Many of you will be familiar with NutritionFacts.org but for those who aren’t, I’ll fill you in. It’s a fantastic resource for those who want to learn about the connection between food and health. Dr. Michael Greger and his team sift through all the papers published in English about nutrition, then present the salient points in the form of short, digestible (sorry…) videos. These videos are uploaded most days and by now there’s one on just about every subject regarding health and nutrition that you can think of. Dr. Greger has consolidated all he’s learned and put it into a book which, although it won’t help you live forever, will certainly help you avoid unnecessary illness and many of the leading causes of death.
How Not to Die is split into two parts. The first part deals with factual research on the top fifteen ways people die and how you can reduce your likelihood of falling victim to them. Everything from heart disease, diabetes and cancer are covered along with illnesses you may not necessarily equate with diet, such as kidney disease, depression and Parkinson’s. Everything is fully referenced and each section has either a personal story or case study along with fascinating data that’s explained intelligently but accessibly. It’s all incredibly detailed, but never boring, and there’s lots of extra information in the boxed text – everything from the top sources of anti-oxidants to how much sleep you should be getting. It’s thoroughly inspiring stuff and leaves you feeling in control of your own health. It seems the more research is done, the more we realise that developing disease has far more to do with our lifestyle choices (of which diet is of course a huge part) than our genes.
The second part is headed up ‘Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen’ outlining the foods you should be eating each day for good health. It’s the culmination of years of experience and is a regimen that the good doctor and his family follows. The author does many talks both for lay people and health professionals and is always being asked what he eats. A whole food (that means as unprocessed as possible) plant based (no animal products) diet is by far the best for humans and is the only diet to have halted and reversed diabetes and heart disease. The list of foods include beans and berries, other fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices. It also suggests daily exercise, as this is known to ward off not only osteoporosis, but also breast cancer and a host of other maladies.
Everyone knows that for good health they should cut back on meat and up their fruit and vegetable intake as well as exercise more. This book takes things a stage further. It clarifies what you should be eating, what foods to avoid and gives the hard science to back it all up. The nonsense we’ve been fed by the food industry and drug companies has gone on long enough. Here is an evidence based instruction manual on how to eat well and stay well.
Highly recommended.
Buy the book here.
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