How to live longer!

How to live longer! Based on a Nobel Prize winning discovery, the ultimate guide to what to eat to beat heart disease, strokes, cancer and Alzheimer's

By Dr Michael Greger For The Daily Mail 01:37 27 Feb 2016, updated 09:53 27 Feb 2016 

Dr Michael Greger (pictured) wanted to to medicine after he saw diet give his grandmother another 30 years of life


When I was a child, doctors sent my grandmother home in a wheelchair to die. Diagnosed with end-stage heart disease, she already had so much scar tissue from bypass operations that the surgeons had essentially run out of plumbing. There was nothing more to do, they said; her life was over at 65.

For many children, it’s seeing a beloved relative ill and in pain that leads them to want to become doctors. But, for me, it was watching my grandma get better. Soon after she came home, she saw a report on TV about Nathan Pritikin, an early lifestyle-medicine pioneer who’d been gaining a reputation for reversing terminal heart disease.

He’d just opened a new clinic — and, in desperation, my grandmother booked in for a supervised plant-based diet and exercise programme. They wheeled my grandmother in — and she walked out on her own.

I’ll never forget that. Within three weeks, she was actually walking ten miles a day. When I was a child that was all that mattered: I got to play with Grandma again. But over the years, I grew up to understand the significance of what had happened.

At that time, the medical profession didn’t even think it was possible to reverse heart disease.

Drugs were given to try to slow the progression, and surgery was performed to circumvent clogged arteries, but the disease was expected to get worse and worse until you died.

Now, however, we know that as soon as we stop eating an artery-clogging diet, our bodies can start healing themselves.

My grandma was given her medical death sentence at 65. Thanks to a healthy diet and lifestyle, she enjoyed another 31 years on this earth. 

The woman once told that she had only weeks to live didn’t die until she was 96 years old.

Her near-miraculous recovery not only inspired one of her six grandchildren to pursue a career in medicine, but granted her enough healthy years to see him graduate from medical school. And I’ve since made it my life’s mission to study the evidence-based links between disease and nutrition.

I now have a team of researchers and volunteers who last year alone helped me dig through 24,000 papers published on the subject.

Dr Michael Greger reveals the foods that will help you live longer according to a Nobel Prize winning discovery

The result of all this research has been quite astounding. It’s now clear, for example, that the vast majority of premature deaths in the UK and U.S. could be prevented.

Many people assume the diseases that kill us are pre-programmed into our genes. High blood pressure by 55, heart attacks at 60, maybe cancer at 70, and so on . . . But for most of the leading causes of death, our genes usually account for only 10–20 per cent of risk.

The other 80-90 per cent of risk? It’s our diet and lifestyle. The typical Western diet is the number-one cause of premature death and the number-one cause of disability. In other words, a long and healthy life is largely a matter of choice.

So what choice have we made? Well, for many of us, the answer is not a very good one.

An analysis of the diet and lifestyle of 35,000 adults scored their diets from zero to five to see if they met a bare minimum of healthy-eating targets — which included fruit, vegetables and whole grains. How many do you think scored even four out of five on their ‘healthy eating score’? About one per cent.

PISTACHIOS AND WATERMELON PREVENT ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION

Erectile dysfunction (ED) affects around 100 million men worldwide. But if you live in the West, your chance of this happening to you is much greater — due to our artery-clogging, cholesterol-rich diet.

Why? Because hardening of the arteries means they can no longer relax to let the blood flow properly, and that leads to softening of the penis.

Not to worry, though, because you can always pop a pill like Viagra . . . right?

The problem is that these pills just cover up the symptoms of vascular disease and don’t do anything to cure it. And no one should ignore clogged arteries.

Indeed, for two-thirds of men showing up in casualty with crushing chest pain, their private parts have been trying to warn them for years that something’s wrong with their circulation. So why does atherosclerosis tend to hit the penis first?

It’s because the arteries in it are half the size of the ‘widow-maker’ coronary artery in the heart. Therefore, they clog up faster.

Put it this way: 40 per cent of men over 40 have erectile dysfunction. And they also have a fiftyfold increased risk of having a cardiac ‘event’ — such as sudden death.

That’s why even young men should keep a sharp eye on their cholesterol levels because they predict erectile dysfunction later in life, which in turn predicts heart attacks, strokes and a shortened life span.

