Kind: captions
Language: en
so you've made such significant
contributions to Medical Science leading
breakthroughs and treatments for over 70
diseases including cancer diabetes
blindness heart disease and obesity and
from your website you made a statement
which I'd love to quote here is that you
said that when I first set out on my
journey to study food as medicine I
realized that I was up what what I was
up against the food industry did not
care about health and the health
industry did not care about food I'm a
medical scientist and my mission is to
bridge both of these worlds to help
people everywhere become healthier while
enjoying and not being afraid of their
food Dr Lee can you explain your
inspiration which is so fundamental for
everyone's daily life right food is the
medicine where did this inspiration come
from where did this Awakening this shift
um how did it
transpire yeah well I grew up in a uh a
relatively small City uh Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania that was had a lot of
ethnic communities and there was a great
celebration of culture particularly the
foods associated with the cultures so I
grew up my you know my childhood was
always surrounded by these wonderful
Inspirations where people were very
proud of their backgrounds and their
Heritage and and and the food that came
out of it so um you know fast forward to
uh my uh my education I I I'm a
biochemist so I was trained as a
scientist and in fact I have now
developed a a very long career as a
vascular biolog ologist which means I
study blood vessels um and I'm also a
doctor I study internal medicine and
that means that I take care of men and
women uh young and old healthy and sick
and my own orientation has always been
towards Health now being trained in
medicine um you know the focus of most
Western Medical Training education is on
um diagnosing and addressing illness and
in fact I have been actively involved
with my research background in helping
to develop new biotech oriented
treatments for cancer and vision loss
and healing wound healing and so I I
sort of cut my teeth and I have real
street cred in terms of the life
sciences and what it takes to um develop
a a treatment an intervention uh for for
disease but one thing that always uh
bugged me was the fact that when you're
treating disease it's the horse out of
the BN so to speak speak where you've
missed the biggest opportunity of all
which is to prevent the disease in the
first place yes and here we are you know
in society uh lamenting about the uh
unsustainable cost of Health Care and
yet we could actually uh upend that
dilemma we could actually solve that
dilemma by really preventing uh diseases
in the first place and therefore saving
the money so we can actually then have
the resources to treat those people for
whom prevention was not successful and
so that always led me to think about
prevention uh now when you're talking
about diseases you can talk about drugs
but you know drugs are expensive they're
not always accessible to everyone who
needs them even in developed parts of
the world um especially in in developing
parts of the world and then they always
has side effects I mean every
drug um can have a side effect and so
it's really not appropriate to talk
about prevention in terms of of uh uh of
drugs Pharmaceuticals there are a few
exceptions but I think for the most part
you're going to talk about prevention
you got to talk about a different type
of intervention and this brought me all
the way back to my childhood uh and I
always remembered the pride that people
from the Mediterranean for example or
people from Asia they had in how they
thought about food as part as a
Continuum of part of their health and
food actually is a much more Equitable
safer more joyful solution compared to
drugs right and so you can use food as
medicine um as opposed to medicine as
medicine for prevention and that's what
led me after many years of being
involved with biotech development you
know why don't we actually study Foods
using the same rigorous science and
systems that we do drug development and
so I'm one of the early people that
actually um studied food is medicine in
that
way and when we did that uh I'll tell
you a quick story uh I had a
collaboration at the National Cancer
Institute uh this is back in the 90s
where we were screening drugs or drug
possible drugs for their activity
against cancer and by then my nonprofit
organization my charity called the Andre
Genesis
Foundation we' been so successful there
were well over a dozen new treatments
that had come out um from our from our
work and so um I got to be a little bit
more daring and so while we were
screening Cancer drugs I pulled off the
assembly line about a dozen of the test
drugs um and I swapped them in with food
extracts that I had ordered now we
disguised the swap so that the
researchers the technicians would have
no idea what the samples were but when
the results came out and again this was
actually a very very serious test used
to assess whether or not a chemical that
was sent to us from different biotech
companies would have potential to treat
cancer and the results came out uh my
jaw dropped because 50% half of the
foods that we were screening that I
snuck in there were as or more powerful
than the drugs that we were testing wow
so that was really an eyeopener for me
to realize the power that science the
real science could bring to the table
and that's really what I do now I mean I
I take that rigorous science based like
uncompromising approach and that's one
of the things that I you know am forced
to do really or compelled to do as well
hey there are you ready to use food to
improve your health I Do cover a lot in
my YouTube videos but there's only so
much time to dive deep into how to use
food as medicine that's why I created my
eat to beat disease course in my course
I walk you through how to use everyday
foods that you can find in your grocery
