Diet Quotes

To help boost cellular and DNA repair and maintenance, fast overnight and limit snacking between main meals. There are health benefits from simply restricting the number of hours in the day when we eat (called “intermittent fasting” or “time-restricted feeding”). These benefits arise because a period of several hours without food turns off the damage-producing growth pathways and activates the cellular and DNA repair and maintenance processes that support health and longevity. Sleep well. Sleep is the third pillar of health and wellness, along with diet and exercise. Get active—outdoors if possible—and sociable. Physical activity and social interactions are clearly related to improved health and longevity. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Intermittent fasting is a promising nutritional approach for cancer prevention, as it protects against many of the risk factors such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and inflammation. Low-carbohydrate diets reduce glucose and insulin, but not the other nutrient sensors, mTOR and AMPK. Fasting simultaneously reduces all the human nutrient sensors and most of the growth pathways, such as PI3K, mTOR, and IGF-1, and also increases autophagy and mitophagy. One recent study found that women who fast for fewer than thirteen hours per night, despite having a lower BMI than other women in the study who fasted for that duration, had a 36 percent higher risk of recurrent breast cancer. [2020] - Jason Fung

In 2000, researchers in Japan found that high consumption of green tea delayed the average age of cancer onset by 7.3 years and reduced breast cancer recurrence. Green tea extract supplements were shown to reduce the incidence of colorectal adenomas by over 50 percent in small pilot studies. In prostate cancer, green tea extracts block the progression of high-grade precancerous lesions. These studies are promising but highly preliminary, but green tea is one of the few chemopreventive tools that is a low-cost, natural food with no negative side effects. [2020] - Jason Fung

There are four principles of a Nutritarian diet: 1) The only proven strategy for slowing aging and prolonging lifespan is moderate calorie restriction in the environment of micronutrient excellence. 2) A diet has to be hormonally favorable to enable maximal lifespan. 3) Optimal exposure to all macronutrients and micronutrients humans require is needed to maximize health and lifespan--this is called Comprehensive Nutrient Adequacy (CNA). 4) Synthetic chemicals, toxins, pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and other disease-causing substances should be avoided.  [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Even though brown rice is a whole grain, I no longer recommend its consumption because of significant arsenic contamination of most of the brown rice available for purchase in the United States--even organic brown rice and wild rice. Arsenic is a causative factor in many cancers, and it also promotes heart disease. Recommended intact whole grains include wheat berries, steel cut oats, quinoa, buckwheat, barley, millet, teff, and amaranth. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Restricting animal protein during most of adult life to maintain a relatively low IGF-1 is an important objective for people who desire superior health and life extension. For most adults, keeping IGF-1 levels below 175 ng/mL is likely important, with less than 150 ng/mL being even more protective. However, serum IGF-1 levels less than 80 ng/mL are likely detrimental, especially after the age of 75. Older adults require adequate protein intake (such as a pea and hemp protein powder and/or a small amount of animal products) coupled with strengthening exercises to counteract the muscle loss and prevent functional decline and falls. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Eating a diet rich in natural plants can raise health issues if it is not supplemented property. Though a vegan diet may be the most lifespan-favorable diet, there are drawbacks and risks from lack of exposure to beneficial nutrients, such as vitamin B12, zinc, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are more readily available in animal products. Deficiencies and even chronic insufficiencies of these three micronutrients can have life-threatening consequences. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Antioxidants found in plant food, called phytates, limit the absorption of zinc from plants such that only about 20% of zinc present in beans and greens is absorbed by the body. So even if the content of a plant-based diet appears to meet our zinc requirements, the levels supplied are still suboptimal, and with absorptive capacity decreasing further with aging, this potentially places the aging vegan at increased risk. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Exposure to some fish or a small amount of fish oil seems to offer benefits. However, the minute you start taking high doses (more than 1 gram daily) of fish oil, problems seem to erupt and negate many of the benefits. I recommend supplementing EPA and DHA to prevent insufficiency only if you do not eat fish regularly. That said, you must not overdo supplementation. It is ideal to use an algae-based DHA and EPA supplement in a relatively low dose (such as 200-300 milligrams total) to prevent deficiency--and also to protect yourself from exposure to the environmental contaminants potentially found in fish and fish oil. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Acrylamide is one of hundreds of chemicals known as Maillard reaction products (MRPs) formed when foods are heated at high temperature with dry heat. Acrylamide has been classified as a Group 2A carcinogen (probably carcinogenic to humans) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). To reduce your exposure to acrylamide, cook starchy foods like turnips and sweet potatoes mostly in stews or soups because cooking in water prevents acrylamide formation. When you bake or roast vegetables, do not allow them to brown. Increasing the water content helps--soaking starchy foods in water before roasting reduces acrylamide formation. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Farmed salmon had 16 times more PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) content than wild-caught salmon and 4 times more than beef. Sport-caught fish or shellfish are often high in PCB and DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). Commercial fish that are high in these pollutants include Atlantic or farmed salmon, bluefish, wild striped bass, white and Atlantic croaker, blackback or winter flounder, summer flounder, American eel, and blue crab. Seafood that is lower in both PCBs and mercury include oysters, sardines, rainbow trout, sablefish, and arctic char. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Flavonoids are a class of phytochemicals that includes green tea catechins, berry anthocyanins, soy isoflavones, cocoa flavanols, and citrus flavanones. They also have antioxidant activity and have the critical role of protecting mitochondrial DNA. Flavonoid intake is associated with cell stability and resistance to oxidative damage. They improve immune defenses and have direct cancer protective properties. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Soy protein powder and isolated or concentrated soy protein-based processed foods don't promote health. Because the amino acid distribution of soy protein powders is very similar to that of animal protein and is highly concentrated, such powders can increase IGF-1 levels too much, which is not helpful in preventing or treating cancer. Eating edamame or tempeh and using dried soybeans in soups and stews are the most favorable and protective ways to utilize soy. Tofu and soymilk have the fiber of the bean removed, and though they may still have benefits, they don't have as much anticancer potential. Using the whole beans, along with other beans, lentils, and peas, offers more potential protection. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

