How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

by Michael Greger

Microgreens are the perfect plants for the impatient gardener—fully grown in just one to two weeks.

Although greens are the healthiest of foods, there’s one green I caution against eating: alfalfa sprouts.

Variety is not only the spice of life; it may prolong it as well.

The researchers found that “a higher intake of green and yellow vegetables was associated with decreased facial wrinkling.”

Purple sweet potatoes may offer the best of both worlds.

After all, they’re not always going to be eating at home. One of the most important predictors of children’s fruit and vegetable consumption has been found to be parents’ consumption,56 so if you want your kids to eat healthfully, it helps to be a healthy role model.

Six vegetables (orange bell pepper, english cucumber, radicchio, jalapeño, potato, and beetroot) nearly halved cancer growth, but five veggies (cauliflower, brussels sprouts, green onion, leek, and garlic) “abolished” cancer growth completely, stopping breast tumor cells dead in their tracks.59

Which two did you choose? If one of your choices was brussels sprouts, cabbage, curly cabbage, or kale, and the other choice was garlic, green onions, or leek, you get a gold star! Of all the vegetables tested, those had the most cancer-preventing potential. Notice anything they have in common? All the top choices belong to one of only two superfood families: cruciferous vegetables and the allium veggie family, which includes garlic and onions. As

It’s not what you eat but what you absorb, and cooked tomatoes appear able to better boost your lycopene levels.

the six cooking methods studied, griddling and microwaving were actually the gentlest.

Which do you think was the most vulnerable vegetable—that is, the one probably best eaten raw? If you guessed bell peppers, you’re right.

One effective method is to use a 5 percent acetic-acid bath—in other words, plain white vinegar, which has been found to remove the bulk of certain pesticide residues.84 But 5 percent is full strength, and it would get expensive buying gallons of white vinegar just to wash your fruits and veggies.

diluted white-vinegar bath only seems marginally more effective than tap water.85 Thankfully, there is a solution that is both cheap and effective: salt water. A 10 percent saltwater rinse has been found to work as well as full-strength vinegar.86 To make your own pesticide-reducing bath, add one part salt to nine parts water. Just make sure to rinse off all the salt before eating.

From a purely nutrients-per-dollar standpoint, it’s not clear that organic foods are any better.91 But people don’t just buy organic foods because they’re healthier—what about safety?

own family buys organic whenever we can, but we never let concern about pesticides stop us from stuffing our faces with as many fruits and vegetables as possible.

All you need is a half cup of an unsweetened milk, one tablespoon of chia seeds, one tablespoon of cocoa, one teaspoon of almond butter, and sweetener to taste. (I use one tablespoon of erythritol, discussed here

Which nut is healthiest? Normally, my answer is whichever you’re most willing and able to eat regularly, but walnuts really do seem to take the lead. They have among the highest antioxidant3 and omega-34 levels, and they beat out other nuts in vitro in suppressing cancer cell growth.5 But how do walnuts fare outside the laboratory in real life?

For example, in major study6 after study7 after study,8 people who eat nuts tend to live longer and suffer fewer deaths from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease. There was a lingering question, though: Did these findings show causation or merely correlation? It could be possible, after all, that nut eaters also tend to have other healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Regardless of which group participants were assigned to, those eating more nuts each day had a significantly lower risk of dying prematurely overall.12 Those who consumed more red- and yellow-light sources of fat—olive oil or extra virgin olive oil—failed to have any survival benefit.

Of all the nuts studied in PREDIMED, the researchers found the greatest benefits associated with walnuts, particularly for preventing cancer deaths.15

In the latest trial for ulcerative colitis, a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study found that more than 50 percent of patients achieved remission within just one month on curcumin compared to none of the patients who received the placebo.

There’s evidence to suggest that the cooked and raw forms may have different properties. Cooked turmeric appears to offer better DNA protection, while raw turmeric may have greater anti-inflammatory effects.

You can whip up a pumpkin pie smoothie in less than three minutes. Simply blend a can of pumpkin purée, a handful of frozen cranberries and pitted dates, pumpkin pie spice to taste, a quarter-inch turmeric slice (or quarter-teaspoon of powder),

All you need to do is blend one can of pumpkin purée with about ten ounces of silken tofu (the Mori-Nu brand is convenient because it stays fresh without refrigeration), as much pumpkin pie spice as you like, and one to two dozen pitted dates (depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have).

What about red pepper powder for the pain of chronic indigestion (dyspepsia)? Within a month of taking about one and a half teaspoons’ worth of cayenne pepper a day, stomach pain and nausea improved.

Sticking to one-eighth of a teaspoon is not only up to three thousand times cheaper than taking the drug, you’re probably less likely to end up as a case report yourself, like the people who have had a heart attack after taking sumatriptan for a migraine,61 or have died.62 Migraines

How about menstrual cramps, which plague up to 90 percent of younger women?64 Can ginger help? Even just one-eighth of a teaspoon of ginger powder three times a day dropped pain from an eight to a six on a scale of one to ten, and down further to a three in the second month.

