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

by Michael Greger

beans, it is. You should try to get three servings a day. A serving is defined as a quarter cup of hummus or bean dip; a half cup of cooked beans, split peas, lentils, tofu, or tempeh; or a full cup of fresh peas or sprouted lentils.

A serving of berries is a half cup of fresh or frozen, or a quarter cup of dried.

avocados, bananas, and even watermelons are technically berries, I’m using the colloquial term for any small edible fruit, which is why I

include kumquats and grapes (and raisins) in this category, as well as fruits that are typically thought of as berries but aren’t technically, such as blackberries, cherr...

For other fruits, a serving is a medium-sized fruit, a cup of cut-up fruit, or a qu...

Common cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, collards, and kale. I recommend at least one serving a day (typically a half cup) and at least two additional servings of greens a day, cruciferous or otherwise.

Serving sizes for other greens and vegetables are a cup for raw leafy vegetables, a half cup for other raw or cooked vegetables, and a quarter cup for dried mushrooms.

Everyone should try to incorporate one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds into his or her daily diet, in addition to ...

A quarter cup of nuts is considered a serving, or two tablespoons of nut or seed butters, including peanut butter. (Chestnuts and coconu...

I also recommend one-quarter teaspoon a day of the spice turmeric, along with any ot...

spices you may enjoy. A serving of whole grains can be considered a half cup of hot cereal such as oatmeal, cooked grain such as rice (including the “pseudograins” amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa), cooked pasta, or corn kernels; a cup of ready-to-eat (cold) cereal; one tortilla or slice of bread; half a bagel or english muffin; or three cups of popped popcorn. The serving size in the beverage category is one glass (twelve ounces), ...

one daily “serving” of exercise, which can be split up over the day. I recommend ninety minutes of moderate-intensity activity, such as brisk (four miles per hour) walking or forty minutes of vigorous...

peanut butter and banana sandwich

Two cups of spinach, a handful of arugula, a handful of toasted walnuts, a half cup of chickpeas, a half cup of red bell pepper, and a small tomato. You just knocked out seven boxes in one dish.

Sprinkle on your flax, add a handful of goji berries, and enjoy it with a glass of water and fruit for dessert, and you could wipe out nearly half...

How can I make this meal even healthier?

Instead of a big bowl of spaghetti with some veggies and lentils on top, I think of a big bowl of vegetables with some pasta and lentils mixed in. Instead of a big plate of brown rice with some stir-fried vegetables on top, I picture a meal that’s mostly veggies—and oh look! There’s some rice and beans in there too.

If you eat poorly on one day, just try to eat better the next.

try to eat a variety of the healthiest foods every day.

Legumes were given special treatment, straddling both the protein and the vegetable groups. They’re loaded with protein, iron, and zinc, as you might expect from other protein sources like meat, but legumes also contain nutrients that are concentrated in the vegetable kingdom, including fiber, folate, and potassium.

naturally low in saturated fat and sodium and free of cholesterol.

One of their summary cancer-prevention recommendations is to eat whole grains and/or legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas, or lentils)

with every meal.

baked beans on toast, mushrooms, and grilled tomatoes.

miso soup,

whole-grain bagel schmeared with hummus.

mashes cannellini beans into his oatmeal and swears you can’t even see or taste them.

beans are so healthy that you can throw away half the nutrition and still have a really healthy food. If you do eat tofu, choose varieties made with calcium

Even better than tofu, though, would be a whole soy food like tempeh, which is a type of fermented soybean patty.

when it comes to GMOs, a good gauge of a statement’s fallacy may be “the conviction with which it is delivered.”

there is no direct human data suggesting any harm from eating GMO crops, though such studies haven’t been done (which critics say is exactly the point).16

“Our results on miso-soup have shown that [the] anti-hypertensive effect of miso is possibly above [the] hypertensive effect of salt.”33 So miso soup may actually be protective overall.

lens is lentil in Latin.)

the “lentil effect,” or the ability of lentil consumption to blunt the sugar spike of foods consumed hours later at a subsequent meal.34 Lentils are so rich in prebiotics that they create a feast for your friendly flora,

which in turn feed you right back with beneficial compounds, such as propionate, that relax your stomach and slow the rate at which sugars are absorbed into your system.35 Chickpeas and other legumes were found to have a similar influence, and...

roasted chickpeas. Google it. My favorite, not surprisingly, is the buffalo ranch flavor (from the Kid Tested Firefighter Approved blog

lentils, lima beans, navy beans, and pinto beans, drop bad cholesterol levels41 as effectively as soy protein.42 One study, for example, found that eating a half a cup a day of cooked pinto beans for two months may drop your cholesterol

the one Dr. Joel Fuhrman shared on The Dr. Oz Show, which uses almond butter as the green-light source of fat and dates as the green-light source of sugar.44

(Black beans appear to have more phenolic phytonutrients than other common legumes,

legume intake was consistently associated with a longer life span.

cloves, cinnamon, and garlic seem to be the most gas reducing, followed by turmeric (but only if uncooked),

pepper, and ginger.

Legume consumption is associated with a slimmer waist and lower blood pressure,

it can match or beat out calorie cutting for slimming tummy fat as well as improving the regulation of blood sugar, insulin levels, and cholesterol.

B...

are packed with fiber, folate, and phytates, which may help reduce the risk of stroke, de...

The phytoestrogens in soy in particular appear to both help prevent breast cancer and impr...

Açai berries, barberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries (sweet or tart), concord grapes, cranberries, goji berries, kumquats, mulberries, raspberries (black or

red), and strawberries Serving Sizes: ½ cup fresh or frozen ¼ cup dried

1 serving per day