Book Review - Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

This summer spawned the publication of Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s latest book Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition. This was a follow up to his bestseller The China Study  which took the nutrition world by storm back in 2005 and continues to be a leading seller today. Today I provide a book review on Whole.

Both The China Study and Whole paint a picture (and very intriguing one at that) of the health and nutrition world as it’s come to exist today. While The China Study gives more of the intricate details of the individual studies relating to health and nutrition,Whole focuses on the bigger picture of how it all fits together within our current “system”. Dr. Campbell lays out how a reductionist approach to nutrition, health, and medicine functions within our current system, and, more importantly, why the system operates the way it does.

Whole is comprised of three main parts followed by Dr. Campbell’s engaging thoughts in Part IV on how we should move forward if we wish to turn around the current disease-care system we’ve come to know today.

Whole - Part I – Enslaved by The System

Part I of Whole plants a seed in readers to think differently. It reveals a wholistic approach towards our healthcare system as we move forward. The present-day strategies of using pills, procedures, and/or surgeries to combat the epidemic of chronic disease is, for all intensive purposes, not working. Instead, Dr. Campbell enlightens us on the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet in our quest to end the epidemic of sickness and suffering.

Part I goes on to detail Dr. Campbell’s background of how he grew up on a dairy farm and then made his subsequent entrance into the scientific world as a leading nutritional biochemist looking to rid the world of hunger and malnourishment. The details of his upbringing provide a very telling story with a surprising twist of fate.

Chapter 1 – The Modern-Day Health-Care Myth
Chapter 2 – The Whole Truth
Chapter 3 – My Heretical Path

Whole - Part II – Paradigm as Prison

Part II of Whole unveils the reductionist mindset that besets our current research, medical, and social systems as they relate to health and medicine today. For those hearing the word reductionist for the first time, it is defined simply as “an attempt to or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set”. In other words, it focuses on the finer details of a much larger picture instead of how these details fit into the bigger picture itself.
 

Both The China Study and Whole paint a picture (and very intriguing one at that) of the health and nutrition world as it’s come to exist today. While The China Study gives more of the intricate details of the individual studies relating to health and nutrition,Whole focuses on the bigger picture of how it all fits together within our current “system”. Dr. Campbell lays out how a reductionist approach to nutrition, health, and medicine functions within our current system, and, more importantly, why the system operates the way it does.

Whole is comprised of three main parts followed by Dr. Campbell’s engaging thoughts in Part IV on how we should move forward if we wish to turn around the current disease-care system we’ve come to know today.

Whole - Part I – Enslaved by The System

Part I of Whole plants a seed in readers to think differently. It reveals a wholistic approach towards our healthcare system as we move forward. The present-day strategies of using pills, procedures, and/or surgeries to combat the epidemic of chronic disease is, for all intensive purposes, not working. Instead, Dr. Campbell enlightens us on the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet in our quest to end the epidemic of sickness and suffering.

Part I goes on to detail Dr. Campbell’s background of how he grew up on a dairy farm and then made his subsequent entrance into the scientific world as a leading nutritional biochemist looking to rid the world of hunger and malnourishment. The details of his upbringing provide a very telling story with a surprising twist of fate.

Chapter 1 – The Modern-Day Health-Care Myth
Chapter 2 – The Whole Truth
Chapter 3 – My Heretical Path

Whole - Part II – Paradigm as Prison

Part II of Whole unveils the reductionist mindset that besets our current research, medical, and social systems as they relate to health and medicine today. For those hearing the word reductionist for the first time, it is defined simply as “an attempt to or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set”. In other words, it focuses on the finer details of a much larger picture instead of how these details fit into the bigger picture itself.

As an example, Dr. Campbell explains how we focus on studying the vitamin C content of an apple for its role in human health instead of studying the effect of the entire apple in its role on human health. Both analyses are important, but by overemphasizing the finer details of a single nutrient (in this case vitamin C) we miss the bigger picture of the system itself and how all the interconnected parts within this system interact with each other.

This summer spawned the publication of Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s latest book Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition. This was a follow up to his bestseller The China Study  which took the nutrition world by storm back in 2005 and continues to be a leading seller today. Today I provide a book review on Whole.

Both The China Study and Whole paint a picture (and very intriguing one at that) of the health and nutrition world as it’s come to exist today. While The China Study gives more of the intricate details of the individual studies relating to health and nutrition,Whole focuses on the bigger picture of how it all fits together within our current “system”. Dr. Campbell lays out how a reductionist approach to nutrition, health, and medicine functions within our current system, and, more importantly, why the system operates the way it does.

Whole is comprised of three main parts followed by Dr. Campbell’s engaging thoughts in Part IV on how we should move forward if we wish to turn around the current disease-care system we’ve come to know today.

Whole - Part I – Enslaved by The System

Part I of Whole plants a seed in readers to think differently. It reveals a wholistic approach towards our healthcare system as we move forward. The present-day strategies of using pills, procedures, and/or surgeries to combat the epidemic of chronic disease is, for all intensive purposes, not working. Instead, Dr. Campbell enlightens us on the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet in our quest to end the epidemic of sickness and suffering.

Part I goes on to detail Dr. Campbell’s background of how he grew up on a dairy farm and then made his subsequent entrance into the scientific world as a leading nutritional biochemist looking to rid the world of hunger and malnourishment. The details of his upbringing provide a very telling story with a surprising twist of fate.

Chapter 1 – The Modern-Day Health-Care Myth
Chapter 2 – The Whole Truth
Chapter 3 – My Heretical Path

Whole - Part II – Paradigm as Prison

Part II of Whole unveils the reductionist mindset that besets our current research, medical, and social systems as they relate to health and medicine today. For those hearing the word reductionist for the first time, it is defined simply as “an attempt to or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set”. In other words, it focuses on the finer details of a much larger picture instead of how these details fit into the bigger picture itself.

As an example, Dr. Campbell explains how we focus on studying the vitamin C content of an apple for its role in human health instead of studying the effect of the entire apple in its role on human health. Both analyses are important, but by overemphasizing the finer details of a single nutrient (in this case vitamin C) we miss the bigger picture of the system itself and how all the interconnected parts within this system interact with each other.