Quotes from Michael Greger

About twenty sprigs of cilantro daily for two months reduced inflammation levels in arthritis sufferers and cut uric-acid levels in half, suggesting that lots of cilantro may be useful for people suffering from gout.

As I explored in How Not to Die, these are the very same foods that in some cases may help prevent each of our top fifteen killers: (1) heart disease, (2) lung diseases, (3) iatrogenic ("death by doctor") causes, (4) brain diseases, (5) digestive cancers, (6) infections, (7) diabetes, (8) high blood pressure, (9) liver diseases, (10) blood cancers, (11) kidney disease, (12) breast cancer, (13) suicidal depression, (14) prostate cancer, and (15) Parkinson's disease.

This finding suggests that the placebo effect explains the apparent clinical effectiveness of antidepressants. In other words, improvements in mood may be a result of the patient's belief in the power of the drug—not the drug itself.74

and we know who shouldn't be fasting in the first place4109 (such as those with advanced liver or kidney failure, porphyria, or uncontrolled hyperthyroidism, and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding).

Added phosphate may be labeled as "flavorings" or "broth" or not labeled at all.88 Meat already contains highly absorbable phosphates; adding more may just add insult to kidney injury. Chicken appears to be the worst offender: A supermarket survey found more than 90 percent of chicken products contained phosphate additives.89

The good news is that no matter what your mom ate or how you lived as a child, by eating and living healthfully, you may be able to slow the growth rate of any hidden cancers. In short, you can die with your tumors rather than from them. This is how dietary cancer prevention and treatment can end up being the same thing.

Miso is another fermented whole soy food. This thick paste is commonly mixed with hot water to make a delicious soup that's a staple in Japanese cuisine. If you want to give it a try, I suggest white miso, which has a mellower flavor than red miso.

They found that the enteric-coated capsules of red pepper powder were able to significantly decrease the intensity of abdominal pain and bloating, suggesting "a way of dealing with this frequent and distressing functional disease…"52

green, leafy vegetables. The following is a top-ten list of nitrate-rich foods, in ascending order. As you'll see, eight out of the top ten are greens. TOP-TEN FOOD SOURCES OF NITRATES 10. Beets 9. Swiss chard 8. Oak leaf lettuce 7. Beet greens 6. Basil 5. Mesclun greens 4. Butter leaf lettuce 3. Cilantro 2. Rhubarb 1. Arugula

Did you know that one hot dog has as many nitrosamines (and nitrosamides, which are similar tobacco carcinogens103) as four cigarettes and that these carcinogens are also found in fresh meat, including beef, chicken, and pork?104 This may help explain the rising rates of kidney cancer over the last few decades despite the falling rates of smoking. Clearing the Confusion: Nitrates, Nitrites, and Nitrosamines Although fresh meat also contains nitrosamines, processed

Former Harvard nutrition chair Walter Willett has argued that the term whole grain should probably be reserved for only whole intact grain kernels.4978 So eat the wholiest of grains: intact grains, also known as groats.

How much food does it take to reach 2,000 calories at different caloric densities? As you can see in the graph below, you would need to eat eight pounds of food a day on a low-calorie-density diet of 250 calories per pound, whereas on a high-calorie-density diet, you'd have to restrict yourself to eating four times less food.

with "The Simple 7" factors that can lead to a healthier life: not smoking, not being overweight, being "very active" (defined as the equivalent of walking at least twenty-two minutes a day), eating healthier (for example, lots of fruits and vegetables), having below-average cholesterol, having normal blood pressure, and having normal blood sugar levels.27 The American Heart Association's goal is to reduce heart-disease deaths by 20 percent

Edamame is about as whole a soy food as you can get. After all, these are soybeans still in their pods. You can buy them frozen and just throw a handful into some boiling water anytime you want a healthy snack. They cook in about five minutes. All you need to do is strain them and, if you're like me, crack lots of fresh pepper onto the pods and nibble the beans right out.

I like sprinkling powdered ginger on sweet potatoes or using it fresh to make lemon-ginger apple chews as an antinausea remedy.

Try making my lemon-ginger apple chews: In a blender, liquefy one peeled lemon with a palm-sized "hand" of fresh gingerroot. Use the mixture to coat thin slices of four apples, and then place them in a dehydrator until they reach desired chewiness. I like them a little moist, but you can dehydrate them further to make lemon-ginger apple chips, which store longer than the chews. For me, a few pieces eaten about twenty minutes before travel works wonders.

Grapes, barley, and potatoes are best eaten in their nondistilled form, and Johnnie Walker is no substitute

Draining and rinsing your canned beans can remove about half the added salt, but then you'd also be rinsing away some of the nutrition. I recommend purchasing the no-salt-added varieties and cooking with the bean liquid in whatever dish you're whipping up.

Instead of simply telling you what the science shows and then letting you make up your own mind, experts patronize the population by advocating what they think is practical rather than ideal. By making the decision for you, they undermine those willing to make even greater changes for optimal health.

take tumors to double once? Breast cancers can double in size in anywhere from as few as twenty-five days8 to a thousand days or more.9 In other words, it could be two years, or it could be more than a hundred years, before a tumor starts to cause problems. Where you fall on that

The additional consumption of fourteen grams of fiber a day led to an average weight loss of 1.9 kilograms over 3.8 months.

The pharmaceutical industry is considered one of the most profitable and politically powerful industries in the United States, and mental illness is considered a golden goose: chronic, common, and often treated with multiple drugs.76 Indeed, antidepressants are currently prescribed to more than 8 percent of the population.77

Insulin treatments themselves may accelerate aging, worsen diabetic vision loss, and promote cancer, obesity, and atherosclerosis.82 Insulin can promote inflammation in the arteries, which may help explain the increased death rate in the intensively treated group.83

The truth is that adhering to just four simple healthy lifestyle factors can have a strong impact on the prevention of chronic diseases: not smoking, not being obese, getting a half hour of exercise a day, and eating healthier—defined as consuming more fruits, veggies, and whole grains and less meat. Those four factors alone were found to account for 78 percent of chronic disease risk.