Hello, I'm Monica Reinagle. Welcome to the Nutrition Diva

podcast, where I try to make eating healthy just a little bit less complicated and a little bit more fun.

I hope you'll join me each week as I take a closer look at the latest nutrition research

and headlines, trends and fads, and answer your nutrition questions.

This week, I want to talk a little bit about what you can do to reduce your risk of disease.

Spending your life in a human body is, among other things, a risky endeavor. So much

can go wrong. Cells can misbehave and start growing into tumors.

Arteries can narrow until blood can no longer flow through them.

Brain cells can start to shrink and die.

Immune cells can start to attack our own tissues.

Reproductive organs can stubbornly refuse to do their jobs.

If we could just figure out what factors lead to or contribute to these unfortunate developments, perhaps we could prevent them.

Accordingly, society spends billions of dollars and medical researchers devote their lives in an attempt to find the factors that cause

disease. And we consumers hang on every press release and pronouncement, always looking

for that pill or that program that will allow us to

cross whatever scary thing we are most anxious about off of our worry list.

Our understandable desire to avoid disease and disability, coupled with the need

for researchers to publicize and fund their work, has given rise to something that I call the disease-proofing myth.

There are a whole slew of books and programs that tell you how to reduce your risk

of various diseases by adopting certain diet and lifestyle habits.

In previous podcasts, I've reviewed protocols that claim to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's,

cancer, diabetes, infertility, and more.

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