Kind: captions
Language: en
Matcha tea can kill breast cancer stem
cells. Finding something that could kill
cancer stem cells, which is what makes
cancers come back, is a holy grail. We
don't have a drug for it, but here,
matcha tea actually been shown in the
lab to actually be able to do that. Two
cups of shake as a smoothie a day
combined with the no spray, they had a
22 times increase in their immune
response to the flu vaccine compared to
people who didn't have it. has been
shown to actually double the number of
stem cells flowing in your bloodstream
just by having two cups of hot chocolate
made with 80%. You know, bottled water,
which is so commonly consumed, probably
will have microplastics in it. Almost
certainly does.
[Music]
[Applause]
Yeah. Yeah. Well, stem cells are really
simple. Um, we're made of stem cells.
So, when our moms and dads got together
and created, you know, uh, uh, us in the
womb. We started out as stem cells. They
actually made every single organer and
egg and sperm got together and they
basically decided they would become a
stem cell factory. And then pretty much
we formed out of our own stem cells. And
after we were born, a a few of those
stem cells um, stuck around. Um, about
700,000 of them. They stick around and
they're mostly in our bone marrow and
they're in lining of our intestines.
They hide out in our body and they help
us regenerate. We know that we
regenerate because our hair falls out
and grows back. Our gut lining grows
back. Our livers can grow back. If you
actually remove part of your liver,
it'll grow back. Yeah. Um our skin grows
back, you know. Um so we our bodies
possess the ability to regenerate
through stem cells. Now what can injure
stem cells? you know, um, high doses of
alcohol can damage and blunt your stem
cells. So, I'm okay with the one tequila
I had last night. You know, having a
tequila every now and then is not bad.
Having a glass of wine, but you know,
it's it's the the the the thing is on
balance. What you want to do is people,
you know, people who drink a lot have
damaged stem cells. Diabetes is another
state, a metabolic state that, you know,
it really impairs. It cripples our stem
cells. Sugar, high blood sugar cripples
our stem cells. So the excess of
anything can be harmful including to our
stem cells. So what are the things that
we can do to help boost our stem cells?
This is where it's really become
interesting. Before I talk about that
though, let me just stress affect your
stem cells. Stress can definitely affect
our stem cells. High stress will blunt
the activity of our stem cells. You
know, it's just like stunning them. So
they're like, "Wait a minute. What do I
do now?" You know, maybe I'm not going
to be so enthusiastic in rebuilding our
organs. We got to rebuild our blood
vessels. We got to rebuild our hearts.
You know, our hearts turn around. Like
we actually have um stem cells in our
hearts and our brains and rebro grow our
nerves. Every single day, something in
our body is regenerating. Actually, a
lot of things are regenerating. But more
exciting to me is the ability for every
single person listening to this podcast
to be able to actually enhance their own
stem cells. And here's the research. So,
the Mediterranean diet had is it's been
a study by Spain looked at um uh elderly
people on the Mediterranean diet and
those who uh were on a Mediterranean
diet compared to not on a Mediterranean
diet had five times the number of stem
cells in their circulation in their
bloodstream. So again, it's not one
magic food. It's the pattern of food
that you're actually eating. Now, when
you you can actually do the research on
specific things as well. So for example,
tea. Green tea will increase your stem
cells. But guess what? So can black tea,
right? So here's what the surprise the
Japanese live forever
all the green tea. You know, people in
Asia drink a lot of tea. People in
Britain drink a lot of tea as well. We
used to say green tea is good. Black tea
is fermented. So it's not going to be
that good for you. We're changing our
minds. We have to keep our minds open.
Black tea can also double the number of
stem cells. And then here's another kind
of surprise and delight is that um there
was a study at uh by UCSF in San
Francisco where researchers took people
with known cardiovascular disease. So
they had kind of crappy blood flow and
they gave them hot chocolate. Yeah, I
was going to say the chocolate stem cell
story. I want to hear about that. It's
amazing. Right. So um the darker the
chocolate, the higher the flavonol,
these are the bioactives that are
naturally present in cacao. Yeah. And
they there was a study done. Most of the
food is medicine component. There are
literally these chemicals in food called
phyitochemicals or phyto nutrients that
actually have these medicinal
properties. They are made by mother
nature. They're packed in the food
growing on the plant and you know um
every plant-based food will actually
have some type of bioactive. So in cacao
which is a bean which then you process
to actually get you know kind of the
cocoa powder. Um, if you take the really
dark chocolate, like 73% cacao, the
really dark chocolate, and you make it
into a high flavonol hot chocolate
drink, and you have it twice a day, this
was the clinical study. They found in
people who wound up actually having um
uh drinking the hot chocolate twice a
day over the course of a month, they
doubled the number of stem cells
compared to the people who didn't break
hot chocolate, right? And so, okay, so
the question is, is that important?
