Colin Campbell Chinese study. "Chinese Study" (Colin Campbell): reviews and criticism What we eat and what not

Colin Campbell, Thomas Campbell

Chinese study. Findings from the largest study on nutrition and health

Published with permission from BenBella Books c/o PERSEUS BOOKS, Inc. and agencies of Alexander Korzhenevsky.

Published in Russian for the first time

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet and corporate networks, for private and public use, without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

This book is well complemented by:

Longevity Rules

Dan Buettner

Healthy to death

Hey Jay Jacobs

Age of happiness

Vladimir Yakovlev

healthy habits

Lydia Ionova

Partner's Preface

Dear readers, if you are holding this book in your hands, then get ready for amazing discoveries!

This book will destroy many stereotypes about proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle in general. She will tell you how food can cause many chronic diseases and influence their development, what foods you need to eat to be healthy, and which ones you should not.

The book "Chinese Study" will be a real discovery for you, as it was for us, the largest supplier of nuts and dried fruits to Russia of the GOOD FOOD Group of Companies.

After studying its content, we were amazed by the results of a study conducted by Dr. Colin Campbell, Professor, one of the world's leading experts in the field of food biochemistry. The stereotypes of proper nutrition are so ingrained in our traditions that the content of the book initially caused surprise and indignation. The author of the book provided the reader with all the necessary data from which one can conclude: many products, the benefits of which we have been told since childhood, not only do not bring a positive result for human health, but also destroy him over time, causing such well-known diseases as coronary heart disease. hearts, diabetes, cancer of various organs, etc. It is noteworthy that among the important foods in the diet, the author singles out nuts. In his opinion, their reasonable use undoubtedly benefits the body. As a professional in its field, GOOD FOOD has deep knowledge of the benefits and unique properties of this product. For 16 years, the company has been supplying large stores and food enterprises in Russia with nuts and dried fruits. The impressive experience and the presence of its own laboratory give the company the opportunity to study these products in detail. Undoubtedly, nuts, as well as dried fruits, are natural sources of good health and an important component of proper nutrition. The data presented in the book fully confirm this fact.

As a partner of the book "The China Study", we want to express our indifferent position to the health problems of modern society. According to statistics, in 2013 more than a third of the Russian population is obese, about 3 million patients with diabetes mellitus are registered, 2.5 million people are registered with malignant tumors, and the share of total mortality in Russia from cardiovascular diseases is 57%. The statistics are horrendous, but each of us has a chance to bypass these problems and live a long and happy life. This book will help you take a fresh look at many diseases that are directly related to nutrition and which can be avoided with the right approach to daily diet.

We wish you success on your path to good health and longevity, and we will be glad if our products help you go through this path tasty and with pleasure!

Igor Petrovich Baranov,

President of the GOOD FOOD Group of Companies

Preface to the Russian edition

I have been involved in nutrition for more than 15 years, and it seemed to me that there was nothing in this area that could surprise me - because I am aware of all the new information, I train the doctors of my clinic on British and American benefits. Together with colleagues, I was the first from Russia to study at the School for the Treatment of Obesity in Cambridge. Every year at international scientific congresses I learn about all the new trends and significant research results. Yes, I thought that some new nuances might appear, but for my ideas about “what is good and what is bad” to be completely turned upside down in nutrition - I could not even imagine this! But that's exactly what happened when, as a science editor, I contributed to Dr. Campbell's book, The China Study, translated into Russian for the first time.

For me, the author absolutely achieved his goal: “to change the way society thinks about nutrition information – to remove ambiguities and make the topic of health simple and understandable, while basing its claims on the evidence obtained from peer-reviewed scientific research on nutrition published in peer-reviewed experts in professional publications.

This is a revolutionary book that will not leave anyone indifferent: you will either become an ardent follower or an implacable opponent of Colin Campbell. Protein dieters are in for a bitter disappointment, and I can already see how bodybuilders mercilessly criticize "this American upstart." What will happen at the Institute of Nutrition, which makes its verdicts on the benefits of fast food, is even hard to imagine! Most likely, Russian scientific circles will pretend that nothing happened and who this Campbell is, they do not know! Well, hushing up and rigging research results to please food manufacturers is not only a Russian reality, but, as Dr. Campbell writes, an American reality. He points out that “industry is not just monitoring 'dangerous' science projects. She actively promotes her version, regardless of the potential negative consequences for human health, at the expense of scientific objectivity. Of particular concern is the fact that representatives of academic science are doing this, while hiding their true intentions.

