The China Study – Why Americans Have So Much Heart Problems And Cancer

December 28th 2011   ·   0 Comments

I hate book reports!

But I am going to tell you what I got out of this book and why I changed my diet and what it has accomplished for me. I read The China Study: The Most Complete Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Reduction, And Long term Health by Dr. Colin Campbell on the recommendation of a pal thinking he was a tiny off for being on a mostly vegan diet. I always thought those folks were nuts.

Anyway, I began to read The China Study diet on my way to one of those comprehensive resorts that I could usually count on to gain about five pounds. I made a decision I might try eating the way that the book claimed: no meat, eggs, milk, cheese or ready-made foods (white pasta, white flour bread, white rice, cookies, cakes, pies, candies). Now, I was not completely going by the diet, since I did taste one or two desserts, had a little seafood, drank a handful of margaritas which I’m sure had some sugar in them, and all they had was white rice.

Even with those transgressions, I came back without gaining any poundage. The book said if you eat the right foods, the weight will look after itself. Let me say that I didn’t just start this for the weight, but the incontrovertible fact the cultures that eat less animal protein and fast foods, have less heart disease, cancer, hypertension, high cholesterol, weight issues, diabetes, dementia, stroke, and on and on. I presumed, wow, I’m eating myself to death. Now I am 60 and have a six year old so I presumed I might try to stretch this ride out to see her grow up.

I had been lugging around 20 additional pounds for a few years and when I got back to the states, I assumed I might give it a serious try. Soooo, for the subsequent 8 weeks, I followed the diet much more closely (notice I didn’t say exactly). In that 8 weeks I had 3 shrimp, 2 stuffed (with cheese) jalapenos, 1 bite of lasagna, and one night I showed up at poker and all they had was pizza and wings so I ate one piece of pizza and one wing.

At the end of the 8 weeks, I had lost 14 pounds, and my cholesterol had fallen 70 points from he 230′s to the 160′s. Wow! I decided this was worth continuing. I'm now down about 20 pounds, high school weight and waist size. Had to give away a lot of clothing and buy more. That was OK with me. Now, I'm a Texan, so I’m not a purist. I can still shoot a massive buck and put him on the wall, but I can give the meat away (unless I’m starving, naturally).

On father’s day, I visited one of my favorite cafes in Austin and had pork mole enchiladas and queso. Then I had a jalapeno burger with onion rings the subsequent weekend. Then along came the 4th of July and I had sausage and brisket. It essentially made me feel sort of ill. When I am somewhere and there’s BBQ, or something that looks delicious, but is not on the vegan diet, I am going to have a bite or two for the flavour, but I think 95% of the time, there aren’t any animal products involved.

It is harder when you go out to eat, however it is achievable. You can order salads, side orders of vegetables — Olive Garden has whole grain pasta, spinach enchiladas without cheese or cream sauce and substitute tomatillo sauce, aubergine parmesan (hold the cheese!) with marinara sauce, beans, and so forth. I would recommend reading the book so you have the inducement. Not only will you lose pounds if you need to, but you'll feel better. The less animal protein and packaged foods you eat, the less your risk for coronary disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, weight problems automobile immune sicknesses, and we will only guess what else.

There are the dissenters. I attempted to think: what’s Dr. Campbell’s incentive for getting us to modify to the whole food plant based diet? He could make money by selling the book. He might have sold a book on diet and veered from what his research found. Diet books are hot sellers. Maybe he is PETA’s pocket which one of the pessimists alleges. Why? Glance at the studies. Glance at the comparisons of diets and the rates of illnesses around the globe. I won’t be 100% vegan. I had salmon for lunch today (poor fishey).

Read over about The China Study diet and I challenge each of you to try the regiment for 3 months and see how you are feeling and ask yourself what happens to your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. What have you got to lose??

Dr. Horis Stedman is a Texas medical doctor and is interested in health concerns of baby boomers. He publishes stories on diet and nutrition.

Tags:  china study, vegan

By madpooch3