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    The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health
    The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health
    The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health
    Ebook788 pages10 hours

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

    By T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell, II

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    About this ebook

    The revised and expanded edition of the bestseller that changed millions of lives

    The science is clear. The results are unmistakable.

    You can dramatically reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just by changing your diet.

    More than 30 years ago, nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell and his team at Cornell, in partnership with teams in China and England, embarked upon the China Study, the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease. What they found when combined with findings in Colin's laboratory, opened their eyes to the dangers of a diet high in animal protein and the unparalleled health benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet.

    In 2005, Colin and his son Tom, now a physician, shared those findings with the world in The China Study, hailed as one of the most important books about diet and health ever written.

    Featuring brand new content, this heavily expanded edition of Colin and Tom's groundbreaking book includes the latest undeniable evidence of the power of a plant-based diet, plus updated information about the changing medical system and how patients stand to benefit from a surging interest in plant-based nutrition.

    The China StudyRevised and Expanded Edition presents a clear and concise message of hope as it dispels a multitude of health myths and misinformation. The basic message is clear. The key to a long, healthy life lies in three things: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBenBella Books
    Release dateDec 27, 2016
    ISBN9781942952909
    The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health
    Author

    T. Colin Campbell

    T. Colin Campbell, PhD, is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and the coauthor of the best-selling books The China Study and Whole.

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    Reviews for The China Study

    4/5

    358 ratings30 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A lot of great information in here that did feel somewhat biased, perhaps because of his asides. Overall I agreed with the information presented. I was curious about other facets such as organics, dairy alternatives, ghee and goat's milk et cetera, and as I understand it, a lot of the nutrients in vegetables are fat soluble, needing some sort of fat to get the most benefit. I've envisioned that as olive oil or ghee, I'd love to see further information.
    • 5/5
      One of my all time favorite books! Excellent if you're at all interested in health or nutrition!
    • 5/5
      What is The China study? It is " the culmination of a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine." Dr. Thomas M. Campbell of Cornell University was the U.S. project partner. It is the most comprehensive study of nutrition to date.

      Just as the cigarette industry came out with M.D.s and their own "studies" countering evidence regarding smoking and lung cancer, sectors of the food industry with a lot to lose should people read The China Study came out of the woodwork. As a result, the internet is replete with nay-saying about the findings.

      Science insists that claims be repeatable. Dr. Dean Ornish-Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Fransico- repeated the findings clinically and became the standard for reversing heart disease after employing The China Study principles. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Cleveland Clinic cardiovascular surgeon, replicated the results and set up a program to prevent and reverse heart disease. Then there is that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit health organization promoting preventive medicine and clinical research, has reproduced the findings.

      Eating habits resulting from the China Study are gaining ground in the U.S.

      So, after wading through the commotion, what did the China Study find? It's simple. The less access people had to meat, the less heart disease they developed. The less access to dairy, the less cancer they had.

      Cancer and heart disease are the two leading causes of death in this country. Is it because we love dairy and meat?

      Reading The China Study is not for everyone. Clinicians will get the most from it. A DVD that resulted from the study entitled "Forks Over Knives" targets the non-medical population. My wife and I watched the DVD before I read the book. She turned to me at the video's end, proclaiming, "We can't un-know this."
    • 5/5
      By far the best and most scientific book I have read about nutrition.
    • 5/5
      Synopsis: One of the most comprehensive studies on nutrition. Dr. Campbell originally started his research from the opinion of someone who grew up on a dairy farm, hoping to promote the effects of a diet high in (animal-based) protein and dairy. What he finds astonishes him. All his research undertakings quickly point to one thing: that an animal-based diet along with dairy is the cause of a significant amount of "Western" diseases (e.g. obesity, heart disease, cancer).

      This book goes into the science and research behind why a plant-based diet can not only prevent, but also cure the majority of Western diseases.

      My Opinion: As a vegetarian (close to vegan) and already having done quite a bit of reading of reading on the topic, I was concerned that there would be nothing new to me in this book. This was not the case! I learnt a lot as this book goes into quite a bit of depth and provided a scientific analysis into what I already know.

      Already having a good idea about the negative effects of dairy ('casein') during the first few chapters I felt slightly impatient waiting for the author to differentiate between dairy and plant-based proteins.

      There is a lot of correlation between diseases (specifically cancer) that can be reduced by consuming a plant-based diet. One of the most common beliefs is that dairy consumption is good for bone health, whereas this is not the case: "These researchers explained that animal-protein, unlike plant-protein, increases the acid load in the body. An increased acid load means that our blood and tissues become more acidic. The body does not like this acidic environment and begins to fight it. In order to neutralise the acid, the body uses calcium, which acts as a very effective base. This calcium, however, must come from somewhere. It ends up being pulled from the bones, and the calcium loss weakens them, putting them at greater risk for fracture... We also know that animal protein is more effective than plant protein at increasing the metabolic acid load in the body."

      Wow! About two-thirds of the way through the book, politics came out. It's a war on food in one of the wealthiest countries! "While I was getting the China Study off the ground, I learned of a committee of seven prominent research scientists who had been retained by the animal-based foods industry (the National Dairy Council and the American Meat Institute) to keep tabs on any research projects in the U.S. likely to cause harm to their industry." This is evidence of propaganda at its finest and emphasises that the meat and dairy industry only has one thing in mind: profit, not health.

      "Americans love to hear good things about their bad habits." The science (emphasis on science - not make-believe) is right in front of us, yet many people are choosing to ignore because (and this is my opinion) they are scared and lazy to make the necessary changes. With half a million Americans having a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, and over 100 million having high cholesterol (and this is at the publication date which, I am sure you can agree with me would have increased rather than decreased) I can only hope that more people pick this up and make the right change to a plant-based diet.
    • 4/5
      There's A LOT of statistics and research data in this book. Sometimes it can read like a "just the facts" one after the other after the other after the other narrative. That style may prove overwhelming for those new to the concept of a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle. On the other hand, for those who have read widely on the subject **or** watched numerous documentaries - for and against - the subject, there's a small amount of new information (based on the data the authors had at time of publication). The sheer volume of their research is astounding and it boggles my mind that people still fight and argue against these findings. I used to think zealots came mostly in the religious or political variety, but good gosh, talk with someone about the benefits of eating less (just less, not zero) meat and/or refined sugar and you'd think you just asked them to burn a bible or give up their gun. Humans are odd (and fascinating) creatures.

      4 stars
    • 1/5
      There are a lot of claims in this book and virtually no evidence of said same. After I hit upon several claims that just didn't sound right I did a bit of journal research. Turns out that this "study" has been hauled over the coals for the rubbish it is. No wonder it is a book rather than a peer reviewed journal paper.
    • 5/5
      Incendiary Refresher Course

      -There is a mountain of scientific evidence to show that the healthiest diet you can possibly consume is a high carbohydrate diet.
      -The past 60 years have been a celebration of chemicals and technology instead of diet and prevention. So we don’t die from heart disease as often, but we still get it at about the same rates. Those who have bypass surgery do not have fewer heart attacks than those who do not.
      -Calcium builds strong bones, but cow’s milk weakens them, as osteoporosis. Americans, Australians and New Zealanders drink the most milk, and have the most bone fractures from middle age on.
      -One of the biggest health hoaxes in history is the nutrient supplement industry.
      -The health damage from doctors’ ignorance of nutrition is astounding.

      Welcome back to The China Study, still straight-shooting, still dramatic, and about 70 pages longer in the new edition. This book provides more training in the health effects of food than MDs get in all their years of education. The clinical studies, the case histories and the science are all here in plain, direct language. It is a very hard book to put down. The facts, usually contrary to everything we’ve been taught, keep coming fast and hard.

