Kind: captions
Language: en
dark chocolate oh you're speaking my
language now okay so
dark 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
flavanol chocolate 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 Pro entho in 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 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 60y old men
with heart disease so these are people
whose blood vessels were already not
doing so well and 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 they got better rebound
they 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
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 know 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 you 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 7% so
so if you're feeding your gut a lot of
bad foods it's po 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 is in there 70% right
like a jelly roll like a like the jelly
and a jelly roll and the gut bacteria is
inside so think about like a college
student in a freshman dorm they 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 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 Emer uh mayor on who
always 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 food
can actually help right siiz your gut
health think of it like an ecosystem the
grap barer Reef so certain foods can
support the ecology the ecosystem the
great berry 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 underly cause now
we don't know exactly how the gut
bacteria communicates with the brain
completely yet yet but there's one giant
nerve called the vagus nerve it's like a
giant shoe 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 on 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
the fir anog Genesis number one yes stem
cells number two cells gut microbiome
number three okay the fourth one number
four our 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%
Neanderthal 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 in 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 e 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 yeah 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 Pump and Gas because
our DNA is hardwire to fix itself and so
our DNA is sort of like a self-defense
mechanism against the environment radon
from your basement okay off gasing 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 PS the resistance for our
DNA's defense is that there's something
called a tiir I don't know if you've
ever had anybody your show talk about
tiir telr yeah yes these are these are
see if you're at the longer the telr 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 Tere is like
the little plastic cap at the end of the
shoelace and over time that little cap
kind of wears down just like on a
shoelace and you know when that 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 the tiir 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 in a couch
potato being exposed to damaging
oxidative stress actually just being
stressed out um like we are now with
this fraking pandemic um those things
all shorten our teen they they burn the
fuse faster stress but yeah but foods
can slow it down and some foods can
reverse it and lengthen the teir which
is really cool for from an aging
perspective right what are those what
are those top three foods that help
lengthen the telr 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 H so I got a
little cup here amazingly coffee
actually lengthens your teir 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 actually look like
they can lengthen a tiir as well so the
key thing is that we you know we are not
just helpless 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
but what have 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 they immune
system does it's like an army of super
soldiers so uh Rangers seals as you know
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 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 be 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 you 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
uh in young people as well as older
people uh uh they boost the natural
killer cells which is really cool um
broccoli Sprouts can boost our immune
system now these are the three 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 Treetops right those
they're all thing 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 real broccoli is this gigantic
stem with a little bit of Tree Top okay
so what's in a broccoli it's called
sorane so that's what gives broccoli
that unique taste of broccoli it's a
little sulfurous okay you got to put a
little olive oil a little bit of garlic
you know you could sauté it up okay so
the suanes we've done research now
looking at what what's in the Treetops
and it turns out that these sophanes can
starve cancer anti-androgenic help help
your body cut off the blood supply to
cancer
broccoli Treet 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 saute them stick it in a
blender you can make it into a smoothie
or create 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
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 this adult broccoli having these
suanes 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 suanes 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 suor of good stuff
as a grownup broccoli so Sprouts
broccoli Sprouts now Studies have been
done to show that if you give people a
flu shot people in a winter should get a
flu shot so you don't get the flu all
right just go to your drugstore to get
one uh turns out that if you uh people
are they did a study looking at people
getting a 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 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 how do people melt the fat Dr
Lee we are we're living in a time now
where half the population almost is not
just overweight but obese how do we
solve this you know there's a lot to
unpack in that question uh and I want I
like to start by basically saying that
my book Eat to beat your diet the title
is a little bit of a trick title because
it's not a diet book it's kind of an
anti- diet book to say how we can
actually improve our metabolism fight
body fat and actually Elevate our health
which is the real goal our Inner Health
without ever having to go on a diet so
saying that I can tell you that the
whole idea about body fat it's loaded
the word fat is actually a real loaded
term in our society it's um associated
with a lot of negative connotations
right um when you think about fat it's
usually something thing not that you
don't want even if you walk by the
putcher section of the grocery store you
see that rind of fat around a steak you
know you rather not have that right um
but it turns out and this is what I
write about that there's a new science
to the body that gives us new
appreciation of what fat actually does
and how that connects to our metabolism
in ways that we never thought actually
existed so that fat itself is not a
harmful entity when you've got too much
and you got obesity it is harmful but up
until that point actually fat believe it
or not is a human organ it's an organ as
important as your pancreas your liver
your spleen your heart your lungs and it
actually fulfills very very important
purposes for our everyday Health
connected to our
metabolism and most people think about
fat as something that grows on you and
when you see it you don't like it so we
all went through this we've all gone
through this right get up in the morning
take a shower step out of the shower out
of the corner of your eye you see in the
mirror lump or a bump that you don't
want to be there right that's what makes
you think about body fat but actually
most people don't think about the fact
that body fat actually existed before we
were born and that leads us I'm a
scientist so I like to ask origin
stories where does fat come from and fat
starts in the womb wow it starts in the
womb and certainly the fat that we are
packaged with in utero is not bad in any
way it's probably probably is is
performing a a vital function for Life
yeah let me explain that to you so when
your mom's egg met your dad's sperm and
they got together formed ball of cells
is going to be the future you right when
they started to make tissue that will
ultimately be your organs the first
tissue that got laid down were your
blood vessels because every organ needs
circulation so that gets laid down first
right so this is like building a house
what goes down first well blood vessels
get created when when we're created uh
second tissue that gets laid down are
nerves and why that because every organ
needs signaling to be able to tell them
what to do and so your nerves send those
signals right seems pretty fun like if
you were creating a blueprint of a body
those would be the two things that you
do and that's actually what happens
third tissue that gets laid down
surprising ly is fat body fat and
they're called the fat cells are called
adipose uh cells adapost is is another
word for fat and they actually form
blood vessels kind of like bubble wrap
you know if you have a uh blood vessel
and you were to wrap bubble wrap around
it that's what fat looks like now what
does fat do the and why is it wrapped
around because fat cells atpo cells
actually are fuel tanks um fat actually
stores fuel Fuel and the fuel is
absorbed from the blood gets into the
fuel tank and so that makes total sense
why they're actually located that way
right so then after that the rest of our
organs start to build all around that
this just tells you how important fat is
from the get-go fast for to n months
baby is born what do you call a
beautiful healthy baby a fat pudgy
chubby baby right big fat cheeks round
tummy uh think about it like they're
arms and legs are like those balloons in
a circus where you you know they make
poodles out of it the clown makes it
right literally they look like that
right so there's something great
important and healthful about fat in
utero very important for survival and
also when we're born right but we don't
tend to think about fat in that
context by by uh by sort of counter
distinction if you actually saw a baby
when they were born and they had chisel
cheekbones like a fashion model and they
had thin arms and long thin legs like
like on a Runway you would be taken a
back you'd go man there's something
wrong with that baby yeah right and
you'd be right okay so a fatless baby a
thin baby lean baby is not well okay so
this is my kind of reset for you to to
rethinking body fat is actually one of
the things that I write about like we
need to have a complete uh
reconceptualization and re and a new
understanding of what fat actually does
yeah so what is the what is the fat
doing for the baby during that that
stage of life okay what the fat is doing
for the baby is actually a Continuum of
what fat does for our healthy bodies for
the rest of our lives and so this is
sort of the the goodness of fat that's
hidden beneath the kind of the
