Kind: captions
Language: en
What if I told you there's an easy way
to avoid heart disease and to reverse
it? Food has been known to be heart
healthy since the
1970s from bacteria. Improve the way
that your body metabolizes fat. Blood
vessels in your body are gummed up with
material. Now you can't have blood go
through. That's a setup for a heart
attack. So you going to ask me what you
should be eating? All right. You want
some dietary fiber? Try these. Okay, Dr.
Lee. So does that mean I should just go
with food so I don't have to be on my
medicines? Well, look, here's what I
always
[Music]
say. Welcome to Dr. Lee Unplugged. Real
insights from the cutting edge. This is
a stripped down, no fluff conversation
where I take you behind the scenes as a
scientist and doctor to break down
what's real and what's hype when it
comes to your health. This is raw,
unscripted, no sugar coating, just real
talk and real science. And today we're
going to dive into how foods, especially
dietary fiber, can help lower your risk
of heart disease. Why does this matter?
What does the science say? And what can
you do about it? Are you ready? Let's
get into it.
[Music]
[Applause]
All right, we know that your diet can
affect your heart and your heart health.
And we also know that if you eat a
heart-healthy diet, you can lower your
risk of cardiovascular disease, which is
the number one killer around the world.
So, what are these foods and where does
fiber fit in? Right? Like, you've
probably heard that dietary fiber is
good. You eat more dietary fiber keeps
you regular when you go to the bathroom.
Well, listen. Fiber from food has been
known to be heart healthy since the
1970s. And in fact, eating foods that
are high in fiber has been associated
with lowering your blood cholesterol,
your blood lipids, especially your bad
cholesterol. All right? And that
actually lowers your risk when your
cholesterol goes down from having heart
disease. And dietary fiber actually has
been associated eating dietary fiber
with improving your blood pressure.
Okay, and even weight loss. Now all
these factors, blood cholesterol, high
blood pressure, being overweight, all
these things contribute to
cardiovascular disease. All right, so
how does dietary fiber make all these
things better? How do they actually
lower your risk of having heart disease?
All right. Well, this is an interesting
story that has to do with the history of
research. So, originally the scientific
community, all right, and I'm a
scientist, so I'm a member of my comm
this community. We used to think years
ago, decades ago, that fiber works by
when you eat it by latching on to bad
cholesterol in your gut, in your
intestines. All right? And that way it
can't be absorbed into the blood, right?
So, think about like um fiber grabbing
bad cholesterol in a bear hug so it
doesn't get absorbed into your
bloodstream from your gut, right? And we
know that fiber also stimulates your gut
so you can be more regular. Moves the
food through the poop chute. All right?
And now you're moving that bad
cholesterol out, right? That may that
kind of make it would make sense if you
came up with a story like that, but
actually that's probably not what
happens. We now understand and this is
recent research that dietary fiber works
in an entirely different way. And the
way it works, dietary fiber, is that it
feeds our healthy gut bacteria aka also
known as our gut microbiome. Healthy gut
bacteria that live in our gut. So when
you're eating dietary fiber, that fiber
feeds the gut bacteria. The gut bacteria
digests the fiber. They're eating it.
All right? And when they digest the
fiber, they digest it into little fat
fragments. You want to call them
metabolites? Okay, that's what they are.
The bacteria metabolizes the fiber into
something called shortchain fatty acids.
There's three different kinds. Acetate,
propriionate, butyrate. All right, if
you're really into this kind of stuff
like and you want to biohack into
yourself, look them up. Acetate,
propriionate, butyrate. But actually, if
you're not really into the details, just
know your healthy gut bacteria when you
feed them fiber will make these three
substances, the three substances get
into your bloodstream. They go all over
your body. And guess what? One of the
things that they do, they improve the
short- chain fatty acids from bacteria
improve the way that your body
metabolizes fat and lipids.
Specifically, they lower bad LDL
cholesterol, bad cholesterol. Okay? uh
and uh uh and they'll overall they'll
lower your overall blood cholesterol as
well. This is probably how fiber
actually works. Now, the fiberfed gut
bacteria also improves your body's
ability to metabolize glucose. Glucose
is just a fuel that gets into our body
when we eat carbs, right? You're eating
calories. All right? And so, when you
feed your gut bacteria uh with fiber,
you're actually improving your smoothing
out your blood glucose levels. All
right, I don't talk about spikes and
crashes of glucose. That's somebody
else's stuff. I will actually tell you
that um when you have better metabolism,
glucose metabolism, your insulin levels
actually go down. All right? Um uh and
uh overall your cardiovascular system
benefits uh uh because you're actually
less likely to accumulate excess body
fat, which is a risk for cardiovascular
disease. Now, I did tell you that short-
chain fatty acids from fiber-fed gut
bacteria lowers inflammation. All right.
So, what are some of the foods that are
really great from when it comes to
dietary fiber? You know, like at the end
of the day, I'm a super practical guy.