      The reason the facts are contrary is of course because of the usual suspects: Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Processors. They have corrupted our universities with grants, infiltrated government agencies to keep the truth at bay, and spend billions advertising their false promises. We grow up with their falsehoods, and we believe in them. Those who try to speak out are isolated, shunned, removed and fired. It is all examined in you-are-there detail, because it all happened to Colin Campbell and other (once) highly-regarded doctors he profiles.

      Campbell’s basic premise is that animal protein destroys our internal ecosystem. A Whole Food, Plant-Based diet not only maintains better health, it can even reverse damage. The scientific proof is endless – and so are the defenders of the SAD – Standard American Diet - that is about one third animal, between meat and dairy.

      When I read the first China Study ten years ago, I immediately went back online and ordered a whole case of them. I then mailed them out to friends all over, preceded by an e-mail warning and my review. That’s how impressed I was. This second edition forced me to reread it. In so doing, I came across several strong new claims and rushed to the first edition, only to find they were already there. So this edition is as much a badly needed refresher as a new discovery. Glad they made me do it.

      David Wineberg
    • 5/5
      Fascinating study on how we should be eating.
    • 4/5
      What Is the China Study?: The actual China Study actually makes up only a small part of this book, although the implications of the study permeate everything else in it. This is how Campbell explains the China Study: In the 1970s the Premier Chou of China initiated a vast survey to collect information on cancer in the country. Involving 650,000 people, it is considered the most ambitious biomedical research project ever undertaken. This study showed that types of cancers were localized. Back in the US, Campbell works with a leading Chinese scientist, and fast forward . . . their team gathers 8,000 statistically significant associations between lifestyle, diet, and disease.

      The Rest of the Book: Fast forward some more and Campbell concludes that the diseases of affluence (colon, lung, breast, stomach cancers, etc., diabetes, coronary heart disease) are caused by the Western diet, specifically, linked to animal protein. From the study, the Chinese with the lowest rates of these diseases ate a plant-based diet. Based on his many years of research on diet, Campbell advises a vegan diet of whole foods (one can eat an unhealthy vegan diet too—white flour, sugar, processed foods). This reminds me of Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” (although Pollan is not vegan)

      Why I Read This Now : Last autumn, my husband and I met with a friend and her husband for dinner. He had recently dropped 40 lbs over a few months, and could not stop talking about the China Study and how much better he felt. He was raised on a farm in Alberta and played semi-pro ball for years—as close to a “good ol’ boy” as you’re going to find in Canada. We found his finding religion (veganism) rather amusing. He harassed my husband to read the book, and Mr Skeptical was surprised at how credible it actually was, so I had to read it too.

      I actually didn’t find that much new in it though—over the past 30 years I’ve read a lot about nutrition. For a time I followed the Pritikin program, which is very similar (except Pritikin names the culprit to be fat instead of animal protein). That wasn’t an easy program to follow, but wow did I feel fabulous! I’ve always wanted to return to it. There is also an extensive section on science, the food industry, consumerism, and government that is important, but again, not new as I’ve read about these problems elsewhere (most recently in Marion Nestle What to Eat). After several hours of hearing him preach about the China Study, I turned to his wife and asked her what she thought, and she rolled her eyes and said, “I’ve always had healthy eating habits.” Exactly.

      Credibility: Campbell is a biochemist specializing in nutrition. He has written over 300 research papers on the subject. His list of credentials and experience is too long to list here, but I have to say that I can’t remember reading a book by an author with so bona fide a track record in his or her field. I did some searching on the internet, and came across a few claims that this study has been “debunked,” but none of the links had an iota of the credibility that he has. Also, his findings are not in the interests of the gajillion dollar a year food industry, so I can see that he attracts naysayers who find him threatening. Put it this way: What’s the downside of following his dietary recommendations?

      Recommended for: If you too have read a lot about nutrition, this isn’t going to surprise you all that much. If reading about nutrition is a new thing for you, or you’re concerned about diseases of affluence, this may be exactly what you need. Campbell writes in a conversational way that makes all the science understandable, so you don’t need a biology degree to read this book.
    • 5/5
      This book totally changed my way of eating, it is even better than vegan, no processed food and fats, simple healthy food. And I feel great in many ways.
      Yes it is a little bit repetitive, but he goes through all the modern diseases and this told me more with every chapter how important it is to eat right to stay healthy and feel good without eating bland food and counting calories.
    • 5/5
      This book really is comprehensive and makes a no-brainer argument for not eating animal products and adopting a whole food, plant-based diet. I'm glad I was already vegan before I read it or I'm sure I would have been freaked out. This should be required reading for anyone working in the medical field and anyone who cares about their health.
    • 2/5
      A lot of data with very few tangible suggestions or examples of the kinds of diets they were studying.
    • 4/5
      To use one of the author's favorite adjectives, the book was 'provocative.' I actually find this quite credible and I will change the way I eat, somewhat.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book - a book every person should read (but won't) - a book every person should follow (but won't). I've read a hundred of these books and very very few impress me with their research...this was one of them.
    • 3/5
      recommended for: those ignorant about the health benefits of a plant based diet

      I have to say that I was not in the mood to read this book. In fact, I’d decided I wasn’t interested in reading it at all. When it first was published I’d heard good things about it so I bought it, but then heard some negative things and put it aside. However, my real world book club decided to read it as our October selection so I read it, but I was not enthusiastic.

      I was a bit irritable reading this as I felt as though I should be taking notes and memorizing material as I would while reading a textbook for a class, and I longed to be reading fiction instead. However, the book was better overall than I’d anticipated.

      First the bad:

      I was warned that this was not a “vegan” book but the authors completely lost me when on page 242 fish is in the category to minimize consumption, not eliminate it, after spending the rest of the book advocating eating 100% plant products. Well, fish are animals, not plants. the authors claim that for losing weight or maintaining an ideal weight calories don’t count so much if one is eating a whole foods plants only diet, and I know this to not be true.

      Also, reading this made me anxious. I haven’t taken that great care of myself for the last 5 ½ years, ever since I suffered knee injuries from running too much. Perhaps had I read this 5 ½ years ago, I’d have felt empowered rather than frightened. This is not the book’s fault of course, but it did diminish my ability to enjoy the reading experience.

      Now the good:

      I liked how he talked about his life and work; it kept the book from being too dry.

      There’s a lot of excellent nutritional information included, including the dangers of consuming animal protein (worth at least a star all by itself) and other lesser known nutritional knowledge. Also, there’s important information about the lack of nutritional education for medical professionals, the power of the food industry to keep Americans eating unhealthy foods, and other cogent arguments for recommending a 100% plant based diet. A lot of diseases and conditions are covered, with nutritional reasons for their occurrence and nutritional solutions for their improvement or cure.

      Not much of the information was new to me. The two areas that gave me something to think about were what was said about the role of genetics (less than I’ve always assumed) and information about supplements (I have to rethink what supplements I take, which will involve some more research on my part.)

      The research he’s conducted and evaluated was more sound than I expected, for which I was grateful.

      What a shame that immigrants to America so often give up their healthier national diet for America’s often inferior fare, which is something I’ve often thought.

      Most importantly, this book has gotten some people to become vegan or adopt a diet with many more plant products and fewer animal products, so I can’t really criticize it too strongly. So, I do hope that many people read this book. If everyone self educates with the information this book provides, at least they can make a truly informed consent about how they choose to eat.

      Oh, and I usually read books cover to cover but I did not read the References on pages 369-404.
    • 5/5
      I was once told that if you really cared about someone and you've read this book - you should give it to them to read.