perception of the Badness and the actual
Badness so I'm not denying that excess
body fat is harmful it's very harmful
we're going to get into that in a second
but before we talk about the harms it's
so easy to jump into the demonization in
the health and wellness space of things
I'm a scientist I'm a doctor let's talk
about the good stuff first so we can
understand you know when does good
become bad and that way we can know how
to restore the good right that's I'm
with you yeah okay so first of all fat
as I mentioned to you is um an organ uh
and it performs multiple functions as an
organ what kind of organ is it turns out
to be an endocrine organ uh produces
hormones like your thyroid like your
adrenal glands okay like your pancreas
and that's an amazing thing because we
don't normally think about our fat as an
organ most organs are just a a chunk of
something connected to tubes well Fat's
actually a kind of organ that is
distributed throughout our body and what
does a fat produce as a endocrine organ
it produces hormones 13 different
hormones that are known currently wow
all right and three of them I want to
mention because I think it's important
just to give some examples of what this
hormonal function of fat actually is
remember we're talking about health
we're talking about healthy fat healthy
body from baby to uh you know end of
life the first hormone is leptin made by
fat and many of you may have heard about
leptin leptin is sort of the appetite
controller right more leptin less
appetite less leptin more appetite so
it's kind of like a volume switch for
your hunger all right and that's
important because when your fat actually
is controlling your brain to go search
for food so you can load up on fuel
because the fat cells are fuel tanks so
you can kind of see how the so starts to
fit together now all right now fat so
that's one hormone most people may have
heard of leptin before another hormone
that people that have not heard about or
at least very few people have heard
about is called
adiponectin adiponectin is another Fat
hormone okay uh it's a very important
one and it's completely concerned with
helping your body gain energy from the
food that you eat all right in fact it
works as a partner with insulin which is
a hormone that helps energy so let me
tell you if I were to take a VI of your
blood send it to a regular Hospital lab
to analyze your hor your hormones your
adiponectin levels and mine would be
1,000 times higher than any other
hormone in your body wow higher than
testosterone higher than thyroid hormone
higher than cortisol anything else now
why is that it's because because a ditin
partners with insulin to make sure that
the energy that you have from the food
that we eat is efficiently absorbed into
our bodies that's our metabolism it's
part of our metabolism so good healthy
levels of fat perform this function to
bring in energy along with insulin it's
very very important uh sort of as a
foundation for our energy now there's a
third hormone I want to mention it's
called
resistant resistan is like like the
break to a dip ackon that's the Gas
Pedal Gas Pedal goes down let's absorb
lots of energy fast hard resistant is
like whoa let me let's put on the break
here a little bit less all right so you
know most systems in the body are about
balance okay leptin uh up less appetite
leptin down more appetite adipine in
down you actually have more efficient
energy absorption uh resistant down the
break actually pull back on energy
absorption makes sense because we want
to fine-tune our our Metabolism from day
to day so that's one very important
thing that normal healthy fat does it's
a setup in the womb the babies start to
do it right away and it continues
throughout our lives this is how we
normally function now a couple of other
things that fat does as well besides
being an endocrine organ it's a cushion
now most people think that fat might be
a uh like insulation kind of like
blubber on a whale n it's more of a
cushion think about fat like peanuts
that you might pack you're something
you're shipping across the country in
yeah all right if we had no body fat all
right and the most important body fat
for the cushion actually is inside our
frame packed inside our belly if you had
no fat and you tripped on a rug and you
fell on the ground your organs would
burst open so fat actually has sort of a
cushion uh role as well now the other
thing that fat actually has a very
important role on that's fascinating uh
is that it's a space
heater and a space heater so this isn't
just passive you know like again like
the blubber is just passive um the
cushion is kind of passive but this is
an active function just like the hormone
instead of releasing hormones it
releases heat wow now let me explain to
you not all fat generates heat so the
new science of the metabolism tells us
broadly speaking there's two color two
kinds of fat in our body there's white
fat which is jiggly
the white fat that's under the skin is
meaning close to the skin we call it
subcutaneous that's the stuff you see
under your arm under your chin that's
the muffin top all right to run your
thighs and your butt that's the stuff
that most people don't like want to get
rid of um uh you know if and I have no
problem with that I that's a good thing
if you feel good by streamlining your
body go for it yeah like that that's an
important thing uh and too much of it is
also bad for you but the other thing
that's really important is that another
kind of jiggly fat is actually packed
inside your body that's the visceral fat
we were talking about earlier now
visceral fat doesn't care if you have a
big siiz body like a weightlifter in the
Olympics or a thin body like a javelin
thrower in the Olympics it can grow
inside and that fat is sort of like the
peanuts for packing that we talked about
except when it starts to grow
excessively it goes from being a packing
peanuts into turning into a baseball
glove that wraps around your organs and
chokes your your organs o and it can
happen whether you're apparently thin or
you obviously if you actually have
excess weight all right that's white fat
both not so good for you visceral fat
deadly so both the subcutaneous fat and
the visceral fat are white fat correct
got it right now the other kind of fat
that's not white fat the other kind it's
called Brown fat you know you're
starting to see and hear about Brown fat
you know and you know she see online you
see some advertising for it you know a
lot of uh people in in the weightlifting
world and bodybuilding World talk about
Brown fat I'm not coming from that
sector I'm I'm coming at this really as
a scientist and a doctor and let me tell
you something about Brown fed it's
absolutely fascinating because only
recently have we discovered that humans
have not just a little brown fat but a
lot of brown fat and brown fat is
different than white fed because it's
not jiggly it's not lumpy bumpy jiggly
it's not under your arm and it's not
definitely not subcutaneous you can't
see it it's not under the skin Brown fat
is paper thin wafer thin okay so think
about it fat is thin wait a minute that
seems to be a contradiction in terms but
yeah Brown fat are thin sheets and it's
not close to the skin you can't see it
it's close to the Bone all right it's
deep and it actually is plastered around
our neck plastered underneath our
breastbone around like a girdle around
our our chest under our arm a little bit
in the back a little bit in your belly
scattered okay and that fat has space
heater function wow it's like a nuclear
plant that can fire up when it's
stimulated in order to burn energy so it
really actually activates your
metabolism and as it does that it needs
fuel right the space heater needs power
it needs gas um it needs to get fuel
where does it draw the fuel where does
brown fat draw the fuel from Brown fat
draws its fuel to burn from white fat so
Brown fat is good fat that can fight
white fat when it's bad fat fat versus
fat another another totally interesting
thing that you would you can actually
think about fighting fat with fat it's
like a civil war happening in your own
body uh yeah exactly except that you
basically they're all they all started
out being friends and all started out
creating kind of a peaceful Society yeah
well they should I mean ideally we'll
return to that so how do we then you've
mentioned what brown fat does and you
mentioned where it tends to uh habitate
in the body how do we how do we Stoke
that fire and how do we encourage its
proliferation if it's so good for us can
we even do that yeah well look I want to
tell you a little story about how Brown
fat in humans was discovered because
it's so
fascinating I I think that there's so
much to be learned about the origin
stories and the history of things
because it just gives us a better
appreciation that this isn't just a
trend or fad this is something real that
was discovered over time okay so in the
um 1700s s uh there was a um uh a
naturalist you know kind of somebody who
studies nature named Conrad gestner he
lives in Switzerland and he was really
interested in understanding animals and
the anatomy of animals so he he uh was
actually taking a look at um a rodent
that lived in the Swiss mountains uh
that um uh would hibernate and he would
catch one and dissect it and you know
like they do in the old school days they
would draw the organs and he found one
organ that was between the shoulder
blades and he didn't know what it was
brown colored but didn't look like
anything else that was out there well
fast forward actually um uh a professor
at UCLA took a look at that I mean over
time and started to really we had there
were more sophisticated lab tools and
said you know what that brown thing
actually is made out of fat and the idea
of this is that they thought maybe it
was something only in hibernating
animals so then they started to find it
in bats and other kind of animals that
actually hibernate okay and they said
well I wonder if it's in humans fast
forward a little bit further they found
it in babies human babies you know where
they found it in human babies just like
in this rodent in Switzerland they found
it between the shoulder blades when
babies are born there's a little lump of
brown fat um that actually is there wow
now what did they figure out the brown
fat did in hibernating animals is that
when the animals
are uh surviving over the winter they
need they need a space heater so Brown
Fett fires up it keeps them warm all
right now what now what about human
babies why do we have that is it a relic
of evolution um you know look babies are
born in delivery Suites we can put them
into incubators you know they're in warm
homes uh why do we need them so the idea
that was originally thought is you know
it's just maybe vdu like an appendix all
right which we know now it actually has
a function because it actually Harbors
gut microbiome as well all right so you
don't want to be or your tonsils right
like people used to say let's whip out
the tonsils whip out the appendix no no
