LeAnne Campbell - The China Study Cookbook: Over 120 Whole Food, Plant-Based Recipes

LeAnne engaged her whole family to assist with this project. Both of her sons were ready and willing to help, and they have now become good cooks in their own right. (Her son Steven also took the photos for this book.) Her mother, Karen, and her sister-in-law, Kim, added a few recipes and helped with the taste testing. And I helped toowith the tasting, that is. The recipes in this book are consistent with the health message of The China Study, which my son, Tom, and I wrote. This book is written with the intent of helping people prepare quick, nutritious meals after a hard days work.

One of the features of LeAnnes book is her use of recipes that contain no added fat and little or no added salt, and that make minimal, judicious use of sweetening agents. Some folks who cannot quite accept the idea of not using oil or fat in their daily diet may question her no-added-fat strategy, but the scientific evidence shows that we should try to avoid using added fat, especially for those who are either at high risk of getting a degenerative disease (which is most people) or who have already been diagnosed with one (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders, and obesity). I am using the term added fat in order to distinguish it from whole plant-based foods that are high in fat, because the latter often contain a natural supply of antioxidants, fiber, and the right kind of protein. I know that for many people who have always eaten the typical American diet, switching to a no-added-fat diet can be challengingat least at first. But its important to know that fat has been proven to be addictive, often causing people to consume increasing amounts over time. Eventually, it becomes quite difficult for many people to recover from this addiction.

As with any other addiction, some people not only find it difficult to switch, but they can become unusually defensive about their preferences. But change is possible. It only takes time, perhaps as much as a few months for some individuals. And once that change is achieved, we discover new flavors among whole plant-based foods that we hardly knew existed. Once people arrive at this healthier place, many then discover that if, out of curiosity, they switch back to that old dish floating in fat, they experience some difficultiesperhaps even real intestinal disturbancesor they may find that the old stuff tastes more like a bad dose of grease. I have often been askeda few hundred times, I thinkwhat do my family and I eat? Although I try to respond on the spot, I know well that my very limited answers cannot be satisfying to those looking to make real lifestyle changes.

Now I am happy to say that there is a cookbook that comes about as close to the real deal for our family as I can imagine. This is it. T. COLIN CAMPBELL, PHD Coauthor of the best-selling The China Study, Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry, Cornell University