Cross - Fat, sick & nearly dead: how fruits & vegetables changed my life

TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE
BRAVE ENOUGH TO TRY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank all those who worked with me on the book, as well as all those I met along the way, including Phil Staples, his brother Barry Bear Staples, and Bears wife, Claudia. I couldnt have accomplished any of this without them, or without my family and friends.

Leigh Haber helped me conceive, write, and edit the book. I am very grateful to her for her partnership, dedication, and superb editorial skills. Its a book!

To Stacey Offman, Jamin Mendelsohn, and Jessica Mennellathe heart and soul of the Reboot teammy deep thanks.

Naomi Mizusaki expertly art directed the book and Helena Holgersson-Shorter lent her extraordinary copyediting skills. Chika Azuma was a life-saver. Thanks to them, as well as to the team at Blurb.

Stacy Kennedy, senior clinical nutritionist at the Brigham & Young Womens Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute; superstar authors Joel Fuhrman, M.D. and Dean Ornish, M.D., and my brother, Tom Cross, M.D. all provided invaluable contributions and are an inspiration.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to Andrew Rasiej, Alison Riley, Professor Ronald Penny, Amie Hannon, Chris Seward, John Alexander, Scott Willett, Susan Ainsworth, Lisa McLean, Stephanie Atkinson, Cameron Paine-Thaler, Shane Hodson, Vicky Elkins, Millie Katter, Kurt Engfehr, Daniel Marracino, Christopher Seward, Norma Kamali, Robert Mac, Nicola Simmonds, K.Emily Bond, Irene Deutsch, Charles and Belinda Dowsett, John Cross, and my parents Merv and Virginia Cross, who have set the example and leadership that I try to aspire to every day of my life.

Americans have become among the sickliest, most overweight generation in the history of the human race. Our childrens generation can expect a shocking increase in early life mortality. The primary reason? We Americans are eating our way into sickness and premature death, and many others throughout the world are following suit. Joe Cross is determined to help reverse this trend, as he did in his own life, via something as simple but essential as eating fruits and vegetables and minimizing his consumption of meat, caffeine, dairy, sugar, and processed foods.

Between 1935 and 2005, for seventy years straight, the occurrence of cancers that can be definitively linked to obesitycancers of the colon, breast, endometrial lining, and kidneys, for examplehave increased every year. When you stop to think about this, this is a near incomprehensible statistic, which, I believe, can be traced directly to the creation of junk, processed, and fast foods, foods we have become addicted to. It is not a coincidence that at the same time, the incidence of autoimmune diseases is skyrocketing and we are witnessing an epidemic of chronic diseases of what I call nutritional ignorance. In fact, nutrition-related deaths among the overweight malnourished are becoming as prevalent as deaths among those in the world who dont get enough to eat. And it is very often the malnourished overweight those who are taking in huge amounts of calories but still not getting the nutrition their bodies need to thrive and ward off diseasewho eventually find their way to the doors of my medical practice.

By the time many of my patients arrive at my office they are already in the midst of full-blown medical crises. Why? The statistics tell the story: the average American woman today, for example, weighs a full forty pounds more than her counterpart one hundred years ago and has a vastly higher rate of heart attack, stroke, and breast cancer. Among American men, the incidence of death by cardiac arrest has quadrupled over the same period. American men today are ten times more likely to have a heart attack. Overall, more than a third of the American population will die of a heart attack or stroke, which make those the leading cause of death in the U.S. Just one hundred years ago, this figure was below five percent.

Lets look at this from a nutritional standpoint, as what we are eating (and what we arent eating) is directly causing the illnesses that are killing us. Our diets have become centered on the consumption of cheese, pasta, meat, bread, fried foods, and sugar-filled snacks and drinks. The potato is the most commonly eaten vegetable, usually in the form of chips or French fries. Many of these foods have been processed, which among other things means they are high in calories and low in nutritive value. Meanwhile, we are consuming very little in the way of plant-based, micronutrient-rich foods, which have the power to promote health and prevent disease. USDA food consumption data indicate that unrefined plant foods comprise less than ten percent of our total caloric intake. Processed and fast foods, sweets and oils are rich in calories, yet low in disease-protecting micronutrients, but it is these foods that have become our mainstays. Our addictions to these foods are holding us hostage and directly creating the immense suffering and medical tragedies I see in my patients, fueling a medical crisis that cannot be solved simply by the addition of more and more prescription drugs. We are digging our own graves using our knives and forks.

Our poor nutritional habits have an effect not only on our physical health, but on our larger society. The burden of massive medical costs for treating conditions produced by our poor health is weighing down our economy and even helping to drive jobs overseas. Whats more, studies show that more than twenty-five percent of defaults on mortgages and home rentals are actually a result of medical debt. So whats to be done?

In the face of this all-out American health crisisa crisis that is quickly spreading around the worldour government and medical leaders are offering us more access to medical care and medications. Are drugs really the solution to the explosion of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer we are experiencing? Or is it the cause of these problemsa disease-creating lifestyle and dietthat we should be taking a much harder look at? The real foundation of healthcarehealthcare that gives individuals control of their health destinies and is truly effective in restoring good health, without heart disease, diabetes and cancer--must be proper nutrition and a high quality food supply.

What if I told you that it is possible to prevent more than 95% of all deaths from cardiovascular disease and 80% of all cancer deaths simply via excellent nutrition? 1.1 million Americans will suffer heart attacks this year, tragedies that are completely unnecessary. Nobody HAS to die of heart disease or of a circulatory system-related death. Such deaths are nearly always preventable. The disability, suffering, and life years lost as a result of these conditions are almost entirely the product of dietary/ nutritional ignorance. Making a transition to healthy eating can literally reverse the progress of some chronic diseases; can prevent heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and even cancer; can dramatically extend lifespan and healthy life expectancy. Nutritional excellence can enable people to stop being dependent on medications and help them to make profound, dramatic recoveries, even from serious illnesses such as asthma, chronic migraines, lupus, fibromyalgia, and arthritis. Nutritional science has advanced to the point where this goal is in sight.