Diet, life-style, and mortality in China — the China-Cornell-Oxford Project
In plain English
An ambitious 1980s survey, jointly run by Cornell, Oxford and the Chinese government, that measured 367 diet and lifestyle variables alongside disease rates across 65 rural Chinese counties. Counties eating more plant-based, lower-animal-protein diets tended to have less heart disease and fewer of several cancers. Popularised in T. Colin Campbell's bestselling book, it became one of the most-cited arguments for whole-food plant-based eating.
Why it matters
Rural Chinese counties eating more plant-based diets had less heart disease and cancer.
Informs: Plant-Based Score·Heart Disease·Cancer
Provenance
- Design
- Ecological / population-level
- Sample size (n)
- 6,500
- Follow-up
- 5 years
- Peer-reviewed
- No
- Replications
- 1
- Funding
- Public / academic
- Funders
- Cornell University, University of Oxford, Government of China
- Institutions
- Cornell University, University of Oxford, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine
decades.plus score
A transparent 0–100 weighted sum across six components. Higher scores reflect bigger, cleaner, more replicated work.
Caveats
Ecological design — it correlates county averages, not individuals, so it cannot establish cause and is prone to confounding. Critics note the raw data show weaker and more mixed associations than the popular book implies, and the lead author is a prominent plant-based advocate.
