Whole

Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

By: T. Colin Campbell PhD/PhD, Howard Jacobson

Narrated by: Don Hagen

What happens when you eat an apple? The answer is vastly more complex than you imagine.

Whole, a New York Times bestseller and an eye-opening, paradigm-changing journey through cutting-edge thinking on nutrition, is a scientific tour de force with powerful implications for our health and for our world.

Every apple contains thousands of antioxidants whose names, beyond a few like vitamin C, are unfamiliar to us, and each of these powerful chemicals has the potential to play an important role in supporting our health. They impact thousands upon thousands of metabolic reactions inside the human body. But calculating the specific influence of each of these chemicals isn’t nearly sufficient to explain the effect of the apple as a whole. Because almost every chemical can affect every other chemical, there is an almost infinite number of possible biological consequences—and that’s just from an apple.

Nutritional science, long stuck in a reductionist mindset, is at the cusp of a revolution. The traditional gold standard of nutrition research has been to study one chemical at a time in an attempt to determine its particular impact on the human body. These sorts of studies are helpful to food companies trying to prove there is a chemical in milk or prepackaged dinners that is “good” for us, but they provide little insight into the complexity of what actually happens in our bodies or how those chemicals contribute to our health.

In The China Study, T. Colin Campbell revolutionized the way we think about our food with the evidence that a whole food, plant-based diet is the healthiest way to eat. Now, in Whole, he explains the science behind that evidence, the ways our current scientific paradigm ignores the fascinating complexity of the human body, and why, if we have such overwhelming evidence that everything we think we know about nutrition is wrong, our eating habits haven’t changed.

©2013 T. Colin Campbell (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

" Whole makes a convincing case that modern nutrition’s focus on single nutrients has led to mass confusion with tragic health consequences. Dr. Campbell’s new paradigm will change the way we think about food and, in doing so, could improve the lives of millions of people and save billions of dollars in health care costs." (Brian Wendel, creator and executive producer of Forks over Knives)

"There are very few material game-changers in life, but this book is truly one of them. The information herein - backed up by extraordinary peer-reviewed science - has the power to halt and reverse disease, give you energy you’ve never known, and put you on a path of transformation in just about every positive way. Read it and get ready to soar." (Kathy Freston, New York Times best-selling author of The Lean)

"In this provocative book, T. Colin Campbell, based on his long career in experimental research and health-policy making, uncovers how and why there is so much confusion about food and health and what can be done about it. The China Study revealed what we should eat; Whole answers why. Read and enjoy; there’s something here to inspire and offend just about everyone." (Dean Ornish, MD, founder and president, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito)

A frontal assault on nutritional 'science'

This book reiterates the findings of Campbell's The China Study that concludes a whole food, plant based (WFPB) diet significantly reduces illnesses caused by the standard Western diet. However, Campbell directly attacks the Medical-Agricultural-Academic complex as committing fraud on the American people by seeking maximum profits through largely ineffective and harmful medical solutions.

This book supports the premise that US medicine is purely a profit driven industry that will not acknowledge nutrition as the single most effective cure for most of the illnesses that prevail in America today. Campbell supports his conclusions that many doctors and medical researchers are in the pockets of Big Pharma and other ancillary industries that benefit from the status quo. With personal anecdotes and other studies, including The China Study, he questions industry-funded research projects which are skewed to reach the most profitable conclusions. Alarmingly, the medical industry itself is the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer, but this statistic is ignored by US government authorities.

He also attacks the dietary supplement industry and genetic researchers as largely favoring a "reductionist" versus a "holistic" view of health and nutrition. It is profitable to sell a drug. It is not profitable to sell a lifestyle based on eating plants.

This book is an excellent sequel to The China Study and expands on an increasingly popular theme that rightly contests the validity of what we're being told and sold. Books such as Wrong by David Freedman and Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre are also excellent Audible selections in this genre.

More Poking the Bear

Would you listen to Whole again? Why?

I will listen to this book again and recommend it to everyone I care about. The revelations in this book are too important to keep to yourself.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book made me glad to have found it and angry that anyone would try to discredit Dr Campbell for writing it. The disease culture in this world needs to be confronted with the facts presented in this book.

Great Follow up!

This is a great stand alone book. Or an excellent follow up to "The China Study."

Liked the book as a Whole

I enjoyed the very informative and just as shocking book, as the interviews and other publications I've read about Campbell. I do support Colin T. Campbell , but I feel however that though I love how the book was trying to focus on the "whole" theme when it comes to nutrition; there was a lot if derailment on what looked like an old man crying,"No one will believe me!" Which gets brought up numerous times. That said, it really is upsetting how no one listens or tries to silence Campbell on such vital information about our health. The narration was well done.

Change The Way You Think!

If you could sum up Whole in three words, what would they be?

Awesomly Supersensationalistic Ideas

Any additional comments?

This book is about SOO much more than just nutrition! The insight in this book could be revolutionary if more people would read it. Change the world! If you care anything at all about your health, loved ones or our planet, you need to listen to this! Even if you think you already know everything about health and nutrition. He does use some big words that I had to look up from time to time,but if a simple uneducated factory worker like me can be get some of the complex ideas in this book,then surely you can. For everyone involved in providing this information, you have my deepest and sincere thanks.

Changing our world

Very informative, intelligent and fact and research based! This book if adopted by most in our world could change our world for the better and seemingly save our planet from our ever present ailments.

A Must Read

This book is a must read for anyone looking for intelligent, informed, no-nonsense, and even light-hearted information on what health and good nutrition really look like. Dr Campbell is one of those rare, balanced writers who can deliver his message without drama, anger, or histrionics because he deeply knows of what he writes and has the skill and ability as a writer to communicate effectively. This book changed my life and has helped reinforce in me some fundamentally sound ideas about nutrition - and life - that I plan to develop and deepen in the years ahead. A truly remarkable book!

Eye opener!

well that was really informative, I enjoyed this and encourages me to carry out more research on nutrition, and of course change my habits.

A man of wisdom way ahead of his time!

What did you love best about Whole?

Incredible information. Detailed. Holistic and unapologetic.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The second half is full of amazing eye-opening info!

Any additional comments?

Everyone in America needs to read this to have their eyes opened to what is really going on on Capital Hill and with the food, drug and supplement industry!

rethinking science

loved it. pleasing to the ear, slow enough to let info sink in see how I feel