store to boost your body's Health
defenses this is all based on my
research and everything is rooted in
science and I've made it super easy to
follow with practical everyday tips
whether you're trying to prevent disease
or just want to optimize your health for
longevity my eat to be disease course
gives you all the tools to make it real
and to help you get lasting changes that
will help you live longer and live
better to learn more click the link
below or scan the QR code on the screen
I can't wait to get started together in
my course now back to the
video actually the best way to live long
is to dodge prevent thwart the
conditions are going to rob you of your
life they're going to cut you cut you
down short okay and if you can dodge
those what are those things
cardiovascular disease metabolic
syndrome diabetes cancer just to say a
few things like if you got any one of
those three things you're probably not
going to make it as long as you would
like to Chances Are because you've got
all these other conditions which are we
think largely preventable with diet and
lifestyle genetics for cancer plays
maybe 5% of the equation sure screen for
cancer genes that would be good
information for you to know but honestly
if you didn't have the tools for
screening just live a healthy lifestyle
avoid things that are carcinogenic or
toxic eat healthier whole plant-based
Foods primarily eat diversity watch your
gut microbiome you'll make it a lot of
the ways and Dodge the cancers um that
you can and so and if you do have one of
these diseases cancer is I'm a cancer
researcher if you look at the statistics
uh one in two men are going to develop
cancer in their lifetime one and three
women are going to develop cancer in
their lifetime so think about it you go
into with those stats you go into an
elevator with a bunch of people you know
on your way to a holiday party or
whatever wher you're going to go I mean
you look around and you like my gosh
this is this is like a terrible
statistic right but actually a lot of
cancers are preventable and uh you know
and you can dodge colon cancer and
breast cancer and a lot of other cancers
you know if we only had um uh a better
immune system if we only had better
control over circulation so we're not
feeding cancers with our with our blood
with a new blood supply um if we were
able to um have diets that actually uh
killed off cancer stem cells if we had
more
antioxidant opportunities to neutralize
those free radicals or that would cause
oxidative stress to trigger mutations in
our DNA we can fix our DNA as well if
there's ways that we could actually
lower inflammation which is the gasoline
to cancer you know you might have a tiny
incipient cancer you have inflammation
on top of that okay now you're basically
pouring gasoline onto the Embers of a
fire it's going to Roar okay and then
it's immunity our immune system I wrote
about this in my first book ether beat
disease we are hardwired for health we'
got five Health defense systems if we
could actually keep those Shields up and
fortify them and tend to them like we
would with the gate to our house with
the locks on our window or a lock on
your door you know we'd actually get a
lot further away we'd probably Dodge a
lot of cancers um and there are foods
that can do it as well diet and
lifestyle it's not just the food but
food actually we now know there are
certain foods that can actually you have
a pretty profound effect and so this
this is another example like metabolic
syndrome like this um stealer of years
okay this this um Robber Baron of
longevity is cancer which seem seem to
be
so uh nefarious you know did you ever
see the the latest Denzel Washington um
movie called equalizer yeah equalizer 3
yeah so there's this Italian guy who
basically said oh this organized crime
you know locally is like cancer there's
no cure you know what I I I that was a
great line in the movie but in fact
there is a cure to cancer and we know it
now I mean I as a cancer researcher I'm
seeing it in motion we're not quite
there yet but if with
immunotherapy I got to tell you I I am
if you want to see an amazing story
that's based on science go check out the
Instagram account of a a person that
goes by the handle the brainy blonde
okay um she is blonde very smart all
right it's like a tripon Tandra but she
had brain cancer gly blastoma death
sentence
nobody survives more than one or two
years with that things she's going on
almost seven years cancer free and you
know what she did she took a peptide
vaccine that boosted her own immune
system all right and that was able to
get her through so in the future this is
what we're going to be able to do to
conquer the scourge that's still
treatment much better to prevent it in
the first place so you don't have to go
through that pain and suffering yeah
awesome when it comes to like the latest
data around the subject I think what the
thing that everybody is hearing about
obviously is I mean even if you look at
a chart just like the explosion in the
number of cancer cases versus and so
what is the what's the risk of an
individual today developing cancer in
their lifetime what's the lador on that
you know so these cancer statistics that
we're seeing the rise in cancer cases
and also the uh earlier cancers younger
people are getting more cancer uh this
is sort of a evolution that's happening
it's kind of a tsunami that you're we're
starting to see on the horizon right so
you remember you know the picture of
that IND you know in Indonesia you know
the beach and you can kind of see the
wave come and forming in the distance
like this is what we're actually seeing
with cancer we don't really have a um a
clear explanation yet of why there's a
lot of ideas that are out there um the
climate the environment the pesticides
the microplastics the um additives in
our food I mean um the sedentary
lifestyle I mean it could be a perfect
storm of all these different factors I
