December 15, 2025 • 10 mins
Internationally-renowned as a nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, Dr. Michael Greger examines the fifteen diseases that are the leading causes of death in America—heart disease, various cancers, Alzheimer's, diabetes, Parkinson's, and more—and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can often surpass the modern medical approach, freeing us to live longer, healthier lives.Doctors are good at treating acute illnesses, but bad at preventing chronic disease. The fifteen diseases that lead to the most deaths in America claim the lives of 1.6 million annually. This doesn't have to be the case. For the most part, these diseases and illnesses are preventable. In this revised and updated edition of the bestselling classic, Dr. Michael Greger shares groundbreaking scientific discoveries in nutrition and longevity. With updates from all of the most recent studies, HOW NOT TO DIE is a guide to the methods proven to keep the reaper off our backs, detailing the foods we should eat and the lifestyle changes we can make to live longer.Full of practical, actionable advice and surprising, cutting-edge nutritional science, these doctor's orders offer the best chance for living healthy well-beyond our expiration dates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I first arrived inside this forest in November of nineteen
ninety two, and right away I had to know what
is the history of this lay of land, what happened
here and how did it happen? What was the foresight
of what was about to take place? The arrival of humans?
Four stories on ero dot net A R. R Oe
dot Net Enjoy the exploration. Good morning, doctor, how are
(00:22):
you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I am doing excellent. How are you doing well?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
First of all, I'm not shocked that you're putting out
a revised version of this because I think when you
and I talked the very first time, I'm going is
there going to be a follow up to this? Is
what's going to happen? Because I mean, that's one of
the things that I love about you is that you
are not afraid of what you speak of within these pages.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You got to get the word out there, however however
you can absolutely you just got to put out the science.
And that's controversial in today's on today's society, but it
really shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, the one thing that I've noticed just in the
past five years, we have seen so much when it
comes to sickness, you know, any type of anything that
gets in the way, that could poison us or put
us in the ground or be burned up. But the
thing is is that we have got to become aware
of what the causes are and are we paying attention.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, I love to treat the underlying cause. What a concept.
And you know, the evidence supporting the extraordinary power of
healthier food choices, it really only gotten stronger over the
last decade. The good news is that we have tremendous
power over our health, destiny and long jepany. And that's
a vast majority of premature death and disability is preventable
with a healthy enough die and lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Now, isn't this because you also include science into this?
And I think that's one of the biggest happy points
of my life over the past five to six years,
is that during the COVID lockdown, they finally started respecting
as well as recognizing science.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah. Well, you know, Hana to Die is over three
thousand scientific excitations, So I didn't want it to just
be a reference book. And you know the first half
of the book is fifteen chapters in each of the
fifteen leading causes of death, talking about author a diet
they play and preventing, arresting and versing each of our
top fifteen killers. But you know, beyond that, the second
half of the book, I wanted to be a practical guide.
I'm you know, making you know, kind of grocery store
(02:12):
or style decisions. So that's where I center my recommendations around.
This daily doesn't checklist of all the healthiest little healthy foods.
I encourage people to try to fit into their daily routine.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But we've changed into this where I looked at my
my main doctor, and I said, look, I said, I
don't want to get COVID. He says, yeah, you won't die.
I'm going, whoa, that's how far we've gone in five years. Ah,
you won't die.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But well, you know, doctors have a severe nutrition deficiency
in education. Yes, doctors just never taught about the impact
house the nutrition can have on the course of their illness.
So they graduate without this powerful tool in their medical toolbox. Now,
I mean that's not the only thing. Their institutional barriers,
time constraints, lack of reimbursement. You know, many doctors simply
aren't paid for counseling people and how to take better
(02:56):
care of themselves. And look, the drug companies, frankly also
play a role influencing medical education and practice. You know,
you ask your doctor when the last time they were
taken out to dinner by Big Broccoli. It's probably been
a while, So.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Now one of the things that you put focus on.
And I was taken back by this because I didn't know.
And that's how much we need you. Dieting reverses certain conditions,
it doesn't prevent them. And I was taken back by that.
