In this “best-of” compilation of his last four year-in-review presentations, Dr. Greger explains what we can do about the #1 cause of death and disability: our diet.
Inadequate consumption of prebiotics—the fiber and resistant starch concentrated in unprocessed plant foods—can cause a disease-promoting imbalance in our gut microbiome.
Our physiology evolved for millions of years eating a plant-based diet. What would happen if researchers tried to recreate our ancestral diet in the lab?
Avoid sugary and cholesterol-laden foods to reduce the risk of our most common cause of chronic liver disease.
What was the meat industry’s response to the recommendation by leading cancer charities to stop eating processed meats, such as bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and lunchmeat?
Dietary diversity is important because each plant family has a unique combination of phytonutrients that may bind to specific proteins within our body.
Even when study subjects were required to eat so much that they didn’t lose any weight, a plant-based diet could still reverse type 2 diabetes in a matter of weeks.
If the uric acid crystals that trigger gout come from the breakdown of purines, should gout patients avoid even healthy, purine-rich foods, such as beans, mushrooms, and cauliflower?
Ancient dietary practices based on analyzing the fiber content of fossilized human waste can give us insights for combating the modern obesity epidemic.
What can we eat to combat “inflamm-aging,” the chronic low-grade inflammation that accompanies the aging process?
Dietary Acid Load is determined by the balance of acid-inducing food, such as meats, eggs, and cheeses, offset by base-inducing (“alkaline”) foods, such as fruits and vegetables.
The concept that heart disease was rare among the Eskimos appears to be a myth.
Rather than reformulate their products with less sodium and save lives, food manufacturers have lobbied governments, refused to cooperate, encouraged misinformation campaigns, and tried to discredit the evidence.
The extraordinarily low rates of chronic disease among plant-based populations have been attributed to fiber, but reductionist thinking may lead us astray.
What happens to our gut flora microbiome when we’re on plant-based versus animal-based diets?
Diet and lifestyle improvements started even late in life can offer dramatic benefits.
Why does our immune system confuse unhealthy diets with dysbiosis—an overrun of bad bacteria in our colon?
Anti-inflammatory drugs abolish the hyperfiltration and protein leakage response to meat ingestion, suggesting that animal protein causes kidney stress through an inflammatory mechanism.
Why is there a reticence to provide the public with guidelines that will spare them from preventable disease and premature death?
Health authorities appear to have taken the patronizing view that the public can’t handle the truth and would rather the science be watered down.
The consumption of animal fat appears to increase the growth of gut bacteria that turn our bile acids into carcinogens.
Certain gut bacteria can “retoxify” carcinogens that your liver successfully detoxified, but these bacteria can be rapidly suppressed by simple dietary changes.
Dr. Greger has scoured the world’s scholarly literature on clinical nutrition and developed this new presentation based on the latest in cutting edge research exploring the role diet may play in preventing, arresting, and even reversing some of our most feared causes of death and disability.
Squatting and leaning can help straighten the anorectal angle, but a healthy enough diet should make bowel movements effortless regardless of positioning.
Most people have between 3 bowel movements a day and 3 a week, but normal doesn’t necessarily mean optimal.
Straining at stool over time may force part of the stomach up into the chest, contributing to GERD acid reflux disease. This may explain why hiatal hernia is extremely rare among populations eating high-fiber diets.
Even though modern African diets may now be as miserably low in fiber as American diets, Africans still appear to have 50 times less colorectal cancer than Americans (our second leading cancer killer).
Decreasing animal protein and sodium intake appears more effective in treating calcium oxalate and uric acid kidney stones (nephrolithiasis) than restricting calcium or oxalates.
Less than 3% of Americans meet the daily recommended fiber intake, despite research suggesting high-fiber foods such as whole grains can affect the progression of coronary heart disease.
Sulfur dioxide preservatives in dried fruit, sulfites in wine, and the putrefaction of undigested animal protein in the colon can release hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg gas associated with inflammatory bowel disease.
High blood pressure, the #1 killer risk factor in the world, may be eliminated with a healthy enough diet.
Crystallization of cholesterol may be what causes atherosclerotic plaque rupture, the trigger for heart attacks
Death row nutrition offers some insight into the standard American diet.
What was it about the diet on the Greek isle of Crete in the 1950s that made it so healthy?
Fermentation of fiber in the gut may help explain the dramatic differences in colorectal cancer incidence around the world.
If foods like berries and dark green leafy vegetables have been found protective against cognitive decline, why aren’t they recognized as such in many guidelines?
Since many tumors take decades to grow it’s remarkable that cancer risk can so dramatically be reduced– even late in life.
Atherosclerotic plaque clogging the arteries feeding our spine may lead to low back pain, disc degeneration, and sciatic nerve irritation.
Carcinogens in grilled and baked chicken may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, while curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric, may sometimes help even in advanced stages of the disease.
How do the blood-pressure lowering effects of hibiscus tea compare to the DASH diet, a plant-based diet, and a long-distance endurance exercise?
