 The famous surgeon, Dennis Burkitt, is better known for his discovery of a childhood cancer, now known as Burkitt's lymphoma, than for his 1979 international best-seller, Don't Forget the Fiber in Your Diet. Anyone asked to list the 20 or more most important advances in health, made in the last few decades, would be likely to include none of what Dr. Burkitt considered to be among the most significant. What was the number one most important advance in health, according to one of the most famous medical figures of the 20th century? The fact that many of the major and commonest diseases in modern Western cultures are universally rare in third-world communities, were uncommon even in the United States, until after World War I, yet are now common in anyone following the Western lifestyle. So it's not genetic, they're lifestyle diseases, which means they must be potentially preventable. Those eating the standard American diet have high rates of all of these diseases. Here are two examples. Similar rates of disease in the US to the ruling white class in apartheid Africa, whereas the rates in the Bantu population were very low. These native Africans ate the same kind of three sisters died of many Native Americans, a plant-based diet centered around corn, beans, and squash. In fact, it was reported that cancer was so seldom seen in Native Americans a century ago that they were considered practically immune to cancer. But what is meant by very low rates among rural Africans? 1,300 autopsy over five years in a Bantu hospital, and less than 10 cases of ischemic heart disease, our number one killer. The rates of heart and intestinal disease are similar to poor Indians, whereas wealthier Indians who ate more animal refined foods were closer to those in Japan until they moved to the US and started living like us. And you can do similar charts for all the other so-called Western diseases, which Berkett thought related to the major dietary changes that followed the Industrial Revolution, a reduction in healthy plant foods, the sources of starch and fiber, and a great increase in the consumption of animal fats, salt, and sugar. His theory was that it was the fiber. None of these diseases, including our number one killer, are common in communities where large soft stools are customarily passed. His thought was that all these major diseases may be caused by a diet deficient in whole plant foods, the only natural source of fiber. Fiber, in a survey of 2000 Americans, over 95% of graduate school educated participants and healthcare providers weren't even aware of the daily recommended fiber intake. Doctors just don't know. If a floor is flooded as a result of a dripping tap, it is of little use to mop up the floor unless the tap is turned off. The water from the tap represents the cost of disease. The flooded floor to the disease is filling our hospital beds, and medical students learn far more about the methods of floor mopping than about turning off taps. And doctors who are specialists in mops and brushes can earn infinitely more than those dedicated to shutting off taps. And the drug companies sell rolls of paper towels so patients can end up buying new rolls every day for the rest of their lives. To paraphrase Ogden Nash, modern medicine is making great progress, but just had it in the wrong direction. Preventive medicine is, frankly, bad for business.