"I think of genes in two ways. There are dictator genes. Those genes give orders—blue eyes or brown hair—and you don't have any choice. The genes for diabetes, heart disease, or certain forms of cancer, they're more like committees giving suggestions. But you've got a lot of control over whether those genes ever express themselves. The vista on diet-related disease is spreading out in a bigger way than we ever imagined. We thought maybe diet affected heart disease and a few cancers. Then there was diabetes. Now it's also brain disease—not only stroke but also Alzheimer's. We thought that was entirely due to genes and age. Now we know it's due, to a very substantial degree, to diet. We've got control. Not perfect control, but certainly control we never had before."
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Non-fiction authors from the United StatesMedical scientistsVeganism activistsPhysicians from North Dakota
Original Language: English
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Interview in the book What the Health by Eunice Wong (Xlibris, 2017), ch. 1.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neal_D._Barnard
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Neal D. Barnard
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