anajonessy's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death
lexiefolkerts's review against another edition
5.0
Outstanding book. Recommend to anyone and everyone who cares about their health, worries about the future of their health, or just wants to optimize themselves. As a vegetarian of 8.7 years and recently not consuming dairy or soy (yet still having digestive issues) I am confident in my decision to stop eating meat, and am fairly certain I won’t consume meat for the rest of my life. I feel very pressured by this book that this message is SO compelling I need to share it with all of those that I care about and hope that inspires them to even consider making a change. I loved the book’s MASSIVE wealth of citations to back every statement made. I love the author’s writing style and accessibility of the information. I now feel that I’ll have to read work by Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. McDougall, particularly Dr. McDougall so that I can get real concrete tips on optimizing my diet.
annakmeyer's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty interesting. But by the end I sort of felt like he was just yelling at me. Good points about the power of food industries in shaping the national dialogue about what is considered "healthy."
heregrim's review against another edition
3.0
The book was very well written and much of the information was direct and supported by evidence. This being said, I haven't seen the whole China Study and much of the last chapters focus on how the medical community is oppressing the information made him come across as bitter. I am also skeptical of his claims outside his direct research in cancer. Still, thought provoking and has me doing some research on the topic although I don't see my diet changing drastically. Guess I am not ready for what he claims would happen.
adamcarrington's review
2.0
Not the book I was expecting, nor as definitive as it is talked up to be.
One would expect from a book written by someone involved in The China Study, in a book titled The China Study, that there would be far more detail about the study itself. Instead, the book is simply an extended opinion piece from Campbell about the benefits of a Whole-foods, Plant-based diet vs the standard American diet, and very little about the scientific methods and findings of the study itself. Indeed there is more ink devoted to various vivisected studies than the people in these Chinese communities that participated in the study.
Of course there are aspects within Campbell's never-ending spiel that are interesting. The rat studies that show a correlation between casien and cancer growth. The influence that corporations have towards safeguarding and promoting and normalising the sales of objectively unhealthy food groups like meat and dairy products.
But I want to read about The China Study, not the American food industry - mildly interesting as that may be.
One would expect from a book written by someone involved in The China Study, in a book titled The China Study, that there would be far more detail about the study itself. Instead, the book is simply an extended opinion piece from Campbell about the benefits of a Whole-foods, Plant-based diet vs the standard American diet, and very little about the scientific methods and findings of the study itself. Indeed there is more ink devoted to various vivisected studies than the people in these Chinese communities that participated in the study.
Of course there are aspects within Campbell's never-ending spiel that are interesting. The rat studies that show a correlation between casien and cancer growth. The influence that corporations have towards safeguarding and promoting and normalising the sales of objectively unhealthy food groups like meat and dairy products.
But I want to read about The China Study, not the American food industry - mildly interesting as that may be.
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