Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast, the weekly podcast where Dr. G gives you the tools you need to boost your health and live your healthiest life.
Dr. Gundry (00:13):
We all know that sugar is everywhere. But it’s not just in your typical desserts. It can be hiding in a ton of foods you eat every day. In this episode, I reveal how you can minimize sugar in your diet and you will see the difference in your gut and appearance almost immediately. Plus, I’ll share what the truth about meat products and the healthy meat alternatives that are actually dangerous.
(00:40):
All right, you heard me say it over and over again. But it bears repeating. Sugar is incredibly dangerous and even worse, it’s highly addictive. In fact, the average American eats 153 pounds of sugar every year, whether they know it or not. That’s a lot of sugar. Ready for another fun fact? You know this. Sugar is highly addictive and believe me. I know how hard it can be to kick a sugar addiction. I’m someone who could go through a two pound bag of peanut M&Ms in a single sitting. I know how addicting sugar can be. That’s why today I’m going to teach you how to kick your sugar addiction in just four easy steps. All right, step one, you got to know where sugar is hiding. These days, sugar is everywhere and it’s no wonder people are addicted. They don’t even know they’re consuming it. That’s why I recommend you memorize the different names that sugar can go by, such as brown rice syrup, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose, agave. These are all code words for sugar and it gets worse. Maple syrup, honey, all natural cane sugar. Somehow that’s different.
(02:20):
So next time you’re at the grocery store, make sure to check for those names on the label or better yet, if you’re looking at a label, you probably should put it back because a packaged food most likely is going to have sugar in one form or another well hidden on that label. All right, step two, here’s another label trick. Don’t look for sugar on the label. It’s purposely misleading. These label laws were changed by the federal government during the Reagan administration because the Department of Agriculture realized that their business is to protect agricultural products and make sure agricultural products were being consumed. So the amount of sugar on a label is well hidden. Now, recently the label laws were changed to put added sugar as a separate ingredient. But that’s not there to make you aware of how much sugar is added. That’s to distract you again. So don’t look at sugar. Don’t look at added sugar. Now, naturally, if you see a lot of sugar in both of those, run. But where it’s hiding is under total carbohydrates.
(03:53):
So look at total carbohydrates per serving size and serving sizes are getting smaller and smaller to fool you about how much sugar is actually in that package. Take total carbohydrates. The next line down is fiber. Fiber is indigestible. So it doesn’t count against carbohydrates. So you subtract the fiber from total carbohydrates. That number that you get is actually the grams of sugar in that serving size. Now, grams don’t mean a lot to people, particularly in the United States. So here’s the easy equation that I’ve talked about and written about. There are four grams of carbohydrate in one teaspoon of sugar. So take that number of total carbohydrates that you got. Divide it by four and that’ll show you the actual amount of sugar in that product serving that you’re eating and when you do that, you may never read a label again because it’s so shocking how much sugar is actually being consumed in this country and it’s all hidden in these packaged foods and read the label. Do the math. It’s quick and easy and when you do that, you’ll be shocked with how many things you’ll start putting back.
(05:29):
Step three, give fruit the boot. Believe it or not, most fruit contains incredibly high amounts of sugar and no, there’s no such thing as good for you or healthier sugar. Sugar is sugar and that goes for coconut sugar, brown sugar, agave. Sugar is sugar. Fructose is sugar and the problem with fructose, as we now know, is that fructose goes directly to your liver where it’s converted into fat, triglycerides, and it’s converted into uric acid. Now increasingly we’re realizing that uric acid, which most of us have heard of causes gout, uric acid causes high blood pressure. Uric acid causes kidney damage and increasingly we’re realizing that uric acid is a big culprit in producing diabetes and insulin resistance. Additionally, fructose in the form of fruit sugar or high fruit dose corn syrup is now the leading cause of fatty liver disease and we have an epidemic of fatty liver disease in this country, particularly in our kids.
