Mark Hyman

“Recommending gastric bypass as a national solution for our diabetes epidemic is bad medicine and bad economics.”

“When it becomes a revolutionary act to eat real food, we are in trouble.”

“One in four kids have either pre-diabetes or diabetes - what I like to call diabesity. How did this happen?”

“Through my work and travels I have been lucky enough to have been exposed to various eclectic cuisine running the gamut from small local cafes to iconic five-star restaurants.”

“My advice is to give up stevia, aspartame, sucralose, sugar alcohols like xylitol and malitol, and all of the other heavily-used and marketed sweeteners unless you want to slow down your metabolism, gain weight, and become an addict.”

“In the 21st century our tastes buds, our brain chemistry, our biochemistry, our hormones and our kitchens have been hijacked by the food industry.”

“Your social networks may matter more than your genetic networks. But if your friends have healthy habits you are more likely to as well. So get healthy friends.”

“Shrinking someone's stomach to the size of a walnut with surgery is one way to battle obesity and diabetes and may be lifesaving for a few, but it doesn't address the underlying causes.”

“Nutrients are not drugs and they can't be studied as drugs. They are part of a biological system where all nutrients work as a team to support your biochemical processes.”

“I have experienced some amazing food! Yet when I think about the most luxurious and exquisite meals I have had, visions of simple food made from a few natural ingredients are what most excite me.”

“We need community action and policies to support healthy communities.”

“Just eat less and exercise more.”

“Lifestyle change and changes in diet work faster, better and more cheaply than any medication and are as effective or more effective than gastric bypass without any side effects or long-term complications.”

“If you want to get healthy, you just might not want to go to a doctor. You might instead, go to church.”

“The body maintains balance in only a handful of ways. At the end of the day, disease occurs when these basic systems are out of whack.”

“The best advice is to avoid foods with health claims on the label, or better yet avoid foods with labels in the first place.”

“Most schools have only a microwave or deep fryer, hardly the tools needed to feed our children real, fresh food.”

“Today there are not even enough fruits and vegetables in this country to allow all Americans to follow the government guidelines to eat five to nine servings a day.”

“The very fact that we are having a national conversation about what we should eat, that we are struggling with the question about what the best diet is, is symptomatic of how far we have strayed from the natural conditions that gave rise to our species, from the simple act of eating real, whole, fresh food.”

“The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital.”