Quotes from Michael Greger

Overweight women were randomized to eat calorie-restricted weight-loss diets with or without a teaspoon of added cumin a day (half a teaspoon at both lunch and dinner). Over the three-month study, those in the cumin group lost about four more pounds and nearly an extra inch off their waists, in addition to significantly dropping their triglycerides and cholesterol.2727 Since cumin can be purchased in bulk for less than a dollar an ounce, a teaspoon would cost less than ten cents a day.

Supplements don't appear to work. Studies have repeatedly shown that antioxidant supplements have no beneficial effects on respiratory or allergic diseases, underscoring the importance of eating whole foods rather than trying to take isolated components or extracts in pill form.

Tyson Foods, the largest chicken-producing corporation in the world,2304 found itself before the Supreme Court in 2005 for refusing to pay workers for time spent donning protective clothing at a poultry plant. The Court ruled unanimously against Tyson.2305

People seem to be better able to deal with coming up short on positive goals than negative ones. So framing your subgoals as things you want to accomplish, rather than avoid, can help you escape the fatalistic, black-and-white thinking that can subvert your longer-term goals.

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, controlled weight-loss trials found that about a quarter teaspoon of black cumin powder every day appears to reduce body mass index within a span of a couple of months.

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered "ideal weight.

Preload studies, where people are fed a first course one, five, fifteen, twenty, thirty, or sixty minutes before the main meal, show that this fullness feedback loop may take about twenty minutes to fully tamp down our appetites.

The group of overweight nine- to twelve-year-olds randomized to the water intervention was told to increase their water intakes to the point their urine became straw-colored (pale yellow). Once again, not every kid complied, but those who did lost significantly more weight.3856 Inspired

Traditional societies tend to have more diverse gut flora in general, and the key is thought to be their extraordinary fiber intakes, which can reach 120 grams a day,2104 nearly eight times the American average.

the single most pro-inflammatory food component is saturated fat. The single most anti-inflammatory food component? Fiber.3899 Since saturated fat is found mostly in meat, dairy, and junk food, whereas fiber is abundant in whole grains, beans, vegetables, and fruit,

If you ask people to double their baseline number of chews per bite, they end up eating about 15 percent less pizza, feeling just as full eating more than one hundred fewer calories.2996 Even just asking them to chew 50 percent more times than normal may cut their consumption by nearly 10 percent.2997

As soon as the dying stopped, the forgetting began.

Those on a Standard American Diet lose about 5 percent of the calories they eat in their waste,1198 but a higher-fiber diet can double that.

A completely plant-based diet, however, can help drop C-reactive protein levels by 30–40 percent within just a few weeks in both adults3905 and children,

As if the pandemic weren't tragic enough, in the decade that followed, a million people came down with a serious Parkinson's-like disease termed "encephalitis lethargica," the subject of the book and movie Awakenings.232 Some researchers now consider this epidemic of neurological disease to be "almost certainly" a direct consequence of viral damage to the brains of survivors.

Both were given identical instructions to follow a healthier diet, but one group was also given fourteen grams of dried goji berries a day, which is about two tablespoons.3923 Forty-five days later, the goji group appeared to cut two and a half inches off their waistlines

Certain foods, such as meats, appear to harbor bacteria that can trigger inflammation dead or alive, even when the food is fully cooked. Endotoxins are not destroyed by cooking temperatures, stomach acid, or digestive enzymes, so after a meal of animal products, these endotoxins may end up in your intestines. They are then thought to be ferried by saturated fat across the gut wall into your bloodstream, where they can trigger the inflammatory reaction in your arteries.44

I mentioned earlier in which people lost weight after adding three apples or pears to their daily diets.2223 Certain other fruits were not as successful, though. Adding three grapefruit halves, around three kiwifruits, or half a mango a day didn't result in significant weight loss (although it didn't result in weight gain either).

Give people about a quarter cup a day of tomato paste, and get an improvement in artery function within fifteen days, an effect attributed to both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

Was the weight loss simply statistically significant or actually significant? That's for you to decide. During the three-month trial, compared to the placebo group, the group taking one daily tablespoon of vinegar steadily lost about a pound a month and the group taking two daily tablespoons were down a total of about five pounds. Five pounds may not sound like a lot, but that weight loss was achieved for just pennies a day without removing anything from their diets.

Pistachios are not just the most melatonin-rich nut, they are off the charts as the most melatonin-rich food ever recorded.2957 To get a physiological dose of melatonin, all you have to eat is two. Two cups? Two handfuls? No, just two pistachios. Pistachio nuts were found to contain 0.2 mg of melatonin per gram.2958 It only takes 0.3 mg of melatonin to cause the normal daily spike our brains give us, so just two nuts would presumably do the trick.2959

As a high-calorie-density food, the admonition to "eat sparingly" still applies, but that's all one may need. While the optimum benefits of fruits and vegetables may require cups a day, nuts appear so potent that the mortality benefits may be had for mere ounces a week. FOOD

A doctor a day may keep the apples away.

I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared. In fact one state emergency manager told me, "It is like a stake has been driven into the heart of emergency management."827