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memydogandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
3.5⭐️
As a fan of Dr T Campbell's work, originally depicted in his book The China Study, I was really interested to read his latest book. Albeit fascinating topic I found the first half a little less accessible than the last half, that may say more about me as a reader though.
Despite that it's another interesting read, focussing on science, health care industry and the media's fascination with reductionism - focussing on one nutrient's impact on health and marketing it over the holistic view of nutrition and food.
It also is the reason behind why you'll read "research" in the media of why wine is good for you/then wine is bad for you, why we all "need" to be consuming vitamin c, e.... because with reductionism the health benefits of a piece of fruit/veg is broken down into individual vitamins, fibre etc indirectly implying that fruit or veg can be replaced by pills.
The morale of the story is "good food and good health is simple". Unfortunately we live in a world where there's a lot of money to be made by selling vitamins, meat, dairy and drugs for disease care not prevention. But this book does help to expose this and inform the reader of a more beneficial view of nutrition. I would just say I personally didn't find it quite as accessible a read as The China Study.
As a fan of Dr T Campbell's work, originally depicted in his book The China Study, I was really interested to read his latest book. Albeit fascinating topic I found the first half a little less accessible than the last half, that may say more about me as a reader though.
Despite that it's another interesting read, focussing on science, health care industry and the media's fascination with reductionism - focussing on one nutrient's impact on health and marketing it over the holistic view of nutrition and food.
It also is the reason behind why you'll read "research" in the media of why wine is good for you/then wine is bad for you, why we all "need" to be consuming vitamin c, e.... because with reductionism the health benefits of a piece of fruit/veg is broken down into individual vitamins, fibre etc indirectly implying that fruit or veg can be replaced by pills.
The morale of the story is "good food and good health is simple". Unfortunately we live in a world where there's a lot of money to be made by selling vitamins, meat, dairy and drugs for disease care not prevention. But this book does help to expose this and inform the reader of a more beneficial view of nutrition. I would just say I personally didn't find it quite as accessible a read as The China Study.
izabrekilien's review against another edition
4.0
Extremely interesting, maybe a tad complicated at the beginning (some biochemistry), but well worth the read.
If you're expecting something purely on a diet, you'll be disappointed.
But I learned things I'd never heard about, I finally read things I very seldom hear about and this was hugely refreshing.
This book will help you not listen to everything you hear about food and nutrition and help you adopt a healthy diet in a very simple way.
If you're expecting something purely on a diet, you'll be disappointed.
But I learned things I'd never heard about, I finally read things I very seldom hear about and this was hugely refreshing.
This book will help you not listen to everything you hear about food and nutrition and help you adopt a healthy diet in a very simple way.
pattireadsalot's review against another edition
4.0
I almost didn't read this because the logic of eating mostly plant-based and unprocessed foods seemed like basic common sense. Then I ended up taking eight pages of notes. I will do my best to create a succinct summary of advice I found the most useful. After note-taking, I realized many of the points I appreciated most (such as the example of Vitamin C found in the apple) were contained in the Goodreads description (so read that too!)
The quick rundown by Campbell says "The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible ("whole" foods). Eat a variety of fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80% of your calories from carbs, 10% from fat, and 10% from protein. That's it, in 66 words. In this book I call it the whole food, plant based diet or WFPB).
The history behind reductionist thinking (moving away from usefulness and applicability by focusing on one element to the exclusion of the big picture) vs. wholistic reasoning was the bulk of the book. Through graphs, studies, and explanation of how research was conducted to prevent bias, Campbell paints a vivid and disturbing picture of how our tendency to view results in a bubble is alarming. "We create specialists to help us solve each problem as if it stood alone. As a consequence, we fail to see interconnections and we fail to see the whole." (pg. 174).
My favorite Sections/Quotes:
1) The modern healthcare myth
2) What to ask yourself when you hear a health claim (Is it true? Is it the whole truth, or just part of it? Does it matter?)
3) How to tell if a health intervention matters.
4) "....Diet deals with so many diseases and conditions that you begin to wonder if there isn't just one basic disease cause- poor nutrition- that manifests itself through thousands of different symptoms (pg 135)."
5) Undisputed global warming implications of gases like Methane (CH4) that are associated with modern industrial livestock production....potentially 72 times more harmful than CO2 levels that are often touted, with Methane being far less known in the public.
6) The unsustainable practices of current food economy (how we use land and water for animals).
7) Reasons why the shift in thinking about food paradigms is so difficult.
