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  • [First, Dr. McDougall's introduction of Dr. Greger. Captions of Dr. Greger's talk start shortly.]

  • All right, welcome back.

  • We have what I consider the McDougall team, which is a group of associates,

  • actually friends that I've had for 20, 30 years.

  • And our next presenter

  • is one of those men who's worked with us, worked in conjunction

  • with the things that we've done, supported each other, had similar crowds.

  • And one thing really distinct about our next presenter is his ability to communicate.

  • I understand—I was just shocked that he's given over a thousand lectures,

  • and sometimes he's given four lectures a dayamazing, what a dedicated person.

  • So he also finally came out with his first book.

  • It's "How Not to Die"— what a title

  • and it has put him on the New York Times Best Selling list for the last seven weeks.

  • So because of our long-time friendship and my great respect for him,

  • he's been a speaker for at least one presentation every year

  • for who knows how far back it goes,

  • and I know you're going to enjoy Dr. Michael Greger.

  • "How Not To Die:

  • The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, and Reversing Our Top 15 Killers"

  • I have taken so many great ideas from Dr. John McDougall

  • that it's only fair that he take my beard.

  • Allow me to begin on a personal note.

  • This is a picture of me,

  • right around the time that my grandma was diagnosed with end-stage heart disease

  • and sent home to die.

  • She had already had so many bypass operations

  • basically run out of plumbing at some point

  • confined to a wheelchair, crushing chest pain.

  • Nothing more they could do.

  • Her life was over at age 65.

  • But then she heard about this guy, Nathan Pritikin,

  • one of our early lifestyle medicine pioneers.

  • And what happened next is chronicled in Pritikin's biography.

  • My grandma was one of the "death's door" people.

  • Frances Greger arrived in one of Pritikin's early sessions

  • in a wheelchair.

  • "Mrs. Greger had heart disease, angina, claudication;

  • her condition was so bad she could no longer walk

  • without great pain in her chest and legs.

  • Within three weeks though, she was not only out of her wheelchair

  • but was walking ten miles a day."

  • This is my grandma at her grandson's wedding

  • 15 years after she was given her medical death sentence,

  • and thanks to a healthy diet, she was able to live another 31 years

  • on this earth until 96, to enjoy her six grandkids, including me.

  • That is why I went into medicine.

  • When Dr. Ornish published his Lifestyle Heart trial years later,

  • proving with quantitative angiography

  • that coronary heart disease could be reversed

  • arteries opened up without drugs, without surgery, just a plant-based diet

  • and other healthy lifestyle changes, I assumed it was going to be the game changer.

  • I mean, my family had seen it with their own eyes,

  • but here it was in black and white,

  • in some of the most prestigious medical journals on the planet.

  • But nothing happened, leaving me to wonder if effectively

  • the cure to our number 1 killer could get lost down some rabbit hole and ignored,

  • what else was there in the medical literature that could help my patients?

  • I've made it my life's mission to find out.

  • For those of you unfamiliar with my work, every year I read through every issue

  • of every English-language nutrition journal in the world,

  • so busy folks like you don't have to.

  • I then compile all the most interesting, the most groundbreaking,

  • the most practical findings,

  • new videos and articles I upload every day to my nonprofit site, NutritionFacts.org.

  • Everything on the website is free.

  • There are no ads, no corporate sponsorships.

  • It's strictly noncommercial, not selling anything.

  • Just put it up as a public service, as a labor of love.

  • New videos and articles every day on the latest in evidence-based nutrition.

  • What a concept!

  • Where did Pritikin get his evidence from?

  • Well, a network of missionary hospitals set up throughout Sub-Saharan Africa

  • uncovered what may be the most important advance in health, according to

  • one of the most famous medical figures of the 20th century, Dr. Denis Burkitt.

  • The fact that many of our most common and major Western diseases

  • were universally rare, like heart disease.

  • "In the African population of Uganda,

  • coronary heart disease is almost non-existent."

  • Wait a second.

  • Our number 1 cause of death almost nonexistent?

  • What were they eating?

  • They were eating a lot of starchy vegetables, starchy grains, and greens,

  • and their protein almost exclusively from plant sources,

  • and they had the cholesterol levels to prove it.

  • Actually very similar to what You see down here in the corner

  • of those eating modern-day plant-based diets.

  • I said, wait a second.

  • Maybe the Africans were just dying early from some other kind of disease,

  • never lived long enough to get heart disease.

  • No.

  • Here's age-matched heart attack rates in Uganda versus St. Louis.

  • Out of 632 autopsies in Uganda, only one myocardial infarction.

  • Out of 632 age and gender matched autopsies in Missouri, 136 myocardial infarctions:

  • more than 100 times the rate of our #1 killer.

  • They were so blown away they went back, did another 800 autopsies in Uganda,

  • and still just that one small healed infarct, meaning it wasn't even the cause of death,

  • out of 1,427 patientsless than 1 in a thousand

  • whereas here heart disease is an epidemic.

  • This is a list of diseases commonly found here in places

  • that eat and live like the US,

  • but were rare or even nonexistent in populations

  • centering their diets around whole plant foods.

  • These are among our most common diseases, like obesity, for example,

  • or hiatal hernia: one of the most common stomach problems.

  • Varicose veins and hemorrhoids, two of the most common venous problems,

  • colorectal cancer, a leading cause of cancer-related death,

  • diverticulitis, the #1 disease of the intestine,

  • appendicitis, the #1 cause of emergency abdominal surgery,

  • gallbladder disease, the #1 cause for non-emergency abdominal surgery,

  • as well as ischemic heart disease, our commonest cause of death here,

  • but a rarity among plant-based populations.

  • And so this suggests that heart disease may be a choice, like cavities.

  • If you look at the teeth of people who lived over 10,000 years before

  • the invention of the toothbrush, pretty much no cavities.

  • Didn't brush a day in their lives, no flossing, yet no cavities.

  • Why?

  • Because candy bars hadn't been invented yet.

  • So why do people continue to get cavities

  • when we know they're preventable through diet?

  • Easy.

  • Probably because, you know, the pleasure of dessert

  • basically outweighs the cost and discomfort of the dentist chair for many people.

  • Look, that's fine.

  • As long as people understand the consequences

  • of their actions, as a physician what more can I do?

  • If you think the benefits outweigh the risks for you and your family, then go for it.

  • I certainly enjoy the occasional indulgence.

  • I've got a good dental plan.

  • But what if instead of the plaque in our teeth,

  • we're talking about the plaque building up inside of our arteries?

  • All right, this is another disease that can be prevented by changing our diet.

  • Now what are the consequences for you and your family?

  • Now we're not just talking about scraping tarter anymore.

  • Now we're talking life and death.

  • The most likely reason that most of our loved ones will die is because of heart disease.

  • So being at a McDougall event is the best Valentine's Day present ever.

  • It's still up to each of us to make our own decisions as to what to eat and how to live,

  • but we should make these choices consciously,

  • educating ourselves about the predictable consequences of our actions.

  • Coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries

  • begins in childhood.

  • By age 10, the arteries of nearly all kids raised on the standard American diet

  • already have fatty streaks, the first stage of the disease.

  • And then these plaques start forming in our 20s, in our 30s,

  • and then can start killing us off.

  • In our hearts, it's called a heart attack;

  • in our brains, the same disease is called a stroke.

