Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

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Author:   Michael Greger

Genre:  Health, Nutrition

576 pages, published December 8, 2015

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

How Not to Die is written by Dr. Michael Greger, the physician behind the extremely popular website NutritionFacts.org, and makes the case that the vast majority of premature deaths can be prevented through simple changes in diet and lifestyle.   Dr. Greger examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America (heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, etc.) and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can are often superior to pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, allowing us to live healthier lives.  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 eleven foods (and one habit) we should consume or do every day:  1) Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spring greens, radishes, turnip tops, watercress; 2)

Greens including spring greens, kale, young salad greens, sorrel, spinach, swiss chard; 3) Other vegetables, including asparagus, beetroot, peppers, carrots, corn, courgettes, garlic, mushrooms, okra, onions, pumpkin, sugar snap peas, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes;

4) Beans, such as black beans, cannellini beans, black-eyed peas, butter beans, soyabeans, baked beans, chickpeas, edamame, peas, kidney beans, lentils, miso, pinto beans, split peas, tofu, hummus; 5) Berries or any small edible fruit, including grapes, raisins, blackberries, cherries, raspberries and strawberries; 6) Other fruit, such as apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, cantaloupe melon, clementines, dates, figs, grapefruit, honeydew melon, kiwi, lemons, limes, lychees, mangos, nectarines, oranges, papaya, passion fruit, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, pomegranates, prunes, tangerines, and watermelon; 7) Flaxseeds; 8) Nuts or nut butter; 9) Spices, especially turmeric; 10) Whole grains such as buckwheat, rice, and quinoa; 11) Exercise (ideally 90 minutes a day of moderate activity, such as walking); and 12) Water

(five large glasses a day).

Quotes

“For disease prevention, berries of all colors have “emerged as champions,” according to the head of the Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory.  The purported anticancer properties of berry compounds have been attributed to their apparent ability to counteract, reduce, and repair damage resulting from oxidative stress and inflammation.  But it wasn’t known until recently that berries may also boost your levels of natural killer cells.”

 

“The best way to minimize your exposure to industrial toxins may be to eat as low as possible on the food chain, a plant-based diet.”

 

“While the pathology of stroke and Alzheimer’s are different, one key factor unites them: Mounting evidence suggests that a healthy diet may help prevent them both.”

 

“Here’s a statistic you probably haven’t heard:  Higher consumption of vegetables may cut the odds of developing depression by as much as 62 percent.   A review in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience concluded that, in general, eating lots of fruits and veggies may present “a non-invasive, natural, and inexpensive therapeutic means to support a healthy brain.”

 

“Back in 1903, Thomas Edison predicted that the “doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of [the] human frame in diet and in the cause and prevention of diseases.”

 

“The flaxseeds managed to drop subjects’ systolic and diastolic blood pressure by up to fifteen and seven points, respectively. Compare that result to the effect of powerful antihypertensive drugs, such as calcium-channel blockers (for example, Norvasc, Cardizem, Procardia), which have been found to reduce blood pressure by only eight and three points, respectively, or to ACE inhibitors (such as Vasotec, Lotensin, Zestril, Altace), which drop patients’ blood pressure by only five and two points, respectively.  Ground flaxseeds may work two to three times better than these medicines, and they have only good side effects.  In addition to their anticancer properties, flaxseeds have been demonstrated in clinical studies to help control cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels; reduce inflammation, and successfully treat constipation.”

 

“Though the majority of lung cancer is attributed to smoking, approximately a quarter of all cases occur in people who’ve never smoked.  Although some of these cases are due to secondhand smoke, another contributing cause may be another potentially carcinogenic plume: fumes from frying.”

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