The China Study is a book by T. Colin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, and his son Thomas M. Campbell II, a physician. 

It was first published in the United States in January 2005 and had sold over one million copies as of October 2013, making it one of America's best-selling books about nutrition.

The China Study examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products (including dairy) and chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and bowel cancer.

The authors conclude that people who eat a predominantly whole-food, plant-based diet—avoiding animal products as a main source of nutrition, 
including beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, 
and 
reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce, or reverse the development of numerous diseases. 
They write that "eating foods that contain any cholesterol above 0 mg is unhealthy".

The book recommends sunshine exposure or dietary supplements to maintain adequate levels of vitamin D, and supplements of vitamin B12 in case of complete avoidance of animal products.

It criticizes low-carb diets, such as the Atkins diet, which include restrictions on the percentage of calories derived from carbohydrates
The authors are critical of reductionist approaches to the study of nutrition, whereby certain nutrients are blamed for disease, as opposed to studying patterns of nutrition and the interactions between nutrients.

The book is loosely based on the China–Cornell–Oxford Project, 
a 20-year study—described by The New York Times as "the Grand Prix of epidemiology"
—conducted by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, Cornell University, and the University of Oxford. T. Colin Campbell was one of the study's directors.

It looked at mortality rates from cancer and other chronic diseases from 1973–75 in 65 counties in China; the data was correlated with 1983–84 dietary surveys and blood work from 100 people in each county. 

The research was conducted in those counties because they had genetically similar populations that tended, over generations, to live and eat in the same way in the same place. 

The study concluded that counties with a high consumption of animal-based foods in 1983–84 were more likely to have had higher death rates from "Western" diseases as of 1973–75, while the opposite was true for counties that ate more plant-based foods.

Background to the China–Cornell–Oxford Project

The China–Cornell–Oxford Project—the "China-Oxford-Cornell Study on Dietary, Lifestyle and Disease Mortality Characteristics in 65 Rural Chinese Counties," 

referred to in the book as "the China Study"—was a comprehensive study of dietary and lifestyle factors associated with disease mortality in China. 

The study compared the health consequences of diets rich in animal-based foods to diets rich in plant-based foods among people who were genetically similar.

The idea for the study began in 1980–81 during discussions between T. Colin Campbell at Cornell and Chen Junshi, Deputy Director of Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. 

They were later joined by Richard Peto of the University of Oxford—Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology as of 2012—and Li Junyao of the China Cancer Institute.

In 1983 two villages were chosen at random in each of 65 rural counties in China, and 50 families were chosen at random in each village. 

The dietary habits of one adult member of each family were examined—half male, half female—and the results compared to the death rates in those counties from around 48 forms of cancers and other diseases during 1973–75.

Reception

Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, said in his documentary The Last Heart Attack in 2011 that The China Study had changed the way people all over the world eat.
Former American President Bill Clinton became a supporter when he adopted a vegan diet after a heart attack.


Wilfred Niels Arnold, professor of biochemistry at the University of Kansas Medical Center, reviewed the book in Leonardo in 2005: 
"The authors anticipate resistant and hostile sources, sail on with escalating enthusiasm, and furnish a working hypothesis that is valuable. 
In fact, the surprising data are difficult to interpret in any other way."

In a written debate with Campbell in 2008, nutritionist Loren Cordain argued that 
"the fundamental logic underlying Campbell's hypothesis (that low [animal] protein diets improve human health) is untenable and inconsistent with the evolution of our own species." 

Campbell argued that "diet–disease associations observed in contemporary times are far more meaningful than what might have occurred during evolutionary times—at least since the last 2.5 million years or so.".

The book was reviewed by Harriet Hall, a physician and skeptic who writes about alternative medicine, in a blog entry posted on the Science-Based Medicine website in 2009. 
Hall argued that the book had references which do not support directly the claims made by the authors. 

She also stated that the book does not explain the exceptions to his data—for example that "stomach cancer rates are higher in China than elsewhere in the world"
or that there are cultures whose diet includes high intake of animal protein, such as the Maasai people and the Eskimos, but that do not have the health issues described by the authors. 