Well, when they measured their blood
flow, what they did is they put a blood
pressure cuff on them and which, you
know, kind of like um lowers the
circulation of the blood. They didn't
let it go. They found that the blood
flow was much vastly improved. Wow. So,
here's the functional uh uh results that
actually means it makes a difference.
So, who's going to complain about
chocolate? Who's going to complain about
tea? Who's going to complain about a
Mediterranean diet? I mean, you go out
to eat. These are the things we love.
Yeah. getting people to think about food
as not just calories but information.
Food is not just energy but actually
instructions that regulates your stem
cells and your DNA and your microbiome
and your immune system and your
angogenesis. I mean these are things
that are are not things people think
about. The new science of nutrition,
right? So beyond proteins and calories
and sugar and all that kind of stuff.
We're now combining food science with
life science. Dark chocolate. Oh, you're
speaking my language now. Okay. So, dark
chocolate, can you eat can you eat too
much dark chocolate? That's the
question. You know, I I have never seen
anything about an overdose of cacao, but
I will tell you that cacao has been
shown to actually double the number of
stem cells flowing in your bloodstream
just by having two cups of hot chocolate
made with 80% high flavonol, dark
chocolate. Come on. Yeah. It's been done
in people, 60 year olds with heart
disease.
So wait, what happens when you when you
drink or you you eat this dark
chocolate? What happens? Yeah, the
polyphenols in this dark chocolate that
we we know what they are. They're called
proanthocyanid. So I'm a scientist. So
my job is to actually know what are what
the inside chemicals actually are. These
are natural chemicals. All right? Most
people don't need to know that. But you
drink it, it tastes good. That's all you
need to know. But but I'll tell you
these these natural chemicals found in
cacao actually trigger a reaction in
your body so that they call out the stem
cells. So it is literally like bees
flying out of a hive can double the
number of stem cells. And what's the
what's the practical impact? Well, there
was a study done uh at UCSF in San
Francisco that looked at 60year-old men
with heart disease. So these are people
whose blood vessels were already not
doing so well and their blood flow
wasn't going so well either and their
blood vessels were kind of sick. That's
kind of the definition of heart disease.
By having the stem cells coming out,
they were able to actually double the
resiliency, the function of their blood
vessels. So they get they got better
rebound, the better agility. um their
their blood vessels are in better shape
because their stem cells are
regenerating their circulation. Wow. So,
this is human studies, right? Like most
most of the time you hear about
scientists talking about rats or mice or
cells. I'm talking about human studies
and that's kind of where we are with
food is medicine. It's not the kind of
like the guesswork like we can do
serious research to get down to exactly
what's actually happening at the human
level. So that's the second health
defense systems. Okay. Third one. Third
one is our gut microbiome. Now people
have been talking about gut health and
microbiome. It's almost like a buzzword
these days and people are saying well we
can actually scoop your poop and we can
actually measure your microbiome and we
can tell you what you need to eat and
what you don't need to eat. Again, I'm a
scientist, so I will tell you that there
are 39 trillion bacteria in our in the
typical body. That's more stars than in
a night sky. All right. Wow. So, we
barely understand
uh the gut bacteria. But what we do know
is that this gut bacteria actually
controls our metabolism, communicates
with our brain, um, actually can help us
heal from the inside out. And very
importantly, our gut bacteria basically
lives, if you think of your gut like a
like a garden hose. It's a tube and you
were to cut a garden hose in half and
you look inside it, there's a lining,
okay? Uh the bacteria is inside the
hose, but inside the wall of the garden
hose, that's where your immune system,
70% of our immune system lives inside
our gut. So our gut bacteria% So if
you're feeding your gut a lot of bad
foods, it's probably you're poisoning
your immune system. You're preventing
your gut bacteria. Now, I'll tell you
what's interesting about the gut
bacteria. Your gut bacteria talks to the
immune system right through the walls of
the of your gut. Immune system's in
there 70% right like a jelly roll like a
like a jelly in a jelly roll and the gut
bacteria is inside. So think about like
a college student in a freshman dorm.
They are talking to their roommate by
pounding on the wall. Right? What do you
want? What kind of pizza do you want?
All right. And they can answer you. And
that's basically what our gut bacteria
says to our uh our immune system. So, we
got to keep that gut healthy. By the
way, interestingly, uh, and I've done
research on this, um, certain gut
bacteria, uh, can actually signal to
your brain, it's a gut and brain axis,
and cause your brain to release social
hormones. Wow. Okay. And can affect your
mood. So, you know, when you've got a
crappy gut and you feel crummy in your
gut, I guarantee you like it's not just
because you're irritated, it's affecting
your brain as well. That's crazy. Yeah,
we had uh we had Dr. Emmeran uh Mayor on
who has got the gut I think it's the gut
brain connection or the gut immune
connection or something like that. So,
he's he's got a lot of great research on
that. Yeah. So, well, the key thing
though is that foods can actually help
rightsize your gut health. Think of it
like an ecosystem, the Great Barrier
Reef. So, certain foods can support the
ecology, the ecosystem, the Great
Barrier Reef, and certain ones actually
kill the coral. All right? And so, our
continuously want to keep it in good
shape all the way through our lives. And
by the way, even conditions like autism,
al Alzheimer's, and schizophrenia are
all now seemingly connected to our gut
bacteria. Really? Yeah. Now, is there a
way if someone has those, are they
pretty easy to reverse, though, or is
that hard? We're we're well listen we're
we're just figuring this out because
right now medically we prescribe
medications uh to try to treat those
things and a lot of times those
medications just blunt the symptoms.
