Description
Eat your way to better health with this New York Times bestseller on food’s ability to help the body heal itself from cancer, dementia, and dozens of other avoidable diseases.
Forget everything you think you know about your body and food, and discover the new science of how the body heals itself. Learn how to identify the strategies and dosages for using food to transform your resilience and health in Eat to Beat Disease.
We have radically underestimated our body’s power to transform and restore our health. Pioneering physician scientist, Dr. William Li, empowers readers by showing them the evidence behind over 200 health-boosting foods that can starve cancer, reduce your risk of dementia, and beat dozens of avoidable diseases. Eat to Beat Disease isn’t about what foods to avoid, but rather is a life-changing guide to the hundreds of healing foods to add to your meals that support the body’s defense systems, including:
- Plums
- Cinnamon
- Jasmine tea
- Red wine and beer
- Black Beans
- San Marzano tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Pacific oysters
- Cheeses like Jarlsberg, Camembert and cheddar
- Sourdough bread
The book’s plan shows you how to integrate the foods you already love into any diet or health plan to activate your body’s health defense systems-Angiogenesis, Regeneration, Microbiome, DNA Protection, and Immunity-to fight cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative autoimmune diseases, and other debilitating conditions.
Both informative and practical, Eat to Beat Disease explains the science of healing and prevention, the strategies for using food to actively transform health, and points the science of wellbeing and disease prevention in an exhilarating new direction.
Mighty Mo (verified owner) –
This is a great book. I like the discussion and detailed charts of foods by each defense system. Much more helpful than the summary charts in the back of the book. I sort of like the food dose chapter although I prefer the measurement in weight of food per kilogram bodyweight, instead of one dose fits all. The Assess your Risks chapter was a learning experience (in a good way)! Very happy to see the copious Notes section. However, on page 107 and page 305, the author recommends three varieties of apple typically found in grocery stores, but without a reference. This means I cannot compare the Eat to Beat apple variety recommendation (with no reference), to another apple variety recommendation (with reference) I already have in a book primarily about produce nutrition. I am not trying to sell someone else’s book in this review so I am not including the title. (I will tell you that, in addition to nutrition research on modern commercially available apples, there is also research on our locally available grocery store apple’s wild ancestors. The wild apples are MUCH more nutritious than what is available in the produce section of your local food mart.) Yes I checked the references before and after the recommendation on page 107. I got referred to an earlier study, went there, did not see recommended varieties and gave up. I did not check any other food variety recommendation in Eat to Beat Disease. Anyhow, I am glad I bought Eat to Beat Disease and I have recommended it to friends and family.
momof3 (verified owner) –
This book is WONDERFUL!!! It is exactly what I have been looking for to help me understand what I really should be eating!!
It is very educational with a lot of backed up facts. I have read through the whole book recently and I can’t really explain the joy of the knowledge that this book has brought me. I have colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer in close family members. I have been so mentally upset because I just felt hopeless about not knowing what I can do to help prevent myself from getting cancer as well Well… that is until I got this book. It has opened my eyes and for the first time I feel like I am at least in some control of my fate! I have ordered this book for my 2 daughters, my son, my sister (currently has breast cancer), my niece, and 2 friends!!!
This is a text I recently received from my daughter- “something i just realized.. when people say there’s nothing you can do to prevent cancer, they’re just uneducated!
i mean you can’t always 100% prevent it but you sure can refrain from bad tumor cells developing. this book is very interesting!
i’m only on page 14! i cant wait to see what else i learn” she just turned 20 years old.
I actually BEG anyone reading this to please buy this book. You will not regret it!!!
LoLo (verified owner) –
Am trying to follow advice given in book. Beating disease, however, takes a lifetime of effort, so a review later in life may be of more value.
Ken Bohling (verified owner) –
I bought this book to get more healthful eating information. It takes a while to read it through, but if you take notes and follow through with the suggestions, believe you would find a great improvement in your overall health.
MAKS MATHER (verified owner) –
The book gives alot of good information but I wish that they had a book out there with larger print. Very small print.
