If you have been following me on the blog for a while, you know that at Biovie, we have been advocating since 2007 for a vision of nutrition centered on living foods, plants, and prevention. So when I came across the documentary Comment ne pas mourir by Dr. Michael Greger, translated into French under the title How Not to Die, it was a real shock. Not because the content was completely foreign to me, far from it, but because this American doctor had managed to compile in a single book what we had been intuitively observing for years: a plant-based, rich, and vibrant diet is probably the most powerful prevention tool we have.
And frankly, when you look at the numbers, it's dizzying. According to the Global Burden of Disease study, the largest study of risk factors ever conducted in the history of medicine, the leading cause of death in the United States is neither tobacco, nor alcohol, nor physical inactivity: it is food (Murray and others., 2013; Lozano and others., 2012). and others., 2013; Lozano and others., 2012). Tobacco kills about 500,000 Americans each year, but diet kills even more. In France, we are not spared: cardiovascular diseases and cancers, which are largely influenced by our dietary choices, remain our leading causes of death (Santé publique France, 2023).
In concrete terms, what Dr. Greger proposes in this monumental work is to review the top fifteen causes of mortality and demonstrate, supported by scientific studies, how a predominantly plant-based diet can significantly reduce the risk of each of them. Not a miracle diet, not just another fad, but a synthesis of thousands of studies published in the most rigorous scientific journals in the world.
In this article, I propose to share with you the essentials of this book and the documentary released in February 2026, and how these teachings deeply resonate with what we do at Biovie. More importantly, I will explain how you can start applying these principles today, even if we are not 100% aligned with the recommendations, particularly regarding non-germinated grains and legumes.
Who is Dr. Michael Greger ?
Dr. Michael Greger is a physician (MD), a graduate of the Tufts University School of Medicine, an international speaker, and the founder of the nonprofit website. NutritionFacts.org. What is remarkable about him is that he sells nothing. Literally. His site is free, without advertising, without corporate sponsorship. All the proceeds from his books are donated to charitable organizations (Greger, 2015).
What makes his work unique is his methodology: every year, he reads and analyzes all the publications from all English-language scientific journals on nutrition. Yes, all of them. He extracts the most significant results and presents them in the form of short videos and articles that he publishes daily. It is a monumental task of scientific monitoring that no one else does on this scale.
His personal commitment stems from a deeply moving family story. His grandmother, Frances Greger, was diagnosed with terminal heart disease at the age of 65. Confined to a wheelchair and suffering from debilitating chest pain, the doctors had given up all hope. In desperation, she joined Nathan Pritikin's program, one of the pioneers of lifestyle medicine, who prescribed her a whole-food, plant-based diet combined with a progressive exercise program. In three weeks, she was walking again. She ultimately lived to be 96 years old, which is 31 years more than what conventional medicine had predicted for her (Greger, 2015; Pritikin & McGrady, 1979).
This story determined Dr. Greger's vocation. And when I think back, at Biovie, our own journey started from a similar conviction: that nutrition has an immense power, often underestimated by the medical community, on our health.
The key revelations of Comment ne pas mourir
Diet: the leading cause of mortality, the last medical concern
This is probably the most troubling finding of the book. Dr. Greger cites an astonishing piece of data: in the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) studies and in the Global Burden of Disease study involving more than 500 researchers from over 300 institutions in 188 countries, the conclusion is unequivocal: Diet is the number one risk factor for premature death. in Western countries (GBD 2017 Diet Collaborators, 2019).
And yet, how many doctors actually talk about nutrition with their patients? The answer is overwhelming. A study published in the Journal of Biomedical Education showed that the average doctor receives only four hours of nutrition training per year during his four years of medical studies (Adams and others., 2006). And the nutrition training of the average cardiologist during their four years of specialization? Zero hour (Devries and others., 2014). and others., 2014).
For my part, as an agronomist by training, I have always been struck by this disconnection. At Biovie, when we explain the central role of nutrition in health, we are ultimately only conveying what science has been telling us for decades. And what Dr. Greger documents exhaustively.
