Quotes from Michael Greger

The battle of the bulge is a battle against biology, so obesity is not some moral failing. I can't stress enough that becoming overweight is a normal, natural response to the abnormal, unnatural ubiquity of calorie-dense, sugary, and fatty foods.

Aren't goji berries expensive, though? In natural foods stores, they can go for twenty dollars a pound, but in Asian supermarkets, you can buy them as "Lycium" berries, and they're even cheaper than raisins. So, however you used to eat raisins—as a snack, in baked goods, in your breakfast cereal or oatmeal, whatever—I recommend you make the switch to gojis.

The CDC found that 42 percent of packaged meat products sold at three national chain grocery stores sampled contained toxin-producing C. diff bacteria.136 The United States, it turns out, has the highest reported levels of C. diff meat contamination in the world.137

I remember the interviewer emphatically stating, "Nutrition is superfluous to human health." And he was a pediatrician! I knew I was in for a long road ahead. Come to think of it, I think the only medical professional who ever asked me about a family member's diet was our veterinarian.

Your body has a remarkable ability to recover from sporadic insults as long as you're not habitually poking it with a fork.

The oceans are essentially humanity's sewer;

But when people move from low- to high-risk countries, their disease rates almost always change to those of the new environment.16 New diet, new diseases.

Serving Sizes: 1 medium-sized fruit 1 cup cut-up fruit ¼ cup dried fruit Daily Recommendation: 3 servings per day

If you'd rather get into the habit of taking it daily, the once-a-day dosing is 50 mcg.11 Note that these doses are specific to cyanocobalamin, the preferred supplemental form of vitamin B12, as there is insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of the other forms, like methylcobalamin

I recommend that people unable to get sufficient sun take one 2,000 IU vitamin D3 supplement each day,18 ideally with the largest meal of the day.

To ensure everyone was getting enough, table salt was fortified with the mineral starting in the 1920s. So if you do add salt to your food, use iodized salt (not sea salt or "natural" salt, which contains about sixty times less iodine

In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced newly mandated safety labeling on statin drugs to warn doctors and patients about their potential for brain-related side effects, such as memory loss and confusion. Statin drugs also appeared to increase the risk of developing diabetes.37 In 2013, a study of several thousand breast cancer patients reported that long-term use of statins may as much as double a woman's risk of invasive breast cancer.

Specific plant foods have been found to be protective of the liver. For instance, starting out the day with a bowl of oatmeal and (surprisingly) coffee may help safeguard our liver function.

Fiber is naturally concentrated in only one place: whole plant foods. Processed foods have less, and animal-derived foods have no fiber at all. Animals have bones to hold them up; plants have fiber.

Cooking without oil is surprisingly easy. To keep foods from sticking, you can sauté in wine, sherry, broth, vinegar, or just plain water. For baking, I've successfully used green-light ingredients such as mashed bananas or avocado, soaked prunes, and even canned pumpkin to substitute for oil to provide a similar moistness.

To ensure everyone was getting enough, table salt was fortified with the mineral starting in the 1920s. So if you do add salt to your food, use iodized salt (not sea salt or "natural" salt, which contains about sixty times less iodine28). Given that sodium is considered the second-leading dietary killer in the world,29 however, iodized salt should be considered a red-light source.

Physical activity is considered a promising preventive measure against breast cancer43 not only because it helps with weight control but because exercise tends to lower circulating estrogen levels.44 Five hours a week of vigorous aerobic exercise can lower estrogen and progesterone exposure by about 20 percent.45 But do you need to work out that long for it to be protective?

Mangos are my favorite fruit treat during spring and summer, but you have to know where to look to get good ones. Check out Hispanic markets and Indian grocery stores. The difference between a mango from Walmart and one from an Indian spice store is like the difference between a hard, pale, tasteless, pink tomato and a ripe, flavorful, farm-stand heirloom. You should be able to smell the mango at arm's length.

It turns out that sodium intake appears to suppress the activity of a key antioxidant enzyme in the body called superoxide dismutase,49 which has the ability to detoxify a million free radicals per second.50 With the action of this workhorse of an enzyme stifled by sodium, artery-crippling levels of oxidative stress can build up.

The most concentrated green-light source is seaweed, which has the iodine of seafood without the fat-soluble pollutants that build up in the aquatic food chain.

minimize stroke risk by eating a minimum of 25 grams a day of soluble fiber (fiber that dissolves in water, typically found in beans, oats, nuts, and berries) and 47 daily grams of insoluble fiber (fiber that does not dissolve in water, found primarily in whole grains, such as brown rice and whole wheat).

Plant-based diets have been shown to lower cholesterol just as effectively as first-line statin drugs, but without the risks.39 In fact, the "side effects" of healthy eating tend to be good—less cancer and diabetes risk and protection of the liver and brain,

The trillion-dollar processed food industry uses dirt-cheap added salt and sugar to sell us their junk.57 That's why it's not easy avoiding sodium on the typical American diet, since three-quarters of salt comes from processed foods rather than a saltshaker.58

In a remarkable study published recently, hundreds of children were followed for a period of twenty-four years, from junior high school to adulthood. Researchers found that low fiber intake early on was associated with stiffening of the arteries leading up to the brain—a key risk factor for stroke.