Jerilyn (verified owner) –
More in depth than I personally needed but very well studied. Tends to jump around a bit, but worth reading for the sake of your health.
Mobilemike (verified owner) –
This book is a good source of information to learn the science of how food work in the body and how food can be used as a medicine. But I disagree with some of the food choices that are recommended. Some food my have similar nutrients but the overall benefits is not the same. I gave it 4 stars for the science and medical information but 2 stars for some of the food choices.
Rock (verified owner) –
I thought it was an hard reading just like other books that require medical knowledge to really understand the topic , How-ever when I start reading I was amazed because the author does an excellent jobs to explain the complex immune system,foods,etc in lay-mans term that can be easily be understand regardless of your background.The book explain what food does to our body and how will activate our immune system that well police for foreign invaders in our body..Great Book””
Simon Lewis (verified owner) –
COMPARE TO RUSSEL BLAYLOCK BOOK.
Blaylock booK: This is a very important book, especially, maybe life or death, for those currently with cancer. It has a lot of very important information. There are a couple of related such books, but not many. It has a lot of good reviews. However, cancer is a life and death matter. For this to be a “great” book, it appears to very keenly need update in at least two indicative and critical areas.
1. It is an update of a prior 2003 book. While some of the text has been updated, for one, the references appear to be all the old references (i.e., pre 2000 –from the prior book). While this might seem a detail, it indicates the work may not have the latest information and also does not allow the reader –whose life may depend on it! — to check sources of the latest research or to clarify or get more information on various findings.
2. An area in need of update or clarification, as it contradicts other such authors, but also as an example of point1, on p.152, it says if you have cancer, *don’t* eat almonds, .. coconut… macademia nuts, pistachios, and .. walnuts (as they contain arachidonic acid). The other two big authors in this field (integrative nutrition medicine), **Drs. William Li** and Stephen Gundry, big name doctors, say strongly that eating such nuts is *anti* cancer.. and one of few things you can eat? Who is right? If research is unclear or contradictory — can this be said so? Or, is it just a matter of the original book research was not updated? If one has cancer, does one want to be eating the wrong foods?
I wish these three authors would get together. Getting great individuals to work together is tough. Lifes might be saved.
Pat S (verified owner) –
I feel as though I’ve finished a first year in med school. Do you realize you’ve got 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body that deliver oxygen and nutrients to keep cells alive. It only takes 60 seconds for the heart to pump out a drop of blood and return it back to the heart? Just like I was, I bet you are pretty ignorant of your body and how it works. You will be absolutely amazed. Eat to Beat Disease really has given me a reason to change my eating habits (our gut biome is vitally important). We aren’t just what we eat, but what we get out of what we eat. I believe people need to know how the body works before they let their doctors start tinkering with it by prescribing pills (the easy way out it seems but you have to pay the piper sometime and it’s not pretty in my estimation). I realize that diet alone won’t work for some but it sure is worth a try for nonacute problems. Even at a minimum, diet is a good companion to medicine.
EK Sullivan (verified owner) –
I bought this for a friend that was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. We both read it bu found it difficult to follow.
Vicky (verified owner) –
I got this book on the recommendation of my doctor. I found it an interesting read – a lot of references, a good overview of a lot of studies, and a framework for action that makes sense. However, when I went back to discuss the book with my doctor (who had watched Dr Li’s YouTube videos, but didn’t read the book….) my complaint was that while the information is very nice overall, there are no recommendations as to dose – when a recommendation is made to eat a certain food, how much of it is needed for it to be effective? Half-tempted to pull out some of the original studies to see if I can make any sense, but then… I would have expected that from the book.
Gramm-gramm (verified owner) –
Good book
Lovee (verified owner) –
If you enjoy reading about food, this book is for you. He is NOT saying that food is to be used instead of medical intervention if one is already sick. Foods that help your body fight disease are both prevention and part of the cure. He includes a framework for doing this called the 5-5-5 as well as data and recipes for eating healthy. If it’s too overwhelming, then use this book as a reference.