You need folate, not folic acid. Key to the avoidance of cancer is to steer clear of supplements that contain folic acid and foods fortified with folic acid. It's too easy to overdose with this synthetic "nutrient" that promotes cellular replication and cancer. Folate is abundant in green vegetables, beans, and other plant foods. In fact, people following a Nutritarian diet typically have blood levels of folate that are above the normal range. The extra amount of folate in the bloodstream is not hurtful. Only people who don't eat sufficient amounts of vegetables could be low in folate. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Food is the cause of, and should be the solution for, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Everything else is just window dressing. It's a fact that heart disease is a food-created issue and that a superior diet can restore your health relatively quickly. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Studies also indicate that a diet high in fiber is more important for longevity than a diet low in carbohydrates. High amounts of fiber lower cholesterol, modulate sugar levels, and increase bowel health by keeping things moving through the intestines. As for protein, studies show that of all the options, meat is the most detrimental to health. Processed red meat increased the risk of mortality more than any other protein, but the risk from eating poultry and fish was not significant, and neither was the risk from eating protein from dairy. Eggs appear to increase the mortality rate, though, and there are associations between eating eggs and incidence of cardiovascular mortality. [2020] - Nir Barzilai

Olive oil’s antioxidant polyphenols have a direct effect on blood vessels and genes, and they feed the good gut bacteria and produce fatty acids that lower inflammation. Only the extra-virgin olive oil delivered health benefits. Olive oils that were not extra-virgin did not appear to produce any benefits. Cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil contains about thirty types of polyphenols that reduce inflammation and target the hallmarks of aging, particularly in the cardiovascular system and the brain. It also has lower acidity and tastes better than less healthy olive oils. [2020] - Nir Barzilai

Many people who are age fifty or older may also need to boost their intake of vitamin B12, calcium, and vitamin D. Vitamin B12 rich sources: liver and kidneys, especially from lamb, clams, sardines, beef, trout, salmon, and eggs. But older people may not absorb enough of it from food. B12 is also deficient in some patients who have been taking metformin for a long time. Calcium rich sources: green leafy vegetables like broccoli, collard greens, kale, and spinach, low-fat dairy products, and nondairy “milk” that's fortified with calcium. But as with vitamin B12, older adults may not absorb enough of this micronutrient from food. [2020] - Nir Barzilai

There are different schools of thought on how we should fast and for how long; at the moment, it’s commonly thought that the best results occur when the fast is done for sixteen to twenty-four hours at least once or twice a week. Fasting daily may generally produce the best results. [2020] - Nir Barzilai

In my own research program in the 1970s and 1980s on experimental rats, as well as in The China Study, we repeatedly established the ability of higher consumption of the milk-based protein casein to dramatically increase a growth hormone associated with increased cancer development. In contrast, high levels of a "low-quality" wheat protein had the opposite effect. Due to its "deficiency" in the amino acid lysine, the wheat protein prevented cancer development. (We know that the missing lysine was responsible for this change because when lysine was restored, cancer growth resumed to the same level as for the casein.) [2020] - T. Colin Campbell