Review: How Not to Die Cookbook

I’ve been hearing about Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. for a quite a long time now. I downloaded his app “Daily Dozen” (free) several months ago and have only used it on and off, when I think about it. Then I heard about his book, How Not to Die, and honestly, couldn’t quite get past the title. It just seemed so, ‘in your face.’

Recently, I was in a bookstore (as I often am!) and saw Dr. Greger’s How Not to Die Cookbook. Out of sheer curiousity I picked it up and holding the cover as horizontal as possible (you know, so no one else could see me looking at this book with the horrible title) I proceeded to flip through it and scan the recipes.

• Each recipe uses everyday fresh ingredients that I often have in my home already.
• Each recipe is simple, quick and easy to prepare.
• It has a ton of pictures! (For me, cookbooks MUST have lots of pictures.)

Ultimately, I found myself completely impressed. So impressed, I bought a copy for relative as a gift (promptly apologizing for the book title when she started laughing!) Shortly thereafter, I purchased my own copy.

I intend to pick up the companion book, How Not to Die, very soon to get the full picture of his research. The cookbook has a summary of Dr. Greger’s research which after reading, I found supported all the things I’ve already learned over the last several years of researching for my own interest. How Not to Die is actually a perfect title (although, I still wouldn’t have picked it myself) as Dr. Greger explains how our food choices affect our health and wellness and can prevent or even reverse diseases that would normally carry a death sentence. Being type 2 diabetic, which he specifically addresses, I figured I should take what he has to say seriously and learned that what he says just makes sense.

The cookbook works side-by-side with his Daily Dozen app and truthfully the recipes are brilliant.

I’ve also made notation of mentions on social media of a drink called “Golden Lattes” and have been wanting to try as it would incorporate more turmeric into my diet. This recipe book has a recipe called “Golden Chai.” (pg 204) It’s outstanding and reminds me so much of my mom and dad’s Indian Chai recipe. (Except they made their chai with milk. With me being lactose intolerant, I thought I couldn’t enjoy a good chai any more. I was wrong!)

You can learn more about Dr. Greger at his website called Nutrition Facts. It’s a fantastic (free) resource.

It’s important to note that typically I talk about being raw vegan and practicing flexitarianism around that lifestyle. Dr. Greger speaks to a whole-foods plant-based (wfpb) lifestyle which has some differences from raw vegan eating. For one – food is often cooked at higher temperatures than a raw vegan diet would recommend. Second – raw vegans will use different oils in their recipes, where as wfpb diets do not use any oils. (My jury is still out on which is better, the argument rages on, currently I do use oils, but limited amounts.) And third, wfpb diets allow and recommend including whole grain carbohydrates, which raw vegans would avoid. This paragraph really leads to a whole different blog post, which I intend to address in the future as I learn more – each of these diet styles boast the same positive health benefits, people who strictly live either lifestyle would say their way is the best. The research appears to back up both sides. So… how do you know which is right? This is where flexitarianism is beneficial! I slide around in the messy middle and make the best choices I can, today.