  • If there is anyone here in the room today older than age 10,

  • then the question isn't whether or not to eat healthy to prevent heart disease;

  • it's whether you want to reverse the heart disease that you already have.

  • Is that even possible?

  • When researchers took people with heart disease, put them on the kind of diet

  • followed by populations that did not get heart disease,

  • their hope was to slow the disease down, maybe even stop it,

  • but instead something miraculous happened.

  • The disease started to reverse, to get better.

  • As soon as patients stopped eating an artery-clogging diet,

  • their arteries started opening up.

  • Their bodies were able to start dissolving some of that plaque away,

  • without drugs, without surgery.

  • Even some cases severe triple-vessel heart disease, arteries opening up,

  • suggesting that their bodies wanted to be healthy all along,

  • but were just never given the chance.

  • This improvement in blood flow on the left you see up here, if you can see,

  • this is after just three weeks of eating healthy.

  • Let me share with you what's been called the best kept secret in medicine.

  • The best kept secret in medicine is that sometimes, given the right conditions,

  • our body can heal itself.

  • If you whack your shin really hard on a coffee table,

  • it can get all red, hot, swollen, inflamed, right?

  • But will heal naturally if you just stand back

  • and let your body's magic take its place.

  • But what if you kept whacking your shin in the same place every day,

  • in fact, three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

  • It'd never heal.

  • You'd go to your doctor and you'd be like, "Oh, my shin hurts so bad."

  • They'd be like, "No problem,"

  • whip out their pad and write you a prescription for painkillers.

  • You're still whacking your shin three times a day,

  • "Oh, it's still really badbut feels so much better with those pain pills on board.

  • Oh, yeah."

  • Thank heavens for modern medicine.

  • It's like taking nitroglycerine for crushing chest pain:

  • tremendous relief, but you're not actually treating the underlying cause of the disease.

  • Our body wants to come back to health, if we let it.

  • But if we keep re-injuring it three times a day, it may never heal.

  • It's like smoking.

  • One of the most amazing things I learned in all of my medical training

  • was that within 15 years of stopping smoking,

  • your lung cancer risk approaches that of a lifelong nonsmoker.

  • Isn't that amazing?

  • Your lungs can clear out all that tar,

  • and eventually it's almost as if you never started smoking at all.

  • And every morning of our smoking life, that healing process started until wham,

  • our first cigarette of the day, reinjuring our lungs with every puff,

  • just like we can reinjure our arteries with every bite, when all we had to do,

  • the miracle cure, is to just stand back, get out of the way,

  • and let our bodies natural healing processes bring us back towards health.

  • Now sure, you could choose moderation, and hit yourself with a smaller hammer,

  • but why beat yourself up at all?

  • We've known about this for decades.

  • American Heart Journal, 1977: cases like Mr. F.W. here.

  • Such severe angina, couldn't even make it to the mailbox,

  • then started eating healthier, and a few months later: climbing mountains, no pain.

  • Now there are some fancy new anti-angina drugs on the market now,

  • costs thousands of dollars a year.

  • But at the highest dose, they can successfully prolong exercise duration

  • as long as 33 and a half seconds, ladies and gentlemen.

  • It does not look like those choosing the drug route

  • will be climbing mountains anytime soon.

  • See, plant-based diets aren't just safer and cheaper, but can work better.

  • Heart disease is our number 1 killer.

  • Killer number 2 is cancer.

  • What happens if you put cancer on a plant-based diet?

  • Dr. Dean Ornish and colleagues found that the progression of prostate cancer

  • could be reversed with a plant-based diet and other healthy lifestyle behaviors,

  • and no wonder.

  • If you drip the blood of those eating the standard American diet onto cancer cells

  • growing in a Petri dish, cancer growth is cut down about 9%.

  • But put people on a plant-based diet for a year, though, and their blood can do this.

  • The blood circulating throughout the bodies of those eating plant-based diets

  • has nearly 8 times the stopping power when it comes to cancer cell growth.

  • Now this was for prostate cancer, the leading cancer killer specific to men.

  • In women, it's breast cancer.

  • So they wanted to repeat this study using women and breast cancer cells instead.

  • But look, they didn't want to wait a whole year to get the results.

  • So they said, well, let's see what a plant-based diet can do in just two weeks,

  • against three lines of human breast cancer cells.

  • Here's the before: cancer cell growth powering away at 100%.

  • Here's after just two weeks, eating healthy.

  • Here's kind of a before picture: this is a photograph taken under a microscope.

  • What they did is they laid down a confluent layer,

  • like a carpet of human breast cancer cells,

  • and then they dripped the blood of women

  • eating the standard American diet onto those cells,

  • and as you can see, it kind of breaks up the cancer,

  • in these kind of cancer continents here.

  • So even women eating crappy diets aren't totally defenseless.

  • But then they take these same women, put them on a plant-based diet.

  • Two weeks later, so they act as their own controls.

  • Same women, two weeks later after a plant-based diet.

  • They laid down another layer of breast cancer, and then they dripped the blood

  • of the same women two weeks later, and their blood can do this.

  • Just a few individual cancer cells left, with their bodies cleaned up.

  • Before and after, just two weeks eating healthy.

  • Their blood became that much more hostile to cancer.

  • Slowing down the growth of cancer cells is nice; getting rid of it is even better.

  • This is what's called apoptosis, programmed cell death.

  • Their bodies were able to somehow kind of reprogram the cancer cells,

  • forcing them into early retirement.

  • This is what's called TUNEL imaging, measuring DNA fragmentation or cell death.

  • So dying cancer cells show up as little white spots.

  • So as you can see in that little corner there, there's a dying cancer cell.

  • Again, this is after you drip the blood of women

  • eating the standard American diet onto them.

  • Then you take these same women, two weeks later eating healthier,

  • drip their blood again on cancer and you see this.

  • It's like you're an entirely different person inside.

  • The same blood now coursing through these women's bodies

  • gained the power to significantly slow down and stop breast cancer growth,

  • within just two weeks of eating a plant-based diet.

  • What kind of blood do we want in our body?

  • What kind of immune system?

  • Do we want blood that just kind of rolls over when new cancer cells pop up,

  • or do we want blood circulating to every nook and cranny in our body

  • with the power to slow down and stop it?

  • Now, this dramatic strengthening of cancer defenses was after 14 days

  • of a plant-based diet and exercise.

  • They had these women out walking 30 to 60 minutes a day.

  • So, well, wait a second.

  • If you do two things, I mean, how do you know what role the diet played?

  • So the researchers decided to put it to the test.

  • So this is measuring cancer cell clearance.

  • This is what we saw before, the effect of blood taken

  • from those eating a plant-based diet, in this case for an average 14 years

  • along with mild exercise, like just out walking every day.

  • Plant-based diet and walking, that's the kind of cancer cell clearance you get.

  • Compare that to the cancer stopping power of your average sedentary meat-eater

  • you see a little burger in there;

  • I don't know if you can see thatwhich is basically nonexistent.

  • Now but this middle group is interesting.

  • Instead of 14 years on a plant-based diet, 14 years of a standard American diet,

  • but 14 years of daily, strenuous, hour-long exercise, like calisthenics.

  • They wanted to know if you exercise long enough, if you exercise hard enough,

  • can you rival some strolling plant-eaters over here?

  • And the answer is exercise helped, no question,

  • but literally 5,000 hours in the gym was no match for a plant-based diet.

