Garamond Press. - The expert guide to T. Colin Campbells The China study --in 30 minutes

INTRODUCTION

At a Glance

This book is an abridged overview of The China Study, a best seller focusing on the relationship between nutrition and disease. The authors, a father-and-son teamT. Colin Campbell, PhD, and Thomas M. Campbell II, MDdescribe in great detail a major study conducted in China that began in 1982 and continues today. The study is a collaboration between the authors and Chinese scientists, and it received the approval of both the Chinese and US governments. While observational studies of humans are being conducted in China, animal research studies are being performed in the United States. The data from the research and study are important to the authors conclusions and are summarized in the book.

This overview provides a brief introduction to The China Study, and then moves on to cover information regarding both the book and the authors. As part of the analysis of the importance of this book, this review includes a brief rundown of readers responses (both positive and negative), from professional reviewers as well as readers from the general public, followed by a synopsis of The China Study. The next section discusses the three main concepts of the book, including examples and ideas of how these concepts can be applied to you. Finally, the main points are restated, in a way that will perhaps convince you to get a copy of the book and see for yourself the remarkable research done and the conclusions drawn by these eminent scientists. Also included is a list of key terms, along with their definitions, and a related reading list, with a brief description of each book.

Understanding
The China Study

ABOUT THE BOOK

With the title The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications For Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health, it might seem like this book is overreaching. However, this is not an exaggeration; the scope of the research and related studies is unprecedented. The authors studied 6,500 adults from various counties and provinces in China, analyzing their diet and health and reaching stunning conclusions about the direct relationship between nutrients and several diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart failure, and other lethal ailments plaguing the Western world.

The book sheds light on those afflictions and the direct link between them and the consumption of protein from an animal-based diet. This connection was first discovered in a study in India, which showed that ingested animal protein had a clear link to liver cancer. The authors paid particular attention to the impact of animal-based proteins on human health. The conclusion of that exhaustive study is that a vegan (no animal-based foods) diet is the healthiest way to eat. Plants provide all the nutrients the human body needs to function properly and to fend off disease. Meat, milk, and other dairy products have been linked to liver cancer in many of the Chinese subjects of the study. For Westerners who grew up thinking that cows milk is the perfect food, these conclusions are revolutionary, and call for a drastic change in lifestyle and food consumption. The China Study is still ongoing, thirty-five years after it started.

Although it was written by scientists, The China Study delivers practical information and research findings in accessible language with the layperson in mind. The book includes personal anecdotes, and the authors are at times humorous in their approach. The authors feel strongly about their mission to inform the public about a range of issues, including the causes of disease and the impact of special-interest groups on public understanding. The book contains dozens of graphs and charts illustrating the conclusions of the scientists who conducted this and related studies. The information in these diagrams supplements the narrative and supports the authors assertions through various case studies.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

T. Colin Campbell, a highly regarded nutrition scientist, was born in 1934 and raised on a dairy farm, where he helped care for the animals and milk the cows. His mother had a large garden, and they produced most of the food they ate. As was typical at that time, their diet was heavily weighted toward animal protein, supplemented by garden vegetables.

Campbell attended Pennsylvania State University for three years, majoring in pre-veterinary medicine. He received early admission to the University of Georgia School of Veterinary Medicine, which he attended for one year. At that point, he received an unsolicited offer of a scholarship to do graduate research in animal nutrition and the relatively new field of biochemistry at Cornell University. He received his masters degree in 1957 and went on to work as a technician at an animal research lab, testing various chemicals and irradiated foods to see if they would cause cancer in animals. It was at this point that he became involved in what ultimately would become his lifes workthe effects of nutrition on health.

In 1959, also at Cornell, Campbell began working toward his PhD in animal nutrition, with minors in biochemistry and microbiology, and he presented his dissertation in 1961. He was offered a position in a new toxicology laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1963, where he continued his research into toxins, especially those considered to be carcinogenic. In 1965 he moved to Virginia Tech as a lecturer in biochemistry and toxicology. He also continued his research, working as the coordinator of a US State Department project in the Philippines that focused on developing feeding centers for malnourished childrena project that pointed to the negative results of a protein-based diet. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and sat on various panels examining the effects of saccharin as used in food and drinks.

In 1975, Campbell returned to Cornell as a full professor, where he continued his experimental research until 1996. The Campbell research lab hosted a visiting Chinese scholar for a year in 1980, and Campbell was introduced to the observational research related to nutrition that was just beginning in China. The US governments National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the government of China were persuaded to fund and begin observational studies in China that would also relate to the animal nutritional research studies being conducted in the United States. So began the years-long project, still in progress today, that has come to be known as the China Study, the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted.

Campbell has authored or coauthored over 350 scientific papers published in the most prestigious scientific journals, has testified before numerous congressional committees and subcommittees, and has traveled the world giving hundreds of speeches and presentations regarding the relationship between nutrition and disease. He is currently collaborating with his son, Thomas M. Campbell II, on continuing studies and public education concerning nutrition and its effects on public health. He lives in Ithaca, NY, with his wife, Karen.

Thomas M. Campbell II, is a 1999 graduate of Cornell University. He is currently pursuing a medical career after receiving his MD in 2010, and his practice emphasizes lifestyle medicine and health promotion. He often collaborates with his father and gives presentations regarding health and nutrition.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The Upside

Although published in 2005 by BenBella Books, a small publisher in Texas, The China Study has gone on to sell over five hundred thousand copies and is still selling strongly today. In multiple interviews, former US president Bill Clinton has talked about his nutritional conversion from fast-food carnivore to vegan following two heart surgeries, citing