no like that's they're actually form
they're actually important components of
our body all right so Brown fat and
babies um is it vestigal no actually it
serves a function and what they found is
that and they thought well maybe maybe
when the baby's grow up the B Brown fat
just goes away just kind of melts away
turns out that researchers in Boston
were once looking at um a woman who came
in with a tumor in her
chest and they uh did a biopsy looked at
the biopsy and it was made out of fat
okay and in fact it was called a
hibernoma because it resembled the
hibernating animals Mass organ wow okay
Ma meaning tumor and it wasn't malignant
all right but what they thought they was
really interesting is that when they
scanned it using a pet scan which
captures metabolic energy in other words
what you deem to generate Heat this baby
in this tumor this little tumor
hibernoma this brown fat tumor lit up
like a nuclear engine wow okay and it
was only because we had pet scannings at
that time that it could actually even be
figured out so the researcher that did
this uh in Boston Ronald Khan actually
went back and said I wonder if there if
this um signal
uh exists in other pet scans met
metabolic scans in other people so he
went back and dug up thousands of other
scans that were done and found yeah
actually there are people that are
showing this brown fat throughout their
chest and we just missed it wow like it
was there but we weren't looking for it
so we just kind of ignored the signal
but not everybody had it so what he then
did is he said went back and said you
know what it was in hibernating animals
that they saw it way back when in the
old days right Conrad gestner so he said
let's go back and match the pet scans
with the temperature of the day in which
the scan was taken so we went back to
the meteorological record and found
every time a patient had a pet scan that
shown Brown fat in the body it was on a
cold day in the wintertime and on warm
weather days it was cooler so this space
heating fat function that lives in
adults as well as baby
as well as hibernating animals truly has
a physiological function to help
generate heat it is a space heater wow
so much of your attention is focused on
adding in you really want the audience
to add in and the readers to add in and
I'm curious about that of from your
perspective of how you arrive there and
how much does the balance come in terms
of adding in versus as you were talking
earlier with artificial sweeteners in
the gut microbiome that there's certain
foods that just by taking them out we
allow the body to do what it does
naturally how how do you think about
that
balance yeah well look first of all um
I'm like most people I think uh when you
tell me not to do something my brain
goes well maybe maybe I'll do one more
time you know maybe I'll try it and so
there's a lot of human nature to um how
we respond when somebody says something
to take something away from you and
human nature abhor
deprivation and so one of the things is
you know I think most of us like to have
our quote cake and eat it too and so I
always felt um when I was you know
taking care of patients and trying to
counsel them on things rather than tell
them to remove things uh from their diet
because that's really easy to do and
there's plenty of people out there you
know um scolding people you know fear
guilt and shame is sort of like the the
building blocks of traditional
counseling about nutrition you know and
makes you feel bad actually uh when
somebody tells you you know like you're
a bad person for eating junky food what
I try to to is Empower people because I
think people love to feel justified in
what they love like and so in my book I
read about 200 foods that all activate
the body's Health defenses and I used to
say I dare you to find in this 200 Foods
something like like that I dare you to
find review this foods and tell me that
there's nothing that you like and most
people actually find something in 200
foods that they actually like and I say
well look start with this because what
you like is already good for you so
you're already way ahead of the game and
if you can start add keep on adding
things that you like and just understand
this is that education knowledge piece
what you like is good for you then you
can love your food and love your health
at exactly the same time and then this
whole idea of anti- deprivation is that
if you spend more
time thinking about what to add to your
body that's good for you you'll spend
less time thinking about the bad stuff
and more good things in your body uh
kind of push out room for bad things and
if you spend most of your time
fortifying your body's Health defenses
those five Health defenses angiogenesis
stem cells microbiome DNA protection and
Immunity with Foods honestly every now
and then you're G to fall off the wagon
you can eat something you really like or
you really want to or you know
everybody's eating around you and it's
not that good for you that's all right
your body's got you covered your health
defenses are there as a shield so again
you know like I I think that there's
just a healthier way to navigate through
your life these strict diets are don't
work for a long time they're
unsustainable so I'm all about how do
you actually get people to feel like
they're in control and what they like to
do already is actually good for them now
that's a great explanation it's you're
crowding out the quote unquote bad I
mean there really is no bad because the
beautiful thing about it is that you
know there's this term that's coming out
now more with uh blood sugar and
continuous glucose monitors and the idea
is um you know metabolic flexibility
that when you're doing when you have a
diet that is maintaining a healthy blood
sugar on a average basis then you go
somewhere you you you want to enjoy
something you enjoy that thing you're
not having the stress of this thing is
going to completely throw me off because
your foundation is so healthy so
resilient that you can enjoy some of
these things because food is not just
about fueling our body and avoiding
disease it's all about the joy social
aspects um breaking bread together so to
speak and and that adds a lot to life
including SE severely reducing stress
and and I find that the healthier that I
become with the foundation and having a
ton of plant Foods inside of my um diet
by volume I would still say most of the
calories by by calorie it's still
probably a little bit heavily reliant on
uh you know the healthiest quality
animal foods that I can find wild caught
fish grass-fed steak you know things
like that that'll throw in but by volume
it's still plants when I have that base
I also have less desire for these other
things so instead of eating the whole
croissant I was in Mexico City recently
and we came by an incredible Bakery I
just wanted a little taste I wanted to
get the idea of it I had a little bit
and I was like that's cool because I
never feel deprived I never feel that I
have to use willpower to say that I
can't eat something or that it's bad for
me no this is something that I can enjoy
I get the point and then I can move on
from there yeah you know I I I I know
there's this you know Japanese saying
harashi banme that basically says just
eat 80% uh and then leave you know like
like quit the clean play club and don't
eat you know and just eat 80% of what
your body would want I have another
which I think is really healthy it's
kind of like your own way to actually
have caloric restriction which we know
scientifically is good for you but I
have another story to tell you um please
I I I traveled to Asia after college
and I was in China in Beijing and uh
this is you know soon after China not
too long after China opened up for for
tourism so long you know this is many
decades ago and I went to visit the
Summer Palace and I've been back a few
times um obviously this is way before
the pandemic and um you can actually
visit the Summer Palace where the dower
Empress lived and and and basically this
royalty of China basically is fed by
Imperial chefs and you can it was a
restaurant so I I I was honored to be um
able to uh dine there and they they
wanted to serve an imperial meal to show
you what it was like back then so I'll
tell you most of it was plant-based but
they had 30 different types of dishes
that came out in a in a dinner 30 okay
and there's no way you can eat 30 dishes
right I mean think about it you go to
like a steakhouse there's no way you're
going to eat 30 or you go to a
vegetarian restaurant you're still not
going to eat 30 meals so what I learned
that was that's never left my mind was
that you know food is pleasurable and
and the way that the the approach was
not to put a lot on the plate have a lot
of different uh variety to really be
able to stimulate the tast buuz get the
enjoyment of the food make people feel
like they could indulge and enjoy their
meal and the dward your Empress would
just eat with the Chopsticks just take
one bite out of each plate okay um and
just get a sampling and so that's what I
realized with you when you're talking
about the Quant I I it brought that back
my memory back to me you know like you
don't have to have the whole hog of
whatever it is they're serving you can
actually satisfy your Indulgence by
having a taste of it savoring it like
really try to enjoy it um and that way
you know you if you and you give a
little bit of time you don't it's not
going to make you want to go back and
and just Pig down on the whole thing you
like learn how to enjoy the taste of
something allows you to experience more
without having to stuff yourself it's
well said and I think for a lot of
people who are listening here you know
just like you gave the example about the
broccoli and the broccoli
Sprouts they they know food is
powerful and we're all creatures of
habit we get into buying the same sort
of five you know vegetables that
everybody ends up having corn potatoes
you know all all those classic examples
to which obviously have a lot of uh
healthy properties as you highlight
inside of your book but when we talk
about variety and getting inspired
that's what I really love about what you
guys are doing with your course and and
kind of extending out the book is you're
giving even more inspiration more
education so that people can get excited
about wanting to go try something new so
that you go into Whole Foods you go into
Trader Joe's you go into your local
supermarket wherever it is or shopping
online and you're like wow I'm actually
going to pick out this other food that I
kind of overlook
you know what's an example of one of
those things that is an underrated food
something that people Overlook and might
not have as part of their normal routine
but can have such a profound effect if
they start including it in into their
diet yeah I'll tell you a great one
kiwis right so these sort of um I don't
know baseball shaped a little smaller
than baseball furry little brown things
you cut them open they're beautiful and
