Sir Yacoub Egland of Yesulam, Holy Knight of the Ecclasia, stared morosely at the plain bowl of porcelain before him. In the bowl was gleaming clear water that reflected the wan torchlight of his recovery room. That water would be cold, he knew, and while he once may have paid little heed he was no longer what he once was.
Cold water, for one, clung to his new pelt of short, fine fur quite tenaciously without ever seeming to warm appreciably. Since autumn was well under way it was getting cooler and his rooms were feeling that chill. He did not look forward to another chilling bath out of that porcelain washbasin. Nor did he look forward to the ignominy of having another aide in his bathing because of his weakened state. He sighed heavily and looked down at his hands, now like the rest of him given over fully to the change.
Contemplating the two hoof-tipped thickened fingers and one thumb that had replaced his once fine hands and nimble fingers he did not hear the polite knock at his door. The sound of a polite cough did finally interrupt his fractured thoughts and bring his attention to his visitor. A short woman, age regressed by the villainy of the curse where Egland had been made a beast, stood at the threshold bearing an arm load of towels and a fresh ewer of water.
"I've brought you some towels, Sire, and more water for your rinsing." She explained once he looked up and bade her enter with a nod of his antlered head. Egland, a knight of many years, accepted the weight atop his head as normal, as he might a steel helm, but the balance was vastly different. How elk in nature dealt with their cumbersome antlers he could not fathom. Before becoming injured and trapped at Metamor, victim to its curse, he never would have cared. "I can call Angton to assist you with bathing if you wish."
That idea pleased Egland even less than the thought of bathing with icy water. "No." Angton, a huge burly man that he was could be gentle enough but a bull gracing in a field had more personality. "What is the hour, lass?"
"Halfmark past the eleventh hour, milord."
Almost midnight, Egland realized. The listless empty passage of time in the healer's rooms was playing havoc with his body time. The curse could not be helping that, either, he realized. "Would the baths be usable at this hour?"
"Oh, aye." The nurse nodded, "They're available all the day and night for those that keep such hours, milord."
Carefully drawing his crutches over Egland levered himself out of bed carefully. He had donned his tabard some hours before and suffered no qualms of modesty. Not that he would have had ne not been dressed for this nurse had been one of the many who had been tending him since his untimely crippling. After he had tried and failed the death of his Patriarch where so many others had perished under the attack of but one madman of incredible ability and power. Of a retinue of fifty only three survived. Himself with legs crushed beyond all but the touch of magic, and Metamor's curse, to heal. Bishop Vinsah who remained comatose even two weeks after the disaster and Kashin who had lost an arm but retained his mobility. That last had left to hunt their attackers and exact vengeance and escape the touch of the Curse.
"Point the way, if you would." Egland hobbled inelegantly on the rough wooden crutches toward the door forcing the nurse to move.
"Well, sire, that's not really a simple task, as such." She wrung her hands in consternation, "Where the baths are and we are, well, is all up to how fickle the Keep wants to be."
Egland leaned on one crutch to take one of the towels and drape it across his shoulders. Tightening the belt around his tabard he hobbled through the door with the small nurse at his tail. "Ah, for blessed Yesulam, where the forsaken walls don't move." He muttered.
"Just a moment, sire, I'll fetch someone to assist you."
"Nay, lass, nay. I am whole and hale, if weakened." Egland belayed her hasty fetching of some other sad invalid to wander the cold corridor with him at the turning hour of the night. "This pilgrimage is betwixt Eli and mine own heart, I shant bring others from their comforts just to shuffle alongside me." So said he awkwardly drew open the outer door and stepped into the corridor beyond.
Or would have, had the broad spread of his antlers not caught against the lintel and hauled him up short. "Gods all bedamned horns!" he swore, shaking his head violently free and staggering into the corridor. "When the master healer arrives have him fetch a bone saw. I wish to be rid of these fey things!"
"As you wish, milord. Have care and come back safely." The nurse called after him.
Frustrated at his infirmity and the cumbersome weight upon his head Egland made his way slowly down one corridor and then another. Not attentive to his own twistings and turnings and angrily aware that had he put more thought into remembering his path the attempt would be moot a minute later. The Keep gave him creeping horrors the likes of which he had not known since childhood. He had visions of the floor opening up at his hooves or the walls slamming together where he stood. Neither mental image, fatal as they might be, was as terrifying as the thought of being sealed away in some stone room bereft of window or door to perish alone.
He heard the calling of the hour through a casement and looked out at the starry darkness the view presented. No torches were lit upon the curtain wall, relying on the keen night eyes of those on watch, and the moon was waning somewhere beyond the casement's view. Along the shadowed crenellations an armored form moved on patrol. "Eli, all Father, how have I failed you that I am cast into this place of waking horrors? Why did your good, kind servant Akabaieth and so, so many others perish and we few of us survive only to live on in such a cursed half-existence?" Egland asked, again, as he had since awakening and finding the raccoon healer Coe hovering over him.
"Why were we deemed not worthy to be brought unto you as the others?" He spoke toward the cold, distant stars with a familiar crushing ache in his breast.
"It is not the destination; it is the journey that defines who one is when they arrive." A new voice, mellow and tenor, interposed gently on Egland's questions of faith bringing the elk knight about abruptly. Irritation and embarrassment burned in his ears and eyes at being caught in his weakness of faith.
Standing several paces away was the pine marten minstrel, Dream Serpent, who had entered into Egland's infirmary room the first time some six days earlier. He had since returned twice more to help Egland re-learn how to use his hands and make music with his precious viola. He was always nobly and gaily garbed in the latest court fashions, insofar as fashions could be adjusted to fit his long, sinuous form. Now was no exception save perhaps being more ostentatious than Egland had seen before.
The dark brown marten was bedecked in a turquoise silk surcoat and leggings etched with silver embroidery and gold piping. Over this was an indigo coachman's long coat while deep azure boots adorned his feet. Atop his head was a broad-brimmed hat festooned with peacock feathers. In contrast the dark brown leather dulcimer case slung across his back looked like horse dung flung across the dawning sky.
"Your poetic reach is not well taken, minstrel." Egland muttered flatly.
"Ah, ts'amut, be at peace." Dream held up a placating hand. "I was merely observing an old verse. When adversity strikes ever the faithful question their faith." The marten said as he approached languidly. "A friend once told me that without adversity we lose our faith, without conflict we soften." The minstrel's head came barely as high as Egland's chin. Smiling, Dream reached up a hand to clasp the taller elk's shoulder encouragingly. "The gods do not look upon us in the throes of our adversity, giggling at our tails like bullies, but rather wait to see what emerges upon the other side of them."
Egland looked quizzically down at the good spirited fop. "You're waxing fine philosophy for one who cleaves to no faith at all."
Dream smiled hugely and then laughed. "My friend, I am drunk!" he chirruped happily. "I always wax philosophical when I'm swimming in my cups." The hand fell from Egland's shoulder to his elbow. "Come; come, where ever it was you were going."
"To bathe." Egland did move, however, drawn from the black edge of the abyss he had wallowed in quite enough already.
"At this hour? Ah, and a good idea it is, too! The baths'll be vacant."
"Yes, and you're about at such an hour as well?" Egland followed Dream's lead along the vacant hallways, the slender fop's hand upon his elbow like a courtier escorting some courtesan, following the marten's lead along the vacant hallways.
"Beh! Duke Tomas brought in a clot of his vassal nobles and spent all of the day yammering about Metamor's response to the inevitable lying of blame for your Patriarch's untimely demise."
"Oh, aye, no quibbling on that matter. A dark, dark day that was."
Dream released his arm momentarily to pirouette lazily as they crossed an open courtyard bounded by an arcade to hang from a pillar, "No idea, I came to play the banquet that followed. The last drunken sod rolled his fat rump out not long before the midnight bell." Spinning from the pillar Dream danced into the inky shadows of a narrow passage. The air in the courtyard was still and cold with the bite of coming winter, brown leaves scattering across the flagstones with a whisper like court gossips, stirred by a fitful breeze. "Ah, hah, here we are. Come along my smelly friend."
Egland followed more cautiously for the passage seemed tight but it was the darkness within giving that seeming. In truth it was both wide enough and high enough to accommodate Egland's frame and antlers. He could hear the minstrel scrounging about in the darkness. Somewhere ahead was the sound of water slowly moving and a warm draft of damp air whispered past to stir a brief mist of fog along the arcade.
"Ten paces and turn right, or you'll flatten your nose on the wall."
"Can you find a light, minstrel? I cannot see but blackness." After ten paces on his crutches Egland fumbled about to his right and found another archway.
"I am trying, but there is neither torch nor striker in the sconce." The marten's tenor growl filled the echoing chamber. "And the name is Dream, sir Knight, not minstrel." Something metal and heavy rang with a dull thud eliciting a string of pained hisses from the unseen minstrel. "Damnation! I found the brazier; gods curse the thing, in the middle of the floor just there. We're in the dressing chamber."
"I will retrieve a torch from the hall."
"Nay, ts'amut! There are none in the courtyard, and it is no little pace to find one in the hall." Egland felt a hand touch his hip, then move to his arm as Dream sought him out and forestall his retreat. "Besides, we needn't see to bathe, and I need to soak. I'll soon think misery fine company when the wine catches up to me."
"How far to the baths?"
"A dozen paces at most, if you avoid that ambushing brazier. A tun of soap is usually somewhere near the pool." Dream's hand drew him into the deeper darkness, gently guiding him around the brazier upon its pedestal in the center of the room. "There's a bench to use. Doff that tabard and I'll lead you on."