Okay, they cover up the symptoms. They
don't get at the underlying cause. Now
we don't know exactly how the gut
bacteria communicates to the brain
completely yet. But there's one giant
nerve
called the vagus nerve. It's like a
giant sho it's about the thickness of a
shoelace and it hangs from our brain all
the way down into our gut. Okay? goes
right near wraps around our esophagus on
the way down and our we think the gut
bacteria basically sends text messages
up to the brain through this big nerve.
Okay, so the key though is that foods
can actually influence our gut bacteria
either good bacteria or bad bacteria. So
that's important. Uh so that's that's a
third health defense system. Okay. Okay.
So with the fir the androgenesis number
one yes stem cells number two cells gut
microbiome number three okay the fourth
one number four are DNA now if you watch
CSI DNA is just sort of like a genetic
fingerprint a code that you can find on
a crime scene or if you're actually
trying to do ancestry look for your
ancestors you figure out how how much of
you is Neanderthal right I think I was
1% when I did it. Yes. Uh so the the the
key though is it's DNA is a lot more
than our genetic code. It actually
protects us from the environment. Now
what am I what do I mean by that? Well,
you know how if we are exposed to uh we
get sunburn, ultraviolet light, you
damage your DNA and what happens?
Cancer, skin cancer, right? Um, if you
inhale lots of fumes from a chemical
plant, it's going to actually damage
your DNA and your lungs. You get lung
cancer, right? But think about it. If
you are in Los Angeles and you're
driving on the I 10 or if you're
actually um uh just walking on a beach,
uh uh you are actually getting
ultraviolet radiation. So, how come we
don't get skin cancer all the time?
Because our DNA is hardwired to fix
itself from damage. And so the DNA is a
protective mechanism from the
environment. I always tell people when
you're pumping gas, if you still drive a
gas vehicle as opposed to an EV, um I
always ask people, do you stand upwind
or downwind? What do you do? Are you
upwind or downwind? Do you know? I mean
up up uh well upwind, right? So you're
not getting the the fumes in. Is that
what you mean? Right. Right. Right.
Well, if you're standing downwind, you
can smell the fumes. Yes. Right. And if
you're smelling the fumes, you are
poisoning the DNA in your lung. So, how
come we don't develop lung cancer after
pumping gas? Because our DNA is
hardwired to fix itself. And so, our DNA
is sort of like a self-defense mechanism
against the environment. Radon from your
basement, okay? Offging from the from
the new car you just got or the Uber
that you're riding in, you know, or the
furniture that you got, right? So like
it this is this is this incredible
defense mechanism against our
environment and then and foods can
actually speed up the repair help fix
holes that are in our DNA. And then the
other kind of pest the resistance for
our DNA's defense is that there's
something called a tieumir. I don't know
if you've ever had anybody in your show
talk about tieumirs. Tie. Yeah. Yes.
These are these are see if you're the
longer the telomeir the the the longer
you can live or something or they can
Right. Well, well, I'll tell you
basically what the you know, like to to
give a to remind you to remind your
listeners and viewers, basically if your
DNA is like a shoelace, the telomeir is
like the little plastic cap at the end
of the shoelace. And over time, that
little cap kind of wears down just like
in a shoelace. And you know when they
when that cap is gone, man, that your
shoelace just falls apart. Yeah. And
that's what happens to our DNA. So we
need that cap. That's called a tie. And
it burns down like a life fuse. So you
know like Mission Impossible like the
fuse, right? So this thing is burning
down. And when it burns down, that's it.
Your cell's done. So what you want to do
is to slow down your cellular aging. And
harsh things that you do to your body,
smoking cigarettes, being a couch
potato, being exposed to damaging
oxidative stress, actually just being
stressed out, um like we are now with
this freaking pandemic. Um those things
all shorten our team. They burn the fuse
faster stress. But yeah, but foods can
slow it down and some foods can reverse
it and lengthen the tie, which is really
cool for from an aging perspective,
right? What are those what are those top
three foods that help lengthen the
telomeres? Green tea is one of them.
