chard); here is an example of a smoothie I made today: 3 cups baby spinach, 1.5 cups of frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries), 2 apples, 2 pears, ground flax seed and chia seeds, 2 bananas, 2fl-oz of almond milk+2fl-oz of spring water. Blend. Makes 2 liters. Strongly recommend using a blender like a breville "the boss" (i use this and like it alot, sticker shock on price so get ready) or blendtec. After making the smoothie, take two to three large containers of the smoothie with u to work and drink this all through the day. Carry one of these containers with you around the office or in meetings like its you're new coffee mug. Lol. I dumped milk and dairy, and check the labels...I absoultely won't eat anything with added sugar. For dinner, I started out using the "big salad" recipe that can be found at chrisbeatcancer.com In two weeks of consisitent eating whole plant based diet, I began to notice the change and feel better overall; the positive change in two weeks kept me going, week after week, month after month. Dont let people put doubts in your mind. If I can do it, you can do it too if you want it. I hope my note is helpful.

-There is a mountain of scientific evidence to show that the healthiest diet you can possibly consume is a high carbohydrate diet.
-The past 60 years have been a celebration of chemicals and technology instead of diet and prevention. So we don’t die from heart disease as often, but we still get it at about the same rates. Those who have bypass surgery do not have fewer heart attacks than those who do not.
-Calcium builds strong bones, but cow’s milk weakens them, as osteoporosis. Americans, Australians and New Zealanders drink the most milk, and have the most bone fractures from middle age on.
-One of the biggest health hoaxes in history is the nutrient supplement industry.
-The health damage from doctors’ ignorance of nutrition is astounding.

Welcome back to The China Study, still straight-shooting, still dramatic, and about 70 pages longer in the new edition. This book provides more training in the health effects of food than MDs get in all their years of education. The clinical studies, the case histories and the science are all here in plain, direct language. It is a very hard book to put down. The facts, usually contrary to everything we’ve been taught, keep coming fast and hard.

The reason the facts are contrary is of course because of the usual suspects: Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Processors. They have corrupted our universities with grants, infiltrated government agencies to keep the truth at bay, and spend billions advertising their false promises. We grow up with their falsehoods, and we believe in them. Those who try to speak out are isolated, shunned, removed and fired. It is all examined in you-are-there detail, because it all happened to Colin Campbell and other (once) highly-regarded doctors he profiles.

Campbell’s basic premise is that animal protein destroys our internal ecosystem. A Whole Food, Plant-Based diet not only maintains better health, it can even reverse damage. The scientific proof is endless – and so are the defenders of the SAD – Standard American Diet - that is about one third animal, between meat and dairy.

When I read the first China Study ten years ago, I immediately went back online and ordered a whole case of them. I then mailed them out to friends all over, preceded by an e-mail warning and my review. That’s how impressed I was. This second edition forced me to reread it. In so doing, I came across several strong new claims and rushed to the first edition, only to find they were already there. So this edition is as much a badly needed refresher as a new discovery. Glad they made me do it.

David Wineberg