This is not just a male issue. Women with higher cholesterol levels report having significantly fewer orgasms and significantly less arousal, lubrication and sexual satisfaction.

What does all this have to do with pistachios? Well, here’s the good news. A clinical study found that men who ate three to four handfuls of pistachios a day for three weeks experienced a significant improvement in blood flow through the penis, accompanied by significantly firmer erections.

OK, three handfuls is a lot — but even one handful of pistachios may make a difference.

And if you don’t fancy pistachios, you could try watermelon instead — which contains a compound called citrulline.

This can boost the activity of the enzyme responsible for dilating the blood vessels in the penis.

A group of Italian researchers found that five servings of red watermelon a day improved hardness in men with mild erectile dysfunction, leading to a 68 per cent increase in intercourse over a month.

But adhering to just four simple healthy lifestyle factors can have a strong impact on the prevention of chronic diseases: not smoking, not being obese, getting half an hour of exercise a day, and eating more healthily (defined as consuming more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and less meat).

Those four factors alone were found to account for more than three quarters of your risk of chronic disease.

If you manage to tick off all four, you may be able to wipe out more than 90 per cent of your risk of developing diabetes, more than 80 per cent of your risk of having a heart attack, cut by half your risk of having a stroke, and reduce your overall cancer risk by more than a third.

Indeed, one study has shown that the drop in mortality risk among those with healthier habits is equivalent to being 14 years younger.

Let’s talk a little more about ageing. In each of your cells, you have 46 strands of DNA coiled into chromosomes.

At the tip of each chromosome, there’s a tiny cap called a telomere, which keeps your DNA from unravelling and fraying. Think of it as the plastic tips on the end of your shoelaces. Every time your cells divide, however, a bit of that cap is lost. And when the telomere is completely gone, your cells can die.

Telomeres have been thought of as your life ‘fuse’: they can start shortening as soon as you’re born — and when they’re gone, you’re gone.

In fact, forensic scientists can take DNA from a bloodstain and roughly estimate the person’s age, based on how long their telomeres are. So what would you have to do if you wanted to prevent this telomere cap from burning away?

Well, smoking cigarettes is associated with triple the rate of telomere loss, so the first step is simple: stop smoking. But the food you eat every day may also have an impact on how fast you lose your telomeres. Consuming fruits, vegetables and other antioxidant-rich foods has been associated with longer, protective telomeres. In contrast, consuming refined grains, fizzy drinks, meat (and fish) and dairy has been linked to shortened telomeres.

What if you ate a diet composed of whole plant foods and avoided processed foods and animal foods — could cellular ageing be slowed?

The answer lies in an enzyme found in a tree — a bristlecone pine — that grows in the White Mountains of California and is nearly 4,800 years old. It was hundreds of years old before construction of Egypt’s pyramids began.

There’s an enzyme in the pines’ roots that appears to peak a few thousand years into their life span, and it actually rebuilds telomeres. Scientists named it telomerase.

But here’s the amazing thing: once they knew what to look for, researchers found that telomerase was present in human cells, too.

The question then became: how can we boost the activity of this age-defying enzyme?

Seeking answers, the pioneering researcher Dr Dean Ornish teamed up with Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for her discovery of telomerase.

They found that just three months on a whole-food, plant-based diet, coupled with exercise, could significantly boost telomerase activity — the only intervention that had been shown to do so.

What’s more, a five-year follow-up study found that while the telomeres of those in a control group, who did not change their lifestyles, predictably shrank with age, the telomeres of those who had changed their lifestyles had actually grown.

Five years later, their telomeres were even longer on average than when they started — suggesting not only that a healthy lifestyle can boost telomerase enzyme activity, but that it can reverse cellular ageing.

Consuming refined grains, fizzy drinks, meat (and fish) and dairy has been linked to shortened life span

This astonishing result wasn’t just because the healthy-living group was exercising more or losing weight, research showed. Weight loss through calorie restriction and an even more vigorous exercise programme failed to improve telomere length. So it appears that the active ingredient is what you eat.

Nor is it to do with how much you eat. As long as people were eating a typical Western diet, it didn’t appear to matter how small the portions were, how much weight they lost, or how hard they exercised; after a year, they saw no benefit in terms of their telomeres.

