T. Colin Campbell

T. Colin Campbell is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Cornell University, where he ran a laboratory funded by the US National Institutes of Health for decades. He helped lead the China-Cornell-Oxford Project, one of the largest studies of diet and disease, and founded the Center for Nutrition Studies.

Best known for

The China Study (2005), written with his son Thomas Campbell, and laboratory work in which rats fed a high-casein diet developed far more early liver tumors than rats on a low-casein diet. He is credited with coining the phrase whole food, plant based.

Approach

Whole foods over single nutrients: he prefers food groups to macronutrient targets, recommends whole plant foods without oil, and warns against judging food by isolated nutrients or relying on supplements.

Main talking points

• In his rat studies, animal protein (casein) promoted cancer growth; plant proteins did not.
• About 10% of calories from protein is enough, he says.
• Nutrition works as a whole system; isolated nutrients and pills miss the point.
• He argues a whole food plant based diet can help prevent heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.

Books

• The Future of Nutrition The Future of Nutrition2020
• The Low-Carb Fraud2014
• Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition2013
• The China Study2005