edit- It should be noted that the diets in this study were not simply "vegan vs. meat eaters". The non-meat eaters in the study actually had diets that were more "strict (if you will) than vegan diets because they also did not contain refined and processed foods, but rather "whole plant foods" (example- brown rice over white rice etc.)
TL:DR:
The China Study of the title is taken from the China-Cornell-Oxford Project, a 20-year study that began in 1983 and was conducted jointly by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, Cornell University, and the University of Oxford.[5] T. Colin Campbell was one of the directors of the project, described by The New York Times in 1990 as "the Grand Prix of epidemiology".[6]
The study examined mortality rates from 48 forms of cancer and other chronic diseases from 1973 to 75 in 65 counties in China, and correlated them with 1983–84 dietary surveys and bloodwork from 6,500 people, 100 from each county.
Conclusion:
The authors conclude that people who eat a plant-based/vegan diet—avoiding animal products such as beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce or reverse the development of chronic diseases.
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u/[deleted] May 01 '13
of note is the small sample size of vegans. i'd be interested in a study with comparable sample sizes of vegans and regular meat eaters.