      Bar-none. Great resource for information about the effects of particular diets on your body.
    • 5/5
      Nutrition, Nutritionally induced Deseases, and Diet and Health.
    • 2/5
      Interesting but the science is not all that convincing. Eat more plant material for better health - advice we should all know and follow.
    • 5/5
      Great to read a book and see scientific evidence on why eating vegan is the best choice for your body-loved it.
    • 4/5
      This is not a diet book, yet a book about nutrition and the effects the typical western (American) diet has on our health. The author gives insightful information on how altering your diet to reflect a plant based diet can change your life.
    • 5/5
      This is very different from most books promoting vegetarian or vegan diets for health reasons. First, he is a scientist and understands the science (these days, these two things are not synonymous). Second, he also understands the social factors that are pushing science over the edge into a different discipline, a discipline which exists to support commodities and their sales value. The story of how he got started in this field, by researching the effect of protein on cancer, was quite intriguing.
    • 2/5
      This book was reference by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, I read it to learn more about the subject of healthy eating. Whilst the sections about the China Study itself are interesting, these are wrapped up in a narrative which spends too much time justifying itself. When the author then starts making a case for vegetarianism it descends into a tone too preachy and frankly whiny for me. In short, Michael Pollan is a much better read.
    • 5/5
      I felt this was a wonderful, lifechanging book that every one should read.
      Dr. Campbell has the best, long term, peer reviewed study on nutrition out there. I'm sure some people don't want to hear that your diet is the most important component of your health and that it's up to you and not your doctor to take care of yourself, but it's true. You have the choice to eat a healthful diet and maintain optimal health or eat the standard American diet and merely hide the symtoms of a greater underlying problem with drugs. It's up to you. If you choose to take your life into your own hands this book will be an excellent resource.
      I think people that won't like it are likely people who don't want to change what they are currently doing because the research is there.
    • 5/5
      T. Colin Campbell’s career-long study of nutrition has produced a simple assertion backed up by empirical evidence: that a diet featuring animal protein and fat is harmful to human health – the best action you can take in order to have long-term health is to eat a plant-based diet. But don’t think this statement capture the full import of the book. “The China Study” is well worth reading from cover to cover. Along the way, Campbell has many insightful thing to say about human nutrition, the nature of scientific investigation, and the depredations caused by scientific reductionism.

      Towards the end, he asks the following disturbing questions:

      “How did we get to a place where the healers of our society, our doctors, know little, if anyting, about nutrition; where our medical institutions denigrate the subject; where using prescription drugs and going to hospitals is the third leading cause of death? How did we get to place where advocating a plant-based diet can jeopardize a professional career, where scientists spend more time mastering nature than respecting it? How did we get to a place where the companies that profit from out sickness are the ones telling us how to be healthy; where the companies that profit from our food choices are the ones telling us what to eat; where the public’s hard-earned money is being spent by the government to boost the drug industry’s profits; and where there is more distrust than trust of our governments policies on foods, drugs and health?

      Dr. Campbell is not simply a writer or journalist, he is a distinguished professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. This is a very important book for everyone to read, and it could have a major impact on your life.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic and enlightening book. If diet and nutrition hadn't become such taboo topics lately, I'd be sending copies to everyone I care about. It's occasioned my own transition to a vegetarian diet.
    • 5/5
      A very well written book! Very informative and backs up what he's researched very well. Although he never actually studies a 100% vegetarian or vegan diet he does imply that going 100% plant would be more beneficial to us all and makes it clear in his book allowing the reader to make his/her own decisions. This should be required reading for all!
    • 5/5
      The best nutrition book I've read. Written by a scientifically credible person with thorough annotation of studies and facts. Makes one examine their diet and look at the long term health implications of eating various food types. Convincing argument that statistically eating a whole foods plant diet is far better for the average person's health and longevity.
    • 5/5
      Although the title would lead one to believe that the eponymous China Study is the focus of this book, it is not. But the less than ideal title aside, this book is full of hard (if sometimes controversial) information based on multiple scientific studies. If you have friends who cannot be convinced to even consider vegetarianism or veganism for environmental, ethical or economic reasons, but who may possibly be swayed by scientific evidence pointing to negative impacts of animal food eating on their own health, then this is THE book to recommend. It makes very little mention of environmentalism, ethics, animal rights etc. Part of its strength lies in its recommendation to (severely) limit animal-based foods rather than outright abstention. This is the type of diet more likely to be followed by someone not motivated by ethical considerations anyway.

      It also makes a good case for why studies like the ones cited within are rarely undertaken and why the results gleaned from them are mired in controversy when they actually do happen. This man has seen from the inside the politics of food production, the coziness between the food industries and government bodies charged with regulating them, It does have a few problems with admittdly unsubstantiated conclusions (mainly those involving casein), but the ones that are substantiated (and published in peer-reviewed journals) present a very strong case without the potentially flawed ones.

      Vegetarians and vegans will love it because it will bolster their resolve. Everyone else needs to read it because this is the information that your doctor will just never tell you, probably because he or she was never taught it.
    • 2/5
      Its a bit hard to write a review of this book because I am not sure where to start. The title would be the best place, but that is where the greatest flaw lies. The title of the book talks about the China Study, unfortunately very little coverage is given to the actual study except to say how it was conducted and a brief review of the results. The rest of the book is filled with aggressive arguments for the reader to become vegetarian, moaning about the current state of nutrition, and talking about how great the author thought he was by receiving multiple grants. The argument for the conversion to vegetarianism dominated the majority of the available pages. The author cited journals but often used older journals and drew some quick conclusions. While its true that there were some good points in the book, I would suggest reading a condensed version on Wikipedia. That way you can learn about the research without having to hear the author talk about his friends and how great of a job he did in the oft mentioned but rarely discussed China Study.

    Book preview

    The China Study - T. Colin Campbell

    Resounding acclaim for T. Colin Campbell and The China Study

    Backed by well-documented, peer-reviewed studies and overwhelming statistics, the case for a vegetarian diet as a foundation for a healthy lifestyle has never been stronger.

    —BRADLEY SAUL, OrganicAthlete.com

    "The China Study is the most important book on nutrition and health to come out in the last seventy-five years. Everyone should read it, and it should be the model for all nutrition programs taught at universities. The reading is engrossing if not astounding. The science is conclusive. Dr. Campbell’s integrity and commitment to truthful nutrition education shine through."

    —DAVID KLEIN, Publisher/Editor Living Nutrition Magazine

    "The China Study describes a monumental survey of diet and death rates from cancer in 65 Chinese counties and the equally monumental efforts to explore its significance and implications for nutrition and health. Dr. Campbell and his son, Thomas, have written a lively, provocative, and important book that deserves widespread attention."

    —FRANK RHODES, PHD, President (1978–1995) Emeritus, Cornell University

    "Colin Campbell’s The China Study is an important book, and a highly readable one. With his son, Tom, Colin studies the relationship between diet and disease, and his conclusions are startling. The China Study is a story that needs to be heard."

    —ROBERT C. RICHARDSON, PHD, Nobel Prize Winner, Professor of Physics and Vice Provost of Research, Cornell University

    "The China Study is the account of a ground-breaking research that provides the answers long sought by physicians, scientists, and health-conscious readers. Based on painstaking investigations over many years, it unearths surprising answers to the most important nutritional questions of our time: What really causes cancer? How can we extend our lives? What will turn around the obesity epidemic? The China Study quickly and easily dispenses with fad diets, relying on solid and convincing evidence. Clearly and beautifully written by one of the world’s most respected nutrition authorities, The China Study represents a major turning-point in our understanding of health."

    —NEAL BARNARD, MD, President, Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine

    "All concerned with the obesity epidemic, their own health, and the staggering environmental and social impacts of the Western diet will find wise and practical solutions in Dr. Campbell’s The China Study."

