I have almost finished reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD & Thomas M. Campbell II. In it, the then 13-year old Thomas Campbell (son of Dr. T. Collin) was asked by a friend’s sister, “You don’t eat meat?”

Now young Tom was pretty used to not eating meat. It was just the normal state of affairs for their family so he hadn’t really heard all the lingo we have now with lacto-vegans, lacto-ovo-vegetarians, flexitarians, pesce-vegetarian…it was just his life.

“So, what do you eat?”  she asked. He apparently shrugged and said, “I guess just…plants.”

There is a lot to digest in this book (Ha!) but the upshot is that the studies are rather astounding to support a plant-based diet over a meat-based one; the prevention of heart disease, cancer and  diabetes alone is enough to make me reach for my broccoli.

But this is all stuff we mostly know right?

Well sort of. There is a lot of conflicting latest-greatest info flying at me. I keep reading that as I age I’m supposed to be dumping tons of protein into my body. Or take handfuls of supplements. Or stand on my head and say, “OHM”. (No wait, that’s something else…)

Dr. Colin Campbell is considered to have conducted the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition with this study. He is a Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and this study was the culmination of a twenty-year partnership with Cornell, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.

In other words, this is not some feel-good-animals-have-faces-book, but a solid medically-backed compilation of decades of research. The overarching pattern that emerged from one cancer study was that, “animal-based foods increased tumor development while nutrients from plant-based foods decreased tumor development.”

It is not a ‘diet’ like a South Beach or cabbage-soup or Zone or Eating for your Type or whatever those silly things are…instead, it’s pretty serious stats to suggest that you will feel better if you eat less meat. OK. He takes it further.

He says. No animals. Just plants.

I am not declaring myself to reside in one of these new categories of Vegan or Pesce-Vegetarian or Whatevers. I am merely musing aloud at this point and eating a heckuva lot more greens from our garden.

I think this journey really started when I went to the Fresh Start retreat last November which got me going on green smoothies for most of my breakfasts ever since. But I am not interested in doing anything from a sense of fear or deprivation or any of those reasons that are so often used.

I am going to eat lots of greens and fruits for lunch today because it tastes good and I don’t feel stuffed when I leave the table. I am eating my piles of veggies with my homemade dressing because I feel healthy when I’m finished and I LOVE feeling healthy.

But will there still be a cappuccino at 3 pm made with cow’s milk? Yup.

And tonight? I might do something completely different. Just trying some new ideas on for size. I like the idea of choosing each moment of my life as it presents itself.

This much I know for sure. I highly recommend the book. If nothing else – in really clear terms – it has expanded my view of the possible.