"In Africa, treating people who live largely off the land on vegetables they grow, I hardly ever saw cases of many of the most common diseases in the United States and England, including coronary heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, varicose veins, obesity, diverticulitis, appendicitis, gallstones, dental cavities, hemorrhoids, hiatus hernias, and constipation. In 20 years of surgery in Africa, I had to remove exactly one gallstone." — Dr Burkitt

"In the 1960s, there were only 10 scientific papers a year being published in various journals - veterinary or otherwise - on fiber. Within 12 years, that had gone up to over 500 an year. It was a tremendous explosion." — Dr Burkitt

"Most of the common chronic diseases filling the hospital beds in Western countries today are rare or unknown in the third world, were rare even in North America before the First World War, are equaly common in black and white americans, and therefore they have to be due to lifestyle — the way we live — in which case they got to be preventible if we can identify the factors in our lifestyle." — Dr Burkitt

"People in Polynesian islands have very low rates of diabetes, varicose veins, heart disease and so on. But when they go to live in New Zealand with the Maoris and go on to Western culture, within two generations, they even surpass the white people in some of these diseases." — Dr Burkitt

"Pima Indians in the Southern states of America. The Pima Indians now have the second highest rates of diabetes in the world and the highest rates of gallstones in the world. They switched over to the diets enormously after and during the last World War. Whereas other Indian groups in Central America or ?? places are almost exempt of these diseases. So we can't say they are genetic. They got to be due to lifestyle." — Dr Burkitt

"… diseases like atherosclerosis, diabetes, gallstones, bowel cancer, breast cancer, hemerroids, varicose veins, diverticulosis — the countries who don't get these diseases have a diet with far more starch, far more fiber, far less fat, far less sugar, far less salt. And the two major things we need are to eat more fiber and to eat less fat." — Dr Burkitt

"[Our ancestors] ate far more fiber than we do — about five times as much. They ate far less fat and particularly less saturated fat. They ate far more starch, far less sugar, far less salt." — Dr Burkitt

"Over the last century, we're getting better and better at taking fiber out [of foods, through industrial processing]." — Dr Burkitt

"All of these disease which are the major diseases of American hospitals must be viewed as manifestations of maladaptation to a new environment into which the Western man has plunged and which we are not adapted to. We made more change in our diet and lifestyle since the Industrial Revolution from 200 years ago, than our ancestors made in the previous 20,000 years." — Dr Burkitt

"Medical students are all taught that medicine consists of diagnosis and treatment of disease. There is not much more than lip service paid to the possibility of prevention. A doctor qualifies with the idea of marvelous high technology CAT scans and what-have-you-not for diagnosis and wonderful ways of treatment. But he doesn't qualify with the vision that much of our vision is due to our lifestyle and is really preventible." — Dr Burkitt

"… I felt that we were largely wasting our time treating disease that can be prevented in the first place!" — Dr Burkitt

"… all the emphasis today is being put today on diagnosis and treatment of disease. And yet, we are never going to reduce any disease by early diagnosis or treatment. The only way to reduce disease, other than an infectious disease [via] immunization.. when we come to chronic diseases including cancer, the only way to reduce disease is to identify causative factors and reduce causative factors. But all the money goes into early diagnosis and treatment." — Dr Burkitt

"That's the general concept in the Western countries: whatever is wrong with you, we pour chemicals down your throat." — Dr Burkitt