    —ROBERT GOODLAND, Lead Advisor on the Environment, The World Bank Group (1978–2001)

    Everyone in the field of nutrition science stands on the shoulders of T. Colin Campbell, who is one of the giants in the field. This is one of the most important books about nutrition ever written—reading it may save your life.

    —DEAN ORNISH, MD, Founder & President, Preventative Medicine Research Institute, Clinical Professor of Medicine University of California, San Francisco, Author, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Love & Survival

    "The China Study is the most convincing evidence yet on preventing heart disease, cancer, and other Western diseases by dietary means. It is the book of choice both for economically developed countries and for countries undergoing rapid economical transition and lifestyle change."

    —JUNSHI CHEN, MD, PHD, Senior Research Professor, Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

    "Dr. Campbell’s book The China Study is a moving and insightful history of the struggle—still ongoing—to understand and explain the vital connection between our health and what we eat. Dr. Campbell knows this subject from the inside: he has pioneered the investigation of the diet-cancer link since the days of the seminal China Study, the NAS report, Diet, Nutrition and Cancer, and AICR’s expert panel report, Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective. Consequently, he is able to illuminate every aspect of this question. Today, AICR advocates a predominantly plant-based diet for lower cancer risk because of the great work Dr. Campbell and just a few other visionaries began twenty-five years ago."

    —MARILYN GENTRY, President, American Institute for Cancer Research

    "The China Study is a well-documented analysis of the fallacies of the modern diet, lifestyle, and medicine and the quick fix approach that often fails. The lessons from China provide compelling rationale for a plant-based diet to promote health and reduce the risk of the diseases of affluence."

    —SUSHMA PALMER, PHD, Former Executive Director Food and Nutrition Board, U.S. National Academy of Sciences

    "The China Study is extraordinarily helpful, superbly written, and profoundly important. Dr. Campbell’s work is revolutionary in its implications and spectacular in its clarity. I learned an immense amount from this brave and wise book. If you want to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and then take cholesterol-lowering medication, that’s your right. But if you want to truly take charge of your health, read The China Study and do it soon! If you heed the counsel of this outstanding guide, your body will thank you every day for the rest of your life."

    —JOHN ROBBINS, Author of the Best-Selling Books Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution

    "The China Study is a rare treat. Finally, a world-renowned nutritional scholar has explained the truth about diet and health in a way that everyone can easily understand—a startling truth that everyone needs to know. In this superb volume, Dr. Campbell has distilled, with his son Tom, for us the wisdom of his brilliant career. If you feel any confusion about how to find the healthiest path for yourself and your family, you will find precious answers in The China Study. Don’t miss it!"

    —DOUGLAS J. LISLE, PHD, & ALAN GOLDHAMMER, DC Authors of The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health and Happiness

    "So many diet and health books contain conflicting advice, but most have one thing in common—an agenda to sell something. Dr. Campbell’s only agenda is truth. As a distinguished professor at Cornell University, Dr. Campbell is the Einstein of nutrition. The China Study is based on hardcore scientific research, not the rank speculation of a Zone, Atkins, SugarBusters, or any other current fad. Dr. Campbell lays out his lifetime of research in an accessible, entertaining way. Read this book and you will know why."

    —JEFF NELSON, President, VegSource.com (most visited food website in the world)

    "If you are looking to enhance your health, performance, and your success, read The China Study immediately. Finally, scientifically valid guidance on how much protein we need and where we should get it. The impact of these findings is enormous."

    —JOHN ALLEN MOLLENHAUER, Founder, MyTrainer.com and NutrientRich.com

    You want to live a longer, healthier, happier life but don’t know where to start? This book gives you much more than a million statements reminding you to ‘preserve your health!’ It will certainly initiate new discussions, but more than that it will open new horizons to anyone who wants to embark upon different kind of living.

    —Dr. Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, European Commission

    Nothing written in this book should be viewed as a substitute for competent medical care. Also, you should not undertake any changes in diet or exercise patterns without first consulting your physician, especially if you are currently being treated for any risk factor related to heart disease, high blood pressure, or adult-onset diabetes.

    Copyright © 2016 by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, MD

    The China Study™ is a registered trademark of T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

    BenBella Books, Inc.

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    First E-Book Edition: December 2016

    Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

    Campbell, T. Colin, 1934–

    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 and Thomas M. Campbell II.

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    ISBN 1-932100-38-5

    1. Nutrition. 2. Nutritionally induced diseases. 3. Diet in disease.

    I. Campbell, Thomas M. II. Title.

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    To Karen Campbell, whose incredible love and caring made this book possible.

    And to Thomas McIlwain Campbell and Betty DeMott Campbell for their incredible gifts.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    (FIRST EDITION)

    This book, from its original conception to its final form, was in the making for many years. But it was the last three that gave the book form. And this happened because Karen, my lifelong love and wife of forty-three years, made it so. I wanted to do it, but she wanted it even more. She said it had to be done for the children of the world. She cajoled, she pushed, and she insisted that we keep our nose to the grindstone. She read every word, those kept and those discarded—some several times.

    Most importantly, Karen first suggested that I work with Tom, the youngest of our five children. His writing skills, his persistence in keeping integrity with the message, and his exceptionally quick learning of the subject matter made the project possible. He wrote several chapters in this book himself and rewrote many more, bringing clarity to my message.

    And our other children (Nelson and wife Kim, LeAnne, Keith, Dan) and grandchildren (Whitney, Colin, Steven, Nelson, Laura) could not have been more encouraging. Their love and support cannot be measured in mere words.

    I also am indebted to another family of mine: my many undergraduate honors students, postgraduate doctoral students, postdoctoral research associates, and my fellow professorial colleagues who worked in my research group and who were the gems of my career. Regretfully, I could only cite in this book a small sample of their findings, but far, far more could have been included.

    Yet more friends, associates, and family contributed mightily, through their meticulous reading of various versions of the manuscript and their detailed feedback. Alphabetically, they include Nelson Campbell, Ron Campbell, Kent Carroll, Antonia Demas, Mark Epstein, John and Martha Ferger, Kimberly Kathan, Doug Lisle, John Robbins, Paul Sontrop, and Glenn Yeffeth. Advice, support, and generous help also came in many other forms from Neal Barnard, Jodi Blanco, Junshi Chen, Robert Goodland, Michael Jacobson, Ted Lange, Howard Lyman, Bob Mecoy, John Allen Mollenhauer, Jeff Nelson, Sushma Palmer, Jeff Prince, Frank Rhodes, Bob Richardson, and Kathy Ward.

    Of course, I am grateful to all those at BenBella Books, including Glenn Yeffeth, Shanna Caughey, Meghan Kuckelman, Laura Watkins, and Leah Wilson for turning a messy Word document into the book you now have. In addition, Kent Carroll added professionalism, understanding, and a clear vision with his valuable editing work.

    The heart of this book is the China Study itself. It was not the whole story, of course, but it was the tipping point in the development of my ideas. The actual study in China could not have happened without the extraordinary leadership and dedicated hard work of Junshi Chen and Li Junyao in Beijing; Sir Richard Peto and Jillian Boreham at the University of Oxford in England; and Linda Youngman, Martin Root, and Banoo Parpia in my own group at Cornell. Dr. Chen directed more than 200 professional workers as they carried out the nationwide study in China. His professional and personal characteristics have been an inspiration to me; it is his kind of work and persona that makes this world a better place.

    Similarly, Drs. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., and John McDougall (and Ann and Mary, respectively) generously agreed to participate in this book. Their dedication and courage are inspiring.

    All of this was possible, of course, because of the exceptional start given to me by my parents, Tom and Betty Campbell, to whom this book is dedicated. Their love and dedication created for me and my siblings more opportunities than they ever dreamed of having.