I've never heard anybody say.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
That when you that's the difference between preventive medicine and
lifestyle medicine, which is using diets actually reverse the course
of lifestyle diseases by treating the underlying cause. And this
includes reversing the progression of the leading cause of death,
heart disease. And the majority of patient is only one
diet has been shown to do that. That's a diet
(03:44):
centered around these whole plant foods. And look, if that's
all a planet bate that I can do reverse the
number one killer of men and women like it, shouldn't
that be like the default die? And I provement otherwise,
And the fact that can also be so effective in
preventing arrestling reversing other leading killers like I glove, bread
usher and taps of diabetes would seem to make the
case for plant based eating simply overwhelming at this point.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
When you talk about heart disease. I'll never forget calling
my sister and telling her that my brother and her
had to get in there and get checked out because
I had just had a heart attack. And doctor Fandetti said,
you better tell your family what's going on here, and
they all went, Nah, that's not our family. And I
have to know in my heart that we are not
the only ones who think like that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
No, absolutely, look based on studies of identical twins, only
about twenty five percent of the difference in life span
between people is determined by genetics. So for what we
can do with the majority of which we have some control,
we can look to the blue zones, these areas of
exceptional longevity around the world, where they all sent to
their diets around whole plant foods, minimizing processed foods and meat, dairy, sugar, eggs, salt,
(04:50):
while maximizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legrooms like bean split,
pasted surfees and lentos, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, ors and spices,
basically real food that grows out of the ground. These
are our healthiest choices.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Please do not move. There's more with doctor Michael Gregor
coming up next. The name of the book How Not
to Die. It's been revised. You think, let's get back
in there with doctor Michael Gregor.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Hi, this is Lee Arrow's wife. I have a quick question.
My doctor had man all these meds for diabetes, and
my A and C went down and he goes, well,
you can get off your meds, and I go which ones?
He goes, it's your body you decide.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, look, if you don't mean the meds, I'm all
in favor. It's actually very rare to find a doctor
who's willing to deep prescribe these medications. But if you're
doing so good, if you're able to change your underlying
diet and linestile that led to the diabetes in the
first place, such that you no longer need those medications,
I'm all in favor. Just make sure you do that
under supervision from your doctor. You don't want your you
(05:56):
know your your blood sugar is to spike or to
crash if indeed you make lifestyle changes and find yourself
over medicating.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well see, and that's the thing about it, and you
were just talking about that with the plant based stuff,
and that's the stuff that works. I mean, we're not
one hundred percent plant based, but we've added it and
her numbers are looking good. But the one thing that
you don't hear about, doctor, and that is is that
the people that are in your family, when you change
your life for diabetes or heart disease, they're going to
lose weight too, because if their diet changes, so does yours.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh. I love that. I mean it really has to
be done as part of the family unit, yes, and
and right, and there's benefits from everybody, right, and that's
that's wonderful and you're so lucky to have that kind
of environment. Unfortunately, some people have to try to, you know,
do it alone, and that makes it much more difficult, right,
and particularly if there's you know, the people leaving donuts
(06:51):
around the house. I mean it's like, look you really,
you know, it's an expression of love to you know,
really want you know, everyone in the family to the longest,
healthiest life. And so, uh yeah, that's definitely the way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
You're also putting focus in How Not to Die revised
on cannabis. Are we talking about smoking it? And or
because th HC infused drinks or are out there as well,
and and they're they're under attack. But but yeah, you're you're,
you're kind of saying you need it. It'll it'll help
in so many different ways.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Well, there are, certainly, there's certainly certain conditions. Yeah. In fact,
the next book I'm doing is called How Not to
Hurt is talking about lifestyle approaches to pain management and
talking about the role cannabis can play the There's a
number of kind of synthetic canaminoids that are made by
(07:45):
Big Forma that been put through some tests. But but
often kind of the so called whole food is better
than the constituents of its parts. But better to vaporize
cannabis than to smoke it, just because there's there's combustion
byproducts of any kind of smoke, whether it's forest fires
or fireplaces or campfires, that we'd rather than having our lungs.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So what what do you learn? Because I mean, to me,
you you remind me so much of who I am
when it comes to an idea comes to you and
then you start digging in for research, and you will
not let it go until you find something.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well. I mean, look, we're talking about life and death decisions, okay, right,
I mean, if there's any decision to be made based
on the best available bounce of evidence, it should be
on you know, the most important decision we make in
terms of health and longevity. According to the Globe Burn
and Disease Study, the largest study of respect it's in
human history, the number one cause of death in the
(08:41):
United States is the American diet, now bumping tobacco smoking
to number two. Cigarettes only kill about a half minion Americans
every year, whereas our diet kills many more. And so
that's why critically important to you know, make decisions based
on evidence. If you're you know, buying some you know,
the the vacuum cleaner online or something, okay, then find
(09:04):
some random, you know, opinions, some stranger could actually be
useful for you. Right. But when it comes to life
and death decisions, you don't want to rely on check
out aisle magazines or you know what your buddy at
the gym told you. You want to stick to the science.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, and you know where other people go too, They
go to doctor Google and my God that that's not
the best decision. They need to be putting their nose
inside this book How Not to Die Revised.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Well, I mean certainly that's I certainly agree, and I'm
afraid things are even going to get worse where doctor
Google is going to turn into doctor Chatbot and and
you know, and then we're just going to be kind
of spoon fed whatever. These these large language models are
are feeding us and something which may actually be better
(09:51):
than just kind of random Google sources, but uh, I'm
not convinced it's not going to start hallucinating to start
telling people to you know, start eating thumbtacks or something,
and we're all going to be in big trouble.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Where can people go to find out more about you, doctor,
because I love where your heart is and I love
your outreach.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Thinking all of it. They can go to nutrition Facts there,
or they can get my books at the local public library.