Coffee, I got I got a Yeah, it's
amazing. I got I got a little I used to
live in Italy and I just got into this
habit of drinking espresso. Uh, so I got
a little cup here. Amazingly, coffee
actually lengthens your tieumir. Come
on. I I kid you not, it's it's quite
amazing. Um, uh, and, uh, leafy greens,
some of the polyphenols and leafy greens
can also, um, slow down and some of them
actually look like they can lengthen the
tie as well. So, the key thing is that
we, you know, we are not just hapless
ponds of aging. We can actually do
something about it. And we can also
fight against our environment. Um
because look, the the tax that we pay
for being on planet Earth is we're
exposed to stuff all the time. And we
need to we count on our body's health
defenses to fix it. So that's a fourth
defense. And our fifth defense is our
immune system, which you know, after two
years, over the last two years, we all
know how important our immune system is.
Mhm. But what if I told you that your
immune system is so powerful that when
it's in its best shape? Even when you're
80 years old, it is strong enough to
fight cancer. In fact, it can even wipe
out metastatic cancer that's spread all
over your body. That's how strong your
immune system is if you give it the
chance. And so, here's what the immune
system does. It's like an army of super
soldiers. So, uh, rangers, seals, uh,
you know, uh, uh, marines, special
forces, they're all they've all got,
these are all parts of the immune
system, all cells of the immune system.
And like the special forces, they've got
their own weapons, their own training,
their own tactics, but they all work
together for, you know, the collective
good. And what happens is that, uh, when
you've got good strong defenses, you can
fight off invaders from the outside,
bacteria and viruses, for example. And
but it's not just outside invaders, you
got inside invaders as well. And those
little microscopic cancers are inside
invaders. And so our immune system
patrols our body. Okay? Cops on a beat.
And they're looking for things that
don't look right. And you see that
microscopic cancer that isn't can't grow
because it doesn't have a blood vessel
blood vessels feeding it. Androgenesis.
Basically, the immune system goes there
and takes them right out. Okay? And
takes a sniper shot and it's gone. And
so that's why we got to protect our
immune system. And there are lots of
foods that can actually boost our
immunity as well. What would you be
those what would be those top three that
boost the immune system? Uh blueberries
are a food that definitely boosts the
immune system. It's in young people as
well as older people. Uh uh that they
boost the natural killer cells which is
really cool. Um broccoli sprouts can
boost our immune system. Now, these are
the three dayouts. These are like the
three-day old sprouts, right? Okay. Um
Okay. I mean, okay, here's something.
Here's something most people don't know.
The big broccoli that when we eat
broccoli, we really, you know, our moms
told us to eat the tree tops, right?
Those they're all same. You go to the
freezer section of a grocery store and
you buy some frozen broccoli and they
all look the same. They're all the same
size. That's not really what broccoli
looks like. If you go to the farmers
market and you see a a real broccoli is
this gigantic stem with a little bit of
tree top. Okay. So what's in a broccoli?
It's called sulforophane. So that's what
gives broccoli that unique taste of
broccoli. It's a little sulfurous. Okay.
So you got to put a little olive oil, a
little bit of garlic, you know, and you
can sauté it up. Okay. So the
sulforophanes, we've done research now
looking at what what's in the treetops.
It turns out that these sulforophanes
can starve cancer. Anti-androenic, help
help your body cut off the blood supply
to cancer. Broccoli tree tops have it.
But guess what? The stock of the
broccoli has twice as much of the good
stuff than the treetops. Eat the stocks.
Eat the stocks. So man like if you don't
want to eat if you don't want to sauté
the stocks like a lot of cultures will
just cut the stocks and sauté them stick
it in a blender you can make it into a
smoothie or Korea make a soup out of it
you know and so there's a lot of good
things you can do put a little broccoli
stem little oregano powder you know you
can light it light light it right up a
little turmeric it'll be really good um
smoothie or a soup however here's the
thing so this imagine adult broccoli
having these sulforophanes well it turns
out that these big broccoli plants used
to be sprouts and the sprouts pretty
much were born or sprouted from the seed
with all the sulforophanees it's ever
going to have. All right. So, when it
gets bigger, it just gets distributed
with the stock closer to the ground
having more of it, of course, but the
broccoli sprouts have 100 times more wow
of the sulforophane, the good stuff as a
grown-up broccoli. So, sprouts broccoli
sprouts. Now, studies have been done to
show that if you give people a flu shot,
people in the winter should get a flu
shot so you don't get the flu. All
right? Uh just go to your drugstore to
get one. Uh turns out that if you uh
people, they did a study looking at
people getting the flu shot and they
gave half the people a little shake made
with broccoli sprouts and the other
group just got a placebo. And the people
who got the broccoli sprout shake and a
flu shot, their beneficial response of
their immune system is 22 times higher.
Huh. Like it totally rocked if they
actually had um a broccoli sprout shake.
So that's not food versus medicine. That
is food and medicine, which is really
cool, right? Interesting. So we never
want to throw out We don't want to throw
out the baby with a bath water. We want
to figure out how to make everything go
work even better. Absolutely. I have
something to say about alcohol. Uh
because I get asked this all the time.
Dr. Lee, red wine's good for you, right?