green with seeds starburst on the inside
um
I didn't use I I always like kiwi but I
never really ate them very much but I
started doing the research on them and
kiwi is pretty amazing first of all it's
a great source of vitamin C and fiber
and the vitamin C actually has
tremendous antioxidant effect and it can
protect your DNA and Studies have been
shown that actually if you eat one kiwi
a day it'll protect your DNA against
damage by about
60% if we ate three kiwis it would
actually help your body build any
damaged DNA back back um by about 60%
and so here's something simple that you
can peel cut up chop into a yogurt or
just eat plain it's delicious um you can
put it into a smoothie that actually has
this amazing ability to actually protect
your genetic material like you know
that's that's so fundamental and it
tastes great and not too sweet and it's
got a little citrusy flavor then the
other thing that's great about kiwi is
that it's got it's packed with fiber now
fiber as a is basically a kiwi is
essentially a Prebiotic food its fiber
feeds our gut microbiome and Studies
have shown this is a study done in
Singapore that show that just eating a
kiwi even one kiwi overnight will start
to change your gut microbiome favoring
more healthy species of bacteria and so
you know like I I always tell people
like if I tell you something like that
and you try a kiwi uh uh you know you
can't unlearn what I just told you every
time you see the Kiwi you're going to
say you know what I know there's
something good about it and then if you
remember what that is that's really what
I try to do with my with my course is
really try to teach people how to make
it second nature to make great choices
and to be enthusiastic about it like I
think most people are kind of
intimidated by uh this is you know kind
of like the whole philosophy behind my
course people are intimidated by diets
right to begin with they're a little
yeah you know maybe I didn't do do so
good in my life I I should do better you
know it's always people go into a diet
in order to try to get better and what I
try to
shift that Paradigm is look if you're
serious about getting healthy and this
is the time you want to actually do it
it's not that difficult you just got to
dive in engage you do want to be awake
you need to be alert and you got to
realize it's not about somebody feeding
you a super food or a Super Supplement
and that's all you got to take every day
you know it's really about understanding
more about you self- knowledge about how
your own body works right like at some
point we all figured out how our eyes
work and how our lungs work and how our
prostate works and our uterus figure
this out this is like this is like the
The Cutting Edge science you want
evidence you want food as medicine and
you want to know that it's not about
memorizing food it's about memorizing
how your body actually works and then
recognizing our bodies actually work
really well to complement certain foods
and so what does a tomato do a well
tomato complains lopine what does lopine
do actually protects our prostate man
that's a that's a really good thing also
protects our breast that's a really
great thing um you don't need to
remember all the chemicals you just need
to remember that that's the way to do it
and then I try to get people to be
passionate about cooking because you
know one of the
antidotes to unhealthy eating is really
trying to get back into the kitchen and
preparing your own meals you don't have
to be a fancy Chef you don't even have
to have a fancy pet you know if you can
fry an egg you can actually cook healthy
food and and that's what I try to do is
to try to make people feel like lower
your guard it it's not a problem you
know you can actually learn how to do
this and you know there's nothing more
satisfying to me than to actually go out
and you know find some great looking
healthy Fresh Foods figure out how to
cook them and and taste it myself like
it's like you know like back in wood
shop when you're in junior high school
and you created your own toolbox like
man that that's really cool I I made
that and that's how I want get people to
feel excited about um uh about food as
medicine this is not hard it is not a
burden it's not an onus
this is something that you can do you
can make for yourself it's powerful
because you know we were started off
this interview by talking about how
again well-meaning well-intentioned
uh researchers practitioners you know
people that we look to as the voice of
authority in a lot of key areas
sometimes it's not the absence of
evidence it's just the lack of awareness
of the evidence that's there but also we
as
individuals call us consumers people
that are in charge of Our Own Health
that are just trying to live a happy
life take care of our families we have
to take on some of that burden I think
in a way we have um and there's a
there's a lot of layers to this but we
expect a little bit too much from our
doctors we expect a little bit too much
from the Health Care Community they're
just doing their best right they're just
doing their best that they can so we
have to remember that you know where we
need help and thank the Lord for all the
incredible medicines many of which
you've been a part of you know
developing that have given us healthier
lives and extending lives as well too
but on a day-to-day basis us getting
educated is so key and Central because
if you don't know or care enough then
you become a victim of sort of the
marketing and the marketing could be in
the health world and the wellness world
or the marketing could be towards Big
food companies again all primarily
well-intentioned we used to be a society
that was dying of not enough food and
that's where a lot of that marketing
comes from but now we're dying of having
too much of you know too much food and
too much of especially the the wrong
foods that that are there the ultr
processed foods so empowering yourself
empowering yourself with that knowledge
it actually is the thing that makes the
difference what would you say would be
like five tips that you could share with
the audience on how people can improve
their diet quality yeah happy to give
you the five tips but let me kind of
frame this by saying
there is so much negativity associated
with food I'm coming at this from a
completely different perspective I would
say negativity was out there and also
misperceptions and and lack of accurate
information so I like to kind of turn
the entire formula around and come at
this with how do we not fear our food
number one and number two how do we
actually use the facts and the signs to
really be able to inform uh how we can
Embrace food instead and you know this
has to do with my background as a
physician as a scientist and as somebody
who's actually been involved with
biotechnology and developing cancer
treatments and diabetes treatments and
treatments for blindness for almost 30
years the reality is is that food in
fact is really one of the most powerful
Health Care interventions that we can do
for ourselves and five tips I will give
you right up front that could be really
useful is and this is sort of you know
really across the board for anyone who
has to eat which is everyone I would
give you the five general principles
number one stay hydrated because
dehydration actually makes everything in
your body work harder and so if you want
your food to work for you you actually
want to make sure your body has enough
water content to be able to keep all
those metabolic processes functioning
really well number two I would say eat
what you like but make sure that most of
what you eat and the priority majority
of where your head goes when you're
choosing something making good choices
really falls in the category of what we
call plant-based foods which is pretty
broad I mean there are hundreds of foods
that are plant-based and it doesn't have
to be broccoli and kale it could be
beans it could be mushrooms it could be
onions it could be garlic all the things
that you think hark back to those
traditional delicious recipes that came
from the grandmothers of the
Mediterranean whether it's Italy or
Greece or Spain or France or Asia
whether it's Japan or China or Thailand
I mean you know all those delicious
things that you might see in a menu I
want people to think about healthy
eating as when you look at a menu or
when you actually are shopping look for
the things in the produce section first
or look for the things that actually
have vegetables in them they don't have
to be the only thing but if you use that
as a kind of a filter you're going to be
doing something really good for you
that's a second thing third I would say
to the extent possible avoid ultr
processed foods and we all have things
that we like that we grew up with that
are snacky type of foods and we all have
lives that take us in different places
in our communities or around the world
even and we can't always get the
healthiest food but what I wanted to
kind of like emphasize is if you can cut
down if not cut out Ultra processed
foods things that actually have lots of
artificial preservatives artificial
colorings artificial flavorings you know
those are the things that actually taste
pretty good and we're kind of addicted
to from marketing and from from our
childhood so you've got we've got
legitimate reasons why we like these
things because they taste pretty good if
you can cut down if not cut out those
things that's actually going to tip your
dietary pattern in your favor the other
thing that I would actually say that
would be really helpful is to try to
avoid foods with added sugars whenever
you can this is your regular soda this
is actually even your diet soda which
actually has artificial sweeteners added
that mess up your gut health and your
gut microbiome and actually throw your
metabolism off kilter but stay away from
added sugar because we can get a plenty
of sugar from the regular Foods we eat
but if you start stuffing candy bars you
know the Habit we' had as kids right
Halloween get that pillow and stuff it
like a gunny sack and go out there and
Peg out all night long look that's a lot
of artificial sugar and even as adults
we wind up actually snacking that way
unconsciously and it actually overloads
our metabolism that's a fourth thing and
the fifth thing I would actually say is
that I want to come back to beverages
for a second you know besides water
there's two other bever that I think are
go-tos for health and one is tea could
be green tea could be oong tea could be
black tea and the other one is coffee
remarkably you know water tea and coffee
are the go-tos for beverage and health
now what you add to them can make a big
difference but you know those are five
general rules that I think will take
anybody Health towards a path of health
and by the way you'll notice that I
didn't give any absolutes and I didn't
say things that are really unreasonable
so that's probably a good place to start
this conversation yeah I love that and I
would imagine that the five tips that
