○ THE CHINA STUDY by T. Colin Campbell ,PhD am Thomas M. Campbell ll, MD
1. Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless food substances. The Whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The chemicals we get from the foods we eat are engaged in a series of reactions that work in concert to produce good health. This is nature at work.
2. Dietary supplements are not a panacea for good health.
Because nutrition operates as an infinitely complex biochemical system involving thousands of chemicals, and thousands of effects on your health, it makes little or no sense that isolated nutrients taking a supplement can substitute for whole foods. Supplements will not lead to long lasting health, and may cause unforeseen side effects.
3. There are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants
4. Genes do not determine disease on their own. Regardless of our genes we can optimize our chances of expressing the right genes by providing our bodies with the best possible environment that is the best possible nutrition.
5. Nutrition can substantially control the adverse effects of noxious chemicals.
It’s useful to think of this principle in another way: a chronic disease like cancer takes years to develop. Those chemicals that initiate cancer are often the ones that make the headlines. What does not make the headlines, however, is the fact that the disease process continues long after initiation, and can be accelerated or repressed during its promotion stage by nutrition. In other words, nutrition primarily determines whether the disease will do its damage.
6. The same nutrition that prevents diseases in the early stages (before diagnosis) can also halt or reverse disease in its later stages (after diagnosis).
7. Nutrition that is truly beneficial for one chronic disease will support health across the board.
8. Good nutrition creates health in all areas of our existence. All parts are interconnected. The process of eating is, perhaps, the most intimate encounter we have with our world: what we eat becomes part of our body. But other experiences are also important, such as physical activity, emotional, and mental health, and the well-being of our environment. Incorporating these various spheres into our concept of health is important because they are all interconnected. Indeed, this is a holistic concept.