So, you're going to ask me what you
should be eating. All right. You want
some dietary fiber? Try these. Lentils,
chickpeas, avocado, walnuts, apples,
oats, like an oatmeal. All right. They
all contain dietary fiber. They all feed
your healthy gut bacteria. All right.
Now, the changes that the bacteria, the
healthy bacteria release, okay, those
short- chain fatty acids that are
produced, they will actually uh help
your body become more heart healthy and
lower the risk of heart disease. All
right? So, I got to tell you there's
another thing. the soluble fiber, okay,
the kind of fiber that can dissolve that
you would eat from foods can also help
clean your arteries, especially if
they're clogged. Now, my friend and
colleague, Dr. Dean Ornish at the
Preventative Medical Research Institute
uh in outside of San Francisco did some
amazing seinal research. You haven't
seen Dean's work, you should check it
out. All right. Dr. Dr. Ornish showed
that changes in your diet and lifestyle
can not only prevent heart disease, it
can even reverse heart disease. All
right, listen. When I went to medical
school, I was told like once you have
those blockages, the only way to get
them out is to actually drill them out.
There's no way to naturally reverse it.
Well, Dr. Ornish actually showed Dean
Ornish showed that you can reverse the
atheroscllerotic plaque, the blockages
in your arteries. You can even reverse
the the the buildup. And the way this
happens isn't really known, but we do
know that dietary fiber can play a role.
Now, if you think about it, like the
blood vessels that feed your heart,
they're tubes, like uh the pipes in your
sink. And when your pipes get clogged,
right, you you got to call the plumber,
right? And that's what what some
cardiologists call themselves, their
plumbers. They kind of drill through the
the the pipes. But actually, think about
what happens when a pipe in your kitchen
sink is clogged. it usually gums up with
material and then water won't flow down
anymore. Well, when the blood vessels in
your body are gummed up with material,
now you can't have blood go through,
that's a setup for a heart attack,
especially if the plaque, which is the
blockage, breaks open because it's
fragile and that can shut off blood flow
immediately. All right? And that's a
heart attack, right? So the interesting
thing about how dietary fiber and diet
and lifestyle can actually help to
reverse heart disease has to do with
this
fact. Our blood vessels naturally repair
and regenerate themselves. That's
actually baked into our body over time.
If we actually don't treat our bodies
very well, like many people, too much
stress, they smoke cigarettes, they
drink too much alcohol, they're eating
too many ultrarocessed foods or having,
you know, uh, unhealthy fats. This
scrapes up the lining of your blood
vessels. When the lining of the blood
vessels are scraped up, a lot easier to
actually build up the gunk. Think about
it like um uh a highway that winds up
actually having potholes all over the
place. So compared to a smooth highway,
normal blood vessel, the highway with
potholes, man, it makes it a lot easier
for other things to uh get stick into uh
the road and that's what actually
happens and you get stick more and more
and more. You're going to narrow that
blood vessel down. Okay. So, one of the
things that dietary fiber and
polyphenols, okay, can do in conjunction
with lifestyle changes, lowering stress,
getting enough sleep, um, uh, getting
good social connection, all right, uh,
exercising, all these things. All right.
It turns out that that collective
approach will actually help your blood
vessels repair and regenerate
themselves, resurface themselves. Calls
out the pavers actually to repave the
highway after winter. You know, the ice
in the winter and the snow and the salt
uh uh heavy trucks rumbling through
crack the pavement because it's cold.
And now when the spring thaw comes, you
got a highway that's not very drivable.
needs to be repaired. Well, diet and
lifestyle, including dietary fiber, can
repave the highway of your blood
vessels. All right. Obviously, you want
to cut down or cut out the things that
are not so good for you, including
eating less saturated fat. Um, and that
actually can help uh clean up your blood
vessels as well. Now, you got to fix
them. All right? Blood flows more
smoothly. Now, your heart has become
healthier. That's actually how you can
actually not only prevent heart disease,
but you can actually reverse it even if
you have it. Okay. Now, the other thing
that happens is that your dietary fiber
that you eat can feed your gut
microbiome. All right. 39 trillion
bacteria uh re releasing uh those short-
chain fatty acids once you feed them the
fiber. Uh guess what? Those short chain
fatty acid pieces lowers inflammation.
Inflammation is one of those factors
that triggers um uh damage to your blood
vessels and it increases the risk of
heart disease. So when you feed your gut
healthy fiber and they produce those
short- chain fatty acids, you're
lowering inflammation, making it less
likely your blood vessels are going to
be damaged. The other thing is that um
your gut microbiome can do and this is
research I've done. It can actually help
your body grow more helpful, useful,
critical, life-saving blood vessels.
angiogenesis. So when you feed, when you
eat dietary fiber, you're helping your
gut actually be fed and your gut is
helping your body grow more useful blood
vessels. Very important. If you got
blockages, you got to grow around them,
right? It's like called bypass,
molecular bypass. Now, here's the other
thing that I get asked all the time when
I talk about food and health is like,
"Okay, Dr. Lee, so does that mean I
should just go with food so I don't have
to be on my medicines? I mean, you know,
most people don't like to have medicine
like beta blockers and statins, etc.