you shared probably go in line with what
you would recommend for somebody as far
as a dietary pattern to follow for
longevity so I guess outside of making
sure you're consuming a lot of plants
drinking plenty of water limiting Ultra
processed foods what are a few other
like Staples that you think people
should include within like a dietary
pattern if they want to increase their
longevity right okay so longevity means
not only having more birthdays but also
having good quality of life along the
way right so we want a good healthy
lifespan not just a long lifespan if
you're gorked out you know at a 100
years old or you are blind 100 years old
that would not be worth it so I think
the key to longevity and you know this
is such an important and popular topic I
think and it's really driven by science
there's a lot of really exciting things
about longevity I want to make sure
people don't forget that want to we want
to actually be able to enjoy our lives
even as we live longer nobody wants to
add more miserable years to their life
all right so having said that one are
the things that are important to us and
I'm going to give you some concrete food
things but I you know what you're going
to hear me talk about is the framing
because I think a lot of times when we
hear about nutrition or food is medicine
we hear about individual substances
individual Foods individual
recommendations without getting to
context so I think context is important
how do we actually maintain good later
years in our life if we want to expand
them our brains need to work we need
good cognition what does that require at
a minimum our brains need to have good
blood flow so we need to protect our
circulation so foods that can actually
help protect our circulation keep our
circulation going are really helpful
research has shown there's actually a
natural chemical that's found in a lot
of foods called ursolic acid that
actually helps our blood vessel system
stay healthy so we have better blood
flow where do you get solic acid it
comes in chestnuts it comes in Fruit
peel which is found on dried fruits
which are a healthy way to actually get
a lot of dietary fiber which feeds our
gut microbiome our healthy gut bacteria
in our body and healthy gut bacteria
text messages our brain and helps us
release social hormones so we're happy
to do the things and see the people that
we happen to see and so this is sort of
like a little bit of a contextual idea
of some of the foods that we can eat and
the reasons why in order to be able to
have a good long healthy life I I think
number one would be actually a good
having a a brain working really well
second one just tell you is you know we
want to be able to move we want to
actually you know you don't want to be
wheelchair bound or paralyzed or or so
weak we're unable to be independent or
as independent as we possibly can so we
need our muscles to be able to function
properly now muscles are built and
broken down on a daily basis which is
why you know young kids are so active
and teenagers are working out and you
know why we actually try to encourage
people to actually exercise is that you
know use it or lose it is really
absolutely true so we want to use it
well in addition to just physically
exercising we need to be able to
actually build our muscles now how does
our body build our muscles from the time
we're born all the way until our
Advanced ages use the stem cells now
these are not the stem cells you would
get at the strip mall injected into your
knee you know or your for your tennis
elbow or your shoulder these are stem
cells we were born with and a lot of
people don't know this but humans do
regenerate we actually formed of stem
cells when our mom's egg met our dad's
sperm and we were just a ball of cells
all stem cells and these stem cells that
will want from your jaw and our face and
our ears and our livers and our hearts
and we have a bunch left over when we're
born about 70 million leftover cells
they're packed away kind of like on the
shelves of Home Depot you know EXT cans
of paint you can draw on them when you
need to and these stem cells actually
will participate in building our muscle
over time so what are some of the foods
that actually help us build help our
stem cells come out so they can help to
regenerate things well it turns out that
extra virgin olive oil turns out to be
really helpful for our stem cells it
protects our stem cells as we age and
not surprisingly in the blue zones those
parts of the world where people live
really to healthy ripe old ages over 100
for example
centenarians they tend to eat olive oil
extra virgin olive oil which by the way
comes from a plant it's a plant-based
healthy fat number two there's another
fat that you should know about that's
found associated with protein that's in
seafood and that's omega-3 fatty acids
Omega-3s also help our stem cells
regenerate they prompt our body to stay
renewed which is important for aging
where do you get Omega-3s well besides
salmon and Anchovies and mackerel and
sardines you hear about that a lot it
turns out many many many different kinds
of Seafoods and even seaweeds actually
edible seaweeds actually have omega-3 so
one of the things that I write about in
my new book Eat to beat your diet is
leaning into that Seafood section of the
grocery store which you know some people
already like seafood but some people
aren't familiar and I want to take
people's apprehension away to say dive
in there because there's a lot of great
stuff that's a secret to longevity as
well it turns out in many of the blue
zones and in many places where people
live to a ripe old age they eat
reasonable amounts of seafood regularly
and not surprisingly this omega-3 is
found in there now I'm going to throw
one last kind of delight and surprise
that can help your stem cells which help
to rebuild your brain and your heart and
your muscles actually is dark chocolate
turns out chocolate's a candy okay it's
a confection but to make dark chocolate
you have high amounts 70% 80% 90% cacao
Cacao is actually from the sea pod the
cacao plant and that's a plant-based
food it turns out there's natural
chemicals bioactives in cacao made in
dark chocolate in high concentrations
that help our stem cells come out and
rebuild our muscles our circulation many
other parts that need to be renewed and
as we get older one of the things we
want to do is we want to continuously be
renewed rather than broken down these
are some of the ways that we think about
diet and Longevity those are some great
tips and some great Foods as you were
naming those Foods I was like yep
definitely eat that yep definitely eat
that and it just seems like it's pretty
consistent too with the like the
Mediterranean dietary pattern right
would you say that that's pretty
accurate absolutely and here's the thing
that I think is really important to
understand about the Mediterranean diet
as you said that it's a pattern it's not
a single recipe or a single commercial
package the Mediterranean is not just
Italy and Greece and Spain which people
can pick out in two seconds but in fact
it's made up of like 27 different
countries that all surround the
Mediterranean Sea and most people don't
realize this but Tunisia and Israel
Croatia are all Mediterranean countries
and what that means that there's a
really rich diversity of traditional
foods that people have enjoyed so you
know for people that say well you know
I'm not really into Italian food or I'm
not really I don't know wouldn't be in
Italian food but you know some people
are very picky with their food what I
say is that if you want to look at
Mediterranean pattern you have to
appreciate this is more than 20
different countries that have something
to offer for you and similarly
Mediterranean is one pattern of healthy
eating but the other pattern of healthy
eating is in Asia because Asians live uh
there's a long pattern of longevity it's
traditional patterns lots of seafood
lots of plant-based foods and here's the
cool thing Doug is that the
Mediterranean in Asia if you think about
restaurant menus might look like there
couldn't be more differences but then
two different types of Cuisine but in
fact the pattern of eating and the
things that are in them could not be
more connected because 2,000 years ago
there was something called The Silk Road
and it was a series of Dusty trails that
linked China to the Mediterranean and
the traders that did trade silk but many
other things as well also exchang their
ingredients and recipes and so when you
want to think about healthy patterns of
eating please do think about
Mediterranean eating and realize that
Mediterranean is much more than Italian
food it's a lot of different foods but
now I want you to actually open this up
to a kaleidoscope of Cuisine that
includes Asia and the interconnections
between Mediterranean Asia and I
actually in my new book I call this
mediterasian because it really is
something that is not new but thousands
of years old old and now it's time for
us to kind of really go back and tap
that well of culinary genius that's
always existed and the stuff tastes
great too what myth around eating for a
healthy heart most annoys you you know
as somebody who studies blood vessels
and circulation which is what the heart
is all about the thing that really um
irritates me is when people think that
just simply working out whether it's
jogging going to the gym lifting thing
that that'll actually guarantee that
you're going to be heart healthy in fact
that's only a bit of the solution oh
that's fascinating all right we're
definitely going to talk some more about
that will what are your three tips for
living longer three tips number one get
good quality sleep I'm a doctor I went
through training I was deprived of sleep
for years that subtracts years off of
your life so get some good rest second
eat healthy um and what that means is
going to be different for every
individual but bottom line is that
listen to your body because your body
knows what actually is not so good for
you when you feel badly and there's a
huge literature of studying what's
actually um good for you mostly
plant-based foods and we can talk more
about that um and then the third thing
really is to stay Physically Active that
doesn't mean you have to jog swim run a
marathon what it means that you have to
actually move brilliant you know I think
everybody here knows that their heart is
really important right anyone for the
last 100 years has been told about that
I think most of us and and I'm included
have never really thought about our
blood vessels and I know that blood
vessels have been the center of your
research can you start Maybe by
explaining why our blood vessels matter
yeah well you know I'm a physician I'm a
scientist I'm a vascular biologist which
means I study blood vessels and the
cardiovascular system and here's a
little fact that most people don't know
first of all when it comes to your heart
which is about the size of your fist
that's the best kind of surrogate
measure of what it looks like in your
