Despite the common observation that obesity runs in families, genetic research shows that the habits you inherit from your family are more important than the genes you inherit. Obesity genes account for only five percent of all weight problems. Then, we have to wonder, what causes the other 95 percent of weight problems?

We are seeing an epidemic of obesity in America today. It is the single most important public health issue facing us. If genes do not account for obesity, perhaps it is our high-fat diet that is to blame. That has been the common belief in our society since nutritional low fat guidelines were pushed upon us in the 1970's. It seems logical that eating fat makes you fat. Fat contains nine calories per gram, so it would seem that eating more fat (and more calories) would make you gain weight. But that's not what the science reveals.

Pioneering research by Harvard Medical School's David Ludwig reveals the reason that low-fat diets do not work -- and identifies the true cause of obesity for most Americans. Dr. Ludwig's research explains the real reasons 70 percent of Americans are overweight. In the 1980's not one state had an obesity rate over 20 percent. In 2010, ONLY one state has an obesity rate UNDER 20 percent. This is not a genetic problem.

Can you reverse prostate cancer and aging by changing your diet?

Well, yes!

These were among the findings from Dr. Dean Ornish and his colleagues, which he recounts in his groundbreaking new book, “The Spectrum.”

As I mentioned last week, 30 years ago, Dr. Ornish showed us that we can actually reverse heart disease by eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet, exercising, meditating, practicing yoga, and being part of a supportive group.

Now he shows us that even cancer and aging can be reversed using the same principles of healthy living and whole foods -- and he shows us WHY this can happen.

Thirty years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish came up with a radical but simple idea that threatened the very foundation of our whole conception of disease.

He believed that heart disease, cancer, and any chronic illness could actually be reversed with diet and lifestyle changes.

Medication and surgery can slow and treat disease. But Dr. Ornish’s lifestyle program could actually reverse and undo the damage.

This was medical heresy.

But he had the...

"There are no studies that prove the benefits of nutritional or integrative therapies..."

It's a refrain that I hear time and time again.

And I hear it from my colleagues.

But they couldn't be more wrong!

They just have not done their homework -- or perhaps they are reading the wrong medical journals.

One of my favorite medical journals is the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," which every month publishes more than 300 pages of research with NO ADVERTISING. 

This is very unlike my other medical journals -- such as the "Journal of the American Medical Association" or "The New England Journal of Medicine" -- which have pages and pages of color glossy drug ads.

So today, I thought I would take you on a journey through just one issue of the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" to see just how much research is being done on how food and nutrients affect our health.