Quotes from Michael Greger

1 handful fresh or frozen cranberries 2 cups water 8 teaspoons erythritol (a naturally derived low-calorie sweetener; read more about erythritol and other sweeteners in part 2) Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed. Pour over ice and serve.

Viruses are measured in millionths of a millimeter.301 As one writer described them, "Like tiny terrorists, viruses travel light, switch identity easily and pursue their goals with deadly determination.

doubled your odds of getting pancreatic cancer.89 What about people who eat chicken? The largest study to ever address that question is the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, which followed 477,000 people for about a decade. The researchers found a 72 percent increased risk of pancreatic cancer for every fifty grams of chicken consumed daily.90 And that's not much meat, under two ounces—just about a quarter of a chicken breast.

Influenza transmission is legendary. The dying cells in the respiratory tract trigger an inflammatory response, which triggers the cough reflex. The virus thus uses the body's own defenses to infect other potential hosts.

Lessons can be learned from past pandemics. In 1918, as Boston hospitals filled beyond capacity, a tent hospital was set up in nearby Brookline. Though exposing ailing patients to the chilly Boston autumn was condemned by Bostonians as "barbarous and cruel," it turned out that the fresh breeze and sunshine seemed to afford the overflow patients far better odds of survival than those inside the overcrowded, poorly ventilated hospitals.2039

The executive editor of Poultry magazine put the trade-off this way in an editorial: "The prospect of a virulent flu to which we have absolutely no resistance is frightening. However, to me, the threat is much greater to the poultry industry. I'm not as worried about the U.S. human population dying from bird flu as I am that there will be no chicken to eat.

In 1918, the virus didn't learn how to kill humans crowded in filthy chicken sheds. Instead, it may have gotten that education in the trenches of World War I. In 1918, the soldiers may have been the chickens.

Although there have been documented reports of SARS-CoV escaping from laboratories,68 the fact that the COVID-19 coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was optimized for binding to human cells in a novel way suggests that the new pandemic we now face is a product of natural selection.

Women with the highest saturated fat intake had a 60–70 percent greater chance of cognitive deterioration over time. Women with the lowest saturated fat intake had the brain function, on average, of women six years younger.

Said USDA microbiologist Nelson Cox, "Raw meats are not idiot-proof. They can be mishandled and when they are, it's like handling a hand grenade. If you pull the pin, somebody's going to get hurt." While some may question the wisdom of selling hand grenades in the supermarket, Cox disagrees: "I think the consumer has the most responsibility but refuses to accept it.

USDA's chief flu researcher David Swayne recommended producers try to recoup the costs of culling by selling sick birds for human consumption.

Like so many other organs, the brain possesses a miraculous ability to heal itself, to forge new synaptic connections around old ones, to learn and relearn. That is, however, if you don't keep damaging it three times a day. A wholesome diet and exercise may offer your best hope for remaining sharp and healthy into your twilight years.

As a physician, my priority is getting (and keeping) people healthy, but when people are surveyed about their motivation for dieting, disturbingly, "health" may come in last.927 Dieters want results—they want weight to come off.

Dr. Greger's Eight Check-Mark Pesto 2 cups fresh basil leaves ¼ cup freshly toasted walnuts 2 cloves fresh garlic ¼ of a peeled lemon ¼ teaspoon lemon zest ¼ inch of fresh turmeric root (or ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder) ¼ cup pinto beans ¼ cup water or liquid from bean can 1 tablespoon white miso Pepper to taste Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Scoop onto a cup and a half of cooked whole-grain pasta.

For instance, sulforaphane, considered one of the more active components in cruciferous vegetables, kills human leukemia cells in a petri dish while having little impact on the growth of normal cells.8 As we've discussed, cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, and kale, but there are many others in this family, such as collard greens, watercress, bok choy, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turnips, arugula, radishes (including horseradish), wasabi, and all types of cabbage.

researchers recognized that nearly any diet can cause weight loss at least short term, but the ends don't always justify the means. Their challenge was to design a "nutritionally sound" diet "conducive to a lifelong pattern of healthful eating."3074 To that end, the diet encourages people to eat more high-bulk, calorie-dilute foods (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans) and fewer energy-dense foods (meats, cheeses, sugars, and fats).

Popcorn is a whole grain that takes less than five minutes to prepare. A hot-air popper is another inexpensive, useful appliance. There's an endless variety of savory, sweet, and spicy toppings you can use. I like the combination of chlorella and nutritional yeast. (In my family, the green color earned it the name "zombie corn.") By lightly misting air-popped popcorn with a spray bottle, you can get dry seasonings to stick. I like to spritz with balsamic vinegar.

So choose foods that take longer to eat, and eat them in a way that prolongs the time they stay in your mouth. Think bulkier, harder, chewier foods, such as apples, carrots, or intact grains, eaten in smaller, thoroughly chewed bites. Snack on raw veggies, and fall in love with soup. If possible, extend meal duration so it lasts at least twenty minutes to allow your natural satiety signals to take full effect.

green, leafy vegetables a week had roughly half the odds of getting lymphoma compared with those who ate less than one serving a week.12 Some of the plant-based protection might have been due to the antioxidant properties of fruits and vegetables. Higher dietary intake of antioxidants is associated with significantly lower lymphoma risk.

It's bad enough that most medical schools don't even require a single course on nutrition,58 but it's even worse when mainstream medical organizations actively lobby against increased nutrition education for physicians.59

Maybe it's time we stop blaming genetics and focus on the more than 70 percent that is directly under our control.

The simplest recipe has one ingredient: frozen bananas. Peel and freeze some ripe bananas (the riper, the better—I'm talking brown). Once frozen, throw them in a food processor and blend.

In contrast, even most "active" people exercise less than two hours a week, which may average out to fewer than one hundred calories burned off daily.

With so many different coronaviruses circulating among so many different species, it is considered likely a matter of when, not if, the next recombinant coronavirus will emerge and burst into the human population.119