In contrast, individuals on the plant-based diet exercised only half as much, enjoyed the same amount of weight loss after just three months, and achieved significant telomere protection.

In other words, it wasn’t weight loss or the exercise that reversed cell ageing — it was the food.

And as I’ll explain in this series next week, Dr Ornish and his colleagues have used the same diet and lifestyle changes to halt and apparently reverse the progression of cancer in certain circumstances. We will also see how the same diet can reverse heart disease, too.

What about our other big killers? The four leading causes of death in the UK are: 1) heart disease; 2) dementia and Alzheimer’s; 3) stroke; 4) lung cancer.

And it turns out a more plant-based diet may help prevent, treat, or reverse every single one of those causes of death.

Of course, there are prescription medications that can help with some of these conditions.

But there is only one unifying diet that may help prevent, arrest, or even reverse each of them. And that 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 foods.

By the way, I’m not telling you to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. I’m arguing for an evidence-based diet, and the best available balance of science suggests that the more whole plant foods we eat, the better — both to reap their nutritional benefits and to displace less healthy options.

That doesn’t mean you can never eat steak again. But if you do have steak, make sure you have it with a large portion of broccoli — because broccoli lessens the carcinogenic effect of cooked meat.

Bear in mind that even small changes in your diet, such as eating less meat or more vegetables, can produce significant results.

That doesn’t mean you can never eat steak again. But if you do have steak, make sure you have it with a large portion of broccoli — because broccoli lessens the carcinogenic effect of cooked meat

Studies have shown, for example, that when men with prostate cancer went on a half-vegan diet, it appeared to slow down the growth of their cancer.

One study found that women who ate more whole plant foods seemed to reduce their chances of getting breast cancer by more than 90 per cent.

And the largest study ever performed on diet and bladder cancer found that an increase in plant protein of only 2 per cent was associated with a 23 per cent decrease in cancer risk.

In fact, the list of how what we eat can change our lives for the better goes on and on.

For example, if you are one of the four in ten men over the age of 40 who experiences erectile dysfunction, help can be found simply by eating three handfuls of pistachio nuts every day (see box on previous pages).
WHY BEANS MEAN HEALTH

Eating beans is associated with lower blood pressure and improving regulation of blood sugar, insulin and cholesterol levels. Scientific trials show they’re as good or better than calorie-counting at getting rid of tummy fat.

They’re loaded with zinc, protein and iron, plus fibre, folate, and phytates, which may help reduce the risk of stroke, depression and colon cancer.

The phytoestrogens in soya, in particular, seem to help prevent breast cancer and improve breast cancer survival. Edamame beans — soyabeans in their pods — are particularly nutritious. Even processed bean foods, like tofu and soya milk, are OK. And many non-soya beans, including lentils and pinto beans, drop bad cholesterol levels as effectively as soya protein.

Tofu, for instance, has half the nutrients of the soyabeans from which it’s made. However, beans are so good for you that you can throw away half the nutrition and still have a really healthy food.

Lentils and chickpeas are rich in prebiotics, which slow the rate sugars are absorbed into your system.

What about tinned beans? A study found they’re just as healthy as boiled beans — unless they have added salt.

As for walnuts, eating just four, three times a week, seems to cut your risk of dying from cancer in half. I’ll be explaining all this, and more, in the Mail next week.

Most doctor visits are for lifestyle-based diseases — so they’re preventable.

As physicians, my colleagues and I were trained not to treat the root cause but rather the consequences — by giving a lifetime’s worth of medications to treat risk factors such as high blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.

It has been compared to mopping up the floor around an overflowing sink instead of simply turning off the tap.

What I hope to help you understand is that most of our leading causes of death and disability are not inevitable and can be prevented.

The primary reason diseases tend to run in families may be that diets tend to run in families. Research has shown us that identical twins separated at birth will get different diseases based on how they live their lives.

A recent American Heart Association-funded study compared the lifestyles and arteries of nearly 500 twins.

It found that diet and lifestyle factors clearly trumped genes. You share 50 per cent of your genes with each of your parents, so if one parent dies of a heart attack, you know you’ve inherited some of that susceptibility.

But even among identical twins who have the exact same genes, one could die early of a heart attack and the other could live a long, healthy life with clean arteries, depending on what she ate and how she lived.

