One of my favorite and most highly recommended books I read this past year is a national bestseller called “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell. Based on the most comprehensive nutritional study, the book covers how our diets directly correlate with diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and the advantages of eating a plant-based diet. Here is the publisher’s summary of the book…

“The China Study offers conclusive evidence that a change of diet can dramatically reduce the risks of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The book is based on the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted, a 20-year joint project between Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. The study surveyed the eating habits of 6,500 adults from all over China and Taiwan and found a direct correlation between diet and disease. 

Author T. Colin Campbell, the study’s project director, provides an intelligent, well-documented analysis of the study’s results, an analysis that explodes the most common American dietary myths. It examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and opportunistic scientists.

In addressing the dietary sources of the most common diseases, including cancer, Campbell unleashes a no-holds-barred attack on the commercial interests that profit by selling the American public unhealthy food. He also shows how readers can use the study’s results to change their diets and improve their health.”

I personally enjoyed every bit of the book and plan to read it again and again. To me, it is a reminder of why I choose to eat a plant-based diet and a piece of education I can offer to others who are pondering the benefits of a plant-based diet. Check out the book’s eight principles of food and health…

1. Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless food substances. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

2. Vitamin supplements are not a panacea for good health.

3. There are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants.

4. Genes do not determine disease on their own. Genes function only by being activated, or expressed, and nutrition plays a critical role in determining which genes, good and bad, are expressed.

5. Nutrition can substantially control the adverse effects of noxious chemicals.

6. The same nutrition that prevents disease in its early stages can also halt or reverse it in its later stages.

7. Nutrition that is truly beneficial for one chronic disease will support health across the board.

8. Good nutrition creates health in all areas of our existence. All parts are interconnected.

For more information about The China Study, visit thechinastudy.com and for a little extra credit, check out this author interview from The New York Times.

That’s my jam!

Kristle