Egland did as he was bade, unfastening the shoulder of his recently altered tabard. One of Coe's nurses had seen that his antlers would interfere with his garments and had some tailor modify his entire wardrobe. Thus, once unfastened and the sash loosened the tabard fell free. He caught it with one hand and laid it upon the bench he could feel brushing against his knee. In the darkness nearby he could hear the minstrel divesting himself of his far fancier, and far more complicated, raiment.
At the moment Egland felt glad of the blanketing darkness, feeling suddenly self-conscious at his nakedness. He had always felt such, even in the bathing caverns of Yesulam among his fellow faithful. As such he had sought to bathe in the off hours when few if any were present, when he could let his thoughts wander without the ever-present fear that anyone might catch him glancing or even staring where he should not.
"Brrah!" Dream exclaimed at last, "I don't look forward to putting all of that back on in the dark, but it feels good to be free of it!" The marten's hand once again found Egland's elbow and urged him into motion. "Come, let us be cleansed." Egland felt the minstrel's other hand at his hip, "A step to the right, the edge of the brazier is not pleasant to walk into unawares. Nor do I fancy hauling you to your hooves should you trip upon it." Once safely around the unseen obstruction Dream lead only by the touch upon Egland's elbow. "How fares your recovery?"
"Swiftly, considering such injuries." Egland supplied quietly while he shuffled along on his crutches. After more than an hour upon them his shoulders and hands ached terribly. "The healers say the bones are whole, I now need only regain my lost strength and figure out a completely new sense of balance."
Dream guided him around a corner into the heavy warmth of water-laden air. "The latter, I daresay, will be more difficult than the former." Egland could hear the lazy susurrus of undisturbed water under the steady plinking of dripping condensation. "Expect many a bruise to pride and posterior before you once again master the steel dance of war." A staying hand touched Egland's chest. "Two steps down and then sit, the last step is into the depths and about waist high for you, I imagine." Egland could hear the marten splashing about, testing his footing with one paw. The guiding touch left and a louder splash followed. "Aye, that's the right of it. Have care."
Warm water lapped at Egland's hooves as he cautiously descended the two steps and slowly sat down on the rim of the pool. From the echoing of splashing water and voice he judged the pool to be large. His ears told him that the chamber was longer than wide. Setting his crutches upon the edge of the pool Egland carefully eased off the lower step and into the comfortable embrace of warm water.
"What think you, ts'amut? Better than a little basin of snowmelt?" Dream queried from somewhere to Egland's right. "The soap is here in a wooden tun as well a deeper ledge to sit upon."
"It's warm, thank Eli." Egland leaned there against the pool's edge by sinking into the water and bracing his arms along the lip of the stone pool. "How are such marvels done in such an inhospitably cold clime?"
"Hah! You fear yet more magic?" Water surged when Dream pushed toward the deeper middle of the pool. "They do the same here as elsewhere; they put the pool above a source of heat. In this case one of the kitchens, from the smells and sounds coming through the stones. At the far end of the bath is the chimney for the ovens."
Unconcerned at the moment about actually bathing Egland luxuriated with a leisurely soak in the warming water. "So simple, heh. In the heat of Yesulam the baths are below ground where the water is cooled rather than warmed."
"We are not so different here than elsewhere in our daily lives, after all."
Egland stretched each of his legs slowly as the warmth of the bath eased into the atrophied muscles to chase away the tension. "Perhaps, except needing a good brushing down as often as my horse."
Dream laughed from somewhere in the middle of the dark pool. "Yes, well, there is that point. It adds variety to life."
"Yashua's stones, minstrel! Variety? Every man you meet was once a woman, every woman once a man? You know not if a child is ten summers or fifty?" Egland snorted derisively, "I'd not call that variety, I'd call it confusion! I don't know if the lamb is for slaughter or soliloquy!"
"You read the poetry, first. If they don't offer appreciation then they're just dumb beasts. You are new to this, ts'amut, just as we all were at one time."
Egland sighed heavily, "It is too new, too fast upon so much all at once." The elk shook his head slowly. "And why do you keep calling me that?"
"Your friend was the steppelander, Bryonoth? I thought from such acquaintance you would know something of the language. It means—"
"Brother. It means brother, I know. Other than that rat, Sir Saulius, you're the only one who has spoken a word of the language. And even the he did not call me ts'amut. Why do you?"
Dream was silent for a few moments, the water stilling as he floated motionless. "You need one." He said at length, quietly. "Bereft, bereaving, alone among so many unknown and strange to you. The word was taught to me, many years ago, by a dear� friend. My own ts'amut, if you will. Ajhes ts'amut."
"That one was close to you." Egland replied softly with some surprise. Ajhes had many layers of meaning from the mere closeness of unrelated friends, to affection, or even love either emotional or physical, or both. It was a weighty preposition not tossed about lightly. "Who was this ajhes ts'amut of yours? What became of him?"
"He joined your ecclasia; he went to this great church city of Yesulam where I could not follow." Dream intoned flatly. He drifted over to seat himself on one of the submerged stone benches. "His name was Sahan Deross."
Egland blinked in shock at the name that reached his ears. "Who?" he managed to croak at length.
"Sahan Deross, son of Earl Buran Deross of Pyralia."
"Who called himself Namir." Egland felt his heart shrink as if crushed by a mighty fist as memories flooded from the past to lay their sorrows upon those still fresh. The words escaping his throat were a whisper.
"Namir, yes." The marten replied. "Of Lequon en Nahmir, a story of Steppes folklore, of the forging of peace between the mountain peoples and the steppes."
"The Two Princes, by historical treatise, seven hundred years before our Reckoning. Both became mighty kings who ended centuries of war." Egland supplied in a stunned daze.
"For love." Returned the marten in an equally subdued whisper. "How came you to know the one called Namir?"
Egland cupped his face in both hands and stared into the darkness slack-jawed for several long moments. The memories came upon him in a flood if vivid images, moments of his past flickering across his mind's eye with arresting clarity. "He was new come to the novitiate some ten years ago. I was just past my sixteenth year, four years into the studies for my future role as a papal knight. As he was beyond his majority, in his nineteenth year, he was one of the eldest at the novitae. He seemed very lost and in the early months spoke to almost no one, secluding himself in the libraries.
"As you said, alone and bereft. Sensing that he was vulnerable and weak certain of the more unruly young brothers sought to use his inexperience to their advantage. Be that by false friendships, threats of harm, or outright threat of false witness they pushed and pulled the novices to suit their ends."
"And what of you, sir knight of Yesulam, bearer of naked steel and letter of blood?" Dream queried challengingly, knowing that the Namir of his memory loathed warfare and all who practiced its art.
"When I happened upon a half score of the worst that had cornered Namir and two other novitiates to� use in contrition of their initiate vows I, too, foreswore my oaths and vows not to raise hand to my fellows of the Church.
"Three I smote with such violence that their service thereafter was proscribed by the lasting injuries. Four others were felled but recovered in time and the last three would have had the best of me but for the arrival of other novitiates. All were tried, myself among them. Seven were discharged and bade never seek service to the Church thereafter. Those I injured most grievously remained, but were sequestered in roles of menial services. As the one who stood against them with violence I was made to serve penance for violating my vows but that moment of courage reached the Patriarch's ear. Five years ago he called me to the ranks of his personal guard.
"But before I could become a proper squire I had to become more than a petty nobleman's poorly educated cast-off whelp. While I understood sword and shield I knew little of scholarly work. I could read, but not well, enough to partake in study of the Canticles. I sought out the scholarly, eventually coming to novice Sahan.
"I liked him easily, for his gentle humor and patience with my ignorance. The library was his armory, his field of battle and triumph. For me it was a besiegement that I weathered with ill grace if for nothing more than to be near him.
"And�" Egland stared down at his hands, not seeing how they had changed in the darkness, but his past hands with the vividness of memory. "And I knew why! I dared not say, but I knew why I wished to be at his side." He raised his head to look toward the oddly attentive minstrel. To what end was he telling this strange amalgam of man and beast such things? What brought him to such revelations, given to none before, even those closest to him in any regard throughout his service to the Church?
An old familiarity between the two, the link from his past and the past of the curious minstrel?
Egland sighed, his past was past, his life and existence was dashed. What, now, those secrets he had for years shepherded carefully in the vaults of his mind? Looking once more at his hands the elk knight continued. "He understood my needs, as well, dancing around their edges knowing more than I and letting me come to grips with myself, to understand what it was awakening within my heart. For a year we studied and denied the truth.
"I came across the history of Lequon en Nahmir one day and while reading asked Namir, as he had asked only me to call him, about the similarity between the name from history and the one he had chosen for himself. That was when he told me about his Prince Lequon, to whom he was Namir. He related the actual steppes version of the history, not the emptied dry treatise I had read. That was the day our denials fell apart."
Egland shrugged helplessly, staring into the darkness of the water lapping at his chest, the armor of his secrets cast aside for the first time in a decade. Not since the day Bryonoth found him grieving the loss of Namir when the young priest was assigned far from Yesulam had he spoken to another about their relationship as aught but tutor and student.
Dream's voice was startlingly close, "And that was what, eh? A fling? Any empty tryst between friends?" the marten asked silkily but with a hidden, dangerous edge. "What is this I sense, shame? Disgust? Unaccepted truths of what was?"
