When T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study was released in 2006, it quickly rocketed to best seller status primarily propelled by word of mouth given its small, relatively unknown publisher not exactly renowned for works of scientific rigor.
In short order, The China Study became firmly established as the de facto nutritional bible of the plant based diet posse. A similar phenomenon has occurred with the 2017 release of the Netflix documentary What The Health.
“Just read The China Study!” became the new vegan mantra, confidently and often scornfully spoken to anyone who questioned Campbell’s startling contention that all animal foods, regardless of the source or processing, are responsible for the modern epidemics of cancer and heart disease.
No matter whether your animal food of choice is a KFC Value Pack or wild caught salmon, Campbell claims that you would be better off shunning all sources of animal foods and instead embracing a diet of whole plant foods.
Denise Minger of rawfoodsos has suggested that Campbell’s Ivy League PhD and his authorship of over 300 scientific papers combined with The China Study‘s long list of references make it appear credible. With such an impressive list of credentials and sources, the stern warnings against animal foods must be grounded in factual, objective scientific analysis, right?
At first blush, The China Study seems so utterly credible – so bulletproof if you will.
Unfortunately, like much of the nutritional dogma presented today all in the name of supposedly scientific rigor, The China Study is actually far from it with misrepresented data the order of the day.
Perhaps the biggest hole in Campbell’s work is one that he identified himself in one of his own scientific papers published only two years before The China Study. Despite Campbell’s claim that near vegan rural Chinese exhibit superior health to those consuming animal foods, the paper concludes from the epidemiological survey of 6500 subjects from 65 rural counties in China:
“it is the largely vegetarian, inland communities who have the greatest all risk mortalities and morbidities and who have the lowest LDL cholesterols.”
Whoops! Campbell finds that “… the protective effect of fish consumption as validated by red cell DHA is universal.” It doesn’t look like that large epidemiological analysis known as The China Study is so compelling regarding the benefits of plant based diets after all! Pretty hard to get sick if you’re actually already dead, right?
Now, a new study involving over one hundred thousand subjects further bolsters the argument that animal proteins are not the ticking time bomb to your health so erroneously argued by Campbell.
Meat Eating Inversely Associated with Death from Cancer and Heart Disease
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published in July 2013 the results of a huge analysis of ecological data from the United Nations comparing country-specific meat consumption in Asia, specifically the countries of Bangladesh, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
112,310 men and 184,411 women were followed for 6.6 to 15.6 years. During that time, 24,283 all-cause, 9558 cancer, and 6373 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths were recorded.
The researchers concluded that while meat intake in Asian countries has increased in recent years, there was no evidence of a higher risk of mortality as a result. In fact, the analysis provided evidence of an inverse association with red meat, poultry, and fish/seafood consumption and cardiovascular mortality in men and cancer mortality in women!
This means that higher meat consumption has actually been correlated with fewer heart disease deaths in Asian men and fewer cancer deaths in Asian women:
“Red meat intake was inversely associated with CVD mortality in men and with cancer mortality in women in Asian countries.”
It seems the vegan bible has suffered yet another blow to its cherry picked conclusions. Unlike The China “Study”, this large analysis of Asian ecological data is a Real Study published in a Real (peer-reviewed) Scientific Journal. Not a blockbuster work of fiction designed to sell books through promotion of outrageous black and white nutritional propaganda.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources:
The China Study Myth
Meat intake and cause-specific mortality: a pooled analysis of Asian prospective cohort studies
Fish consumption, blood docosahexaenoic acid and chronic diseases in Chinese rural populations
Erythrocyte fatty acids, plasma lipids, and cardiovascular disease in rural China
Hi Sarah,
We are a largely vegetarian family, but we eat some fish and some raw dairy. Well, our daughter so far cannot digest raw dairy, but she eats fish. (I breastfed her for four and a half years and sometimes wonder if well breast fed babies might actually outgrow the need for milk sometimes.) We do fish bone broths. We eat good quality land meat once in a while. We ferment foods. Oh, and we eat some eggs and use pasteured butter, although have yet to get raw butter or make our own.
Also, we are gluten free, generally, although we allow a little gluten once in a while. And we eat a lot of fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables. We also freeze some and have them past season.
It is hard for us to think of going down a high meat path, or a totally vegan one. What do you think of our eating plan? Love to hear your thoughts, either as a response here or a post.
It seems to me that the ancients would have eaten some meat, some fish, some eggs and also a lot of foraged fruit, vegetable, root type plant type foods. It seems to me that they would not have eaten meat daily and would have sometimes been very veggie. Which is very different I think than being strictly vegan for years.
We eat fish at least twice a week, eggs about the same…bone broths home made…about once a month, with at least three portions per person before its gone…and land meat at special occasions. I (the mom) also eat natto…very often…i try to eat it at least three times a week…and drag my family into the natto experience…a little.