8) The incredible interactions between enzymes in our bodies. I'm a person of faith, and while looking at charts on the Krebs cycle and metabolic pathways in science classes bored me beyond description, I look at it differently since I've aged- with awe and appreciation for the miraculous complexity of our bodies.
9) Nature ("genes") vs. Nurture ("nutrition") and what roles each play.
Please excuse if this seemed like a regurgitation of facts. I added so much to my knowledge of nutrition and found the insights quite profound. I recommend this to anyone who simply wants to be more informed, regardless of whether you adopt all his tips.
The quick rundown by Campbell says "The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible ("whole" foods). Eat a variety of fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80% of your calories from carbs, 10% from fat, and 10% from protein. That's it, in 66 words. In this book I call it the whole food, plant based diet or WFPB).
The history behind reductionist thinking (moving away from usefulness and applicability by focusing on one element to the exclusion of the big picture) vs. wholistic reasoning was the bulk of the book. Through graphs, studies, and explanation of how research was conducted to prevent bias, Campbell paints a vivid and disturbing picture of how our tendency to view results in a bubble is alarming. "We create specialists to help us solve each problem as if it stood alone. As a consequence, we fail to see interconnections and we fail to see the whole." (pg. 174).
My favorite Sections/Quotes:
1) The modern healthcare myth
2) What to ask yourself when you hear a health claim (Is it true? Is it the whole truth, or just part of it? Does it matter?)
3) How to tell if a health intervention matters.
4) "....Diet deals with so many diseases and conditions that you begin to wonder if there isn't just one basic disease cause- poor nutrition- that manifests itself through thousands of different symptoms (pg 135)."
5) Undisputed global warming implications of gases like Methane (CH4) that are associated with modern industrial livestock production....potentially 72 times more harmful than CO2 levels that are often touted, with Methane being far less known in the public.
6) The unsustainable practices of current food economy (how we use land and water for animals).
7) Reasons why the shift in thinking about food paradigms is so difficult.
8) The incredible interactions between enzymes in our bodies. I'm a person of faith, and while looking at charts on the Krebs cycle and metabolic pathways in science classes bored me beyond description, I look at it differently since I've aged- with awe and appreciation for the miraculous complexity of our bodies.
9) Nature ("genes") vs. Nurture ("nutrition") and what roles each play.
Please excuse if this seemed like a regurgitation of facts. I added so much to my knowledge of nutrition and found the insights quite profound. I recommend this to anyone who simply wants to be more informed, regardless of whether you adopt all his tips.
bpontius's review against another edition
2.0
TL:DR. This book started out well, but failed to address the primary issue it advertises on it's cover. The subtitle "rethinking the science of nutrition" doesn't really describe the book - it should be "critiquing the reductionist scientific establishment and American government," since Campbell spends most of the time pointing out the negatives of our current health and nutrition systems (critiques I agree with) and a very minimal amount of time offering a better way forward.
This book is worth getting from your library and skimming through. 20 minutes of skimming will give you what you need to know.
This book is worth getting from your library and skimming through. 20 minutes of skimming will give you what you need to know.
hguthrie's review against another edition
3.0
I have very mixed feelings about this book. 3.5 stars. Perhaps a more complete review to come later.
bookwormmichelle's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. I don't need to eat yogurt every day just to keep up my protein and calcium intake? This is such a strong argument for changing the way we think about food. I have to confess to sometimes thinking of my food as little packets to deliver protein or calcium or fiber. But given the understanding of the complexity of nutritional reactions--I may be rethinking my diet. Ordering more books along this line to see if I can tease out more--this is so different from what I've always been told.
michaelkerr's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book, but just couldn't really get there. Campbell provides an interesting analysis of the reductionist paradigm of medical research, and his discussion surrounding how funding corrupts the scientific process is truly important. However, his embittered ranting at the scientific and nutritional establishment gets really old really fast.
Early in the book, Campbell discusses his discovery of the relationship between casein (found in cows' milk) and liver cancer. He therefore calls into question the ethics of promoting of milk as a healthy drink. But his 'Whole' food perspective requires that all the effects of all aspects of milk be taken into account in their affect on the body - the casein issue is an example of the reductionist science he spends the rest of the book denigrating. To be fair, the casein discovery came early in his career, and his whole food paradigm shift came later. Nonetheless, if the positive antioxidant effects of a whole apple cannot be accounted for by the currently identified antioxidants found within the apple, might it not also be possible that the negative effects of casein are counteracted by other factors within milk? Not everyone who drinks milk gets cancer.
