Gene Stone

Michael Greger, MD

From the physician behind the wildly popular website NutritionFacts.org, How Not to Die reveals the groundbreaking scientific evidence behind the only diet that can prevent and reverse many of the causes of disease-related death. The vast majority of premature deaths can be prevented through simple changes in diet and lifestyle. In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-renowned nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America — heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson's, high blood pressure, and more — and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives. The simple truth is that most doctors are good at treating acute illnesses but bad at preventing chronic disease. The fifteen leading causes of death claim the lives of 1.6 million Americans annually. This doesn't have to be the case. By following Dr. Greger's advice, all of it backed up by strong scientific evidence, you will learn which foods to eat and which lifestyle changes to make to live longer. History of prostate cancer in your family? Put down that glass of milk and add flaxseed to your diet whenever you can. Have high blood pressure? Hibiscus tea can work better than a leading hypertensive drug-and without the side effects. Fighting off liver disease? Drinking coffee can reduce liver inflammation. Battling breast cancer? Consuming soy is associated with prolonged survival. Worried about heart disease (the number 1 killer in the United States)? Switch to a whole-food, plant-based diet, which has been repeatedly shown not just to prevent the disease but often stop it in its tracks. In addition to showing what to eat to help treat the top fifteen causes of death, How Not to Die includes Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen — a checklist of the twelve foods we should consume every day. Full of practical, actionable advice and surprising, cutting edge nutritional science, these doctor's orders are just what we need to live longer, healthier lives.

Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

How Not to Die

Sam Skurka

The U.S. health care system runs on a fee-for-service model in which doctors get paid for the pills and procedures they prescribe, rewarding quantity over quality.

Nearly three-quarters of all emerging and reemerging human diseases arise from the animal kingdom.

The Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the meat industry's position, asserting that the USDA can allow potentially deadly Salmonella in meat because "American housewives and cooks normally are not ignorant or stupid and their methods of preparing and cooking of food do not ordinarily result in salmonellosis." That's like saying minivans don't need airbags or seat belts, and kids don't need car seats, because soccer moms don't ordinarily crash into things.

Not all fats affect our muscle cells in the same way. For example,palmitate, the kind of saturated fat found mostly in meat, dairy, and eggs, causes insulin resistance. On the other hand, oleate, the monounsaturated fat found mostly in nuts, olives, and avocados, may actually protect against the detrimental effects of the saturated fat. Saturated fats can wreak all sorts of havoc in muscle cells and may result in the accumulation of more toxic breakdown products (such as ceramide and diacylglycerol) and free radicals and can cause inflammation and even mitochondrial dysfunction-that is, interference with the little power plants (mitochondria) within our cells."This phenomenon is known as lipotoxicity (lipo meaning fat,as in liposuction).“ If we take muscle biopsies from people, saturated fat buildup in the membranes of their muscle cells correlates with insulin resistance. Monounsaturated fats, however, are more likely to be detoxified by the body or safely stored away.

This discrepancy may explain why individuals eating plant-based diets are better protected from diabetes.

Those who eat plant-based diets may even have an 11 percent higher resting metabolic rate. That means vegetarians could be burning more calories even in their sleep. Why? This could be because vegetarians have a higher gene expression of a fat-burning enzyme called carnitine palmitoyltransferase, which effectively shovels fat into the mitochondrial furnaces in your cells.

So why are vegetable nitrates and nitrites okay but the same compounds from meat are linked to cancer? Because nitrites themselves are not carcinogenic; they turn into carcinogens. Nitrites only become harmful when they turn into nitrosamines and nitrosamides. For them to do that, amines and amides must be present, and amines and amides are found in abundance in animal products. This transformation can happen in the meat itself or in your stomach after you eat it. In the case of plant foods, the vitamin C and other antioxidants that are found naturally in them block the formation of these carcinogens in your body. This process would explain why intake of both nitrate and nitrite from processed meat has been linked to kidney cancer, but no increased risk was found for nitrate or nitrite intake from plant sources.

They found out that people who drank two or more cups of coffee daily appeared to have about only half the suicide risk compared to non-coffee drinkers." What about drink ing more than four cups a day? A Kaiser Permanente study of more than one hundred thousand people found that suicide risk seemed to continue to drop with increases in coffee dose. People who drank more than six cups a day were 80 percent less likely to commit sui cide, though drinking eight or more cups a day has been associated with increased suicide risk. 49

They found out that people who drank two or more cups of coffee daily appeared to have about only half the suicide risk compared to non-coffee drinkers." What about drinking more than four cups a day? A Kaiser Permanente study of more than one hundred thousand people found that suicide risk seemed to continue to drop with increases in coffee dose. People who drank more than six cups a day were 80 percent less likely to commit suicide, though drinking eight or more cups a day has been associated with increased suicide risk.

The choline in eggs, like the carnitine in red meat, is converted into a toxin called trimethylamine" by bacteria that exist in the guts ofthose who eat meat." And trimethylamine, once oxidized in the liver, appears to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and premature death.

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