  • Same thing as we saw before, even if you are a couch potato eating fried potatoes,

  • you're not totally defenseless.

  • You can kill off a few cancer cells.

  • If you exercise for 5,000 hours, you can knock off cancer cells left and right.

  • But nothing appears to kick more cancer tush than a plant-based diet.

  • We think it's because of the animal proteinsmeat, egg white,

  • and dairy proteinsincreasing the level of IGF-1 in our bodies;

  • insulin-like growth factor-1, a cancer-promoting growth hormone

  • involved in the acquisition and progression of malignant tumors.

  • But if we lower animal protein intake,

  • if you put people on a plant-based diet, their IGF-1 levels drop.

  • This is the graph on the left.

  • And if you put people on a plant-based diet for years, it drops even further.

  • And their IGF-1 binding protein levels go up.

  • IGF-1 binding protein, it's like our body's emergency brake.

  • It's one of the ways our body protects itself from excessive growth.

  • Sure, within two weeks, you can drop your liver's production of IGF-1,

  • but wait a second.

  • What about all the IGF-1 you have circulating in your body

  • from the bacon and eggs you had three weeks ago?

  • Well, your body releases this snatch squad

  • of binding proteins into the blood stream

  • to tie up any excess IGF-1,

  • As you can see, binding protein levels go up within weeks,

  • continue to get better the longer one eats healthy.

  • Here's the experiment that really nailed IGF-1 as the villain.

  • Same as last time.

  • Go on a plant-based diet, cancer cell growth drops, cancer cell death shoots up.

  • But then here's the interesting column here.

  • What if you add back to the cancer just the amount of IGF-1 banished from your system

  • because you were eating healthy for two weeks?

  • What happens?

  • You erase the diet and exercise effect.

  • It's almost as if you never started eating healthy at all.

  • So the reason the largest prospective study on diet and cancer ever

  • found that the incidence of all cancers combined was lower

  • among those eating vegetarian than those eating meat,

  • maybe because they're eating less animal protein,

  • so end up with less IGF-1, and so end up with less cancer growth.

  • How much less cancer are we talking about?

  • Middle-aged men and women with high protein intakes:

  • 75% increase in total mortality, 4-fold increase in the risk of dying from cancer.

  • But not all proteins.

  • Specifically animal protein, which makes sense, of course,

  • given the higher IGF-1 levels.

  • The academic institution sent out a press release with a memorable opening line.

  • "That chicken wing you're eating could be as deadly as a cigarette,"

  • explaining that eating a diet rich in animal proteins during middle age

  • makes you four times more likely to die from cancer,

  • which is comparable to what you see with smoking.

  • So what was the response to this revelation that diets

  • high in meat, eggs and dairy could be as harmful to health as smoking?

  • Well, one nutrition scientist replied that it was potentially dangerous

  • to compare the effects of smoking to the effects of meat and cheese.

  • Why?

  • Because a smoker might think: "Well, wait a second.

  • Why bother quitting smoking if my ham and cheese sandwich is just as bad for me?"

  • So we can't tell anyone about this meat and cheese thing.

  • Shh...

  • This reminds me of a famous Philip Morris cigarette ad

  • which tried to downplay the risks by saying,

  • "You think second-hand smoke is bad, increasing the risk of lung cancer 19%,

  • drinking 1 or 2 glasses of milk may be three times worse,

  • 62% increased risk of lung cancer."

  • Or doubling the risk by frequently cooking with oil,

  • or tripling your risk of heart disease by eating by non-vegetarian,

  • or multiplying your risk 6-fold by eating lots of meat and dairy.

  • So, they conclude, "Let's keep some perspective here."

  • The risk of lung cancer from second-hand smoke,

  • is well below the risk of other everyday activities.

  • So breathe deep.

  • That's like saying: "Yeah, don't worry about getting stabbed,

  • because getting shot is so much worse."

  • How about neither?

  • Two risks don't make a right.

  • Of course, you'll note Philip Morris stopped throwing dairy under the bus

  • once they purchased Kraft Foods.

  • Just saying

  • All right, what about the other 13 leading causes of death?

  • Let's do it.

  • The top three killers used to be heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

  • Oh, that is so 2007.

  • Now it's heart disease,

  • cancer, and COPDchronic obstructive pulmonary diseases like emphysema.

  • Thankfully, COPD can be prevented with the help of a plant-based diet,

  • and even treated with plants, improving lung function over time.

  • Of course, the tobacco industry viewed these landmark findings a little differently.

  • If adding plants to one's diet can help one's lung function,

  • I mean wouldn't it be easier to just add plants to cigarettes?

  • And indeed, oh, let's go back.

  • The addition of acai berries to cigarettes evidently has a protective effect

  • against emphysema in smoking mice.

  • Who would have thunk it?

  • Next, they're going to start putting berries in meat.

  • And indeed, I couldn't make this stuff up, ladies and gentlemen.

  • The addition of fruit extracts to burger patties was not without its glitches.

  • For example, the blackberries dyed burger patties with a distinct purplish color,

  • kind of turned people off a little.

  • Evidently you can improve the tenderness of lamb carcasses

  • by infusing them before rigor mortis sets in with kiwifruit juice.

  • You can even improve the nutritional profile of frankfurters

  • by adding powdered grape seeds.

  • Though there were complaints that grape seed particles

  • became visible in the final product,

  • And, look, I mean if there's one thing we know about hot dog eaters,

  • it's that they're picky about what goes in their food.

  • Pig anus? OK

  • But grape seeds? Ew!

  • Strokes are killer number 4.

  • Preventing strokes may be all about eating potassium rich foods,

  • yet most Americans don't even reach the recommended minimum daily intake,

  • and by most, I mean more than 98%.

  • 98% of us eat potassium deficient diets,

  • because 98% of us don't eat enough plants.

  • Potassium comes from the words pot ash.

  • You take any plant, put it in a pot, reduce it to ash, and you're left with pot-ash-ium,

  • potassium, the so-called vegetable alkali.

  • True story.

  • But who can name me one plant food in particular high in potassium?

  • Bananas, right?

  • I don't know why; it's like the one thing everybody knows about nutrition.

  • I think like Chiquita must have had this great PR firm or something.

  • But it turns out that bananas don't even make the top 50 sources, coming in,

  • let me see, coming in at number 86, right after fast food vanilla milk shakes.

  • It goes fast food vanilla milk shakes, and then bananas.

  • You know, it's funny. When I was writing the book,

  • I wanted to go back and make sure that they didn't update their list, and they had.

  • It turns out now bananas don't even make the top 1,000 sources,

  • coming in at 1,611, right after Reese's Pieces.

  • I kid you not.

  • The most concentrated whole food sources of potassium in the American diet

  • are beans and greens and dates, of all three things.

  • But bananas don't even make the top thousand.

  • In fact, if you look at the next leading cause of death (unintentional injuries),

  • bananas could be downright dangerous.

  • Alzheimer's disease, our sixth leading killer,

  • now striking a staggering 4 million Americans affected.

  • Now 20 years ago it wasn't even in the top 10.

  • According to the latest dietary guidelines for the prevention of Alzheimer's,

  • the two most important things we can do: cut down our consumption

  • of meat, dairy, and junk,

  • and replace those with vegetables, beans, fruits, and whole grains.

  • This is based, in part, on data going back 20 years now.

