Kind: captions
Language: en
just two servings of per week had a
significantly higher risk of developing
dementia. Bad news. After eating, the
subject's gut became leakier and they
also had metabolically reduced insulin
sensitivity. That means that metabolism
was not working efficiently. We knew
that meats actually are considered a
carcinogen, meaning cancer-causing food.
We make hundreds of food decisions every
single day, and most of them are pretty
automatic. We eat what we want, what we
like, when we want. And you might even
splash some oat milk in your coffee or
sip some iced tea in the afternoon. And
I bet you think some of these choices
are going to be healthy no matter what.
Or at least they're going to be
harmless. But
[Music]
[Applause]
Hi everyone, Dr. William Lee here. We
make hundreds of food decisions every
single day. And most of them are pretty
automatic. We eat what we want, what we
like, when we want, whatever we can get
a hold of. And you might even splash
some oat milk in your coffee or grab a a
healthy wrap on your lunch break or sip
some iced tea in the afternoon. And I
bet you think some of these choices are
going to be healthy no matter what, or
at least they're going to be harmless.
But new research is starting to tell us
we have got to be careful. And it tells
us a little bit different stories about
common foods and ingredients that are
found in these kinds of foods that we
think are healthy but that might
actually be working against your body.
This is not about character
assassination of a whole category of
foods. This is about the fine details
that we all need to be aware of so we
can make the best possible choices and
avoid those things that could possibly
harm our health. So in this episode I'm
going to divide into three different
items we're going to talk about. most of
which I think you probably already have
in your kitchen. And we're going to
explore what these ingredients are doing
inside your body, what researchers have
uncovered, and how you can make small
changes to protect your gut, protect
your brain, and protect your long-term
health. By the way, this protection
includes lowering your own risk against
cancer. Are you ready? Let's begin. The
first thing I want to talk about is
something called carrageenan. Now you
might have never heard of carrageenan or
maybe you might have seen it and don't
recognize or doesn't register to you but
carrageenan which is spelled c a r r r r
r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r a g e
n a n carrageenan is a gel-like
substance that comes from red seaweed.
That seaweed is called condondress
crispus also known as Irish moss. Now,
carragean has been used by the food
industry for decades for thickening
foods, emulsifying foods, stabilizing
food products that you're likely to find
in the middle aisle of the grocery store
or maybe even in the refrigerated
section or the frozen section.
Carrageinan helps to improve texture of
processed foods and it also helps to
stabilize foods uh that are actually put
on the shelf. Now, you might find
carrageenan in foods that you wouldn't
expect. For example, plant-based milks
supposed to be healthy, right? Almond
milk, soy milk, coconut milk, oat milk.
They can contain carrageen, ice cream,
frozen desserts, frozen yogurts, coffee
creamers, even the non-dairy ones,
prepared soups and sauces, deli meats,
pre-slliced turkey or ham, even some
vegan cheese products and protein
shakes. That's carrageenan can be found
in these products. It's also found, by
the way, in many organic or natural
products. And because it comes from
seaweed, carrage is often marketed as a
natural and plant-based product. And you
might automatically think that means
that it's okay. It's healthy. But here's
some recent research that is making us
take a second look. Researchers from the
German Center of Diabetes Research
looked at healthy men. These are people
between 20 and 35 years old. And they
gave them carragean to eat at levels
that you would actually find people
eating from a modern processed diet.
What the researchers did is they checked
the people's the subject's gut and
metabolism and blood markers after two
weeks. So they looked at the beginning
and they looked at it after two weeks
after eating carrageenan at levels that
you would actually get from just eating
a modern commercial diet. And here's
what they found. Bad news. After eating
carrageenan the subjects all had
increased gut permeability. That means
their gut became leakier and they also
had metabolically reduced insulin
sensitivity. That means that you know
their blood sugars were higher because
their insulin what their cells were not
sensitive enough to insulin to draw it
in for energy. Means that metabolism is
not working efficiently. By the way, the
subjects all who ate carrageenan all had
higher levels of inflammation in their
bodies as well. So let's break this
down. All right. What's going on in the
gut? This is food is medicine research.
