Chinese food can tell us a lot about the relationship of diet and disease, a relationship that, in countless countries, has proved slippery to pin down. So says T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University, who, with three colleagues from China and England, is now completing a 6-year study of Chinese dietary patterns. . . .
What drew the investigators to China is that country’s enormous variation in cancer incidence, which became apparent with the 1981 publication of the Cancer Atlas of China by the Chinese Cancer Institute. The atlas revealed that in China cancer is very much a local disease, with mortality rates varying from several dozen-fold to 300-fold among regions. And in most regions, diet and life-style also vary tremendously: people usually live their entire lives in the county where they were born, eating locally grown foods. . . .
• Cholesterol. Plasma cholesterol levels range from 90 to 175 milligrams per deciliter, which puts the Chinese high near the U.S. low. Cardiovascular disease
