The China Study and…

Happy birthday to my first, longest and very special friend, Carole, in California.  I celebrate your birthday right along with you, for the day you entered the world, it was safe for me to follow.  Thanks for being a one in a million friend!  I feel really lucky to know we are just as connected today, as we were 50plus years ago!  Happy birthday, also, to Ted,  (aka Dr. Antonetz) in New York.  Wishing you both a day filled with love, good friends, good food, laughter, happiness, peace and some premium blend coffee.

Well, I couldn’t run out quick enough to get myself a copy of the China Study.  After reading an article in American Fitness Magazine, about trainer Bob Harper and his mention of this book, I felt an immediate need to see what it was all about.  NOT because it was Bob Harper, but because I recently heard he leaned further into a plant-based diet, after having been a vegetarian for years.  Having done the same thing this year, I was curious about his journey.

Though I have read a few really good books on the vegan lifestyle, and loved both Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet and John Robbin’s Diet for a New America, I have always been hard-pressed to recommend either.  This is because the animal compassion parts of the book are hard to read, and clearly not for everyone.  I have a two-fold reason for eating a plant-based diet–part of it is about the animals, but most of it is about ME and my health.

My dream would be for everyone to consider the health possibilities that can be derived from avoiding animal products.  The China Study is a book I can recommend to everyone, based on the science behind it.  The author, T. Colin, Campbell, Ph.D, is a brilliant researcher (yes, he does much of his research on rats and mice) grew up on a dairy farm, went to school to study veterinary medicine and then was approached by Cornell University to do graduate work in “animal nutrition.”  There he worked on animal life extension through nutrition.  After working at MIT (where he actually discovered the chemical dioxin of Agent Orange fame) he took a position at Virginia Tech where he became involved in working with malnourished children in the Philippines.  The aim of this project was to make sure children were getting as much protein as possible.  It was here that he discovered something huge.  It was here that he learned that “the children who ate the highest protein diets were the ones who were most likely to get liver cancer!” This finding would lead him to continue research into nutrition, protein, cancer and much more.  What he would continue to learn over the next couple of decades, via hundreds and hundreds of studies, is what led to this book.  I am not surprised at any of what I am reading, but I am sure loving the SCIENCE behind it.

While it is not my place to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t eat, as a fitness instructor and trainer, I am often asked “diet” questions.  Because I am NOT a nutritionist, its not legally my place to suggest a “diet.”  As a wellness consultant, however, I will urge anyone and everyone who is interested in their own health to read and make choices that are sound for you.  As Dr. Campbell himself says, “if you want to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and then take medication, that’s your choice.”  If you want to learn the secrets to avoiding and even reversing most all the diseases that ail us, consider this book.  If you google it, you will quickly learn it is literally the most comprehensive study on nutrition ever conducted! If I am going to treat my body like a temple, this book will surely be my bible. $16.99 at Barnes and Noble, but I am sure you can get one used on Amazon.  I promise though you may or may not want to agree with everything, it can’t help but make you think about your dietary choices.

Gonna go blend up some fresh fruits and almond milk and go get my fitness on! Have a wonderful day everyone.