The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health

by T. Colin Campbell

common to all autoimmune diseases. It is as if the body

What does all of this have to do with what we eat? It so happens that the antigens that trick our bodies into attacking our own cells may be in food.

One of the foods that supplies many of the foreign proteins that mimic our own body proteins is cow’s milk.

infants or very young children of a certain genetic background,21,22 who are weaned from the breast too early23 onto cow’s milk and who, perhaps, become infected with a virus that may corrupt the gut immune system,20 are likely to have a high risk for Type 1 diabetes. A

we find that children weaned too early and fed cow’s milk have, on average, a 50–60% higher risk of Type 1 diabetes (1.5–1.6 times increased risk).35

For example, if I say cigarettes are bad for you and provide a mountain of evidence to support my contention, the tobacco companies might come along and pick out one unsolved detail and then claim that the whole idea of cigarettes being unhealthy is mired in controversy, thereby nullifying all my conclusions. This is easy to do, because there will always be unsolved details; this is the nature of science.

If I have a conversation with someone about a single study showing the protective effect of fruits and vegetables on heart disease, they may agree that it’s all very nice for fruits and vegetables, but they will probably still go home to meatloaf and gravy. It doesn’t matter how big the study, how persuasive the results, or how reputable the scientists who conducted the investigation. The fact is that most people have a healthy skepticism about one study standing alone—as well they should.

These observations raise a serious question about the widely advertised claim that protein-rich dairy foods protect our bones.

If too much calcium is consumed over a long period of time, the body may lose its ability to regulate calcitriol, permanently or temporarily disrupting the regulation of calcium absorption and excretion. Ruining the regulatory mechanism in this way is a recipe for osteoporosis in menopausal and post-menopausal women. Women at this stage of life must be able to enhance their utilization of calcium in a timely manner, especially if they continue to consume a diet high in animal protein.

The fact that the body loses its ability to control finely tuned mechanisms when they are subjected to continuous abuse is a well-established phenomenon in biology.

Yes, that’s right. I’m about to tell you that if you eat animal foods instead of plant foods, you just might go blind.

Memory loss, disorientation, and confusion are not inevitable parts of aging, but problems linked to that all-important lifestyle factor: diet.

The enjoyment of life, especially the second half of life, is greatly compromised if we can’t see, if we can’t think, if our kidneys don’t work, or if our bones are broken or fragile. I, for one, hope that I am able to fully enjoy not only the time in the present, but also the time in the future, with good health and independence.

Our bodies have evolved with this infinitely complex network of reactions in order to derive maximal benefit from whole foods, as they appear in nature. The misguided may trumpet the virtues of one specific nutrient or chemical, but this thinking is too simplistic. Our bodies have learned how to benefit from the chemicals in food as they are packaged together, discarding some and using others as they see fit. We cannot stress this enough, as it is the foundation of understanding what good nutrition means.

Isolating nutrients and trying to get benefits equal to those of whole foods reveals an ignorance of how nutrition operates in the body.

Too much vitamin D, however, can be toxic, so please consult your doctor before beginning supplementation on your own.

Goethe once said, “We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases.”21 Expression of our genetic code represents

We believe that an ounce of prevention does equal a pound of cure, and the earlier in life good foods are eaten, the better one’s health will be. But for those who already face the burden of disease, we must not forget that nutrition still can play a vital role.

People wonder if they can erase bad eating habits by being a runner. The answer to this is no. The benefits and risks of diet are crucially important, and more sizable, than the benefits and risks of other activities. Besides, why would anyone want to try and balance benefits and risks when they could have all the benefits working together?

John Robbins has done more than any other person to bring this issue to the front of American consciousness, and we strongly recommend reading his 2010 book, The Food Revolution. Our food choices have an incredible

Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition, written with Howard Jacobson.28

Followers of these diets have to count calories, points, servings, or nutrients or eat specific amounts of certain foods based on specific, mathematical ratios. There are tools to be used, supplements to be taken, and worksheets to be completed. It is no wonder that dieting seldom succeeds. Eating should be an enjoyable and worry-free experience, and shouldn’t rely on deprivation. Keeping it simple is essential if we are to enjoy our food.

One of the most fortunate findings from the mountain of nutritional research we’ve encountered is that good food and good health is simple.

eat a whole foods, plant-based diet, while minimizing the consumption of refined foods, added salt, and added fats.

My advice is to try to eliminate all animal-based products from your diet, but not obsess over it. If a tasty vegetable soup has a chicken stock base, or if a hearty loaf of whole wheat bread includes a tiny amount of egg, don’t worry about it. These quantities, very likely, are nutritionally unimportant. Even more importantly, the ability to relax about very minor quantities of animal-based foods makes applying this diet much easier—especially when eating out or buying already-prepared foods. While we recommend that you not

There are three excellent reasons to go all the way. First, following this diet requires a radical shift in your thinking about food. It’s more work to just do it halfway. If you plan for animal-based products, you’ll eat them—and you’ll almost certainly eat more than you should. Second, you’ll feel deprived. Instead of viewing your new food habit as being able to eat all the plant-based food you want, you’ll be seeing it in terms of having to limit yourself, which is not conducive to staying on the diet long-term. And third, you will, within a month or so, perhaps a little more, actually break the physiological addiction that we acquire from eating large amounts of fat and refined carbohydrates.