I highly recommend this book to my fellow doctors. Since for Russia, as for America, “the situation is relevant when doctors who do not have sufficient training in the field of nutrition prescribe milk and nutritious sugar-based cocktails to diabetics who are overweight; a high-meat, high-fat diet for weight loss patients; and extra milk for patients with osteoporosis. The harm done to health as a result of the ignorance of doctors in matters of nutrition is simply staggering.” Perhaps this book will help make the “personal graveyard” of each doctor a little smaller.

If a miracle happens and the people who make decisions about the nutrition of our nation do not remain indifferent and criminally careless (or criminally cynical), then our children and grandchildren may have a chance not to lose their health in kindergarten and school canteens!

And every adult, after reading this book, will be able to make their own informed choice based on reliable information. I have already made mine and for the first time in my life observed Great Lent this year, because the food restrictions he set absolutely coincide with the recommendations of Colin Campbell!

And I am very proud to know Professor Philip James personally, who prevented the intention of "bringing the World Health Organization to its knees if it does not retract its recommendations" in favor of the industry lobby. Will it happen in our country? Wait and see!

Lydia Ionova,

dietitian, founder of the Doctor Ionova Clinic,

Which book would you believe more - the one in which everything is beautifully and well told and promises “amazing results in a short time”, or the one in which all the data would be based on certain studies and confirmed by numbers? Now there are a huge number of books about various diets and how to live long and healthy, and in some you can find exactly the opposite advice. I remember well how doctors foaming at the mouth argued that butter is death, and then after a while new studies appeared that showed that in small quantities it is useful.

Without special education, it is almost impossible to understand all this, and we have to very carefully check all this on ourselves. Unfortunately, these experiments are not always safe. The book “Chinese study. The results of the largest study of the relationship between nutrition and health "by Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell differ from similar literature in that all conclusions were made on the basis of many years of research (20 years) and supported by a huge amount of statistical data with very detailed explanations.

In it you will find not only important information about the connection of our diet with many diseases (cancer, diabetes, heart and autoimmune diseases), but also learn a lot of interesting things about the lobby in the dairy and meat industries. Are you sure that cow's milk is healthy and only it can provide our body with the necessary amount of calcium and vitamin D?

Colin Campbell

Professor Emeritus in the Department of Food Biochemistry at Cornell University. US National Institutes of Health Award Winner. Honorary Lecturer, Taiwan Nutrition Research Society. First in the list of the 25 most influential figures in the field of nutrition (1998). Recipient of the American Institute for Cancer Research Award "For Significant Scientific Achievement in Research and Understanding of Nutrition and Cancer." Over 325 publications.

What is this book about

The book was published in 2005, but only recently has it reached us in translated form. Its author, Colin Campbell, the world's leading biochemist, talks about his research and findings about the relationship between nutrition and many diseases.

It touches on all the currently painful topics - cancer, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and heart disease. And the authors associate all this with our nutrition.

We are used to hysteria about genetically modified foods, poisoned water or a whole periodic table in food. Yes, they are definitely harmful. Yes, they are best avoided, but in most articles you will not find more detailed information about how exactly they act on the body, and what is the trigger for triggering the reaction.

Colin Campbell draws on data from the China Study and related smaller studies, and cites statistically significant examples. This means that the probability of hitting the bullseye is between 70 and 99.9%.

This study began thanks to the initiative of Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, who was dying of cancer and sought salvation by involving the best specialists in the study of this problem. As a result, the study of mortality statistics in 65 counties in China resulted in a book that changed the lives of many. In addition to studies conducted in China, data on the study of liver cancer problems in poor residents of the Philippines were also added here. And this is where it all began, and Campbell joined the China Study after that.

So what can serve as a signal to activate the growth of cancer cells? Campbell suggests that animal protein is to blame, especially lactose, the protein found in cow's milk. The author also considers him to be the culprit in the increased incidence of diabetes mellitus, both type 2 and type 1, among young children.