"No!" Egland hissed, leaning away from the unexpected proximity of that challenging voice, affronted at the intimation that his relationship with Namir was a hollow one. "Shame in silence! He was my ajhes ts'amut!" He turned toward the minstrel's challenging voice. "My ajhes and in silence I held that to my heart, even when he was wrenched from me!" The elk thumped his breast with one hand sending forth a wave of water. "He was my D'ahshan, secreted though it was, as it must have been." His hand lashed out and poked Dream in the middle of the chest with surprising accuracy. "But you, you were his Loquon! I was never that. You were the ghost that haunted his eyes when he looked at me." Egland's hand dropped to the water. "How could I ever compare? How could I be his prince when his prince was dead?"
Rubbing his assaulted chest Dream peered at Egland through the darkness, "Dead?"
"Namir was hostage to the Sutt lord for many years, his Loquon was the youngest of the Sutt line." Egland rubbed his face with both hands. "Assassins cut a bloody swath through that line some seven years agone. Namir was stricken with grief for his lost Prince." Egland lowered his hands slowly and turned to stare into the unrevealing murk toward the minstrel. "You."
"Me, aye." Dream nodded from the darkness nearby.
"You, his Loquon, escaped." Egland grunted softly, "You are the sole heir to all that your father conquered." He looked toward the minstrel, "Malger."
"Aye, you've discovered a secret, a dark past I repudiated long, long ago. Malger en Persionne du Fuane Sutt, last blood of the line and heir to a dukedom I've no desire to hold."
"Archdukedom, by the laws of Pyralia and writ of the King. He petitioned Yesulam nigh nine years ago after the Regent laid the title upon him."
"I care not. I divested myself of the name when Namir was banished to Yesulam and I to Silvassa." Dream sighed angrily, then chuffed a rueful laugh. "And here I ended up, fleeing the assassin's cold blade after so many thoughts of ending my own life."
"Namir would never countenance such an act, nor Eli."
"I am no Follower of the Way, sir, though force fed it my first twenty years. It was for Namir's memory I did not."
Egland nodded slowly, "For Namir's memory you do honor." He trailed into silence for a moment and issued a short cough of pained laughter as well. Had laughter not escaped his throat a sorrowed moan would have. "Hear us! Here these two lost, destitute souls lament love lost. A Knight of the Holy See and spurned Duke's son, decrying the memory of a love neither could ever acknowledge. Ahh, Eli, what sad brothers we make."
Hands grasped Egland's elongated elk muzzle in a gentle but strong touch, "Do not grieve that love, ts'amut, but the blindness that cannot see its truth." Dream said earnestly to the knight's captured muzzle, breath smelling of wine. "We loved and lost but we did love, and we were loved, with honest hearts." Egland felt a momentary thrill of fear when his face was touched, fear of what might come and anticipation that it might. His heart raced with the compassionate touch of this odd stranger and he sat there in stunned silence unable to move. After a moment the hands dropped to his broad shoulders.
"Ts—" Egland choked softly, bowing his head and feeling tears in his eyes, but not tears of sorrow any longer. "Ts'amutai." He finally managed to answer in a hushed voice.
"Ts'amutai, Princes to a lost King." Dream intoned, "Brothers."
Sir Yacoub Egland was comfortable. For the first time in a long time he felt an easing in his heart and no pain in his body. Of course, however, what he did feel was wet; very wet. Warm water embraced him from hoof to chest and lapped just below his shoulders.
His head rested on something soft and warm and dry. Something that moved slowly against his cheek and filled his ear with the steady rush of a heartbeat. Without moving the elk knight blinked open his eyes. One eye was greeted with cream-hued fur while the other beheld the slack-jawed countenance of the slumbering minstrel.
The pine marten, who called himself Dream Serpent or Serpent Dream without particular care which was pre- or surname, was sprawled along the rim of the bathing pool with the boneless grace given to felines and mustelids in equal measure. Egland's head lay pillowed upon the marten's furry chest looking toward his chin. He decidedly refrained from contemplating the awakening sight he would have beheld had he been facing the opposite direction upon realizing that they were both still quite naked. One of the marten's hands draped in the water in which Egland still reclined while the other was tossed akimbo across his antlers.
While he stared at the marten's indecorously slack-jawed expression Dream awoke, muzzle clicking while he roughed his tongue across his pallate. He blinked once before squinting at the light spilling in from the quartet of dew-fogged clerestory windows high above.
"Mmbwuagh!" Dream exclaimed, throwing his dry arm across his eyes. "Who put in windows?!" Egland lifted his head once his antlers were released, leaning forward to stretch. "Ugh, my head throbs like Kammoloth's damned forge." The marten rubbed his eyes and looked away from the light streaming across his face and setting the healthy sheen of his fur aglow. "Are you well, sir knight?"
Egland studiously looked everywhere but at the unclothed minstrel by the easy habit of decades practicing. "Quite. A night soaking in hot water does wonders."
Dream chuffed and sat up to stretch as well, turning to drop his footpaws in the water. "Ah yes, tenderized like stew meat, eh? Your legs?"
"Not for eating, tender or no." Egland smiled lazily and looked up toward the foggy windows. By the angle of the light it was either noon or shortly after. "Coe is going to be terribly wroth! I've been gone from the infirmary near half a day!"
"Hmmm, and the better for it too." Dream slid into the water.
"Yes, my legs are still weak, but do not ache so." Something tapped his elbow to bring his attention away from the gables. The marten was proffering a wooden basin full of some viscous looking yellow glop the consistency of lard. "That is the most vile looking soap I have ever seen."
Dream barked a laugh, "Looks revolting, but smells marvelous. It's a damn sight better than that hard pack you've been using, and easier on the fur." Egland peered at it dubiously. The minstrel was right, however, it did smell pleasantly floral. "You went looking for a bath and got some hours of anguish and memories. Let's set that to rights." Dream shoved the tun into Egland's hands, grasped his elbow with one hand and pushed him toward the edge of the pool.
"Ah, Malger," Egland grunted with trepidation, looking back over his shoulder.
"Dream, ts'amut, not Malger." Dream leaned around to dip a gob of the viscid looking slime from the tun.
"Dream, then, ah— I can bathe myself."
Slapping the soap between Egland's shoulder blades Dream splashed water up onto his back, "I do hope so, because there's a lot of you to wash so get to it." Strong hands began working firmly along his upper back and Egland grumbled at himself for finding it inordinately pleasant. "I wash your back, you wash mine." Dream's fingers were slender yet strong and skillfully nimble as they raked the frothing soap into Egland's fur, "Unless, of course, old Nasoj's little gift has made you a good bit more flexible even than myself. Sound fair?" Enjoying the scrubbing massage Egland could only grunt a begrudging affirmative.
With assistance bathing was a passably brief affair, Egland found, but rinsing all of the thick flowery fragrant soap from his pelt actually took some laps the length of the pool. Likewise drying took a considerable effort as the water wanted to cling to his now clean coat. So it was when they emerged from the baths to find their discarded garments both were more than slightly damp.
Dream scooped up the knight's discarded tabard first. While Egland leaned on his crutches the marten untangled the heavy drape of fabric and glanced over at him. "Well, now, we don't stink anymore but this thing," he shook the tabard and made a disgusted face, "needs a good laundering." Shaking his head at the soiled condition of the tabard Dream approached. Strangely Egland felt no qualms of shame at the marten's rather blatant examination as he neared. A small smile of vain pride at being thusly admired pulled at the corners of his lips.
Dream caught his small, enigmatic smile while he draped the tabard off the knight's shoulders and affixed it in place. Egland quirked a thickly lashed eyebrow with a sardonic twitch of his muzzle and was surprised to see the marten's ears back and whiskers flatted in acute embarrassment.
The minstrel coughed to clear his throat, grinning at his being caught looking. "Welladay, ts'amut, the Duke's moot should be concluding come sunset so I need to find fresh raiment for the inevitably inebriating banquet to follow." He crossed to the sapphire and azure heap of expensive fabrics he had worn the previous night. Egland watched for a few moments, not drawn to habitually casting his gaze everywhere else, while Dream sinuously shrugged into baggy blouse and leggings. "When would be a fair time to attend you?"
Egland blinked, "Attend me?" One ear backed in confusion and his antlered head tilted.
"Your viola?" Dream laughed while worrying a knotted lace out of his doublet. "You've still much to re-learn, and I've in mind another instrument for you."
"Any time sobriety befits you, ts'amut." Egland smiled, placing his right wrist upon his left breast and bowing awkwardly on his crutches.
"Ah, that being any time no banquet is in the offing." Malger set aside his uncooperative doublet and circled the brazier to stand before Egland. With one hand he laid the tips of his fingers alongside Egland's chin. "Until such time, ts'amut, rest easy and recover swiftly." Egland smiled fondly at the touch and turned away.
As he passed the archway leading out he noticed a torch, unlit and cobweb festooned, in the sconce. He said nothing of it.
"Welcome back, sir Egland." Said the master physician, a raccoon named Coe, upon Egland's crutching walk through the door, this time without fouling his antlers. "We had some worry after you when you did not return from the baths."
"I was well, Master Coe. I encountered a friend after becoming lost in the corridors. We walked and wiled away some hours in conversation."
"I see." Coe murmured disapprovingly. "Who was this talkative walker who wanders Metamor's halls at the high hour and delays a patient's timely return to his physician's care?"
Egland stopped at the raccoon's irritated burr. "The minstrel who has been assisting me with my instrument and coming to grips with� well, this." He waved one hand at his physique.
