Michael Greger Quotes

Powerful Michael Greger for Daily Growth

About Michael Greger

Michael Greger is an American physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. Born in 1975, he grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his passion for animals, health, and the environment was nurtured from a young age. Greger graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with a degree in Biology before earning his medical degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of California, San Francisco, where he served as Chief Resident. In 2011, Greger founded NutritionFacts.org, a non-profit nutritional education resource, providing free videos and articles on scientifically-backed health information. His work has been featured by CNN, Time Magazine, The New York Times, and many other major media outlets. Greger's most notable work is his book "How Not to Die," which was a New York Times Best Seller. The book offers evidence-based advice on preventing and reversing chronic diseases through diet. His second book, "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching," explores the origins and implications of bird flu viruses, providing insights into how we can prevent pandemics. Greger's work has been influenced by his belief in the power of plants to heal and prevent disease, as well as his concern for the environment and animal welfare. He is a strong advocate for a whole food, plant-based diet, which he believes can not only improve personal health but also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end factory farming. Greger's impact on nutrition education and public health is significant, with millions of people worldwide accessing his free resources to make informed choices about their health and the planet.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The food you eat can fight or fuel disease."

This quote emphasizes that the food we consume plays a crucial role in our health, either positively or negatively. Nutritious foods with beneficial components can aid in preventing or managing diseases, while unhealthy or processed foods can exacerbate health issues and increase disease risks. Therefore, making conscious dietary choices can significantly impact our well-being and longevity.

"If we could grow our own veggies and fruits, wouldn't it be healthier than eating meat?"

This quote by Michael Greger suggests a preference for plant-based diets over meat consumption due to their potential health benefits. The implication is that if one has the ability to grow their own vegetables and fruits, they could obtain a more nutritious diet compared to eating meat, which may be associated with higher saturated fat content, cholesterol levels, and other potential health risks. However, it's important to note that this statement does not necessarily imply vegetarianism or veganism as a lifestyle choice but rather highlights the health benefits of incorporating more plant-based foods into one's diet.

"Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates (Ancient Greece)

This quote emphasizes the importance of nutrition in maintaining health, as well as treating illnesses or ailments. It suggests that the foods we consume should be therapeutic, promoting well-being rather than causing harm. In essence, the focus is on using food as a primary method for healing and preventing diseases, rather than relying solely on medication. This viewpoint underscores the interconnectedness of our dietary choices and overall health, urging us to make conscious decisions about what we eat to improve our well-being.

"Every day a poor diet is killing 700,000 people worldwide."

This quote emphasizes the global impact of unhealthy diets on human life expectancy. Every day, approximately 700,000 people die due to diet-related causes, signifying a significant mortality rate linked to food consumption patterns. The statement underscores the importance of proper nutrition in maintaining health and extending lifespan, urging individuals and policymakers to prioritize healthy eating habits for the betterment of public health worldwide.

"The best way to lower your cholesterol is not with a pill but by changing what's on your plate."

This quote emphasizes that dietary choices play a significant role in managing one's cholesterol levels, rather than relying solely on medication. It suggests that adopting a healthier diet can be an effective way to reduce high cholesterol levels, which is crucial for maintaining heart health and overall well-being. The underlying implication is that individuals have the power to impact their health positively by making conscious food choices.

The emergence and spread of virulent strains of avian influenza has been attributed by experts to the intensely overcrowded, unsanitary, and stressful conditions that often characterize large-scale factory farming in industrialized agriculture.

- Michael Greger

Been, Factory, Influenza, Emergence

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.

- Michael Greger

Death, Words, Other, Disability

Nitric oxide is a key biological messenger within the body. When released by the cells lining your arteries, it makes the walls of the arteries relax, allowing more blood to flow.

- Michael Greger

Relax, More, Within, Messenger

Popeye was right about spinach: dark green, leafy vegetables are the healthiest food on the planet. As whole foods go, they offer the most nutrition per calorie.

- Michael Greger

Green, Planet, Foods, Spinach

You have to build up to green smoothies. Everyone loves fruit smoothies: you can add a handful of baby spinach to a fruit smoothie and may hardly even taste it. Next, try two. Slowly, your taste buds can adapt to more greens.

- Michael Greger

Fruit, Next, Taste, Spinach

For women, eating just two handfuls of nuts a week may extend their lives as much as by jogging four hours a week.

- Michael Greger

Week, Hours, May, Jogging

People tend to eat poorly because it's convenient; it's what's around them. But you can make the switch. I think the way to do that is to just make fruits and vegetables as convenient as possible to eat.

- Michael Greger

Think, I Think, Poorly, Convenient

Anyone who's promoting the exact diet that they were in previous years probably isn't keeping up with the latest science, though in general, the balance of evidence has remained remarkably consistent - centering one's diet around whole plant foods.