Based on this book, the ideal diet is an exclusively plant-based diet with the complete exclusion of animal proteins. But the author in no way encourages readers to immediately go over to the side of vegetarians. He doesn't invite anyone to do anything. He simply states proven facts, backed up by numbers and his own experience. And his experience is quite rich, since Colin Campbell grew up on a farm, where he always drank about two liters of whole milk a day, and breakfast without scrambled eggs and bacon was not considered the most nutritious and correct. Agree that it is quite difficult to switch from such a lifestyle to an exclusively plant-based diet.

Why are we constantly told about the benefits of milk rich in calcium and vitamin D?! Especially for this, the book has a separate section on lobbyists. This applies to both dairy and meat products. Everything is lined up. Fans of various conspiracy theories will especially rejoice.

Why should you read it?

Because this book makes you think. You are not being sold a new fad diet. You are not called with loud words to go over to the side of good. You're just being shown a causal relationship in a 20-year study. You are shown figures and given very understandable comments to them, which a person who is very far from biology and medicine will understand.

You are simply provided with facts, and there the choice is yours alone - to try, act, or ignore the data presented.

Personally, the book made quite an impression on me. I don’t really like trendy diets and books that call for urgent changes, because the more they shout at me, the more skeptical I will be about what is written. But this book made me really think about the consequences of what I eat and what I feed my family.

Colin Campbell, Thomas Campbell

Chinese study. Updated and expanded edition. The classic book on healthy eating

Scientific editor Nadezhda Nikolskaya

Published with permission from BenBella Books and Perseus Books, LLC acting jointly with Projex International, LLC and Alexander Korzhenevski Agency

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

First published in the United States by BenBella Books. Published by arrangement with BenBella Books (USA) via Perseus Books (USA) and Alexander Korzhenevski Agency (Russia)

Dedicated to Karen Campbell - her incredible love made this book possible

And also to Thomas McIlwain Campbell and Betty Demott Campbell for their amazing gifts.

Introduction (from the first edition)

Thomas Colin Campbell is essentially still a country boy from Northern Virginia. When we spend time together, we always tell each other stories about farm life. Whether it's working with cow dung, driving a tractor, grazing livestock, we both have rich experience in agriculture.

But from that environment, Colin and I went into different professions. And it was for his career achievements that I began to admire him. He was involved in the discovery of a chemical compound later named dioxin, and he spearheaded one of the most significant diet and health projects, the China Study. In the interim, he has published hundreds of scientific papers, served on numerous government committees, and been involved in the founding of national and international nutritional and medical organizations such as the American Institute for Cancer Research/World Cancer Research Foundation. As a scientist, he has played an important role in how our country views nutrition and health.

Also, because I know Colin on a personal level, I respect him for reasons other than his professional accomplishments. I respect him for his courage and honesty.

Colin seriously questions the status quo, and while the scientific evidence is on his side, going against the grain is never easy. I know this well because I was Oprah Winfrey's co-defendant when a group of ranchers sued her for how Oprah announced her intention to give up beef. I came to Washington and campaigned for good agricultural practices, fought to change the way food is grown in our country. I have accepted the challenge of some of the most powerful and wealthy factions, and I understand how difficult it is.

We're on parallel paths, so I feel connected to Colin's story. We grew up on a farm, learned independence, honesty and decency in small teams, moved on to become professional. Although we were both successful (I still remember the first seven-figure check written out for a large-scale livestock complex in Montana), we came to understand that it was possible to improve the system in which we live.

It takes iron will and unwavering integrity to challenge a system that has been so kind to us. Colin has both, and this book is the brilliant culmination of his long and distinguished career. We should learn from Colin, who reached the top of his profession and then had the courage to go even further by demanding change.

If your health is important to you, this book will reward you handsomely. Read it carefully, master the information and apply it in your life.

Foreword (from the first edition)

If your life is similar to the life of most modern Westerners, then you are surrounded by fast food chains. You get bombarded with fast food ads. You see other ads for weight loss that say you can eat anything, not exercise, and still shed those extra pounds. In today's world, it's easier to find a Snickers bar, a Big Mac or a Coca-Cola than an apple. And your kids eat in the school cafeteria, where the idea of vegetables is limited to ketchup on a hamburger.

You go to your doctor for advice on how to improve your health. In the waiting room, you see a 243-page magazine called The Family Doctor: Your Path to Health and Wellness. This magazine, published by the American Family Physicians Association and distributed to 50,000 family physicians in the United States, is full of glossy full-page ads promoting McDonald's, Dr. Pepper, chocolate pudding and Oreo cookies.

