The China Study

The China Study

Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health

T. Colin Campbell, PhD & Thomas M. Campbell II

This book isn’t on the reading list for JUST Books, but I did mention it at the last meeting. I’m including it in this blog because I think it’s too important to keep quiet about.

A few months ago, my friend Lou stopped me on my way home from work. I was riding my bike on the bike trail along Paul Bunyan Drive. He drove by, heading in the same direction and made a U-turn and stopped near me. Lou jumped out of his Volkswagen and ran over, very excited about a book he had been reading. He said it was The China Study and that I really should read it.

Lou is a vegetarian who has elderly parents. A few years ago, he got his parents to switch to a vegetarian diet. It was inspiring to hear his account of their improving health. Chronic disease symptoms they had learned to live with were just slipping away. His message was that the human body really wants to repair itself, even at an advanced age.

Despite Lou’s enthusiastic recommendation, I was busy reading at least two other books, and didn’t get around to checking out The China Study. A few weeks later, I bumped into Lou at Harmony Natural Foods Co-op. He was excited. He said he had become a vegan, and he couldn’t believe how good it felt. Again, he mentioned The China Study and urged me to read it.

I stopped at Book World that day and looked at The China Study, not sure I was in the market for another self-help book. After a quick scan, I decided to give it a read. Partly, the decision was based on a recommendation by Dean Ornish, MD, on the cover (who I’ve referred to as my cardiologist, although I’ve only read his books, never seen him during office hours) and the forward by John Robbins.

The China Study is further documentation of observations like Lou’s experience with his parents. It explores the ‘constitutional nature of disease,’ the result of multiple systems throughout the body breaking down. The ‘breakdowns’ are diseases of affluence, such as heart disease; obesity; Type 2 diabetes; cancer; autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis; osteoporosis; kidney stones and Alzheimer’s disease. Such ailments, which are common in the US, are uncommon in rural counties in China where people live on whole foods from plant sources.

The authors, a father and son team, delve deep into the science of the human body, but are able to do it in a very easy reading style. I enjoy knowing about life’s functions, but I appreciate even more when I can understand about them. The authors create that understanding. As I read, I came to regard this book as an owner’s manual for the human body.

The China Study offers convincing arguments that cancer, heart disease, and most other chronic illnesses can be prevented, stopped and reversed with a diet of whole foods from common plant sources. Equally enlightening are their explanations of how the nature of most medical science, food and drug industries and the government mislead us about nutrition, vitamins and drugs.

I thought I knew all of this stuff. I’ve carefully watched my diet for twenty years and have been a vegetarian for most of that time. Now, I realize that I was duped by the drug industry into wasting hundreds of dollars a year on useless supplemental vitamins and minerals. The China Study has convinced me to trust food, whole foods from plant sources. Like Lou, I’m excited about making a few changes in my diet. Also like Lou, as I read this book, I kept thinking of people I want to tell about this book and wishing I had more copies of it to lend out.

The China Study’s message is one that you won’t get from your doctor, from school, from the government, or from any food industry promotion board. Unlike the messages you get from those sources, I think this one contains the truth. It could save your life.