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alcohol is a perfect example of one you
know you often hear that the blue zones
all except for Lolinda they all have a
little tiny amount of alcohol on a
regular basis now can we infer that
alcohol is good or is that that
population can handle it because the
rest of their lifestyle is organized we
don't know yet right unless if you know
well I mean I'll tell you I I have I
have something to say about alcohol uh
because I get ask this all the time Dr
Lee red Wine's good for you right well
now now I just read that red wine that
the wine all Wine's bad for you all and
what I basically say when it comes to
alcohol because it's it's it's a it's a
it's a triggering and somewhat
controversial uh point it is true that
many epidemiological Studies have shown
that you know drinking a glass or two
very moderate red wine is associated
with some beneficial out Health outcomes
lower risk of some diseases but I will
tell you that in no study no research is
alcohol ethanol okay the stuff that's
underlying you know your whiskey your
beer uh uh your your wine it's the
alcohol is not actually good for you
alcohol is a toxin actually it's a it's
a um and and so a little bit though as
you say if you're mostly healthy and
your health defenses and your metabolism
is very resilient human body is amazing
there's no such thing as a super food
it's a Super Body um and even if we we
slug down a glass of wine or sip a glass
of wine or have a drink or two um our
body will will bounce back it's only
again continuous abuse of that system
that let you break down our engine but
alcohol is something very specific and
here's how I explain
it as long as humans have been growing
grain they've been fermenting it and
creating alcohol alcohol is part of
human tradition we celebrate main events
of our life with it you know births
deaths you know holidays it's all part
of it's all alcohol is part of human
society I don't think we should demon
alcohol I think that you know it we
should just recognize as part of it's
part of the traditions of human human
tradition but we should know that uh in
no case is the ethanol actually good for
you it's just something that we we do
all right um but that you know and
that's why we should actually think
about it as a tradition rather than as a
health food and I think that allows us
to actually um accommodate it uh in
moderation uh in ways that are actually
going to be uh allowable
if that's your preference to celebrate
you know uh a wedding with a glass of
champagne like there's no shame to it
that's a human tradition we're all human
uh Embrace that part of who we are and
that's I think the thing that I I try to
that's my contribution in the Health and
Wellness Community I try to use science
but I also try to be reasonable and I
try to recognize who we are as humans
the Nuance right that's where everything
is heading towards not all answer for
everybody we're going to sweep it under
the table you know everybody's got to do
the same thing and generally speaking if
you have all these other components
whether it's alcohol or diet soda that's
occasional here and there it's not going
to make a difference right you're going
to bounce back there's plenty of other
crazier things that people do in life so
this goes back to the 10 principles that
you talk about in the book and that you
close off the book with and I'm just
going to pick a few we're not going to
run through them all you know pick up
the copy pick up a copy of the book Link
in the show notes you can go through
them I'm going to pick a couple of these
that you know we can talk about here
um the first one that I want to do is I
want to pick something called drink the
Trinity so what what is that what does
that mean and what is the Trinity well
in my book in a part about food I take
people on I take my reader on a tour
through the grocery store including to
the beverage section and literally the
way I do this is actually I invite you
to jump into my shopping cart like you
would have when you were a kid and your
mom shop you get pushed through and I
kind of narrate all the things through
it so the beverage section of the
grocery store is a pretty confusing
section because it's in the middle AES
and there are Endless Sea of juices and
sodas and bottled waters that are there
and so I try to bring a little bit of
clarity to you know what are the three
beverages that are um unquestionably
healthy for you there's no real
controversy of them all right because
other drinks like juices and sodas lots
of controversy lots of data but the
three things I call the Holy Trinity of
beverages um are water okay water
actually uh is critical for hydration
critical to maintain our health defenses
critical for our metabolism you need
water in the system okay uh and drinking
water is something that is very natural
and and important to us uh uh and when
again when you drink cool cool water you
activate these uh temperature gauges in
our stomach that are triggering our
metabolism to kind of warm up uh the
water in our stomach so we don't cool
our core body temperature so there's
even metabolic benefits uh to drinking
water water's also by satiating so when
you actually drink water with a meal
you're naturally stretching out your
stomach a little bit and rather than
actually having food in there that water
stretch actually basically slows down
your appetite slows down your hunger as
well which also helps contribute to
preventing you from overeating as well
so water is really good for you there's
no you know like it's it's a human right
to drink water you know we we have to
drink water it's really great footnote
to that and this is actually something
that I think really deserves um careful
uh research more careful researches you
know bottled water which is so commonly
consumed probably will have
microplastics in it almost certainly
does and you know even though the
research doesn't hasn't clearly nailed
what the harm of microplastics are I
would say it's probably not so good for
you we can find it like attached to a
red blood cell circulating our blood
that's that freaks me out actually you
think about that so if you can drink