"Dream what's-his-name, the master of the Sensates?" Coe gaped in aghast shock, "Sir Egland I cannot caution you strongly enough to have care with that one, he is—"
The Elk rounded on the raccoon, looming over him with a hard stare. "A friend, Sir! He is a friend, Master Coe, and I daresay I have scarce few of them in this accursed place." He rumbled furiously, voice pitched low out of care for the other patients but rough with the elk's ire, forcing the startled raccoon back a pace. "With my master dead, the Bishop my only remaining leader comatose, and me twisted into this freakish body I've nowhere to go, and no one with which to converse beyond those who seek me out here.
"I've the count of my one hand," the knight held up one hoof-hand angrilly, thickened digits splayed, "of this place to even consider the appellation of friend, healer. I will not have you decry the minstrel in my presence." Egland continued to loom forcing Coe back another step.
"As you wish, milord." The healer said at length in a flat monotone.
"Very well. I have not broken my fast during my time away. Have food brought to my room." Egland finished as he turned away and hobbled toward his recovery room, "And send someone to recover my garments, they are in need of laundering."
Coe, affronted by the sudden and unexpected outburst from the heretofore patient and quiet knight, could only nod. "Yes, milord."


At least 70 towns in the Cauca department close to Colombia's Pacific coast were left without electricity after a terrorist attack on a hydroelectric plant.
Colonel Danilo Murcia Caro of the army's 29th Brigade attributed the attack, which occurred Monday, to the FARC. Murcia said that guerrillas from the FARC's 6th Front entered a hydroelectric plant in the Caloto municipality and disabled the system by blowing up the units that store water, which is used to move the turbines to generate power.
The colonel said the attack was carried out by using a mixture of dynamite and anfo.
A group of technicians will travel to the area to repair the damage.


The Apple Apple MacBook Air runs on Home Edition. The laptop features a 13.3 Inches,LED,1440 x 900 Pixels and is powered by a Intel Core i5-5250U (5th Gen),1.6 Ghz processor. To enhance multi-tasking and fast speed, the company has offered a 4 GB RAM.
Talking about the storage, the laptop uses a 500 gb storage.There is a DVD Writer and more.The laptop has a battery that will give enough battery life to the users.


A guide to Eyepet Move edition challenges.
100m dash - basic task to get you to move quickly.
Friendly face - Get your face on screen in the pet area. Get your pet to touch/cover your face. Wiggle your nose. Take photo.
Paparazzi pet - wants photos of pets face, learn your pets movements.
Turtle Roll- Needs prize from let's draw.
Balloon bumper - design your car with smooth wheels increases car speed. Add spikes to car front and rear in your design.
Bowled over- change you pets fir to full black, all of it.
Grandprix- again nice round wheels equals easy fast car. Stay still the pet will jump on.
Let's sing - Remove any other noise from room. learn how tone repeating works on eyepet.
Car croquet - Nice round wheels again don't go to fast or pet will fall off.
Pin perfect- learn the fake 3D Bowling angels.
Whack a weed - be carefull with your hand size to big and you'll kill flowers. Use a few fingers.
Flutter by - correct flower will trigger butter fly. No butterfly or different insect, you don't have the tulip. change head gear. Unlocked from Day 7, let's garden. When your pet does stand still the rest is automatic. take photo.
Hurdle hurry- use the x button to jump.
Air force - British WWII costume including hat.
Day 6, sing and smash unlocks the hat, Day 9 flower arranging unlocks the jacket, fly the plane, take photo.
Fruit crush - you swing the bat. the pet will chuck the melons don't move. The pet will run around.
Let's play snap - snap. use 2 hands. one for the card deck. One for the snap pile. before you move your card to the pile. Think what the current card is over and over. Nothing can be done if you cant remember or see what's on the cards. You will lose. The pet will even give you plenty of chances.
Danger pin - Don't try to do it with one bowl, take two shots some times.
Balloon rally - hit it high and the pet will do fine.
Pet speed record - learn the button timing that equals the hight and the distance. The objects get higher and closer.
Juggling jester - requires 2 items unlocked, 1 from let's play snap, the other from balloon rally. Get the pet changed. Take photo when balloons are not on the floor.
Pet hoopla - basic task, biggest first, use robot to throw in this order green, pink, orange.
Keep'em up - use all your upper body. Arms, hands, head.
Fruit salad - use bee out fit prize from Let's fish, use a fruit material to make balloons.
Rally record - basic task - tennis.
Fishing frenzy - basic task, just faster catching of fish.
Polar pet - White pet as nature intended.
Dance moves - keep the puppet of the floor or Down won't register. If you can't remember the 8 directions, write them down, if you restart the challenge the sequence won't reset. Quit and the sequence will reset.
Target smash - Tennis but aiming to reflect the ball into targets.
Karate master - use wood as puppet material, and out fit unlocked from, Day 15 Dance moves, take photo when pet attacks.


The Loop at Dublin Airport is the ultimate luxury shopping destination, showcasing the best of Irish and international brands across beauty, liquor, confectionery and souvenirs at Ireland's main international gateway.For a unique shopping experience, visit The Loop, Dublin Airport.
The Loop is home to one of Ireland's largest beauty emporiums, featuring over 100 beauty brands including international favourites Jo Malone, Tom Ford, Crème de la Mer, Dior, Estée Lauder, Clarins, Clinique, Lancôme, Bobbi Brown, M.A.C and Chanel.
Our knowledgeable staff and brand ambassadors throughout The Loop offer expert advice. As well as numerous complimentary tastings and beauty services. Enjoy all this plus a saving of at least 15% on beauty favourites compared to downtown prices, with up to 40% off selected lines. For shoppers looking for something unique that cannot be purchased downtown/on the high street, there is also an extensive range of attractive airport exclusive products available.
This award-winning store is also home to The Irish Whiskey Collection, described as the most diverse collection of iconic and exclusive whiskeys in the world. It The Irish Whiskey Collection offering an impressive range of local and international whiskeys to suit all tastes, boasting a unique collection of 365 whiskeys – one for every day of the year. and is the most diverse collection in the world. In-store whiskey and gin ambassadors are also on hand to impart extensive expert knowledge.
Children big and small are also catered for at The Loop in Candy Cloud, a unique confectionery concept which features a swirl of colours, with a huge range of toys, chocolate, sweets and other tasty treats. Candy Cloud even features a special "magic hollow" entrance for children allowing them to explore an enchanted forest filled with giant lollipops and marshmallows.
Browse your favourite brands on theloop.ie with over 5,000 products.
Order 12 hrs before departing or arriving to Dublin Airport and your products will be ready for collection.


The Heilman Center for Pain and Spine Care is committed to helping people who suffer from chronic pain get back to living their life. We encourage patients to participate in their care, and provide educational opportunities to learn more about the causes of chronic pain and the treatment options that are available.
Our education seminars are presented by physicians, physician assistants, psychologists, therapists, physical therapists and others who may be involved in your care. They are free of charge and open to you and your family members. We just ask that you pre-register so we are sure to save you a seat.
Please note we do not have any seminars scheduled at this time, but we can help you make an individual appointment with one of our experienced Pain Specialists. Please call 888-683-0716 or Request an Appointment today.


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Home » TV Shows
Daytime Soaps Comings and Goings for September 2 to 8: Bryan Dattilo Slated to Return to "DOOL"
By: Caroline John - Published: September 3, 2019 at 11:25 am
Actor Bryan Dattilo attends the Days Of Our Lives' 50th Anniversary Celebration at Hollywood Palladium on November 7, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Days Of Our lives)
September is going to be a great month for our daytime entertainment! The latest news from the soap universe promises the first wave of returning fan-favorite faces. General Hospital and Days of Our Lives viewers, brace yourselves for the comeback of these beloved characters in daytime soaps' comings and goings.
Mark Your Calendars for Finola Hughes' Return
Anna Devane went off-screen on GH when actress Finola Hughes took her annual vacation at the end of May 2019.
Hughes returned to filming in early August, and now we have learned that Anna will be back in Port Charles on September 19.
Don't Miss: Are Tripp and Chloe Leaving "Days of Our Lives"? What Happened?
DOOL Sets the Stage for Bryan Dattilo's Comeback
Fan-favorite characters are returning to Salem, and we couldn't be more excited! DOOL's long-time fans are anticipating the return of Bryan Dattilo's character, Lucas Horton, after he left the show in 2018. He had a brief return in June, but there was no sign of him rejoining the cast long-term.
Lucas' ex-wife, Chloe Lane, played by Nadia Bjorlin, left DOOL for what is believed to be a temporary break. Now Lucas is returning for a week of episodes at the end of September. It's not known what's bringing him back home, though.
Kevin and Chloe's Daughter on Y&R Played by a New Actress
The adorable little actress Martie Blair has been cast to play Bella, Kevin and Chloe's daughter who was at the heart of Chloe's complicated triangle with Kevin and Adam.
Martie's first episode as Bella aired on August 26; we're hoping to see even more of her in future episodes.
Don't Miss: Daytime Soaps, Comings and Goings – Aug 26 to Sept 1
Who Is Lil Ricky from Netflix's "On My Block"? What Happened to Him in the Final Season?
Steve Patterson Leaving "Twin Cities Live": Why Is He Leaving the Show?
Who Are the Judges of Netflix's "Metal Shop Masters"?
What Happened to Autumn on "MasterChef: Legends"?
Who Is the Cast of Netflix's "Titletown High"? Where Are the Valdosta Footballers Now?