Well, now no. I just read that red wine
that the wine all wine's bad for you.
All and what I basically say when it
comes to alcohol because it's it's it's
a it's a it's a triggering and somewhat
controversial uh point. It is true that
many epidemiological studies have shown
that you know drinking a glass or two
very moderate red wine is associated
with some beneficial out health outcomes
lower risk of some diseases. But I will
tell you that in no study, no research
is alcohol, ethanol, okay, the stuff
that's underlying, you know, your
whiskey, your beer, uh your your wine,
it's the alcohol is not actually good
for you. Alcohol is a toxin actually.
It's a it's a um and and so a little bit
though as you say if you're mostly
healthy and your health defenses and
your metabolism is very resilient, human
body is amazing. There's no such thing
as a superfood. It's a super body. Um
and even if we we slug down a glass of
wine or sip a glass of wine or have a
drink or two um our body will bounce
back. It's only again continuous abuse
of that system that will actually break
down our engine. But alcohol is
something very specific. And here's how
I explain it.
As long as humans have been growing
grain, they've been fermenting it and
creating alcohol. Alcohol is part of
human tradition. We celebrate main
events of our life with it. You know,
births, deaths, you know, holidays. It's
all part of it's all alcohol is part of
human society. I don't think we should
demonize alcohol. I think that you know
it we should just recognize it's part of
it's part of the traditions of human
human tradition but we should know that
uh in no case is the ethanol actually
good for you. It's just something that
we we do. All right. Um but that you
know and that's why we should actually
think about it as a tradition rather
than as a health food. Uh, and I think
that allows us to actually um
accommodate it uh in moderation uh in
ways that are actually going to be uh
allowable if that's your preference to
celebrate, you know, uh a wedding with a
glass of champagne. Like there's no
shame to it. That's a human tradition.
We're all human. Uh embrace that part of
who we are. And that's I think the thing
that I I try to that's my contribution
in the health and wellness community. I
try to use science, but I also try to be
reasonable. And I try to recognize who
we are as humans. The nuance, right?
That's where everything is heading
towards. Not all answer for everybody.
We're going to sweep it under the table.
You know, everybody's got to do the same
thing. And generally speaking, if you
have all these other components, whether
it's alcohol or diet soda that's
occasional here and there, it's not
going to make a difference, right?
You're going to bounce back. There's
plenty of other crazier things that
people do in life. So, this goes back to
the 10 principles that you talk about in
the book and that you close off the book
with. And I'm just going to pick a few.
We're not going to run through them all.
You know, pick up the copy, pick up a
copy of the book, link in the show
notes. You can go through them. I'm
going to pick a couple of these that,
you know, we can talk about here. Um,
the first one that I want to do is I
want to pick something called drink the
trinity. So, what what is that? What
does that mean? And what is the trinity?
Well, in my book, in a part about food,
I take people on I take my reader on a
tour through the grocery store,
including to the beverage section. And
the literally the way I do this is
actually I invite you to jump into my
shopping cart like you would have when
you were a kid in your mom's shopping
cart, get pushed through, and I kind of
narrate all the things through it. So,
the beverage section of the grocery
store is a pretty confusing section
because it's in the middle aisles and
there are endless sea of juices and
sodas and bottled waters that are there.
And so, I try to bring a little bit of
clarity to, you know, what are the three
beverages that are um unquestionably
healthy for you. There's no real
controversy of them. All right? Because
other drinks like juices and sodas, lots
of controversy, lots of data. But the
three things I call the holy trinity of
beverages um are water. Okay, water
actually uh is critical for hydration,
critical to maintain our health
defenses, critical for our metabolism.
You need water in the system. Okay, uh
and drinking water is something that is
very natural and and important to us. uh
uh and when again when you drink cool
water you activate these uh temperature
gauges in our stomach that are
triggering our metabolism to kind of
warm up uh the water in our stomach so
we don't cool our core body temperature.
So there's even metabolic benefits uh to
drinking water. Water is also by
satiating. So when you actually drink
water with a meal, you're naturally
stretching out your stomach a little
bit. And rather than actually having
food in there, that water stretch
actually basically slows down your
appetite, slows down your hunger as
well, which also helps contribute to
preventing you from overeating as well.
So water is really good for you. There's
no, you know, like it's it's a human
right to drink water. You know, we we
have to drink water. It's really great.
footnote to that and this is actually
something that I think really deserves
um careful
uh research more careful research is you
know bottled water which is so commonly
consumed probably will have
microplastics in it almost certainly
does and you know even though the
research doesn't hasn't clearly nailed
what the harm of microplastics are I
would say it's probably not so good for
you we can find it like attached to a
red blood cell circulating our blood
that's that freaks me out actually to
think about that. So, if you can drink
water, if you can, if you can drink
water from a source other than bottled
water, it's probably preferable. Yeah.
