Table of Contents
Summary
How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger is about the health benefits of eating your fruits, vegetables, nuts, and spices and the dangers of eating too much meat, or any meat at all.
In the same way that smoking was ignored as a health hazard for so long, many people today are ignoring what science says about consuming meat. In addition to showing how essential a whole food plant based diet is for reducing the risk of chronic diseases, he makes the case that eating meat and meat-based products have been consistently associated with bad health.
Smoking, obesity, half an hour of exercise a day, eating healthier (more fruits, veggies, whole grains and less meat). Those four factors account for 78 percent of chronic disease risk. Telomeres indicate how much your cells age. Smoking cigarettes triples the rate of telomere loss. But it is food, more so than exercise, that can reverse cell ageing.
Smoking
Lung cancer is diagnosed around 220,000 times a year in the U.S. It causes more annual deaths than the next three cancers combined (colon, breast, pancreas). Smoking tobacco contributes to 90 percent of all lung cancer related deaths.
Turmeric
When smokers were given turmeric, the DNA mutation rate dropped by up to 38 percent. Turmeric cannot completely mitigate the effects of smoking, but smokers who eat turmeric can lessen the damage.
Potassium
A 1,640 mg of potassium intake per day reduces stroke risk by 21 percent. Bananas don’t have a lot of potassium. Citrus fruits, even more than apples, is associated with reduced stroke risk.
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Antioxidants
When oxygen molecules grab stray electrons and go crazy is oxidative stress. The cellular damage from this is what causes aging. Aging and disease are thought of as the oxidation of the body. You can slow down this oxidant process by eating foods with lots of antioxidants. You can tell if a food is rich in antioxidants, by soliciting it open, and exposing it to air (oxygen), and seeing what happens. If it turns brown, it’s oxidizing.
Apples and bananas turn brown quickly. This means there are not many antioxidants inside them. Most of the antioxidants in apples are in the peels. A mango does not turn brown as quickly because there are more antioxidants. You can keep a fruit salad from turning brown by adding lemon juice.
Polyphenols which are contained in berries and green tea help prevent neurodegenerative damage.
Bowl Movements
The bigger and more frequent your bowel movements, the healthier you may be. Based on a study of 23 populations across a dozen countries, colon cancer rates peak as the average daily stool weight drops half a pound.
People who don’t eat a lot of whole plant foods have smaller, firmer stools that are harder to pass. If you strain a lot to push out stool, over time, the increased pressure can push part of the stomach up and out of the abdomen, allowing acid to flow up to the throat.
Diabetes
Your digestive system breaks down carbs into a simple sugar (glucose), which fuels your body cells. Glucose needs insulin to travel from your bloodstream into your cells. Insulin is like the key that unlocks the doors to your cells. When you eat, insulin is released by your pancreas to help shuttle glucose into your cells. Without insulin, your cells can’t accept glucose, so glucose builds up in your bloods. This extra sugar eventually damages blood vessels.
This is why diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, and stroke. High blood sugar can also damage your nerves, creating a condition known as neuropathy that can cause numbness, tingling, and pain. Diabetics may also suffer from poor circulation and lack of feeling in the legs and feet, which can lead to poorly healing injuries, which can lead to amputation.
In type 1 diabetes, the body destroys the insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas, so very little insulin is available to let blood sugar enter your cells. But with type 2 diabetes, insulin production is not the problem. The key is there, but something has jammed the lock. This is called insulin resistance.
A plant-based diet, have a fraction of the rate of diabetes seen in those who regularly eat meet. As diets become more plant based, there appears to be a stepwise drop in diabetes rates.
Flaxseeds
Flaxseeds are one of the first health foods. They are one of the richest plant sources of essential omega-3 fatty acids. And they contain lignan content. Lignans are phytoestrogens that can dampen the effect of the body’s estrogen. This s
Milk
Cow milk has been found to stimulate the growth of human prostate cancer cells by more than 30 percent. Almond milk has suppressed the growth of cancer cells by more than 30 percent.
Uric acid
Uric acid can slow down Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. But too much uric acid can crystalize in your joints and create a painful disease called gout. Uric acid is a double-edged sword. Too much is linked with heart disease and kidney disease while too little with Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. A dairy free, plant based diet hits the sweet spot in terms of optimal uric acid levels.
Iatrogenic Causes
Unfortunately, modern medicine is not as effective as most people think. Doctors are good at treating acute conditions, such as fixing broken bones, and curing infections, but for chronic diseases, which are the leading causes of death and disability, conventional medicine does not have much to offer, and can sometimes do more harm than good.
Side effects from medications given in hospitals kill approximately 106,000 American each year. This statistic akes medical care the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Hospitals are dangerous places, 99,000 deaths occur each year due to hospital acquired infections.
Evaluation
Dr. Greger has written a great book which clarifies many misconceptions about nutrition. But this is, of course, a contentious subject, with a lot of conflicting research, a critical review that deals with some of the alleged cherry picking of Dr. Gerger can be found here. Regardless of whether you can stick to the kind of plant-based diet he advocates, there is plenty of material in this book that will make you question the benefits of eating too much meat, and at the very least, there is plenty to motivate you to eat your greens.
- I will read it again: 3.5/4
- Changed the way I see the world: 3/3
- The experience was enjoyable: 2/3
UW Score 8.5/10
Here is a TED talk if you want the short version.
Here is a longer Google Talk he gave with my notes:
- Cavities didn’t exist before even though people didn’t brush
- Heart disease nonexistent in populations that don’t eat meat
- Plant-based diet reversed clogged arteries
- Best kept secret in medicine, given right conditions, body will heal itself
- hit your shin once, heals, keep whacking shin 3 times a day, never heals
- Smoking
- within 15 years of no smoking, lung cancer risk to that of non-smoker
- moderation is a choice, but why beat yourself up at all?
- Potassium
- The word “Potassium” comes from “Pot-ash”
- Bananas not in top 1000 foods in potassium
- Greens, beans, Dates top sources of potassium
- Moderation is not necessarily a good thing
- heavy meat eaters, 75 times risk of death from diabetes
- moderate meat eaters, 23 times risk of death from diabetes
- Kidneys
- meat and dairy consumption can damage kidneys (acidic)
- plant consumption opposite effect (alkaline)
- Kale
- Chicken
- Causes bladder infection
- Gut contamination
- Reason why there is more bacteria from feces on kitchen sink than toilet is because chickens are rinsed on sink
- Chicken bacteria lasts 10 days, but if keep eating chicken, then keep reintroducing chicken bacteria into gut
- Milk
- Bad for bones
- Causes Parkinson’s
- Meat
- IGF1 goes up
- plant based diet outmatches heavy exercise in fighting cancer
- Leading Risk Factors
- Dietary, Tobacco Smoking, High Blood Pressure, High BMI, Physical inactivity
- Smoking
- 7000 studies before Surgeon General warned of smoking
- Vitamins
- Two Vitamins not made by plants: Vitamin D, Vitamin B12
- Vitamin D can only come from sun exposure
- Water used to be source of B12, but we chlorinated our water to clean it from bacteria
- Instead of eating meat, you can eat Vitamin B12 supplements, B12 fortified cereal, soy milk
- Omega 3
- 2 grams per day (can get from tablespoon flaxseeds, walnuts)
- Can get from omega-3 fat eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), DHA (plant-based)
- Mushrooms
- Don’t hit RDA’s
- But have micronutrients