Reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD. and Thomas M. Campbell II. This book is giving the evidence, solid scientific studies performed over many years, that demonstrate the connection between eating animal-sourced foods and cancer, heart disease and strokes, diabetes and obesity. [So far.] If you had given me this book three or four years ago, even if I read it, I would have said, "Boooring." I would probably have either discounted the evidence or thought, "Oh, well, that's okay for people who can eat that way [plant-based whole foods] but, poor me."

I have spent the last three years initially changing to more natural foods and whole grains, then attempting to change to a vegetarian diet, which has given me a basis to build on. My mind is like that. I have to assimilate information and apply it slowly. Any lifestyle change with me is complicated by my emotional attachment to food and the process of eating and the way it affects my mood. Perhaps I'm more ready for enlightenment from praying in the Shrines. But for whatever reason, the light has turned on for me. Oddly, once I get it, change can happen rapidly.

My initial reaction to listening to a brief discourse on this subject on April 21st was, "Oh, no! I can't change!" But in my heart I just knew that whether I felt ready or not emotionally, if I am to live the way I want to, I must change.

To quote the author of The China Study, "Yes, changing your lifestyle may seem impractical. It may seem impractical to give up meat and high-fat foods, but I wonder how practical it is to be 350 pounds and have Type II diabetes at the age of fifteen . . . I wonder how practical it is to have a lifelong condition that can't be cured by drugs or surgery; a condition that often leads to heart disease, stroke, blindness, or amputation; a condition that might require you to inject insulin into your body every day for the rest of your life.

"Radically changing our diets may be 'impractical,' but it might also be worth it."

This is the conclusion I have come to. But I had to come to it on my own, hearing and then reading the evidence myself. If it had been forced onto me, I would have rejected it. In America, our lifestyle has become so warped and extreme, that to abandon animal-sourced foods seems extreme. In other parts of the world, and at other times, this would fall well within the bounds of moderation.

I want to share this book with all my friends, with Homeland's medical director. I want to open a nursing home for people which serves a whole foods, plant-based diet [but not if it means any work.] I want to run out and save the world.