Are Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch Related?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Posted on October 9, 2016 March 28, 2018 by staffcurrent026
UMSL Graduates Present Papers at Irish Conference
by Leah Jones, Features Editor
PowerPoints, Prezis, pointers and papers. Whether students enjoy them or not, presentations are a part of many classes at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. However, some students take their presentations to the next level, such as UMSL alumni, Laura Hasting and Cora Bartholomew. Hastings and Bartholomew, who graduated with their MA degrees in English, presented papers at the Midwest American Conference for Irish Studies held in Lawrence Kansas from September 22-24.
Hastings' paper, entitled "Magical Realism in Irish Film: Selkie Folklore in 'The Secret of Roan Inish' and 'Ondine'," analyzed the representations of Selkies in two Irish films. "Selkies are seal-people…They are seals when they are in the water but they have the ability to shed their seal skin and be a person," Hastings said. According to the legend, Selkies can bury their seal-skin and remain on land for seven years. Selkies often do this when they fall in love with a landsman. However, this caveat backfires when fishermen steal the Selkie's skin and hide it, trapping the Selkie on land until they find their skin.
Hastings focused her analysis on "The Secret of Roan Inish"(1994) directed by John Sayles and "Ondine"(2009) directed by Neil Jordan. "I talk about how some people complain about romantic representations of Ireland in movies….And there is certain truths to that…But I also argue that the way the legend functions in the movie is [that] it draws attention to [and] highlights cultural concerns," she said. Hastings argues that "Ondine," highlights alcoholism in modern Ireland with its portrayal of several characters with drinking problems. "The Secret of Roan Inish," features a family who is evicted from their island home on which they have lived for generations. "So it's…this idea of home, and being taken away from your home and then what that means for your culture and your history," Hastings explained.
Bartholomew's paper, entitled "Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' and the Universal Language of Waiting," focused on different representations of "Waiting for Godot." Beckett wrote in French and his writing was then translated into English, but he was an Irish writer. Bartholomew said, "I highlighted several productions in my presentation, but it focused heavily on two productions that took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I used the play and the productions as a way to examine the universal language of waiting."
Both students wrote early drafts of their paper in Dr. Eamonn Wall's course "Contemporary Irish Drama and Film" in the Fall 2015 semester. Wall, who is a Smurfit-Stone Corporation Professor of Irish Studies at UMSL, said that since the course is the often the first and only course on Irish drama for UMSL students, he chooses to teach both the "plastics," such as Y.B. Yeats, and "contemporary and cutting-edge drama."
Though Wall is a professor of English, he said that film and literature have some similarities. "Film is more of a visual media and literature is a print media," he said. "There are different rules in both [but] I'm interested in how they come together. Literature is narrative driven and a lot of Irish movies are narrative driven… Characterization is important in literature and film. Dialogue is important in literature and film. Setting is important in literature and film." He added that many Irish film directors, such as Neil Jordan, were originally fiction writers.
Though the material in the course was specific to Irish drama, Hastings said that the students could choose their paper topics. She chose to write about the legend of the Selkies because it aligns with her primary research interest in folklore. "I'm just really fascinated with why people tell legends and what it says about that moment in history and the way legends develop as current events develop," said Hastings, who has also studied the zombie legend.
Hastings also said that she watched "The Secret of Roan Inish" when she was young. "It was kind of cool re-watching it in a more analytical [and] critical way," she said.
Bartholomew studied under Wall for three semesters. "My dad's side of the family traces back to County Cork, Ireland, so I've always had a general interest," Bartholomew explained. She chose "Waiting for Godot" as her paper topic because she saw a Broadway production of the play featuring Bill Irwin, Nathan Lane, and John Goodman, and she read the play several times throughout her academic career. When Wall learned of her interest in the play, he suggested that she read James Knowlson's biography of Beckett, "Damned to Fame." She continued to do research on the play and Beckett and eventually narrowed her topic down to a few different presentations of the play.
The conference took place over the course of two days at the Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas and featured presenters from as far away as Texas A&M. Hastings, who has also presented twice at the Folklore Society Conference, said that she had about twenty minutes to read her paper to a group of about 12 other scholars.
"It was a very inspiring weekend," Bartholomew said. "I felt so good about this first conference that I have decided to submit a paper proposal to the ACIS National conference, being held in Kansas City, Kansas in spring of 2017." Other presenters either read papers or used PowerPoints to talk about a diverse set of Irish issues such as history, airlines in Ireland, poetry, and Irish comedians.
The range of topics discussed at the conference reflects the interdisciplinary nature of Irish studies. According to Wall, Irish Studies covers not just literature and film, but the history, music, and language of Ireland as well. As a literary scholar himself, Wall focuses on literature and said, "The idea is that Irish identity and literature is separate from British and American literature… Different things about the Irish experience are reflected in the literature."
Wall stressed that he was proud of Hastings and Bartholemew for submitting their papers to the conference. "It's very good for them professionally," he said. "I feel that our students here at UMSL are as good as the students anywhere… They [Hastings and Bartholemew] did UMSL proud."
This entry was posted in:Features
Tagged with:ACIS, airlines, American Literature, Bill Irwin, British Literature, Broadway, Cora Bartholomew, Damned to Fame, drama, Eamonn Wall, Eldridge Hotel, fillms, Film, film studies, folklore, Folklore Society Conference, Hurricane Katrina, interdisciplinary, Ireland, Irish, Irish COmedians, Irish drama, Irish history, Irish legens, Irish Literature, Irish poetry, Irish Studies, James Knowles, John Goodman, John Sayles, Kansas, Kansas City, Laura Hastings, Lawrence Kansas, Leah Jones, legends, literature, Midwest, Midwest American Conference for Irish Studies, movies, myths, Nathan Lane, NAtional Conference, Neil Jordan, New Orleans, Ondine, plays, poetry, Presentations, productions, regional conference, Samuel Beckett, Selkies, The Current, The Current Newspaper, The Current Student Newspaper, The Secret of Roan Inish, University of Missouri - St. Louis, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Waiting for Godot
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Thomas M. Campbell II
The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health Paperback – May 11, 2006
by Thomas Campbell (Author), T. Colin Campbell (Author)
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The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health
Even today, as trendy diets and a weight-loss frenzy sweep the nation, two-thirds of adults are still obese and children are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, typically an "adult" disease, at an alarming rate. If we're obsessed with being thin more so than ever before, why are Americans stricken with heart disease as much as we were 30 years ago?
In The China Study, Dr. T. Colin Campbell details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The report also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and opportunistic scientists. The New York Times has recognized the study as the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" and the "most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease."
The China Study is not a diet book. Dr. Campbell cuts through the haze of misinformation and delivers an insightful message to anyone living with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and those concerned with the effects of aging.
[This book is also available in Spanish, El Estudio de China.]
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The China Study Cookbook: Revised and Expanded Edition with Over 175 Whole Food, Plant-Based Recipes
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by T. Colin Campbell Paperback
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"[These] findings from the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease are challenging much of American dietary dogma."
"Reflects the profound changes that industrialization is bringing to diet and disease patterns in China, statistics that have had an impact on reevaluating dietary policy in the United States and worldwide."
"Everyone in the field of nutrition science stands on the shoulders of Dr. Campbell, who is one of the giants in the field. This is one of the most important books about nutrition ever written—reading it may save your life."
—Dean Ornish, MD, Founder & President, Preventative Medicine Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; Author, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Love & Survival
"Colin Campbell's The China Study is an important book, and a highly readable one. With his son, Tom, Colin studies the relationship between diet and disease, and his conclusions are startling. The China Study is a story that needs to be heard."
—Robert C. Richardson, PhD, Nobel Prize Winner; Professor of Physics and Vice Provost of Research, Cornell University
"The China Study gives critical, life-saving nutritional information … Dr. Campbell's exposé of the research and medical establishment makes this book a fascinating read and one that could change the future for all of us."
—Joel Fuhrman, MD, Author, Eat to Live
"The China Study is a life changer . . . After reading it I felt compelled to recommend this book to as many people as possible."
—Bob Napoli, Senior Vice President, Operations, Hudson Group
For more than 40 years, T. Colin Campbell, PhD, has been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy, the China Study, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. Dr. Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He has received more than 70 grant years of peer-reviewed research funding and authored more than 300 research papers. The China Study was the culmination of a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.
A 1999 graduate of Cornell University and recipient of a medical degree in 2010, Thomas M. Campbell II, MD, is a writer, actor and five-time marathon runner.
Publisher  :  BenBella Books; 1st edition (May 11, 2006)
Dimensions  :  6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #56,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#67 in Food Science (Books)
#258 in Nutrition (Books)
#570 in Other Diet Books
Dr. Campbell is a board-certified family physician and a certified in obesity medicine by the
American Board of Obesity Medicine. He has worked with many hundreds of individuals as well as groups to prevent and treat chronic conditions via changes in diet and lifestyle. He has an online practice at www.MyPlantBasedProgram.com.
He is founder and co-director of the UR Medicine/Highland Hospital Nutrition in Medicine Research Center, where he studies the effect of plant-based nutrition on various chronic diseases. He is co-author of "The China Study," a worldwide bestseller, with his father T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and author of "The China Study Solution." He has presented widely on the topic of nutrition for optimal health.
See more on the author's page
For more than 40 years, Dr. T. Colin Campbell has been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy, the China Project, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. Dr. Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He has more than 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding and authored more than 300 research papers and coauthor of the bestselling the book, "The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health."
