The China Study by Colin Campbell. Review: "Chinese study

house of squirrels

My entire professional career in biomedical research has been built around protein. It was as if he had me on an invisible leash in whatever direction I took, from the basic research laboratory to practical programs to improve the nutrition of malnourished children in the Philippines to government boardrooms where US national health policy was determined. Often spoken of in awe, protein is the thread that usually ties together present and past nutritional knowledge.

The history of the protein is related to science, culture, and also to a large extent to mythology. I am reminded of the words of Goethe, which were first quoted to me by my friend Howard Lyman, an eminent author, lecturer and former owner of a livestock farm: "We are best at hiding the obvious." Nothing was as well hidden as secret information about a protein. The almost sacred status of the protein directly or indirectly determines the censorship, criticism and control of almost all ideas in biomedical research.

Since the Dutch chemist Gerhard Mulder discovered this nitrogenous chemical in 1839, protein has become the most revered of all nutrients. The word "protein" ("protein") comes from the Greek proteios, which means "of paramount importance."

In the 19th century protein has been associated with meat, and this association has persisted for more than 100 years. Today, many still equate proteins and animal foods. If you had to name the first food that came to mind when you mentioned protein, you might say beef. And if so, then you are not alone.

The answers to many questions regarding protein are still unclear:

• What is a good source of protein?
• How much protein should a person consume?
• Is vegetable protein as good as animal protein?
• Do I need to introduce certain plant foods into the diet in order to fully obtain the necessary combination of proteins?
• Should protein powder or amino acid supplements be taken, especially for those who exercise or play sports?
• Should I Take Protein Supplements to Build Muscle?
• Some proteins are considered high quality, while others are considered low quality. What does this mean?
• What do vegetarians get their protein from?
• Can vegetarian children develop normally without animal protein?

Many of these frequently asked questions and concerns stem from the belief that meat is protein and protein is meat. This belief stems from the fact that protein is the main ingredient in animal foods. Many meat and dairy products can be defatted, but after that they are still recognizable meat and dairy products. We are constantly confronted with lean meats and skimmed milk. However, if we remove protein from animal food, what remains will not resemble the original product in any way. For example, a steak devoid of protein will turn into a puddle of water, fat and a small amount of vitamins and minerals. Who will eat it? In a nutshell, for animal food to be recognizable, it must contain protein. Protein is a key element of animal food.

Past scientists, such as the eminent German explorer Karl Voith (1831–1908), were strong supporters of the protein. Voith found that a person only needed 48.5 grams of protein per day, but recommended a huge dose of 118 grams per day, which was due to the cultural settings of the time. Protein and meat were considered synonymous, and everyone strove to include meat in their diets, just as we strive to have bigger houses and faster cars today. Foyt was of the opinion that there is no such thing as too much good.

Several prominent nutritional researchers of the early 1900s became Voith's students, including Max Rubner (1854–1932) and Wilber Atwater (1844–1907). Both of them strictly followed the recommendations of their teacher. Rubner argued that the use of protein (meaning meat) is a symbol of civilization as such: "... the use of protein in large quantities is the right of a civilized person." Atwater acted in a similar vein by establishing the first nutrition research laboratory at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). As head of this ministry, he recommended 125 grams of protein per day (currently only 55 grams per day is recommended). Later we will see how important this precedent was for this state body.

Cultural attitudes are securely entrenched in the minds of people. If a person considered himself civilized, he consumed a lot of protein. Rich people ate meat, while poor people ate simple plant foods like potatoes or bread. Some believed that the lower classes were lazy and stupid because they did not eat enough meat, that is, protein. In the emerging in the XIX century. nutritional science was dominated by aristocratic and arrogant views. The general concept that the more meat the better, the higher the level of civilization and perhaps even spirituality, underlay all ideas regarding protein.

With Major McKay, an outstanding English physician of the early 20th century, one of the most amusing, but also unfortunate moments of this story is connected. McKay was sent to India, which was then an English colony, in 1912 to find among the Indian tribes men who could fight well. Among other things, he stated that people who consumed less protein were "slim in body and had an obsequious effeminate manner, which was to be expected."

