the china study

This is my short review of The China Study by Dr. Colin Campbell, as posted on Amazon.com.

I decided to become vegetarian again (did it for a while in college) after reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins, and this book further convinced me that a whole food, plant-based diet is the right thing to do. The writing style is very down-to-earth, conservative, and never sensational - almost a bit dull at times. You get the sense he is just conveying the evidence he has discovered for maintaining a healthy, disease-free life, from one human being to another. This book is chock full of scientific evidence showing that animal protein (meat, fish, milk, and eggs) are a fundamental cause/promoter of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and a host of other diseases. I myself did not need this much convincing to go vegetarian, but this is a good book to lend to those who do.

As of today I have been a vegetarian (not vegan because I still eat ice cream once in a while) for a little over 2 weeks, and I lost 2.5 lbs (now weighing 140 lbs) without doing much else - I work in front of a computer all day and don't exercise. I have gooood BM too (bowel movement). I don't miss meat, but I don't obsess over the diet either - if I cook, I don't buy meat products; if someone else cooks, I don't mind eating the veggies cooked in with the meat. Like Dr. Campbell says, give it a try for 30 days. If you can't stand it, you can always go back.

For those of you interested in the effects of meat-eating on animal, environmental, and economic health (not just human), I also highly recommend The Food Revolution by John Robbins, which is the update to Diet for a New America