But What About the China Study?

This is a question that comes up often when people notice that I am not afraid of eating animal products. To start, I read the China Study 2 years ago from start to finish. Upon reading it, without critical analysis, I was shocked. It was a big departure for me to read this as I have always felt animals should be a big part of the human diet. The longevity reading I had done prior to that all pointed to the longest living cultures having at least 10% calories from animals. So it was shocking to “learn” how bad eating animals could be. I took the book to heart and dramatically changed my diet to curtail the amount of animal food I was consuming. My education continued but I was a bit skewed toward the vegan lifestyle thanks to the science presented in the China Study.

Two years later, after taking a closer look at some of the information presented, I am not as convinced by the arguments. Without going into detail (I will leave that to the links provided), it became more clear to me that the book only presented one side of the data. To be noted, this is what would make sense. The China Study presents precisely what they wanted to present. I do not think it was malicious, I think they wanted to solidify a certain position and found data to back it up. Unfortunately it would appear that there was also data created that contradicted what they presented in the book. I think there was some very good information and data to come out of the book and from the author’s long distinguished career. I am now unwilling to subscribe to the claims made by the book as truth.

Here are a few links to some critique on the China Study (some are professionally done, others seem to want to attack, unfortunately)

Refuting the China Study Free the Animal website’s review of China Study criticism

The China Study again: A multivariate analysis suggesting that schistosomiasis rules! Health Correlator analysis