While not within the scope of the study, Inuit, Yupik and Inupiat peoples in North America have demonstrated genetic adaptations for an arctic diet; specifically a variant of the CPT1A enzyme which regulates the break down of stored fat.

The Italian Association for Cancer Research states on its web-site: 

"The China Study mixes correct suggestions and data (like those on the relationship between the consumption of red meat and the development of some tumours) with others of a more imaginative nature: 

for this reason the text is insidious, as well as unreliable".


I'm posting this two years after reading The China Study and what subsequently followed was radically changing into beimg nearly 95% of the time vegan all the time. 
This book was a game changer for me. If you find the book hard to follow or understand, buy the audio version because I think you will find it's easier to understand and follow. 
As a engineer and scientist, I followed up and read some of Campbell's journal papers. I was stunned by the findings enough to have a paradigm shift in what I would choose to eat forever more. 
Like a smoker that quits a bad habit overnight, I did the same with what I ate. No more fast food, added sugar, junk, cows milk, etc. I dumped the western diet and my 50yr habit of what I ate since birth to simply eating...plants. 
Whole, organic plants is my food of choice. Over a period of 6 months I lost about 52 pounds, my weight dropped from 224 to 172, being 5ft 8in male, this was noticeable to all I new. 
Seeing is believing. My blood screening numbers are all normal except for B12 and Vit D were found to be low; so I take supplements for only those two things and feel fantastic. 
Im going on to my 3rd yr now after reading this book and changing to whole plants I feel like I did when I was in grade school with energy and skip in my step. Im writing this with the hope that it gives someone inspiration that they (you) too can do it too. 
Never being a gym person, I've recently begun to add modest exercise 1 or 2x per week in the past 6 months which makes me feel additionally very good after a 45 min workout. 
But absolutely, the biggest bang for my my health and feeing good comes most definitely in what I choose to eat. Don't get me wrong, I love chicken wings, cheeseburgers, fries, cookies, cake and pie, but they don't love me.
 I'd say 90% of what's in a supermarket and 95% of most restaurant menus in the US wont meet a true whole foods, plant based diet. 
If I were to give advice as to where to start, I would suggest after reading the China Study two things: theres a retired Dr. Esselstyn from the Cleveland Clinic that had a simple breakfast cereal he made at home. 
My version of it goes like this: 1-1.5 cups of raw oatmeal, sliced fresh strawberries, blueberries, figs, dates, rasins, prunes, add fresh blackberries and/or raspberries or whatever fruit you want. 
Add ground flax seed and chia seed. Add a sliced banana or two. Add unsweetened and unflavored almond milk. Stir the almond milk so it gets mixed in the raw oats. Wait 5 min then eat. 
Its very filling. 
I use all organic produce and oats now to avoid pesticides. The other thing I do is make 2-liters of green smoothies and drink it all throughout my day. 
I change up the frozen fruit in the smoothie (I'll use frozen mangos, pineapple, strawberries...for leafy green I may use a combo of baby spinach, kale, chard); 

here is an example of a smoothie I made today: 3 cups baby spinach, 1.5 cups of frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries), 2 apples, 2 pears, ground flax seed and chia seeds, 2 bananas, 2fl-oz of almond milk+2fl-oz of spring water. 

Blend. Makes 2 liters. Strongly recommend using a blender like a breville "the boss" (i use this and like it alot, sticker shock on price so get ready) or blendtec. 
After making the smoothie, take two to three large containers of the smoothie with u to work and drink this all through the day. 
Carry one of these containers with you around the office or in meetings like its you're new coffee mug. Lol. 
I dumped milk and dairy, and check the labels...I absoultely won't eat anything with added sugar. 
For dinner, I started out using the "big salad" recipe that can be found at chrisbeatcancer.com 
In two weeks of consisitent eating whole plant based diet, I began to notice the change and feel better overall; the positive change in two weeks kept me going, week after week, month after month. 
Dont let people put doubts in your mind. If I can do it, you can do it too if you want it. 
I hope my note is helpful.


-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.
The_China_Study -Wikipedia

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