In all proceeds I get from all my books are
donated directly to charity. I just want everyone to enjoy
the longest, healthiest life.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I love it. Please come back to this show anytime
in the future. You know that door is going to
be open for you, Dude.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I love it. Thank you, keep up the good work.
I first arrived inside this forest in November of nineteen
ninety two, and right away I had to know what
is the history of this lay of land, what happened
here and how did it happen? What was the foresight
of what was about to take place? The arrival of humans?
Four stories on ero dot net A R. R Oe
dot Net Enjoy the exploration. Good morning, doctor, how are
(00:22):
you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I am doing excellent. How are you doing well?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
First of all, I'm not shocked that you're putting out
a revised version of this because I think when you
and I talked the very first time, I'm going is
there going to be a follow up to this? Is
what's going to happen? Because I mean, that's one of
the things that I love about you is that you
are not afraid of what you speak of within these pages.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You got to get the word out there, however however
you can absolutely you just got to put out the science.
And that's controversial in today's on today's society, but it
really shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, the one thing that I've noticed just in the
past five years, we have seen so much when it
comes to sickness, you know, any type of anything that
gets in the way, that could poison us or put
us in the ground or be burned up. But the
thing is is that we have got to become aware
of what the causes are and are we paying attention.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, I love to treat the underlying cause. What a concept.
And you know, the evidence supporting the extraordinary power of
healthier food choices, it really only gotten stronger over the
last decade. The good news is that we have tremendous
power over our health, destiny and long jepany. And that's
a vast majority of premature death and disability is preventable
with a healthy enough die and lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Now, isn't this because you also include science into this?
And I think that's one of the biggest happy points
of my life over the past five to six years,
is that during the COVID lockdown, they finally started respecting
as well as recognizing science.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah. Well, you know, Hana to Die is over three
thousand scientific excitations, So I didn't want it to just
be a reference book. And you know the first half
of the book is fifteen chapters in each of the
fifteen leading causes of death, talking about author a diet
they play and preventing, arresting and versing each of our
top fifteen killers. But you know, beyond that, the second
half of the book, I wanted to be a practical guide.
I'm you know, making you know, kind of grocery store
(02:12):
or style decisions. So that's where I center my recommendations around.
This daily doesn't checklist of all the healthiest little healthy foods.
I encourage people to try to fit into their daily routine.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But we've changed into this where I looked at my
my main doctor, and I said, look, I said, I
don't want to get COVID. He says, yeah, you won't die.
I'm going, whoa, that's how far we've gone in five years. Ah,
you won't die.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But well, you know, doctors have a severe nutrition deficiency
in education. Yes, doctors just never taught about the impact
house the nutrition can have on the course of their illness.
So they graduate without this powerful tool in their medical toolbox. Now,
I mean that's not the only thing. Their institutional barriers,
time constraints, lack of reimbursement. You know, many doctors simply
aren't paid for counseling people and how to take better
(02:56):
care of themselves. And look, the drug companies, frankly also
play a role influencing medical education and practice. You know,
you ask your doctor when the last time they were
taken out to dinner by Big Broccoli. It's probably been
a while, So.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Now one of the things that you put focus on.
And I was taken back by this because I didn't know.
And that's how much we need you. Dieting reverses certain conditions,
it doesn't prevent them. And I was taken back by that.
I've never heard anybody say.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
That when you that's the difference between preventive medicine and
lifestyle medicine, which is using diets actually reverse the course
of lifestyle diseases by treating the underlying cause. And this
includes reversing the progression of the leading cause of death,
heart disease. And the majority of patient is only one
diet has been shown to do that. That's a diet
(03:44):
centered around these whole plant foods. And look, if that's
all a planet bate that I can do reverse the
number one killer of men and women like it, shouldn't
that be like the default die? And I provement otherwise,
And the fact that can also be so effective in
preventing arrestling reversing other leading killers like I glove, bread
usher and taps of diabetes would seem to make the
case for plant based eating simply overwhelming at this point.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
When you talk about heart disease. I'll never forget calling
my sister and telling her that my brother and her
had to get in there and get checked out because
I had just had a heart attack. And doctor Fandetti said,
you better tell your family what's going on here, and
they all went, Nah, that's not our family. And I
have to know in my heart that we are not
the only ones who think like that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
No, absolutely, look based on studies of identical twins, only
about twenty five percent of the difference in life span
between people is determined by genetics. So for what we
can do with the majority of which we have some control,
we can look to the blue zones, these areas of
exceptional longevity around the world, where they all sent to
their diets around whole plant foods, minimizing processed foods and meat, dairy, sugar, eggs, salt,
(04:50):
while maximizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legrooms like bean split,
pasted surfees and lentos, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, ors and spices,
basically real food that grows out of the ground. These
are our healthiest choices.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Please do not move. There's more with doctor Michael Gregor
coming up next. The name of the book How Not
to Die. It's been revised. You think, let's get back
in there with doctor Michael Gregor.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Hi, this is Lee Arrow's wife. I have a quick question.