"The China Study" gave us a simple but powerful answer: Eat a diet based on whole, plant-based food, and dramatically reduce your risk of a broad spectrum of diseases, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
In his new book, "Whole," Dr. Campbell picks up where "The China Study" left off. "The China Study" revealed what we should eat and provided the powerful empirical support for this answer. "Whole" answers the question of why. Why does a whole-food, plant-based diet provide optimal nutrition? "Whole" demonstrates how far the scientific reductionism of the nutrition orthodoxy has gotten offtrack and reveals the elegant wonders of the true holistic workings of nutrition, from the cellular level to the operation of the entire organism. "Whole" is a marvelous journey through cutting-edge thinking on nutrition, led by one of the masters of the science.
5.0 out of 5 stars Incendiary Refresher Course
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2016
-There is a mountain of scientific evidence to show that the healthiest diet you can possibly consume is a high carbohydrate diet.-The past 60 years have been a celebration of chemicals and technology instead of diet and prevention. So we don't die from heart disease as often, but we still get it at about the same rates. Those who have bypass surgery do not have fewer heart attacks than those who do not.-Calcium builds strong bones, but cow's milk weakens them, as osteoporosis. Americans, Australians and New Zealanders drink the most milk, and have the most bone fractures from middle age on.-One of the biggest health hoaxes in history is the nutrient supplement industry.-The health damage from doctors' ignorance of nutrition is astounding.Welcome back to The China Study, still straight-shooting, still dramatic, and about 70 pages longer in the new edition. This book provides more training in the health effects of food than MDs get in all their years of education. The clinical studies, the case histories and the science are all here in plain, direct language. It is a very hard book to put down. The facts, usually contrary to everything we've been taught, keep coming fast and hard.The reason the facts are contrary is of course because of the usual suspects: Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Processors. They have corrupted our universities with grants, infiltrated government agencies to keep the truth at bay, and spend billions advertising their false promises. We grow up with their falsehoods, and we believe in them. Those who try to speak out are isolated, shunned, removed and fired. It is all examined in you-are-there detail, because it all happened to Colin Campbell and other (once) highly-regarded doctors he profiles.Campbell's basic premise is that animal protein destroys our internal ecosystem. A Whole Food, Plant-Based diet not only maintains better health, it can even reverse damage. The scientific proof is endless – and so are the defenders of the SAD – Standard American Diet - that is about one third animal, between meat and dairy.When I read the first China Study ten years ago, I immediately went back online and ordered a whole case of them. I then mailed them out to friends all over, preceded by an e-mail warning and my review. That's how impressed I was. This second edition forced me to reread it. In so doing, I came across several strong new claims and rushed to the first edition, only to find they were already there. So this edition is as much a badly needed refresher as a new discovery. Glad they made me do it.David Wineberg
Regular Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most valuable books any American could read
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 9, 2010
The China Study was the largest, most comprehensive human nutrition study in history. The China Study was the culmination of a 20 year partnership between Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy Of Preventative Medicine. It is the legacy of Dr. T. Colin Campbell.
Dr. T Colin Campbell ( 1934 - ) grew up on a dairy farm in Northern Virginia. For about 50 years Dr. Campbell has been at the forefront of nutrition research. Dr. Campbell is a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. Dr. Campbell has received more than 70 grant years of peer reviewed research funding. He has authored more than 300 research papers and received the Research Achievement Award in 1998 from the American Institute of Cancer Research.
Dr. Campbell opens, his book, "The China Study" by telling us that the top killers of Americans are ( in descending order, page 16 ):
1. Cardiovascular disease
3. Medical Care
4. Cerebrovascular Diseases (strokes)
5. Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases
6. Accidents
7. Diabetes Mellitus
8. Influenza and Pneumonia
9. Alzheimer's Disease
The population of the United States is about 300 million people. Out of those 300 million Americans 82% have at least 1 risk factor for heart disease. Over 280,000 Americans died from strokes, diabetes or Altzeimer's Disease in the year 2000. During any given week 50% - 80% of Americans take at least one medication or one prescription drug. 65% of Americans are overweight and 31% of Americans are obese ( page 346 ).
People can't be kept in a cages, so nutrition studies on human beings are both rare and valuable. They are incredibly valuable because animals are not people. What works/doesn't work for common lab animals ( rats, rabbits, mice, etc..) often doesn't/does work for human beings.
The China Study had the huge advantage of being done in China, where for the most part, even in the present day, people don't move around much. They will live in the same area and eat the same diet for most of their lives. Composed of distinct cultures with different economic advantages, regional diets in China will vary greatly.
Dr. Campbell found that Chinese people who live in regions that eat diets similar to Americans die in much the same ways and numbers that Americans do.
Dr. Campbell also found that Chinese people who lived in regions where animal products are scarce ( i.e. 4 ounces of meat a day, 3 - 4 thin slices of cold cuts ) did not experience the terminal diseases that Americans do in anywhere near the same numbers. Even when attempting to adjust for physical activity.
The message of Dr. Campbell's book, "The China Study", is that if you want to avoid dying and more importantly suffering from, the list of diseases above eat a plant based diet of whole plant foods.
I like to read about nutrition, so the nuts and bolts of the book that other people might find interesting I did not and vice-versa.
The first thing I found interesting in this book, is the list of the top killers of Americans. I have seen that list many times over many years. Never with item number 3 on it. According to Dr. Campbell physician error, medication error, hospital borne infections and adverse events from drugs or surgery kill 225,400 Americans a year( page 15 ). Reads like a good argument for getting serious about preventative self health care doesn't it? Exactly Dr. Campbell's point
The other points I found interesting were in regards low carbohydrate diets. Many of the proponents of low carbohydrate diets have the near-conspiracy theory idea that low fat diets recommended by the scientific establishment only served to make American's fatter. In Dr. Campbell's own words ( page 95 ):
"One of the fundamental arguments at the beginning of most low carbohydrate, high-protein diet books is that America has been wallowing in low-fat mania at the advice of experts for the past twenty years, but there is one inconvenient fact that is consistently ignored: according to a report summarizing government food statistics, "Americans consumed thirteen pounds more fats and oils per person in 1997 than in 1970, up from 52.6 to 65.6 pounds." It is true that we have had a trend toward consuming fewer of our total calories as fat, when considered as a percentage, but that's only because we have outpaced our gorging on fat by gorging on sugary junk food. Simply by looking at the numbers, anybody can see that America has not adopted the "low-fat" experiment-- not by an stretch of the imagination.
In other words, Americans as a whole, were never on a low fat diet. Americans are fatter now because Americans have been eating more calories overall. Again, nothing new. You can read the same information in more detail in the August 2004 edition of The National Geographic (pages 46 - 61), "Why are Americans so fat" by Cathy Newman ( not quoted in this book ).
My primary complaint with this book is the title. A more accurate title would have been "What I have learned during my 50 year career of nutrition research". The actual "China Study" takes up a chunk of the book, but only a chunk.
I would have enjoyed reading more about the actual "China Study".
The bulk of the book is taken up by Dr. Campbell trying to demonstrate that the idea that animal products bring disease and that whole food plant based diets bring health is not a new scientific discovery. In fact, he claims it goes back at least 30 - 40 years.
Why haven't you heard of this before? Well, that is the title of Part IV of his book, the last 92 pages or so.
Do not expect a typical hippie health food conspiracy theory rant about payoffs and evil plots. Dr. Campbell has been one of the top researchers in the U.S. for about half a century. Many of the scientists and officials he has criticism for he knows on a first name basis. Dr. Campbell gives the reader, instead, a very sophisticated account of how health information does not make it out to the average person and more importantly, how seemingly conflicting medical information ends up in the popular media. Reading this section of the book will give you a valuable perspective on how to view reports on any given study you might find in the news.
Since I waited so long to read this book, I have read many popular criticisms of it.
As a popular reader, I haven't come across any critics with Dr. Campbell's credentials, who have addressed a fraction of the over 730 references of this book, who have read all of his research or who are involved in the same research as he was. I'm not saying that such scholarly papers aren't there, but that is not where I have seen the bulk of criticism coming from.
Some of the popular criticisms of this book are flat out ridiculous. For example, that Dr. Campbell wrote this book because he is a vegetarian and in league with animal rights activists. These "critics" have never read this book or they would have seen this quote (page 107 )
"The results of this study, in addition to a mountain of supporting research, some of it my own and some of it from other scientists, convinced me to turn my dietary lifestyle around.
I stopped eating meat fifteen years ago, and I stopped eating almost all animal-based foods, including dairy, within the past six to eight years, except on very rare occasions. My cholesterol has dropped, even as I've aged; I am more physically fit now than when I was twenty-five; and I am forty-five pounds lighter now than I was when I was thirty years old. I am now at a ideal weight for my height."
Furthermore, Dr. Campbell describes animal experiments he conducted and defends those experiments. That is something of an anathema to almost every kind of animal rights ideology.
None of what Dr. Campbell has to say is all that new. A number of well credentialed experts over the years have been saying pretty much similar things. The entire book could be successfully condemned by the critics ( far from happening ) but the main message would still stand.
Eating a plant based diet of whole plant foods promotes health, eating a diet high in animal products brings disease.
I do think the book takes on too much and doesn't walk the reader through enough tight conclusions. I think some parts of it could have been shorter without losing any information. I also think some parts were much too dense.
I do think from the perspective of the full content of this book, that this book is one of the most valuable books any American can read.
Putting the message into practice in your life can save your life and make you a happier person while you are living it.