    I must also credit my colleagues who have worked to discredit my ideas and, not infrequently, me personally. They inspire in a different way. They compel me to ask why there is so much unnecessary hostility to ideas that should be part of the scientific debate. In searching for answers, I have gained a wiser, more unique perspective that I could not have considered otherwise.

    Lastly, I must thank you, the taxpaying American public. You funded my work for more than four decades, and I hope that in telling you the lessons I’ve learned, I can begin to repay my debt to you.

    —T. COLIN CAMPBELL

    In addition to all those listed previously, I acknowledge my parents. My involvement in this book was, and still is, a gift from them I shall cherish for the rest of my life. Words cannot describe my good fortune in having parents who are such wonderful teachers, supporters, and motivators.

    —THOMAS M. CAMPBELL, II

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    (SECOND EDITION)

    Among those acknowledged in the first edition, I would like to re-acknowledge those who have worked to discredit my ideas and, not infrequently, me personally. Little did I know, when I wrote that previous acknowledgment, how real their contribution would be.

    Their hostility to this book’s message about the role of food in our health is palpable and so passionate that I have often been surprised. They often are quite articulate, and in some ways scientifically competent, although among those I have observed, most are more adept at language than science. Some of these have even availed themselves of others more skilled in science to edit their draft documents. Bottom line? They are often quite deft at fooling the public into believing they have crafted a credible second opinion.

    Then there are those critics who are the most hostile and who use language that is not acceptable for this book. I have been curious about their passion and am of the opinion that they often represent the interests of major companies who believe that this message will cost them market share, if not more. But I am also convinced that there are some who honestly believe their critiques. They and their families and friends are accustomed to their traditional diets, having eaten them for a long time, perhaps for generations. Old habits die hard and the future may be too uncertain for them to contemplate.

    Still, some of these critiques, no matter their sharp edges, have substance, and they must be answered. These critiques will be addressed in this book.

    I also must acknowledge the innumerable people who have attended the 500-plus lectures I have given since publication of the first edition. Their questions matter and, without doubt, they have helped me learn to better articulate my comments and thoughts. I consider this to be my good fortune.

    My wife, Karen, and our family (Tom, Dan, Keith, LeAnne, Nelson, Erin, Lisa, and Kim) continue to be more than supportive and creative in advancing this book’s message. I could not expect more. Then, too, I acknowledge the production of the movie documentary Forks Over Knives, produced by Brian Wendel and John Corry and directed by Lee Fulkerson. Its theater and DVD runs featuring The China Study have been unusually successful in advancing this message.

    Tom co-authored the first edition of this book and then, with a new enthusiasm, chose to change his career from theater to medicine (he is now board certified in family medicine). In doing so, he since has acquired an unusually informed knowledge of this topic. I am convinced that, thanks to him and other young medical practitioners, the message of this book will be adopted on a wide scale in the future.

    —T. COLIN CAMPBELL

    Since the first edition of The China Study, I immersed myself fully in the medical system, becoming a practicing, board-certified family physician. It was a remarkable experience to see the four years of work we put into writing The China Study change so many lives while being immersed in a very separate world of medical education.

    I want to thank my mentors and educators from that immense and consuming journey. In particular, I want to thank those faculty and staff at the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Family Medicine who offered support and education during my residency. The UR Primary Care Network, my current employer, has also been remarkably supportive over the past several years. By allowing me and my wife to bring a diet and lifestyle intervention to patients in the UR Program for Nutrition in Medicine (URNutritionInMedicine.com), they are proving themselves to be among a very small group of forward-thinking national leaders in health care.

    Of course, as many doctors will tell you, perhaps the most valuable teachers have been my patients. There is no greater satisfaction than to help a patient heal himself or herself, and this book is intended to help its readers do just that.

    I want to also acknowledge my wife, Erin Campbell, MD, MPH, who is co-founder of our Nutrition in Medicine program. Her personal and professional support and interest, along with her skills and abilities, make all of this possible.

    Last, I want to acknowledge the staff at the nonprofit T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies (nutritionstudies.org), who have propelled our plant-based certificate program to be among the most popular programs at eCornell. Having been the executive director for over a year and half, and now as the medical director, I can confidently say that Jenny Miller, Anne Ledbetter, Sarah Dwyer, Juan Lube, Jeremy Rose, Jill Edwards, Michael Ledbetter, and all the center’s instructors and past employees have worked as much as anyone in the world to help the message of The China Study reach as broad an audience as possible.

    —THOMAS M. CAMPBELL, II

    CONTENTS

    Preface

    Foreword

    Introduction

    PART I: THE CHINA STUDY

    1.Problems We Face, Solutions We Need

    2.A House of Proteins

    3.Turning Off Cancer

    4.Lessons from China

    PART II: DISEASES OF AFFLUENCE

    5.Broken Hearts

    6.Obesity

    7.Diabetes

    8.Common Cancers: Breast, Prostate, Large Bowel (Colon and Rectal)

    9.Autoimmune Diseases

    10.Wide-Ranging Effects: Bone, Kidney, Eye, and Brain Diseases

    PART III: THE GOOD NUTRITION GUIDE

    11.Eating Right: Eight Principles of Food and Health

    12.How to Eat

    PART IV: WHY HAVEN’T YOU HEARD THIS BEFORE?

    13.Science—The Dark Side

    14.Scientific Reductionism

    15.The Science of Industry

    16.Government: Is It for the People?

    17.Big Medicine: Whose Health Are They Protecting?

    18.Academia

    19.Repeating Histories

    Afterword

    Appendix A. Q&A: Protein Effect in Experimental Rat Studies

    Appendix B. Experimental Design of the China Study

    Appendix C. The Vitamin D Connection

    References

    Index

    About the Authors

    PREFACE

    (FROM THE FIRST EDITION)

    T. Colin Campbell, at his core, is still a farm boy from northern Virginia. When we spend time together, we inevitably share our stories from the farm. Whether it is spreading cow manure, driving tractors, or herding cattle, both of us share a rich history in farming.

    But from these backgrounds, both he and I went on to other careers. It is for his other career accomplishments that I came to admire Colin. He was involved in the discovery of a chemical later called dioxin, and he went on to direct one of the most important diet and health studies ever conducted, the China Study. In between, he authored hundreds of scientific papers, sat on numerous government expert panels, and helped shape national and international diet and health organizations, like the American Institute for Cancer Research/World Cancer Research Fund. As a scientist, he has played an instrumental role in how our country views diet and health.

    And yet, as I have gotten to know Colin on a personal level, I have come to respect him for reasons other than just his list of professional accomplishments. I have come to respect him for his courage and integrity.

    Colin seriously questions the status quo, and even though the scientific evidence is on his side, going against the grain is never easy. I know this well because I have been a co-defendant with Oprah Winfrey when a group of cattlemen decided to sue her after she stated her intention not to eat beef. I have been in Washington, D.C., lobbying for better agricultural practices and fighting to change the way we raise and grow food in this country. I have taken on some of the most influential, well-funded groups in the country and I know that it’s not easy.

    Because of our parallel paths, I feel connected to Colin’s story. We started on the farm, learning independence, honesty, and integrity in small communities, and went on to become established in mainstream careers. Although we both had success (I still remember the first seven-figure check I wrote for my massive cattle operation in Montana), we came to realize that the system we lived in could use some improvements.

    Challenging the system that provided us with such rewards has demanded an iron will and steadfast integrity. Colin has both, and this book is a brilliant capstone to a long and dignified career. We would do well to learn from Colin, who has reached the top of his profession and then had the courage to reach even higher by demanding change.

    Whether you have interest in your personal health or in the wretched state of health in the United States, this book will richly reward you. Read it carefully, absorb its information, and apply it to your life.