A recent Scandinavian study links high milk consumption to early mortality and poor bone health so Campbell is probably right on this one, but I can't help thinking that his argument is seriously undercut by using a reductionist technique to argue for a Whole food paradigm.
Early in the book, Campbell discusses his discovery of the relationship between casein (found in cows' milk) and liver cancer. He therefore calls into question the ethics of promoting of milk as a healthy drink. But his 'Whole' food perspective requires that all the effects of all aspects of milk be taken into account in their affect on the body - the casein issue is an example of the reductionist science he spends the rest of the book denigrating. To be fair, the casein discovery came early in his career, and his whole food paradigm shift came later. Nonetheless, if the positive antioxidant effects of a whole apple cannot be accounted for by the currently identified antioxidants found within the apple, might it not also be possible that the negative effects of casein are counteracted by other factors within milk? Not everyone who drinks milk gets cancer.
A recent Scandinavian study links high milk consumption to early mortality and poor bone health so Campbell is probably right on this one, but I can't help thinking that his argument is seriously undercut by using a reductionist technique to argue for a Whole food paradigm.
bionicjulia's review against another edition
3.0
A book with interesting insights for sure, that is worth reading. There were however, a lot of circular, repetitive arguments which I felt could've been cut out effectively. I enjoyed the first 50% of the book tremendously (why we should move away from a reductionist mindset), but the latter half less so (why it is that research and healthcare is stuck in this reductionist mindset). I'm still undecided as to whether I should read his previous book, The China Study.
2018 update: Rereading this again as it's on the syllabus for a nutrition course I'm doing. Still repetitive, but have a new-found appreciation for the necessity of it.
2018 update: Rereading this again as it's on the syllabus for a nutrition course I'm doing. Still repetitive, but have a new-found appreciation for the necessity of it.
raehink's review against another edition
4.0
What happens when you eat an apple? The answer is vastly more complex than you imagine. (jacket)
If this book does nothing else, I hope that it convinces you that we need to change the way we think about health. We must recognize nutrition as a cornerstone of our health-care system, not a footnote. We must also recognize the limitations of our reductionist paradigm and learn to accept the validity of evidence beyond what that paradigm allows us to perceive. If we are truly to understand the meaning of nutrition, its effect on the body, and its potential to transform our collective health, we must stop seeing reductionism as the only method by which to achieve progress and start seeing it as a tool, the results of which can only be properly evaluated within a wholistic framework. And we must be willing to embrace wholism beyond the realm of nutrition. The body is a complex system; bodies gathered together in societies are even more complex; and human life, interwoven with all of nature on this planet, is complex beyond our imagining. We cannot afford to ignore this complexity any longer. (285-286)
Although I do not agree with or feel anxiety about everything in this book, I do agree that we need to adjust our eating habits and make them more (w)holistic and spiritual in nature. Doing this is easier said than done. For me, anyway. An enjoyable and enlightening read.
If this book does nothing else, I hope that it convinces you that we need to change the way we think about health. We must recognize nutrition as a cornerstone of our health-care system, not a footnote. We must also recognize the limitations of our reductionist paradigm and learn to accept the validity of evidence beyond what that paradigm allows us to perceive. If we are truly to understand the meaning of nutrition, its effect on the body, and its potential to transform our collective health, we must stop seeing reductionism as the only method by which to achieve progress and start seeing it as a tool, the results of which can only be properly evaluated within a wholistic framework. And we must be willing to embrace wholism beyond the realm of nutrition. The body is a complex system; bodies gathered together in societies are even more complex; and human life, interwoven with all of nature on this planet, is complex beyond our imagining. We cannot afford to ignore this complexity any longer. (285-286)
Although I do not agree with or feel anxiety about everything in this book, I do agree that we need to adjust our eating habits and make them more (w)holistic and spiritual in nature. Doing this is easier said than done. For me, anyway. An enjoyable and enlightening read.
jackiijackii's review against another edition
4.0
Reiterates the findings outlined in "The China Study", and explains why those results didn't become mainstream knowledge. Totally fed into my healthy dose of New England paranoia with the conspiracy theories based on first-hand experiences, but to be honest, I was already familiar with these ideas and ended up skimming the last few chapters. Anyone encountering it for the first time may be rightfully skeptical (as it should be when encountering something completely foreign for the first time), but once you start digging, it's hard to deny.
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