THE CHINA STUDY

In the early 1980s, Dr. Campbell, a Cornell University scientist, was invited to participate in a study of cancer throughout China. (The former premier, Chou En Lai, when dying of cancer, had decreed a massive study of the disease.) With 6,500 subjects, Dr. Campbell and his associates were able to assess a number of risk factors, including how diet relates to disease. Here, Campbell introduces the reader to the study itself, its possible implications for health, and the complex insider maneuverings of the various industries that could have felt the impact of his work. Most significant, Dr. Campbell says, is the difference between Western and Chinese diets; the former is mostly animal-based, while the latter is plant-based. If the goal is to avoid common Western afflictions, the "diseases of affluence," then switching to a plant-based diet is the way to go. The author runs through all of the usual offenders?heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, cancer, etc.?and postulates that his diet can protect from all of them. Dr. Campbell also details the ways in which established groups (The American Cancer Society, the National Dairy Council) attempted to discredit his research, and the machinations of big medicine. Health advice and cloak-and-dagger tales: an unexpected but potent combo.