T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., with Thomas M. Campbell II. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health. Dallas: Benbella Books, 2004. ISBN 1-932100-38-5. Hard cover. xviii + 417 pages, including appendices, references, and index. $24.95How would you like to – Eat all you want and yet keep your optimum weight? Keep yourself from getting heart disease; most types of cancer; diabetes; and kidney, eye, brain, and other diseases? Perhaps even cure these diseases if you already have one of them? And all without taking pills or undergoing surgery? Dr. Colin Campbell shows how all this is possible in his book, The China Study. If the author’s claims and conclusions are true, this may turn out to be one of the most important books of the past one hundred years. Based on the most massive study of the connection between diet and disease ever conducted, it was termed “the Grand Prix of Epidemiology” by the New York Times. With obesity, heart disease, and cancer beginning to ravage the health of urban Chinese, and with a health care delivery system in crisis, The China Study could offer a way out for millions of sufferers. In the long range, animal-connected diseases such as SARS, avian flu, and mad cow disease could conceivably become a thing of the past if Dr. Campbell’s recommendations were adopted by enough Chinese citizens and farmers. Dr. Chen Junshi, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Research Professor, Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, called it “the most convincing evidence yet on preventing heart disease, cancer and other Western diseases by dietary means.” He went on, “It is the book of choice both for economically developed countries” [like Taiwan] “and for counties undergoing rapid economical transition and lifestyle change” - in other words, China. These are sweeping claims that must be substantiated. The book was given to me by a relative who was a professor of engineering at the University of Texas and the author of several widely-used textbooks. He believes that the Campbell and his son follow rigorous scientific reasoning to establish his case. Spurred on by chronic health problems (since resolved), I have read dozens of books and hundreds of articles on nutrition and health over the past twenty-five years. My own study of the teachings of the Bible on physical, mental, and spiritual health will come out in English shortly under the title, The Lord’s Healing Words, and in Chinese later this year with a forward by the former Dean of the University of Virginia Medical School. Dr. Campbell’s volume is easily the most readable and persuasive of anything I have ever seen on this subject. Campbell’s research credentials are exceptional. After earning a Ph.D. in nutrition at Cornell, he did research at MIT, then joined the faculty of Virginia Tech, after which he began working with a project in the Philippines working with malnourished children. To his shock (for he was a farm boy who believed that the American diet of meat, milk, and eggs was best), he discovered “a dark secret: Children who ate the highest-protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer!” (Author’s emphasis.) Then he noticed a research report from India that showed that nutrition was more powerful than cancer-producing chemicals. The findings in the Philippines and the report from India – one showing that animal protein seemed to be associated with cancer and another that a plant diet could control cancer – led him to “investigate the role of nutrition, especially protein, in the development of cancer.” The result was a series of studies, eventually funded for twenty-seven years mostly by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society and the American Institute for Cancer Research, and then checked a second time for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Then came the most massive study of the connection between diet and health ever done. “The China Study,” as it has come to be called, was a joint effort of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, with initial funding from the American National Institutes of Health. “Seventy-five counties in twenty-four different provinces (out of twenty-seven) were selected for the survey. They represented the full range of mortality rates for seven of the more common cancers.” All types of geographic regions in China were represented, but “except for suburban areas near Shanghai, most counties were located in rural China where people lived in the same place their entire lives and consumed locally – produced food.” The remarkable conclusion of this study was that rural Chinese simply do not suffer from the diseases that plague more prosperous city dwellers. If they can get enough of a variety of vegetables, grains, and fruits, they enjoy much better energy and health than their richer urban counterparts. The China Study’s revolutionary findings were augmented, supported, and confirmed by hundreds of other studies which Dr. Campbell cites in his book. As Campbell notes in his introduction, there are over 750 references in the book, “the vast majority of them are primary sources of information, including hundreds of scientific publications from other researchers…” (As one who likes to check footnotes, I can testify to the accuracy of that claim.) Why spend so much time establishing Dr. Campbell’s right to be heard? Because his firmly-founded conclusions challenge almost everything we have ever been told about nutrition and health. To be brief (for I hope you will buy the book and read it for yourself): The China Study demonstrates conclusively that An animal-based diet makes people sick, and A plant-based diet will make people well. It’s that simple. Specifically: Animal protein causes heart disease, several sorts of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune, kidney, eye, and brain diseases. On the other hand, a plant-based diet will not only prevent these “diseases of affluence,” but actually reverse them. Re-read that last paragraph, and let the implications sink in for a moment. Milk, eggs, meat, fish, poultry – all bad for you. Whole grains, vegetables (including legumes) fruits, and nuts – all are good for you. (“Whole grains” means brown, rice, whole wheat flour, and pasta made from whole grains, not white rice, white flour, and noodles made from white flour.) In two very practical chapters, Campbell provides “eight principles of food and health” and tells us “how to eat” for health and long life. But can you get enough protein from plants alone? Yes. Won’t those on a plant-only diet be smaller and have less energy than those who eat meat and drink milk? No! Not if they have access to a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. What about exercise? Dr. Campbell at seventy was running six miles a day. Smoking? It causes lung cancer, and should be shunned. Noxious chemicals? They are harmful, but “nutrition can substantially control [their] adverse effects.” Don’t genes determine whether you will contract an illness? Only if they are activated, and the chief activators come from animal protein. Campbell also shows that most other studies don’t really compare vegetarian with non-vegetarian diets, simply because people in the West almost all eat some animal products. That is why the China Study is so important, for it compares total vegetarians with those who eat some animal products. Why, then, have we not heard about all this before? A moment’s reflection will give us a clue, and help us to see why Dr. Campbell spends the last one hundred pages answering this very question. If diet contributes more than anything, including genes, to illness, and if diet alone can reverse cancer, heart disease, and other serious conditions, and if – as Dr. Campbell claims with convincing evidence – the “pills and procedures” of today’s medical and pharmaceutical establishment are basically ineffective, then who stands to lose from widespread knowledge of these facts? What would happen to the multi-billion dollar beef, pork, poultry, dairy, and fast-food industries if people knew the truth about diet and health? The economic repercussions are mind-boggling. Campbell shows how the panels and institutions in America that should be dedicated to the dissemination of truth are stacked by scientists whose own position, prestige, and pocketbooks are tied to the status quo. I had only one question about Dr. Campbell’s book. He shows that nutritional supplements (like vitamins) are not as good as natural foods. He is right, of course. But he seems to overlook the fact that the soil of many countries is now so depleted or polluted that plants don’t have the nutrients they once did. A scientifically balanced supplement may be necessary to make up for vitamin deficiencies of even the best plant-based diet. (For more information, write me at totlahealth.com.) What is the good news in all of this, for China, Taiwan and for the rest of the world? Concentration on providing the population with whole grains, vegetables, and fruits would not only immunize farmers from economic losses from avian flu and mad cow disease, but consume less fuel, land, and other limited resources. The millions of Chinese moving in to urban centers in Asia and the West do not have to fall victim to the diseases of modern life. They can remain as healthy as their rural cousins, if only they can be persuaded not to pursue a diet associated with progress and prosperity. In 2004, I saw an Asian edition of Newsweek in the airport at Hong Kong with a cover story on “why Asia is getting fat.” In the background were the golden arches of McDonald’s. But it doesn’t have to be so! All who care about the welfare of China’s rising urban population should read, mark, and inwardly digest this immensely-significant volume. In the process, they might want to apply its findings to their own lives. I have.