The China-Cornell-Oxford Project was a study conducted throughout the 1970s and 1980s in rural China, jointly funded by Cornell University, the University of Oxford, and the government of China. In 1991 The New York Times called it "the Grand Prix of epidemiology." The first two major studies were led by T. Colin Campbell

T. Colin Campbell

T. Colin Campbell is an American biochemist who specializes in the effects of nutrition on long-term health. He is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, and the author of over 300 research papers...

, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell, who summarized the results in his book The China Study

The China Study

The China Study is a 2005 book by T. Colin Campbell and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II. It examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illnesses such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease,...

(2005).

The study examined the diets, lifestyle and disease characteristics of populations of 65 rural Chinese counties, comparing the prevalence of disease characteristics, excluding causes of death such as accidents. The findings suggested that some diseases of affluence

Diseases of affluence

Diseases of affluence is a term sometimes given to selected diseases and other health conditions which are commonly thought to be a result of increasing wealth in a society...

 were caused by Westernization

Westernization

Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...

, especially the growing consumption of animal protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 and dairy product

Dairy product

Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing comes mainly from cows, and, to a lesser extent,...

s, previously either unknown or uncommon in China.

See also

• China Health and Nutrition Survey
  China Health and Nutrition Survey
  The China Health and Nutrition Survey , an ongoing international collaborative project between the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was...
  
  
• Framingham Heart Study
  Framingham Heart Study
  The Framingham Heart Study is a long-term, ongoing cardiovascular study on residents of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The study began in 1948 with 5,209 adult subjects from Framingham, and is now on its third generation of participants...
  
  
• Nutrition
  Nutrition
  Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
  
  
• Veganism
  Veganism
  Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
  
  
• The China Study (book)

Further reading

• "China-Cornell-Oxford Project", Cornell University, accessed February 3, 2011.
• "China Study Data", University of Oxford.
• "Switch to Western diet may bring Western-type diseases", Cornell Chronicle, June 28, 2001.
• Summary and details of the study, University of Oxford.