How Not to Die: An Animated Summary
We have tremendous power over our health destiny and longevity.
We have tremendous power over our health destiny and longevity.
Perhaps dietary guidelines should stress fresh, frozen, and dried fruit—rather than canned.
Why is the field of nutrition often more about marketing products than educating people about the fundamentals of healthy eating?
Every hour, there are 800 incidents of DNA damage in our bodies. Which foods help us patch back up: apples, broccoli, celery, choy sum, lemons, lettuce, oranges, persimmons, or strawberries?
Dietary diversity is important because each plant family has a unique combination of phytonutrients that may bind to specific proteins within our body.
Why should we wait ten minutes after chopping or crushing garlic before we cook it unless we’re going in for elective surgery within the next week?
Vegetables tested head-to-head to see which boosts immune function best.
When placed head-to-head against the American Diabetes Association diet, how do plant-based diets fare in terms of not only blood sugar, body weight, and cholesterol control, but also mood and quality of life?
Certain gut bacteria can “retoxify” carcinogens that your liver successfully detoxified, but these bacteria can be rapidly suppressed by simple dietary changes.
There appear to be no consistent differences in the level of vitamins and minerals in organic versus conventionally grown produce, but organic fruits and vegetables have more phenolic phytonutrients.
Insufficient intake of fiber-rich foods may lead to the stiffening of our arteries associated with risk of having a stroke.
Employee wellness programs may help boost the corporate bottom line.
Diets centered around whole plant foods may help prevent Crohn’s disease through the benefits of fiber on the maintenance of intestinal barrier function and the avoidance of certain processed food additives such as polysorbate 80.
Adding myrosinase enzymes in the form of even a pinch of mustard powder to cooked cruciferous (cabbage-family) vegetables like kale, collards or Brussels sprouts can offer anti-cancer sulforaphane levels comparable to raw, removing the necessity to pre-chop for maximum health benefits.
Which foods are best at removing carcinogenic bile acids from the body: asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, eggplant, green beans, kale, mustard greens, okra, or peppers? And do they work better raw or cooked?
Suppressing the engine-of-aging enzyme TOR (Target of Rapamycin) by reducing intake of leucine–rich animal products, such as milk, may reduce cancer risk.
Within hours the blood of those fed walnuts is able to suppress the growth of breast cancer cells in a petri dish. Which nut might work best, though—almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, or walnuts?
Broccoli sprouts are compared to “Broccomax” supplements.
Researchers find exercise often works just as well as drugs for the treatment of heart disease and stroke, and the prevention of diabetes. Exercise is medicine.
Barriers to patent natural commodities, such as the spice turmeric, keeps prices low—but if no one profits, where is the research funding going to come from?
Cholesterol appears to stimulate the growth of human breast cancer cells—which may explain why phytosterol-rich foods, such as pumpkin seeds, are associated with reduced breast cancer risk.
Whole fruits and vegetables were compared to both antioxidant pills, as well as supplements containing fruits and vegetable extracts, for their ability to treat seasonal allergies, improve lung function, and control asthma.
Different brands of liquid smoke flavorings have been tested for DNA-damaging potential, p53 activation, and levels of known carcinogens. Smoked foods such as ham, turkey, barbequed chicken, herring, and salmon were also tested.
Phytonutrients in certain plant foods may block the toxic effects of industrial pollutants, like dioxins, through the Ah receptor system.
There is a receptor in our intestines activated by phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables that boosts immune function (the aryl hydrocarbon [Ah] receptor).
Simple changes in diet and lifestyle may quadruple a woman’s survival rate from breast cancer.
Reducing the ratio of animal to plant protein in men’s diets may slow the progression of prostate cancer.
Tips like cutting vegetables into shapes, covertly puréeing greens into sauces, and modeling healthy behaviors can improve our children’s diets.
Interventions to improve child nutrition at school have included everything from reducing cookie size, adding fruit to classroom cupcake celebrations, and giving vegetables attractive names, to more comprehensive strategies such as “veggiecation” curricula, and transforming school cafeterias.
Those eating a more plant-based diet may naturally have an enhanced antioxidant defense system to counter the DNA damage caused by free radicals produced by high-intensity exercise.
Cancer cells are commonly present in the body, but cannot grow into tumors without hooking up a blood supply. Angiogenesis inhibitors in plant foods may help prevent this from happening.
Based on studies of atomic bomb survivors, Chernobyl victims, and airline pilots exposed to more cosmic rays at high altitudes, it appears that fruits and vegetables may decrease radiation-induced chromosome damage.
The boost in detoxifying enzymes triggered by cruciferous vegetable consumption may last for weeks!
Which was associated with lowest breast cancer risk in African-American women? Apples, bananas, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, collard greens, grapefruit, oranges, spinach, tomatoes, or sweet potatoes?
What dietary intervention may significantly protect against wrinkles in the crow’s foot area around the eyes?
Iron is a double-edged sword. If we don’t absorb enough, we risk anemia; but if absorb too much, we may increase our risk of cancer, heart disease, and a number of inflammatory conditions. Because the human body has no mechanism to rid itself of excess iron, one should choose plant-based (non-heme) sources, over which our body has some control.
Measuring the effects of a plant-based diet on the expression of hundreds of different genes at a time, a research group found that an antioxidant-rich portfolio of plant foods such as berries, pomegranates, purple grapes, red cabbage, oregano, and walnuts was able to significantly modify the regulation of genes in the blood of volunteers.
The effect of raw and cooked broccoli consumption on survival rates of bladder cancer patients.
A case report of a woman after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery trying to eat right.
Growing your own broccoli sprouts is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve your diet.