    —HOWARD LYMAN, AUTHOR OF MAD COWBOY

    FOREWORD

    (FROM THE FIRST EDITION)

    If you are like most Americans today, you are surrounded by fast-food chain restaurants. You are barraged by ads for junk foods. You see other ads, for weight-loss programs, that say you can eat whatever you want, not exercise, and still lose weight. It’s easier to find a Snickers bar, a Big Mac, or a Coke than it is to find an apple. And your kids eat at a school cafeteria whose idea of a vegetable is the ketchup on the burgers.

    You go to your doctor for health tips. In the waiting room, you find a glossy 243-page magazine titled Family Doctor: Your Essential Guide to Health and Well-being. Published by the American Academy of Family Physicians and sent free to the offices of all 50,000 family doctors in the United States, it’s filled with full-page color ads for McDonald’s, Dr Pepper, chocolate pudding, and Oreo cookies.

    You pick up an issue of National Geographic Kids, a magazine published by the National Geographic Society for ages six and up, expecting to find wholesome reading for youngsters. The pages, however, are filled with ads for Twinkies, M&Ms, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Hostess Cup Cakes, and Xtreme Jell-O Pudding Sticks.

    This is what scientists and food activists at Yale University call a toxic food environment. It is the environment in which most of us live today.

    The inescapable fact is that certain people are making an awful lot of money today selling foods that are unhealthy. They want you to keep eating the foods they sell, even though doing so makes you fat, depletes your vitality, and shortens and degrades your life. They want you docile, compliant, and ignorant. They do not want you informed, active, and passionately alive, and they are quite willing to spend billions of dollars annually to accomplish their goals.

    You can acquiesce to all this, you can succumb to the junk-food sellers, or you can find a healthier and more life-affirming relationship with your body and the food you eat. If you want to live with radiant health, lean and clear and alive in your body, you’ll need an ally in today’s environment.

    Fortunately, you have in your hand just such an ally. T. Colin Campbell, PhD, is widely recognized as a brilliant scholar, a dedicated researcher, and a great humanitarian. Having had the pleasure and privilege to be his friend, I can attest to all of that, and I can also add something else. He is also a man of humility and human depth, a man whose love for others guides his every step.

    Dr. Campbell’s new book—The China Study—is a great ray of light in the darkness of our times, illuminating the landscape and the realities of diet and health so clearly, so fully, that you need never again fall prey to those who profit from keeping you misinformed, confused, and obediently eating the foods they sell.

    One of the many things I appreciate about this book is that Dr. Campbell doesn’t just give you his conclusions. He doesn’t preach from on high, telling what you should and shouldn’t eat, as if you were a child. Instead, like a good and trusted friend who happens to have learned, discovered, and done more in his life than most of us could ever imagine, he gently, clearly, and skillfully gives you the information and data you need to fully understand what’s involved in diet and health today. He empowers you to make informed choices. Sure, he makes recommendations and suggestions, and terrific ones at that. But he always shows you how he has arrived at his conclusions. The data and the truth are what are important. His only agenda is to help you live as informed and healthy a life as possible.

    I’ve read The China Study twice already, and each time I’ve learned an immense amount. This is a brave and wise book. The China Study is extraordinarily helpful, superbly written, and profoundly important. Dr. Campbell’s work is revolutionary in its implications and spectacular in its clarity.

    If you want to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and then take cholesterol-lowering medication, that’s your right. But if you want to truly take charge of your health, read The China Study, and do it soon! If you heed the counsel of this outstanding guide, your body will thank you every day for the rest of your life.

    —JOHN ROBBINS, AUTHOR OF DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA, RECLAIMING OUR HEALTH, AND THE FOOD REVOLUTION

    INTRODUCTION

    The public’s hunger for nutrition information never ceases to amaze me, even after devoting my entire working life to conducting experimental research into nutrition and health. Diet books are perennial best sellers. Almost every popular magazine features nutrition advice, newspapers regularly run articles, and TV and radio programs constantly discuss diet and health. On the internet, you can shop for health advice of any persuasion that suits your fancy.

    Given the barrage of information, are you confident that you know what you should be doing to improve your health?

    Should you buy food that is labeled organic to avoid pesticide exposure? Are environmental chemicals a primary cause of cancer? Or is your health predetermined by the genes you inherited when you were born? Do carbohydrates really make you fat? Should you be more concerned about the total amount of fat you eat, or just saturated fats and trans fats? What vitamins, if any, should you be taking? Do you buy foods that are fortified with extra fiber? Should you eat fish, and, if so, how often? Will eating soy foods prevent heart disease?

    My guess is that you’re not really sure of the answers to these questions. If this is the case, then you aren’t alone. Even though information and opinions are plentiful, very few people truly know what they should be doing to improve their health.

    This isn’t because the research hasn’t been done. It has. We know an enormous amount about the links between nutrition and health. But the real science has been buried beneath a clutter of irrelevant or even harmful information—junk science, fad diets, and food industry propaganda.

    I want to change that. I want to give you a new framework for understanding nutrition and health, a framework that eliminates confusion, prevents and treats disease, and allows you to live a more fulfilling life.

    I have been in the system for almost sixty years, often at the very highest levels, designing and directing large research projects, deciding which research gets funded, and translating massive amounts of scientific research into national expert-panel reports.

    After a long career in research, policy making, and lecturing to a wide variety of public and professional audiences, I now understand why Americans are so confused. As a taxpayer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health, and disease are wrong:

    •Synthetic chemicals in the environment and in your food, as problematic as they may be, are not the main cause of cancer.

    •The genes that you inherit from your parents are not the most important factors in determining whether you fall prey to any of the ten leading causes of death.

    •The hope that genetic research will eventually lead to drug cures for diseases ignores more powerful solutions that can be employed today.

    •Obsessively controlling your intake of any one nutrient, such as carbohydrates, fat, cholesterol, or omega-3 fats, will not result in long-term health.

    •Vitamins and nutrient supplements do not give you long-term protection against disease.

    •Drugs and surgery don’t cure the diseases that kill most Americans.

    •Your doctor probably does not know what you need to do to be the healthiest you can be.

    I propose to do nothing less than redefine what we think of as good nutrition. The provocative results of my four decades of experimental research, including the findings from a twenty-seven-year laboratory program (funded by the most reputable funding agencies), prove that eating right can save your life.

    I will not ask you to believe conclusions based on my personal observations, as some popular authors do. There are over 800 references in this book, and the vast majority of them are primary sources of information, including hundreds of scientific publications from other researchers that point the way to less cancer, less heart disease, fewer strokes, less obesity, less diabetes, less autoimmune disease, less osteoporosis, less Alzheimer’s, fewer kidney stones, and less blindness.

    Some of the findings, published in the most reputable scientific journals, show that:

    •Dietary change can enable diabetic patients to go off their medication.

    •Heart disease can be reversed with diet alone—and in doing so, reducing animal protein is more significant than reducing saturated fat.

    •Breast cancer is related to levels of female hormones in the blood, which are determined by the food we eat.

    •Consuming dairy foods can increase the risk of prostate cancer.

    •Antioxidants, found in fruits and vegetables, are linked to better mental performance in old age.

    •Kidney stones can be prevented by a healthy diet.

    •Type 1 diabetes, one of the most devastating diseases that can befall a child, is convincingly linked to infant feeding practices.

    These findings demonstrate that a good diet is the most powerful weapon we have against disease and sickness. An understanding of this scientific evidence is not only important for improving health; it also has profound implications for our society as well as societies around the world. We must know why misinformation dominates our cultural conversation and why we are grossly mistaken in how we investigate diet and disease, how we promote health, and how we treat illness.

