The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell Read Free Book Online

began in 1983 and is still
ongoing.
    In addition to these human studies, I maintained a twenty-seven-year
laboratory research program in experimental animal studies. Begun in
the late 1960s, this National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research
investigated the link between diet and cancer in considerable depth.
Our findings, which were published in the highest quality scientific
journals, brought into question the very core principles of cancer cau-
sation.
    When all was said and done, my colleagues and I were honored to
have received a total of seventy-four grant-years of funding. In other
words, because we had more than one research program being con-
d u c t e d at once, my colleagues and I did seventy-four years' worth of
funded research in less than thirty-five years. From this research I have
authored or co-authored over 350 scientific articles. Numerous awards
were extended to me and to my students and colleagues for this long
series of studies and publications. They included, among others, the
1998 American Institute for Cancer Research award "in recognition
of a lifetime of significant accomplishments in scientific research ... in
diet, nutrition and cancer," a 1998 award as one of the "Top 25 Food
Influentials" by Self magazine and the 2004 Burton Kallman Scientific
Award by the Natural Nutrition Food Association. Moreover, invitations
to lecture at research and medical institutions in more than forty states
and several foreign countries attested to the interest in these findings
from the professional communities. My appearance before congressio-
nal committees and federal and state agencies also indicated substantial
public interest in our findings. Interviews on the McNeil-Lehrer News
Hour program, at least twenty-five other TV programs, lead stories in
USA Today, the New York Times, and the Saturday Evening Post and
widely publicized TV documentaries on our work have also been a part
of our public activities.

     THE PROMISE OF THE FUTURE
Through all of this, I have come to see that the benefits produced by eat-
ing a plant-based diet are far more diverse and impressive than any drug
or surgery used in medical practice. Heart diseases, cancers, diabetes,
stroke and hypertension, arthritis, cataracts, Alzheimer's disease, impo-
23
     PROBLEMS WE FACE, SOLUTIONS WE NEED

tence and all sorts of other chronic diseases can be largely prevented.
These diseases, which generally occur with aging and tissue degenera-
tion, kill the majority of us before our time.
     Additionally; impressive evidence now exists to show that advanced
heart disease, relatively advanced cancers of certain types, diabetes and
a few other degenerative diseases can be reversed by diet. I remember
when my superiors were only reluctantly accepting the evidence of nu-
t r i t i o n being able to prevent heart disease, for example, but vehemently
denying its ability to reverse such a disease when already advanced. But
the evidence can no longer be ignored . Those in science or medicine
who shut their minds to such an idea are being more than stubborn;
they are being irresponsible.
     One of the more exciting benefits of good nutrition is the prevention
of diseases that are thought to be due to genetic predisposition. We now
know that we can largely avoid these "genetic" diseases even though we
may harbor the gene (or genes) that is (are) responsible for the disease.
But funding of genetic research continues to spiral upwards in the belief
that specific genes account for the occurrence of specific diseases, in
the hope that we somehow will be able to "turn off' these nasty genes.
Drug company public relations programs now depict a future where
each of us will have a personal ID card cataloging all of our good and
bad genes. Using this card, we will be expected to go to our doctor, who
will prescribe a single pill to suppress our bad genes. I strongly suspect
these miracles will never be realized, or if tried they will have serious,
unintended