Customer Rating: 
Summary: Most Comprehensive Nutrition Study Ever
Comment: This book is critical for anyone studying nutrition. Why China? Because of "such a massive variation in cancer rates among different counties when genetic backgrounds were similar from place to place" (p. 71). Quite simply, it leaves no doubt that genetics aren't involved, but rather environment.
Though I have read hundreds of books on nutrition, I was blown away by the research herein. I had already known dairy was bad, but Campbell's research makes it practically the major culprit for cancer! Apparently the casein, the main protein in cow's milk, "interacts with carcinogens, the way DNA reacts with carcinogens and the way cancerous cells grow" (p. 65) and actually "allows more carcinogens into cells" (p. 348). Milk does a tumor good! Although I still occasionally indulge in raw goat's cheese, I am much more conscious of this fact after reading his book.
While other researchers have implicated carbohydrates in cancer (especially high glycemic ones), Dr. Campbell devotes an entire chapter to blaming a diet too high in protein. He found that a diet 5% in protein could reverse cancer, and implicated a diet high in animal proteins as being especially carcinogenic. He recommends getting no more than 10% of your calories in protein, which is low by USA standards.
A vegetarian diet was found to be superior in forming muscle over the long run ("slow and steady wins the race") as well as in allowing people to consume many more calories than omnivores, without getting fat.
Campbell also takes on big pharma and the food industries, leaving no doubt that their recommendations to us are purely for their profit.
My editor e-mailed Dr. Campbell to inquire as to whether any of the animal proteins eaten in the study were raw. Apparently not, he replied. It might have made a difference in the meat (since cooked meat forms carcinogenic heterocyclic amines if heated enough), but honestly: even raw dairy contains casein!
