February 25, 2008

The China Study: Less beef. More Broccoli.


In college I never went to Chemistry class, but showed up for exams and got straight A's. (Kudos to my highschool Chemistry teacher.) Anyway, that was probably the last time I paid any attention whatsoever to real science-y stuff. You know, experiments, data, statistics, bell curves.

The China Study is full of that stuff though, and I loved it. The author makes the case, simply put, for eating fewer animals and more plants. This sort of diet has been proven to reduce or eliminate everything from cancer to diabetes to MS.

Not as sensational as the Atkins diet or as sexy as the South Beach Diet, this suggestion of eliminating animal products definitely doesn't sit well with industry and government. Nor does it make for a best seller. But it does make a whole lot of sense when you consider the areas of the world afflicted with the most cancer, heart disease and other "Diseases of Affluence", then consider the diets that prevail in those areas. The China Study compares rural China to America and finds patterns that help us understand how diet is the key to solving so many health problems.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

damn girl! you flew through that book! great summary. michael pollan (author of omnivore's dilemma) has a semi-new book out. the title is - in defense of food, an eater's manifesto. the subtitle is very simple and also a good summary for the china study. it goes... eat food. not too much. mostly plants. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1594201455/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-2424024-6760820#reader-link

Michelle said...

In Defense of Food is definitely on my list. The daily commute is good for one thing and one thing only: reading.

Anonymous said...

The Red Line commute is also an excellent chance to harvest some nutritional yeast.