Give it one month. You’ve been eating cheeseburgers your whole life; a month without them won’t kill you. A month isn’t enough time to give you any long-term benefits, but it is long enough for you to discover four things: 1. There are some great foods you can eat in a plant-based diet that you otherwise may never have discovered. You may not be eating everything you want (desire for meat may last longer than a month), but you will be eating lots of great, delicious foods. 2. It’s not all that bad. Some people take to this diet quite quickly and love it. Many take months to fully adjust to it, at which point they often discover some new tastes. But almost everyone will find that it’s a lot easier than they thought. 3. You’ll feel better. Even after only a month, most people will feel better and likely lose some weight, too. Try having your blood work done both before and after. Odds are, you’ll see significant improvement in even that period of time if you’ve been eating the standard American diet. (Since we made the one-month recommendation in the first edition of this book, several groups have organized relatively formal opportunities to use the diet for periods of 7–10 days only, with blood work done before and after. My eldest son, Nelson, and his consulting physician have done it six times, for groups as large as 130 people. Depending on what diet and numbers people begin with, it is possible to see total cholesterol drop by 100 points or...

THE TRANSITION If you take us up on our suggestion to try a plant-based diet for one month, you’ll likely face five main challenges: • In the first week, you may have some stomach upset as your digestive system adjusts. This is natural; it is nothing to worry about and doesn’t usually last long. • You’ll need to put some time into this. Don’t begrudge this time—heart disease and cancer take time, too. Specifically, you’ll need to learn some new recipes, be willing to try new dishes, and discover new restaurants. You’ll need to pay attention to your tastes and come up with meals that you really enjoy. This is key. • You’ll need to adjust psychologically. No matter how full the plate is, many of us were trained to think that without meat, it’s not a real meal—especially at dinner. You’ll need to overcome this prejudice. • You may not be able to go to the same restaurants you used to, and if you can, you certainly won’t be able to order the same things. This takes some adjustment. • Your friends, family, and colleagues may not be supportive. For whatever reasons, many people will find it threatening that you are eating a plant-based diet. Perhaps it’s because, deep down, they know their diet isn’t very healthy and find it threatening that someone else is able to give up unhealthy eating habits when they cannot.

We’d also like to offer you a few pieces of advice for your first month: • In the long term, plant-based eating is cheaper than an animal-based diet, but as you learn, you may spend a little extra money trying things. Do it. It’s worth it. • Eat well. If you eat out, try lots of restaurants to find some great plant-based dishes (looking for ones marked “vegan” is a great place to start). Ethnic restaurants often offer the most options for plant-based meals, and the unique tastes are exquisite. Learn what’s out there. • Eat enough. One of your health goals may be to lose weight. That’s fine, and on a WFPB diet you likely will. But don’t hold back—whatever you do, don’t go hungry. • Eat a variety. Mixing it up is important both for getting all the necessary nutrients and for maintaining your interest in the diet. The bottom line is that you can eat a plant-based diet with great pleasure and satisfaction. But making the transition is a challenge. There are psychological barriers and practical ones. It takes time and effort. You may not get support from your friends and family. But the benefits are nothing short of miraculous. And you’ll be amazed at how easy it becomes once you form new habits. Take the one-month challenge. You’ll not only do great things for yourself, you’ll be part of the vanguard working toward moving America into a healthier, leaner future. Glenn is an associate of ours who had been a dedicated meat eater be...

http://www.drmcdougall.com),

Rochester Program for Nutrition in Medicine (URNutritionInMedicine.com). We’re proud to offer one of the more

believe that a great many of our behavioral choices are made with a strong, mostly subconscious deference to social norms, and many people, including patients and health care providers, remain uninterested in trying a plant-based diet. Nutrition training in medical school

We, as a society, are on the edge of a great precipice: we can fall to sickness, poverty, and degradation, or we can embrace health, longevity, and bounty. And all it takes is the courage to change.

Nutrition works through the concept of wholism, which represents a powerful symphony of countless nutrients and nutrient-like chemicals working by countless mechanisms to produce a highly dynamic, almost seamless series of outcomes—good outcomes when working well, not so good when not working well.

The 2011 documentary film Forks Over Knives (available on Netflix

The 2015 film PlantPure Nation (also available on Netflix) takes

One of the more important things that vitamin D does, mostly through its conversion to supercharged 1,25 D, is to control the development of a wide variety of serious diseases. For the sake of simplicity, this is schematically represented by showing the inhibition of the conversion of healthy tissue to diseased tissue by 1,25 D.4–12