Madeline Atwood’s Reviews > How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease > Status Update

“Higher consumption of vegetables may cut the odds of developing depression by as much as 62%. A review in the journal of Nutritional NeuroScience concluded that, in general, eating lots of fruits and vegetables may present a non-invasive, natural, and inexpensive therapeutic means to support a healthy brain.”

“Researchers suggest that AA may impair the body’s emotions state. People with higher levels of arachidonic acid in their blood may end up with significantly higher risk of suicide and episodes of major depression.”

- chicken, eggs, beef, pork, and fish: highest sources of AA in American diets

Arachidonic Acid: a polyunsaturated omega fatty acid with inflammatory properties

- found in highest concentrations in chicken and eggs
- found in high concentrations in beef, pork, sheep, other meats, etc.

Fascinating info about how Asian women (living in Asia) have significantly lower rates of breast cancer / some theories point to green tea intake, mushrooms, and soy.

Soy in childhood provides higher future protections, but soy in adulthood is related to a 25% lower rate of breast cancer occurrence.

Soy’s plant estrogen is beneficial for women. Eating 1 tbsp of flax seed a day can decrease period by 1 day

Chapter 12: how not to die from suicidal depression

LDL cholesterol: cholesterol may play a role in the development and progression of breast cancer. Cancer appears to feed on cholesterol; it stimulates the growth of the cells. Tumors may suck up so much cholesterol that cancer patients’ cholesterol levels tend to plummet as cancer progresses (a bad sign, indicates cancer is aggressive)

“Meat consumption is the only food significantly associated with lower melatonin production.”

- melatonin is tested in the urine levels right after someone wakes up

- a Harvard study monitored melatonin and diet and concluded that meat consumption was a major factor in melatonin deficiencies

Pineal gland: right in the middle of the brain, connected to your actual eyes (the “3rd eye”) and has one function - to produce the hormone Melatonin

‘Appeal to Nature’ fallacy: someone proposes that something is good merely because it’s ‘natural’

“In biology, however, this may hold some truth. The conditions under which our bodies were finely tuned over millions of years can sometimes give us insight into our optimal functioning.”

2/2 - Researchers dripped the blood of women before and after 14 days of healthy living onto breast cancer cells growing in Petri dishes. The blood taken after they started eating healthier suppressed cancer growth significantly better and killed 20-30% more cancer cells than the blood taken from the same women just 2 weeks before.”