  • Those who eat meatred meat, white meat, it doesn't matter

  • between two to three times of the risk of becoming demented later in life,

  • And the longer one eats healthy, the lower the risk of dementia drops.

  • Next on the list is type 2 diabetes, which we can prevent, arrest, and reverse

  • with a plant-based dietsomething we've known since back in the 1930s.

  • Within five years, about a quarter of the diabetics were able to get off insulin.

  • But, you know, plant-based diets are relatively low calorie diets.

  • Look, maybe their diabetes just got better because they lost so much weight.

  • To tease that out, what one would have to do is design a study

  • where you put people on a healthy diet, but force them to eat so much food

  • that they wouldn't lose weight despite eating healthier.

  • Then we could see if a plant-based diet had particular benefits,

  • unique benefits beyond just all the weight loss.

  • Well, we'd have to wait 44 years, but here it is.

  • Subjects were weighed every day

  • and if they started losing weight, they were made to eat more food.

  • In fact, so much food some of the participants had problems eating it all.

  • They're like "Oh, no, not another tostada.

  • Oh, not another salad."

  • But they eventually adapted.

  • So no significant alterations in body weight

  • despite restricting meat, dairy, eggs, and junk.

  • So with zero weight loss did a plant-based diet still help?

  • Well, overall, insulin requirements were cut about 60%,

  • and half were able to get off insulin altogether despite no change in weight.

  • How many years did this take?

  • No, 16 days!

  • So we're talking diabetics who've had diabetes as long as 20 years,

  • injecting 20 units of insulin a day, and then as few as 13 days later,

  • off all insulin altogether, thanks to less than two weeks on a plant-based diet.

  • Diabetes for 20 years, off all insulin in 2 weeks.

  • Diabetes for 20 years because no one had told them about a plant-based diet.

  • Here's patient 15.

  • 32 units of insulin on the control diet, and then, 18 days later on none.

  • Lower blood sugars on 32 units less insulin.

  • That's the power of plants.

  • And as a bonus, their cholesterol dropped like a rock to under 150, in just 16 days.

  • Just like moderate changes in diet, you only get moderate changes in cholesterol.

  • How moderate do you want your diabetes?

  • Everything in moderation is a truer statement than many people realize.

  • Moderate changes in diet can leave diabetics with moderate vision loss,

  • moderate kidney failure,

  • moderate amputationsmaybe just a few toes or something.

  • Moderation in all things is not necessarily a good thing.

  • You know that study that purported to show that diets

  • high in meat, eggs, and dairy could be as harmful to health as smoking,

  • supposedly suggested that people who eat lots of animal protein

  • are four times more likely to die from cancer or diabetes.

  • But if you look at the actual study, you'll see that's not true.

  • Those eating lots of animal protein

  • didn't have 4 times more likely risk of dying from diabetes.

  • They had 73 times higher risk of dying from diabetes.

  • Now those who chose moderation, eating a moderate amount of animal protein,

  • they only had 23 times the risk of death from diabetes.

  • Killer number 8 is kidney failure, which can be both prevented and treated

  • with a plant-based diet, and no surprise.

  • Kidneys are highly vascular organs.

  • Harvard researchers found three dietary risk factors for declining kidney function.

  • Number one, animal protein; number two, animal fat;

  • and number three, cholesterolall of course only found in one kind of food.

  • Animal fat can alter the actual structure of our kidneys,

  • based on studies like this showing plugs of fat

  • literally clogging up the works in autopsied kidneys.

  • And the animal protein can have a profound effect on normal kidney function,

  • inducing what's called hyperfiltration, increasing the workload on the kidney,

  • but not plant protein.

  • Eat some tuna fish and you can see increased pressure on the kidneys:

  • 1, 2, and 3 hours after the meal, shoots right up.

  • But, if instead of having a tuna salad sandwich though,

  • you had a tofu salad sandwich with the exact same amount of protein: no effect.

  • Kidneys can deal with plant protein without even batting an eyelash.

  • So wait a second.

  • Why does animal protein cause that overload reaction, but not plant protein?

  • It appears to be due to the inflammation triggered by the animal protein.

  • How do we know that? It's because if you give

  • a powerful anti-inflammatory drug along with the tuna fish,

  • you can actually abolish that hyperfiltration effect,

  • that protein leakage effect in response to meat ingestion.

  • Then, of course, there's the acid load.

  • Animal protein induces the formation of acid within the kidney,

  • which can then lead to what's called tubular toxicity:

  • damage to the delicate urine-making tubes within the kidney.

  • Animal foods tend to be acid forming, whereas plant foods

  • tend to either be neutral or actually alkaline,

  • actually base forming to counteract some of that acid.

  • So the solution to stopping the progression of chronic kidney disease

  • may lie in the produce market, produce aisle rather than the pharmacy aisle.

  • No wonder plant-based diets have been used to treat kidney failure for decades now.

  • Here's protein leakage on the traditional low sodium diet

  • that physicians would normally put these patients on,

  • switched to a supplemented vegan diet,

  • a conventional, plant-based, conventional, plant-based,

  • turning on and off kidney dysfunction like a light switch

  • based on what's going into their mouths.

  • Killer number 9 is respiratory infections.

  • What possible role could diet play?

  • Well, you obviously haven't seen my video "Kale and the Immune System,"

  • talking about the immunostimulatory effects of kale.

  • Is there anything kale cannot do?

  • Boosting antibody production 7-fold, but this is in a Petri dish.

  • What about in people?

  • Well, if you take two groups, older men and women, split them up.

  • Half continue to eat their regular diet;

  • the other half, add just a few servings of fruits and vegetables to their diet.

  • After getting their pneumonia vaccination, their Pneumovax vaccination,

  • and you can see a significant improvement

  • in the protective antibody immune response

  • to just adding a few servings of fruits and vegetables to their diet.

  • That wasn't cutting out meat;

  • just adding fruits and vegetables can significantly improve immune function.

  • Killer number 10 is suicide.

  • We've known that those eating healthier have healthier mood states.

  • In fact, only about half the depression, anxiety, stress scoring,

  • compared to those that eat meat.

  • Researchers suspect that it's the arachidonic acid,

  • this inflammatory long-chain omega-6 fatty acid found predominantly

  • in chicken and eggs; that's where it's mostly found in the American diet.

  • But you can't tell if it's cause and effect until you put it to the test.

  • So they took people eating the standard American diet,

  • removed meat, removed fish, removed poultry and eggs from their diets.

  • Significant improvement in mood scores within just two weeks,

  • thanks, perhaps, to this removal of arachidonic acid from their body,

  • which they thought was adversely impacting mental health

  • via a cascade of neuroinflammation, brain inflammation,

  • but we could bring down that inflammation in their brain within just two weeks

  • by removing, you know, cutting out eggs, chicken, and other meat.

  • Now am I just cherry picking though?

  • What about all the other studies, randomized controlled trials

  • showing that other diets have improved mood?

  • There aren't any.

  • A recent review concluded that only that plant-based intervention

  • fits the bill in terms of working.

  • It's hard to cherry pick when there's only one cherry.

  • Works in a workplace setting too:

  • significant increase in physical functioning, general health, vitality, mental health,

  • and not surprisingly translating into improved worker productivity.

  • The biggest such study, across 15 corporate sites at Geico, found that plant-based diets

  • significant reported improvements in depression, anxiety, stress,

  • improvements in emotional well-being, etc., etc.