This book is old enough to be in many library systems, as well as used book venues. The only thing to lose, besides early diminishing health, is a few afternoons of your time to read this book.
It is worth it.
Paul F. Ross
4.0 out of 5 stars The murky politics of science (with nutrition science as its example)
Review of the Campbells' The China study by Paul F. Ross
Despite several shortcomings, easily side stepped with proper understanding, every reader should read this book. You will learn what you don't know about nutrition, perhaps extending your life, its pleasures and its contributions. Terribly important to our futures, you will learn what you have not learned about the politics affecting the sciences so, responding to your attention, those operations can be corrected and the sciences' contributions to humanity can be massively increased.
Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell, father and son, review epidemiological medical studies and experimental animal studies relating diet and disease, the epidemiology drawing data from populations around the world – particularly the United States, Europe, China, and the Far East. Large differences in diet and lifestyles disclose their effects on lifespan and life-terminating diseases. Colin Campbell was professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University until retirement, completed his PhD in nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University in 1961, and worked at MIT and Virginia Tech before returning to Cornell in 1975 where he worked until his retirement. This book of important findings and events emerges from the senior Campbell's career. It offers a remarkable view into the politics of the sciences. The sciences and readers are indebted to the Campbells for this report.
The China study, published in 2005, was read by this reviewer in its paperback version published in 2006. I assume the 2006 version replicates the 2005 version. This paperback printing of The China study first describes that study and its findings (110 pages) – a joint effort of China's Academy of Medical Sciences, Cornell University and Oxford University – , then reviews the medical literature with respect to "diseases of affluence" (heart, obesity, diabetes, common cancers, autoimmune diseases, and various diseases of bone, kidney, eye, and brain) (104 pages), briefly describes nutrition based on "whole plant foods" (26 pages), then examines the most recent sixty years of journalistic, scientific, professional,
Campbell, T. Colin, and Campbell II, Thomas M. The China study: Startling implications for diet, weight-loss, and long-term health 2006, Benbella Books, Dallas TX, xvii + 419 pages
industrial, and government discussions as they have 'collaborated' to educate the US public about the effects of nutrition on health (100 pages). Remarkably, the authors describe the 'politics of science and medicine' as it has affected education of the public with respect to nutrition. I choose to re-label this book-length report as an example of the sociology of science, the nutrition and medical sciences for the last five decades providing the 'laboratory' example. Important agriculture and agri-business enterprises exist because they supply the world's food and drink. Instructing publics about how food affects health and how changes in diets could massively affect health, the practice of medicine, longevity, and existing business/industry structure represents a significant threat to 'things as they are.' How science, industry, professional organizations, government, and journalism interact influences what the public learns. The Campbells describe important issues related to the transparency and integrity of these societal and cultural processes.
The Campbells write so that any college-ready high school graduate can understand their meaning, avoiding the off-putting specialized vocabularies and concepts beloved in all sciences. The Campbells cite the peer reviewed literature of science on issues of nutrition covering essentially a five-decade time period, a remarkable in-depth review. Under competitive and editorial pressures to produce short articles, it is the fashion in literature reviews in the sciences to cite only work published in the last few years, perhaps the last decade at most. This report is strikingly different. The Campbells give us 36 pages of footnotes in small print with 758 citations.
In a chapter on "scientific reductionism," Colin Campbell criticizes at length the Nurses' Health Study by the Harvard School of Public Health (started in the late 1990s and published beginning in the early 2000s, see p 271-283). The study, according to the Harvard researchers, found no significant relationship between fat intake and breast cancer risk (p 279-280). Ken Carroll's study (University of Western Ontario, 1986; see p 84) of breast cancer showed females with less than 60 grams per day of "dietary fat intake" in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and El Salvador experience fewer than five deaths per 100,000 population per year while females with more than 140 grams per day of "dietary fat intake" in the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Netherlands, and Denmark experience more than twenty deaths per 100,000 population per year … animal fat providing the main source of dietary fat appearing to increase the risk of death from breast cancer by a factor of four. These outcomes are the consequences of diet and lifestyle, almost certainly not the consequences of genetic heritage. Campbell notes relevantly that the Harvard study of nurses, in choosing US women to study, chose participants who ate dietary fat derived primarily from animal sources whereas the women with low breast cancer rates in the Far East and El Salvador got their dietary fat almost entirely from plant-based whole foods. Further, fat-intake reduction by the US nurses adopted in an effort to reduce breast cancer risks was small compared to the difference between the < 5 g and the > 140 g intakes described in Carroll's study. When the life-aspect under study (dietary fat intake) varies as little as it did from low fat-consumption to high fat-consumption among US nurses, there is no surprise that the Harvard study found little or no association between fat consumption and breast cancer risk. Statisticians know that "if the range of variation is restricted for a variable, that variable can have little effect on an outcome." If one reduces the variation to zero, the non-influence becomes obvious. Campbell seems to have overlooked the primary culprit in the Harvard study (restriction of range of variation) by urging that studying just one variable (dietary fat intake) instead of studying many variables produced the Harvard study's erroneous conclusions. By calling the problem "scientific reductionism," studying details instead of studying "the whole," Campbell raises useful issues but misses a major contributor to the non-findings from the Harvard study of nurses. A story from my career will help illustrate the statisticians' insight.
Two years after earning a Ph.D. in the behavioral and management sciences in 1955, I joined colleagues at Exxon's world headquarters in New York City who had started a search for skills or life-elements that lead to success as an executive. They had named the study the Early Identification of Management Potential. I outlined an approach to analysis of the data they had been collecting, identifying in particular several indicators of career success. My plan was adopted and I guided programming of computer software by which important detailed work would be accomplished. In 1960, analysis complete, I was chosen from our small group for the privilege of first reporting our findings at a regional psychological meeting in Chicago. I reported that "We examined a long list of possible contributors to career success and found that successful leadership instances in early life from teenage to mid twenties were primary precursors to success as an executive, the (cross validated) correlation between the accumulated effect of these biographical events and career success (as compared with one's age-mates) being r = 0.65." A correlation of that size was unexpectedly high and, even now, half a century later, is still unexpectedly high and, as yet, unmatched. "What was the correlation between intelligence and career success?" was a question from my audience. "A high-level verbal intelligence test produced scores correlating r = 0.10 with career success," I reported. That was unexpectedly low, really low! Were the data saying that intelligence does not contribute to success as an executive? I continued by saying that "All the managers and executives in our study sample of 440 executives were college graduates, certainly drawn from the upper half of the range of human intelligence and probably drawn mostly from the upper ten percent of college graduates. All of them being bright, the variation in intelligence in this sample of industry leaders was too small for intelligence to anticipate the difference in job performance of one executive from that of another." The correlation of intelligence with success as an executive, in this sample, was low because all the executives had high scores. They varied little in intelligence. The low correlation followed from the restriction in range of variation of intelligence in this executive population.
And so it was with the variation in dietary fat intake for the nurses in the Harvard study, as well as the variation in type of dietary fat (animal vs plant), when comparing the nurses studied in the Harvard study about breast cancer risk with the findings from the cancer atlas from China (Li et al, 1981) and Carroll's work (1986) showing the relationship between dietary fat intake and breast cancer. Campbell's stout criticism of the Harvard study is justified but his understanding of and explanation of the reasons for the difference between his own findings and the Harvard findings need improvement.
Campbell's criticism of "scientific reductionism" also is in order. Often the scientific experiment in which one variable is studied, the "experimental group" being treated and the "control group" getting no treatment (a placebo), cases being assigned to these two groups by a random process, is presented to publics and scientists as the "gold standard" for the way in which science should be done. Actually, in every science, many circumstances converge to influence almost any outcome one wishes to study. Thus, in my view, research becomes more cost effective, delivering a greater number of useful insights, when a study is designed to observe and study many variables simultaneously, the effect of each variable on the outcome(s) being deciphered by the use of statistical methods, particularly factor analysis. Campbell's criticism of "scientific reductionism" has some of the flavor of my criticism … Campbell saying that studying only one variable, and not studying it in its worldwide context, is inadequate scientific effort. I agree … wishing, of course, to move on to multivariate studies (which are not mentioned by Campbell).
The Campbells present a dozen or more scatter plots in their book to show the data from which they are drawing conclusions as they do when showing the association of urinary calcium excretion (taking that calcium from the host individual's bones) with dietary protein intake (p 206). In this scatter plot, as in few others, they report the correlation as r = 0.85. That is a high correlation in any science (although some sciences see much higher correlations as with the correlations between the motions of the Earth and Moon around the Sun). Too often the Campbells present a scatter plot but do not report the correlation, an important shortcoming. In place of a correlation coefficient, the authors write "The correlation between fat intake and protein intake is more than 90% (p 83)." No knowledgeable statistician or editor would allow the authors to make such a statement. A correlation of r = 0.90 indicates the variables being correlated share 81 percent of their variance. The knowledgeable author says either "the variables correlated r = 0.90" or "the variables shared 81 percent of their variance." On the few occasions when the Campbells report a correlation coefficient, I suspect it comes from the source paper and, barring an error of transcription, is correct. Well informed and conscientious scientists will complain (and should complain) about the Campbells' reporting of the meaning of correlation between and among variables. However the Campbells are simply two in a very large majority of scientists in all sciences who know next to nothing about correlation statistics and their meaning. Happily, the Campbells know an important relationship when they see it described in a scatter plot.