Emphasis on quality

Almost all of the calories we consume are proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and alcohol. Fats, carbohydrates and proteins - macro Nutrients that account for most of the weight of food, with the exception of water, with the remainder being vitamins and minerals - micro nutrients. Dose micro The nutrients needed to achieve the best state of health are very small (measured in milligrams or micrograms).

Proteins, the most valued of all nutrients, are a vital element of our body and are classified into hundreds of thousands of species. They function as enzymes, hormones, structural tissues and transport molecules. The performance of all these functions makes our existence possible. Proteins are made up of long chains, numbering many thousands of amino acids, of which there are 15 to 20 types, depending on the counting method. Proteins in our body are constantly depleted and must be replaced with new ones. This is achieved by eating foods that contain protein. When digested, these proteins provide us with completely new "building blocks" of amino acids to replace those that have already been destroyed. It is believed that different food proteins vary in quality depending on how well they supply our body with essential amino acids.

This process of separating and combining amino acids to form proteins is like giving us a string of multicolored beads to replace the old beads we have lost. However, the multicolored beads are not strung in the same order as in the lost beads. Therefore, we remove them from the thread, and then string them back in the sequence we need. But if, for example, we do not have enough blue beads, then the restoration of our former beads will slow down or stop altogether until we get more of the required beads. The same situation is observed in the formation of new tissue proteins to replace worn out old ones.

About eight amino acids (“colored beads”), necessary for the formation of tissue proteins in our body, must come from food. They are called indispensable because our body itself is not able to produce them. If, as in the case of a string of beads, the proteins we get from food lack several or even one of these essential amino acids, the formation of new proteins will slow down or stop completely. This is where the idea of ​​protein quality comes into play. The most high-quality food proteins are those proteins that, when digested, provide the body with the necessary types and amounts of amino acids for the efficient synthesis of new tissue proteins. This is what quality means in this context: the ability of dietary proteins to supply the body with the right types and quantities of amino acids to form new proteins.

Can you guess what kind of food we need to eat in order to provide the most complete building material to replace our proteins? Answer: human flesh. Its protein contains just the right amount of essential amino acids. However, although we do not consider the men and women around us to be suitable food, we still get close to the "best" protein by eating animals. Animal proteins are very close to our own in that they basically contain the right amount of the amino acids we need. These proteins can be used very efficiently, which is why they are called high quality. Of all animal products, the proteins found in milk and eggs best match our proteins in terms of amino acid composition and thus are considered to be of the highest quality. At the same time, despite the fact that vegetable proteins of “low quality” may lack one or more essential amino acids, in general, a group of these proteins in reality contains them all.

Quality refers to the efficiency with which dietary proteins are used in the process of tissue formation. It would be great if maximum efficiency corresponded to better health, but this is not the case. That is why the terms "efficiency" and "quality" are misleading. Looking ahead, there is a large body of research that conclusively proves that "low quality" plant proteins, which provide slow but steady synthesis of new proteins, are the healthiest. The quieter you go, the further you'll get. The quality of the protein contained in a particular food is determined by observations of the growth rate of the animals that consume it. Some foods, namely animal foods, provide a very high level of efficiency and protein value 1 .

The emphasis on the rate of growth of the body, as if it were an indicator of good health, encourages the consumption of "highest quality" proteins. As any marketer will tell you, a product that is said to be of good quality immediately wins the trust of consumers. For more than 100 years, we have been misled by incorrect terminology and have often come to think that higher quality means better health.

The essence of the concept of "protein quality" was not widely known to the public, but the impact of this idea was - and remains - quite significant. Those who decide to switch to plant foods, even today, are wondering: “Where will I get proteins from?”, As if they are not in plants. Even if people know that plants contain protein, they are still concerned about its "poor quality". This led them to believe that they must carefully select the combination of proteins from different plant foods at each meal so that these proteins can offset each other's amino acid deficiencies. However, this is an exaggeration. Today we know that, using its incredibly complex metabolic system, the human body is able to generate all of the vital amino acids from the natural array of plant proteins found in the foods we consume on a daily basis. There is no need to consume plant proteins in increased quantities or carefully plan the menu for each meal. Unfortunately, the deeply rooted concept of protein quality has largely obscured this information.