  • So lifestyle interventions like exercise can help mental

  • as well as physical health,

  • and among the most effective of these is this plant-based diet.

  • Killer number 11, blood infections.

  • Sure, foodborne bacteria can kind of burrow through the intestine into the blood stream

  • and in women can creep up into their bladder.

  • We've known for decades that it's bacteria creeping up from the rectum

  • that actually caused bladder infections, but only recently did we figure out

  • where this rectal reservoir of UTI-causing bacteria was coming from,

  • and we now know it's chicken.

  • We have DNA fingerprinting proof of a direct link between farm animals,

  • meat, and bladder infections, solid evidence that urinary tract infections

  • can be what's called a zoonosis, an animal to human disease.

  • Say, wait a second.

  • Can't I just use a meat thermometer; cook the meat through?

  • No, because of cross-contamination.

  • We've known for decades that if you give someone a frozen chicken to prepare

  • and cook in their own kitchens as they normally would,

  • and a multitude of antibiotic resistant bacteria jump

  • from the chicken into the gut of the volunteer, before they even eat it!

  • So you could incinerate that thing to ash.

  • You don't even have to eat any of it.

  • You're infected before it even makes it into the oven.

  • Just handling it is the problem.

  • Within days, the drug resistant chicken bacteria had multiplied

  • to the point of becoming a major part of the gut flora.

  • The chicken bacteria was like taking over their intestines.

  • Now what about if you follow the safe handling guidelines as well.

  • No one actually does this, but the official USDA recommendation is

  • you should disinfect all common kitchen surfaces with a bleach solution.

  • Then they spray the bleach on all the

  • OK, what if you did this,

  • and then came in later and swabbed common kitchen surfaces?

  • And when you do that, researchers find pathogenic fecal bacteria:

  • salmonella, campylobacterserious human pathogensstill left behind in the kitchen.

  • The reason that most people have more bacteria from feces

  • in their kitchen sink than on their toilet seat

  • is because most people rinse chickens in the sink, not the toilet.

  • So unless our kitchen is like some biohazard lab, the only way

  • we're going to guarantee we're not leaving infection around the kitchen

  • is to not bring it into our homes in the first place.

  • But the good news is it's not like you eat chicken once and you're colonized for life.

  • In this study, the chicken bacteria only seemed to last about 10 days

  • before your good bacteria can kind muscle it out of the way.

  • The problem is that many families eat chicken more than once every ten days,

  • so may be constantly re-introducing these chicken bugs into their systems.

  • Say, wait a second.

  • You can't sell unsafe cars; you can't sell unsafe toys.

  • How is it legal to sell unsafe meat?

  • Well, they do it by blaming the consumer.

  • As one USDA poultry microbiologist said, "Look, raw meats are not idiot-proof.

  • They can be mishandled, and when they are, it's like handling a hand grenade.

  • You pull the pin, somebody's going to get hurt."

  • While some may question the wisdom

  • of selling hand grenades in supermarkets and we get sick, it's our fault.

  • The USDA poultry expert suggests that

  • "it's the consumers responsibility, but we just refuse to accept it."

  • It's like a car company saying, yeah, we installed faulty brakes,

  • but it's your fault for not putting your kid in a sea tbelt.

  • The head of the CDC's food poisoning division famously responded

  • to this kind of blame-the-victim attitude coming from the meat industry.

  • She asked, "Is it reasonable that if a consumer undercooks a hamburger,

  • their three-year-old dies?" Is that reasonable?

  • Not to worry though: the meat industry is on it.

  • They just got the FDA approval for a bacteria-eating virus

  • they can spray onto the meat.

  • Now the industry is concerned about the consumer acceptance

  • of these so called bacteriophages may present

  • somewhat of a challenge to the food industry,

  • so of course they're not going to label it or anything.

  • But if they think that's going to be a challenge,

  • check out their other bright idea.

  • "The Effect of Extracted Housefly Pupae on Pork Preservation."

  • This is a science-y way of saying they want to smear a maggot mixture onto the meat.

  • Now wait, it's a low cost and simple method.

  • Think about it.

  • Look, maggots thrive off of rotting meat.

  • However, there have been no reports of

  • Sorry, it's a new clicker for me. We'll see if we can get through it.

  • However there are no reports of maggots having serious diseases, right?

  • Have you ever seen a maggot sneeze?

  • I don't think so.

  • They must be filled with kind of anti-bacteria, something right?

  • So let's take some maggots, grow them 3 days old, wash them off, towel them,

  • a little Vitamix action there, and voila!

  • Safer meats.

  • We did kidney failure.

  • What about liver failure?

  • We've known for decades that a plant-based diet

  • could be used to treat liver failure,

  • significantly reducing the toxins that would otherwise build up

  • eating meat without a fully functional liver to detoxify your blood.

  • Well, I have to admit, though, that some people,

  • there are some people eating plant-based diets with worsening liver function.

  • They're called alcoholics, living off barley and corn and grapes.

  • Strictly plant-based, but not doing so good.

  • It's not clear what

  • High blood pressure is next, affecting nearly 78 million Americans;

  • that's nearly one in three of us.

  • And as we age, our pressures get higher and higher,

  • such that by age 60, it strikes more than half.

  • So wait a second.

  • If it affects more than half of us, then maybe it's less of a disease

  • and more just kind of an inevitable consequence of aging.

  • No. We've known since the 1920's that high blood pressure need not occur.

  • Researchers measured the blood pressures of a thousand people in rural Kenya

  • who ate a diet centered around what?

  • Whole plant foods.

  • Starchy vegetables, grains, vegetables, fruit, and dark green leafies.

  • Our pressures go up as we age; their pressures actually go down.

  • And the lower the better.

  • The whole 140 over 90 cut-off is arbitrary.

  • Even people that start out with blood pressure under 120 over 80—

  • you went to your doctor, had 120 over 80, you would get a gold star.

  • But even 120 over 80, people appear to benefit from blood pressure reduction.

  • So the ideal blood pressure,

  • the no-benefit-from-reducing-it-further blood pressure is actually 110 over 70.

  • Say, wait a second.

  • Is it even possible to get blood pressures down to 110 over 70?

  • It's not just possible, it's normal, for those eating healthy enough diets.

  • Over two years at a rural Kenyan hospital, 1,800 patients were admitted.

  • How many cases of high blood pressure did they find?

  • Zero. Wow!

  • So they must have had low rates of heart disease, right?

  • No, they had no rates of heart disease.

  • Not a single case of arteriosclerosis (our number 1 killer) was found.

  • Rural China too, about 110 over 70 their entire lives.

  • 70-year-olds: same average blood pressure as 16 year olds.

  • Now, of course, Africa, China: vastly different diets,

  • but they share this common theme that they are plant-based day-to-day

  • with meat only eaten on special occasions.

  • Now why do we think it's the plant-based nature of their diets that was so protective?

  • Because in the Western world, the only group getting blood pressures

  • down that low, according to the American Heart Association,

  • are those eating strictly plant-based diets,

  • coming in at an average of 110 over 65.

  • Based on the largest study of those eating plant-based diets to date

  • this is a study of 89,000 Californians

  • there appears to be this step-wise drop in blood pressure rates

  • the more and more plant-based one's diet gets,

  • as one goes from meat eater to kind of flexitarian,

  • to just fish, to just eggs and dairy, to all the way plant-based.