don't think there's one guilty party but
there's something clearly going on that
is ay I mean you know I heard the other
day of a uh of a teenager getting colon
cancer which is like unheard of uh you
know when I went to medical school you
would never see uh anything like that
but this is a kind of thing that's
actually uh happening um but what are
the statistics well you know if you look
at the American Cancer Society basically
you would say one in three women and one
in two men are going to develop cancer
in their lifetime that's the that's a
very crude uh averaging of Lifetime
cancer risk that means look there's you
and me two men all right one of us one
of us is going to get it add some women
in the room one and three go into an
elevator with 10 people all right like
two or three people there are going to
get cancer so these are the stunning
statistics that make people really
scared except there are clearly things
that we can do to prevent cancer and a
lot of people don't know this but that
uh only uh 5 to 10% of cancers are due
to genetics the rest is due to
environment diet and
lifestyle yeah I think that's the one
big thing that that seems to be
highlighted I mean if you were to look
at the and and this is a lot of what Dr
Cas mean talks about but if you if you
look at a chart and see this tsunam that
you're talking about with the cancer
cases and then you would also chart you
know the explosion in fast food
restaurants in Ultra processed food in
pollution in our environment like you're
seeing these things go up I mean it's
not exactly like you're studying a lab
and like this is exactly what's causing
it but there's like this correlation of
things that you're seeing rise I think
the thing that's most surprising to
people probably is um specifically what
you were saying with with young people
like there's a 79% rise in cancer rates
amongst young people defined under 49
years old and I think and then you just
mentioned the cancer case with a with a
teenager what would be happening like
for that specifically I mean people
thought it was like an old older
person's disease like what what would
specifically be happening that that
there would be a rise in people that are
younger now that were yeah I mean that
you know putting the the you know
pinpointing the the cause like single
cause we haven't been able to figure it
out yet but I'll I'll tell you on a
personal level as a cancer research some
of the things that I think about I think
that's uh fair enough you know I I think
that with the way that we have um put so
many additives in our Ultra processed
foods and how common that is and the way
that our water supply has become
contaminated with microplastics and
nanoplastics which are clearly
inflammatory and inflammation is sort of
sets up the um uh the environment for
cancers to explode in terms of its
growth um I think that the uh you know
it's hard to say that kids live leave a
sedentary lifestyle but hey you know
you're if you're a gamer you're sitting
in your chair all day long you know
that's that's kind of sedentary that
doesn't that actually can contribute as
well all these things kind of like
degrade your immune system cause more
inflammation sort of tip the balance in
your body just in the wrong direction
that would favor cancer but I do think
there's probably more going on than that
but those are clearly some of the
factors I think the gut microbiome is
another one because I I do research on
the gut microbiome so for people who are
not familiar with this the gut
microbiome are the healthy bacteria that
live inside our gut there's about 39
trillion of them all right and um and
where do they live they live in the
colon primarily which is sort of the
last third of our gut um they live
specifically in a little pouch called
the seeum uh seeum is right where the
appendixes and we used to think the
appendix was useless H you know if
somebody doing getting Like a Surgeon if
they were in a child's belly or
teenager's belly for whatever reason
they saw the appendix they go wh snip
let's take it out don't need that that's
that's like a extra uh extra piece of
skin well we're beginning to rethink
that because maybe just maybe
the appendix plays a role just like our
tonsils play a role in our immune system
and one of the things that we're
beginning to think is perhaps the
appendix has an Air Traffic Control
Function with the gut microbiome so the
gut microbiome lowers inflammation
raises your immune system controls
healing in your body and I do think that
we're this is something we've only
really begun to recognize seriously in
the last let's say decade decade and a
half um a lot of the factors that you
mentioned the pollution the contaminants
you know additives all of those things
actually um almost all of them can
negatively affect the healthy ecosystem
of our gut microbiome that we need to
lower inflammation that's really good
yeah I think that you know and we'll get
the in your first book The the way that
you outlined all the five defense
systems in the body I thought was just
so interesting because a lot of people
are not well versed in and what those
defense systems are and then even the
treatments that you were talking about
when it came to cancer and the defense
systems in the body I mean obviously the
microbiome is one of them but then when
comes to the immunotherapy and then also
angiogenesis and and targeting it that
way I think um I think is interesting
and so yeah I mean when it comes to like
the the on the on the front end when
you're talking about the risks what is
actually like causing this um is there
anything else you would add about like
modern life that you feel like um you
know we're going to talk about food but
like would be things to be aware of that
maybe we could counteract uh in terms of
being proactive yeah there is a lot that
we could actually unpack there um you
know some of the basic things I would
say is that you hear a lot about
