Whole

Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

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

Narrated by: Don Hagen

Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

Very Informative and enlightening!

I think that everyone needs to listen to or read this book, along with the Chiba Study.
After reading the China Study I was convinced that A WFPB diet was for me. I was already a vegetarian for 20 years, but cheese was the most difficult food for me to give up. Then my older sister was diagnosed with breast cancer & that was enough for me. I immediately gave up dairy and never looked back. Then I took Dr Campbell’s course through eCornell in 2012 and became certified in the WFPB diet. Thankfully, my younger sister also decided to shift from vegetarian to WFPB, although we have not been able to convince my older sister to go completely WFPB. I am still working on that….
This book is a must read for everyone. I think that I enjoyed it even more due to Dr. Campbell’s narration, which lends a tone of heartfelt enthusiasm and sincerity to the content. Thank you Dr. Campbell for changing my life for the better, along with everyone else who chooses to shift to a WFPB diet!

Criticism isn’t he comments is bogus

I read reviews before I listened to this book expecting Dr. Campbell to rail against a certain person as some have said in the comments. What I found was a very compelling argument about reductionist science that shapes the guidance we’re given in the U.S. on what is considered a healthy diet. Give it a listen, take the red pill, wake up.

Great anecdotes on the system, but

could have used more detail in historical contradictions like humans growth with hunting. Evolutionary contradictions like humans canine teeth. Nutritional constraints such as the increase demand of plants leading to decline in plant nutrition. Or social/economic issues associated with increased demands for produce.

Highest quality education you'll find on WFPB

Very educational, especially about the systems in place working against adoption of WFPB by business, pharma, medicine, universities, etc. Important reading for all, even if you're not WFPB to help understand how systems control and manipulate discussion and thinking about food, health and the Earth.

Very overdrawn

It’s an interesting presentation of scientific facts supporting the whole food, plant based diet. I believe in the power of the human body to process natural things and protect and strengthen. However, two things were unneeded: overdrawn examples and attacks to the scientific community. It took WAY too long to present simple points. Elaboration only dragged, and did not help. Attacks on the scientific community, despite the caveats and counter-point-respect; was unnecessary and didn’t further the biological proof. It frankly came off as complaining and resenting. I wouldn’t recommend this book, and I’d refer people to WFPB websites or blogs instead. He is a credible author and scientist: just not an author, and sadly, comes off as a salty scientist.

Fascinating & Compelling

Extremely comprehensive and much gratitude to the authors for this potentially life changing and life enhancing time.

A lot of science and a few good tips

This is an excellent book for the scientific explanation of why supplements will never render the same positive results as eating the food they come from. The authors go to great lengths to scientifically evaluate the difference between the nutritional content of a whole food and a component part of that food that is being marketed as a supplement.

The narrator did the book justice, and he has a beautiful voice, but he was rather slow for me and his voice was a little too melodic. I almost went to sleep several times listening to him. For that reason, YOU SHOULDN'T LISTEN TO THIS AUDIOBOOK WHILE DRIVING. While I would have enjoyed listening to Don Hagan read a fiction book, I really think that narrators with a little more pep should be used for scientific books.

Overall, what I took away from Whole was an ingrained understanding that it's better to eat the vegetable than to take the supplement. This is not to say that I'll never use supplements again, but I now have a better understanding of the importance of dealing with sickness and disease nutritionally. For a full rating, I would have expected a few more tips on the incorporation of real food into a diet, but that said, I may listen to this one again, sometime, to remind myself to eat my vegetables.

The whole truth your not supposed to know!

Eye opening and startling information on what is most important in life - food and our health.

How important information about food is being hidden by the "money" and how there is a unhealthy business thriving on our "misfortune" of being uneducated.

This is a important first step to educate yourself.

Also about how business is manipulating us and the "world" and everyone

Do yourself a favor...

and read this book!! this book is right up there as a must with How not to Die.

Real truth

Loved learning truth ! So much is hidden from us in society, thank God for this research!