Jump to content

Talk:The China Study

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 71.101.36.16 (talk) at 10:48, 27 August 2011 (Comment: formatting problems -indent my comments! + conclude my comment). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

WikiProject iconFood and drink C‑class Low‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Food and drink, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of food and drink related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.
CThis article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
LowThis article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
Food and Drink task list:
To edit this page, select here

Here are some tasks you can do for WikiProject Food and drink:
Note: These lists are transcluded from the project's tasks pages.
WikiProject iconBooks C‑class
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Books. To participate in the project, please visit its page, where you can join the project and discuss matters related to book articles. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the relevant guideline for the type of work.
CThis article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Comment

This is ridiculous that the people managing this entry used their bias in favor of vegetarianism to keep the critique from Dr. Harriet Hall out of here. What a terrible abuse of wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.180.9.166 (talkcontribs)

Here are 2 links to Hall's take on the issue: https://skepticalvegan.wordpress.com/tag/harriet-hall/ and http://www.theveganrd.com/2010/11/how-the-health-argument-fails-veganism.html as well: http://www.veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ is her personal website, it appears. Hall's criticisms of a vegan diet seem to admit that it is helpful in some regard (especially since her personal blog is all about vegetarian recipes!), but she claims the vegan diet is not a panacea or cure all. For a balanced view in the opposite direction, see this blog, which I found in the comments of Minger's blog: http://GordonWatts.com/consumer.html or http://GordonWayneWatts.com/consumer.html or even: http://Gordon_Watts.Tripod.com/consumer.html These 2 web-rings (Hall and Watts) appear well-sourced, and meet the same criteria that allowed Minger to be used. There should be discussion as to whether we include these (or similar) links.71.101.36.16 (talk) 10:48, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Though I am sympathetic to the author's findings, I have a hard time taking it seriously when there are no serious critiques for me to weigh the evidence. This does not look like objective reporting to me. Eriostemon (talk) 06:14, 31 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

FAQ for this Talk page

Maybe this Talk page should have an FAQ section at the top explaining why Minger, Hall, etc don't meet WP:RS? --Aronoel (talk) 19:20, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not including them violates WP:NPOV in the extreme, and WP:COI is huge here. This overrides the minor WP:RS issue over their analysis of the study. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.180.106.231 (talk) 19:29, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

WP:RS is a core policy of Wikipedia, it's not minor. It applies equally to all pages. --Aronoel (talk) 19:35, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
WP:NPOV is also a core policy, see WP:SELFPUBLISH guidelines and Hall is certainly included as a viable source even if you want to edge out Minger. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.180.106.231 (talk) 19:40, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Does Harriett Hall have 3rd party publications about topics in nutrition? I personally trust her as an expert but using self-published sources is an extreme case on Wikipedia. She's been published in reliable 3rd parties before, so I think if the essay she wrote for her blog was a very serious review of the book she would have actually had it published. Instead of trying to push her blog post through the one WP:SELFPUBLISH loophole, I think your time would be better spent looking for critical reviews in sources that are clearly reliable. --Aronoel (talk) 19:58, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
WP:RS quality critical reviews of specific studies are rare in general. Bringing in more general published material to contrast the China Study's claims would dilute the page's focus. A contrasting view is desperately needed, however that is incorporated, and I recommend simple external links to the contrasts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.180.106.231 (talk) 20:09, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Popular science books are reviewed in science sections of newspapers and science magazines all the time. If you know of any 3rd party published reviews directly critical of The China Study, you should definitely add them. They wouldn't dilute the page, and that would be a much better solution than including a questionable link. --Aronoel (talk) 20:16, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I do NOT agree with the conclusion Ms. Minger makes (namely that meat and milk are healthy), and for many of the statistically documented reasons elucidated in the comments section of her pages, where posters tear her apart; nonetheless, I would NOT remove her link as a violation of the 'reliable source' policy, since very few people have dared to take issue with this Dr. Campbell's premise, and seeing the dearth of reliable sources, I'd say that her source, since it has many references (incorrect conclusion notwithstanding) is about as 'reliable' as you're gonna get for a 'dissenting' view here. Furthermore, Minger raises one good point that I recall seeing in comments on her blog: namely, it is possible that vegans have healthier lifestyles due to their personality or whatever common cause exists, and that *these* healthy lifestyle habits are the cause of the lower incidence of diseases, not the vegan diet --but even though vegans & vegetarians are healthier as a whole, this is not always the case, as one commenter mentions that the Japanese smoke cigarettes quite a lot and yet Japanese citizens are healthier, lower cancer, longer life-spans, etc., due (we presume) because of their more vegetarian diet. And, I add: Japan is one REAL stressful country, which works their employees with a work ethic second to none. So, the peanut gallery commenting on Minger's blog make valid criticisms of HER work, which equate to "supportive" comments for this book here -and, i would consider looking at the comments sections of her blog and seeing how many well-sourced commentaries -either for or against Dr. Campbell's book exist. They might be just as reliable (if not more so) than Minger's work.71.101.36.16 (talk) 09:59, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sinister involvement in Wikipedia

I think there is something seriously wrong going on with regard to this article. It has been put up for deletion and has also been marked as relatively unimportant. This is quite surprising, since the book talks about the most important epidemiological study ever undertaken. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but there is a deeper issue her of sinister interests manipulating Wikipedia articles. In particular, in the case of this article, Wikipedia is highly vulnerable to sophisticated manipulation by the pharmaceutical industry and the meat industry. Such anti-vegetarian economic interests may be subtly suppressing this article. --Westwind273 (talk) 21:52, 22 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As a person who has read "The China Study" and seen the movie "Forks over Knives", I would have to disagree with your statement that this is the most important epidemiological study ever taken. This is a single study that hasn't been able to be verified with any other epidmiological or clinical study. The biological explaination on how meat products cause age related disease is flawed. One of the main problems with the study is the fact that the people in rural China have a shorter life expectancy than in North America. This is because people in rural China have higher rates of death due to accidents or other things that cause the death of people before they are old enough to get age-related diseases.
Rather than pushing conspiracy theories and blaming the pharmaceutical and meat industry, why not provide clarification as to why this this study is so good. There are a lot of flaws in vegetarinism and instead of pushing one flawed study, you should learn a bit more about vegetarianism.DivaNtrainin (talk) 00:07, 23 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
@ DivaNtrainin You ask for "clarification {or proof?} as to why this this study is so good." Well,... If you look at recent comments on her page, there are some well-sourced and STRONG dissent of Minger's analysis, and while they do not always address directly, Dr. Campbell's book's methods, nonetheless, many of the comments from rabid vegans DO make the case solidly that the vegan diet is healthier with a VERY strong correlation and as a VERY statistically significant degree. Thus, these comments prove Cambell's conclusion, even if not his methods or data, and so here is your proof "as to why this this study is so good."71.101.36.16 (talk) 10:16, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]