In “How Not To Die”, Dr Michael Greger addresses a whole range of diseases, including cancer, dementia, heart disease and strokes, gathering a mass of published evidence from medical trials. His conclusion is that it is possible to reduce the chances of getting these diseases, primarily by a change in diet.
He says:
“Most deaths in the United States are preventable, and they are related to what we eat.”
“The one unifying diet found to best prevent and treat many of these chronic diseases is a whole-food, plant-based diet, defined as an eating pattern that encourages the consumption of unrefined plant foods and discourages meats, dairy products, eggs and processed food.”
A key point he stresses is going vegan rather than just vegetarian, in avoiding dairy and eggs as much as you avoid meat. His concern over dairy is the hormones and other chemicals, which he says encourage cancer growth. And as far as eggs are concerned: “Men who eat an egg every 3 days have an 80% increased risk of dying from prostate cancer.”
His recommendation is to include in your daily diet a cruciferous vegetable (eg. red cabbage), legumes (eg. houmous, or baked beans), some other fruit and veg, oatmeal, flaxseed, and so on.
Also, he says you should take supplements to be sure to get enough vitamin B12, Iodine, and Long-chain Omega-3 (in algae oil).
The book is well worth reading, and in 450 pages has a mass of useful information about each specific disease and how to reduce the chances of getting it. So if the size of the book seems forbidding, you can just zero in on a particular concern, eg the chapter on “How not to die from Diabetes” or “How not to die from brain diseases”.