The famous surgeon Denis Burkitt suggests an explanation for why many of our most common and deadliest diseases were rare or even nonexistent in populations eating plant-based diets.

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More on this incredible story in One in a Thousand: Ending the Heart Disease Epidemic (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/one-in-a-thousand-ending-the-heart-disease-epidemic). How do we know that diet was the critical factor? Because when we place people stricken with these diseases on plant-based diets, in some cases their disease can be reversed (Our Number One Killer Can Be Stopped http://nutritionfacts.org/video/our-number-one-killer-can-be-stopped/). In fact it was the work of Burkitt and others in Africa that led to the disease reversal work of pioneers like Nathan Pritikin (Engineering a Cure http://nutritionfacts.org/video/engineering-a-cure/).

So if our major and commonest diseases are a result of lifestyle, why don’t more doctors practice lifestyle medicine? See: Lifestyle Medicine: Treating the Causes of Disease (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/lifestyle-medicine-treating-the-causes-of-disease/). How can we inspire change in the profession? I’ll take a stab in my next video, Convincing Doctors to Embrace Lifestyle Medicine (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/convincing-doctors-to-embrace-lifestyle-medicine).

More on fiber:
• Fiber vs. Breast Cancer (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/fiber-vs-breast-cancer/)
• How Fiber Lowers Cholesterol (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-fiber-lowers-cholesterol/)
• Fawning Over Flora (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/fawning-over-flora/)
• Relieving Yourself of Excess Estrogen (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/relieving-yourself-of-excess-estrogen/)
• Beans and the Second Meal Effect (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/beans-and-the-second-meal-effect/)

And for more of the scoop on poop:
• Stool Size Matters (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/stool-size-matters/)
• Bristol Stool Scale (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/bristol-stool-scale/)
• Food Mass Transit (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/food-mass-transit/)
• Bowels of the Earth (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/bowels-of-the-earth/)
• Prunes vs. Metamucil vs. Vegan Diet (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prunes-vs-metamucil-vs-vegan-diet/)

So what’s the answer? How much fiber should we shoot for? Our evolutionary past may give us a hint: Paleolithic Lessons (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/paleolithic-lessons/).

Have a question for Dr. Greger about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/dr-burkitts-f-word-diet and he'll try to answer it!

Image Credit: malias, feserc and misterbisson via flickr. Cartoon used with the kind permission of Dan Piraro.

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