- Michael Greger

Evidence, Foods, Whole, Remarkably

One of the worst things you can do if you're worried about breast cancer is to cook beef, pork, fish or poultry at a high temperature - which includes frying, grilling and roasting.

- Michael Greger

Cook, About, Which, Poultry

While consumers may be more shocked by pink slime or the feeding of Prozac to poultry, the routine feeding of millions of pounds of human antibiotics to chickens presents a much graver threat.

- Michael Greger

Pink, More, May, Poultry

Scientists suggest that the link between consuming poultry and cancer spread may be due to carcinogens in cooked meat. For unknown reasons, these carcinogens build up more in the muscles of chickens and turkeys than in those of other animals.

- Michael Greger

Other, Link, Reasons, Poultry

High levels of stress can lead to weakened immunity, rendering animals much more susceptible to disease. This makes the average poultry factory farm a hotbed for outbreaks of avian flu.

- Michael Greger

Stress, Average, Factory, Poultry

A good way to adjust to a healthier diet is to think of three meals you enjoy that are largely plant-based. Pasta with tomato sauce can be tweaked to whole-grain pasta with added vegetables.

- Michael Greger

Think, Healthier, Added, Adjust

While positive mental states may be associated with less stress and more resilience to infection, positive well-being might also be accompanied by a healthy lifestyle.

- Michael Greger

Stress, Well-Being, May, Healthy Lifestyle

As you eat more healthily, your palate changes - it's amazing. Your taste buds constantly adapt: from minute to minute, in fact. If you drank orange juice right now, it would taste sweet. But if you first ate some sweets then drank the same juice, it could taste unpleasantly bitter.

- Michael Greger

Fact, Some, Taste, Drank

Unhealthy meals don't just cause internal damage decades down the road, but right here and now, within hours of going into your mouth.

- Michael Greger

Here, Internal, Damage, Unhealthy

Tobacco smoke contains chemicals that weaken the body's immune system, making it more susceptible to disease and handicapping its ability to destroy cancer cells.

- Michael Greger

Making, Disease, Immune, Tobacco

A small minority of strokes are hemorrhagic strokes, which are caused by bleeding into the brain when a blood vessel bursts.

- Michael Greger

Small, Which, Strokes, Vessel

When any fat is heated to frying temperatures, toxic volatile chemicals that can cause genetic mutations are released into the air.

- Michael Greger

Toxic, Genetic, Cause, Mutations

Broccoli is incredible. It can prevent DNA damage and metastatic cancer spread; activate defences against pathogens and pollutants; help to prevent lymphoma; boost the enzymes that detox your liver; target breast cancer stem cells; and reduce the risk of prostate cancer progression.

- Michael Greger

Against, Damage, Stem Cells, Detox

Ounce for ounce, herbs and spices have more antioxidants than any other food group.

- Michael Greger

More, Other, Than, Group

About a quarter of lung cancer cases occur in people who have never smoked. One cause may be another potential carcinogen: fumes from frying.

- Michael Greger

May, Cases, Smoked, Lung

The fumes produced by frying bacon contain carcinogens called nitrosamines. Though all meat may release potentially carcinogenic fumes, processed meat such as bacon may be the worst.

- Michael Greger

May, Contain, Though, Frying

The benefits of a healthier diet are far-reaching because they also equate to fewer animals being bred into inhumane factory farm conditions and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

- Michael Greger

Benefits, Equate, Bred, Greenhouse

We need to boost our intake of healthy plant foods and reduce our dependence on animal-based foods.

- Michael Greger

Need, Reduce, Foods, Boost

A plant-based diet is like a one-stop shop against chronic diseases.

- Michael Greger

Against, Like, Shop, Chronic

Don't forget that fruit can be cooked - think of baked apples, poached pears and grilled pineapple. But if you like drinking fruit, blending will preserve more nutrition and fibre than juicing.

- Michael Greger

Think, Like, Drinking, Pears

When the FDA announced its intentions to join other countries and ban quinolone use on U.S. chicken farms, the drug manufacturer Bayer initiated legal action that successfully delayed the process for five years.

- Michael Greger

Chicken, Other, Initiated, Manufacturer

Simply switching to a healthy, plant-based diet can lessen stroke risk by reducing cholesterol and blood pressure, flooding your body with antioxidants and improving blood flow.

- Michael Greger

Flooding, Switching, Your, Flow

The USDA is tasked with managing and promoting agriculture - including the well-funded animal agriculture industry - so it's pulled into a tug-of-war every time the dietary guidelines are re-evaluated.

- Michael Greger

Promoting, Including, Pulled, Guidelines

So, what is a stroke? In about 90 per cent of strokes, it's the result of blood flow to part of the brain getting cut off, depriving it of oxygen and killing off the part fed by the clogged artery.

