I recently read "The China Study" (taken from the "China-Oxford-Cornell Study on Dietary, Lifestyle and Disease Mortality Characteristics in 65 Rural Chinese Counties", or China Project), a survey that studied the relationship between mortality rates and the dietary, lifestyle, and environmental factors of some 6,500 people in 65 mostly rural counties in China. Described by The New York Times as "the Grand Prix of epidemiology", it was conducted jointly by Cornell University, the University of Oxford, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine over the course of twenty years. The authors (Campbell) conclude that people who eat a whole plant food/vegan diet, which avoids animal proteins (meat, dairy and eggs), will minimize or reverse the development of chronic western diseases (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc). "This is one of the most important books about nutrition ever written -- reading it may save your life." Dean Ornish, M.D.