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Language: en
first of all polyphenols are a research
term that describe hundreds of thousands
of natural chemicals that are other so
it's sort of a blanket term for many of
these natural chemicals that mother
nature put into food now these chemicals
I call them Mother Nature's Pharmacy not
with a pH Pharmacy but actually with an
f as in farm you see because these are
the things that farmers have been
growing part of our Agriculture and a
lot of plant-based Foods Now polyphenols
by themselves are pretty amazing if you
study what they can actually do they're
antioxidant they can activate epigenetic
changes that help our DNA perform better
you know and there's a lot of popular
information out there about polyphenols
and I'm telling you they're present in
many many different types of foods
including on all the ones we've talked
about so far but I will also tell you
that when it comes to food and health
and polyphenols it's not just about the
food and their polyphenols it's about
how our body responds to the polyphenols
that you would ingest so I'm going to
tell you I've done research looking at
how we stay healthy and it turns out
that our health is not just a passive
state of being but in fact the reason
we're healthy is the result of our own
body's hardwired Health defense systems
we got five of them angiogenesis Ango
blood vessels how our body grows our
circulation talked about how important
that is for longevity in our brain
number two stem cells regeneration we
regenerate all the time which is why
we're still around tomorrow is that we
regenerating ourselves today we talked
about stem cells growing our muscles
also really important polyphenols
activate that as well our gut microbiome
we touched on that earlier today as well
polyphenols actually help to groom the
healthy gut bacteria that represents
part of our ecosystem this ecosystem of
our gut bacteria controls our immunity
helps us lower inflammation helps our
metabolism and and our healthy gut
bacteria techs our brain as I mentioned
earlier to release social hormones and
so polyphenols that help our gut
microbiome our gut health are absolutely
critical polyphenols also are
antioxidant as I mentioned they protect
our DNA from damage that can happen now
most people say well why do I need to
worry about my DNA well because healthy
DNA is responsible for healthy you
healthy proteins healthy cells and
unhealthy DNA is mutation
and mutations are the reason the root
cause why we develop cancer and so
that's why you want to be careful and
why you care about it and if you don't
fix your DNA repel the incoming missiles
that are trying to develop damage your
DNA from the environment you actually
wind up actually being at a greater risk
for being mutated and we're not talking
about the X-Men we're talking about the
average cancer patient that's out there
nobody wants to be that person and if
you are someone who's dealt with cancer
you don't want to get it again and so
this is really why polyphenols can be
important for DNA and by the way one
other thing polyphenols slow down the
fuse that involves DNA that burn down on
the end of our cells so you know it's
like the mission impossible Strike A
Match Light the fuse the fuse starts
burning down well that's really our
lifespan as our DNA starts to wear down
and burn down our life gets shorter and
our cellular health or longevity gets
shorter and shorter so polyphenols slow
the burn and in some cases make the fuse
longer again which is cular longevity
and that counts as well and the fifth
thing that polyphenols do and it's part
of our health defenses is they light up
our immune defenses and who hasn't
thought about immunity over the last few
years we know that you know a good
immune system protects us from the
common cold and other viruses that might
be out there but I think it's really
profound to know that our normal healthy
immune system protects us against cancer
because we're forming these little
microscopic cancer in our body all the
time and the reason they never grow up
is that our immune system will take them
out our immune system normally is like
functions like a cop on a beet
patrolling through the blood vessels our
circulation you know the Alleyways and
neighborhoods the highways of our body
and our immune system when they actually
find and spot a microscopic cancer do
what a cop would do they take a bad guy
and throw it into the Patty wagon and
take him away and that's basically why a
good strong immunity is so important on
a day-to-day basis to avert catastrophic
disease and polyphenols can actually do
that as well so you ask a very simple
question why do I care about polyphenols
and I'm saying that look polyphenols
activate our health defenses and when
our health defenses are activated we
stay healthier longer and are able to
repel disease and speaking of our immune
functions and speaking of gut health I
know that one of the things that's
really important for our gut is fiber as
you alluded to a few minutes ago and it
seems like based on the dietary patterns
that you're talking about and
recommending these plant heavy diets are
going to contain a lot of fiber
naturally if you could explain like why
high fiber diets are so important for
people and maybe some potential dangers
that can happen if people don't eat
enough
fiber okay so I'm going to give you a
very authentic perspective on this I'm a
medical doctor an MD and when I went to
medical school I was is taught by my
professors that dietary fiber is good to
eat because it actually helps you they
call it roughage and it actually when
you actually get it down into your colon
it kind of scrapes along your colon and
you know and keeps your bowels moving so
you're regular and you don't get
constipated and people used to say well
if your poop doesn't move and it just
sits there like a toxic dump that's
actually what causes colon cancer well
this is you know years ago when I was in
medical school the entire textbook has
ripped up and thrown out and a new way
of thinking about dietary fiber is that
this fiber so when we eat something with
dietary fiber let me give you an example
it could be a Celery Stock but I'll tell
you something that doesn't seem very FIY
which is a pear pear doesn't seem like
it has a lot of fiber but it's got six
grams of dietary fiber a lot of dietary
fiber and when we eat a pair we're
