Debunked - The China Study

I'm going to keep this EXTREMELY brief, and very simplified. If it's too simplified for people's liking let me know, but I don't want to bog people down with information. Comment with thoughts, suggestions, other studies you'd like to know about, or more areas to read about the china study.

What is The China Study?

When discussing an all meat diet, I've heard The China Study brought up numerous times. I wouldn't say all of the science in it is bad, but the author makes conclusions you can't make, generalizes, and leads readers to the WRONG conclusion.

The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term HealthThe China Study is actually a book written about a number of "studies". Dr. T. Cloin Campbell of Cornell University and some of his colleagues studied the diet hundreds of thousands of people in China. They ended up publishing that animal protein contributed to a plethora of disease. This was a gross inaccuracy on his part for the reasons listed below, and contributed to God knows how much suffering.

Where did it go wrong?

• Campbell links "animal protein" to cancer and autoimmune disorder's. The studies in the book linking "animal protein" to disease, are done based on casein (a protein in cow's milk). He generalizes and instead of being clear "casein causes....." he writes that "animal protein causes...." This is wrong. Casein and meat are NOT the same AT ALL. He discusses casein causing Type 1 diabetes but doesn't talk about gluten's role in Type 1 diabetes, or fructose's role in insulin resistance, or sugars role for that matter. The main mistake he makes, that caused God knows how much suffering, is lumping casein and meat together.
• Campbell doesn't look into carb consumption or sugar consumption. He omitted information in order to get the result he wanted. This book could easily have been just as popular if he didn't omit key information, and was specific that he was talking about casein (not animal protein in general).
• He suggests limiting cholesterol food to ZERO. We're slowly finding out that cholesterol actually isn't bad for you, and suggesting people eat zero of it is ridiculous. We need cholesterol to form our steroid hormones, process vitamin D, and form cell membranes.

Where did it go right?

Casein is linked to cancer and autoimmune disorders. I suggest avoiding dairy almost as much as I suggest avoiding gluten. But lumping dairy in with meat is a huge mistake. They are not the same.

What we can take away from it:

Be careful what you read. Most studies on diet are done badly and lead people to the wrong conclusions. Casein (dairy) should be avoided.

Further reading on The China Study:

Chris Kresser wrote a blog post about it, and it's really worth reading. It covers way more than this oversimplified post.

Some readers have mentioned Michael Greger and nutritionfacts.org. This is one of the (many) reasons I think that doctor is a crook. He's looking for anything that supports what he believes instead of looking for the truth. Compare what he writes to what Chris Kresser writes about The China Study and see for yourself. He lists The China Study as some of the evidence of plant-based diet without actually looking into the science behind it.