THE CHINA STUDY, A FALSE BOOK

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

© Nov. 2007, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.

A recently-published vegetarian-promoting book is one of the worst I have reviewed in a while. Here are a few reasons why I found it deceptive, confusing and completely unscientific to boot.

The title itself begins the deception. The book is not about a study in China. True, a study done in the 1980s on Chinese peasants is mentioned a number of times. However, the study itself is not presented anywhere. Instead, over half the book is about vegetarianism and its supposed benefits. However, the title, The China Study, sounds scientific even if it is not the subject of the book.

The cover states that the book “a comprehensive study” when it is anything but comprehensive and is not a study of anything. Here are just a few glaring errors and deceptions. They should give the discerning reader enough to realize this is not a serious book in any way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In the first sentence of the introduction, the author states that he has devoted “his entire working life to conducting experimental research into nutrition and health”. However, the references in the back of the book list fewer than a dozen papers with Dr. Campbell’s name on them. Most have to do with aflatoxin research in peanuts. This is not much of a life of research, unless the author could not get his papers published. Inability to publish would be highly unusual, since he states that he taught at prestigious colleges such as MIT and Cornell.

Almost all the book is about other people’s studies. This does not make sense, either, if Dr. Campbell has done so much of his own work. Either the author did not write many papers, or he failed to cite them in the book. This is very odd for such a “comprehensive” book, as the cover calls it. My guess is, he did not do much research at all.

Page two of the introduction states “I have been in the system for almost 50 years, at the very highest levels”. We are not told what this means. All we are told later in the book is that he rubbed elbows with a few government bodies regarding a few studies. It sounds like a brag, that is all, and it detracts a lot from the credibility of the book. Besides, do we really care at what levels he worked.

In the next paragraph, Dr. Campbell say again: “After a long career in research and policy-making”… However, once again, we have no evidence of the truthfulness of this statement. Dr. Campbell has not held any elected office that he tells us about, nor has he held other high-level private or governmental positions that he reveals to us. So how can he say he has had a life in policy-making? He has not. Either the author is deluded or someone else wrote the false statement.

I care about the science, and the science is very poor in this book. Here is an example: On page 98, the author confuses simple and complex carbohydrates. He calls white refined flour a “simple carbohydrate”. Of course, it is not true. This is not acceptable in any book, let alone one that claims to be “comprehensive” and written by a lifetime nutrition researcher.

The first chapter of the book begins with a quaint description of cows, songbirds and other animals on a farm where the author grew up. This is not how most scientific books begin. It is quaint, but a waste of time. I submit it is a way to lull the reader into believing what comes next.

On the next page, the author repeats the assertion that he spent “decades of doing experimental research”. If that is the case, where is it?

The same page goes on to discuss his father’s heart attack. Again this is not something we would expect in a scientific treatise. Then the author switches subjects and talks about obesity. This is important because it has absolutely nothing to do with the China study. The Chinese demographic was about poor peasants, many of whom barely had enough to eat!

However, because obesity is discussed in the book (later a whole phony chapter is devoted to obesity), one can believe falsely that somehow vegetarian diets help obesity. This, of course, is totally unproven! Most nutrition authorities would say the opposite. As Americans have eaten more refined carbohydrates, Americans have become fatter. Meat-eating has declined in American, while obesity has increased. This is another example of deceptive writing.

The same chapter then discusses diabetes. Once again, no data are presented to blame meat-eating for the epidemic of diabetes in America and around the world. Yet it is included in the book. The false implication is that a vegetable-based diet is better for diabetes. This is questionable for many reasons, among which are that zinc, a nutrient required for insulin production, is almost non-existent in vegetarian foods.

Later in the book the author claims that one can obtain all the nutrients found in meats in greater quantity in vegetables. I would not agree with this. Many health authorities agree that not only zinc, but amino acids such as taurine, methionine, cysteine, alpha-lipoic acid, L-carnitine, vitamin B12 and much more is more easily obtained from animal sources than from vegetables.

On page 20, the author begins a diatribe putting down other nutrition writers. He says “Most of the authors of several best-selling “nutrition” books claim to be researchers…”.

This beats all, because Roger Williams, PhD, Robert Atkins, MD, Jonathan Wright, MD, Alan Gaby, MD and many other authors of excellent nutritional research are or were experimental researchers. Even more importantly, they are clinicians. Dr. Campbell had no human clinic, and according to his book, did extremely little research.

This kind of writing has only one objective, and it is not to inform. It is to convince and brainwash. This type of writing occurs throughout the book. It is best called ideological, and not scientific.

Chapter 2, concerning protein, is so poor that I hate to even mention the problems. Protein is made out to be the bad guy of nutrition. In fact, even vegetarian authorities know that protein is an essential food group for every human being on planet earth. Protein deficiency is indeed a worldwide problem, which the author denies.

Please, dear reader, do not try to live on low protein diets. Every system of your body depends on consuming adequate protein. It is true that some people overdo on protein. However, vegetarians, in particular, are often low in essential amino acids, thanks to books like this one. It shortens their lives and causes many health problems.

Chapter 4 is a complete deception. It purports to be “a study” about China. In fact, it is just some cancer statistics in Chinese people recorded twenty-four years ago. The author, however, compares these poor Chinese peasants with overfed, overweight, toxic-chemical-laden Americans today. This is an insane comparison. However, it is written in a pseudo-scientific fashion that easily deceives the reader to believe the comparison is valid.

I could go on for pages about the deceptions and lies in the book. I believe I have said enough that if the reader is a thinking person, he or she will put this book back on the shelf and realize it offers little new information and a lot of deceptiveness. One must read critically and thoughtfully. I cannot recommend this book for any reason, except as a study in poor science and deceptive prose.

In my experience, it is true that vegetarian regimens help cancer patients – for a while, at least. There is so much more, however, that can be said about the subject, however, that is left out of the book. The book is being promoted heavily, which will bring many people to question meat-eating when they ought not do so. These are many excellent nutrition books available, but The China Study is not one of them.

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