You pick up an issue of National Geographic Kids, the magazine published by the National Geographic Society for children 6 and up, expecting to find useful information for the younger generation. However, the pages of the magazine are full of advertisements for Twinkies, M&Ms, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Hostess Cup Cakes and Xtreme Jell-O Pudding Sticks.

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

The unforgiving truth is that some people make huge amounts of money selling unhealthy food. They want you to continue eating the foods they sell, even though it will make you fatter, deplete your vitality, and reduce your life expectancy and quality. They want you to be submissive, suggestible and ignorant. They do not want you to become informed, active and full of energy, and they are ready to spend billions of dollars every year to achieve their goals.

You can make peace with it and put yourself at the mercy of junk food manufacturers, or you can develop a healthier and more life-affirming relationship with your body and the food you eat. If you want to be healthy, fit, have a clear mind and a cheerful spirit, then you need an ally.

Fortunately, you just hold such an ally in your hands. Colin Campbell is widely regarded as a brilliant scientist, passionate researcher and great humanist. Having the pleasure and honor of being his friend, I can say this and add something else: he is also a man of great modesty and depth.

Professor Campbell's The China Study is a true ray of light in the modern dark realm, shedding light on nutrition and health issues so clearly and completely that you will never again be a victim of those who profit from your ignorance, misunderstanding and meek eating of what they sell. products.

In my opinion, one of the many strengths of this book is that Campbell doesn't just tell you his findings. He does not teach from above, telling you, like a child, what to eat and what not to eat. Instead, like a trusted friend who has learned, discovered, and accomplished more in life than most of us can even imagine, he brings you the information you need to fully understand diet and health issues in a non-intrusive, clear, and professional manner. It gives you the freedom to make an informed choice. Of course, he gives recommendations and advice, and they are excellent. But he always shows how he came to certain conclusions. Information and truth is what matters. Its sole purpose is to help you live life as informed and healthy as possible.

Current page: 1 (total book has 36 pages) [available reading excerpt: 7 pages]

Colin Campbell, Thomas Campbell
Chinese study. Findings from the largest study on nutrition and health

Published with permission from BenBella Books c/o PERSEUS BOOKS, Inc. and agencies of Alexander Korzhenevsky.

Published in Russian for the first time

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

This book is well complemented by:

Longevity Rules

Dan Buettner

Healthy to death

Hey Jay Jacobs

Age of happiness

Vladimir Yakovlev

healthy habits

Lydia Ionova

Partner's Preface

Dear readers, if you are holding this book in your hands, then get ready for amazing discoveries!

The book "Chinese Study" will be a real discovery for you, as it was for us, the largest supplier of nuts and dried fruits to Russia of the GOOD FOOD Group of Companies.

We wish you success on your path to good health and longevity, and we will be glad if our products help you go through this path tasty and with pleasure!

Igor Petrovich Baranov,

President of the GOOD FOOD Group of Companies

Preface to the Russian edition

Lydia Ionova,

dietitian, founder of the Doctor Ionova Clinic,

Dedicated to Karen Campbell - her incredible love made this book possible

And also to Thomas McIlwain Campbell and Betty Demott Campbell for their amazing gifts.

Foreword

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

Fortunately, you just hold such an ally in your hands. Colin Campbell, PhD, is widely regarded as a brilliant scientist, passionate researcher, and great humanist. Having the pleasure and honor of being his friend, I can say this and add something else: he is also a man of great modesty and depth.

I have already read The China Study twice and have discovered so much each time. This is a brave and wise book. It is extraordinarily useful, superbly written, and essential. Campbell's work contains revolutionary conclusions and at the same time strikes with a clear and precise manner of presentation.

If you want to eat eggs and bacon for breakfast and then take your cholesterol-lowering medication, that's your right. However, if you really want to take care of your health, read The China Study and get started! If you heed the advice of this outstanding consultant, 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 1
John Robbins is one of the world's leading experts on the impact of diet on human health. His books Diet for a New America, Reclaiming Our Health, and The Food Revolution have become bestsellers. Note. ed.

Introduction

The public need for information about healthy eating has always amazed me, even after I devoted my life to conducting experimental research in this area. Diet books become perennial bestsellers. Recommendations are provided in almost every popular magazine, newspapers regularly publish articles on this topic, and healthy eating is constantly discussed on television and radio.

