Site navigation and social media links
The China Study
Health | March 06, 2015
A few of you guys have brought up a well-intentioned and pretty well-regarded book called The China Study. Written by T. Colin Campbell, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University, the book promotes a 100 percent plant-based diet – basically veganism. Professor Campbell is against any and all animal-based products and believes his study and the book that followed prove that a diet consisting of any animal products are directly linked to a bunch of chronic illnesses including heart disease and cancer.
As most of you know I’m all about fruits and vegetables – the more the better. There are vital elements (vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc.) contained in fruits and vegetables that are essential for our health and wellbeing.
Still, I’m not sold on the idea that if we consume animal products we are increasing our risks of illness and disease and that they are simply not good for us. Professor Campbell’s book and study is quite popular, but that does not mean it isn’t somewhat misleading and inaccurate.
I pretty much fried my brain reading and rereading articles and blog posts about The China Study. One consistent theme that kept showing up is that Professor Campbell may have misrepresented the data he gathered for his book.
For example, Denise Minger, a well known raw food advocate, did an incredibly thoughtful analysis of The China Study found here. It’s a long and somewhat difficult read, but her information is well researched. Minger gathered and analyzed all the raw data used in Campbell’s book. One major twist she found (among others) in the study was that there is a region in China called Tuoli where animal products made up to 45% of the diet and, yet, the people living there showed no greater increase in chronic disease! In fact, the people of Tuoli were considered very healthy, even healthier than some vegan regions in China even though they ate more animal products than most Americans!
If you really want a fun headache you can check out this written debate between Loren Cordain, another well known professor and researcher, and Campbell. Cordain argues for animal products in this exchange and insists that they are good for us. It’s also important to note that Cordain also cites 164 studies to back up his claims!
I’m all for anyone committing to a vegan diet if they wish to do so. However, I firmly believe that animal products such as grass-fed butter and dairy can be beneficial and not harmful. The China Study is very interesting food for thought (yeah I said that), but it doesn’t seem very convincing especially when broken down and analyzed.
I’m going to give my poor eyes a rest after all that reading :). What do you think about The China Study?
Private Member |
There is a new book called “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet” by Nina Teicholz. It is a well researched book that picks apart all the studies done from way back in the 1950’s and 60’s (maybe before) on saturated fat and heart disease and finds that most of those studies had MAJOR problems with how they were run. It is not a diet book, it is just all about the studies and it is very interesting. I have to add that for all of my life, whenever I have “dieted” which was never severely restricting calories or anything, but I’ve tried Ketogenic low carb diets and The Whole 30, and through all of that I have never cut back on any saturated fat or good fats such as nuts or olive/coconut oils or avocados. I eat cheese and raw dairy products and every single time I’ve ever had my lab work done, my total cholesterol is less than 200-usually around 180, my triglycerides are 50-55 and my LDL which is the GOOD cholesterol component of cholesterol is always high. It should be above 40 ideally, to decrease your risk of heart disease. Mine us usually at least 75 and the last time it was 92! My doctor just looked at me and said he had never seen an LDL that good. And this is eating a diet that is about 65% fat along with protein and vegetables. And just as a side note, my grandmother is 101, lives on her own still and has had bacon nearly every day of her life!
Private Member |
Most of the time we didn’t eat meat.. We found the fire before 250 000-400 000 years ago. Then we made weapons to kill the animals. If you eat meat that is raw.. well.. there is some e coli bacteria.. Which is deadly.. And it can be founded in raw meat. There are death cases of eating raw meat with e coli.. Do some research about it, If you missed that moment.. When somebody wants to believe in something its his choice. But to call vegan/vegetarian diet religious is just stupid and uninformed way of thinking. If you think that you can eat raw meat like our ancestors why you don’t get a cat and eat it. Why we eat certain animals and others don’t? In Vietnam they eat cats and dogs? So this is human evolution and clever way of thinking? Really? The cats are leaner then chickens so why you don’t get your precious amino acids which i am sure most of the people here don’t even know their daily recommendation about their protein consumption which is in the healthy range and enough to sustain a strong body. One elephant lives 70 years. One rhyno 60 years. One gorilla 50 years. One lion 20-25 years. The first 3 are herbivors. They are strong, have strong bones and live longer.One vegan/vegetarian lives by avarage 6-7 years longer. So eat like carnivor and die younger if you want but don’t call it religious because it’s stupid..
Private Member |
Zuzca did you heard about the paretto principle? It basically is the rule 80/20. 20% of the people earn more money then the rest 80%. They are harder working, smarter and have more contribution to the world. So i don’t like to be like the most of the people. Most of them are fat, stupid and have many diseases. So think about vegan/vegerians like this 20% who are healthier and live longer if they do it right. Its not about to be vegetarian who is sugartarian and junkfooterian.. Its about healthy choices at first place and if somebody is making a healthy choices in this type of diet he will live longer and healthier for sure than carnivors which don’t even know what is their revolutionary food. They don’t have nor the digestive system nor the killer instict that carnivors have.. nor live longer from this given not taken choice, which they defend blindly. They cannot understand that the end of every research is based on the people who invest the research.. And they especially can’t understand that the researches that tells them that animal products are bad are not financed by industrial corporations for billions..and because of that most of the researches are for animal products.. every research cost money because of that there are more in favour of animal products. But when you understand that the end of every research is determined by who finance it you can become more clear about the junk you eat..
Private Member |
Not a relligion but a healthy nutritional choice which is without any antibiotics, e coli, saturated fat, cholesterol and so many other nasty bacterias and toxins that you put in your body you misinformed carnivors. And that healthy nutritional choice is all about the longetivity and the well being of the one that makes the better choice, not the one that is full of prejudice just because its hard to him to sustain that way of eating and he is used to eat from children that piece of carrion.
Private Member |
Loved it! Love reading all your health articles!
Private Member |
Loved it! Love reading all your health articles!
Private Member |
Humans are omnivorous eaters. We survive off plants and other animals. Do we consume TOO MUCH meat? Absolutely. The conditions animals are forced to withstand is deplorable, especially considering how much food we waste. There isn’t such a thing as a universal diet. Not everybody can maintain a vegan diet. In fact, most healthy people are not vegans.
I was vegan for two years. I ate whole foods and supplemented with B12. I still got very sick. Some days I couldn’t go to school because I had no energy. I started reintroducing animal products back into my diet and I felt better.