    By any number of measures, America’s health is failing. We spend far more, per capita, on health care than any other society in the world, yet two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and over 25 million Americans have diabetes, an increase of about 10 million since the first edition of this book. Heart disease is still the number one cause of death, just as it was forty years ago, and the War on Cancer, launched in the 1970s, has been a miserable failure. Half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week. Though the number of Americans with high cholesterol has been on a mysterious downward trend over the last few decades, there are still over 70 million who are living with this condition.

    To make matters worse, we are leading our youth down a path of disease earlier and earlier in their lives. One-third of the young people in this country are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Increasingly, they are falling prey to a form of diabetes that used to be seen only in adults, and these young people now take more prescription drugs than ever before.

    These issues all come down to three things: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

    Sixty years ago, at the beginning of my career, I would have never guessed that food is so closely related to health problems. For years I never gave much thought to which foods were best to eat. I just ate what everyone else did: what I was told was good food. We all eat what is tasty or what is convenient or what our parents taught us to prefer. Most of us live within cultural boundaries that define our food preferences and habits.

    So it was with me. I was raised on a dairy farm where milk was central to our existence. We were told in school that cow’s milk made strong, healthy bones and teeth. It was nature’s most perfect food. On our farm, we produced most of our own food in the garden or in the livestock pastures.

    I was the first in my family to go to college. I studied pre-veterinary medicine at Penn State and then attended veterinary school at the University of Georgia for a year when Cornell University beckoned with scholarship money for me to do graduate research in animal nutrition. I transferred, in part, because they were going to pay me to go to school instead of me paying them. There I did a master’s degree. I was the last graduate student of Professor Clive McCay, a Cornell professor famed for extending the lives of rats by feeding them much less food than they would otherwise eat. My PhD research at Cornell was devoted to finding better ways to make cows and sheep grow faster. I was attempting to improve on our ability to produce animal protein, the cornerstone of what I was told was good nutrition.

    I was on a trail to promote better health by advocating the consumption of more meat, milk, and eggs. It was an obvious sequel to my own life on the farm and I was happy to believe that the American diet was the best in the world. Through these formative years, I encountered a recurring theme: we were supposedly eating the right foods, especially plenty of high-quality animal protein.

    Much of my early career was spent working with two of the most toxic chemicals ever discovered, dioxin and aflatoxin. I initially worked at MIT, where I was assigned a chicken feed puzzle. Millions of chicks a year were dying from an unknown toxic chemical in their feed, and I had the responsibility of isolating and determining the structure of this chemical. After two and one-half years, I helped discover dioxin, arguably the most toxic chemical ever found. This chemical has since received widespread attention, especially because it was part of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, or Agent Orange, then being used to defoliate forests in the Vietnam War.

    After leaving MIT and taking a faculty position at Virginia Tech, I began coordinating technical assistance for a nationwide project in the Philippines working with malnourished children. Part of the project became an investigation of the unusually high prevalence of liver cancer, usually an adult disease, in Filipino children. It was thought that high consumption of aflatoxin, a mold toxin found in peanuts and corn, caused this problem. Aflatoxin has been called one of the most potent carcinogens ever discovered.

    For ten years our primary goal in the Philippines was to improve childhood malnutrition among the poor, a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Eventually, we established about 110 nutrition self-help education centers around the country.

    The aim of these efforts in the Philippines was simple: make sure that children were getting as much protein as possible. It was widely thought that much of the childhood malnutrition in the world was caused by a lack of protein, especially from animal-based foods. Universities and governments around the world were working to alleviate a perceived protein gap in the developing world.

    In this project, however, I uncovered a dark secret. Children who ate the highest-protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer! They were the children of the wealthiest families.

    I then noticed a research report from India that had some very provocative, relevant findings. Indian researchers had studied two groups of rats. In one group, they administered the cancer-causing aflatoxin, then fed a diet that was composed of 20% protein, a level near what many of us consume in the West. In the other group, they administered the same amount of aflatoxin, but then fed a diet that was only composed of 5% protein. Incredibly, every single animal that consumed the 20% protein diet had evidence of liver cancer, and every single animal that consumed a 5% protein diet avoided liver cancer. It was a 100 to 0 score, leaving no doubt that nutrition trumped chemical carcinogens, even very potent carcinogens, in controlling cancer.

    This information countered everything I had been taught. It was heretical to say that protein wasn’t healthy, let alone say it promoted cancer. It was a defining moment in my career. Investigating such a provocative question so early in my career was not a very wise choice. Questioning protein and animal-based foods in general ran the risk of my being labeled a heretic, even if it passed the test of good science.

    But I never was much for following directions just for the sake of following directions. When I first learned to drive a team of horses or herd cattle, to hunt animals, to fish our creek, or to work in the fields, I came to accept that independent thinking was part of the deal. It had to be. Encountering problems in the field meant that I had to figure out what to do next. It was a great classroom, as any farm boy can tell you. That sense of independence has stayed with me until today.

    So, faced with a difficult decision, I decided to start an in-depth laboratory program that would investigate the role of nutrition, especially protein, in the development of cancer. My colleagues and I were cautious in framing our hypotheses, rigorous in our methodology, and conservative in interpreting our findings. I chose to do this research at a very basic science level, studying the biochemical details of cancer formation. It was important to understand not only whether but also how protein might promote cancer. It was the best of all worlds. By carefully following the rules of good science, I was able to study a provocative topic without provoking knee-jerk responses that arise with radical ideas. Eventually, this research became handsomely funded for twenty-seven years by the best-reviewed and most competitive funding sources (mostly the National Institutes of Health [NIH], the American Cancer Society, and the American Institute for Cancer Research). Then our results were reviewed (a second time) for publication in many of the best scientific journals.

    What we found was shocking. Low-protein diets inhibited the initiation of cancer by aflatoxin, regardless of how much of this carcinogen was administered to these animals. After cancer initiation was completed, low-protein diets also dramatically blocked subsequent cancer growth. In other words, the cancer-producing effects of this highly carcinogenic chemical were rendered insignificant by a low-protein diet. In fact, dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed.

    Furthermore, the amounts of protein being fed were those that we humans routinely consume. We didn’t use extraordinary levels, as is so often the case in carcinogen studies.

    But that’s not all. We found that not all proteins had this effect. What protein consistently and strongly promoted cancer? Casein, which makes up 87% of cow’s milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process. What type of protein did not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake? The safe proteins were from plants, including wheat and soy. As this picture came into view, it began to challenge and then to shatter some of my most cherished assumptions.

    These experimental animal studies didn’t end there. I went on to direct what was, at the time, the most comprehensive study of diet, lifestyle, and disease ever done with humans in the history of biomedical research. It was a massive undertaking jointly arranged through Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. The New York Times called it the Grand Prix of Epidemiology. This project surveyed a vast range of diseases and diet and lifestyle factors in rural China and, six year later, in Taiwan. More commonly known as the China Study, this project eventually produced more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease!

    What made this project especially remarkable is that, among the many associations that are relevant to diet and disease, so many pointed to the same finding: people who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease. Even relatively small intakes of animal-based food were associated with adverse effects. People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored. From the initial experimental animal studies on animal protein effects to this massive human study on dietary patterns, the findings proved to be consistent. The health implications of consuming either animal- or plant-based nutrients were remarkably different.

    I could not, and did not, rest on the findings of our animal studies and the massive human study in China, however impressive they may have been. I sought out the findings of other researchers and clinicians. The findings of these individuals have proved to be some of the most exciting findings of the past fifty years.

    These findings—the contents of Part II of this book—show that heart disease, diabetes, and obesity can be reversed by a healthy diet. Other research shows that various cancers, autoimmune diseases, bone health, kidney health, vision and brain disorders in old age (like cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer’s) are convincingly influenced by diet. Most importantly, the diet that has time and again been shown to reverse and/or prevent these diseases is the same whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet that I had found to promote optimal health in my laboratory research and in the China Study. The findings are consistent.