  • Same thing with obesity and diabetes:

  • the more and more healthy we eat, the better.

  • So of course, yes, we can eliminate the vast majority of our risk,

  • but what's important about this slide as well is that it's not all or nothing.

  • It's not black and white.

  • Any steps we can make on the spectrum towards eating healthier

  • can accrue significant health benefits,

  • which just get better and better the more you actually do it.

  • Blood pressure-wise, you can show this experimentally.

  • You take vegetarians; you give them meat

  • and pay them enough to eat it, and their blood pressures go up.

  • Or you remove meat from their diet

  • and their blood pressures go down after 7 days

  • in this mysterious McDougall program cohort, whatever that is.

  • And this is after the vast majority had already stopped or reduced

  • their blood pressure medications completely.

  • They had to reduce their blood pressure medications,

  • because you're treating the cause of the disease.

  • And so if you don't have high blood pressure anymore

  • and you're on blood pressure medications, you can drop your pressures too low,

  • fall over and crack your head open. You have to reduce---

  • So we've got lower pressures on fewer drugs.

  • That's the power of plants.

  • So does the American Heart Association recommend a no-meat diet?

  • No, they recommend a low-meat diet, the so-called DASH diet.

  • Why not vegetarian?

  • When the DASH diet was being created, were they just not aware

  • of this landmark research done by Harvard's Frank Sacks?

  • No, they were aware of the landmark research.

  • The Chair of the Design Committee that came up with the DASH diet

  • was Frank Sacks.

  • See, the DASH diet was explicitly designed with the number one goal

  • of capturing the blood pressure lowering benefits of a vegetarian diet,

  • yet contain enough animal products to make it palatable to the general public.

  • They didn't think the public could handle the truth.

  • Now in their defense, you can see what they were thinking.

  • Just like drugs never work unless you actually take them,

  • diets never work unless you actually eat them.

  • So they're like, OK, well, no one's going to go on a strict vegetarian diet, right?

  • So if we soft-peddled the truth on the population scale,

  • maybe we'll actually, you know, help more people.

  • Alright, tell that to the thousand families a day

  • that lose a family member to high blood pressure.

  • Maybe it's time to start telling the American public the truth.

  • Killer number 14 is Parkinson's disease.

  • Does a plant-based diet reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease?

  • Well, most studies to date suggest this link

  • between dairy products and Parkinson's, but why?

  • Well, there's evidence that milk is contaminated with neurotoxic chemicals.

  • High levels of pesticide residues have been found both in the milk supply,

  • and in the brains of people that die from Parkinson's disease.

  • These are compounds like tetrahydro-isoquinoline,

  • which is actually what they use to induce Parkinson's in primates in a laboratory,

  • found mostly in cheese actually.

  • And so there's been calls that we should have toxin screenings of the milk supply.

  • Yeah, good luck with that.

  • Of course, you could just not drink it, but then what would happen to your bones?

  • That is a marketing ploy.

  • If you look at the actual science, milk does not appear

  • to protect against hip fracture risk, whether drinking in your adult years,

  • or whether you're drinking in your teen years.

  • If anything, milk consumption was associated with an increase in fracture risk.

  • Maybe this is why hip fracture risks are highest

  • in populations where they drink the most milk.

  • So Swedish researchers decided to put it to the test.

  • A 100,000 men and women, followed for up to 20 years,

  • and milk drinking women had the higher rates of death: more heart disease,

  • significantly more cancer for each daily glass of milk.

  • Three glasses a day was associated with nearly twice the risk of premature death.

  • And they had significantly more bone and hip fractures, too.

  • More milk, more fractures.

  • Milk-drinking men also had higher rates of death, but for some reason

  • you never see milk ads like this. I'm not clear why.

  • And finally, aspiration pneumonia, which is caused by swallowing difficulties

  • due to a stroke or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's,

  • things we've already talked about.

  • OK, so, where does this leave us?

  • These are the top fifteen reasons that Americans die,

  • and a plant-based diet can prevent nearly all of them,

  • can help treat more than half of them, and even prevent and even reverse

  • the course of disease in some of them,

  • including in some cases our top three killers.

  • Now look, there are drugs that in some circumstances can help, too.

  • There's the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

  • There's usually a whole bunch of different classes of

  • blood pressure lowering medications one has to be on.

  • There's blood sugar pills and insulin injections.

  • But think about the diet.

  • This same diet, though, does it all.

  • It's not like there's a liver-healthy diet, and then there's a heart-healthy diet,

  • and a different brain-healthy diet.

  • No, a liver-healthy diet is a kidney- healthy diet, is a body-healthy diet.

  • One diet to rule them all.

  • And what about drug side effects?

  • I'm not talking a little rash here or something.

  • Prescription drugs kill more than a 100,000 Americans every year.

  • You say, wait a second,

  • 100,000 American deaths every year from adverse drug reactions?

  • Well, wait a second.

  • That means that the sixth leading cause of death in the United States

  • is actually doctors!

  • The sixth leading cause of death is me!

  • Thankfully, I can be prevented with a plant-based diet.

  • Seriously, though, compared to 15,000 American vegetarians, meat eaters:

  • about twice the odds of being on aspirin, sleeping pills, tranquilizers, antacids,

  • pain-killers, blood pressure medications, laxatives (of course), as well as insulin.

  • So plant-based diets are great for people that don't like taking drugs;

  • for people that don't like paying for drugs,

  • and for people that don't like risking drug side effects.

  • Want to solve the healthcare crisis?

  • I've got a suggestion.

  • There is only one diet that's ever been proven to reverse heart disease

  • in the majority of patients, a plant-based diet.

  • So anytime, anyone tries to sell you on some new diet they heard about,

  • do me a favor. Ask them a simple question.

  • "Wait a second.

  • Has this new diet been proven to reverse heart disease?

  • You know, the most likely reason me and all my loved ones will die?"

  • If the answer is no, then why would you even consider it?

  • If that's all a plant-based diet could do, reverse our number 1 killer,

  • shouldn't that kind of be the default diet until proven otherwise?

  • And the fact that it can also be effective in preventing, treating, and reversing

  • other leading killers like type 2 diabetes and hypertension,

  • would seem to make the case overwhelming.

  • Most deaths in the United States are preventable and related to nutrition.

  • According to the most rigorous analysis of risk factors ever published,

  • the number 1 cause of death in the United States,

  • and the number one cause of disability is our diet,

  • which has since bumped tobacco smoking to killer number 2.

  • Cigarettes only kills about a half million Americans every year,

  • whereas our diet kills hundreds of thousands more.

  • So, let me end with a thought experiment.

  • Imagine yourself a smoker in the 1950s.

  • The average per capita cigarette consumption was 4,000 cigarettes a year.

  • That means the average American smoked a half a pack a day.

  • The media was telling you to smoke; famous athletes agreed.

  • Even Santa Claus wants you to smoke.

  • I mean, look, you want to keep fit and stay slim,

  • stay slender, and keep yourself trim by eating lots of hot dogs.

  • So you smoke, eat your hot dogs.

  • And to stay slim and trim, you eat a lot of sugar, too.

  • A lot better than that apple there.

  • Can you see that? I mean, sheesh...

  • Although apples do "connote goodness and freshness,"

  • according to one internal tobacco industry memo,

  • which they see many possibilities for youth-oriented cigarettes.

