The China Study
book details
Title: The China Study
Author: T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell 11
Published: USA 2005. Health & Nutrition
Subject Matter: Diet, Weight Loss, Long-term health.
Table of Contents: The China Study: Diseases of Affluence: The Good Nutrition Guide Why Haven’t You Heard This Before? + Appendixes.
Pages: 417 pages - includes 36 reference pages.
Audience: Self proclaimed as the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted.
National (USA) Best Seller, over 1 million copies sold.
overview
The China Study promotes veganism, with heavy emphasis that meats cause cancer. This premise is refuted in other scientific research. However, as this book is quoted and used by many it deserves to be read and assessed, as it is used by vegans and vegetarians to support their belief that plants foods are the only foods we all should eat for our overall health and to “save the world”.
The China Study and Your Health
My comment: The first thing that bothered me was the research conducted by Colin Campbell was done with rats and the protein fed to them that produced cancer was casein from milk. The likelihood it would produce cancer is high. Milk and its products are not a natural food for rats, and anyone fed excessive amounts of casein will probably produce a mitochondrial (cellular) disease.
It seems this man has a vitriolic opposition to flesh meat and to Atkins and his work. At every turn he says that protein is a problem. And In many cases, it is “potentially” a problem therefore>>> etc. etc. up to page 183 and the same story is repeated again and again. There are many inconsistencies and vagaries, e.g. on p180, “Excessive calcium as found in milk, also suppresses the production of supercharged D” The type of milk used in the statement is not mentioned. All processed milk is a food confection, and if fresh raw milk was not used then the tests on these milks are erroneous.
Re prostate cancer: and the milk/meat connection. Remember this is the USA and the home of CAFOs (confined animal feeding organisations.) These animals are heavily hormonally fed, and the subsequent meat and products contain estrogen (fed to them to produce more milk, the meat to come to market more quickly). So, this estrogen laced meat and milk and cheese produces breast and prostate estrogenic cancers. There is no mention of this generally known fact.
There is a lot he says which is good: that food is instrumental in disease and that plant foods are the supreme food. But we cannot live on plants alone, we need the protein from flesh meats, and particularly the fats from natural and animal sources: flesh meats, fish and plants such as olives, flax, and the like. He does mention environmental chemicals, but again refers to the intake of the highly commercialized American diet as being toxic and therefore meat is the problem. Many will agree that the diet of processed and sugared food is the problem, not the corrupted meat alone.
Flesh meat is not the problem when it is grass fed, free range, milk and its products are not a problem when it is raw certified organic. But he is talking about America. In Australia cattle and lamb are free range grass fed and readily available here. Yes, feedlots are used, but it is not CAFO as in the USA. Pig meat is not for human consumption anyway and chicken needs to be free range also.
He compares the Chinese to Americans: American food is principally processed and servings are large. No comparison to food habits of the Chinese. We all know that eating excess food, even if it’s quality food, is detrimental to health. Food in China is scarce and not as processed. He rarely mentions the intake of processed foods of every variety, sweet and savory in America. He just blames meat protein. Or just “protein”. Yes, we all know that too much protein and especially the wrong type is not good for you and me.!! There is nothing new in this. We all know that plant foods, fresh vegetables are very good for us, nothing new in this.
We just don’t eat as we ought to, because we live ridiculous lives of busyness, convenience and health is not a priority when we don’t have time to prepare home made meals. And when we have unlimited food at our choosing 24/7, it’s no wonder America and Australia have the major health diseases of western society. We are never hungry, we suffer malnutrition on faux food overload not necessarily on meat protein. This just hasn’t happened yet in Chin, to my knowledge.
He refers to John McDougall (p329). John McDougall promotes vegetarianism. But that is because as a doctor he was taught that diet had nothing to do with health and he found that eating a standard American diet of hot dogs, processed foods, hamburgers etc. caused all the known major diseases. He went totally plant based and achieved success. But what he didn’t do was then look further and put back into the diet fresh healthy unprocessed fats and flesh foods to obtain the balance that is needed for restoration and regeneration and ongoing cellular health.
Plant foods reverse disease, but ongoing maintenance/regular diet needs to be one that takes the body from catabolism (plant foods - cleansing) to anabolism (proteins, fats, - building up) and back again which is what we call a healthy metabolism or a ketogenic state which uses fat for energy to using carbs for energy and back again which is what we naturally did in the olden days of eating to season, eating from the local landscape and fasting naturally when food was scarce and rebuilding the body with foods when food was abundant.
He (McDougall) has done much good with treating people with food and not drugs and his story is replicated many times over in America in that those who use food as medicine (Holistic doctors) are decommissioned or lives threatened. It’s not a science that is favoured by the Pharmaceutical Companies. In Australia we have Dr. Gary Fettke who was treating diabetic patients with the low carb high fat medium protein protocol with great success, faced deregistration from the AMA for doing so; “Don’t’ give dietary advice or you will be deregistered even if you cure patients.”Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-30/low-carb-advice-lands-doctor-in-hot-water/8078748
The Wahls Protocol: American Dr Terry Wahls MD was afflicted with progressive MS, implemented all the medical routines for MS, but no result. She researched further and developed her own program to wellness with food as medicine. She now walks and runs and travels the world, lecturing on the program that restored her to full health. Her protocol of flesh and organ meats, fish, plants, nuts, seeds, berries and the like is very similar to the full GAPS program, the extended Paleo program, the Atkins diet, Naturopathic protocols, and is a ketogenic diet.
Dr. Campbell is not a practicing physician. He is a researcher and has come out of American miseducation and has found that plant foods and fresh unprocessed foods are good for you. However, that’s an already known fact. But he didn’t know as he is a Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry, seventy research grants to his credit. But maybe he didn’t practice his findings in the marketplace of life. Dr Wahls from her research, used the knowledge, applied it to her situation and found it valid. Interestingly, she also found, through research, that along with the plants, certain fats and proteins are essential too. Something Dr Campbell missed totally.
Lesley Parker ND ANPA November 2017
Please note
The opinions expressed in this review are my own, based on thirty years of experience as a clinical naturopath, researcher and writer and are meant to add to the knowledge this book brings to the reader. I encourage everyone to do their own research and invite comment and discussion as I continue to learn more and more as the years go by.
FURTHER READING
The China Study promotes veganism, with heavy emphasis that meats cause cancer. This premise is refuted in other scientific research.