One wonders how the Campbells were able to find a publisher. An alert and inquiring friend of mine, noticing my excitement in reading The China study, explored the internet for opinions about this work and reported to me that the work is very controversial. "There are many negative opinions being voiced from all sorts of places" was the report. I was not surprised. The Campbells describe longstanding reluctance to accept findings about the impact of diet on the risk of cancer, earlier controversies needing resolution at the level of the US National Academy of Sciences as its 1982 report on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer (p 83) tried to resolve conflict left in the trail of a 1977 U.S. Senate report describing goals with respect to dietary fat for the U.S. The Campbells see both conventional thought – by medics and the general population ("treatment is by drugs or by surgery") – and agri-businesses (as illustrated by the Campbells' stories of opposition to work of the American Institute of Cancer Research, p 261-267) as major obstacles to acceptance of the research findings about nutrition and its influence in averting, even stopping the development of, important diseases (cancer, heart disease, and others). I would expect publishers like the Harvard University Press, Princeton University Press, University of Chicago Press, Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Norton, Harcourt-Brace, and others to cherish the opportunity to publish a major scientific work (note the publishers for the following economics, behavioral science, and public policy works :: Achen and Bartels, 2016; Bernanke, 2015; Milanovic, 2016; Piketty, 2014; Pinker, 2011). The Campbells found Benbella Books in Dallas TX as publishers, not a major publishing house. Benbella was willing to publish a controversial report. I suspect Benbella as well as the authors have found that the venture was a wise business venture. Thank goodness for the courage of Benbella Books as publisher for the message that the Campbells have to deliver. It is a message that needs to be widely seen.
The typical reception for paradigm-breaking scientific ideas is that conventional thought and business interests block their implementation, even their publication. I have been working at the task of job performance measurement for a career, attending to data in particular for the last three decades about what scientists call "peer review" of scientific manuscripts to determine what gets published or "peer review" of research proposals to determine what gets funded. Research shows that peers who read manuscripts offered for publication, these reports describing finished research, share less than nine percent of the variance in their judgments about whether to publish or reject! These outcomes have been observed in medicine, psychology, chemistry, sociology, economics, and so on. That means that over ninety percent of the variance in qualified peers' judgments is not shared! Peers accomplish even less consensus when judging research proposals seeking funding. Under the competitive pressures of publishing completed research (about ten percent of all manuscripts submitted to top-tier scientific journals get published), statistical simulation tells us that these universal peer review practices in all sciences publish fewer than 2 manuscripts out of the 15 most valuable manuscripts in a stack of 100 manuscripts received by an editor. Rolling dice to decide what to publish would do as well.
During the winter of 2007-2008, a small group of my colleagues and I were reading published reports so that we could "keep up with our sciences" by meeting and discussing the work just read. Given my prior work on job performance measurement, I invited my colleagues to spend ten minutes marking 45 statements either true or false with respect to each scientific work we read. I collected their marked questionnaires before we began discussion. Analysis showed that detectable consensus among these peer reviewers had been elevated from less than nine percent shared variance in judgments using the methods in place since scientific journals came into existence over 300 years ago to over eighty percent shared variance when recording our judgments as we were recording them in this trial use of my questionnaire, a tenfold increase in detected consensus. Statistical simulation tells us that using a similar process to evaluate each manuscript offered for publication in scientific journals, if the advice then is followed by the editor, will result in publishing at least 7, not just 2, of the 15 best scientific manuscripts among 100 received. Using this method, already demonstrated, in deciding what to publish, the hit rate for publishing papers drawn from the most valuable 15 among 100 manuscripts can be quadrupled or more as indicated by citation count of the published works in the decade following publication, and this at no increase in the cost of doing science.
I've offered a report of this work to at least a dozen peer reviewed scientific journals and all have rejected my report. One journal accepted, then withdrew acceptance, of my report. Why this universal no-saying? My report challenges how science is being done. Editors and peers doing the reviewing see themselves as very able scientists (and many are), understand they won recognition as current processes for peer review were being used, and see no reason to change those processes. The rejection notices to me do not say "The evidence you present is insufficient to support your conclusions" or "The issues you address are not important to science and society." They say "This work does not fit the mission of our journal." If scientists and their peer-reviewed journals are not responsible for the self management of the sciences, improving that process based on evidence repeatedly gathered in the scientific manner, just who is responsible and by what means are processes judged to be valid !!!
The Campbells describe the resistance to their findings from fellow scientists, medical people, journalists, government people, and even the public because the findings do not fit what is widely accepted to be "true" and "good." While stories are not acceptable as scientific evidence, this reader is convinced that the Campbells describe accurately the social resistance to their findings and the organizational push-back against the proposition advanced by the data they summarize saying that education about nutrition and nutritional practices need important change.
One dear friend of mine completed a Ph.D. at Harvard University in cell biology some thirty years ago, has been a vegetarian (and for a while a vegan) for at least twenty years, is an active author and veteran hiker, and has spent life in constant association with university communities. I could imagine The China Study being a "Bible" in the community of vegetarians. I looked to this friend for an expert's, a vegetarian's, a biological scientist's evaluation of the Campbells' report. The Campbells' The China Study (2006) is not known to my friend!
Despite its shortcomings, The China Study merits wide readership.
Copyright © 2016 by Paul F. Ross All rights reserved.
Achen, Christopher H., and Bartels, Larry M. Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government 2016, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ
Bernanke, Ben S. The courage to act: A memoir of a crisis and its aftermath 2015, W. W. Norton & Company, New York NY
Campbell, T. Colin, and Campbell II, Thomas M. The China study: Startling implications for diet, weight-loss, and long-term health 2006, Benbella Books, Dallas TX
Carroll, K. K, Braden, L. M., Bell, J. A., et al. "Fat and cancer," Cancer, 1986, 1818-1825
Li J-Y, Liu B-Q, Li G-Y, et al. "Atlas of cancer mortality in the People's Republic of China. An aid for cancer control and research," International Journal of Epidemiology, 1981, 10, 127-133
Milanovic, Branko Global inequality: A new approach for the age of globalization 2016, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA
Piketty, Thomas Capital in the twenty-first century 2014, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA
Pinker, Steven The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined 2011, Viking, New York NY
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and Comprehensive.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 28, 2016
I've been looking for quite a while for something authoritative and comprehensive in the line of dietary and nutritional information. The world is inundated with fad diets and misinformation. A great deal of what we hear about various aspects of diet is contradictory. One week something is demonised as being unhealthy, the following week that information is refuted, in the strongest terms, by seemingly equally authoritative sources. This confusion is clearly explained in the China study and, for once, absolute clarity reigns instead of confusion. Vested interests present themselves as independent authorities, with deceptive titles, and so confusion reigned supreme, until I read this book. The level of corruption that pertains in the food industry is scandalous and the greatest danger to our health that has ever been. For about a month, prior to Christmas, I had been eating more or less in accordance with the guidelines given in The China Study. I found a gradual, but perceptible, increase in my energy levels. As it is now the season of gluttony, Christmastime, I have been cooking and eating a lot of meats, spiced beef, turkey, ham, etc. I felt the slubbishness returning and my energy levels dropping off. While this is not sufficient information to base a major lifestyle change on, it is sufficiently encouraging for me to continue the experiment. Incidentally, during this period, prior to my return to high levels of meat consumption, I had a health check. My blood pressure, which has tended to be on the high side for the last ten to fifteen years, had dropped to the level that I had in my twenties, 120/70. Monday next, the 2nd day of 2017, I will return to a more-or-less vegetarian lifestyle. By the way, during the month that I had adhered to a reduced meat consumption diet, I discovered that there is a great amount of vegetarian food out there that is every bit as tempting as the addictive meat-eating diet, and it left me feeling lighter, more energised and more focussed, mentally, than I have felt for a long time. This book is divided into easily accessible and understandable sections and I use it to 'dip into' as necessary. It has joined a few books that I deem important in my 'vase mecum' my knapsack of essentials that I carry with me every day. Read it, adopt its advice, adapt it to your own requirements. You will reap the benefits. I have done so in the short term, I will now do so in the long term. I hope that you do so also. You have nothing worthwhile to lose and your health and wellbeing to gain.
libba
5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific book on the benefits of eating plant food.
It is an excellent book. Easy to understand yet with a lot of scientific information. It is recommending a vegan way of eating and has convinced me that it is the best diet for a healthy long
life. I will certainly try it.
5.0 out of 5 stars Take your time with this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 11, 2016
Buy the book, take your time and read it a couple of times. It's not an all action page turner and will require some work on your part. If you find yourself giving up after a couple of chapters you might want to ask yourself ' What is it in me that is stopping me reading this book?'
Monkspond
5.0 out of 5 stars As a person with a long cardiac history this book and others like it have provided me with a way to combat ...
This is one of the most important books written regarding the impact that diet has on the overall health of individuals, communities and nations. Using a wealth of painstakingly gathered statistics and data Campbell demonstrates that a plant based diet can overcome the illnesses associated with the rich diet we are encouraged to eat in the West and also reverse their progress.. As a person with a long cardiac history this book and others like it have provided me with a way to combat and possibly overcome a formerly unbeatable enemy. Where before there was nothing to look forward too other than a premature death I now have a hope based on some solid evidence rather than just popular opinion.
Play Loud
5.0 out of 5 stars A total game-changer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 12, 2018
An authoritative, comprehensive and compelling book on the benefits of adopting a whole food, plant based diet. A must read for anyone and everyone looking to improve their health and well-being through diet as opposed to medication or surgery. As Dr Dean Ornish says, reading this book may save your life.


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