water if you can if you can drink water
from a source other than bottled water
it's probably preferable yeah get a
filter at home get a filter at home I
there's a great quote that a friend said
years ago an acquaintance said years ago
he said either you get a filter or you
become the filter that's actually really
true and our kidney's going to be the
filter and our bloodstream is going to
become the fil filter yeah you don't you
don't want to be uh accumulating these
microplastics um but the water is really
really good beverage second is tea we
talked a little bit about green tea um
as being beneficial to you um and you
know tea is the second most popular
beverage in the world after drinking
water uh so we're talking about
something that a lot of people have a
lot of experience with but I but what I
point out in my book it's not just green
tea it's different kinds of green tea
matcha tea is actually good for you
ulong tea which is slightly fermented
green tea also has metabolic benefits
also has polyphenols and then for green
tea if you have matcha you know which
you find in a ceremonial tea you find in
a Japanese restaurant it's a bright
green tea it it's kind of opaque because
it's actually made with powder and it's
the entire Tea Leaf that's powdered a
lot of people don't realize this but
matcha is super packed with polyphenols
you know why matcha is grown in a very
particular way 28 days before they pick
the the the the Tea Leaf from to make
matcha they put it under shade they put
they they basically cover it with a
canopy and and the shade is there so the
tea in response to the Tea Leaf Tea
plant in response to shade actually
wants to make more polyphenols so they
make anywhere from 30 to 300 times more
polyphenols under the shade all right
and then what happens when you pick the
leaf you cut off the stem and then they
powder they dry and powder the entire
leaf and so that's why you have so much
more polyphenol it's like a stress
response to not having first is a stress
respon in a plant but then you get more
rather than having a tea bag or loose
tea leaves you actually powder the
entire Leaf so you're getting the entire
Leaf including all the polyphenol so you
drink all the polyphenols which is why
you get 30 to 300 times more than just
dunking a tea bag you also get the
dietary fiber good for your gut
microbiome so matcha tea actually is
quite amazing actually done a study to
show that that that matcha tea extracts
can kill breast cancer stem cells wow
I'm I'm always amazed by that because
look as somebody who's been involved
with biotech development um and cancer
treatment development finding something
that could kill stem cells cancer stem
cells like breast cancer stem cells
which is what makes cancers come back is
a Holy Grail we don't have a drug for it
but here matcha tea actually you been
shown in the lab to actually be able to
do that to me is actually really
jaw-dropping then going down into even
more fermented tea because traditionally
again you know this idea that in our
Wellness Community we wind up having all
these mantras um must drink green tea
and oxid ized fermented tea is no good
turns out that's not true the science
are showing the Oolong tea which is
slightly fermented also good for your
metabolism you can lose your waist you
can shrink your waist size your waist
circumferent loose body fat and then
even perhaps more surprising if you take
the extreme of fermented Smoky dark teas
there's a tea that I write about called
poer tea P apostrophe e RH one of your
favorites right one of mine as
well uh this is comes from a village of
Po that um back thousands of years
actually traded tea on the Silk Road so
they smoked the tea they fermented it so
would actually survive the tea journey
and it turns that research have been
done to show that PO te lights up your
brown fat burns up you know triggers
your fat excess fat burning by burning
the cells decreases your stem cells from
making more fat and whites uh fats
visceral fat as well quite remarkable
that this fermented tea that supposedly
you know fermented it's not can't be
good doesn't have any of the polyphenol
stuff wrong and on top of that they've
actually discovered just a few years ago
that there is this this tradition
thousand- year old tradition of making
po RT there's even a bacteria a
probiotic that actually is bacteria is
grown in the way that's fermented in
fact they call it
pillus uh like a basilis that actually
grows in pu tea so this is actually a a
probiotic tea which to me is remarkable
and not only it improve God Health it's
good for your mental abolism as well so
it fires up your brown fat so again you
know tea is the second part of the Holy
Trinity the third um which I always
drink and you asked me what did I want
if I you know I was coming in to do this
podcast with you and I requested a cup
of coffee coffee has chlorogenic acid
and many other polyphenols but the
chlorogenic acid not only boosts your
health defenses um but it also triggers
your metabolism uh and it stimulates
your metabolism from going as well a
little bit of caffeine which I'm able to
tolerate not everybody tolerate caffeine
um but I'm able to tolerate the caffeine
caffeine also uh stimulates not only
your kind of like your brain but also
stimulates your metabolism as well and
I'm not encouraging people to go after
caffeine I'm just saying that coffee is
one of the the the third of the Holy
Trinity coffee tea uh and water that
actually is really really healthy you
know the beautiful thing about the way
you present it is like puer one of my
favorite teas I drank it so much during
college yeah like I would drink it all
the time and then I had a little bit of
a gap and then I'm thinking recently I'm
like you know what it's probably been a
year or two since I've had it like when
you know the information it's another
reminder of like oh this thing that I
used to enjoy or that I've heard of or
that I heard somebody else having like
wow like that's exciting for me and you
include it back into your routine and
all this culminates together and it
really goes into this last principle
that you talk about in the 10 principles