  • They wanted to make apple-flavored cigarettes for kids.

  • Shameless!

  • "For digestion's sake, you smoke."

  • I mean no curative power is claimed by Philip Morris,

  • but look, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,

  • so better safe than sorry and smoke.

  • "Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere."

  • "No woman ever says no."

  • They're "so round, so firm, so fully packed!"

  • After all, John Wayne smoked them until he got lung cancer and died.

  • You know, back then, even the Paleo folks were smoking, and so were the doctors.

  • This is not to say there wasn't controversy within the medical profession.

  • Yes, some doctors smoked Camels, but other physicians preferred Luckies,

  • so there was a little conflict there.

  • The leader of the U.S. Senate agreed.

  • I mean, who wouldn't want to give their throat a vacation?

  • How could there be a single case of throat irritation when

  • "cigarettes are just as pure as the water you drink?"

  • Perhaps in Flint, Michigan.

  • And if you do get irritated, no problem.

  • Your doctor can always write you a prescription for cigarettes.

  • This is an ad in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

  • So when mainstream medicine is saying that smoking, on balance, is good for you,

  • when the American Medical Association is saying that,

  • where could you turn back then if you just wanted the facts?

  • What's the new data advanced by science?

  • She was "too tired for fun, and then she smoked a Camel."

  • Babe Ruth spoke of proof positive medical science,

  • that is when he still could speak, before he died of throat cancer.

  • Now, if by some miracle, there was a SmokingFacts.org website back then

  • that could deliver the science directly,

  • bypassing commercially corruptible institutional filters,

  • you would have become aware of studies like this.

  • This is an Adventist study in California published in 1958.

  • Showed that nonsmokers, have at least 90% lower lung cancer risk than smokers.

  • But this wasn't the first.

  • When famed surgeon Michael DeBakey was asked why his studies

  • published back in the 30s linking smoking and lung cancer

  • were simply ignored,

  • he had to remind people what it was like back then.

  • We were a smoking society.

  • It was in the movies; it was everywhere.

  • Medical meetings were one heavy haze of smoke.

  • Smoking was, in a word, normal.

  • So back to our thought experiment.

  • If you're a smoker in the 50s in the know, what do you do?

  • Do you change or do you wait?

  • If you wait until your doctor tells you, between puffs, to quit,

  • you could have cancer by then.

  • If you wait until the powers that be officially recognize it,

  • like the Surgeon General did in the subsequent decade,

  • you could be dead by then.

  • It took 25 years for the Surgeon General's report to come out.

  • It took more than 7,000 studies, and the death of countless smokers,

  • before the first Surgeon General's report against smoking came out.

  • You'd think maybe after the first 6,000 studies, they could have given

  • a little heads up here or something?

  • No.

  • A powerful industry.

  • So one wonders how many people are currently suffering needlessly

  • from dietary diseases?

  • Maybe we should have stopped smoking after the 700th study like this came out.

  • So as a smoker in the 50's, on one hand you had all of society, the government,

  • the medical profession itself telling you to smoke.

  • And on the other hand, all you had was the science,

  • if you were even aware of studies like this.

  • Now let's fast forward 55 years.

  • There's a new Adventist study in California, warning Americans about the risks

  • of something else they may be putting in their mouths.

  • And it's not just one study.

  • According to the latest review, the sum total of evidence suggests mortality

  • from all causes put together, many of our dreaded diseases

  • stroke, cancer, diabetes, etc.—

  • is significantly lower among those eating plant-based.

  • So instead of someone going along with America's smoking habits in the 50s,

  • imagine you or someone you know

  • going along with America's eating habits today.

  • What do you do?

  • With access to the science,

  • you realize that the best available balance of evidence

  • suggests that your eating habits are not so good for you.

  • So do you change or do you wait?

  • If you wait until your doctor tells you, between bites, to eat healthier,

  • it could be too late.

  • In fact, even after the Surgeon General's report was released,

  • the medical community still dragged their feet.

  • The AMA actually went on record refusing to endorse

  • the Surgeon General's report.

  • Why? Maybe it's because they

  • just got a $10 million check from the tobacco industry.

  • Maybe not, maybe it's coincidence.

  • OK, so we know why the AMA

  • may have been sucking up to the tobacco industry,

  • but why weren't, you know, just individual doctors speaking out?

  • Well, there were a few gallant souls ahead of their time as there are now,

  • writing in as there are today, standing up

  • against institutions killing millions, but why not more?

  • Well, maybe it's because

  • the majority of physicians themselves smoked cigarettes,

  • just like the majority of physicians today continue to eat foods

  • that are contributing to our epidemic of dietary diseases.

  • What was the AMA's rallying cry back then?

  • Everything in moderation.

  • "Scientific studies have proved that smoking in moderation—"

  • Oh, that's fine. Sound familiar?

  • Today, the food industry uses the same tobacco industry tactics,

  • supplying misinformation, twisting the science.

  • The same scientists-for-hire paid to downplay

  • the risks of second hand smoke and toxic chemicals

  • are the same paid by the National Confectioners Association

  • to downplay the risks of candy,

  • and the same paid by the meat industry to downplay the risks of meat.

  • Consumption of animal products and processed foods

  • cause at least 14 million deaths around the world each year.

  • 14 million people dead.

  • Plant-based diets can now be considered

  • kind of the nutritional equivalent of quitting smoking.

  • How many more people have to die, though, before the CDC says,

  • ah, don't wait for open-heart surgery to start eating healthy as well?

  • Until the system changes, we need to take personal responsibility

  • for our own health, for our family's health.

  • We can't wait until society catches up to the science

  • because it's a matter of life and death.

  • Last year, Dr. Kim Williams

  • was made President of the American College of Cardiology.

  • He was asked why he follows his own advice that he gives to patients

  • to eat a plant-based diet.

  • "I don't mind dying," Dr. Williams replied.

  • "I just don't want it to be my own fault."

  • Thank you very much.

  • [Comments and Q&A session follows after the applause.]

  • Thank you so much.

  • If you want to share the talk that I gave, it's actually on a combination

  • it's kind of the best of my last four annual DVD

  • talks on The Leading Causes of Death, The Leading Causes of Disability,

  • The Most Common Diseases, The Most Dreaded Diseases.

  • We have all those DVDs here, as well as, I think, my latest DVD.

  • I'm up to Volume 30 or something by now.

  • All proceeds from the sale of all my books, DVDs,

  • and speaking engagements all goes to charity.

  • And I'm so excited, for the first time here

  • at McDougall to actually have my book here,

  • "How Not to Die."

  • Remember back in September I was like, "In three months my new book is out,"

  • and now finally I'm so excited to be here.

  • Of course, all my work is available free at NutritionFacts.org, yes!

  • Michael, you're the master.

  • Thank you, Dr. Greger.

  • It was a wonderful presentation.

  • I have a question for you since you are the master of reading studies,

  • disseminating them to the general public.

  • Are you aware—I know that you cited the research regarding the impact on cancer

  • with a plant-based diet, Dr. Dean Ornish's study on prostate cancer out of UCSF.

  • Are you aware of any other clinical human trials that are happening now

  • that we can expect to see some results that actually show the impact

  • of a plant-based diet on the treatment of cancer, as opposed to preventing cancer?

  • Professor Campbell, wouldn't that be an amazing study to do?

  • Yes!

  • All right.