chest this heart this beating muscle is
connected to 60,000 miles of blood
vessels that course throughout your body
60,000 miles 60,000 miles now if you
were to pull out all the blood vessels
in your body and line them up end to end
you'd form a thread that would wrap
around the earth twice now you can
imagine how important blood vessels are
when they're connected to the heart this
way because your heart every beat every
pump Jets out blood through these
highways and byways that bring the blood
the nourishment the oxygen you breathe
all the growth factors to every cell in
every organ of your body I've suddenly
discovered that there's 60,000 miles of
blood vessel inside me which is amazing
wraps around the earth twice not
something to try at home I guess um how
does it link then from these blood
vessels to actually impacting you know
our heart health which I think is the
thing we we we think about what what's
going on and and how does that link yeah
well you know I I'm sort of trying to
give people a view that they may not
have thought about right because most
people think of the heart you go jogging
you hear the ldb in the the background
the the soundtrack of your heartbeating
but here's something most people don't
know is that when we were all in our
mother's womb forming one of the first
organs
that we formed is it your brain is it
your liver is it your bones it's
actually your heart and your circulatory
system and they all form pretty much at
the same time and they form with these
things called stem cells so imagine just
dropping a group of marbles on the
ground and just and they randomly kind
of fall on the carpet they roll around
and they don't look like anything those
are your stum cells that say day five
day seven after conception when dad's
sperm met mom's egg over the course of
the next weeks those marbles coales
together and they begin to organize
themselves to form these channels they
call them first Lakes blood Lakes before
they form tributaries before they form
streams and that's basically at the end
of the day they're left with one
additional area which is the heart that
is special because it actually has
muscles special muscles that will
actually pump and its own electrical
system and so basically
when you think about how your heart and
your blood vessels are actually
connected together they were formed
together at the very beginning all right
so what happens to your heart will
impact your blood vessels your
circulation and therefore your organs
and what happens to your blood vessels
actually impacts the heart as well so if
you have very stiff blood vessels now
blood vessels are actually very elastic
so basically when your heart pumps they
will stretch to accommodate the blood
all right um because a normal capillary
the smallest blood vessel at the very
like just getting into your organs to
feed your cells that's the thinness of a
human hair that's a human capillary now
to Jet blood through that in fact that
that diameter of that blood vessels is
smaller than a single blood cell so even
for a a healthy blood cell to get
through that end Channel it has to
stretch to allow things through oh wow
so everything I think about this like
these tiny little elastic things that
are opening and closing to squeeze
through like literally my blood cells
that's right without my blood cells my
organs are in trouble is that right
without your blood cells pumping through
delivering those oxygen carrying oxygen
rich red blood cells very quickly and
I'm talking about within seconds your
organs start feeling starved think about
getting choked you can't breathe all
right and then soon it turns blue just
like You' be blue in the face and
shortly after that your organs stop
functioning properly and when they
actually stop functioning properly um
they start to uh malfunction the
ultimate malfunction whether it's in the
liver whether it's your kidney whether
it's your brain I mean the ultimate
brain malfunction is you have a stroke
and all and this by the way everything
I'm talking about in your organs also
can happen to your heart so when that
when there's a malfunction of your heart
because it's not getting enough blood
flow we can also happen the heart has
its own circulation which is pretty
amazing um
not surprising but amazing when the
heart's own circulation gets clogged or
too stiff and it blocks blood flow then
you have a heart attack and so the
things that we hear about heart attack
stroke cardiovascular disease these are
all problems of that giant system that
60,000 M system that formed um was one
of the first organs to form in your
mom's womb and so I need this
stretchiness in order to deliver down
these capillaries and I think we've all
maybe heard a little bit about this idea
of it being blocked how does that is
that the same as not being stretchy or
is that actually something different
will right well think about this um so
think about a a big sock that you put in
your foot through right so the sock has
to stretch like the stock you pull out
of the St out of a drawer is actually
pretty thin it looks too thin for your
leg to go through but because it's
stretchy you can actually put your foot
and then your ankle all the way through
it right yep I'm familiar I fought with
my daughter this morning to do exactly
that as I seem to end up doing many
mornings because it turns out that it's
a lot easier to put your foot through
the sock when the other person is
helping rather than pulling it in the
other direction so right I understand
the analogy now when that sock is no
longer stretchy it's stiff imagine
spraying concrete around that sock or
maybe even pouring concrete into the
sock okay and and now try to put your
foot through it it's not going to go
through very easily right it's stiff
there's no stretchiness and that's
actually what happens as we naturally
get older and particularly when we're
eating what is the so-called Western
diet now that's we can talk about that
in more detail but we eat a diet that's
not so good for our circulation what
happens is that a blood vessel let me
just kind of give you a little more
detail about the stretch the reason a
blood vessel can stretch has to do with
how it's designed um a blood vessel has
got different um uh uh aspects of its
wall cut a blood vessel in half and look
at its cross-section and you'll see
there's a thin lining on the outside
there's a little muscle on the out
beyond that so the muscle can allow it
to stretch and on the inside there's a
lining of cells very special cells
called endothelial cells Endo because
they're on the inside endothelial cells
these are the liner cells of a blood
vessel so think about Saran Wrap that's
how thin it is okay aligning the inside
of your blood vessel cling film for
those of us in in the UK yep clear film
that by the way so basically that's the
blood vessel the muscle helps it stretch
the wall helps it stretch the the the um
the the clear sheet on the inside that
is a special layer that layer is
slippery it's like the surface of an ice
skating rink that's been polished and
buffed before the first skaters got get
on it and the reason that endothelial
slippery layer is so important is
because blood cells slide right along it
they don't stick got it so I'm sort of
thinking now bet it's like you're in a
tunnel but all the walls are covered in
like a bit like Teflon I guess on my
pans or something right like something
very non-stick is that a way to right to
think about this well we'll have to talk
about the Teflon in your pan from a
healthy eating perspective
but but but yes that's exactly what it
is um and I and I and I use the idea of
an ice skating rink because many people
have you know um spent a winter holiday
looking I could be out doors it could be
insort as a as a skating rink or just
think about the Olympics right um so
when the ice is fresh and ready for the
first the day's first skaters it is it
is slick it is smooth and everything
just starts at one end and goes all the
way to the other ends yeah take off your
sweater and throw it on the ice and it
will go all the way across the rink
right now as long as that lining is
perfectly smooth everything will Glide
right along now what happens when you
actually
um smoke a cigarette okay uh the the the
nicotine the chemicals the harsh
chemicals it damages that Teflon layer
it damages that liner that transparent
liner uh it going back to the ice
skating rink analogy it would be like if
you took um a rake and you just raked
the ice and scuffed it up now try to
throw a sweater on it it's not it's just
going to stick right there it won't
slide and so that roughening up of the
inner lining can actually make blood
cells clut stick and form a clut that is
the beginning of the end when I say the
beginning of the end that starts to
narrow the blood vessel the blood vessel
starts to get stiffer you don't actually
have that
stretchiness um plaques fat can actually
build on the inside of the wall and what
is a plaque will a plaque is a
thickening you know like a plaque on
your teeth is anything any kind of a
thing that builds up on your teeth right
so a plaque in a blood vessel is similar
to what you would find in your teeth but
it's on the inside layer and it what it
does is it makes it stickier it makes it
narrower it makes it stiffer all the
things you don't want in a healthy blood
vessel that makes sense and I can see if
you're trying to deliver if I'm trying
to deliver anything through this and
it's starting to get more and more
constricted I mean it doesn't it's sort
of obvious to a Layman right it doesn't
sound good if I trying to push something
through and the pipe is getting more and
more more furred up so is there a is
there you know I have a toothbrush for
my teeth right for for this situation
with plaque is there is there a is there
a toothbrush in this situation or is
this a sort of oneway Direction This is
just going to get worse and worse as we
get older and we we we fur up these um
blood vessels well well this is actually
the most exciting thing when I went to
medical school we thought it was a
one-way Street meaning once you start
narrowing and stiff ing the blood
vessels the only way you could do it we
used to think about it like a clogged
toilet right like we've all experienced
that toilet is supposed to flush go all
of a sudden it's not flushing anymore it
backs up terrible what do you have to do
you have have to like PL plunge it call
the
plumber or you have to snake something
down it to clear it right and so that's
what we I was taught when I was in
medical school you got to call the the
heart plumber the cardiologist the
Interventional cardiologist who
basically will stick a rotor rotter
which is like a coil in your uh in your
groin snake it up through the blood
vessels and you're growing into the
blood vessels in your heart and
literally rotor it like basically drill
out that clog to clear the toilet so it
is a bit like brushing your teeth uh
fancy technology but exactly well and
and then of course it would clog back up