Harold Runyan Jr (verified owner) –
If you desire to learn much about Hashimotos (low Thyroid) auto immune disease, and what to eat for it. It is only stated on 1 page, no suggestion to foods that help or hinder are listed. Diabetes and Blood clots as well, There is not much more on these subjects. Its mostly about cancer but without helpful suggestions
christine milton (verified owner) –
Liked the overalll idea of health.
Especially as a Cancer patient.
Ollie Incomefree (verified owner) –
I love this book! I’m a cancer patient and have been into healthy eating for decades. I find this book empowering, because it helps me feel like I have a little bit of control in an out of control feeling situation. I wish I’d read it before my diagnosis because I would have asked better questions and probably made some different choices. This is not a eat your way out of cancer book, it has a lot of info about how your body fights desease and how you can help it do so. Dr. Li has helped develop some newer cancer drugs and is an MD so this is not a book about alternative medicine, though I personally choose alternative over conventional western almost any day. Any audience would benefit from and enjoy reading this book.
Linda Lee Lee (verified owner) –
I like healthy food
MRH (verified owner) –
Probably a good reference book for
people with or wanting to prevent disease. More technical than I expected.
Alicia M (verified owner) –
It can be a bit much for those who don’t like to read but for me I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough
so much information had my need for knowledge itch being scratched with every paragraph. I loved how he really went into science of things instead of just stated this is bad and that is bad blah blah. There’s so much misinformation out there that it’s so hard to know who’s trying to just sell us crap or keep us sick.. Dr. Li seems to genuinely care and want to help those who are interested. I’m trying to apply these foods every single day in moderate portions to hopefully prevent diseases. I suffer from health anxiety so living in constant fear every single day has really been torture and the only way I feel in control is by eating healthier more often than not. I definitely plan on purchasing anymore he has released and reading those soon.
John (verified owner) –
This is an amazing scientifically based and utilized work of Dr. William Li, who did pharmaceutical protocol testing on foods along with some cancer Rx drugs to see what worked best on cancer cure rate – charted from best to least effective in his lectures. Surprisingly some foods did a better job than a pharma Rx product! Everyone needs to read this. Truly shows how food is medicine or poison… but now you can drive the car in helping reduce chances of cancer, or perhaps being the one that gets cured against odds.
Thoroughly impressed with Dr. Li’s use of scientific method and easy to follow information you can put to work for yourself (after checking w/ your dr. of course) Dr. Li has utilized food products described in his book in his own patients where it greatly improved survival/cure rate in his own patients. Proven stuff… not just another book. Finally the food facts AS MEDICINE with road map. Your own dr needs to read this! Give to your doctor to educate him as little on nutrition is taught in med school. Give it to your loved ones and yourself – it can be a gift of life. Well written for the lay person. Easy to understand. Great tips to make a few changes with big results. Shows easy simple steps to start that won’t overwhelm you. This book is your easy button for implementation
Mance Wallis (verified owner) –
Diet changes for better health
JSmith (verified owner) –
Easy read
Mercy’s Treasures (verified owner) –
I really enjoy reading this book. It is powerful information how beautiful and wonderfully God has made us. Our bodies is design for one purpose is to healed and be healed throughout life. I love how science has discovered how complex the human bodies are made and the same token how simple it is to live in divine health by eating whole natural foods. I appreciate the eye opening that Dr. William Li brings to this book, its is a light shining so we can appreciate living a great life by changing the way we eat, the way we see food as a whole and what we can do everyday to improve quality of life. Thank you Dr. Li for your knowledge and your time you invested in us by making this book possible for us so we can learn what our bodies really need. I highly recommend investing in this book. To your divine health. God bless you all.
Molecular Quantum Mechanics (verified owner) –
It helps to have someone this knowledgeable and credentialed teaching on the medicinal benefits of food in a world with a lot of new age misinformation.
I have learned many helpful things from this book that I apply to my diet and supplement regimen every day, like for example the wonderful probiotic L. reuteri I make fresh yogurt with (which boosts the CFU dramatically).
I love the fact that this book is intended for actual daily effects on your health, a practice, rather than just something interesting to read.
