|
The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health | 
 enlarge | Authors: T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell
Publisher: Benbella Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $9.95
You Save: $15.00 (60%)
New (38) Used (15) from $9.95
Rating:  472 reviews
Sales Rank: 11901
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 417
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1932100385
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.2
EAN: 9781932100389
ASIN: 1932100385
Publication Date: January 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This exhaustive presentation of the findings from the China Study conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Referred to as the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" by The New York Times, this study examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that enjoy widespread popularity in the West. The impact of the politics of nutrition and the efforts of special interest groups on the creation and dissemination of public information on nutrition are also discussed.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 467 more reviews...
 Veganism for optimal health? December 1, 2008
Betina Thygesen (USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I do appreciate the subject of food, health and disease presented by the author for simplification, but is the subject of how to eat for optimal health and wellbeing indeed this simple? Veganism for everyone?
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - whole foods are key. We do not know the exact chemical processes that happen within us when we digest food substances. What we do know is that the body is a very complicated bio computer that digests real whole foods well and we do know that the body doesn't quite know what to do with artificial and chemical foods. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is that we connect with the sources from where we get our nourishment. If not a new concept (our ancestors were quite well aware) it is one that modern lifestyle ignores even if applicable for all developed cultures on the globe.
Supplements must be used as medicine in individual circumstances, prescribed by a qualified practitioner. Supplements are fractions of something else (whole foods supplements too!). I agree with the text that supplements will not lead to long-lasting health and that the industry is taking advantage of the fears, people especially in the Western world and philosophy are trying to cover by buying an insurance for continued good health despite their lifestyle. Nutrients must be consumed as whole foods and not as fractions of whole foods because any living system will be disturbed by the addition or subtraction of a single element, even when replacing this element with another element that might be considered of superior quality.
When food is dissected into macro and micro nutrients it is no longer looked at as whole systems, wholes have emerging properties that its parts will not have when dissected. As a result when breaking up a whole food such as a carrot, the vegetable is more than an aggregate of carbohydrates, beta-carotene, vitamin C and water. A carrot is a system, dissecting or disturbing this system by eating vitamin A instead of eating the actual carrot will make the body deficient in all the elements that usually accompany it in the carrot. Not only vitamins and minerals are missing, but also texture and taste. As a result the body will look to make up for this deficiency in other ways by craving something crunchy (potato chips?), sweet (candy?) and juicy (sodas and alcohol?) or maybe even something orange!
Numerous individual researches confirm that plants are vital for good health. That "there are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants" (Campbell, 2006, p. 230) is a strong statement that I find difficult to agree with, I also find that the conclusions in the text are at times drawn on weak and somewhat one-sided arguments that ignore important well-respected researches of the contrary for example that many people thrive on animal protein. As Campbell points out, it may be difficult for somebody living on plant foods to obtain adequate amounts of vitamin B 12 as well as vitamin A and D, even if these aren't considered necessary to be obtained through diet. The vitamins are absorbed better by the body when including a variety of seafood and good quality fats in the diet. Campbell suggests seeing a doctor to have levels of Vitamin B12 checked and to add supplements to the diet to make up for a deficiency. Regarding vitamin D, available in salmon and butter absorbed by the body together with fats, people in the Northern hemisphere do depend on these foods in the darker months of the year when daylight is scares. It is also worth mentioning that some traditional cultures, live on diets very high on saturated animal fats and very little plant foods - heart disease is not a problem. This example undermines the statement that `the same good nutrition maximizes health at every stage of a disease' (Campbell, 2007, p. 237). All necessary vitamins are available through diet, it should not be necessary to rely on tests and supplements. Some good quality animal sources of nutrients might be necessary for some.
The statement that it isn't chemicals that are cancer causing but the consumption of animal foods based on the breast cancer study in Long Island (Campbell, 2007, p. 166) is somewhat subjective and I am tempted to refer to studies that indicate that one of the best-documented medical aftereffects of the Hiroshima was the leukemia that developed in many of the survivors. Those who received the heaviest doses of atomic radiation have been eight times more likely than other Japanese to get the disease and they are more susceptible than others to a whole variety of cancers.
I appreciate the assertion that food is powerful stuff that is able to prevent and indeed halt or reverse disease after diagnosis and that this is applicable for people at any age. It is an area that cannot be stressed enough. Although difficult to prove scientifically, numerous studies on everything from macrobiotic diet to raw foods diet show remarkable result with the use of diet as medicine.
Campbell briefly mentions autoimmune diseases as the most frightening, because once the body turns against itself, it may become unstoppable. The Swank diet is mentioned which, back in 1977, concluded that a diet low in animal fats can prevent and even reverse multiple sclerosis. Although Swank's studies are impressive (even if anecdotal to a great extend) and carried out over a period of many years, Swank represents only one study among numerous, these are not mentioned by Campbell. Some researchers speculate that the high fat intake obtained through the ketogenic diet helps repair the myelin sheath around the nerves, the structure that is damaged in people with multiple sclerosis. Other factors that Campbell fails to mention in connection with for example multiple sclerosis are the effects of mercury in teeth, consumption of dairy, vaccinations and the use of antibiotics.
I appreciate the presentation by Campbell on genes and I agree that gene expression is dependant on diet. Numerous studies show that people when they migrate assume the disease risk of the country to which they move. Obesity amongst Asian/American population is a good example of this. As Natalie Angier states in a recent article in the New York Times' Science section: "We have to get away from the underlying assumption of the particulate units of inheritance that we seem so attached to". The research and evidence on this area is not only a relief for many, it also gives the individual a reason to make an effort to use food and lifestyle to maintain good health and not give in to poor health based the assumption that they are unavoidable because of certain diseases of their ancestors.
It seems that complexity theory, the advanced form of system theory, is appropriate in the study of how diet and lifestyle has an effect on human beings who must be viewed as very complex, evolutionary, adaptive systems. It is indeed complex yet very simple as underlined by Campbell.
As we are all biochemical individuals, I believe that there is enough evidence available at present that conclude that there isn't just one diet that fits all. It is the responsibility of the individual to figure out which foods suit their particular body best in order to feel good and to stay healthy. This is not simple and takes careful consideration and determination.
 A Andrews December 1, 2008
A Andrews (Melbourne, Australia)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is brilliant. Very well referenced. Because I have a chronic illness, and the links Campbell makes between chronic illness and animal protein are such a wake-up call, it made me go vegan the second I read it.
I changed my diet immediately after reading this book. November 29, 2008
Rachel
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have read dozens of nutrition and health books, and (as so many other reviewers have said) this book changed my life more than any other. It demonstrates convincing and credible research that animal protein triggers cancer (and a host of other diseases we already knew about). After reading this book twice, I bought a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks and stopped eating meat (no small feat for me). I'm still working on the dairy, but my goal is to go 95% vegan. And, as a happy byproduct, I've lost 10 pounds in two months -- without trying at all.
Excellent guide! November 29, 2008
Bandana (Rockaway, NJ USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is loaded with factual info about health and diet. I'm so impressed with the science, I just couldn't argue and now follow a plant based diet. The evidence is so clear that rationality helped me make the switch to a much, much healthier diet. Here's to a long and healthy life! And to boot, a plant based diet is much healthier for our planet, also.
Everyone should read this book!! November 23, 2008
M. Ames (Michigan, USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Reading this book could save your life. It is not light reading but it you want the truth about the best diet possible read this. Knowledge is power.
|
|
|
. | |