(07:08):
Part of the problem has been that we now have fruit available to us 365 days a year and we inherited a system from grade apes that takes fruit sugar and converts it to fat because fruit used to be only available a few times a year even in the jungle and we have the ability to convert fruit sugar into fat. But now fruit has been raised for sugar content. I mean, it’s obvious. I mean, an apple today is the size of a grape fruit. An apple when I was growing up was the size of a crab apple now and even the names give it away, ambrosia apple, honey crisp apple. It’s pure sugar and they’ve been bred for this content. The safest fruits, believe it or not, are blackberries and raspberries followed by strawberries. Blueberries are down the line now because they’ve been bred for sugar content. If you want to have something in your hand that you can eat, a kiwi is actually the lowest fructose containing fruit and grapefruits are actually low in fructose. So those are your best options if you just have to have fruit. Pomegranates are an incredible option.
(08:43):
Number one, they’re hard to eat and they’re only available at certain times of the year, fall and early winter. So pomegranates are perfectly acceptable. Step four, don’t quit cold turkey. The key to maintaining any healthy lifestyle choice is to ease into them gradually. Keep track of your progress and always keep an end goal in mind. Deprivation is not the goal of any healthy lifestyle. It never works. So for instance, let’s suppose you’re used to putting two teaspoons of sugar in your coffee every morning. Well, you got two options. Drop down to one teaspoon. Believe it or not, in a week or so, it will be every bit of sweet as you remember and keep dropping back. Alternatively, choose one of the safe no calorie sweeteners. My personal favorite right now is allulose. Allulose is a true simple sugar. It was first discovered in figs. Allulose is readily available. Get the non-GMO variety. It actually is a prebiotic fiber in its own right. Monk fruit works well. Stevia works well. Try those as sugar substitutes. But remember, your tongue has no sugar receptors.
(10:23):
Your tongue has sweet receptors and the only things that were ever sweet way back when was fruit and fruit stimulates you to produce insulin. So when you use a non-caloric sweetener and you taste sweet, your brain is convinced that you are eating fruit and when sugar doesn’t arrive, your brain is convinced you’ve been cheated and you should go back and find some more. How do I know this? I was addicted to Diet Coke. I would have eight Diet Cokes a day. I always had a hand wrapped around a Diet Coke. If I could sterilize Diet Coke and have it in the operating room in surgery, I’d do it. But my brain didn’t understand why sugar was not arriving because my tongue tasted it and so just be careful of all these no sugar sweetened foods. They will fool your brain every time. All right, finally, dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is a great way to transfer into having a more healthy treat. But be careful. Even dark chocolate has a lot of sugar. My personal favorite and I have no relationship with them is Lily’s.
(12:00):
Lily’s uses stevia as their sweetener and they have a great 85% dark chocolate that virtually has no sugar in them and finally, avoid these non-sugar added drinks. Just because it says no sugar added or just because it says sweetened with stevia or sweetened with monk fruit, again, your brain doesn’t understand that that sweet taste wasn’t sugar and your brain will literally make you go looking for more of this stuff. Now I know how wonderful soda is. But over five years ago on YouTube, I introduced the concept of a healthy Coke using sparkling water, San Pellegrino or other Italian sparkling waters and balsamic vinegar and if you haven’t seen it, look it up. I was the originator of the healthy Coke recipe. You get all the benefits you’re looking for, the flavor you’re looking for. But you’re going to get the health benefits of balsamic vinegar, a prebiotic fiber, a polyphenol and there you go. So there’s ways around this sugar addiction. Don’t look at quitting sugar as a prescription, as a thing you are being made to avoid.
(13:44):
Look at it as a way of getting control of probably the most addictive substance in our diet and as any addict knows, giving up an addiction is difficult, but well worth it in the end. Let’s get rid of our sugar addiction.
(14:06):
Which are the healthiest meat products? Well simply put, absolutely zero. Now, I know this is controversial, especially in light of the high protein diets out there. But if you read my books or follow this podcast for long, you know I don’t make this stuff up to be the big bad food Grinch, robbing you of that big juicy steak for the fun of it. All my claims are science backed. You see, I’m always looking out for you and your health, even if it means telling you things you probably don’t want to hear, even if it means telling me things I probably don’t want to hear. The truth is animal protein is one of the larger drivers of insulin resistance, metabolic inflexibility and weight gain and if you don’t believe me, just check out my references in The Longevity Paradox, in The Energy Paradox, in Unlocking The Keto Code. These are huge, longterm human studies that back up these assertions. Now there’s multiple reasons and time will not permit a lot of them in detail. But let’s just run through a few.