I'm normally talking about things that
are good for us. But look, we got to
just look at the mechanisms of good and
not so good as well. So, let's talk
first about leaky gut. What is leaky
gut? Well, your gut is really a tube
that's uh that's passing a lot of fluid
through it and it's sitting inside your
belly and it's got cells that actually
have to be linked together. We call them
tight junctions in the intestinal lining
to prevent the stuff from the inside
from leaking out. And you know what's
inside your intestines, right? It's
poop. You don't want that to be leaking
out into your belly, right? So, the
tight junctions of your gut prevent that
leakiness. If you actually have leaky
gut, that means that the junctions are
loosened and that means that the toxins,
bacteria, and other enzymes and things
inside the gut uh normally inside the
tube of your gut can leak out into your
body cavity. Can also leak into your
bloodstream. Now, even though leaky gut
isn't a medical diagnosis, you probably
heard about it. Most people recognize
the term leaky gut, it's used kind of in
a wishy-washy broad gray sort of way,
but I will tell you that leaky gut, this
idea of the tight junctions coming apart
and allowing stuff to come out into your
body cavity into your bloodstream is
connected with autoimmune diseases,
irritable bowel syndrome, chronic
fatigue, eczema, itchiness of the skin,
and many other chronic conditions. How
do you know if you might have leaky gut?
Well, it's pretty non-specific, but you
get bloating, cramping in your gut, food
sensitivities, you get fatigue,
including chronic fatigue, and also
brain fog. All right, this is what
actually happens. Something in your gut,
leakiness, the cells not coming together
tightly enough, you start leaking stuff
into your bloodstream, everything
actually gets affected by it, including
your brain. Now, how do you test for
leaky gut? like how do you when you go
to the doctor and say I think I have
leaky gut gut. What does your doctor
actually do? Well, they can conduct
tests. So, I'm just going to tell you
the names of the tests. I'm not going to
explain them in great detail, but that
way if you're um asking for a test, you
should recognize there's something
called the laculos manitol test that's
actually for leaky gut. There's also
something called the zulin test that
actually looks for leaky gut. And they
could also conduct tests on your stool
and look for leakiness in the stool for
secrettory IGA which is an antibbody
something called calprotectin or
falzulin. Now if that all sounds like
Latin to you trust me these are the
things that the doctor should be
thinking about you just need to go to
the doctor to say hey listen you know
I'm not feeling well I wonder if I have
leaky gut. Um could you offer me some of
these tests that I know can actually
help us figure this out? That's a
potential cause of leaky gut. How do you
test for leaky gut? How do you treat it?
Well, you need to target the root cause,
right? The root cause of dietary
irritation of the gut. Stress can also
cause leaky gut. And even medications
can sometimes trigger leaky gut, right?
It all depends on what the cause is of
how you're actually going to treat it.
All right? But here's some general
principles. If you got a leaky gut with
the lining being pulled apart, you can
try to heal the gut. Now, your gut
bacteria, healthy gut bacteria can
actually start to do the job. And the
best way is to actually eat some
fermented food and maybe some targeted
probiotics. That can help your gut get
healthier, lower the inflammation, get
those junctions to stay together more
tightly. Imagine like a garden hose with
water flowing through it. Leaky guts
like poking it full of holes with a
needle. It's going to start leaking
right now. Imagine you're actually going
to uh put some glue on the outside and
seal it all up. make that garden hose uh
intact again. Now you don't have any
leakiness. All right, so this is what
you want to do by um helping to heal
your gut. Prebiotics, probiotics are all
very very useful. Now, we started this
conversation talking about carrageenan
in a clinical study causing leaky gut.
All right, but carrageen isn't the only
cause. That's a key thing I want to tell
you about. This is not the clear only
offending actor. It's just one of the
things that's been discovered by
research that can contribute to leaky
gut. You could have gluten sensitivity.
You could actually have uh be drinking a
lot of alcohol. Uh that can also cause
leaky gut. Food additives, you know, all
that stuff in process ultrarocessed
foods um can cause leaky gut. And also
stress, if you're somebody who's serely
stressed out and Lord knows we live in a
stressful world, that can all contribute
to leaky gut symptoms. But my point is
that the new research shows that
carrageenan is just one of the new
things that you should be looking out
for uh that could cause digestive
problems and leaky gut. And because this
is something you can spot on the
ingredient label and you can avoid it,
put it back if it's got carrage in it
and you're sensitive to it, your gut,
you're not feeling well after eating it.
It's smart, easy, simple. That's
something that you can actually do very,
very easily. Now, the best ways to
reduce the chances of having a leaky gut
caused by carrageenan is to avoid it.
