The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health
CDN$ 13.74
The most important book you will ever read... - I read The China Study in one sitting the very day it arrived from Amazon - it blew me away that much! The sheer scope of the research and references, and the clarity of the conclusion they point to, should be enough to turn anyone off animal foods for life.This book is about as far from a fad diet as you can get - Campbell has spent over 40 years studying nutrition, and has been personally involved in many of the ground-breaking studies this book details (including, of course, the massive China study itself). Not only that, but he came from a background that predisposed him to seeing the typical Western diet as the pinnacle of sound nutrition - and yet has come to believe the complete opposite through years and years of research.I have been a health-conscious vegetarian for nine years, so compared to most people you wouldn t expect my worldview to have been shaken up all that much by this book. However, although my vegetarian diet was based on all the information that was readily available - fruit and vegetables are good, saturated fat is bad, etc - this book still laid waste to some of the myths even I hadn t been able to see through, because there s so much propaganda out there regarding nutrition.Most importantly, Campbell discredits once and for all the huge conspiracies that have been built around protein and dairy. Most people know vegetables are healthy, even if they don t eat enough of them, but hardly anyone is aware that protein isn t the miracle nutrient it s touted as being. Not only is it very hard to eat too little protein, but most people eat far too much. Similarly, dairy is still promoted as healthy, especially low-fat dairy (of which I was an avid consumer, until I read this book). We re led to believe we need it for bone health, even though a survey of osteoporosis rates around the world suggests exactly the opposite conclusion. And, as a vegetarian, people were always telling me I needed to eat dairy in order to get a good dose of protein, even though (as Campbell s evidence conclusively shows) the main protein found in milk actually promotes cancer.The same day I read this book, I became a vegan. Fortunately, my diet had already been a fringe diet for years (not that a healthy diet should ever be considered extremist), so I d long since discovered the joys of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and tofu. But now I m more determined than ever to convert my boyfriend and family to the green pastures of veganism - and I ll start by giving them all this book for Christmas. If you care about someone, and don t want them to die of a premature heart attack or cancer, how could you not give them this book?Unfortunately, as convincing as Campbell s conclusions are, there are probably many people out there who simply - for some very inexplicable reason - don t care enough about their health to follow his guidelines. It s always baffled me why people continue to take up smoking when they know it s about the worst thing they could do for their health. Similarly, a lot of people who see the animal-based Western diet as the default will probably see Campbell s recommendations as too hard to follow, and will continue to regard healthy eating as somehow abnormal. Despite the solidity of his conclusions, so many people have been indoctrinated with the idea that eating animal foods is necessary for a balanced diet that they will remain incredulous, even though the evidence against this idea is so strong. Campbell s exposure of the corruption behind the nutritional information we re given is admirable, though, and I sincerely hope people listen to him.
Solid Book - Solid Book, It does and doesn t have me sold, so I can only give it a 3 star as any diet, or study can unfortunately be completely backwards for a number of people. Nothing works for everyone. I have read with great accuracy scientific studies on diets that are high in saturated fat and animal products that have yielded great health and results. This one is pro whole foods vegetarian diet, great most people need more greens in their diet for better health. any change will produce massive changes to begin with, just long term it may not be best for everyone. Bottom line reading some book on a study and following it is not a smart idea, we are all different, and should consult a practitioner who has no bias from one system to another, counting calories, or carbs is useless. Your body has a biology where the right blend of meats, vegetables, fruits and other whole foods will work great for you, making you both strong and healthy, the key is quality foods, and quality meats are hard to come by this day in age. You can t deny the eating of whole foods will be healthy for us, that s a no-brainer, Nothing new for me reading this book. The Masai Tribe survived healthy off of meat, blood and milk for thousands of years, Inuits survived off a diet that is off the charts high in saturated fat and were healthy, People can live off just about anything and be healthy if it s pure and real whole food, we just can t live off barcodes, that s the bottom line that always gets lost with a book writer trying to prove their point or belief.This book offered nothing new, and a biased opinion overall with it s disregard for other research, but it s still a decent book.
Solidly researched and guaranteed to shake up your worldview - I tend to be pretty skeptical of nutrition books, particularly those coming from alternative perspectives, since they re often quite faddish and unsubstantiated by science. But this one really blew me away.While the author advocates a diet that might be considered extreme by some -- a whole foods, plant-based, mostly vegan diet -- his background is anything but fringe or faddish. He s got very solid scientific credentials, and came to his conclusions over the course of years of research. Every claim in this book is backed up by references, the vast majority of them to articles from peer-reviewed medical or scientific journals. As of starting the book, I was an ex-vegetarian who d gone back to being a moderate meat eater and had been for over a decade now, but by the time I was halfway through it I was pretty sure my eating habits were about to seriously change. I m not sure any reasonably intelligent and open-minded person could look at the research Dr. Campbell cites and not come to the same conclusion.Having said that, I don t think the book is quite flawless -- there are times, particularly toward the latter part of the book, when it gets a bit heavy-handed and feels like the author s trying to drive home his point with a sledgehammer. But on the whole that s a small failing compared to the wealth of useful and potentially life-saving information in it -- not enough for me not to give it a 5-star review, though if fractions were allowed I might have gone for 4.75.
everyone needs to read this book - Reading this book changed my life.I am a very critical reader and am not easily convinced by the often unsubstantiated claims made by so many other authors of diet and nutrition books, which are frequently lacking in appropriate references from research that has been peer-reviewed and published in well-respected scientific journals. I have found that The China Study is the most well-referenced and thus credible book on nutrition I have come across. It presents not only the work of one research group (based at some of the most prestigious universities in the United States) but also work by multiple leading researchers studying several superficially unrelated diseases, and it brings it all together into one central tenet. It has convinced me, my parents, and my boyfriend (all previously moderate meat and dairy eaters) to adopt the whole foods, plant-based way of eating that T. Colin Campbell advocates.I highly recommend it to everyone that I am close to, especially people that I know that are suffering from various diseases of affluence, but am careful not to push it on them. Ultimately, it is a book I hope they and you will read, and soon, but whether or not it results in a lifestyle change is solely their/your decision. Having read this book twice, I can t imagine that reading The China Study won t fail to make an impact on the way anyone thinks about their health, regardless of whether or not they agree with the general thesis of the book, and it will surely provide the background that they should be aware of on the related government and industry agencies that define nutrition for us, and market nutrition to us.
A Shake-up - This is a very good book full of very useful, well researched information. A big volume dealing with extensive study of the way nutrition influences our health and longevity. It should be read by anyone who desires to be healthy, especially by all the followers of the many fad diets (Atkins, SouthBeach, low fat, low carb, you name it...) China Study also unveils behind-the-scene manipulation of big food business with no regard for consumer health. The authors make a big step forward in honest consumer education, as their integrity and scientific approach is beyond any doubt. Another no-hype volume with down-to-earth, commonsense approach to health and longevity is Can We Live 150 Year? I strongly recommend both books for everyone. Get them, and keep them for later reference. Don t miss it.