Get a filter at home. Get a filter at
home. I there's a great quote that a
friend said years ago, uh an
acquaintance said years ago. He said,
"Either you get a filter or you become
the filter." That's actually really
true. And our kidneys going to be the
filter and our bloodstream is going to
become the filter. Yeah. You don't you
don't want to be uh all that
accumulating these microplastics. Um but
the water is really really a good
beverage. Second is tea. We talked a
little bit about green tea. um as being
beneficial to you. Um and you know, tea
is the second most popular beverage in
the world after drinking water. Uh so
we're talking about something that a lot
of people have a lot of experience with.
But I but what I point out in my book is
not just green tea. It's different kinds
of green tea. Matcha tea is actually
good for you. Ulong tea, which is
slightly fermented green tea, also has
metabolic benefits, also has
polyphenols. And then for green tea, if
you have matcha, you know, which you
find in a ceremonial tea, you find in a
Japanese restaurant, it's bright green
tea. It it's kind of opaque because it's
actually made with powder and it's the
entire tea leaf that's powdered. A lot
of people don't realize this, but matcha
is super packed with polyphenols. You
know why? Matcha is grown in a very
particular way. 28 days before they pick
the the the tea leaf from to make
matcha, they put it under shade. They
put they they basically cover it with a
canopy and and the shade is there. So
the tea in response to the tea leaf tea
plant in response to shade actually
wants to make more polyphenols. So they
make anywhere from 30 to 300 times more
polyphenols under the shade. All right?
And then what happens when you pick the
leaf, you cut off the stem and then they
pow they dry and powder the entire leaf.
And so that's why you have so much more
polyphenol. It's like a stress response
to not having first is a stress response
in a plant, but then you get more.
Rather than having in a tea bag or loose
tea leaves, you actually powder the
entire leaf. So, you're getting the
entire leaf including all the
polyphenols. So, you drink all the
polyphenols, which is why you get 30 to
300 times more than just dunking a tea
bag. You also get the dietary fiber.
Good for your gut microbiome. So, matcha
tea actually is quite amazing. actually
done a study to show that that that
matcha tea extracts can kill breast
cancer stem cells. Wow. I'm I'm always
amazed by that because look, as somebody
who's been involved with biotech
development um and cancer treatment
development, finding something that
could kill stem cells, cancer stem cells
like breast cancer stem cells, which is
what makes cancers come back is a holy
grail. We don't have a drug for it, but
here matcha tea actually been shown in
the lab to actually be able to do that.
to me is actually really jaw-dropping.
Then going down into even more fermented
tea because traditionally, again, you
know, this idea that in our wellness
community, we wind up having all these
mantras. Um, must drink green tea and
oxidized fermented tea is no good. Turns
out that's not true. The science is
showing that ulong tea, which is
slightly fermented, also good for your
metabolism. You can lose your waist, you
can shrink your waist sizes, waist
circumfer, lose body fat. And then even
perhaps more surprising, if you take the
extreme of fermented smoky dark teas,
there's a tea that I write about called
puer tea. P U apostrophe E R H. One of
your favorites, right? One of mine as
well. Uh this is comes from a village of
Pur that um back thousands of years
actually traded tea on the Silk Road. So
they smoked the tea, they fermented it
so it would actually survive the tea
journey. And it turns out research have
been done to show that pure tea lightss
up your brown fat, burns up, you know,
triggers your fat, excess fat burning by
burning the cells, decreases your stem
cells from making more fat and whites uh
fats, visceral fat as well. Quite
remarkable that this fermented tea
that's supposedly, you know, fermented,
it's not can't be good, doesn't have any
of the polyphenols left. Wrong. And on
top of that, they've actually discovered
just a few years ago that there is this
this tradition thousand-y old tradition
of making puart tea. There's even a
bacteria, a probiotic that actually is
that the bacteria is grown in the way
that's fermented. In fact, they call it
a purillus,
uh like a basillus that actually grows
in pure tea. So, this is actually a a
probiotic tea, which to me is
remarkable. And not only does it improve
gut health, it's good for your
metabolism as well. So it fires up your
brown fat. So again, you know, tea is
the second part of the holy trinity. The
third um which I always drink and you
asked me what did I want if I, you know,
I was coming in to do this podcast with
you and I requested a cup of coffee.
Coffee has chlorogenic acid and many
other polyphenols, but the chlorogenic
acid not only boosts your health
defenses. Um, but it also triggers your
metabolism. Uh, and it stimulates your
metabolism from going as well. A little
bit of the caffeine, which I'm able to
tolerate. Not everybody can tolerate
caffeine. Um, but I'm able to tolerate
the caffeine. Caffeine also, uh,
stimulates not only your kind of like
your brain, but also stimulates your
metabolism as well. And I'm not
encouraging people to go after caffeine.
I'm just saying that coffee is one of
the the the third of the holy trinity.