What do you think?
Thank you for all that you do…
I may be wrong, but…I think you may have some readers — and not just our family — who don’t want to be vegan or heavy meat eaters, yet who want real health answers, not afraid of truths, and want to hear your thoughts on what goes on nutritionally with this… middle path.
Flora
ps. if you have time to respond, then feel free to respond to me publicly or privately. per your preference.
Excellent post!
We have fluoride in our municipal water supplies, added, which we pay for, because “scientists” proved that it “strengthens teeth”, and what good parent doesn’t want their kid to have strong teeth? Truth? Fluoride did not exist until post-WWII, when scientists employed by Carnegie were told to find a way to bolster the demand for aluminum or aluminum byproducts, since profits were dropping as the war wound down. PS: have not consumed municipal water in 35 years, though it does come out of my faucets (no choice on that one!). Go to the Fluoride Network to learn more.
We had “scientific” evidence that margarine was healthier than sweet cream butter. Oh, wait! The “scientists” changed their minds…
We had scientific evidence that vaccines stop debilitating disease..or did we? New evidence says that was never true….even Jonas Salk wrote that his “vaccine” did not cure anything! See Mercola and NaturalNews.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy cure cancer, don’t they? Not! They MAY kill cancer cells, if you’re lucky, but they will kill the patient, too.
Sad, isn’t it?
Sorry, but you can’t just write things that aren’t true and pretend they are. Fluoride wasn’t invented after WWII. It’s an ion of an abundant element. In proper amounts, fluoride prevents tooth decay. This isn’t a theory. It’s science, not “science”. Considering that tooth decay and infection have historically been a leading cause of illness and death, the citizens of our country (back when citizens bothered to read books and learn facts) approved a plan to cheaply add fluoride to public water supplies and help reduce dental decay. It doesn’t cure anything. Occasionally fluoride levels are too high and that can cause dental problems and possibly neurological problems in young children. But high fluoride levels can occur naturally. The fact that the system isn’t perfect isn’t a reason to get rid of it.
Nobody ever claimed that vaccinations “prevent” disease. They help prevent infection. Vaccines have saved millions of lives and have all but eradicated some of the most deadly public health scourges the world has ever seen. They do not cause autism. They are not made with toxic levels of mercury. Rumors and conspiracies aren’t fact. They’re idiocy. Are children vaccinated more today than forty years ago? Yes. Is that a good thing. I don’t know. But again, that doesn’t mean that vaccines are bad. It means the system needs work.
And again, nobody has ever claimed that chemotherapy cures cancer. I hope to god you or your loved ones never get cancer, but if they do, I know you’ll be grateful for any and every measure that can be marshaled to destroy the cancerous cells and prolong life.
^what Dave said about cancer. Cancer has to be treated, or it kills. Until those promoting alternative therapies can provide scientific studies that their methods work, they have no right to discourage people from chemo and radiation.
Excellent post. Thank you.
David,
Is tooth decay really a leading cause of death? Can you give more info on that? I’m not meaning to be confrontational, I’d just like to know. And I don’t know that tooth decay necessarily leads to infection in the mouth (will ask my dentist father), though it may exacerbate it. Yes, infection HAS been a leading cause of death in the past – but most of those can be handled now. And by the time fluoride starting being added the water supply, fluoride wouldn’t be helping cut down on infections and death (sorry, that just sounds so laughable). Yes, fluoride is a natural element, but what is added to water is not that. If fluoride is so is beneficial and prevents tooth decay why still so much tooth decay? My dad made a good living drilling, filling and billing his patients who drank fluoridated water. Many nations have done and are doing just fine without fluoridated water, and look at those traditional cultures studies by W. Price to examine other influences on oral health and tooth decay. Plus, why does the government decide that we all need fluoride? There are so many other areas where they should be concerned and involved in promoting health rather than putting fluoride in the water.
I understand what you’re getting at here, though. I agree that vaccines and some conventional medical treatments have done good and shouldn’t just be dismissed. Improvement is certainly needed though!…But the stuff about fluoride is nonsense, imo.
David: fluoride isn’t the element…Fluroine is the element. Symbol: F.
Well, not to be a smart ass here, but seeing as you seem to be in the business of educating people here, Patrick. There is no element “fluroine”; it’s fluorine. And here was what Wiki has to say about “fluoride”: “Fluoride /flÉ”raɪd/ is an inorganic anion with the chemical formula F−” (I needed to look that up as I am an English teacher, not a Biology teacher). Just wanted to clear that up. I think you’re really splitting hairs.
And yes, I see that my first sentence is a fragment. I was too busy trying to get my computer to accept your word (I won’t even try again!).