- Michael Greger

Cut, Depriving, Strokes, Flow

In nature, disease-causing strains of avian influenza rarely spread far because the birds sicken and die before they can fly to spread it to others.

- Michael Greger

Nature, Die, Influenza, Strains

The Iowa Women's Health Study, which has followed more than 35,000 women for decades, found eating more broccoli, cauliflower, kale and other cruciferous vegetables was associated with a lower risk of getting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the first place.

- Michael Greger

Study, Iowa, Cauliflower, Decades

Mental health can be just as important as physical health - and major depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental illnesses.

- Michael Greger

Health, Commonly, Illnesses, Diagnosed

Most Alzheimer's sufferers aren't diagnosed until their 70s. However, we now know that their brains began deteriorating long before that.

- Michael Greger

Alzheimer, However, Began, Diagnosed

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.

- Michael Greger

Die, Wheelchair, Had, Diagnosed

Studies of immigration show that this resistance to heart disease is not just something in African or Chinese genes. When people move from low-risk to high-risk areas, disease rates skyrocket as they adopt Western diets and lifestyles.

- Michael Greger

Show, Chinese, Diets, Just Something

Certain foods, such as meat, appear to harbour toxic bacteria - known as endotoxins - that can trigger inflammation in your arteries, even when food is fully cooked.

- Michael Greger

Toxic, Harbour, Foods, Fully

Nutrition is an exciting, dynamic field - there are more than 10,000 articles published on human nutrition in medical journals every year.

- Michael Greger

Medical, Year, More, Journals

You can be in excellent physical shape, with low cholesterol, a healthy body weight and good overall physical fitness - but that doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy.

- Michael Greger

Excellent, Shape, Weight, Physical Fitness

After following more than 60,000 people for more than a dozen years, University of Oxford researchers found those who consume a plant-based diet were less likely to develop all forms of cancer combined.

- Michael Greger

University, Dozen, Consume, Forms

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.

- Michael Greger

Pain, Want, Ill, Beloved

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.

- Michael Greger

Death, Maybe, Leading, Assume

In my clinical practice, the one diagnosis I always dreaded giving was Alzheimer's. Billions have been spent on research, but there's still neither a cure nor an effective treatment.

- Michael Greger

Alzheimer, Always, Treatment, Diagnosis

You can buy turmeric from any supermarket - or get it raw from Asian shops and grate a quarter of an inch of the root into your food. There's evidence to suggest raw turmeric may have greater anti-inflammatory effects, while cooked turmeric offers better DNA protection.

- Michael Greger

Protection, Evidence, Buy, Supermarket

Physical activity is considered a promising preventive measure against breast cancer - not only because it helps with weight control but because exercise tends to lower circulating estrogen levels.

- Michael Greger

Activity, Considered, Lower, Levels

Tart cherries lower the levels of inflammation in the body, which may be particularly useful for those who suffer from gout. They have also been used to improve sleep.

- Michael Greger

Been, Which, Particularly, Levels

In a Harvard University study, the diets of nearly 1,000 women were analysed before their morning melatonin levels were measured. Meat consumption was the only food significantly associated with lower melatonin production, for reasons that are as yet unknown.

- Michael Greger

Study, Measured, Reasons, Levels

Among identical twins who have the exact same genes, one may die early of a heart attack and the other may live a long, healthy life - depending on their lifestyle and what they eat.

- Michael Greger

Die, Other, May, Exact

Five hours a week of vigorous aerobic exercise can lower estrogen and progesterone exposure by about 20 per cent.

- Michael Greger

Week, Hours, Cent, Vigorous

One of the reasons it's so difficult to study the relationship between diet and disease is because many dietary behaviors are associated with non-dietary behaviors.

- Michael Greger

Study, Disease, Reasons, Dietary

Harvard University researchers found that women at high risk of heart disease who had a tablespoon of peanut butter five or more days a week appeared to nearly halve their risk of suffering a heart attack compared with women who ate one serving or less per week.

- Michael Greger

Suffering, Week, University, Harvard

As a physician specializing in nutrition, my priority is to the health of the public.

- Michael Greger

Health, Nutrition, Public, Priority

Milk contains growth hormones designed by Mother Nature to put a few hundred pounds on a baby calf within a few months.

- Michael Greger

Hormones, Hundred, Months, Designed

If you consume too much salt, it can cause water retention. When this happens, your body usually responds by raising your blood pressure to push excess fluid and salt out of your system.

- Michael Greger

Cause, Consume, Responds, Push

Remove all the junk from one's house. Then one doesn't have to deal with the temptation. If you get hungry enough, you will eat that apple.

- Michael Greger

Will, Deal, Then, Remove

Even if you were to start drinking milk during adolescence in an attempt to bolster peak bone mass, it probably wouldn't reduce your chances of fracture later in life.