which is live to eat right the joy of
searching out being a food Hunter
forager in our modern world and really
leaning into the idea of not being
fear-based around food but actually you
know I'll let you set it up you know
sometimes we hear this phrase like
people say oh do you eat to live or do
you live to eat and almost like live to
eat has a demeaning tone that people
give it in that capacity talk about how
you're representing it to the audience
yeah well in my book one of the things
that I really try to and I hope the
readers get this convey is that we don't
need to fear our food the the very foods
that taste great can be actually good
for us if we're mindful about how we eat
it and when we eat it and all that kind
of other stuff and and and to find good
combinations of it and that these are
connected to our old traditions and
that's really how I really became very
mindful of this idea of um living to eat
so I did a gap year before I went to
medical school to become a doctor um I I
was a biochemist in college and um I was
very
enamored by history and I was always
interested in the Mediterranean because
when I studied I took a very influential
course called the Renaissance history of
man and that course fascinated me
because it was really talking about that
inflection point between the Dark Ages
the Middle Ages and the Renaissance sort
of the Enlightenment and all the
incredible Arts and Sciences and
literature explosion of culture that
occurred um uh during the Renaissance
right and I realized something that was
really amazing which is that at any
point like it didn't happen overnight it
wasn't like you know one day was in a
dark room it's called the Middle Ages
and then one day somebody clicked on the
light switch and oh it's a Renaissance
no this actually took place over
hundreds of years that this Evolution
actually occurred and and I realized
that there was something really valuable
about this idea of of growing to higher
light a stage of Enlightenment that
occurs over time I wanted to see where
this occurred which it happened to be in
the Mediterranean that I we were
studying in Italy and Greece so I really
wanted to get over this study it and
then I also realized that the food
traditions also as part of my study
changed dramatically between the Middle
Ages where people are just like you know
cooking you know those gigantic um you
know Bronto Burgers over a fire to
really beginning to um understand how
ingredients melded together you know the
the simmering and the cooking and the
stewing like these were not Medieval Age
you know you did have cavemen were doing
that but really sort of during the
middle age that's when the modern Asian
and Mediterranean uh actually cooking
techniques came into being so I wanted
to see this so before I went to medical
school I did a gap year and I went to
Italy I kind of embedded myself so to
speak and I was um uh I lived with a
family and I was there explicitly to
study the link between food and culture
and health I wanted to see what it was
like over there in Italy and Greece I
traveled all around Italy um uh and I
actually also did some cooking uh for
the families I was living with uh in
Greece I went to a monastery uh I I
literally volunteered to be a cook in
the monastery uh one day because the
Abbot announced that the the chef monk
was sick had the flu and they needed
volunteers and who knew how to cook and
so I raised my hand and off I went in
there we were stirring uh a ginormous
pot of beans with a canoe paddle
literally and cooking for the entire
Monastery this is like cooking Easter
feast and you know um and and to me that
experience burned into my brain while I
was living there that people really
enjoyed their food they knew about their
food they talked about their food they
looked forward to their food so you know
if you go to Mediterranean um anyone if
you knew have a friend in Italy or in
Greece and and and they took you out to
a meal or cooked a meal for you while
you sat down with your meal they would
be talking about their food Italians
talk about what they're eating as
they're eating it and they talk about
the season it is and how to prepare it
and different nuances about it people
are passionate about their food same
thing in Asia you know and you know I I
would imagine the same thing as in India
people take the time to prepare their
food and when they serve it that's what
people talk about they talk about their
food and and they really really relish
it and enjoy it and they look forward to
their next meal I think to me I learned
that was the antithesis is what I came
back to when I went to Medical school
where we were so rushed you know we were
so busy we didn't have time to eat and
so when you sat down it was really just
a pile in some sustenance and to get
through to get to the next thing and
that to me was um uh you know I I really
wanted to live to eat as opposed to Just
Eat to Live to Pile in some calories so
I can keep going I think I've I've
really lived my life that way and what I
hope for people who read my book is that
they're they'll they'll really they'll
really see from the way that I write
about food that it's something that I I
enjoy it's passionate and that it's
something that you can really look
forward to like when I was writing some
of the things uh that I wrote I actually
I wrote part of this book by the way in
the Mediterranean I went back I was
doing some research um in places um and
I finished I finished my book actually
in Greece I was on a Greek island um and
I went to a little writing cave and the
food that I would eat like I would write
about afterwards and it would make my
mouth water to write about the food I
just ate all over again so you know I
hope people I hope readers really get
this idea like please don't fear your
food you know um love your food and it's
just so amazing that we're so fortunate
actually to be able to you know benefit
from societies and histories and
cultures have actually figured out a lot
of stuff for us um uh and and now what's
cool is that science is bringing us
really to The Cutting Edge that
Forefront where we're begin to
understand why the things that taste so
great are actually so great