And when you avoid it, what do you
substitute it with? Well, my rule of
thumb is always to go after whole
plant-based unprocessed foods, right?
And load up on those colorful
bioactives, polyphenols, dietary fiber.
They all actually help gut integrity,
right? And by the way, these same
plant-based foods like cruciferous
vegetables, berries, uh they all have
anti-inflammatory bioactives. These are
mother nature's natural chemicals that
she's infused and imbued into the food
that when we eat them, not only do we
get nourishment, but it also lowers
inflammation, and it also helps our gut
be healthier, which means those tight
junctions are more intact. All right?
And by the way, using extravirgin olive
oil for your cooking can also help
because olive oil has olive polyphenols
like hydroxytowol and oolioanthol. Those
also lower inflammation and they help
your gut heal as well. Oh, what about
other tasty things? I'm all about making
sure your food tastes great. Spices and
herbs all can actually have these
anti-inflammatory, gut healthy, gut
healing properties as well. Okay, now
let's switch to the second thing that I
want to talk to you about and that is uh
basically processed meats. I don't need
to tell you that eating hot dogs and
sausages and you know all those kinds of
deli meats is not healthy for you. But
now there's actually a new reason that
these processed meats have been found
not to be good by researchers. Okay, so
previously by the way we knew that
processed meats actually are considered
a carcinogen meaning cancer-causing
substance chemical food and the cancers
that that they've been linked to include
bowel cancer, colurectal cancer, right?
That makes sense. You eat a lot of the
stuff that's got nitrates, nitrates,
nitrosamines, all these additives that
are put in there. Where do they get the
most contact is in your gut. But
remember, there's this gut brain axis.
And now enter the brain's health at risk
by eating processed meats. So this is a
new study from Harvard Medical School
and looking at something called the UK
Bioank. This is one of the largest
databases of real world people over
many, many years. And what these
researchers did is they looked at
118,000 people over a decade, 10 years.
And what they found is that people who
ate two servings of processed red meat
per week, bacon, deli meat, sausages,
pretty common, right? That might seem
like it might be you or somebody you
know. People who ate just two servings
of processed meat per week had a
significantly higher risk of developing
dementia. And what about each extra
serving per week? Every extra serving of
processed meat per week was equivalent
to 1 to two years of accelerated brain
aging, cognitive aging. Now, you might
be surprised at this, right? Like,
because I already told you, you know
that process mates linked with increased
cancer risk. But did you know now you do
know that it's associated with cognitive
decline and increased risk of dementia?
So, what's going on? Well, the same
things that increase cancer risk,
nitrates, nitrites, preservatives,
coloring, artificial flavorings, these
things once they get into your
bloodstream, right? So, you're eating
the processed meats, uh, all the stuff
is being absorbed and get those into
your bloodstream. These chemicals can
increase oxidative stress, which then
can cause neuroinflammation.
That's inflammation of the brain cells.
Um, and that actually is thought to be a
contributor to the development of
dementia. Processed meats are also very
high in sodium, salt, right? It's very
salty because salt tastes good. So, most
of these processed meats actually have a
lot of salt in them. Salt's also a
preservative, which is one way to
preserve the processed meats. And high
salt can actually damage the lining of
the blood vessels in the brain as well.
And you need good blood flow, good blood
vessels in order to keep good brain
function. Now that I told you that in
that study that people who ate processed
meats, even just two times a week, two
servings a week, had an increased risk
of doic dementia, is there any good news
to this? Well, here's the thing. that
study that researchers also found
something beneficial and that is that if
the subjects replaced processed meats
with nuts and legumes. So ditch the
meat, okay? Swap in nuts and legumes,
beans, uh uh chickpeas, uh soybeans,
etc. Guess what? Their dementia risk
dropped by 20%. Swap out the processed
meat. Swap in the nuts and legumes,
beans, lentils, chickpeas. Okay, you
swap it in, you drop your risk of
dementia. What do the nuts and legumes
do? They actually provide prebiotic
dietary fiber, healthy fats, and they
make your gut bacteria, your microbiome
healthier. What does that do? Well, a
healthy microbiome lowers inflammation
everywhere in your body, including in
your brain. That's what we want. Some
nuts also have some omega-3 fatty acids,
right? These are antioxidants. They
produce they protect against oxidative
stress in your brain. And omega-3s are
also good for gut health as well. So,
all of this collectively can protect
against neurodeeneration. So, what's my
pro tip for you? Well, here are some
smart swaps that you can make. First,
regardless of what you're eating
normally, try adding some
anti-inflammatory foods. Try lentils.
