So somehow I came across this remarkably interesting blog today and really enjoyed reading it. Even the comments were very interesting I thought, and I quite got sucked in for a while. One site led to another as things on the internet do and I ended up over here. This site and another one, seriously call into question the integrity of The China Study which is a book I read years ago and was fascinated by.

Since coming to China and living here for a while I’ve had some serious doubts regarding The China Study and the conclusions that were made in that book. Not big enough that I went and did any in-depth research on it, but in my overall efforts to survive and get by here as I observed the people who have grown up in deep poverty in the countryside and suffered for lack of food (many of them are very, very happy to be able to eat 2 meals a day), I noticed that those who grew up in such poverty are many, many inches shorter than those who lived and grew up where food was more abundant. Also, they look much more emaciated than the Chinese from more stable, well-fed communities. I think this is something you almost have to see to believe. A photo won’t do it justice.

Anyway those other websites have people talking about how they have analyzed Dr. Campbell’s data and found that things may have been manipulated in order to make his case. Sure, a low-protein diet protects against cancer, apparently it’s hard to get cancer when you are already dead because your immune system simply couldn’t measure up to daily challenges. The analysis is more complex than that, but I’m only giving the 10 second version. Read the sites yourself if you want to know more.

Please don’t get me wrong here. I think a diet high in vegetables is very important, as I have noticed with my own health, but I also have found that eating meat or cheese or eggs occasionally seems to help me feel and function better. I’m not saying don’t be vegetarian or vegan or whatever, but simply that I would appreciate being able to make my food decisions based on truth and not based on some stinking nut-job agenda at either end of the nutrition spectrum.

You read for yourself, feel what your body and personal beliefs tell you and make your own choice. After living here in China, I am the last one who will ever set myself up as dictator of the world.

I could end the post there, but just after reading all of this stuff that has picked me up and set me down somewhere outside of my normal paradigm, I decided to go see about making some lunch. I was craving meat actually but there wasn’t any already cooked and it became a choice between cooking chocolate cake (which I was also craving) and cooking chicken (it’s the only meat in the house right now and it’s frozen). Being a very health-conscious person, you got it, I made the cake.

May there always be chocolate!

winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂

P.S. (I know, it’s not a letter it’s a blog.) To my family: I haven’t made any “phone calls home” lately because life has been incredibly busy this week (it’s not all blogging) and today my headache’s back. It hurts too much to sound cheerful and put headphones in my ears. Let me get past this and I’ll be in touch.