The
China Study
by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell
417 pp. Paper, $ 24.95
BenBella Books, Dallas, TX, 2005
ISBN: 1-932100-38-5.
Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold
University of Kansas Medical Center
warnold@kumc.edu
Any serious challenge to the "American
Diet" is bound to elicit some academic,
public, and food industry opposition,
which will range from mild skepticism
through agitated re-evaluation to bitter
disdain. What makes this particular contribution
exciting is that 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. Apart from
the practicality of the subject, I recommend
The China Study for its interdisciplinary
approach and the integration of science,
economics, politics, and culturethemes
for Leonardo readers.
The senior author is Professor Emeritus
of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York. He has studied
and written about food for more than forty
years, during which his initial and favourable
regard for an American diet rich in animal
protein (an almost universal opinion at
the time) changed dramatically to the
lonely position of alerting us to associations
among animal protein intake, certain cancers,
and other diseases. One of the first pieces
of experimental evidence along these lines
came from the outcome of rats challenged
with aflatoxin (of fungal origin) and
then fed a constant calorie diet containing
either 20% protein or 5% protein. [The
protein was none other than casein, a
major constituent of cow's milk.] Against
all guesses at the time, the animals on
20% protein developed numerous cancerous
foci in their livers whereas the 5% protein
group were virtually free of lesions.
These observations seemed to echo the
higher incidence of liver cancer (from
aflotoxin-contaminated peanut butter)
in the children from more affluent families
(higher animal protein diets) compared
with poorer families, in the Philippines,
during the 1960's and 70's.
The book's title hails from a 20-year
research partnership among investigators
at Cornell University, Oxford University,
and the Chinese Academy of Preventive
Medicine, to survey disease incidence
and lifestyle factors in rural China and
Taiwan. According to Campbell, one of
the directors, "this project eventually
produced [many] statistically significant
associations between various dietary factors
and disease." And "people who ate the
most animal-based foods got the most chronic
disease and people who ate the most plant-based
foods were the healthiest and tended to
avoid chronic disease."
Many of us will continue to find enthusiasm
for the health benefits of low-calorie
and low-fat diets, and for exercise. The
Campbells do not deny this. The coincidence
of higher fiber intake on the plant diet
is also embraced and the avoidance of
xenobiotics will continue to find common
support. But the most contentious issue
in the book under discussion will be the
claimed superiority of an adequate (underline
"adequate") amount of plant
protein versus the deleterious effect
of animal protein. A restriction in amount,
or a limitation in the rate, of synthesis
of new protein in the organism seems to
provide some incidental advantage in avoiding
or ameliorating disease! It flies in the
face of a better distribution of essential
amino acids in animal proteins (for example,
casein) compared with most (but not all)
plant proteins. It may also evoke conniptions
in some primary and secondary food industries.
The arguments within The China Study
are at a level matching the "informed"
reader, although I believe that a graded
and more advanced development could have
been added in some sections to good effect.
The quantitative data (always a concern
for a general audience) is straightforward
and will be readily comprehended. The
index would have benefited from more entries
and a deliberate redundancy in terms.
The volume is well produced and reasonably
priced.
The authors are not shy about jousting
with past, present, and even anticipated
critics. Faddish diets are deflated en
passant by the Campbell sword. Readers
without previous experience in nutritional
research, or the nature of sponsorship
by the National Institutes of Health and
other agencies, or the manner in which
Federal recommendations (including school
lunch programs) come to pass, will be
a tad alarmed by chapters 13 through 18and
it's about time! This book will have an
impact.