Well, look, here's what I always say.
What you eat can definitely make a
difference in terms of what happens to
your heart health. All right? You can
make your uh heart either healthier like
we've been talking about, or you can
make it less healthy, take it down. So,
obviously, you want to head in a
direction of making it healthier. But,
you know what? Medicines can also be
helpful. I'm a medical doctor. I
prescribe lots of medicines that are
lifesaving. Do not make the mistake of
saying, "Oh, I heard this from this
video and I can actually use this food
and I can come off my medication." Nope.
It's not food versus medicine. It's food
and medicine. Very important thing. So,
what are some of those changes you can
make to your diet? Um, if you've got
heart disease or you want to prevent it.
All right. Number one, you want to eat
more whole plant-based foods, especially
the ones that have a lot of dietary
fiber. All right? Fruits, vegetables,
nuts, legumes, uh, spices, and herbs.
All right? Whole grains. All of these
things are the building blocks for the
Mediterranean diet, for example. All
right? Healthy oils, especially extra
virgin olive oil and omega-3s from oily
fish, seafood. Now, a lot of people say,
you know, like think, "Oh my gosh, I can
I can't eat salmon every day." Don't
worry. There's a lot of different kinds
of fish, mackerel, sardines, anchovies,
but even uh white flesh fish like
halibit and hake, flounder, they all
have omega-3s as well. And even shrimp
and clams and oysters, uh squid, they
all have omega-3s. All right? You want
to treat yourself to a lobster, it's got
some healthy omega-3s as well. All
right? So, healthy oils actually uh uh
improve protect your heart. Um now,
here's something you do want to do. You
want to decrease your intake of red
meat. All right? Um uh red meat contains
a lot of saturated fat, so just cut down
on it. I'm somebody who feels like we
should focus on what you should add to
your body. Don't focus on what you'd
eliminate. If you if you spend more time
adding the good stuff, you're not going
to have as much room to add the bad
stuff. All right? But what else should
you eliminate? processed meats, all
right, sausages, sandwich meats, salami,
those kinds of things, baloney, things
that you could find in a deli, probably
grew up with it. All right? Um, cut
those down and cut those out. They
contain saturated fat and a lot of times
they have added chemicals to it, too.
All right? And sometimes they have uh
even added sugar. All right? And if you
eat ultrarocessed foods, got to be
careful. A lot of them have a lot of
chemicals, a lot of things that can hurt
your gut microbiome and added sugar.
Now, sugar is a bad actor uh especially
when you have cardiovascular disease.
Why? It increases your insulin,
increases inflammation, um actually
accumulates more fat in your body if you
have too much. You have a piece of candy
or piece of cake every now and then. No
biggie. All right? We're talking about
day in and day out, week in and week
out, eating a lot of added sugar, not
natural sugars found in a fruit or
vegetable, you know, but we're talking
about, you know, candy bar, soda is a
particular um offender. So, I would say
lose the soda, both regular soda and
diet soda, and cut down on your sweets.
All right. These are the kind of dietary
changes that deliver heart healthy
benefits regardless of what kind of
heart medication you might be on.
Whatever your cardiologist gave you,
what's a beta blocker, a statin, an ACE
inhibitor, calcium channel blocker,
these are things that medical doctors
know about. You know, you just probably
know by the name that you have to go
pick up the prescription on. But I'm
telling you, there's a health care you
can do for yourself at home. Go to the
cardiologist for sick care. All right?
take care of your high blood pressure,
everything else. Go home to do the
health care and that is actually in your
pantry. It's also in your refrigerator
and it should be on your dinner table
every single uh uh day. And remember
working on your gut health, that healthy
bacteria. All right, one of the most
important heart-healthy steps you can
take when it comes to food is medicine
because when we feed ourselves, our
human body will absorb our those
nutrients. Anything we don't absorb goes
right down to the gut, feeds the gut
microbiome that lowers inflammation uh
and it does so many good things uh for
us. All right, you want to lower that
inflammation, lower bad cholesterol,
improve your blood pressure, another big
thing. And by the way, you've heard
about the gut brain axis. When you feed
your gut, you're actually going to get
into a better mood because a good
healthy gut means you have a better
healthier uh brain, including a better
mood as well. All right. Okay, that's it
for today on Dr. Lee Unplugged. Now you
know some key secrets when it comes to
food and heart health, but there's even
more you can do to take control of your
health. So, if you found this video
interesting and useful, make sure to hit
the subscribe button and turn on your
notifications so you won't miss my next
deep dive. And if you're serious about
your health and you want to use food as
medicine, then watch my next video. You
don't want to miss it. See you there.
Hey, if you like that video, then you're
going to love this one. Check it out.