Three of my Hungarian/German grandparents and their siblings lived well into their 80’s and 90’s and believe me they ate plenty of meat of all kinds. Along with it fresh veggies, fruits and homemade goods. No processed stuff of any kind!!
Really enjoying your blog Sarah, and just read your book about fats. I have a question about butter… Do you think it is better to eat organic butter from perhaps not such great pasture (we live in Australia where it is hot, dry, and brown for a good chunk of the year!), or to eat non-organic butter from better pasture (most likely imported butter).
Thanks!
Hi Kitty, my personal preference is always to go for the better pasture. For example, my local farm is not a certified organic farm, but has excellent unsprayed pasture and nice yellow butter so I buy this instead of organic store butter which is more pale and the cows are obviously getting little green grass. The more yellow the butter, the more nutrition. Nutrition is the most important thing of all .. even more than organic although if you can get both, that is of course ideal.
Love this blog. I was raised on traditional food up till my teens… in the back of my mind I craved traditional foods. As of this year I have almost entirely stopped eating processed foods. I have lost 26 lbs and feel awesome. thanks Sarah for all you do!
my sister would never believe me, even if I showed her this article…and yet she’s the one w/the infertility problem…too much soy……sigh
Kathy – While I’m sorry for your sister of course, infertility is awful, I have to say that I don’t think you can attribute it to that. I am pregnant with my second and did it naturally because my body WORKED on a vegan diet. With my first I was a omnivore (eating only grassfed, “healthy”, organic meat and dairy) and had issue upon issue.
Kathy, I’m very sorry for your sister. I can understand her because I’m in the same situation. I do not trust doctors and I’m trying to improve my issues with diet and supplementation.
However, please do not equate too much soy with infertility, period. While soy can be harmful for women with an hormone imbalance (excess estrogen or skewed estrogen-progesterone ratio) and it’s certainly wise to limit it, it’s not the only cause.
Infertility is very complex and there are usually multiple reasons. Simply reducing infertility to “you should not eat/do this or you should eat/do that and you will be pregnant in no time” is a) not helpful, as what it may be a solution for one would be a disaster for another b) it belittles the real suffering of the person/couple c) it sounds disrespectful, because, let’s face it, if it were so simple and easy, we would have already done it.
It looks like he was too desperate to prove that veganism is the ultimate diet, just like Ancel Keys was with the lipid hypothesis. Thanks for sharing this!
Dear Sarah,
it looks like you are extremely good at committing logical fallacies, like for example ad hominem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem and I would like to encourage you to not committing that many logical fallacies, because this would increase the value of what you write a lot.
I don’t believe (and please correct me, if I am wrong), that you do actually know what the author of the book “was too desperate to prove”, right?
Are you sure, that the vegetarians and vegans are your enemies, that you have to attack and fight against?
Are vegetarians and vegans the ones who make laws that make it more difficult for you to consume raw milk?
Are vegetarians and vegans supporting GMO-foods?
Are vegetarians and vegans supporting conventional agriculture with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other poisons?
I hope my comment increases the value of your blog.
Regards,
Matthias
Matthias, I don’t think anyone here considers vegans to be the enemy. I have a good friend who is vegan – no worries about that. The problem is that children are being fed this way and this damages their health for life and very possibly impairs their ability to have children of their own. This is why I blog about it .. to wake up parents who are ready to unshackle themselves from modern dietary propaganda and look to the past to healthy traditional cultures and what they ate for wisdom. Remember that there has NEVER been a vegan culture that successfully survived for multiple generations. Dr. Price searched the world in vain early in the last century looking for vegans and all he found were cannibals when a society was unable to procure animal foods.
Whoa! I’m sorry, but I kindly have to disagree with you here, Sarah. First of all, scaring people with your own dogma, without proof, and stating that somehow it is your job to “wake up parents” and elsewhere in these comments when you said that by feeding your children a plant based diet, parents are making their children sick and doing irreparable damage (I even think you mentioned destroying the reproductive systems… sorry, I can’t respond to this post AND look for that one at the same time).
Secondly, there have indeed been vegan cultures who have “successfully survived for many generations”! Let me give you some examples to Google: The Hunza of Pakistan, the Tarahumara (I think I spelled that correctly), and the Abkhazia of Russia. Their diets are 90-99% whole plant based. The Hunza for one are renowned for living into their 100’s. There are other examples, but I think you get the idea. The premise is the same for each of these cultures and many other poorer areas which cannot afford to eat a “diet of affluence” (i.e. meat and animal products).
A third point, or rather question is…. have you even read “The China Study”? It doesn’t appear to me that you have. If you want, I can send you my copy. The flaws don’t lie in the book, but rather, in the research that is behind the book. That is where you will find the discrepancies. But I think if you actually DID read the book, you totally missed T. Colin Campbell’s points.