With such an abundance of information, are you sure you know how to improve your health?

Should you buy food labeled "organic" to avoid exposing your body to pesticides? Are environmental changes the main cause of cancer? Or is the state of your health "determined" by the genes you received at birth? Do carbs really make you fat? Should you be concerned about total fat, or just saturated fat or trans fat? What vitamins should be taken, and should it be taken at all? Do you buy foods that are additionally fortified with fiber? Should I eat fish, and if so, how often? Do soy foods help prevent heart disease?

I don't think you're quite sure about the answers to these questions. And you are not alone. Despite the large amount of information and different opinions, very few people really know what to do to improve their health.

And the reason is not that the relevant studies have not been conducted. They were held. We know a lot about the relationship between nutrition and health. However, real science is buried under a mass of unnecessary and even harmful information: it is pseudoscientific research paid for by food companies, newfangled diets and propaganda that is carried out by the food industry.

I want to change it. I want to give you a new foundation for understanding nutrition and health that will help you eliminate doubt, prevent and treat disease, and live more fully.

I have been in the system for almost 50 years, holding very senior positions, designing and leading large research projects, deciding which ones will be funded, and using a lot of research materials to prepare national review board reports.

Many common beliefs about food, health and disease are wrong:

Synthetic chemicals in the environment and food, no matter how harmful, are not the main cause of cancer.

The genes you inherit from your parents are not the main factor in determining whether you fall victim to one of the top ten causes of death.

Because of the hope that genetic research will eventually lead to cures for various diseases, the more effective solutions that exist today are ignored.

Carefully controlling your intake of any nutrient, such as carbohydrates, fats, cholesterol, or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, will not lead to better health in the long run.

Vitamins and nutritional supplements will not give you long-term protection against disease.

Medicines and surgery do not cure the diseases that kill most people.

Your doctor probably doesn't know what you need to do to achieve the best possible health for you.

I am offering you nothing more and nothing less than a rethinking of your dietary habits. The provocative results of my forty-year practice of life science research, including the findings of a 27-year laboratory program (funded by the most respected foundations), show that proper nutrition can save your life.

I will not ask you to believe conclusions based on my own observations, as some popular authors do. There are 750 references in this book 2
The bibliography is available at www.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru/books/healthy_eating/the-china-study. Note. ed.

And the vast majority of them are primary sources of information, including hundreds of scientific publications by other researchers that point to ways to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, kidney stones, and vision loss.

Dietary changes can help diabetic patients stop taking medications;

For the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, changes in nutrition are enough;

The occurrence of breast cancer is associated with the level of female hormones in the blood, which is determined by the food consumed;

Eating dairy products may increase the risk of prostate cancer;

Antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables improve mental performance in old age;

A healthy diet can prevent the formation of kidney stones;

There is compelling evidence for a link between childhood nutrition and type 1 diabetes, one of the most dangerous childhood diseases.

These findings suggest that proper nutrition is the most powerful weapon we have against disease. And understanding this scientific evidence is not only important for better health – it also has important implications for our society as a whole. We obliged to know why our society is dominated by misinformation and why we are deeply mistaken in the study of nutrition and diseases, how we improve health and how we treat diseases.

More than 40 years ago, at the beginning of my career, I never would have thought that food and health problems were so closely related. Over the years, I never really cared about which food was the right one. I just ate what everyone else ate: what I thought was good nutrition. We all eat what is tasty, or what is convenient, or what our parents taught us to eat. Most of us live in a particular cultural environment that determines our culinary habits and tastes.

All of this applied to me as well. I grew up on a dairy farm where milk was the main product that defined our existence. We were taught in school that cow's milk helps strengthen bones and teeth. This is the most perfect product created by nature. On our farm, most of the food was grown in the garden or grazed in the pasture.

I was the first in my family to go to college. I first studied veterinary science at Pennsylvania State University and then spent a year at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Georgia State University, after which Cornell University lured me away with a scholarship to work on my graduate research on Animal Nutrition. I moved there partly because they were going to pay me to study, not the other way around. There I got my master's degree. I was the last graduate of Professor Clive McKay of Cornell University, famous for extending the lifespan of rats by feeding them much less food than they would like. My research, for which I received my PhD from the same university, was to find ways to make cows and sheep grow faster. I was trying to improve our production of animal protein, a key element of what I was told was "good nutrition."