That's a really good source of uh
dietary fiber. All right. Replace your
sandwich that has deli meat in it. No,
with a lentil salad. That's a big swap
in that can actually be beneficial. By
the way, there's a lot of ways to make a
lentil salad. Tastes great. Just search
it on the internet. Tasty lentil salad
meatless. All right. And you can
actually find ways to season it and it's
really absolutely delicious and you get
a lot of protein there too as well. You
can add chickpeas to a soup or if you
have a bowl, have some chickpeas that
you're going to season up with some
spices that gives you the dietary fiber.
Or snacking on some walnuts or almonds
instead of snacking on cured meats.
Listen, who doesn't like a nice chart
cuterie platter? Well, I'll tell you,
just remember that snacking on these uh
the servings uh every serving you have
actually contributes to more dementia.
And cutting them up and swapping in good
foods protects your brain. Really,
really important to protect your brain
now, not when you're in trouble. And
you're going to be glad for that. By the
way, by doing these swapins now, nuts,
legumes, all right, instead of deli
meats, you're going to reap the benefits
from this 10, 20, 30 years from now.
It's kind of like a retirement plan. If
you do it now, you're going to actually
really enjoy the wealth of the health
that you're actually going to get years
from now, decades from now. Okay. Third
thing I want to turn to, and you've
heard me talk about this before, but I
there's some new information I want to
share with you, and that is
sugary beverages. So you already know
from me and other people that sodas,
drinking sodas, both regular soda and
diet soda linked to obesity, diabetes
and other health risks as well, right?
But new research suggests that sugary
beverages are linked to oral cancer. All
right. Now, this is a study by
researchers from the University of
Washington and the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Center in Seattle. It's a 30-year
study, big study, looking at 162,000
women. This is not a small study. This
is a big one. And what the researchers
found is that women who drank one or
more sugary beverages per day had a
five-fold increased risk of oral cancer.
And by the way, among people who drank
alcohol on top of having sugary
beverages, guess what? The risk went
even higher. So from five times higher
to 5.5 times higher. You don't want to
have oral cancer no matter what. Okay?
You've heard of people, well-known
celebrities that have actually had oral
cancer, throat cancer, Val Kilmer,
Michael Douglas, you know, these are all
the people that are struggling with oral
cancers, right? So, what's the cause of
this? Why does sugary beverages cause
oral cancer? Now, I'm a I'm a real
scientist and real scientists don't know
everything. So, I'm going to tell you
very honestly, we don't know exactly why
sugary beverages cause this, but the
research is showing that there is an
increased risk. So, what do we know?
Well, we know that sugar, extra sugar,
added sugar, can feed harmful bacteria
in your mouth. And that means that it
can change your mouth microbiome. We
tend to think of our gut microbiome in
our lower gut and our colon. Nope.
Actually starts right here. Your mouth
is the beginning of the gastrointestinal
tracts. When you're talking about gut
microbiome, it actually starts in your
mouth. You know, cavities are caused by
harmful bacteria. Gum disease made worse
by harmful bacteria. And guess what?
Now, harmful bacteria actually been
associated with oral cancers as well.
So, by feeding with lots of extra sugar,
extra sugar, I'm not talking about sugar
from fruits, I'm talking about added
sugar from sugary beverages, uh uh that
can actually feed the harmful bacteria.
Now, the other thing is that sugar also
increases oxidative stress in gum
tissue. So, you've heard of oxidative
stress. It's like cellular stress. If
you've ever felt stressed out sitting in
a traffic jam, like you know, you're in
a hurry, you got to get someplace and
you just feel like blood pressure rising
and you're looking at your watch and
you're going to be late and it's very,
very stressful. All right, now think
about that at the cellular level. If
your cells feel that all the time
because of the increased stress caused
by added sugar, guess what? You got bad
bacteria, you got stress. These are sort
of the fuel to actually create changes
at the cells that can lead to cancer.
It's carcinogenic. Besides diabetes,
besides the obesity, here's another
reason to cut down or cut out your
sugary beverages. All right? At least
it's a regular habit. Every now and then
you want to eat drink something sugary.
I think it's fine. I'm a pragmatist and
a realist. So, this is not about cutting
out everything from your whole life.
This is just being armed so that you're
aware and you can make rational choices.