Heart diseases: a reversible epidemic
The heart of the book, if I may say so, concerns cardiovascular diseases. And Dr. Greger's thesis is based on data that I find absolutely fascinating.
Imagine for a moment: researchers conducted over 1,400 autopsies in a rural hospital in Uganda on African patients whose diet was primarily composed of corn, beans, vegetables, fruits, and greens. Out of these 1,400 autopsies, they did not find only one case of myocardial infarction, and again, it was an old healed infarction that was not the cause of death. In comparison, in an equivalent number of autopsies of American patients of the same age in Saint Louis, Missouri, there were found more than 136 heart attacks. More than a hundred times more (Shaper & Jones, 1959; Beker and others., 1973).
It is not a matter of genetics. Researchers have verified this. And it is not because these African populations died too young to develop heart diseases. These are age-adjusted comparisons.
Dr. Dean Ornish, whose work is widely cited by Greger, published in 1990 in The Lancet the first study demonstrating through quantitative angiography that coronary artery diseases could be reversed, not only slowed down but also reversed, by a dietary change towards a whole-food, plant-based diet, without medication, without surgery (Ornish and others., 1990). And the results were visible after just three weeks.
Honestly, when you realize that our leading cause of death is a disease potentially reversible through diet, it changes your perspective. Not to guilt-trip anyone, never, but to recognize the power we have on our plates.
Atherosclerosis begins in childhood
Another piece of data that deeply impacted me: atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries, is not a disease of old age. Autopsy studies conducted on young Americans have shown that as early as the age of 10, almost all of the children raised on the standard American diet already showed fatty streaks in their arteries, the first stage of the disease (Berenson and others., 1998; Strong and others., 1999 - Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth Study). These streaks turn into plaques in the twenties, worsen in the thirties, and start to be fatal in the forties and beyond.
The question is not whether one should eat healthily to prevent heart disease. The question is whether one wants to reverse the ones they probably already have.
Hypertension: a fate? No.
Dr. Greger reports fascinating data on blood pressure. In rural Kenyan populations, whose diet is primarily plant-based (corn, beans, vegetables, fruits, greens), blood pressure decreases with age instead of increasing. And among 1,800 patients admitted to a rural Kenyan hospital over two years, not a single case of hypertension has not been documented (Donnison, 1929; Poulter and others., 1990).
In the Western world, the only population achieving an average ideal blood pressure of 110/70 mmHg is those who follow a strictly plant-based diet. This is shown by the largest study ever conducted on vegetarian populations, the Adventist Health Study-2, which followed 89,000 participants in California (Le & Sabaté, 2014; Yokoyama and others., 2014). And the decrease in blood pressure is gradual: semi-vegetarians do better than omnivores, pesco-vegetarians do better than semi-vegetarians, vegetarians do better than pesco-vegetarians, and vegans come out on top with a perfect average blood pressure of 110/65 mmHg.
These results are experimentally reproducible. If vegetarians are given meat to eat, their blood pressure rises. If omnivores have meat removed from their diet, their blood pressure decreases. in seven days (Rouse and others., 1983; Margetts and others., 1986). and others., 1983; Margetts and others., 1986). In seven days. And the majority of participants had to reduce or stop their antihypertensive medications to prevent their blood pressure from dropping too low.
Type 2 Diabetes: 16 Days to Change
One of the most spectacular studies cited by Dr. Greger concerns type 2 diabetes. As early as the 1930s, a group of diabetics placed on a plant-based diet saw a quarter of its members able to stop insulin (Kempner, 1958). However, it is the 1979 study that is the most remarkable: long-term diabetic patients, injecting an average of 20 units of insulin per day, were placed on a whole plant-based diet rich in fiber. In just 16 days, half of them were able to completely stop insulin. Not after six months, not after a year. In 16 days (Anderson & Ward, 1979; Barnard and others., 2006).
And their cholesterol had dropped below the 150 mg/dL mark at the same time. The power of plants, scientifically documented.
Of course, these results do not apply to all diabetics, and it is not about replacing medical follow-up with dietary changes without guidance. But they illustrate the immense potential of a predominantly plant-based diet, and that is exactly what the secrets of longevity in the blue zones confirm to us: the populations that live the longest in good health primarily eat plants.