I was going to improve people's health by recommending more meat, milk and eggs for their food. This was an obvious consequence of my own life on the farm. Throughout the course of my thinking, I've been confronted with the same theme: we seem to be eating healthy foods, especially those rich in high-quality animal protein.

I spent most of the early years of my career working with two of the most poisonous chemicals ever discovered, dioxin and aflatoxin. First at MIT, I worked on the problem of chicken feed. Millions of chickens per year were dying from an unknown toxic chemical in their feed, and my task was to identify and determine the structure of this substance. Two and a half years later, I helped discover dioxin, probably the most toxic chemical known. It aroused great interest, especially as it became part of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, or the so-called "Agent Orange", which was later used to kill leaves in the Vietnamese forests during the war.

After leaving MIT and taking a position at Virginia Tech, I began coordinating technical assistance for a national project in the Philippines working with malnourished children. Part of the challenge was to investigate the significant prevalence of liver cancer among Filipino children, usually an adult disease. The disease was thought to be caused by high consumption of aflatoxin, which is found in moldy rot that forms on peanuts and cereals. Aflatoxin is one of the most potent known carcinogens.

For 10 years, we have strived to improve the nutrition of children in the poor. The project was funded by the US Agency for International Development. As a result, we have established about 110 nutritional self-help educational centers throughout the country.

The goal of these efforts in the Philippines is simple - to ensure that children consume as much protein as possible. It was widely believed that the poor nutrition of the world's children was due mainly to a lack of protein, especially from animal foods. Numerous universities and governments have attempted to alleviate what they believe is a protein deficiency in the developing world.

However, in the course of this project, I uncovered a dark secret. Children whose diets were rich in protein were more likely to get liver cancer! These were children from the most prosperous families.

Then I stumbled upon a research report from India that contained very important and provocative findings. Indian scientists studied two groups of rats. To one group they gave the cancer-causing aflatoxin, while the diet of these experimental animals contained 20% protein, which is comparable to the usual level of its consumption in Western countries. They gave the other group the same amount of aflatoxin, while the protein content of the rats' diet was only 5%. Incredibly, absolutely all animals whose diet consisted of 20% protein developed liver cancer, while none of the animals that consumed 5% protein fell victim to this disease. This was 100%, undeniable evidence that nutrition neutralizes the effects of carcinogens, even very powerful ones, and helps reduce the risk of cancer.

This information was contrary to everything I had been taught before. It was heresy to say that proteins weren't healthy, let alone increased the risk of cancer. This was the turning point in my career. It would not be too wise to engage in the study of such a provocative question at such an early stage of my scientific career. By disputing the benefits of proteins and animal foods in general, I risked being branded a heretic, even if I had solid scientific evidence.

However, I have never sought to blindly follow generally accepted rules. Even as I learned to herd horses or livestock, hunt animals, fish, or work in the fields, I learned that independent thinking is an important component of success. It couldn't be otherwise. Faced with difficulties in the field, I had to figure out what to do next. This is a real school, ask any country boy. The feeling of independence has remained with me to this day.

So, faced with a difficult choice to make, I decided to launch a laboratory program of rigorous research on the role of nutrition, primarily protein, in the development of cancer. My colleagues and I were careful in the formulation of hypotheses, strict in following the methodology, and conservative in our conclusions. I decided to start from the scientific base and study the biochemical features of cancer formation. It was very important to understand not only whether cause squirrels cancer, but also how it happens. The decision was correct. By scrupulously adhering to scientific rules, I was able to explore this provocative topic without resorting to the predictable automatic responses that are usually offered when revolutionary ideas are put forward. This research has been heavily funded over the course of 27 years the most respected organizations (primarily the US National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the American Institute for Cancer Research). Then our results were rechecked (once again) for publication in many of the best scientific journals.

Our findings were shocking. A low-protein diet prevented the development of cancer caused by aflatoxin, regardless of how much of this carcinogen was consumed by animals. If cancer had already arisen, then a low-protein diet greatly inhibited its further development. In other words, the ability of this carcinogenic chemical to cause cancer was virtually eliminated by a low-protein diet. Proteins in the diet had such a big impact that we could stimulate and stop the development of cancer simply by changing the level of their consumption.