absorbing our you know sort of an upper
gut all the polyphenols and the vitamins
and all these great bioactives and then
what the trickle down is to the lower
part of our gut is the dietary fiber
right that's the quote ruffage now what
we don't absorb goes down the pike of
our gut to feed our bacteria so the
ruffage we eat the dietary fiber
actually is the food that we feed our
gut microbiome now if you got a pet if
you got a dog a cat parakeet goldfish
you are almost certainly conscientious
in feeding your pets every sing single
day and you know many people think about
you know what's the best food I should
be feeding them because you care about
them and they pay you back right with
affection and you know help lower stress
well this is the same thing of our gut
bacteria if we mindfully feed our pet
gut bacteria that lives inside Us by the
way the number of human cells we are
made out of is about 40 trillion human
cells and the number of gut bacteria
that lives inside it is 39 trillion so
we're almost one to one with our
bacteria we got to feed those guys and
we provide them room and board which is
what we're feeding them and they pay us
back for that by
releasing these signals and hormones
that control our metabolism they help us
use glucose better so we have enough
energy and we don't develop pre-diabetes
and active diabetes they help us heal
our wounds faster so when we were cut or
we have surgery we heal up faster they
help us um control the amount of body
fat that we have I mean like you and I
sitting here we might not look like we
have a lot of extra body fat but
actually I'll tell you you don't have to
look big to have a lot of dangerous body
fat packed inside a thin frame they call
this you know lean obesity and there's
dangerous fat called visceral fat that
can be packed around your organs like a
baseball mitt holding your kidneys and
your heart and your liver that kind of
fat actually predates all all kinds of
chronic diseases and good healthy gut
fights that as well it's in addition to
all the things that that are good for
our mental health and wellness as well
so what I'm saying is that when we feed
our gut properly it pays us back with
all these benefits in all different
aspects of our health and when our gut
is unhealthy and damaged all right what
happens is that bad bacteria overgrow
good bacteria the bad bacteria don't
don't give us all those benefits and
then what happens happens is that all
those functions start to fall apart our
metabolism goes Haywire our blood sugars
rise we get pre-diabetes our wounds
don't heal as well our immune system
goes down and then mentally we start
getting more agitated as well you know
it's interesting dispos which is a
problem of our gut bacteria has been
connected to depression schizophrenia
even autism and so this connection
between our gut and our brain is so
profound that it really represents one
of the new next frontiers of medical
research and that's really why the
simple thing that everyone needs to know
about who's watching listening to this
is that you know if you have a cat and a
dog and you're feeding your cat and your
dog just remember you got got bacteria
too feed them well give them some
dietary fiber they will thank you for it
and you'll actually be healthier overall
and I know you've said that you don't
like to speak in absolutes in terms of
diet but it seems that you're big on
fiber you're big on vegetables and
there's a lot of information out there I
guess online where people are seeing
that it's super healthy to be fully
carnivore and you have your diet
composed of mostly red meat and that
vegetables are bad like what do you say
to people that believe that yeah look I
tell people I'm a scientist and the
interesting thing about science is that
it builds upon itself with evidence and
you look for new discoveries that help
us understand something better and
sometimes the new discoveries build on
the old discoveries and make you more
certain that something is a truth right
and of course there are lots of ideas
out there online and I think the issue
about diet and nutrition and philosophy
about food you know there is a true
science of nutrition and food is
medicine and then food and nutrition
also has sort of this very emotional
component to it psychological component
to it where it's almost like a religion
you know you believe in a god of
religion a belief a philosophy a school
of thought and either you're for or
you're against it well that's not how
science works and so I can only speak as
a scientist all the evidence that's
accumulated to date with real hard
scientific evidence have shown that
fruits and vegetables nuts and Grains
and seeds healthy oils Seafoods actually
overall are good for you okay you know
there's caveats of course but you know
you can always overdo things but overall
that's a healthy pattern listen I'm not
a you know you mentioned a carnivore
diet I'm not against red meat I'm
actually not a vegan I'm not a
vegetarian but I eat mostly vegetables I
would say I'm probably like an 80%
vegetarian I'm a very reasonable guy and
I actually enjoy food I enjoy the
tradition I'm kind of a foodie I'll eat
some meat every now and then but I
really don't think the evidence shows
that eating a mostly red meat diet is
good for you in fact I'll tell you it's
quite the opposite most of the evidence
is that if you eat heavy proteins red
meat high and saturated fats and then
you know you can even go to ke and other
sources where have a lot of butter and
all that kind of stuff all the evidence
shows that over the long haul that
dietary pattern does not pay off in good
health you might really enjoy that
ribeye you know finished off with some
melted butter all right but I can tell
you that if you do that every single day
for year after year your body will pay
for that so I think more of a concept of
understanding where the body of Health
lies being practicing moderation and you
know what if you really like to eat
something this is the kind of doctor I
am I'm not about absolutes talk to me
tell me what it is that that really
matters to you I'm okay kind of coaching
you a little bit on like okay you can
have a little bit of that but just make
sure that you don't have too much of it
spend more time thinking about the good
stuff and there'll be less room for the
things that aren't so good for you and
you can treat yourself occasionally I'm
I'm okay with that