superfoods in quotes uh and everybody's
trying to sell their own favorite
superfood or Super Supplement you know
um I what I say is that there's no
single food or supplement that's really
super it's the human body that's really
super like we have these incredible
defenses in our body and I write about
five of them in my book e to be disease
they actually are what is responsible
for our health uh our health isn't just
the absence of disease our health is the
product of our health defenses firing in
all cylinders it's kind of like Health
defense is kind of like home defense you
know like um you got your uh lock on
your door you got a fence at your gate
you got a burglar alarm you got a fire
alarm a smoke detector um you know a
latch in your window all these things
prevent the bad guys from coming in okay
and in the body our health defenses
prevent those bad guys the diseases from
overtaking our body from home invading
our body but you wind up actually
leaving the window open unlock keeping
the door unlocked turning off the alarm
let that fire alarm expire the batteries
don't work anymore or the smoke alarm
and you know when something happens it
could actually wind up having a real
negative consequence so what I say is
that the things that we need to do are
eat foods that boost our body's Health
defenses and I write I've lists and
tables pages and pages of foods that can
do this and at the same time you want to
avoid foods and LIF style practices that
degrade or destroy your health defenses
as well Works Cuts both ways you can
raise the shields you can lower the
shields you don't want to be lowering
your Shields so some of the things that
are very um clear in my mind to be able
to stay away from now my research is
actually what you should add to your
life to enhance your health um I try to
spend less time kind of bashing uh Foods
in fact I don't really like to bash
Foods we're all human we all like to do
the things we like to do if you spend
more time eating good stuff you have
less time eating less room to eat bad
stuff uh but I will tell you some of the
clearly bad players uh um many Ultra
processed foods have a ton of AD
additives in it um just take a look you
know a lot and I think this is some a
good a good practical take-home for
anybody listening or watching this um if
you're buying something that's in a box
or a bag or a can or frozen in the
frozen section you pick it up before you
put it in your
cart hold it up and look at the
ingredient label and see what's in it
I'm not talking about the macros like
the protein and how much fat and all
that like that's important but I want to
look at the small print the stuff that
they try to really make so small it's
hard to read sometimes for me when I do
that I actually have to take a
photograph of my phone and then enlarge
it with my fingers I just expand it so I
can see what's in there I want to know
how many additives are in there and
recently you know the FDA the US FDA
removed red dye number three from the
food products they banned it well 30
years ago if you can imagine was when we
all first realized that bread dye number
three can cause cancer and yet it's been
left in our food supply for 30 years
three decades we're talking about like
what are some of the PO possible
causations for this rise in cancer risk
um and by the way the other thing that's
kind of nuts is that even though the
announcement of the ban was made on you
know one day um the government is giving
permission for the food companies to
have for two more years on the shelves
and so they can figure out how to swap
out red Dy now I can tell
you you know it doesn't make any sense
to me like you should be take it off the
shelves immediately once you deem it's
no good especially for something like
cancer why wouldn't you just remove it
immediately let the food companies
figure out how they're going to fix that
and then consumers don't you know can
can feel more uh trust in the system and
I think this is a whole other dimension
of what is being discussed today is how
do we learn to trust our food system
where do we get our information from who
are the voices that really know what
they're talking about as opposed to you
know delivering a message that may or
may not be true may or may not be
trustworthy so on top of all the other
factual things that you know we've been
talking about when it comes to cancer or
health or environment or exposures I
think we've got this other layer of
complexity which is how do you find
trusted resources to get information
that is true no that's really good hey
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smartphone now let's jump back into the
video you know the World Health
Organization classified process meets as
a class one carcinogen which is kind of
significant because tobacco is also
listed as like a class one carcinogen um
you know can you explain so what falls
under the category of processed meats
and why are they harmful to their health
okay yeah so let's first you know this
is kind of a loaded topic so to speak
because you know there are people that
uh are follow a carnivore diet there's
people they follow um a vegan diet and
it's this is where food almost is like a
religion my God is better than your God
but in in point of fact you know humans
evolved over our entire history to
really be able to eat different types of
foods and some of the more interesting
longevity studies actually for people
who are super agers you know who live to
105 110 you know they're omnom morph
they're not they're not vegans okay they
eat a little bit of everything they just
don't eat too much um and so I I wanted
to set that out you know before we dive
into the meat thing because uh I think
it's important to then isolate this idea
like okay what is it about meat and
processed Meats that could be uh
potentially harmful well you know
regular meat whether you're talking
about beef pork chicken duck whatever