Protein deficiency

Early in my career, nutritional science as well as Agriculture were concerned with increasing human consumption of protein, and of the best possible quality. My colleagues and I believed that this common goal must be achieved. From my early childhood on the farm to my graduation from graduate school, I shared this reverence for protein. From my youth, I remembered that the most expensive ingredient in farm animal feed was protein supplements. Then, while in graduate school, I devoted three years (1958-1961) to PhD research, trying to improve the provision of high quality protein to the people by a more efficient way of raising cows and sheep so that we could eat even more of their meat2, 3 .

During my graduate studies, I was deeply convinced that it was very important to promote the consumption of high-quality protein found in animal foods. Although my doctoral research has been cited several times over the 10 years since it was written, it was only a small part of a much larger body of work by other scientists around the world on protein intake. During the 1960s and 1970s I have heard again and again about the lack of protein in the diet of people in developing countries 4 .

The essence of the concept of protein deficiency was that hunger and malnutrition among third world children was the result of insufficient protein intake, especially high quality (i.e. animal) 1, 4, 5

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

Published in Russian for the first time

© T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II, 2004

© Translation into Russian, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2013

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 break 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 it over time, causing such well-known diseases as coronary 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 are registered diabetes, 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 horrifying, 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 completely turn over 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 derived 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, “a 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,

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

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.

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, 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.

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 done 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 gentle, 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.

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 importance. 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 Revolution1
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 major 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 main reason 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 the intake of any nutrient, such as carbohydrates, fats, cholesterol, or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, will not lead to better health in the long term.

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 most likely doesn't know what? you need to do to achieve the best possible state of health for you.

I am offering you nothing more and nothing less than a rethinking of your dietary habits. The provocative results of my 40-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 toxic 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 known chemical substances. 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.

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.

Don't lose. Subscribe and receive a link to the article in your email.

The China Study is a well-known and popular book based on an astonishing study on the relationship between nutritional and chronic diseases. As the authors were able to find out, those foods that become part of the diet of us and our children, based on the fact that we consider them useful, are actually the cause of the most terrible diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, diseases of the cardiovascular system, etc.

The book The China Study came about after a study was made of death statistics from 65 counties in China, initiated by Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, who was dying of cancer. As a result of the study, more than eight thousand relationships between nutrition and disease were established.

However, there are many complaints about this book from the professional medical community. In particular, there is an opinion that the author was not impartial and deliberately tried to manipulate the data. Nevertheless, the book will be useful to read.

About Colin and Thomas Campbell

Colin Campbell is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, distinguished scientist, Ph.D., humanist, and member of organizations such as the American Society for Nutrition Research, the International Society for Nutrition, and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. In 1998 he was named the world's best nutritionist. He has over 300 scientific publications to his credit.

Thomas Campbell is the son of Colin Campbell and his co-author of the presented book. He is a physician, instructor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, executive director of the Center for Nutritional Research, which focuses on improving human health, lecturer and author of numerous articles.

The book by Colin and Thomas Campbell has sold over a million copies and has become a worldwide bestseller that has changed the way people think about nutrition and its relationship with health. You can find interesting information about the China Study.

Summary of The China Study Book

The book consists of a preface and four parts, including almost two dozen chapters. The first part is devoted to Chinese research, the second to the diseases of the rich, the third and fourth to interesting facts about nutrition, health, science and even government - within the scope of this book, of course. Below we invite you to familiarize yourself with only part of the unique information that you will find in the work "The China Study", namely: we will briefly talk about the universal principles of nutrition and the conclusions that the authors made as a result of their research.