Coffee, tea, uh, and water that actually
is really really healthy. You know, the
beautiful thing about the way you
present it is like puer, one of my
favorite teas, I drank it so much during
college. Yeah. Like I would drink it all
the time and then I had a little bit of
a gap and then I'm thinking recently I'm
like, you know what, it's probably been
a year or two since I've had it. Like
when you know the information, it's
another reminder of like, oh, this thing
that I used to enjoy or that I've heard
of or that I heard somebody else having.
Like, wow, like that's exciting for me.
And you include it back into your
routine. And all this culminates
together and it really goes into this
last principle that you talk about in
the 10 principles, which is live to eat,
right? the joy of searching out, being a
food hunter, forager in our modern world
and really leaning into the idea of not
being fear-based around food, but
actually, you know, I'll let you set it
up. You know, sometimes we hear this
phrase like people say, "Oh, do you eat
to live or do you live to eat?" And
almost like live to eat has a demeaning
tone that people give it in that
capacity. Talk about how you're
representing it to the audience. Yeah.
Well, in my book, one of the things that
I really try to, and I hope the readers
get this, convey is that we don't need
to fear our food, the the very foods
that taste great can be actually good
for us if we're mindful about how we eat
it and when we eat it and all that kind
of other stuff and and and to find good
combinations of it and that these are
connected to our old traditions. And
that's really how I really became very
mindful of this whole idea of
um living to eat. So I did a gap year
before I went to medical school to
become a doctor. Um I I was a biochemist
in college and um I was very enamored by
history and I was always interested in
the Mediterranean because when I studied
I took a very influential course called
the Renaissance history of man. And that
course fascinated me because it was
really talking about that inflection
point between the dark ages, the middle
ages and the Renaissance, sort of the
enlightenment and all the incredible
arts and sciences and literature
explosion of culture that occurred um uh
during the Renaissance right and I
realized something that was really
amazing which is that at any point like
it didn't happen overnight. It wasn't
like, you know, one day was in a dark
room, it's called the Middle Ages, and
then one day somebody clicked on the
light switch and oh, it's a renaissance.
No, this actually took place over
hundreds of years that this evolution
actually occurred. And it and I realized
that there was something really valuable
about this idea of of growing to higher
light, a stage of enlightenment that
occurs over time. I really wanted to see
where this occurred, which happened to
be in the Mediterranean that I we were
studying in in Italy and Greece. So I
really wanted to get over this, study
it. And then I also realized that the
food traditions also as part of my study
changed dramatically between the Middle
Ages where people were just like, you
know, cooking, you know, those gigantic
um, you know, bronto burgers over a fire
to really beginning to um, understand
how ingredients melded together. You
know, the the simmering and the cooking
and the stewing. Like these were not
medieval age. You know, you did have
cavemen weren't doing that, but really
sort of during the middle age. That's
when the modern Asian and Mediterranean
uh actually cooking techniques came into
being. So I wanted to see this. So
before I went to medical school, I did a
gap year and I went to Italy, I kind of
embedded myself, so to speak, and I was
um uh I lived with a family and I was
there explicitly to study the link
between food and culture and health. I
wanted to see what it was like over
there in Italy, in Greece. I traveled
all around Italy. Um uh and I actually
also did some cooking uh for the
families I was living with uh in Greece.
I went to a monastery. Uh I I literally
volunteered to be a cook in the
monastery uh one day because the abbott
announced that the the chef monk was
sick, had the flu, and they needed
volunteers. And who knew how to cook?
And so I raised my hand and off I went
in there. We were stirring uh a
ginormous pot of beans with a canoe
paddle literally and cooking for the
entire monastery. This is like cooking
Easter feast and you know um and and to
me that experience
burned into my brain while I was living
there that people really enjoyed their
food. They knew about their food. They
talked about their food. They looked
forward to their food. So, you know, if
you go to Mediterranean, um, anyone if
you knew have a friend in Italy or in
Greece and and and they took you out to
a meal or cooked a meal for you, while
you sat down with your meal, they would
be talking about their food. Italians
talk about what they're eating as
they're eating it and they talk about
the season it is and how to prepare it
and different nuances about it. People
are passionate about their food. Same
thing in Asia, you know, and you know, I
I would imagine the same thing as in
India. People take the time to prepare
their food and when they serve it,
that's what people talk about. They talk
about their food and and they really
really relish it and enjoy it and they
look forward to their next meal. I think
to me, I learned that was the antithesis
is what I came back to when I went to
medical school where we were so rushed,
you know, we were so busy, we didn't
have time to eat. And so when you sat
down, it was really just to pile in some
sustenance and to get through to get to
the next thing. And that to me was um uh
you know I I really wanted to live to
eat as opposed to just eat to live to
pile in some calories so I can keep
going. I think I've I've really lived my
life that way. And what I hope for
people who read my book is that they're
they'll they'll really they'll really
see from the way that I write about food
that it's something that I I enjoy. It's
passionate and that it's something that
you can really look forward to. like
when I was writing some of the things uh
that I wrote. I actually I wrote part of
this book by the way in the
Mediterranean. I went back I was doing
some research um in places um and I
finished I finished my book actually in
Greece. I was on a Greek island um and I
went to a little writing cave and the
food that I would eat like I would write
about afterwards and it would make my
mouth water to write about the food I
just ate all over again. So, you know, I
hope people I hope readers really get
this idea like please don't fear your
food, you know. um love your food. And
it's just so amazing that we're so
fortunate actually to be able to, you
know, benefit from societies and
histories and cultures that have
actually figured out a lot of stuff for
us. Um uh and and now what's cool is
that science is bringing us really to
the cutting edge, that forefront where
we begin to understand why the things
that taste so great are actually so
great. This is an really provocative
study of kiwi fruit. two kiwi fruits a
day times four days and you measure the
stool in healthy subjects from every
single day and you can see that just
having uh two kiwi fruits in the first
24 hours changes the bacteria that you
can measure in the stool by improving
the good bacteria as quickly as the
first day and over four days you can
increase another good bacteria as well.