and you know I suppose animal protein
like fish uh or shellfish um it's a
source of protein and you get lots of
minerals and other micronutrients that
are actually uh part of an important
balanced diet now you can definitely uh
NYX meat of any sort and get plenty of
protein and get most of your
micronutrients from plant-based sources
as well so again I'm right down the
middle of the aisle here which is you
know like it's a it's a matter of
personal choice um don't eat too much
meat because red meat in particular has
a lot of saturated fat and by the way
how you prepare your meat also matters
I'm going to get to process of me in a
second I know you're waiting for that
yeah but but let's talk about like just
regular red meat all right if you you
know if you make a stew versus put
something on a grill that you haven't
cleaned it's got all these carcinogens
that are coming out of the smoke all
right um uh if you deep fry your chicken
fried steak you know you change
something into you take something that
may not be that great for you and then
you turn into something that's really
not that good for you okay you eat once
in a while not a big deal you eat for a
you have a lifetime habit of eating this
way it's going to add up now what about
process meets because look we all grew
up you know going to the carnival state
fair whatever it is ball games getting
hot dogs and you know that that kind of
thing the sausage and I can tell you
that um these processed
Meats um are not fresh kill like you
would have uh with a
T-bone steak right you're talking about
meat that was taken off ground up mixed
with other additives preservatives
chemicals flavorings some of those
flavorings are artificial as well um I I
did not learn know this until I really
looked into this red dye number three
thing hot dogs are often colored with
red dye number three you know like hot
dogs don't come out of the the the beef
out of the pig you know or the or the be
or the or the cow looking red okay I
mean that is this is food coloring so
think just think about that now you put
into a casing all right um and then
think about that which is that a
processed meat um you've changed it from
its native source native form now let's
take a look at some of the other types
of meats like pepperoni okay now you're
actually adding all kinds of spices now
you're throwing them into like baths
with preservatives in them all right
that's why the pepperoni look in a store
like the skin is wrinkled you ever go
into a bathtub too long your skin gets
wrinkled that's what happens these
pepperoni sticks are sitting in these
like baths for for a long time look
clearly you have changed the original
source of the food into something else
that's what processed meat is um is it
the nitrates is it the artificial
additives the BT is it you know we don't
really know again there's you know we're
always searching for that one Smoking
Gun but it's probably a multip a
multiplier of these things and how the
food is cooked and how the what the food
is eaten with if you're someone that
eats hot dogs all day long okay um
you're probably not eating a lot of
salad you're probably not eating a lot
of vegetables so it could be not just
something that you're eating but it
could be ganging up with something
you're not eating at the same time and
this is why like I think it's really
important to be fair and balanced and
and take a kind of a balanced view when
when you're looking at this but that
said all the population studies we're
talking about looking at millions of
people have shown worldwide that eating
a high amount of processed Meats
sausages hot dogs all that kind of stuff
sandwich meats you know like the lunch
meats that we used to get when we were
kids um you know that that our moms used
to make for us or you get in the at the
lunch lady that stuff is not good it's
not good for you it's just not a good
source of nutrition okay and it actually
has additives and it's a class one
carcinogen uh and it's just something
that really we need to be aware of and
do less of cut down or cut out is what I
say yeah I mean it really was one of the
s surprising things for me even when I
watch your original video I mean because
people were sitting here and being like
hot dogs cause cancer or you know
process Meats cause cancer um and I
think when you you know really break it
down the way you were just talking about
with all the preservatives that are
added to it and the way that the meat is
cured and and and it's just such a
modification from like I'm just taking a
piece of pork and like eating it like a
like a slab of like pork right from the
right from the animal there's so much
modification that's going on with it
yeah now now think about it go to the
deli right in the grocery store and uh
the deli counter and they've got these
um cylindrical tubes of meat like
baloney all right salami and you're
going to slice it up I guarantee you the
the animal doesn't come like that right
I mean think about it there's no there's
no part of an animal that is a cylinder
like that and yet that actually is how
the factories have made it manipulated
the food do you know why uh how those uh
those uh kind of processed meats are
held together have you ever heard of
meat
glue all right uh uh early part of the N
of the 20th century like the mid- 1900s
um the military wanted to figure out how
to actually make um meat scraps hold
together better so they figured out a
chemical that could actually glue meat
together all right and once they
invented that it got picked up by the um
uh processed food industry to say oh you
know what we can take scraps of meat we
can pulverize it into little tiny pieces
and just pour meat glue in there and we
can shape it any way we want that's how
those cylinders come about oh my gosh I
had no idea that's like a new thing I'm
learning today that's that's
crazy hey if you like that video then
you're going to love this one check it
out