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

by Michael Greger

There is so much more left over for your gut flora to eat when you eat your grains intact.

the bulk of stool is not undigested food but pure bacteria—trillions and trillions of bacteria.56

avenanthramides.

They’re thought to be responsible in part for the fresh odor and flavor of oats60 as well as the ability of oatmeal lotion to relieve skin itching and irritation.61 Studies on human skin fragments from plastic surgery that were subjected to inflammatory chemicals reveal that oatmeal extract

can suppress infl...

5 servings per day

not drinking enough water may be associated with a variety of problems, including falls and fractures, heat stroke, heart disease, lung disorders, kidney disease, kidney stones,

bladder and colon cancer, urinary tract infections, constipation, dry-eye disease, cavities, decreased immune function, and cataract formation.7

low water intake is also associated with several unhealthy behaviors, including low fruit and vegetable intake, more fast-food consumption, and ...

who drinks lots of water? People who exercise a lot.

the risk of bladder cancer decreased by 7 percent for every extra daily cup of fluid consumed. A high intake of water—say, eight cups a day—may reduce the risk of bladder cancer by about 50 percent, potentially saving thousands of lives.10 Probably the best evidence we have for a specific recommendation for how much water you should

be

dri...

comes from the Adventist Health Study. Twenty thousand men and women were studied. Those who drank five or more glasses of water a day had about half the risk of dying from heart disease compared to those who drank two glasses or less daily. About half of the cohort consisted of vegetarians, so they were also getting extra water by eating more fruits and vegetables. As in the Harvard study, this protection remained even afte...

by lowering blood “viscosity” (that is, by improv...

eight to eleven cups of water a day for women and ten to fifteen cups a day for men.13 These recommendations include water from all sources, though, not solely beverages.

You get about four cups from the food you eat and the water your body actually produces on its own,14 so these guidelines roughly translate into a daily recommendation for drinking four to seven cups of water for women and six to eleven

cups for men (assuming only moderate physical activity at moderate a...

Coffee,16 tea,17 and beer can leave you with more water than you started with, but wine actively dehydrates you.

Your brain is 75 percent water.20 When you become dehydrated, your brain actually shrinks.

“even children in a state of mild dehydration, not induced by intentional water deprivation or by heat stress and living in a cold climate, can benefit from drinking

more water and improve their cognitive performance.”23

Your hydration status may also affect your mood. Restriction of fluid intake has been shown to increase sleepiness and fatigue, lower levels of vigor and ale...

cold water gets sucked in about 20 percent faster than body-temperature water.26

Empty your bladder, chug three cups of water, and then see how much you pee an hour later.

if you drink three cups and urinate less than one cup within that hour, there’s a good chance you were dehydrated.

carbonated water may improve symptoms of constipation and dyspepsia, including bloating and nausea.

drinking lots of coffee is associated with a longer life, but the effect is relatively modest. People who drank six or more cups per day had a 10–15 percent lower mortality rate due

to fewer deaths from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections.29

However, when...

l...

at people under the age of fifty-five, the opposite effect was found: Drinking more than six cups of coffee daily was found to increase the risk of death. “Hence,” the researchers concluded, “it may be appropriate to recommend that younger people, in particular, avoid heavy coffee consu...

be careful if you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). While a population study found no link between coffee consumption and subjective symptoms of GERD, such as heartburn and regurgitation,

scientists who actually stuck tubes down people’s throats to measure their pH found that coffee does seem to induce significant acid reflux, whereas tea does not.

Caffeine does not appear to be the culprit, since caffeinated water doesn’t cause a problem. However, the coffee decaffeination process seems to reduce the level of whichever compounds are responsible, since decaf coffee appeared to cause less reflux. The researchers advised

that people who suffer from GERD should consider switching to decaf or—even bet...

Daily coffee consumption is also associated with a slightly increased risk of bone fractures among women, but, interestingly, a ...

How...

no association was found between coffee and hip fracture risk. Conversely, tea may reduce hip fracture risk36 but appears to have no significant effect on fracture risk in general.37 This is an important distinction, because hip ...

other types of bone fr...

People with glaucoma,39 or perhaps even with merely a family history of glaucoma,40 may also want to stay away from caffeinated coffee. Coffee intake is associated with urinary incontinence in ...

individuals with epilepsy having fewer seizures after laying off coffee, so avoiding it is certainly worth a try for...

people who have trouble sleeping might not want to drink too much coffee. Just a single cup at night can cause a signific...

it was discovered that the cholesterol-raising compound thought to be responsible was fat soluble. The culprit compound, cafestol, is found in the oils of coffee beans that become trapped in the paper filter, so drip coffee doesn’t raise cholesterol as much

as french press, boiled, or Turkish (“mud”-style) coffee. Neither the degree of roasting nor decaffeination appears to make a difference, though Robusta beans have less cafestol than Arabica beans. If you don’t have optimal cholesterol levels, you should consider sticking to filtered coffee or using instant coffee, which also lacks these compounds.

caffeine intake does not appear to increase the risk of atrial fibrillation after all.49 Moreover, “low-dose” caffeine, which was defined as drinking fewer than about six cups of coffee a day, may even have a protective effect on heart rhythm.50 Moderate caffeine consumption

in healthy, nonpregnant adults is not only safe but has been found to increase energy and alertness and enhance physical, motor, and cognitive performance.

drinking a dozen highly caffeinated energy drinks within a few hours could cause a lethal caffeine overdose.53 That said, drinking a few cups of coffee a day may actually

extend your life a bit54 and even has the potential to slightly lower your overall cancer risk.55

every cup of coffee is a lost opportunity to drink a potentially even healthier beverage—a cup of green tea.