So these changes can be really quick and
harmful foods can actually similarly
change the makeup very quickly. We don't
measure this routinely in the clinic,
but in the future we will.
There are other foods that actually
contain bacteria. Yogurt is the best
example of this, but there are other
fermented foods, whether it's powside,
kimchi, or uh sauerkraut. And these all
actually are exposed to the air, healthy
bacteria grow in them. We eat them. And
over the course of hundreds of years,
cultures have realized that this is
actually something that can be
beneficial to us. And now we're
beginning to dive down deeply and
understand why. Here are some foods that
are beneficial to the microbiome.
Finally, I want to just close by saying
the microbiome is connected to the uh
immune system which we know is important
because we be now realize that about 70%
of our immune systems actually wrapped
like a jelly roll inside our intestines
and the bacteria talks to our immune
system. Former US President Jimmy Carter
had melanoma that spread to his liver
and his brain and he retired from public
life thinking that he was not going to
survive. He received one of the biggest
breakthroughs in medicine today, which
is an imunotherapy that doesn't kill the
cancer directly, but unccloaks the
cancer from that's been hiding from the
immune system to allow a 90-year-old
person's immune system to find the tumor
as a health defense and to wipe it out.
Now, this is the type of response that
he got before treatment and after
treatment. This is a CT scan of the
brain. you can see uh tumor versus no
tumor and we do see this in melanoma for
example but less than 20% of the people
actually respond. So this is very
frustrating the difference between life
and death response and no response. It's
one of the big mysteries today and one
of the things that's really remarkable
is we're beginning to understand that
the foods we eat may impact our immune
system through the microbiome. And this
is actually a colleague of mine
Laurifogal at in Paris at the institute
Gustaf Rousi found that in 200
consecutive patients treated with
amother therapy those patients who
responded had one bacteria that the ones
who didn't respond did not have in their
stool and that's a bacteria called
acromancium eucinaphila and you can't
eat that as a probiotic. You can only
eat foods that cause your gut to secrete
the mucus that it likes to grow in. And
this is now changing the way that we
think about um how cancer patients are
fed because how many cancer patients
that that you know might be getting an
antibiotic unknowingly and wiping out
this bacteria that could make the
difference between whether they respond
or don't respond. This is also beginning
to change this and this is how it works.
Pomegranate it's got a liitan bioactive.
It causes the gut to secrete the mucus.
The bacteria acromancia grows. It lights
up the immune system. So now you have a
more fortified more active immune
system. Now you hang a bag of
imunotherapy and then cancer
imunotherapy will then work on and allow
the activated immune cells to go find
that cancer. This is oversimp simplified
but this is what we believe works and I
it's very personal to me as I figured
this out because my mother who was in
her 80s was diagnosed with endometrial
cancer cancer the lining of the uterus
that spread and she was told by her
doctors there was no chance to survive
and at her age chemotherapy might be
worse than the disease itself and that
she should actually just go under
undergo paliotative care. So we actually
took the tumor, did the deep dive, found
the smoking guns for immune therapy. We
then altered her diet, made sure she had
the ecmansia, and after three
treatments, nine weeks, we had a
complete response. Never had
chemotherapy. She was actually able to
be uh completely saved. And this is her
uh today completely well with no sign of
cancer. So again, this is not a simple
case, but a complicated way that we're
beginning to think things. And then
finally, let me just tell you, broccoli
sprouts um also boost the immune system.
And this is a study of 29 volunteers who
were getting the flu vaccine through a
nasal spray. And it found that if they
gave them two cups of uh broccoli sprout
uh uh shake uh as a smoothie a day
combined with the no spray, they had a
22 times increase in their immune
response to the flu vaccine compared to
people who didn't have it. So what I've
actually showed you is not just food as
medicine, but foods and medicine where
what's happening is that the technology
that nature laced into food is meeting
the technology that we have within our
body. Hey, if you like that video, then
you're going to love this one. Check it
out.