Melissa's Reviews > How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

This is the best, most comprehensive, and most reliably/extensively cited book on diet and health I have ever read. Rather than relying on just a few questionable studies the way most books on the topic do (often, I might add, while seemingly purposefully misinterpreting the data from said studies), Dr. Greger looks at the whole of nutrition studies published in English, explains typical and relevant ones thoroughly, and makes them understandable to anybody.

One great thing about this book is that it can give you hope. You and your family members don't need to spend a lot of money on drugs, worrying about health insurance at every turn. You don't need to die from heart disease, you don't need to suffer early onset dementia, you don't need to have a stroke and spend years trying to recover, you don't have to just sit back waiting to get cancer. This book will teach you that it's not true that everything gives you cancer. Fruit and veggies don't! And How Not to Die will tell you specifically which fruits or veggies have been clinically shown to specifically help to prevent or reverse which types of cancer.

Yes, it's a bit overwhelming at times. While reading the book, I often thought to myself, "Oh, I should write down which thing will prevent throat cancer, which will lower blood pressure (my only actual health concern at this point), which will reduce my chances of dementia" and so on. But then I calm down and I remember that as long as I continue to eat unprocessed plant-based food and lots of it, I will be fine. That said, I really do appreciate knowing which plants are particularly health-promoting.

I've been a berry fanatic ever since I learned about antioxidants in my very first nutrition class, and I notice that Dr. Greger says to eat berries every day. Also in health class, I learned about beans helping reduce insulin resistance and Dr. Greger confirms it. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I am studying nutrition in college with the intent to become a registered dietitian, and How Not to Die is the only book on nutrition I have ever read that doesn't have any information in it that is counter to what I've learned in those classes as being health promoting. It's also the only one that passes the test of reliability in its thoroughness of citing sources WITHIN the text, talking about both the good things and bad things about a particular study. Other books seem to treat any study that agrees with their central point as perfect. But Greger will outright say, "This study only looked at the cells in a petri dish to see if it will fight cancer" or "This study was only done on a dozen people," but, he'll add, since the study is suggesting you eat a veggie, fruit, legume, or whole grain, what's the harm of trying it anyway? It's not like it's suggesting you take a drug that's only been tested in a petri dish. It's suggesting you eat broccoli.

I learned a lot from this book and I think it could save a lot of people's lives. I want to send it to my parents, my aunts and uncles, give it to strangers on the train. I want to hang its green light foods on my fridge, I want to watch videos on nutritionfact.org, I want to see Dr. Greger debate with paleo nutcases. We could solve so many problems by changing our diets, and I'm happy to be one person living as an example of how not to die.