I think it is irresponsible of you to go spouting off when you have not taken the time to educate yourself. I’m personally very disappointed in this whole post. And it’s a shame, because I read your blog daily. Usually, you bring up some great topics. Other times I don’t agree with you so much, but that’s okay. THIS blog is offensive and NOT OKAY by any stretch of the imagination.
My apologies if I come off as harsh, but I am an educator and I also educate myself on topics before I feel comfortable speaking my mind on them. I think you owe a lot of mothers you have now scared an apology.
Hi Lisa, the cultures you mention are not vegan. They all eat some animal products. For example, the Hunza eat small amounts of meat from the cows, yaks, sheep and goats they keep. Likely dairy as well from the goats. Just because the amount of meat is small doesn’t mean it is insignificant and if the whole animal is consumed with bones (for broth) along with muscle meats, organs, and skin less can be consumed than if muscle meats alone are eaten (as in Western society). As discovered by Dr. Price, some cultures did eat a lot of plant foods and some ate no plant foods at all but they ALL ate at least some animal foods.
Lisa,
If Sarah is correct, you did not have all the dietary info on the cultures you alluded to. Please google Denise Minger (sp?)- in any case, google will correct. She has an excellent critique of the China Study which you may find informative or not informative?
If only……I had knowledge of this blog before I read the above mentioned book. It would have saved myself and my family from ill health. I followed the vegan diet religiously, always being careful to combine my rice and beans, and eat them daily. Tofu was a staple. Vegetables with absolutely no fat was the norm. After about 9 months, I began losing my hair, in large amounts. My husband, who does hard physical labor for a living began losing weight and muscle tone at an alarming rate. His skin tone became so gray, family members were convinced he was suffering from a serious disease; he’s lost several family members to cancer. I became alarmed, and began to do some searching and came across some articles from Sally Fallon. We then switched our diet to raw milk, grass fed beef, and fermented cod liver oil. My hair is finally coming back, and my husband, according to friends, now looks the picture of health. We can say from our experience,
a return to traditional food, from traditional sources is the best way to achieve great health!
“Vegetables with absolutely no fat was the norm”
And you never heard that you should combine your vegetables with healthy fats from (soaked and sprouted) whole VEGAN seeds and nuts?
No wonder you got sick by your deficient fat-free “vegan” diet. Where did you get that idea of consuming a fat-free vegan diet anyway?
Does the China study book recommend such a diet?
This sounds like a CALORIE deficiency and NOT a nutrient deficiency! If all you did was change the foods you were eating but not up the quantity, then you were all seriously under eating! There are not many calories in vegetables. If you started including fish oils, milk and fish oil back in your diet and you improved, the higher calorie content of those foods plus the fat content contributed. Did you eat avocados and nuts while plant based?
My boyfriend eats over 5000 calories a day eating only plant foods and he eats ALL DAY it seems, and has had massive gains in the gym. He’s 200lbs and can bench press 400lbs and works a very physical job plus plays rugby 3 times a week and works out 3 days as well. I don’t think plant based diets are the culprit.
Thank you Amanda. I appreciate the positive feedback.
Dear Sarah,
I find you blog very refreshing and informative. I have learned a lot reading it. I have a question about something I read regarding Milk. The authors of the milk stories stated that humans do not assimilate the calcium in milk easily. It was indicated that the milk actually leaches minerals from the human body. As I read I do not know if the reference was made about raw milk (which I drink) or if the reference was to pasteurized milk. Can you shed some light on this subject.
Thank you,
Frank
Given that the enzyme to absorb the calcium from milk is already in the milk but is destroyed by pasteurization, then it would seem likely that whatever reference you read was referring only to pasteurized milk. As an anecdotal example, a lady in my community with osteoporosis was still losing bone rapidly even despite high consumption of pasteurized dairy products – milk, cheese , yogurt. Plenty of calcium but obviously little to no absorption. Upon switching to raw dairy only, her bone loss halted and even began to slowly reverse. Raw milk is a completely different food from the pasteurized dairy, so drink up 🙂
I thought it was the vitamin k2 that helped the body absorb calcium. From what I’ve read K2 is not destroyed by pasteurization however it is only in milk from cows on a grass based diet. Since most raw milk is grass-fed it could be that change more than the rawness of it?
K2 (also known as the X-factor)works synergistically with vitamin D and vitamin A and does supercharge mineral absorption. However, the enzyme I’m speaking of to absorb the calcium is a different nutrient and is destroyed by heat. You are correct .. K2 is not destroyed by heat and yes it is only in grassfed dairy not conventional grain fed dairy.
Thank you Sarah for the information. I continue to search for raw milk and get it when I can. It is unfortunate that New Jersey is such a backward state.
Frank