    Yet, despite the power of this information, despite the hope it generates, and despite the urgent need for this understanding of nutrition and health, people are still confused. I have friends with heart disease who are resigned and despondent about being at the mercy of what they consider to be an inevitable disease. I’ve talked with women who are so terrified of breast cancer that they wish to have their own breasts, even their daughters’ breasts, surgically removed, as if that’s the only way to minimize risk. So many of the people I have met have been led down a path of illness, despondency, and confusion about their health and what they can do to protect it.

    Americans are confused, and I will tell you why. The answer, discussed in Part IV, has to do with how health information is generated and communicated and who controls such activities. Because I have been behind the scenes generating health information for so long, I have seen what really goes on—and I’m ready to tell the world what is wrong with the system. The distinctions between government, industry, science, and medicine have become blurred. The distinctions between making a profit and promoting health have become blurred. The problems with the system do not come in the form of Hollywood-style corruption. The problems are much more subtle, and yet much more dangerous. The result is massive amounts of misinformation, for which average American consumers pay twice. They provide the tax money to do the research, and then they provide the money for their health care to treat their largely preventable diseases.

    This story, starting from my personal background and culminating in a new understanding of nutrition and health, is the subject of this book. After spending time at MIT and Virginia Tech, then coming back to Cornell over forty years ago, I was charged with the task of integrating the concepts and principles of chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and toxicology in an upper-level course in nutritional biochemistry. Twenty years ago at Cornell University, I organized and taught a new elective course called Vegetarian Nutrition. It was the first such course on an American university campus and proved far more successful than I could have imagined. The course focused on the health value of a plant-based diet. This course is now organized online by a nonprofit organization that I founded and that has partnered with the Cornell University program that does online courses for faculty. Headed by a long-time associate of mine, Jenny Miller, under the medical direction of my son and co-author, Thomas Campbell, MD, it has emerged among the most popular of the 200-plus courses offered by the Cornell online group.

    After more than four decades of scientific research, education, and policy making at our society’s highest levels, I had gained considerable confidence that I could adequately integrate my research findings and experiences into a cogent story. Many readers of the first edition of this book and viewers of three especially successful documentary movies in which our work was featured—Forks Over Knives and PlantPure Nation in the United States (directed by my son Nelson), and Planeat in England—have told me that their lives have been changed for the better. In many cases, the information was life saving. That’s what I and Tom intend to keep doing in this second edition. I hope your life is changed as well.

    PART I

    THE CHINA STUDY

    He who does not know food, how can he understand the diseases of man?

    —Hippocrates, the father of medicine (460–357 BC)

    On a golden morning in 1946, when summer was all tuckered out and fall wanted to be let in, all you could hear on my family’s dairy farm was quiet. There was no growl from cars driving by or airplanes burning trails overhead. Just quiet. There were the songbirds, of course, and the cows, and the roosters who would chime in once in a while, but these noises merely filled out the quiet, the peace.

    Standing on the second floor of our barn, with the immense brown doors gaping open, allowing the sun to soak through, I was a happy twelve-year-old. I had just finished a big country breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, and ham with a couple of glasses of whole milk. My mom had cooked a fantastic meal. I had been working up my appetite since 4:30 AM, when I had gotten up to milk the cows with my father, Tom, and my brother Jack.

    My father, then forty-five, stood with me in the quiet sun. He opened a fifty-pound sack of alfalfa seed, dumped all the tiny seeds on the wooden barn floor in front of us, and then opened a box containing fine black powder. The powder, he explained, was bacteria that would help the alfalfa grow. They would attach themselves to the seeds and become part of the roots of the growing plant throughout its life. Having had only two years of formal education, my father was proud of knowing that the bacteria helped the alfalfa convert nitrogen from the air into protein. The protein, he explained, was good for the cows that would eventually eat it. So our work that morning was to mix the bacteria and the alfalfa seeds before planting. Always curious, I asked my dad why it worked and how. He was glad to explain it, and I was glad to hear it. This was important knowledge for a farm boy.

    Seventeen years later, in 1963, my father had his first heart attack. He was sixty-one. At age seventy, he died from a second massive coronary. I was devastated. My father, who had stood with my siblings and me for so many days in the quiet countryside, teaching us the things that I still hold dear in life, was gone.

    Now, after decades of doing experimental research on diet and health, I know that the very disease that killed my father, heart disease, can be prevented, even reversed. Vascular (arteries and heart) health is possible without life-threatening surgery and without potentially lethal drugs. I have learned that it can be achieved simply by eating the right food.

    This is the story of how food can change our lives. I have spent my career in research and teaching unraveling the complex mystery of why health eludes some and embraces others, and I now know that food primarily determines the outcome. This information could not come at a better time. Our health care system costs too much, excludes far too many people, and neither promotes health nor prevents disease. Volumes have been written on how the problem might be solved, but progress has been painfully slow.

    SICKNESS, ANYONE?

    If you are male in this country, the American Cancer Society says that you have a 47% lifetime chance of getting cancer. If you are female, you fare a little better, but you still have a whopping 38% lifetime chance of getting cancer.¹ The rates at which we die from cancer are among the highest in the world and, except for continuing declines in some cancers² due to preventing exposure to well-known cancer initiators (avoiding tobacco for lung cancer and brine-preserved food for stomach cancer), it has been getting worse (Chart 1.1). Despite forty-seven years of the massively funded War on Cancer, we have made only a small amount of progress beyond controlling these exposures or finding better cancer treatments.

    Contrary to what many believe, cancer is not a natural event. Adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle can prevent a sizable number of cancers in the United States. Old age can and should be graceful and peaceful.

    Chart 1.1: Cancer Death Rates (Per 100,000 People)¹

    But cancer is only part of a larger picture of disease and death in America. Looking elsewhere, we see that there is an overall pattern of poor health. For example, we are rapidly becoming the heaviest people on earth. Overweight Americans now significantly outnumber those who maintain a healthy weight. As shown in Chart 1.2, our rates of obesity have been skyrocketing over the past several decades.³

    According to the National Center for Health Statistics, as of 2015, more than a third of the adults twenty years of age and over in this country are obese! One is considered obese if he or she is carrying more than a third of a person above and beyond a healthy weight. Similarly frightening trends have been occurring in children as young as two years of age.⁴

    Chart 1.2: Percent Obese Population³

    Chart 1.3: What is Obese (Both Sexes)?

    But cancer and obesity are not the only epidemics casting a large shadow over American health. Diabetes has also increased in unprecedented proportions. One out of eleven Americans now has diabetes, and that ratio continues to rise. If we don’t heed the importance of diet, millions of additional Americans will unknowingly develop diabetes and suffer its consequences, including blindness, limb amputation, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and premature death. Despite this, fast-food restaurants that serve nutritionally defunct foods are now fixtures in almost every town. We eat out more than ever⁵ and speed has taken precedence over quality. As we spend more time watching TV, playing video games, and using the computer, we are less physically active.

    Both diabetes and obesity are merely symptoms of poor health in general. They rarely exist in isolation of other diseases and often forecast deeper, more serious health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke. In our first edition, we reported two frightening statistics: that diabetes among people in their thirties had increased 70% in less than ten years and that the percentage of obese people had nearly doubled in the past thirty years. Such an incredibly fast increase in these signal diseases in America’s young to middle-age population forecasted a health care catastrophe on the horizon that may become an unbearable burden on a health system that is already strained in countless ways.

    Diabetes Statistics

    Since that ominous forecast, the latest (2012)

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