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

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...