My doctor had man all these meds for diabetes, and
my A and C went down and he goes, well,
you can get off your meds, and I go which ones?
He goes, it's your body you decide.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, look, if you don't mean the meds, I'm all
in favor. It's actually very rare to find a doctor
who's willing to deep prescribe these medications. But if you're
doing so good, if you're able to change your underlying
diet and linestile that led to the diabetes in the
first place, such that you no longer need those medications,
I'm all in favor. Just make sure you do that
under supervision from your doctor. You don't want your you
(05:56):
know your your blood sugar is to spike or to
crash if indeed you make lifestyle changes and find yourself
over medicating.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well see, and that's the thing about it, and you
were just talking about that with the plant based stuff,
and that's the stuff that works. I mean, we're not
one hundred percent plant based, but we've added it and
her numbers are looking good. But the one thing that
you don't hear about, doctor, and that is is that
the people that are in your family, when you change
your life for diabetes or heart disease, they're going to
lose weight too, because if their diet changes, so does yours.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh. I love that. I mean it really has to
be done as part of the family unit, yes, and
and right, and there's benefits from everybody, right, and that's
that's wonderful and you're so lucky to have that kind
of environment. Unfortunately, some people have to try to, you know,
do it alone, and that makes it much more difficult, right,
and particularly if there's you know, the people leaving donuts
(06:51):
around the house. I mean it's like, look you really,
you know, it's an expression of love to you know,
really want you know, everyone in the family to the longest,
healthiest life. And so, uh yeah, that's definitely the way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
You're also putting focus in How Not to Die revised
on cannabis. Are we talking about smoking it? And or
because th HC infused drinks or are out there as well,
and and they're they're under attack. But but yeah, you're you're,
you're kind of saying you need it. It'll it'll help
in so many different ways.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Well, there are, certainly, there's certainly certain conditions. Yeah. In fact,
the next book I'm doing is called How Not to
Hurt is talking about lifestyle approaches to pain management and
talking about the role cannabis can play the There's a
number of kind of synthetic canaminoids that are made by
(07:45):
Big Forma that been put through some tests. But but
often kind of the so called whole food is better
than the constituents of its parts. But better to vaporize
cannabis than to smoke it, just because there's there's combustion
byproducts of any kind of smoke, whether it's forest fires
or fireplaces or campfires, that we'd rather than having our lungs.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So what what do you learn? Because I mean, to me,
you you remind me so much of who I am
when it comes to an idea comes to you and
then you start digging in for research, and you will
not let it go until you find something.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well. I mean, look, we're talking about life and death decisions, okay, right,
I mean, if there's any decision to be made based
on the best available bounce of evidence, it should be
on you know, the most important decision we make in
terms of health and longevity. According to the Globe Burn
and Disease Study, the largest study of respect it's in
human history, the number one cause of death in the
(08:41):
United States is the American diet, now bumping tobacco smoking
to number two. Cigarettes only kill about a half minion Americans
every year, whereas our diet kills many more. And so
that's why critically important to you know, make decisions based
on evidence. If you're you know, buying some you know,
the the vacuum cleaner online or something, okay, then find
(09:04):
some random, you know, opinions, some stranger could actually be
useful for you. Right. But when it comes to life
and death decisions, you don't want to rely on check
out aisle magazines or you know what your buddy at
the gym told you. You want to stick to the science.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, and you know where other people go too, They
go to doctor Google and my God that that's not
the best decision. They need to be putting their nose
inside this book How Not to Die Revised.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Well, I mean certainly that's I certainly agree, and I'm
afraid things are even going to get worse where doctor
Google is going to turn into doctor Chatbot and and
you know, and then we're just going to be kind
of spoon fed whatever. These these large language models are
are feeding us and something which may actually be better
(09:51):
than just kind of random Google sources, but uh, I'm
not convinced it's not going to start hallucinating to start
telling people to you know, start eating thumbtacks or something,
and we're all going to be in big trouble.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Where can people go to find out more about you, doctor,
because I love where your heart is and I love
your outreach.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Thinking all of it. They can go to nutrition Facts there,
or they can get my books at the local public library.
In all proceeds I get from all my books are
donated directly to charity. I just want everyone to enjoy
the longest, healthiest life.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I love it. Please come back to this show anytime
in the future. You know that door is going to
be open for you, Dude.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I love it. Thank you, keep up the good work.
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