Anne McHugh (verified owner) –
I bought the paperback edition, and after a few turns of pages, the pages began to loosen. Very disappointing. But the content is highly informative and helpful, a great resource for healthy living.
WesternMDWomen (verified owner) –
Good recipes. Enjoying the cookbook.
chaos (verified owner) –
I believe in self healing. I saw Dr. Li in an interview on YouTube. His credentials are extremely impressive. He explains and references all things in simple terms. I liked the fact that he is based fairly local in Cambridge MA and you can actually find him on Health Grades and other doctor review type websites. At this point, I bought his book. I get his emails and I expected every helpful link to just ask me to buy something like the others do and not give me information. Nope – the links took me to actual shopping list I could use at the market, recipes, and so much more. Of course he does offers services for purchase if you like but it’s not all about the money with him. He wants to share his findings from the medical field and you can tell this is his passion. Check him out. I think you’ll be glad you did.
Tracey (verified owner) –
Loved the way Dr. Li explains how different foods can be used to fight off different diseases and increase the health of our bodies through eating combinations of different foods. Dr. Li does an excellent job of explaining how foods can improve the quality of your health. He includes the scientific knowledge of how different foods can increase and improve overall health.
JC (verified owner) –
This book is really thorough and provides so much valuable information about how you can beat disease using food. I love the way Dr. Li outlines the book. He talks about the different defense systems in our bodies, and in each section talks about the foods that help bolster and enhance our defense and disease fighting systems. Not only that, he also talks about the amount of food and the length that you should eat them in order to start seeing the positive effects on your body. This is one of the most comprehensive books on food and nutrition I’ve ever read. I also have the audiobook as well so I can listen to it in the car. For those who want to take your health back into your own hands, this book is a must have.
Geepop (verified owner) –
Very readable, well organized, useful information. Glad I bought it.
Oran Contempli (verified owner) –
Thus, whatever he writes is on my reading list. The most recent nutritional research is fascinating and this guy is on top of it. Watch him on YouTube for more good stuff.
I realize I sound a little suspicious. I am not on the payroll; I am an elderly human, looking for answers.
Eli P. Cox III (verified owner) –
This book was written by a would class physician who reports studies from around the world to support his conclusions. Its cost was a tiny percent of the money I could I had read it and followed its directions when it first came out. I am also recommending it to my family members and friends will find it will help them too.
Ashley (verified owner) –
Dr Li gives so many ideas of foods that you can use in place of medicine to work to heal disease. He is very good at explaining nutrition and why what is in food works to help the different parts of the body. The #1 book of all of my Medical Books! He explains it in a way that regular people can understand. I also have his Eat to Beat Your Diet.
Nena (verified owner) –
The book is a great resource for optimal health. It is loaded with valuable information. Because of its scientific background, I found it a little bit hard to read for a layperson. The cover is beautiful and colorful, but the pages are all text without pictures of the recipes. A visual break with some colorful recipes would have been wonderful.
Kim G (verified owner) –
He presents science based information in understandable ways. You will love his books? Look up his videos on goodly and watch his master class. Love everything about Dr. Li’s work.
Shelley Macmillan (verified owner) –
This book might be a little dry for some people to read, but I am really trying to learn more about good nutrition, so really think it’s great! I actually listened to the audiobook and liked it so much that I bought the book so that I could use a highlighter for things I wanted to remember.
I have a high incidence of cancer in my family, and have picked out a lot of foods that will hopefully help my body protect me. I try to keep those food stocked all the time.
Again, this is a great book. I learned so much reading it!
Momma Bear (verified owner) –
William li is one of the best experts on foods. He runs a food testing foundation for many years now. I ordered this book because it was the lasted book. It came packed well and delivery was fast. I have been reading it. It is a great book to own for sure. Just packed with detailed information on foods and what they do in the body and what each offer in health. What is important to me is that it is all science-based. I highly recommend it.
K Mac (verified owner) –
Way too many good things to say about this book! Buy it and see for yourself. My highest recommendation!
