My China Study

Are you familiar with T. Colin Campbell? He is a well known proponent in vegan circles for a plant based diet. Even the Vegan-in-Chief, Bill Clinton, gives some credit to Campbell for his diet changes. Raised on a dairy farm, Campbell adopted a vegan diet after years of studying the effects of animal nutrition as a researcher at Cornell's department of nutrition. He wrote a book called "The China Study" which explained his career work with other collaborators in layman's terms. His basic message was that the diseases of affluence like obesity, diabetes and heart disease do not exist in places like China that eat a mostly plant based diet.

Not everyone appreciated his message. Among those, Denise Minger is a well known blogger in paleo circles for writing scathing reviews of scientific articles, specifically those in opposition to animal products. She has directed her attention more than once at Campbell's "The China Study". After reading her reviews, one could get the idea that Campbell misrepresented his data. Minger has been praised by the paleo crowd for debunking a giant of the vegan world, and drawn criticism from the vegan world for her lack of scientific training and experience.

I want to settle the debate for myself, so I'm going to do my own China study. I will go to China, work with the people and eat what they eat. What will a diet of mostly rice, vegetables and fruit do to me? You may ask me, "Kelly, why go to China to eat such a diet? Can't you just eat it at home?" Actually, I have been eating this way for several months. It has been a slow transition which started last August when Anthony Colpo challenged my low carb mindset. I'm quite pleased with the results. Soon, I should blog about the details, but for now, I'll just share that I'm losing body fat and serum cholesterol.

Ok, so the real reason that I'm going to China is because my employer is shipping me off. I'm assisting our Chinese coworkers with a new product launch in our Wuhan, China factory. When you think of Chinese labor, think of me. But I will be eating a mostly plant based diet. I'm sure I'll get adventurous and try a few mystery meats. I'm really looking forward to finding good fruit. I've never eaten durian, so that is one of my action items.

Here are some scenes from my last China trip. See if you can count how many obese folks are in the pictures: