Ok it wasn’t really a fight…more of a disagreement as to why he needs to eat meat.  I simply told him about some scientific truths and facts and how it could benefit him.  He shot back at me with references about all sorts of studies etc.  I didn’t realize he’d come so prepared so I asked why he had all these books and studies (years and all) memorized and he said he gets ‘attacked’ for his eating habits all the time.  I then asked if he thought that might be some sort of red flag and he didn’t answer.

Anyway, one of his go-back-to’s was this book called “The China Study”.  Apparently it is some sort of earth shattering research on why we should all eat vegan - actually raw vegan I think…I didn’t get into it too deep standing at the book store.  Rather than try to explain the whole thing I’ll paste the synopsis:

“Referred to as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” by The New York Times, this study examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as curbing obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that are widely popular in the West. The politics of nutrition and the impact of special interest groups in the creation and dissemination of public information are also discussed.”

It pretty much explains the negatives of protein and that by removing it you can stop cancer and diabetes and autoimmune disorders and blah blah blah.  I know, thats great right?!  What do you mean you’ve never heard of the book?  Its a breakthrough, surely you must have missed the news that all disease is over now and you should stop eating protein.  OF COURSE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD THAT ON THE NEWS BECAUSE ITS ALL A BUNCH OF CRAP!

I spent a whopping 0.3 seconds (according to Google) and found literally thousands of people - many of them legit researchers - that called bullshit on this book.  I read quite a few in favor of the book (all vegans) and probably just as many that were against - there were exponentially more in the against category.

Here are a couple entries worth noting:

“It’s no surprise “The China Study” has been so widely embraced within the vegan and vegetarian community: It says point-blank what any vegan wants to hear—that there’s scientific rationale for avoiding all animal foods. That even small amounts of animal protein are harmful. That an ethical ideal can be completely wed with health. These are exciting things to hear for anyone trying to justify a plant-only diet, and it’s for this reason I believe “The China Study” has not received as much critical analysis as it deserves, especially from some of the great thinkers in the vegetarian world.”

“The China Study” is a compelling collection of carefully chosen data. Unfortunately for both health seekers and the scientific community, Campbell appears to exclude relevant information when it indicts plant foods as causative of disease, or when it shows potential benefits for animal products. This presents readers with a strongly misleading interpretation of the original China Study data, as well as a slanted perspective of nutritional research from other arenas (including some that Campbell himself conducted).”

“I also love the observation that, despite his constant whining about the “dangers of reductionism” in science, Campbell’s entire argument against animal protein really hinges on a strongly reductionist experiment, namely the isolated effect of casein fed to rats in large doses. Snap!”

“It seems Campbell never took the critical step of accounting for other disease-causing variables that tend to cluster with higher-cholesterol counties in the China Study—variables like schistosomiasis infection, industrial work hazards, increased hepatitis B infection, and other non-nutritional factors spurring chronic conditions. Areas with lower cholesterol, by contrast, tended to have fewer non-dietary risk factors, giving them an automatic advantage for preventing most cancers and heart disease. (The health threats in the lower-cholesterol areas were more related to poor living conditions, leading to greater rates of tuberculosis, pneumonia, intestinal obstruction, and so forth.)”

“One thing you’ll never hear Campbell mention, nor have I seen other China Study skeptics come across, is the health of one unique county in China called Tuoli. Unlike the rest of China, the Tuoli ate 40% of their diet as fat, ate 134 grams of animal protein per day (twice as much as the average American), and rarely ate vegetables or other plant foods. According to the China Study data, these people were extremely healthy with low rates of cancers and heart disease… healthier, in fact, than many of the counties that were nearly vegan. (No big shocker there, but it’s something Campbell completely ignores.)”

I stole the list below off someone else’s blog (I apologize to that person as I copied and pasted and then couldn’t refind his page - I had way too many open at once and then froze up) so I’ll post it here if you want to do your own reading becasue this post could get excessively LONG.

1. The China Study exposed: actual data does not support vegetarian health claims (at Hunter-Gatherer)
2. China Study Problems of Interpretation (at Whole Health Source)
3. Polish a turd and find a diamond? (at PaNu)
4. The China Study: Junk Science and Lies (at Robb Wolf)
5. There is no justification for a plant-only diet (at Conditioning Research)
6. Rest in peace, China Study (at The Healthy Skeptic)
7. “The China Study”, Debunked (at Theory to Practice)
8. “The China Study: Fact or Fallacy?” (at Let Them Eat Meat)
9. Destroying China (the Study that Is) (at Aspire Natural Health)
10. The China Study Discredited (at Food Renegade)
11. The Study Everyone Talks About: Part 2: The Ravaging Reviews (at Feasting on Fitness)
12. Debunking The China Study (at Crossfit 1776)
13. The Debunking of the China Study (at TJ’s Gym)
14. Thoughts on Friday from the middle of the road! (at A Moderate Life)
15. A Critique Worth Reading (at For His Glory & for Our Good)
16. “T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study: Finally, Exhaustively Discredited” (at Crossfit Peachtree)
17. The China Study: Crushed by its Own Data (at The Spark of Reason)
18. China Study & T. Colin Campbell: Someone just made you their vegan bitch (at Paleo-ish)
19. The China Study: Evidence for the Perfect Health Diet (at Perfect Health Diet)
20. The China Study Has No Clothes: Smackdown Of T. Colin Campbell (at Nutrition and Physical Regeneration)
21. The slam-dunking of “The China Study” (at the shmaltz)
22. China Study Shakedown (at Natural Messiah)
23. The China Study Toppled – A Tale of the Confirmation Bias (at Lean, Mean, Virile Machine)
24. Slaying of a Hypothesis (at Animal Pharm)
25. “Epidemiology is Bogus” (at Evolutionary Psychiatry)
26. China Study Unveiled — Not Supporting Veganism (at Primal Wisdom)
27. China fiction? (at The Heart Scan Blog)
28. The China Study - A Superb Analysis (at Primal Muse)
29. Chipping Away at the China Study (at Liberation Wellness)
30. The China study: Debunked (at Food, flora and felines)
31. Buh-bye, China Study (at The Low-Carb Curmudgeon)
32. China Study Debunked (at The Red Pill)
33. Around the Fitness Horn (at x lyssa)
34. RAW FOOD SOS sobre o China Study (at Canibais e Reis)
35. Die veblĂĽffende Biegsamkeit von Fakten: The China Study (at Urgeschmack)
36. Veganbibelns fall (at Kostdoktorn.Se)
37. Weekend Link Love (at Mark’s Daily Apple)
38. The China Study (at Kat’s Food Blog)
39. Debunking junk science: goodbye china study (at abundant brain & health)
40. China Study Unmasked (at AgingBoomersBlog.com)
41. Denise Minger Refutes the China Study Once and For All (at The WAPF Blog)
42. “The China Study” Considered Harmful (at Metamodern)
43. The China Study vs the China study (at The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D.)

Discuss if you bothered to check any of this out.

Do you ever feel like your friends are rolling their eyes at you when you start talking about the gym for the 5th time in a single conversation?  Its because they probably are.  I love that you are excited about the gym and that you want to share it with everyone but you have to remember that they might not be as excited as you are…heck you might be making them feel bad about themselves for not doing something to better their life and health.

Another reason they might be secretly telling you to F-Off in their heads is because they don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.  I will tell you that things like “WOD”, “Man Makers”, “Thrusters” etc etc etc are NOT typical gym-speak…they are CrossFit lingo and / or SPARK lingo.  Those not involved just don’t get it.  Explain it plainly and at the very least explain that it can be for everyone and no one expects them to keep up.  We go hard but we go at our own pace.  Everyone wants to feel like they belong and if they already feel like an outsider before they get going they don’t stand a chance.

Here’s where an innocent question can lead to something else.  Yes, I know Djokvic knows what a “Tweener” is, its just funny how he re-directs it.  Speak simple kids!

Discuss in Comments.

Ok so this is my version of “Who wore it best”?  In case you don’t know what that is you obviously don’t waste your time reading trashy “celebrity” magazines like someone I know does.  HA HA (By the way I think I’m in trouble for that last comment).

Anyway, its when they “catch” two different celebs wearing the same outfit and they put the pictures side by side for people to judge.  They vote on who it looks better on and then publish these oh so scientific findings in the magazine.  Whatever.  Apparently its quite a popular thing.

I decided to try something else.  As many of you know I have a pension for reality TV - so sue me its one of my guilty pleasures - and the other day I watched America’s Got Talent where I saw this amazing little girl sing.  She is so talented and for such a little thing to belt out this song will give you goose bumps for sure.  But after watching it I knew I had seen it on film somewhere else before sung by someone else…well guess what…I found it.

You be the judge…Who sang it best?

This one is kind of long but I couldn’t find a shorter one so if you skip to 1:30 you’ll see the important part and once you hear her sing go ahead and turn it off because the rest is lame.

And now number two

Who gets your vote?

Funny.  Gross.  Makes you think a little…This is the story of the 1 year old Happy Meal. 

Nonna Joann writes and keeps the blog “Baby Bites - Transforming A Picky Eater Into A Healthy Eater”.  As an experiment she decided to keep a Happy Meal on her counter for an entire year (or at least as long as she could stand it).  The findings may shock you a little or perhaps not because lets face it, we’ve all gone to vacuum out our car and found a fry that looks a few seconds old under our seat.  Oh stop lying to yourself and all of us!  You’ve all found one so just shut your lips and read…I’ll summarize it for you.

“I purchased a Happy Meal, not to eat, but to observe. Yes, I bought a Happy Meal and then placed it on my office shelf, right behind me and my computer. It sat on my shelf for a year as a silent witness to our fast food industry.

It smelled delicious for a few days. I’d get a whiff of those yummy French fries every time I walked into my office. After a week or so, you could hardly smell it. My husband worried that when the food began to decompose, there would be a terrible odor in our home. He also worried the food would attract ants and mice. He questioned my sanity.

NOPE, no worries at all. My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. The food did NOT decompose. It did NOT get moldy, at all.”

“The photo on the bottom is the one I took today.  Because Colorado has an arid climate, over the year the moisture has been slowly pulled from the Happy Meal.  The bread is crusty and if you look closely, you will see a crack across the top.  The hamburger has shrunk a bit and still resembles a hockey puck.  Yet, the French fries look yummy enough to eat.  I never had an odor problem, after a couple of weeks, I couldn’t even smell the fries.

Now look at the photo on the top, I took it a year ago.  Not much difference.  The bread is plumper and the fries a tad bit perkier.”

“Picky eaters universally love junk foods. They won’t touch veggies and sometimes refuse to eat the food their moms prepare. Out of desperation, parents give in and purchase the food their picky eaters will eat…junk food.

The next time you’re tempted to purchase a Happy Meal for your child, think about these photos. Food is SUPPOSED to decompose, go bad and smell foul…eventually.  When I was a kid, I remember our garbage pail for the left over food scraps was kept by our back door. After a couple of days, flies deposited their larvae (maggots) in the meat. When I would lift the lid, I would see the recently hatched maggots wiggling on the putrid mess. A fly never bothered to land on the tiny hamburger patty on my office shelf.

Food is broken down into it’s essential nutrients in our bodies and turned into fuel. Our children grow strong bodies, when they eat real food. Flies ignore a Happy Meal and microbes don’t decompose it, then your child’s body can’t properly metabolize it either. Now you know why it’s called “junk food.”

Discuss.