Have you ever wondered about the connection between health and diet? Odds are that if you're even reading this article, you have some inkling that the two are connected. But where do you turn to for good, scientifically credible research on what you should eat to optimize your chances for a healthy, disease-free life? T. Colin Campbell's new book, The China Study, may be the best place to start. Billed as the "most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted," the statistical evidence presented in The China Study that meat and dairy are a primary cause of most diseases of civilization is staggering and cannot be ignored.

A faculty member at Cornell's College of Human Ecology, Campbell has spent most of his life researching the links between diet and health. What is most interesting about his story is that he did not start off with the hypothesis that plant-based diets are a key to health. Early in Campbell's research career, while conducting research in the Philippines, he discovered a possible link between liver cancer and protein consumption. Driven to find answers, Campbell conducted intensive and exhaustive studies showing a causal connection between animal protein and cancer promotion in rats dosed with aflatoxin (a toxin - often found in peanuts - that causes liver cancer). Eventually, Campbell became head of what became known as the China Study, a multi-year epidemiological study of lifestyle factors and disease rates in rural China. To date, this study has over 8000 statistically significant results.

In his book, Campbell describes in no uncertain terms the implications from the China Study. Eat animal products and face increased risks of cancer and heart disease. In addition to laying out his findings from the China Study, Campbell also relays the research from other scientists into diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer's. Their findings concur: as consumption of animal protein increases, so do the degenerative disease rates in the population.

I needed no convincing that a plant-based diet was truly optimal for health, but I still found the implications from The China Study overpowering. Backed by well documented, peer reviewed studies and overwhelming statistics the case for a vegetarian diet as a foundation for a healthy lifestyle has never been stronger.