Plant-based nutrition and cancer: solid scientific avenues
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of biochemistry at Cornell University and mentioned in the documentary, has conducted some of the most significant experiments in the history of cancer and nutrition research. His work, published notably in The China Study, have shown that it is possible, in a laboratory setting, to activate and deactivate tumor growth simply by modulating the level of animal proteins in the diet of study subjects (Campbell & Campbell, 2005; Youngman & Campbell, 1992).
What Dr. Greger adds is a fascinating mechanism: our cells have "death receptors"Death receptors) that trigger their programmed self-destruction (apoptosis) when they become defective. Cancer cells deactivate these receptors to continue proliferating. However, certain compounds derived from cruciferous vegetables, such as Sulforaphane present in broccoli, are capable of selectively reactivating these death receptors in cancer cells while sparing healthy cells (Pledgie-Tracy and others., 2007; Singh and others., 2004).
This is actually one of the reasons why we offer at Biovie some sprouted broccoli seeds : germination significantly increases the concentration of sulforaphane compared to mature broccoli (Fahey and others., 1997 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). To learn more about the Nutritional power of sprouted seeds, I invite you to read our dedicated article.
The Tobacco-Food Parallel: A Thought-Provoking Comparison
One of the most impactful segments of the documentary is the comparison between the current state of food and that of tobacco in the 1950s. Dr. Greger points out that at that time, doctors smoked, advertisements praised the health benefits of cigarettes, and doctors literally prescribed cigarettes. Yet studies existed: as early as 1958, the Adventist Health Study in California showed that non-smokers had at least 90% fewer lung cancers (Wynder & Graham, 1950; Lemon and others., 1964).
It took more than 7,000 scientific studies and over 25 years for the first report of the Surgeon General against tobacco was published in 1964. And even after that, the American Medical Association officially refused to endorse it. Why? Perhaps because it had just received a check for 10 million dollars from the tobacco industry (Brandt, 2007).
Today, we are experiencing exactly the same situation with food. The science is there. Thousands of studies exist. But official recommendations remain cautious, conflicts of interest are widespread, and the food industry lobbies use exactly the same tactics as the tobacco industry: funding contradictory studies, sowing doubt, paying the same scientific consultants (Nestle, 2015; Kearns). and others., 2016 - JAMA Internal Medicine).
Dr. Greger makes it clear: while society catches up with science, we must take responsibility for our own health. And at Biovie, that's exactly what we've been trying to facilitate for 18 years.
The Daily Dozen: Dr. Greger's Daily Eating Protocol
The second part of Comment ne pas mourir (book) might be the most practical. Dr. Greger presents his "Daily Dozen" system, a checklist of twelve categories of foods to consume each day to optimize health. It is not a restrictive diet; it is an additive approach: the focus is not on what to remove, but on what to add.
And this is where it becomes really interesting for us, because by looking at this list, I realized that it can quite broadly correspond (even though algae are really missing) to what we have been offering at Biovie for years. For grains and legumes, I think it's a lack of perspective and studies on prior germination that is missing. Here are the twelve categories with the daily portions recommended by Dr. Greger.
- Legumes - 3 servings per day: beans, lentils, peas. At Biovie, we take it a step further compared to cooked solutions: our green pea and fenugreek sprouting seeds perfectly fit this category, with the added bonus of enzymatic multiplication associated with germination.
- Berries - 1 serving per day: blueberries, raspberries, açaí. Our wild freeze-dried açaí and our organic goji berries are perfectly aligned with this recommendation.
- Other fruits - 3 servings per day: fresh and dried fruits. Our freeze-dried fruits retain the essential nutrients without the drawbacks of cooking.
- Green vegetables - 2 servings per day: spinach, kale, arugula. Our sunflower sprouts, arugula sprouts, and organic barley grass meet this need with exceptional nutritional density.
- Crucifers - 1 serving per day: broccoli, cabbage, watercress. Our broccoli sprouts, rich in sulforaphane (Fahey and others., 1997), and our sprouted cress seeds are a direct response.
