The China Study - T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell

Part III: The Good Nutrition Guide

I WAS IN A RESTAURANT RECENTLY, looking at the menu, when I noticed a very peculiar "low-carb" meal option: a massive plate of pasta topped with veg- etables, otherwise known as pasta primavera. The vast majority of calories in the meal clearly came from carbohydrates. How could it be "low-carb"? Was it a misprint? I didn't think so. At various other times I've noted that salads, breads and even cinnamon buns are labeled "low-carb," even though their ingredient lists demonstrate that, in fact, the bulk of calories are prOvided by carbohydrates. What's going on?
This "carb" mania is largely the result of the late Dr. Atkins and his dietary message. But recently Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution has been toppled and replaced by The South Beach Diet as the king of the diet books. The South Beach Diet is pitched as being more moderate, easier to follow and safer than Atkins, but from what I can tell, the weight-loss "wolr' has just put on a different set of sheep's clothing. Both of the di- ets are divided into three stages, both diets severely limit carbohydrate intake during the first phase, and both diets are heavily based on meat, dairy and eggs. The South Beach Diet, for example, prohibits bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, baked goods, sugar and even fruit during the first two weeks. After that, you can be weaned back onto carbohydrates until you are eating what appears to me to be a fairly typical American diet. Perhaps this is why The South Beach Diet is such a hot seller. According to The South Beach Diet Web site, Newsweek wrote, "the real value of the book is its sound nutritional advice. It retains the best part of the Atkins regime-meat-while losing the tenet that all carbs should be avoided."

Who at Newsweek reviewed the literature to know whether this is sound nutritional advice or not? And if you have the Atkins Diet plus some "carbs," how different is this diet from the standard American diet, the toxic diet that has been shown to make us fat, give us heart disease, destroy our kidneys, make us blind and lead us to Alzheimer's, cancer and a host of other medical problems?
These are merely examples of the current state of nutrition aware- ness in the United States. Every day I am reminded that Americans are drowning in a flood of horrible nutrition information. I remember the adage told several decades ago: Americans love hogwash. Another one: Americans love to hear good things about their bad habits. It would ap- pear from a quick glance that these two sayings are true. Or are they?
I have more faith in the average American. It's not true that Ameri- cans love hogwash-it's that hogwash inundates Americans, whether they want it or not! I know that some Americans want the truth, and just haven't been able to find it because it is drowned out by the hog- wash. Very little of the nutrition information that makes it to the public consciousness is soundly based in science, and we pay a grave price. One day olive oil is terrible, the next it is heart healthy. One day eggs will clog your arteries, the next they are a good source of protein. One day potatoes and rice are great, the next they are the gravest threats to your weight you will ever face.
At the beginning of the book I said my goal was to redefine how we think of nutrition information-eliminate confusion, make health sim- ple and base my claims on the evidence generated by peer-reviewed nu- trition research published in peer-reviewed, professional publications. So far, you have seen a broad sample-and it's only a sample-of that evidence. You have seen that there is overwhelming scientific support for one, simple optimal diet-a whole foods, plant-based diet.
I want to condense the nutritional lessons learned from this broad range of evidence and from my experiences over the past forty-plus years into a simple guide to good nutrition. I have whittled my knowl- edge down to several core principles, principles that will illuminate how nutrition and health truly operate. Furthermore, I have translated the science into dietary recommendations that you can begin to incorporate into your own life. Not only will you gain a new understanding of nutri- tion and health, but you will also see exactly which foods you should eat and which foods you should avoid. What you decide to do with this information is up to you, but you can at least know that you, as a reader and a person, have finally been told something other than hogwash.