Universal Principles of Nutrition and Health

To gather the data presented below, Colin Campbell spent twenty years researching the relationship between health, nutrition, and disease. The result of the study was the following universal principles of longevity and:

• Any product is a storehouse of various trace elements. But products do not lend themselves to a "usefulness" rating. the same products in different cases can be both useful and harmful.
• You should not get carried away with vitamin supplements, because they are more harmful than useful. It is considered the most dangerous to make up for the lack of fiber and vitamins with the help of nutritional supplements in the process of following a protein diet.
• Plant foods contain much more nutrients than animal foods. It contains antioxidants, minerals, fiber. In animal food, there is a lot of cholesterol, vitamins A, D and B12, which are almost absent in plant foods. If you refuse animal food, keep an eye on the content of the above vitamins.
• There is no need to overestimate the power of heredity: genes do not begin to function by themselves. Most often, nutrition is the determining factor in the activation of "bad" or "good" genes.
• Nutrition helps block the effects of harmful substances. Conclusions that artificial chemicals and toxic substances are the cause of cancer are exaggerated. Cancer develops over many years, and animal foods can exacerbate this process.
• Proper nutrition, in which plant foods predominate, contributes to the blocking of diseases in the early stages and the fight against them in the later stages. A number of diseases can develop throughout a person's life, for example, breast cancer. Proper nutrition affects diseases at all stages.
• The principles of nutrition are universal for most chronic ailments. In other words, the recipe for preventive nutrition for all diseases is the same. You should keep your intake of animal protein, including fish, eggs, and dairy products, under strict control.
• Proper nutrition has a positive effect on various areas of human life: mental and emotional state, as well as physical activity. However, to compensate for malnutrition, for example, going to the gym will never work.

A few words in conclusion

People are mistaken when they think that animal protein is one of the most useful elements in the diet of a modern person. While scientific disputes were going on about carbohydrates and fats, the overwhelming majority of experts came to a consensus about protein: protein is a building material for human cells, which is necessary for the body to develop harmoniously. But the conclusions of the author and his associates cast doubt on the fact that animal protein is good.

You can not equate protein and food of animal origin. In addition to dairy, eggs, fish, and animal meats, protein can be found in a variety of vegetables, grains, legumes, and soy.

Nutrition directly affects the development of chronic diseases - cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, obesity and many others.

Most diseases are caused by genetics only by 2-3%. Other factors include mainly nutrition, as well as the lifestyle and environmental conditions in which a person lives. Colin Campbell studied cancer and was able to prove that a vegetarian diet, in addition to preventing the development of all kinds of diseases, also prevents their development, even if they have already been initiated.

Vegetable protein is also great for gaining muscle mass, despite the fact that many are convinced that only animal protein contributes to this. There are a huge number of professional vegetarian athletes who have managed to win Olympic medals. In addition, complex carbohydrates, which come from grains, fruits and vegetables, are not capable of causing excess weight.

The daily rate of protein intake should not exceed 10% of the daily diet - this is approximately 50-60 grams of protein per day. Just the abuse of protein, especially in animals, is the cause of a greater number of diseases.

Putting into practice the conclusions of Colin and Thomas Campbell's The China Study is very simple - you just need to start using the universal principles that scientists have formulated in life. These principles can not only help you achieve the figure you have always dreamed of, but also prevent many of the diseases that exist in developed countries, from cancer to obesity.

Total

After reading the conclusions presented in the book, any reader will ask himself the question: “Why have I not heard this before?”. The authors of the Study believe that a lot of influential and powerful multimillion-dollar corporations of various kinds (food industry, pharmaceutical production, etc.) are trying to maintain this state of affairs, according to which vegetarianism is considered the prerogative of the marginalized. Those in power will always promote a diet that contains animal protein. And this will continue as long as there is income from this. If we draw an analogy with the energy industry, we can say that even if oil, gas and coal occupy a leading position, this does not mean at all that they are somehow better than alternative energy sources, speaking from the point of view of safety and environmental conservation. It is the same here: there is a mainstream in the topic of nutrition, which is beneficial to large companies, but there is also.

What choice will you make?

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

© T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II, 2004

© Translation into Russian, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2013

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"

© Electronic version of the book prepared by Litres (www.litres.ru)

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 it over time, causing such well-known diseases as coronary 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 completely turn over 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 derived 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, “a 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,