CORNELL PROFESSOR SPEAKS ON CONNECTION BETWEEN DIET AND “DISEASES OF AFFLUENCE”

 

Cornell Professor Emeritus Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of the national best selling book The China Study, spoke at Redding Adventist Academy on March 6, 2008.  Dr. Campbell, renowned research scientist, talked about “Minimizing Your Risk for Cancer, Heart Disease, and Diabetes” based on the findings in his book.  

 

            The China Study details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.  The results of Dr. Campbell’s research show that a change of diet can dramatically reduce the risk of these “diseases of affluence” and that those who already battle these diseases can reduce or reverse their effects through diet.

 

            The China Study is the name given to a research project which became the largest and most comprehensive study of nutrition ever undertaken.  Based on a survey of diseases and lifestyle factors in rural China and Taiwan, the research project resulted in a 20-year partnership between Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese government.  The project produced more than 8000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.

 

            Dr. Campbell says, “the key findings are that people who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease... People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease.  These results could not be ignored.”

            On writing The China Study, Dr. Campbell says,”  After a long career in research and policy-making, I decided to step ‘out of the system.’  I  decided to disclose why Americans are so confused.  As a taxpayer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health, and disease are wrong.  I proposed to do nothing less than redefine what we think of as good nutrition.  You need to know the truth about food, and why eating the right way can save your life.”

 

            “The China Study is not a diet book,” says the book’s website.  “Consumers are bombarded with conflicting messages regarding health and nutrition;  the market is flooded with popular titles like The Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet.  The China Study cuts through the haze of misinformation and delivers an insightful message to anyone living with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity ......Additionally, Dr. Campbell challenges the validity of these low-carb fad diets and issues a startling warning to their followers.”

 

            Dr. Campbell is Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emerietus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University.  He has received more than seventy grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding and authored more than 300 research papers.  Early in his career Dr. Campbell was a researcher at MIT and Virginia Tech.  In 1982 he was one of 13 scientists chosen to write the landmark report on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer for the National Academy of Sciences.  Prior to this he was on the public affairs committee that served as a liaison between Congress and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and Medicine.  He was profiled in People Magazine during this time.