Quotes About Diet

Fighting the Blues with Greens 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.26 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.

The American Dietetic Association (ADA), which produces a series of nutrition fact sheets with guidelines on maintaining a healthy diet, also has its own corporate ties. Who writes these fact sheets? Food industry sources pay the ADA $20,000 per fact sheet to explicitly take part in the drafting process. So we can learn about eggs from the American Egg Board and about the benefits of chewing gum from the Wrigley Science Institute.63

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.

Enter Dr. Walter Kempner and his rice-and-fruit diet. Without drugs, he brought patients with eye-popping blood pressures like 240/150 down to 105/80 with dietary changes alone.

The population with the highest rate of the "Alzheimer's gene" has one of the lowest rates of Alzheimer's disease? This contradiction may be explained by Nigerians' extremely low blood-cholesterol levels, thanks to a diet low in animal fat104 and consisting mainly of grains and vegetables.105 So, it

It's been argued that for about 99.8 percent of our time on Earth, it was virtually impossible for us to regularly consume more than 15 percent of calories as fat.

This is consistent with the findings of the Deception and Fraud in the Diet Industry hearings in Congress that concluded most programs actively suppress facts about what to expect regarding chances of success. 913

To remove refined grains from your diet is to remove America's number one source of calories. Switching to whole grains may help reduce body fat, but there's an even better swap. See the Wall Off Your Calories section for taking your grain game up a notch and graduate from mere whole grains to intact whole grains, such as oat groats (also known as hull-less or hulled oats).

For most of human existence, we were only getting the pinch of salt a day naturally found in whole foods.1902 Now, thanks mostly to processed foods, we're exposed to ten times more than our bodies were meant to handle.

Any diabetic can maintain normal blood sugars eating a stick of butter; only a cured diabetic can maintain the same feat eating a banana. As I detailed in How Not to Die, diabetes truly can be reversed this way with a healthy enough diet, sometimes in a matter of weeks and even without weight loss.4205

a study comparing thousands of omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans found that those eating strictly plant-based diets are three times more likely to have daily bowel movements.28 Looks like vegans are just regular people.

Fewer than 3 percent of Americans reach even the recommended minimum daily adequate intake of fiber.

Nearly everyone is suffering from a fiber-deficient diet, and that's just based on the wimpy federal recommendations of fourteen grams per thousand calories, which comes out to be about twenty-five grams per day for women and thirty-eight daily grams for men.1273 That's a far cry from the hundred grams our bodies were designed to get,1274 based on the diets of modern-day, isolated, hunter-gatherer tribes

The top-five sources of arachidonic acid in the American diet are chicken, eggs, beef, pork, and fish, although chicken and eggs alone contribute more than the other top sources combined.17 Just a single egg's worth of arachidonic acid a day may significantly raise arachidonic acid levels in the blood.18 Overall, omnivores appear to consume about nine times more arachidonic acid than those eating plant-based diets.

When people are randomized into diet-and-exercise interventions versus diet alone, the diet-and-exercise groups do better, but the difference in weight loss only averages about two pounds.3095 The studies lasted between three and twelve months, and all that extra prescribed exercise seemed to translate into only a few pounds lost.

The longer-term trials performed even worse. In a meta-analysis of eighteen randomized controlled studies lasting a minimum of six months, the diet-plus-exercise group failed to beat out the diet-only group at all.

To walk off the calories found in a single pat of butter, we'd have to add an extra seven hundred yards to our stroll that evening. What about a Snickers bar? We'd need to jog a quarter mile for every single bite.

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.

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.

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,

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,

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