Even if both your parents died with heart disease, you should be able to eat your way to a healthy heart. Your family history does not have to become your personal destiny.

Even if you’re born with high-risk genes, you have tremendous control over your medical destiny.

Whatever genes we may have inherited from our parents, what we eat can affect how those genes impact on our health. The power is mainly in our hands — and on our plates.

Today, I’ve given you some remarkable scientific findings on the effects of different foods. And from Monday, I’ll tell you specifically what to eat if you want to avoid contracting some of our major diseases — and, if necessary, help reverse them.

    Adapted from How Not To Die: Discover The Foods Scientifically Proven To Prevent And Reverse Disease by Dr Michael Greger and Gene Stone, published by Macmillan at £14.99. To buy a copy for £11.24 visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0808 272 0808. Offer until March 5, free p&p on orders over £12.

WHICH NUT IS THE HEALTHIEST?

Which nut is healthiest? Normally, my answer is the one you’re most willing and able to eat regularly — but walnuts really do seem to take the lead.

They have among the highest antioxidant and omega-3 levels, and they beat other nuts in vitro (in test-tube experiments) in suppressing growth of cancer cells.

In one sizeable trial, researchers found that people appear to cut their risk of having a stroke in half — just by regularly eating nuts.

And of all the nuts studied, walnuts conferred the greatest benefits.

Nuts are essential for staying healthy and walnuts are among the best of all the varieties

Indeed, just four walnuts, three times a week, appeared to halve people’s risk of dying from cancer. A review of the scientific literature concluded that ‘the far-reaching positive effects of a plant-based diet that includes walnuts may be the most critical message for the public.’

n With funding from a Canadian philanthropist, I was able to achieve my vision of making evidence-based nutrition freely accessible and available to all. My organisation NutritionFacts.org was born; it is now a self-sustaining and non-profit organisation itself, and all the information there is free for all, for all time.

Meanwhile, every penny I receive from speaking engagements and book sales goes directly to charity.
Foods you should eat every day

Every day, you should aim to have my recommended number of servings from each section of what I call my Daily Dozen:

1 Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spring greens, radishes, turnip tops, watercress. One serving a day: A serving is half a cup chopped or quarter of a cup of broccoli or brussels sprouts.

2 Greens including spring greens, kale, young salad greens, sorrel, spinach, swiss chard. Two servings a day: a serving is one cup raw or half a cup cooked.

3 Other vegetables: asparagus, beets, bell peppers, carrots, corn, courgettes, garlic, mushrooms, okra, onions, pumpkin, snap peas, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes. Two servings a day: a serving is one cup raw leafy vegetables; half a cup raw or cooked non-leafy vegetables; half a cup vegetable juice; a quarter of a cup dried mushrooms.

4 Beans: black beans, cannellini beans, black-eyed peas, butter beans, soyabeans, baked beans, chickpeas, edamame, peas, kidney beans, lentils, miso, pinto beans, split peas, tofu, hummus). Three servings a day: That’s a quarter of a cup of hummus or bean dip; half a cup of cooked beans, split peas, lentils or tofu; or a full cup of fresh peas or sprouted lentils.

5 Berries — any small edible fruit, including grapes, raisins, blackberries, cherries, raspberries and strawberries. One serving a day: a serving is half a cup of fresh or frozen, or a quarter of a cup of dried.

6 Other fruits such as apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, cantaloupe melon, clementines, dates, figs, grapefruit, honeydew melon, kiwi, lemons, limes, lychees, mangos, nectarines, oranges, papaya, passion fruit, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, pomegranates, prunes, tangerines, watermelon. Three servings a day: One serving is a cup of cut-up fruit, or one medium fruit, or a quarter of a cup of dried fruit a day.

7 Flaxseeds: one tablespoon a day.

8 Nuts: a quarter of a cup a day, or two tablespoons of peanut, almond or other nut butter.

9 Spices — every day you should have a quarter teaspoon of turmeric in addition to any other spices you enjoy.

10 Whole grains (rice, buckwheat, quinoa, cereal, pasta, bread). Three servings a day: That’s half a cup of cooked rice or pasta; one cup of cereal; a slice of bread; half a bagel.

11 Exercise — ideally 90 minutes a day of moderate activity such as walking.

12 Water: five large (12oz/340ml) glasses a day.