[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
MICHAEL GREGER: Thank you.
For those of you who aren't familiar 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.
So every year, my presentation is new,
because every year the science is new.
I then compile the most interesting,
most groundbreaking, the most practical findings
to new videos and articles I upload every day
to my non-profit site nutritionfacts.org.
Everything on the website is free.
There are no ads, no commercial sponsorship,
strictly non-commercial, not selling anything.
Just put it up as a public service as a labor of love.
New videos and articles every day,
and the latest and evidence-based nutrition.
If you've seen any of my presentations in the past,
you know that I have addressed some
of the most pressing dietary issues of our time,
like what's the healthiest variety of apple, for example,
or the most nutritious nut, or the best bean, or the best
berry, or the best bowel movement.
Who's number one and number two?
Well, it certainly wasn't the New Yorkers here.
Actually, the most constipated population
ever described in the medical literature
outputting a measly 3 ounces a day on average.
Maybe if you'd all just eat a big apple once in a while.
But this year, today, I thought I'd
lighten it up and ask, what's the best way to prevent death?
Every year, the CDC compiles the top 15 causes of death.
I said, well, let's just go through the list.
1 through 15 talk about the role diet
may play in preventing, arresting, and even potentially
reversing our top 15 killers.
Killer number one is heart disease.
The "International Journal of Epidemiology"
recently reprinted this landmark article
from the '50s, which started out with a shocking statement.
In the African population in Uganda,
coronary heart disease is practically nonexistent.
You say, wait a second, our number one killer,
practically nonexistent.
What were they eating?
Well, they're eating a lot of vegetables, grains, greens.
And their protein almost entirely from plant sources,
and they had the cholesterol levels to prove it.
Actually, very similar to what you see in modern day
plant-eaters.
You say, wait a second, maybe the Africans were just
dying early from other diseases, didn't live long enough
to get coronary artery 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 St. Louis,
136 myocardial infarctions, more than 100 times the heart
attacks of the rate of our leading killer.
In fact, they were so blown away,
they went back, did another 800 autopsies in Uganda.
And still, just at one small healed infarct-- maybe
it wasn't even the cause of death-- out of 1,427 patients,
less than one in 1,000.
Whereas, here, it's an epidemic.
Here's a list of diseases commonly found
here and in populations that eat and live like the US,
but were rare or even nonexistent
in populations centering their diets
around whole unprocessed plant foods.
These are among our most common diseases,
like obesity, for example, or hiatus hernia, the most common
stomach problem.
Varicose veins and hemorrhoids are two most common venous
problems.
Colorectal cancer, leading cancer killer here in the US.
Diverticulosis, the most common disease of the intestines.
Appendicitis, number one cause of emergency abdominal surgery.
Gallbladder disease, number one cause
of non-emergency abdominal surgery, as well as
ischemic heart disease, our commonest cause of death here
but a rarity among plant-based populations,
which suggests that heart disease may be a choice,
like cavities.
If you look at the teeth of people
who lived 10,000 years before the invention
of the toothbrush, pretty much no cavities.
Didn't brush a day in their lives, no flossing,
no Listerine, yet, no cavities.
Why?
Candy bars hadn't been invented yet.
So why do people continue to get cavities
when we know they're preventable through diet?
Well, simple.
Because the pleasure people derive from dessert
may outweigh the cost and discomfort
of the dentist chair.
And look, that's fine, as long as people understand
the consequences of their actions, as a physician,
what more can I do?
If you're an adult, you decide the benefits
outweigh the risk 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 on our teeth,
we're talking about the plaque building
up inside of our arteries, another disease that can be
prevented by changing our diet?
OK.
Now, what are the consequences for you and your family?
Now, we're not talking about scraping tartar anymore.
We're talking about life and death.
AUDIENCE: Should we avoid potatoes, bread, rice,
and pasta?
MICHAEL GREGER: So it's interesting.
So if you look at--
the bottom line is I encourage people to stick to whole foods
whenever possible.
So pasta is fine, but I'd like people
to have whole grain pasta.
And actually, sweet potatoes I think
are healthier than white potatoes,
and I give my reasons why.
And in general, flour products, even when they're whole wheat,
are not great, because actually, you starve your microbial self.
If you actually eat-- so they do these really neat studies
where they basically give people the same diet,
but they grind up everything beforehand.
So instead of beans, they give some people chickpeas,
some people hummus.
They give some people bread and some people actually
wheat berries.
And you do that for grains, and you chop up your oatmeal
or steel cut oatmeal.
And you can dramatically boost the weight of their stool.
And actually, how that-- most of the weight of the stool
is actually pure bacteria, just trillions and trillions
of bacteria.
And so you are this, so much [AUDIO OUT]
because little pieces of starch-- and starch,
no matter how well you chew, actually
get down past our small intestine
into our lower intestine.
And actually, these are the prebiotics, fiber resistant
starch, the prebiotics that feed our good gut bacteria,
so much so that they go crazy when
you eat whole intact grains, not just whole grains.
So whole intact grains are preferable,
because then we leave some for our gut bacteria.
And we're learning more and more about the benefits
of the microbiome.
Whereas, when you process foods into flour or grind them up,
actually, they become so efficiently
absorbed that, other than the fiber,
you're not leaving anything.
And we feed them.
They feed us.
There's really some cool stuff out there about the microbiome.
AUDIENCE: So a lot of vegetarians
will look to things like shakes or powders
to supplement their protein intake.
Has there been any studies on whey protein isolate
and if it elicits the same immune inflammation
response as dairy, like a lot of milk and cheese?
MICHAEL GREGER: Right.
Yeah.
The biggest problem with whey protein
is it's high in leucine content.
So leucine is a branched chain amino acid
that activates this kind of engine of aging enzyme called
mTOR.
But basically, milk has evolved to do what?
To promote growth, right?
So dairy milk literally to put a couple pounds
on a calf in a matter of months.
And so it's supremely designed to boost IGF-1, boost mTOR
signaling, accelerate growth.
And so we just don't.
And so the reason we think that high IGF-1 levels,
and high TOR signaling, leucine intake is associated with these
cancers is because it's not that they're causing the cancer,
but they're speeding up the--
amplifying the growth of whatever hidden tumors
you have.
And so they will actually appear within your lifespan,
which is something that we don't want to have happen.
Happy to sign books for anyone!
Thank you so much.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free.
Call me anytime.
My contact information is on the site.