Along with fiction, works of other directions fall on the shelves of bookstores. A similar book is The Chinese Study. Colin Campbell, its author, conducted a substantive study of certain types of food, building a connection with the chronic diseases that they can cause. What came of this, let's try to figure it out.
Topic for thought
This medical research, which later developed into an independent work, is rightly called an unprecedented experiment. It began in 1983, and China, America and England confirmed their participation in it. For over twenty years, the search for an answer to the question of how animal products are associated with various diseases that affect most of humanity has continued. The “Chinese study” (Colin Campbell, professor of biochemistry, co-authored with his scientist son Thomas) was published in 2004. By 2011, the circulation of copies sold exceeded 500 thousand. This put the book on the bestseller list.
The theoretical basis of the study
The statistics of the districts of the Republic of China were taken as the basis . Residents of these areas spoke in detail about their preferences in food, and then donated blood for biochemistry and other necessary tests. Cancer was chosen as the main disease associated with the assumptions of scientists. In total, over 6,500 people participated in the study, and based on its results, 8,000 links between the disease and nutritional factors were established.
The “Chinese study” (Colin Campbell remained the curator and the main ideological inspirer throughout the experiment) announced the results of the experiments to readers. All of them were authorized by the state. Moreover, the scientist and his team had 74 grants, allowing them to engage in scientific research. In the laboratory, rats infected with carcinogenic aflatoxin were located as experimental subjects. Protein was present to one degree or another in their diet. Together, this led to the development of cancerous tumors, which again confirmed the connection between the disease and food. Scientists have found a way to slow down and even accelerate the development of tumors.
What we eat and what not
After direct research was carried out for several years, it took time to fix the tests on paper and prepare the results in print. Campbell himself was preparing the book for publication and talking about it. The “Chinese study” confidently asserted that people who do not consume animal products (almost all types of meat, eggs, milk and cheese, as well as refined carbohydrates were called such) are less prone to the development of chronic diseases. As an alternative, it was proposed to increase and diversify the consumption of cereals, legumes, fruits, herbs and vegetables. Another condition for the safe use of these products was their processing. Plant ingredients have a large number of biochemical components that can participate in the reactions necessary for the human body.
The right to vegetarianism
As soon as the book goes on sale, reader reviews will inevitably await it. The “Chinese study” was no exception: criticism of scientific and medical work boiled down to the fact that its author urged not to eat meat, citing the fact that it was supposedly the main catalyst for the development of diseases. Some saw this as discrimination in taste preferences, to which Campbell replied that he did not insist that his readers become vegetarians, but merely invited them to exclude certain foods from the diet and justified this choice from a scientific and practical point of view. In 2010, Bill Clinton spoke positively about the book. After a heart operation, he followed the advice of its authors, abandoning dairy products and focusing on vegetables.
“Chinese Research” (Colin Campbell): Book Reviews
At the same time as ordinary readers, for whom the author’s work was presented as practically sound recommendations, the work was expected to be criticized by fellow scientists. Extensive conclusions of specialists in various fields led to a public outcry, causing numerous disputes and discussions about the reliability of the presented studies.
So, the author found methodological errors. He did not take into account differences in the level of activity of the subjects, geography and climate. A separate part of the experiments is not supported by scientific evidence, but is based mainly on Campbell's observations and personal conclusions, although confirmed in the laboratory. In a word, this was not enough for an unambiguous conclusion. The results, based on a causal relationship between eating animal products with diseases, should not be considered recommendations, but hypotheses that need to be the basis for future more detailed studies.
Proper nutrition is the best option
Colin Campbell pays much attention to vegetables as an example of healthy and proper food, but does not fully reveal the issues of the recommended diet, in which meat appears as the main competitor to plant components. “The Chinese study” says almost nothing about the role of meat in the human diet. Critics' reviews are very strict: if you focus on vegetarianism, what about heavy metals and pesticides that enter our body with food? Forgetting the importance of a balanced diet, Campbell ignores the problems of unbalanced diets that exclude meat. Among these problems, nutritionists call a lack of proteins that the body needs amino acids, zinc and various groups of vitamins.
Widespread frustration
An abstract of the book promises a real revolution in the views on the principles of proper nutrition. But what happened in practice? According to readers, the blurring of the facts and the length of the narrative are the main disadvantages on which the “Chinese study” is based. Colin Campbell is pushing the price of his work with all his might, praising the work, promising a personal contribution to the vision of a healthy diet.
But the readers did not recognize the truth. Instead, there are hundreds of pages with a detailed description of the properties of products that are already known. In a fairly veiled form, and sometimes without evidence, Campbell tells about the damage caused by animal proteins. Particular importance is given to fast food, which is widespread in our country.
Thus, the book “Chinese study” does not bring anything new. The theory of studying a very interesting and necessary topic is maximally extended to a book format. But in fact, you could get by with an article in a scientific journal.
Those who read the “Study” and those who did not do this will come to one conclusion: if you want to take care of your health, do not abuse animal products, but focus on those that contain natural vitamins and beneficial substances.