Moreover, the amount of protein consumed by the animals was equal to that normally found in human diets. We did not use more of them, as is very often done in the study of carcinogens.

In addition, we found that not all proteins have this effect. What protein has played an invariable and decisive role in provoking cancer? Casein, which is 87% of the protein contained in cow's milk, provoked and accelerated the development of tumors at all stages of the disease. What types of proteins did not cause cancer, even when consumed in large amounts? Safe proteins were found in plant foods, including wheat and soy. As this picture began to emerge, I began to question my strongest beliefs, which then finally collapsed.

The animal experiments didn't stop there. I have spearheaded the most comprehensive study of human nutrition, lifestyle and disease ever undertaken. It was a massive project organized jointly with Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Institute of Preventive Medicine. The New York Times called it the "Grand Prix of Epidemiology". As part of this project, a large number of diseases were studied, as well as factors affecting diet and lifestyle in rural areas of China, and later Taiwan. More commonly known as the China Study, this project has generated more than 8000 statistically significant evidence of the relationship between various dietary habits and diseases!

This project was particularly remarkable because so many of the relationships found between nutrition and disease led to the same conclusion: those who ate mostly animal foods were more prone to chronic disease. Even a relatively small amount of animal food caused a negative effect. In contrast, those who ate a predominantly plant-based diet were healthier and generally avoided chronic disease. These results could not be ignored. All studies, from animal protein studies to large-scale studies of human nutrition, have come to the same conclusions. The health effects of eating animal and plant foods were quite different.

I could not and did not dwell on the results of our animal studies and large-scale studies on the nutrition of the Chinese, no matter how impressive these data were. I turned to the findings of other scientists and clinicians. Their findings were among the most interesting of the last 50 years.

These results, presented in Part II of the book, suggest that cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity can be treated with a healthy diet. Other studies provide convincing evidence that diet influences the occurrence of various types of cancer, autoimmune diseases, diseases of the bones, kidneys, vision, brain disorders in old age (such as cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer's disease). More importantly, the diet that has repeatedly been shown to cure and prevent these diseases includes the same natural, plant-based foods that I previously found in laboratory and Chinese dietary studies to promote optimal health. The results of these studies are consistent with each other.

And yet, despite the persuasiveness of this information, despite the hope it provides, and the urgent need to understand nutrition and health issues, people are still confused. I have friends with heart problems who are out of work and depressed because they are in the grip of a disease they think is incurable. I have talked to women who are so afraid of breast cancer that they would like to surgically remove their own breasts and even their daughters' breasts, considering this the only way to minimize the risk of getting sick. Many people I know have lost heart as they walk down a path of sickness, discouragement, and confusion about health and what can be done to protect it.

Many people are confused and I will tell you why. The reason given in Part IV of the book has to do with how health information is created and shared and who controls it. Since I've been able to watch from the inside how health information is created for a long time, I've seen what's really going on and I'm ready to tell the world what's wrong with the system. The lines between government, industry, science and medicine have become blurred. The problems of the system are not corruption, which is usually portrayed in Hollywood style. The problems are much more subtle and at the same time much more dangerous.

This story, which began with my personal experience and which culminated in the formation of new views on nutrition and health, is the subject of this book. A few years ago at Cornell University, I started and taught a new elective course called Vegetarian Nutrition. It was the first time such a course had been introduced at an American university, and it was much more popular than I could have imagined. This course focuses on the importance of a plant-based diet for health. After spending some time at MIT and Virginia Tech, and then returning to Cornell 30 years ago, I was tasked with integrating the concepts and principles of chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and toxicology into a high-level course on nutrition.

Along with fiction, books of other directions also find their way onto the shelves of bookstores. A similar book is the China Study. Colin Campbell, its author, has done a case study of individual foods, building links to the chronic diseases they can cause. What came out of this, let's try to figure it out.

Topic for reflection

This medical research, which later turned into an independent work, is rightfully called an unprecedented experiment. It began in 1983, and China, America and England confirmed their participation in it. For more than twenty years, the search has continued to answer the question of how animal products are associated with various diseases that affect a large part of humanity. The China Study (Colin Campbell, professor in the Department of Biochemistry, co-authored with scientist son Thomas) was published in 2004. By 2011, the circulation of sold copies exceeded 500 thousand. This placed the book on the bestseller list.