Researchers pitted one-eighth of a teaspoon of powdered ginger head-to-head against 400 mg of ibuprofen, and the ginger worked just as effectively as this leading drug.

Try making my lemon-ginger apple chews: In a blender, liquefy one peeled lemon with a palm-sized “hand” of fresh gingerroot. Use the mixture to coat thin slices of four apples, and then place them in a dehydrator until they reach desired chewiness. I like them a little moist, but you can dehydrate them further to make lemon-ginger apple chips, which store longer than the chews. For me, a few pieces eaten about twenty minutes before travel works wonders. Note:

The most antioxidant-packed common herb is peppermint.

Oregano is such an antioxidant-rich herb that researchers decided to test if it could reduce the DNA-damaging effects of radiation.

The most antioxidant-packed common spice is the clove.81 It has an exceptionally strong flavor, so try adding just a teensy pinch to anything you’d normally put cinnamon or ginger on.

When you’re stuck in traffic breathing diesel fumes, deprived of sleep, or suffering from a cold, for example, your body starts using up some of its antioxidant stores. What may only take two hours to lose can take up to three days to build back up.85

Notice that even though I packed the blender with amazing foods like blueberries and tea leaves, fully half the antioxidant power came from that single, four-cent teaspoon of powdered gooseberries.

Unsurprisingly, the people in the spice group experienced a doubling of the antioxidant power in their bloodstreams compared to participants in the spice-free group. Remarkably, though, the spice group ended up with 30 percent less fat (triglycerides) in their blood after the meal and improved insulin sensitivity.

offering the best of both worlds. Some of my favorite spice mixes are pumpkin pie spice, curry powder, chili powder, Chinese five-spice powder, a savory Indian spice blend called garam masala, an Ethiopian blend called berbere, Italian seasoning, poultry seasoning, and a Middle Eastern blend called za’atar.

cases of poppy seed overdose aren’t limited to children. There’s another case in the literature of an adult who felt “dim feelings in the head” after eating spaghetti with a half cup of poppy seeds on top.97 So what’s the upper limit of poppy seed consumption that’s probably safe? Based on median morphine levels,98 about one teaspoon for every ten pounds of body weight.

Too much nutmeg can also be a problem. A paper entitled “Christmas Gingerbread … and Christmas Cheer:

toxic dose of nutmeg is two to three teaspoons. I had assumed no one would ever come close to that amount unintentionally until I saw a report in which a married couple ate some pasta,

but don’t forget the quarter teaspoon of daily turmeric.

Celiac disease is relatively rare, though, affecting less than 1 percent of the population.

So the researchers concluded that non-celiac gluten intolerance may indeed exist.28

A month on a gluten-free diet was found to adversely affect gut flora and immune function, potentially setting up those on gluten-free diets for an overgrowth of harmful bacteria in their intestines.40 This is due, ironically, to the beneficial effects of the very components wheat-sensitive individuals have problems with—such as the “FODMAP” fructans that act as prebiotics and feed your good bacteria, or the gluten itself, which may boost immune function.41

People Who Avoid Wheat and/or Gluten—they’ve found that about one-third of them didn’t appear to have gluten sensitivity but instead had other conditions like an overgrowth of bacteria in their small intestines, were fructose or lactose intolerant, or had a neuromuscular disorder like gastroparesis or pelvic floor dysfunction.

with vegetables, use color to make decisions at the grocery store. If you have a choice, pick red quinoa over white quinoa, blue corn over yellow, and yellow corn over white.

Mark Pesto 2 cups fresh basil leaves ¼ cup freshly toasted walnuts 2 cloves fresh garlic ¼ of a peeled lemon ¼ teaspoon lemon zest ¼ inch of fresh turmeric root (or ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder) ¼ cup pinto beans ¼ cup water or liquid from bean can 1 tablespoon white miso Pepper to taste

I like the combination of chlorella and nutritional yeast.

By lightly misting air-popped popcorn with a spray bottle, you can get dry seasonings to stick. I like to spritz with balsamic vinegar.

suggest using the Five-to-One Rule. When buying healthier, whole-grain products, look at the Nutrition Facts label on the package and see if the ratio of grams of carbohydrates to grams of dietary fiber is five or less (see figure 7). For example, let’s see if 100 percent whole-wheat Wonder Bread passes the test: Per serving, the package lists 30 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber. Thirty divided by 3 is 10. Well, 10 is more than 5, so the 100 percent

The other group ate the same exact foods, but ground into flours and pastes. The first group ate nuts instead of nut butters, whole chickpeas instead of hummus, and muesli instead of muesli ground into a cream-of-wheat texture. Note that both groups were eating whole foods, just in different forms. What happened? The intact-whole-grain diet group doubled their stool size, which was significantly greater than that of the ground-whole-grain group, even though they were eating the same foods in the same quantities.55 How is that possible? There is so much more left over for your gut flora to eat when you eat your grains intact. Few people realize that the bulk of stool is not undigested food but pure bacteria—trillions and trillions of bacteria.56 That may be why you get an increase of nearly two ounces of stool for every one ounce of fiber you eat.