and so what they then invented in the
medical world are Sten which are
literally little Teflon
or metal coated stance that would strut
the um the uh the blood vessel open
right so sort of like a like a thin like
think about Mission Impossible you get
this little thin thing you put it into
the blood vessel and then boom it opens
up and now it's actually stenting open
forcing open the blood vessel now that
sounds good because you solve the
immediate problem of the lack of blood
flow but actually gets what that
actually also damages the natural
elasticity stretchiness of the blood
vessels now You' got basically an an
iron tube stuck inside your blood
vessels that's not normal and that's not
good so then we developed statins which
are drugs aimed at actually um lowering
the amount of stuff that could clog
fatty deposits that can clog uh the
plaque um on the walls statins actually
work pretty well they work by
metabolically
uh lowering the amount of cholesterol
and other lipids fatty things um that
float around your blood um if you've
ever cooked bacon you know that you know
after the the raw bacon starts frying up
and the wonderful bacony smell is in the
air and you take the bacon out you know
that you're left with a pan of a pan of
Grease right now you're going off eating
your brunch or what have you you come
back to the pan after breakfast and what
do you actually have you've got this
congealed mess imagine that congealed
white creamy thick stuff the bacon
grease imagine that is actually sosing
through your blood doesn't sound good
right like nobody's G to suggest that
this sounds like a good thing to be
going on inside you no and that's what
statson were designed to do is to sort
of try to cut through that grease like a
detergent and lower the levels in your
blood sounds like a good idea but here's
the problem
statins um which are capable of actually
preventing the buildup to some extent
have a lot of side effects actually most
there's I mean it's a billion dooll
Blockbuster area Pharmaceuticals and
many many people are on them but you
know statens can damage your muscles can
damage your kidney can damage your liver
there's all kinds of things every drug
has an effect and the potential for a
side effect or an unwanted effect so not
particularly a a great solution and
frankly not a not a you know people
don't shouldn't take medicines I look
I'm a doctor I was trained to write
prescriptions but my own practice my own
mindset of how to help a patient is
really to try if you have are forced to
give somebody a
prescription my goal has always been to
figure out from the beginning when
you're going to take the person off the
prescription so they no longer need the
drug now you need to find a different
solution so this is different than
putting writing a prescription and
putting somebody on a drug for the rest
of their life right like how many of us
know people like that and or even
doctors who actually think that way my
view is that medicines can be lifesaving
but if you put somebody on a medicine
the goal ideally is to figure out how
you're going from the beginning when
you're going to take them off it so now
research actually has then discovered
that there are foods and lifestyle
issues that can actually reverse all the
things that damage the elasticity the
the flow uh uh that can block your
circulation I mean we started at the
very beginning right we just started
saying drop those marbles their stem
cell they haven't formed and then they
form and they work perfectly when you're
a baby and over the course of your life
over age during aging and over the
course of maybe un un less than uh
salutory dietary habits you're eating
foods that are not so good for your
circulation you get the clogging gets a
cigarette smoke damages that smooth ice
and now it's sticky all right um you
know we can can we avoid
stance I think we can can we use drugs
yeah I think we can but can we use diet
and lifestyle to reverse that clogging
that prevent and reverse that is
actually what's remarkable because
scientists now discovered it's possible
to not rely on the drugs or the hardware
that I was taught we that doctor the
medical community has to use about the
the impact of the gut microbiome and how
that can be tied to body flat and
specific to that one particular uh
organism that is starting to we're
starting to hear more about acrania can
we talk about the interplay between the
gut microbiome and our metabolism and
this very important uh you know organism
that many people may be unfamiliar with
okay everyone's probably by now heard
about gut health and thought about gut
health if this has been something that
you've heard about ask a friend or
family they'll start rambling on about
everything about it okay here's the
thing gut health in scientific terms and
medical terms relates to um relates a
lot refers to you know our gut
microbiome and our gut microbiome is
really the bacteria that is mostly in
the PO last part of our gut it's an area
in the colum called the seeum um and
although not all of our body's healthy
bacteria is there a lot of it is what's
a lot 39 trillion bacteria that's a lot
of bacteria our body is only made of 40
trillion cells so we're about 50/50
bacteria and 50 the other 50% is human
all right and so what we realized is and
again I I'll I'll confess this as a as a
Bonafide MD who went through medical
school is that when I went to medical
school and you probably had the same
thing Cynthia is that I was taught that
bacteria are bad must kill bacteria and
now must memorize all the bacteria you
must kill with prescription antibiotics
that are necessary in order to stay
clean and healthy Well turns out that's
all like a little bit Mis emphasized
because most bacteria that we encounter
throughout our lives are good bacteria
almost all of them are good bacteria um
and and we do encounter a few bad guys
you know I mean think about it it's like
saying that the way that medical that
the medical community was trained is
like everyone's a terrorist must kill
terrorists but in fact actually most
people are good guys most people are
ordinary peac Loving Citizens and yeah
there's a few you know Bad actors out
there we do want to make sure that we're
keeping an eye out for them right so
it's really what's amazing to me is how
modern science is teaching us to upend a
lot of the traditional teachings that
the medical community actually has been
saddled with over the decades um so gut
microbiome are healthy bacteria living
in our gut there's a lot of different
bacteria not only bacteria by the way
there's always also viruses there's also
fi there's also another type of small um
organism that most people don't talk
about don't even know about called ARA
um that's another kind of member of the
of the gut Garden that's out there but
let's not go there right now I'll tell
you about the bacteria um uh we are just
beginning to understand the importance
of the gut
microbiome and we do know that um the
bacteria in our gut talks through um uh
the wall of our intestines because
they're living inside our intestine they
talk to our immune system and they talk
to our immune system right through the
wall of the bacteria it's like they
they're I would say it's like college
roommates um in a dorm with really thin
walls and basically the bacteria which
is one roommate pounding on the wall to
to the roommate basically saying hey
what kind of pizza do you want all right
and then the roommate can hear on the
other side and shouts back i' like
mushroom or or or olives and basically
our bacteria and our immune system talk
to each other that way and good healthy
gut give good instructions to our immune
system and this is really kind of a an
eye opener to realize that our immune
system is so tightly connected and when
our gut bacteria is not healthy um not
only is our immunity our defenses down
for immunity but our inflammation which
is another part of our immune system
goes up and the gut bacteria not only
influences our immune system but also
influences our metabolism it influences
our um our lipid cholesterol and levels
uh in our body it INF the inflammation
actually is really important to control
because if we've got extra body fat
basically we've got a for we've got um
uh we've got actually um a smoldering
fire burning in our body okay and it's
our healthy gut bacteria that puts out
that smoldering fire like we to put out
that fir fire to prevent it from become
a wildfire we need good healthy gut
bacteria and you know most people have
not until recently paid attention to
their gut so and we're all we've all
been through this before you know like
when when you're feeling okay and then
one week you're not feeling okay you're
gassy you're crampy you're not regular
or you're having loose stools and you're
just not feeling that good you're not
talking about it to people mostly okay
that means that you don't have good gut
health and most likely there's something
going on with your gut bacteria we are
just beginning to actually understand
that we got to pay attention to that now
a lot of people out there say that
they've got a solution do my stool test
and get my biotic and what I will tell
you is that we don't understand enough
about it yet to come up with a
definitive solution however there are
certain bacteria that are very very
interesting one of them is called
acrania mcop acrania AK k k r m an c i s
i a um that's the first name the last
name the genus of species is muop M muop
because it actually likes to live in the
mucus of your gut now I learned about
acromania
mucil not in a metabolism setting uh not
in a diabetes or an obesity setting but
actually in a cancer setting because I I
do cancer research few years ago I was
with a colleague of mine Dr luron cogle
who discovered in cancer patients
getting immune therapy treatments that
actually activate our body's own immune
system to fight the cancer that the
people who responded well whose immune
system could be coached by the treatment
to go out and destroy their own cancer
people who survived actually had
acromania and the people who
unfortunately didn't respond meaning
their immune system did not respond Wen
couldn't be coached by um the the
immunotherapy lacked this one particular
gut bacteria AC acromium copil so that's
really interesting one bacteria could
make the difference between whether you
lived or died as a cancer patient with a
particular kind of treatment to me like
my my radar went up right away like oh
my gosh we got to figure out more about
this and the more we actually discovered
about this so what um laurance zoku did
she took out the acromania from these
Sur these responders cancer patient
survivors and took them to the lab and
gave them to lab animals that were
developing cancer and gave those lab
animals immunotherapy and so they would
respond if they had the acrania from the
patient then she gave them antibiotics
to wipe out the acromania and and the
cancer grew right back and killed the
animals so just like the patient and so