Theoretical foundations of the study

The statistical data of the districts were taken as a basis. Residents of these districts spoke in detail about their preferences in food, and then donated blood for biochemistry and other necessary tests. Cancer was chosen as the main disease with which the scientists' assumptions were associated. In total, over 6,500 people participated in the study, and 8,000 links were established between disease and nutritional factors.

The "Chinese Study" (Colin Campbell remained the curator and main ideological inspirer throughout the experiment) announced the results of the experiments to readers. All of them were authorized by the state. Moreover, the scientist and his team had 74 grants that allowed them to work in the laboratory as experimental subjects were rats infected with carcinogenic aflatoxin. Some protein was present in their diet. Together, this led to the development of cancerous tumors, which again confirmed the connection between disease and food. Scientists have found a way to slow down and even accelerate the development of tumors.

What we eat and what not

After several years of direct research, it took time to record the tests on paper and prepare the results in printed form. Campbell prepared the book for publication and spoke about it himself. The “Chinese study” confidently stated that people who do not consume animal products (virtually all types of meat, eggs, milk and cheese, as well as refined carbohydrates were named as such) are less prone to the development of chronic diseases. As an alternative, it was proposed to increase and diversify the consumption of cereals, legumes, fruits, herbs and vegetables. Another condition for the safe use of these products was their processing. Herbal ingredients have a large number of biochemical components that can participate in the reactions necessary for the human body.

Right to Vegetarianism

As soon as a book goes on sale, reader reviews inevitably await it. The China Study was no exception: the criticism boiled down to the fact that its author urged not to eat meat, referring to the fact that it is allegedly the main catalyst for the development of diseases. Some viewed this as discrimination based on taste preferences, to which Campbell replied that he did not insist that his readers become vegetarians, but only suggested that they exclude certain foods from the diet and justified such a choice from the scientific and practical side. In 2010, he spoke positively about the book. After the session, he followed the advice of its authors, giving up dairy products and focusing on vegetables.

"Chinese Study" (Colin Campbell): book reviews

Simultaneously with ordinary readers, for whom the author's work was presented as practically sound recommendations, the work was expected to be criticized by fellow scientists. The extensive conclusions of experts in various fields led to a public outcry, causing numerous disputes and discussions about the reliability of the studies presented.

Thus, methodological errors were found in the author's work. He did not take into account differences in the level of activity of the subjects, geography and climate. A separate part of the experiments is not supported by scientific evidence, but is based mainly on Campbell's observations and personal conclusions, albeit confirmed in the laboratory. In a word, this was not enough for an unambiguous conclusion. Results based on a causal relationship between eating animal products and disease should not be considered recommendations, but rather hypotheses that need to be the basis for future more detailed studies.

Proper nutrition is the best option

Colin Campbell pays much attention to vegetables as an example of healthy and proper food, but does not fully cover the recommended diet, which features meat as the main competitor to plant components. The China Study says almost nothing about the role of meat in the human diet. Reviews of critics are very strict: if we focus on vegetarianism, then what about heavy metals and pesticides that enter our bodies with food? Forgetting the importance of a balanced diet, Campbell overlooks the problems of unbalanced diets that exclude meat. Among these problems, nutritionists call the lack of proteins, amino acids necessary for the body, zinc and various groups of vitamins.

Scale disappointment

The abstract of the book promises a real revolution in the views on the principles of proper nutrition. But what happened in practice? According to readers, the vagueness of the facts presented and the length of the narrative are the main disadvantages on which the China Study is built. Colin Campbell does his best to fill the price of his work, praising the work, promising a personal contribution to the vision of healthy eating.

But the readers did not know the truth. Instead, there are hundreds of pages detailing the properties of products that are already known. In a rather veiled form, and sometimes without supporting evidence, Campbell talks about the harm that animal squirrels cause. Particular importance is given to fast food, which is widespread in our country.

Thus, the book "The China Study" does not bring anything new. The theory of studying a very interesting and necessary topic is maximally stretched to a book format. And in fact, you could get by with an article in a scientific journal.

Those who have read the Study and those who have not will come to the same conclusion: if you want to take care of your health, don't over-consume animal products, but focus on those that contain natural vitamins and nutrients.