  • The only studies we have

  • so there are some studies on individual foods, but in terms of a plant-based diet, no.

  • We just have Ornish's study until we have future studies coming out, hopefully soon.

  • But currently we have, for example, you know,

  • I have videos about the effect of strawberries, for example,

  • on the progression of esophageal cancer, where they just took people

  • with these pre-cancerous lesions in their esophagus and gave them basically

  • basically I think two pints of strawberries a day for a month.

  • That's a lot of strawberries, but it was just strawberries.

  • And found that in the majority of patients

  • I think 80% of the patients, the lesions got better,

  • and I think half the patients they disappeared completely, like they went away.

  • And then they did biopsies and saw all the gene changes that took place, you know,

  • onco genes go down, the tumor suppressor genes go up.

  • And there's been similar studies on black raspberries painted onto oral cancer lesions,

  • and given black raspberry suppositories for rectal cancer lesions.

  • Yeah, don't try it at home, folks.

  • And then studies on flax seeds, and studies on, you know, soy for breast cancer patients,

  • and things like that, where there's been individual foods.

  • But when you say, wait a second: what if your entire diet was filled with plant foods?

  • And all we have to point to, I mean in terms of clinical studies,

  • is Dr. Dean Ornish's landmark work, beyond all the kind of ex-vivo work

  • like we saw with the breast cancer patients where, yes, we're using what happens

  • in your body after eating healthy for two weeks in terms of what happens

  • to your blood stream's ability to suppress cancer growth.

  • But that's different from taking people with cancer,

  • changing their diets, and actually seeing what happens.

  • You say, well, wait a second.

  • Why hasn't anyone done that study?

  • Big broccoli doesn't quite have the same kind of research budget, I'm afraid,

  • that big pharma does.

  • But wouldn't you—I mean, I certainly would donate to have that kind of study done.

  • Wouldn't you be like, "I want to see that study done."

  • And so if, for example, Dr. Campbell put together such a research proposal

  • and got some research institutions involved, and said let's take cancer patients,

  • let's put them on a plant-based diet and see what happens,

  • and put out like a Kickstarter kind of program

  • I told him, we'll raise money for him in a flash.

  • I'll promote it on the site.

  • We'll get it out there, and I think it's going to be doable.

  • So hopefully next year we'll get back with some better news, right?

  • Mike, forgive me for this interjection on this topic,

  • but something very profound happened February 13, 2015,

  • and that's [when] the American Cancer Society came out and recommended

  • that people with cancer follow a diet in this direction because it improves survival.

  • And there are multiple studies that have been done that show that people

  • with breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, even melanoma,

  • when they eat a healthier diet, they live longer.

  • So the American Cancer Society has come out and supported

  • the treatment of cancer with diet.

  • If you have cancer, you're to follow this kind of diet, and up to date,

  • which is often referred to, in February, then they sent me the same conclusion.

  • Part of the fundamental treatment of all cancer patients

  • should be a plant-food based diet.

  • So there's a lot of information to find out there about that.

  • So there certainly have been studies showing that, for example,

  • women who eat more saturated fat after breast cancer diagnosis

  • live significantly shorter and have greater recurrence.

  • And so, absolutely, so more plant food consumption.

  • But in terms of actually randomizing people to plant-based diets, unfortunately

  • there's not enough of those studies, but hopefully that will change.

  • I was wondering if there's any correlation between a good diet or a bad diet

  • and joint replacements, because everyone seems to be getting them.

  • Yeah, well, there is - I mean probably the number one reason,

  • so when you're talking about knee replacements,

  • why are people's knees wearing out is because they're carrying 200 pounds,

  • not in their back but in their waist.

  • I mean that's kind of the primary cause where we get this osteoarthritis in our knees.

  • Our knees grind down and they have to get replaced.

  • And so, does diet have anything to do with obesity?

  • If you think there's some possible mechanism there, then absolutely

  • kind of our most common replacement surgeries.

  • But it's not like you can be like, "Oh, I've got to get my knees replaced next week.

  • OK, well, let's do some dietary reversal."

  • No, it's got to start decades before

  • so you can prevent that kind of response in one's joints.

  • Thank you so much for this talk.

  • I'm a nutrition educator and my question is are there any studies done

  • where the people make more drastic changes if they're told the truth

  • about eating a plant-based diet versus when they are told, you know,

  • make some changes, eat more plant foods while you're still eating animal foods?

  • Like what group of people make more changes in their long-term diets?

  • Like as an educator, should I teach the PCRM programs

  • or should I work for public health and teach some classes but where I don't go fully out

  • and say, "Get on a plant-based diet because it can cure you of diabetes"?

  • There's actually a study; there's a rich psychology of literature

  • on behavioral change, and it turns out the more you ask for, the more you get.

  • So I think doctors are like, "Well, I'm going to scare people off if I tell them the truth,

  • so I'll be like: eat an apple once in a while."

  • But it turns out, no, I mean it's kind of the old adage, you know,

  • you shoot for the stars and end up on the moon or something like that.

  • I think it's the other way around,

  • but it doesn't make sense astronomically, so I have to flip it.

  • Now it doesn't mean your patient is ever going to follow it, but you say,

  • look, we don't tell our patients: cut down to a pack a day.

  • We tell them to quit.

  • I mean is smoking half a pack a day better than two packs a day?

  • Probably.

  • But no, it's not good for you.

  • Ideally we should only put healthy things in our mouths,

  • and that's what we should tell our patients.

  • And so when we tell patients "this is the ideal"—

  • So like in my book, it's funny, out of all the kind of radical ideas in my book

  • I get all this push back about my exercise recommendation.

  • You know, I just review the science on what's best

  • So I recommend 90 minutes of exercise a day, like walking.

  • And people are like, "90 minutes a day?"

  • I'm just like, "Well, look. The science shows—"

  • "So wait a second.

  • Then why does the government only recommend 22 minutes a day?"

  • Because they're trying to make it palatable; they're trying to make it doable.

  • They don't want to scare people off, instead of telling people the truth.

  • But if you look at the science, it's very clear:

  • 30 minutes are better than 22 minutes;

  • 60 minutes is better than 45 minutes, and then 90 better than 60.

  • And then there's no studies where anyone's ever exercised more than 90 minutes,

  • so we don't even have studies past that.

  • So the best available balance of evidence is just 90 minutes is better.

  • OK, so that's whatlook, it doesn't mean you have to do it every day,

  • but you should just know that that's kind of the

  • And then anything we can do towards that is

  • And the same thing with diet.

  • We should tell people this is the ideal diet.

  • "This is the diet that's actually going to reverse disease.

  • And then, look, then it's up to you.

  • You're an adult. You want to smoke cigarettes?

  • It's your body; it's your choice,

  • but you should know the predictable consequences of your actions."

  • As physicians, that's our role: informed consent.

  • I'm going to go shoot for the stars.

  • All right!

  • You know, Michael, without a doubt everyone in the audience would agree with me,

  • we could just sit here and listen to you all afternoon.

  • But the time has come, and Michael, if you'll go outside

  • because I know you're going to have a big crowd, and we'll be back in six minutes.

  • Thank you.

[First, Dr. McDougall's introduction of Dr. Greger. Captions of Dr. Greger's talk start shortly.]

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飲食在預防、阻止和扭轉我們的15大殺手中的作用。 (The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, and Reversing Our Top 15 Killers)

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    Amy.Lin 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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