this was you know this was I think 201
2017 and now the research has continued
to evolve now we're finding that it's
not just
cancer okay uh which is not about cancer
it's really about the immune system our
own health defenses but another defense
is really about able to tame our adapost
tissue and our metabolism people with
good metabolisms have more acromania
people with and and and this is actually
a really strange observation so I'm a
scientist so you know one of the
important things about scientists is you
can tell somebody's a real scientist
when they tell you they don't know
something all right so here's what we
don't know but what we observed people
who are suffering from
obesity actually have hardly any or no
acromania in their gut people that are
lean with good metabolisms actually have
acromania so this is a observation that
we need to pay attention to how come one
group doesn't have acroman is it cause
or an effect what is acromania doing
well it looks like AC acromania may be
controlling the lipids might be
influencing inflammation you know really
really being helpful and so then the
question is how do you grow your own
acromania okay well it turns out that if
that there are certain foods containing
polyphenols like pomegranate juice that
contain elianin is a bioactive that that
doesn't acts directly on the bacteria
the
acromania it prompts your gut to secrete
more mucus there's more
soil for the acrian to grow so it's
basically like a gardener saying how do
I put more fertilizer for my flower bed
to bloom my annuals to bloom so
pomegranate juice conquered conquered
grape juice cranberry juice have all
been studyed they all have this lanin
more mucus the more mucus there is the
better the acromania grows and I can
tell you I had a patient I once was
treating who was had
cancer she um was about to get an
immunotherapy uh for for a cancer
multiple Myoma and and I I told the
oncologist hold off for a second because
let's test her stool to see if she have
acromania this is as a result of my
knowing you know my work my my knowing
about La Cal's work and so we tested her
stool she had zero acromania why because
her kids had had bronchitis it went
right through the house she had gotten
some antibiotics from you know a walk-in
clinic uh and and um uh she had no
acromania so we I said wait let's let's
grow some back so we gave her
pomegranate juice we try to really give
her some fermented foods to really make
her gut health better um we need more
mucus we needed more gut health more
probiotics some prebiotics probiotics
then we tested her again a few weeks
later and she had six times above the
population General population's worth of
acromania so if you're missing it I'm
telling you diet can actually grow it
back which is a wonderful thing and when
we actually gave her the the the therapy
she um actually responded completely
like one of the best responders ever
seen in history so I'm telling you this
this is not food versus medicine in this
case it's food and medicine or food
before medicine and it's really about
the body and the wonderful things that
we can do to feed our body's Health
defenses feed our body's metabolism it's
all stuff that's inside us well it makes
so much sense and I love that it's
tangible it's not an unusual thing that
people have to to go purchase to be able
to support their gut microbiome now I
want to be respectful of your time but I
would love to kind of focus in on some
of your favorite foods you do a
beautiful job in the book really talking
about specific Foods um and compounds
that can be very very beneficial for
helping support metabolism and then
briefly touch on the
mediterrasian uh you know kind of
concept which is so aligned I grew up
with an Italian mother and you know food
was savored and it took you took long
meals there was no rushing around but
let's touch on those things and the
other piece that I want to compliment
you on is that I read so many books for
the podcast and sometimes there are
intangible things but you do such a nice
job of describing the food item and
exactly the amount that you need to
consume so you're not wandering around
saying are you talking about a cup of
something or is it a tablespoon you're
very specific about your
recommendations yeah no well thank you
for your your your kind words look um
I'm somebody who really um grew up like
you um uh around really delicious food
um I grew up in uh the city of
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where there's a
lot of ethnic communities and I went to
these folk festivals or we got to sample
a lot of things look we all come from
different places um we all have our own
origin stories in terms of uh every
culture in the world has its own food
story um and and food traditions and I
and I love that I I really respect that
and one of the things of my research you
know I talk about that in our food
ingredients there are these compounds
that might be tongue twisters for people
to pronounce lopine chlorogenic acid
zanthin you know B crypto xanthin I
could go on and on you know Alice and
hydroxy tyol they're all in the book if
you want to read about them uh but
what's important is that they're all
found in our Foods they're found in
things like tomatoes and apples and
pears and garlic and and scallions and
garlic Scapes and um
and lots of seafood as well including
the omega-3 fatty acids and and what I
try to do is sort of take away some of
the mystery look Mother Nature is very
clever and incredible she has gifted us
with so many healthy natural chemicals
that activate our body self defenses
that help us tame our metabolism and
allow and fight body fat uh uh so
they're in there so what are those what
are some of the favorite foods um well I
in my book I wanted to do something that
I know a lot of diet books don't and I
wanted to take people on a tour of the
plain old grocery store the way that I
go through it and point out take them on
a tour to point out the things that I
see as you go around go to the produce
section which is usually the first
section what am I seeing I'm seeing
Tomatoes I'm seeing brassa vegetables
I'm seeing the broccoli the kale I'm
seeing the bok choy the Baby Bach Choy
then I'm seeing the mushrooms and I'm
seeing the red onions and I talk about
all these things and try to provide a
little little bit of you know underneath
the hood give a little clue into what
how do we know it's good for you and one
of the things that I really do um that
you just pointed out Cynthia is I point
out the human evidence what is the
clinical study the lab stud is
interesting especially the scientists
but the human study is what people care
about and in the human study you always
have a dose an amount a frequency just
like any medicine which is food is
medicine so I I publish that around so
every food that I talk about or almost
every food I should talk about um the
doses so um you know what what's
interesting is like paars pears actually
have been able to reduce waste circumf
how does it do it by shrinking the
visceral fat that you know the the
harmful fat the gut fat it's kind of
like a baseball glove that's like
packing or squeezing your organs and in
a study that was done to show that you
can lose like two belt two inches around
your waist circumference by eating pears
how much do they give two mediumsized
pairs um before lunch for 12 weeks and
what they even tell you what kind of
pairs okay there were bartler Pairs and
alju pairs hey these are the things that
you see in the grocery store so I
literally take people to the produce
section then I go to the seafood section
um because this is a whole other podcast
probably like things that people are not
comfortable with fish and seafood you
know like I didn't goow around fish I
don't like fish look there are so many
incredible delicious amazing Seafoods to
enjoy and I'll come back to that with
mediteran that I actually spent a whole
chapter diving into things that you'd
recognize and a lot of seafood I'm
willing to bet you don't recognized like
the um Mitten crab or the um the mantis
shrimp these are things that you know
are out there I really want to punch
through the brick wall um and show you
that there's a there is a lot of stuff
that you haven't discovered yet when to
demystify that and tell you the dose of
that of that to eat as well and then of
course the Forbidden middle aisle I
wanted to people say you know what it's
time to grow up and get out of this like
you know this uh this elimination thing
don't even go to the middle aisle wrong
I call the my chapter's in in the book e
to be your D is called treasure hunt go
into the middle aisle with your bucket
your cart to a hunt for the treasures
that help your metabolism like navy
beans like lenos like extra virgin olive
oil like apple cider vinegar um there
like dried prun
like dried mushrooms and Chili Pepper
powder and turmeric I just all these
things that you know I'm trying to let
people know that this is every day
anybody can do this this is not mystery
and this isn't about elimination this is
actually encouragement to Dive Right In
and find the thing that fits you so what
fits me I always get asked this question
Dr Lee you know you write about food and
health you're a food is medicine
researcher how what diet are you on and
I tell people I'm not on a diet but I do
have a way that I eat in my way I call
mediterasian I'm Asian I grew up in a
Chinese family I had lots of Asian food
um I also spent a gap year in the
Mediterranean before I went to medical
school I I lived in Italy I lived in
Greece um and then after that I went to
China and I and what I was interested in
doing on those Gap years is to study
food culture and health and so to me
what's really wonderful is that there is
a beautiful way that these natural
ingredients whether you know the
chemical names or not have been
incorporated into into recipes and
they're easy to find on the internet um
they're many of them are traditional
your grandmother and her grandmother
were making these Foods okay natural
fresh local seasonal all that stuff that
you hear about that sounds trendy and
cooking them and sharing them and eating
them that contain fiber they may be
fermented they have these polyphenols in
ways that everyone can enjoy and Savor
without wolfing your food down and you
know I mean if you went to a traditional
um uh household uh eating like in Italy
or Greece and and and somebody watched
you w wolfing food done and hit you with
a spoon because you're not supposed to
eat that way right like and and I think
that this is really what I talk about
mediteran is going back to the basics
becoming reconnected with the traditions
of some of the healthiest cuisines in
the world and and and appreciating the
fact that these are delicious foods that
you can really love your food to love
your metabolism and to love your health
all at the same time that's what my book
is about hi there if you enjoyed
watching this video I know you'll love
the next one stay here and check it out
and I'll see you there