It's your choice what you actually do.
What are some hidden sources of sugars?
Well, one of them are flavored iced tea.
Uh fruit juices that are labeled natural
fruit juices. Coconut water even can
also have added sweeteners. What you got
to do, and I'm going to say this again
and again and again in my videos, is you
have to check the ingredient label. If
it comes in a can, if it comes in a box,
all right? If it's prepackaged, comes
from a factory, always check the
ingredient label. And you better feel
comfortable that what you're putting in
your body is uh okay if you're going to
buy that product. Here's some other
ones. Healthy smoothies or pre-made
juices sometimes have a lot of added
sugar. Again, where are you going to
find that? In the ingredient label.
Okay, so what's the solution? What
should you drink instead? Well, number
one, green tea tends to be really good
as long as it's not sweetened. like you
don't you don't buy it pre sweetened for
you. One thing you could do is buy some
green tea, brew it yourself. You can put
it make sun tea if you want to put it in
a glass container and set it outside or
just brew some tea with some hot water
and let it dissolve. You can stick it in
a fridge. Now you've got iced green tea
healthy for you. If you want to use
hibiscus, this is something I learned
not uh not not too long ago. Uh, it's
basically hibiscus flowers. Got citrus,
got a lot of vitamin C to it, which is
beneficial. Put hot water in it. And
guess what? The water will turn
beautiful purple red. A lot of
anthocyanins, which are
anti-inflammatory,
cancer starving, cancer fighting,
anti-inflammatory.
Um, good for the gut microbiome.
Hibiscus tea is another thing. As long
as you actually are not adding sugar to
it. Want to make it a little sweeter,
you know, add a little bit of a little
touch of honey. Uh, it's actually
probably a good way to go. All right. Or
you want to just cut some whole fruit,
oranges, limes, strawberries, stick them
into your homemade tea, stick it in the
fridge. If it's a hot day, you can pull
it out and you can sip on it. You'll
actually get the natural sweetness from
the fruit itself. And you'll also get
some more polyphenols as well. That's
beneficial. All right, those are some of
my pro tips for you. Um, or by the way,
I always want to tell people, drink
plain water. Uh, if uh if if in doubt,
you don't need to come up with a juice
or a soft drink. Okay? Water is an
underrated beverage. In fact, water is
one of the holy trinity of healthy
beverages. Water, tea, coffee. Those are
the three tr holy trinities of healthy
beverages. Water is fine. Let's zoom
back for a second. Give you the big
picture. carrageenan, processed meats,
sugary drinks. They don't seem to be
related, but underneath they cause a
common problem. Chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation over time disrupts
your critical body systems, wears down
your health defenses, stresses out your
cells, and in a long term, this
increases your risk of long-term
diseases like cancer, like uh metabolic
diseases, like cardiovascular diseases,
and like brain uh and cognitive diseases
as well. Bottom line, and what I'm
really trying to tell you with these
videos is that you can take control. All
right. Number one, read the ingredient
label if you're buying something out of
the middle aisle or out of a shelf or a
box or a can. Swap out your processed
meats with nuts or legumes. All right?
And don't choose that sugary beverage.
You can make your own beverages, too.
And then you can control what you put
into it. These three simple choices you
can make every single day can cut down
on your risk of leaky gut, bad for gut
health, bad for brain health, dementia,
all right, cognitive problems, you know,
more than where do I put my keys and cut
down on your risk of oral cancer. All
based on research done in humans
connecting uh these substances that are
pretty common. Remember how I started
this video? Common things that you might
not think might have some harm. The new
research is causing us to take a second
look. As they say, our lives are the sum
of all the choices that we make. So,
here's one more choice I'd like you to
make right now. Go to your refrigerator
or your pantry. Scan around, take a look
around it, and find one product that has
carrageenan or a hidden sugar in it.
Remove it and replace it next time
you're at the store with something that
doesn't have carrageenan or added sugar.
And I want to hear from you, by the way.
What's that one everyday food or drink
that you are now thinking about
differently? Just drop what you
discovered, what you decided to do in
the comment below. And by the way, if
this video opened your eyes, all right,
um, make sure you hit the like button,
subscribe to my channel, and share this
video with somebody who you think would
like to hear it or needs to hear it. You
got the knowledge, now you can put it to
work. Until next time, Dr. Lee out. Hey,
if you like that video, then you're
going to love this one. Check it out.