Some information may not be new or groundbreaking for readers already familiar with the topic of nutrition and health. The results at one month showed that those eating the traditional Japanese diet lost 2.4 pounds, while those on the modern diet actually gained 0.2 pounds. When body composition was analyzed, these losses and gains were all in fat. The traditional diet eaters lost 7 percent body fat, while the modern eaters gained 1 percent more body fat.” In the chapters ahead, you will learn how you can fight harmful fat, improve your metabolism, and eat for pleasure—all at the same time. And I will show you exactly how to put the latest research to work in your daily menu. Eat to Beat Your Diet: Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism, and Live Longer by William W Li, MD is not a typical "diet" book. His objective is to educate readers about the best food choices to attain optimal health instead of relying upon pharmaceuticals or surgical solutions. Dr. Li doesn't want to vilify fat because

The fiery heat of chili pepper is due to its bioactives, capsaicin and capsinoids. Contrary to popular belief, the burning sensation does not come from the seeds. Instead, the spicy bioactives are mostly concentrated in the pithy white membrane called the “placenta” that holds the seeds. Recall from Chapter 4 that capsaicin and capsinoids wear multiple hats when it comes to your metabolism: they activate brown fat and trigger thermogenesis, burn down white fat, improve your blood sugars, and curb your appetite.” Fortunately, damaged DNA is capable of repairing itself. Without this health defense, you would not be here to read this book. You can dial up (or dial down) the strength of the repair mechanisms with the foods you eat. Foods like kiwifruit, carrots, beans, strawberries, and omega-3-rich seafood can boost DNA repair.

Is Your Diet Feeding or Defeating Disease?

Figure 1.1. Fat removed during surgery for morbid obesity in a dish and growing new blood vessels. (Source: Image courtesy of Dr. Silvia Corvera, University of Massachusetts.) If the word “fat” triggers a strong emotion when you hear it, you’re not alone. Our language is filled with words like “overweight,” “obese,” and “heavy” that can bring about judgment, discomfort, disappointment, and even fear. We wince when we see the fat on our frame in the bathroom mirror. It makes us feel less healthy. Even in the grocery store, we feel a negative reaction when we see a rind of fat on a cut of meat in the butcher section. Fat has a bad reputation—but I’m here to tell you that fat is not the villain we’ve made it out to be. This book is pretty easy to read once you get past the harsh truth with photos about your body. I'm definitely going to revist this book and incorporate the recommended foods into my diet. I will read his other book Eat To Beat Disease later this year.

People with a high body mass have a faster erosion of those crucial telomeres. Children and adolescents who are overweight have shorter telomeres compared to their counterparts who are lean. 24 In adults and the elderly, the impact is even more profound. The Health, Aging and Body Composition Study led by the University of California San Francisco examined 2,721 people in their seventies and measured their body composition and telomere length. 25 Subjects with a lower percentage of body fat and less belly fat had longer telomeres. The good news is that certain foods have been discovered to slow telomere shrinkage. Many of these foods are common in Mediterranean-and-Asian-style eating patterns, and they can also fight body fat, helping your DNA take care of itself—and you. The Immune System

The best news, however, is that you don’t need drugs to cut off fat’s blood supply. This approach has been borrowed to study the effects of food because many foods contain natural chemicals that can cut off the blood supply to fat and shrink it. Green tea, for example, contains a bioactive compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which is a potent angiogenesis inhibitor. 3 Clinical studies have tested extracts from green tea and shown that people drinking them have reduced abdominal fat and waist circumference. 4 Researchers at Inha University in Korea examined 10,030 subjects in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study and found that women who consumed four or more cups of green tea per week had a 44 percent decreased risk of abdominal obesity. 5 All this to say: Your body contains cells whose job is to constantly regenerate and repair your internal organs. These are your stem cells, also called progenitor cells. They have the amazing ability to morph into any type of cell depending on your body’s needs. You were born with 750 million of these progenitors that are stored in your bone marrow, skin, and fat. Throughout life, your stem cells are spurred into action when a damaged organ needs to be repaired or when it grows—like muscle or fat. When Dr. Li speaks, I don't just listen, I eat what he says because with his huge brain and ever-curious mind he has helped me understand that food isn't just something to fuel our days - it might just be fundamental to how many days we get to enjoy. Bono Eat to Beat Your Diet is a pioneering book that provides an innovative and simple approach toward beating disease and increasing longevity. Dr. William Li shows us how to control your body fat by taking charge of your metabolism. His introduction of the 'MediterAsian' way to eating supports the compelling scientific case that food is medicine. What makes Eat to Beat Your Diet an exciting read is the way the author takes you on a virtual grocery shopping journey to find the best foods. It is clear that Dr. Li walks the talk. Louis J Ignarro, PhD, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Author of NO More Heart Disease and Dr. NO Your fat contains special stem cells called preadipocytes. These cells are essential for health. Preadipocytes create hormone-releasing fat cells—adipocytes—that help your metabolism process blood sugar and blood lipids. The hormones also influence your reproductive system, which in turn communicates with your fat. 9 Your preadipocytes also produce the protective fat padding that safeguards your organs as you jostle through life.

One particular bacterium, Akkermansia mucinophila, is an especially important player among the trillions of bacteria in your body. Akkermansia plays a key role in controlling body mass and metabolism, as well as immunity. Researchers have discovered that people who are lean have more Akkermansia in their gut than obese people. 17 Even among people who are overweight, those with more Akkermansia have a smaller waist-to-hip ratio and their fat cells are smaller in size. 18 Foods like pomegranate, cranberry, turmeric, green tea, and chili pepper help Akkermansia grow in the gut because these foods make the intestines secrete more mucous, creating a welcoming environment where this bacterium thrives. Those foods can even help cancer patients respond to immunotherapy treatments because Akkermansia plays a role in the immune destruction of cancer cells. 19

We’ve known for centuries that eating less will help you lose weight, but the unexpected good news is that we’ve now identified certain foods that when eaten can help burn away excess fat. These foods improve your metabolism, which is vital to your health. You read that correctly: eating the right foods can actively promote fat loss and improve your metabolism. Even better, many of the same foods improve your body’s health defenses, too. A triple win.