- Michael Greger

Drinking, Mass, Reduce, Bolster

Studies on cherries, raspberries and strawberries suggest that most of their nutrition is retained when they're frozen, so it's a good idea to keep some in the freezer.

- Michael Greger

Cherries, Some, Idea, Studies

Up to a thousand milligrams of caffeine is considered safe for most people, which translates into about 10 cups of coffee a day.

- Michael Greger

About, Which, Considered, Cups

Women with a higher intake of berries appeared to have delayed cognitive aging by 2.5 years. So it's like your brain is 2.5 years younger if you're eating berries.

- Michael Greger

Like, Younger, Delayed, Aging

As you age, your blood pressure tends to get higher.

- Michael Greger

Pressure, Get, Your, Tends

Good news for orange lovers: citrus fruit intake has been associated with reduced stroke risk.

- Michael Greger

News, Good News, Been, Stroke

A massive stroke may kill you instantly, while a series of mini-strokes may disable and kill you over several years.

- Michael Greger

Over, May, Several, Stroke

Eating a varied plant-based diet - and avoiding all meat, fish, chicken and dairy products - may have much to recommend it, but it's certainly not for everyone.

- Michael Greger

Chicken, May, Certainly, Dairy

Most of us know that the hormone melatonin helps regulate our sleep. But it also seems to play another role - suppressing cancer growth.

- Michael Greger

Play, Role, Regulate, Helps

Walking at a moderate pace for an hour a day is considered a moderately intense level of exercise.

- Michael Greger

Level, Hour, Moderately, Moderate

The largest outbreak of bird flu in American history was an H5N2 virus, which led to the deaths of 17 million domestic birds and cost the nation more than $400 million during an outbreak in Pennsylvania that started in 1983.

- Michael Greger

American, Nation, Largest, American History

Everyone feels sad occasionally. A full range of emotions is part of what makes us human.

- Michael Greger

Emotions, Everyone, Feels, Occasionally

A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomised trial of boys with autism found that two to three servings of cruciferous vegetables a day improves social interaction, abnormal behaviour and verbal communication - within a matter of weeks.

- Michael Greger

Within, Social, Weeks, Behaviour

Oregano is such an antioxidant-rich herb that researchers decided to see if it could reduce the DNA-damaging effects of radiation.

- Michael Greger

Could, Reduce, Researchers, Radiation

Though pigs have been proven susceptible to a porcine spongiform encephalopathy, the National Pork Producers Council claims that no naturally occurring cases of 'mad pig' disease have ever been discovered.

- Michael Greger

Been, Discovered, Cases, Producers

Despite the growing evidence of health benefits associated with coffee consumption, I still don't recommend my patients drink it - not because it's not healthy, but because there are even healthier choices.

- Michael Greger

Benefits, Evidence, Still, Consumption

Cholesterol - which you get from eating too much of the wrong kind of fat - doesn't just help clog arteries in the brain, it may also help to seed the amyloid plaques that riddle the brain tissue of Alzheimer's victims.

- Michael Greger

Seed, Riddle, Tissue, Victims

You can actually take people with these precancerous lesions, and basically paint black raspberries on them, and they nearly vanish.

- Michael Greger

Black, Paint, Nearly, Vanish

The problem with all-or-nothing thinking is that it stops people even taking the first steps. The thought of never having pepperoni pizza again somehow turns into an excuse to keep ordering it every week.

- Michael Greger

Thought, Week, Having, The Problem With

Breast cancer is thought to use cholesterol to help the cancer migrate and invade more tissue.

- Michael Greger

Help, Breast Cancer, Invade, Tissue

Although even light exercise is associated with a lowered risk of some other types of cancer, for breast cancer, it appears that leisurely strolls don't appear to cut it.

- Michael Greger

Some, Other, Types, Leisurely

Berries are the healthiest fruit, offering potential protection against cancer and heart disease, boosting the immune system and acting as a guard for the liver and brain.

- Michael Greger

Disease, Liver, Immune, Potential

Without enough nitric oxide, your arteries can stiffen, raising blood pressure and your risk of heart attack.

- Michael Greger

Enough, Your, Raising, Attack

Sadly, commercially-produced, frozen broccoli lacks the ability to form sulforaphane because the vegetables are flash-cooked before they are frozen.

- Michael Greger

Before, Broccoli, Sadly, Lacks

Berries have a lot of soluble fiber. That's why they gel up when you're making your Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, with the pectin.

- Michael Greger

Why, Making, Fiber, Berries

Sick animals can lead to sick people.

- Michael Greger

People, Lead, Sick, Animals

Sometimes it feels like there aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done.

- Michael Greger

Sometimes, Like, Hours, Feels

If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.