Linda J Rogers (verified owner) –
The two things I liked most was the (1)information on the 5 systems in our body that help to protect from disease (2) The foods we should eat to help those systems to protect us.
A very big book. . .almost 500 pages.
Judith A Storck (verified owner) –
I was so anxious to get this book! I watch Dr. Li on YouTube every day. His knowledge & research is so very much needed in today’s World. With so many people eating the wrong way causing so many diseases &
deficiencies – their bodies are starving for nutrition & the foods that supply that nutrition. I pray that many other people who want to be healthier have ordered this book.
jag (verified owner) –
If you’re interested in extending your life this book will help you get there . Easy to read , everyday language not big fancy words!
R. Johnson (verified owner) –
Clean copy. Good to save a few dollars with a book in great shape. Seems like a reliable seller. Thanks!
Tonya G. (verified owner) –
If you are searching for information on how the foods you choose can heal your body, this is the book!
Marge N (verified owner) –
Being in the medical field, I know for fact a # of doctors’ do not discuss diets & proper foods to eat. Most leave it to Dietician’s/ nutritionist. This book gives some insight on certain foods for certain maladies.
KathyR (verified owner) –
This book should be required reading for parents of young children, so kids can be taught…not only how to eat healthy, but why it’s so important. This book has all the studies about why good CHOICE is so relevant to our internal defense systems.
Grecia (verified owner) –
I think everyone should take the time to read this book
Cell (verified owner) –
Touches on many illnesses and is a great resource for making changes in your diet!
Barbara Nichols (verified owner) –
I’m 87 and in excellent health, thanks in part, to reading Food Is Your Best Medicine and How to Live Longer and Feel Better fifty years ago. Both still available on AMZ.
Reading through the recommended foods in Eat to Beat Disease, , only Kiwi was news to me. Most local stores have it, and I find it delicious. My son-in-law was recently diagnosed with cancer of the liver and I thought he might benefit, but he refuses to read it, getting radiation almost daily. Big sigh.
Most people who buy this book will benefit greatly.
Jim O’Toole (verified owner) –
Valuable info
Melinda Hernandez (verified owner) –
If you’re serious about your health then you need to read this book and apply it!
Lyn G (verified owner) –
Dr. Li translates his studies and theories about your health and diet in a clear, concise and friendly way. His plans are easy to follow.
Gerri Hayes (verified owner) –
I LISTEN TO DR. WILLIAM LI ON YOUTUBE ALOT AND DECIDED TO PURCHASE HIS BOOKS DUE TO ALL THE IMPORTANT HEALTH INFORMATION HE IMPARTS ON YOUTUBE WHICH IS IN HIS BOOKS. SO I WANTED MY OWN COPY NOW THAT I AM TRYING TO IMPROVE MY HEALTH. HIS INFORMTION IS SO GOOD FOR ALL.
T OO (verified owner) –
This topic interested me so I found it a good book. Shared with a friend too.
madireddy (verified owner) –
It is a nice book which give lot of information
sharron sparks (verified owner) –
Everyone should be reading this book
Jay C (verified owner) –
Great book worth the read
Michael J Destito (verified owner) –
Great deal for my mom who really wanted this book.
Sam54 (verified owner) –
Im rethinking my food choices based on this new information. It’s very common sense overall, in spite of the studies and conclusions. Focus on balance is paramount but how and what to balance and why is good to know.
I’ll let you know later how my changes work out.
BTW: get the hardback because the paperback binding is poor.
Audrey (verified owner) –
Sent this to my friend who is recovering from breast cancer. I love Dr. Li and now she does too
PRIVATE (verified owner) –
Content as expected! As a Type 1 Diabetic for over 50 yrs I’m always looking for better and more healthy recipes, lower carbs etc.
rb (verified owner) –
read to gain insight on healthy diet
Gay Lyn Fry (verified owner) –
I love this book and the author because he is passionate about nutrition!!!
Mary Ann Horton (verified owner) –
Great book. I go back to it again and again. The inside cover is filled with notes. A must read for cancer and diabetes. Doesn’t address my medical issues directly, but lots of good information to incorporate.