(15:33):
Beef, lamb and pork contain a sugar molecule on the lining of their blood vessels called new 5GC. You and I, chicken and fish have a sugar molecule on our blood vessels called new 5AC. There’s only one molecule difference between the two. But it’s a profound difference. I first studied this molecule as a xeno heart transplant surgeon, taking a pig heart and transplanting it into a baboon. Because of that one dumb sugar molecule, if I take a pig heart and put it in a baboon, that pig heart will stop in about five hours from acute rejection because the baboon’s white blood cells attacked that sugar molecule in that pig heart. Now you may remember I’m pretty famous for getting around that system. I’ve had untreated pig hearts live for a month in baboons using my tricks. But that sugar molecule promotes an antigenic response.
(16:51):
So whenever we eat new 5G containing foods like a steak, like bacon, like lamb, we actually make an antibody to our own blood vessels and there is interesting reasoning that part of the reason that meat eaters have more coronary artery disease than non-meat eaters is because of new 5GC and an auto-antibody response against our own blood vessels. That’s number one. Number two, tumors are known to use new 5GC to cloak themselves so that they won’t be seen by the immune system. Now you already know we don’t manufacture new 5GC, which means that tumors in us had to acquire new 5GC from the foods we eat and that’s why there are a number of studies that show a correlation between red meat eating and increase cancer risk. Now, you’ve heard me say over and over again, correlation does not mean causation. But there’s enough of a reasoning behind this that it’s probably not your friend. Now, if you are going to eat meat, yes, even I eat meat, then abide by the following principles. First of all, shellfish and fish and chicken do not have new 5GC. They have new 5AC just like us.
(18:44):
But also keep in mind that animal protein, regardless of the animal, regardless of whether it was a fish or a chicken or beef, has a large amount of a protein and amino acid called methionine and there is strong evidence that methionine is one of the drivers of aging and it stimulates a receptor in us called mTOR, the mammalian target of rapamycin and there again is strong evidence that removing methionine from say a pig’s diet will allow that pig to live 50% longer than a pig who eats a methionine enriched diet, 50% longer by removing methionine and plant proteins have far less methionine than animal proteins. Okay, I don’t care. I still want my piece of chicken. I want my piece of fish. I want my beef. Like I always say, you are what you eat. But you are what the thing you’re eating ate. Now that means that a cow that was fed a diet of grains and corn, even if it was organic grains and corn, will be a giant lectin bomb, will be a giant inflammatory fat bomb because the corn and grain is now part of that meat.
(20:22):
Similarly, if you get a farm raised salmon or an organic farm raised salmon, it is fed organic corn and soybeans and rather than omega-3 fats than a salmon would give you from the wild, that salmon will actually give you inflammatory omega-6 fats because you’ve fed it omega-6 fats in the corn, grain and soybeans. So just the word organic doesn’t cut it. You got to have wild. Similarly with chicken, just because it says organic free range means absolutely nothing. You have to look for pasture raised poultry and quite frankly, there are now lectin light chickens. You can go to lectinlightchickens.com, Farmer Dan, we’ve had him on the podcast and get chickens that are not fed lectin containing foods. North Star also sells a soy corn free turkey. If you decided that you want new 5GC in your diet, then please look for grass fed, grass finished beef or bison or lamb. Now it’s very difficult to find true pastured, grass fed pork. It can be done. There are porks that are remarkably safe, particularly Iberico pork from Spain, sometimes called 5J.
(22:11):
This is prosciutto that has been fed acorns and if you’re actually in Spain or Portugal, you can actually buy hams and pork products that have been strictly fed acorns, which have an amazing omega-3 profile. Now, similarly, prosciutto, hams, prosciutto pigs are fed the rinds of Parmesan cheese as part of their diet. So prosciutto di parma is actually pretty doggone good for you and it’s regulated. Now just because something is labeled prosciutto, you got to look at the label and find out where it came from. American prosciutto is not raised the same way as prosciutto di parma. So look for that on the label. Most lamb from New Zealand is grass fed. About 80% of lamb from Australia is grass fed. Goats and sheep in general do not like eating grains. Goats love weeds. So goat products are actually one of your best choices. Are there other healthy meat alternatives? Yeah. Upton’s natural jackfruit corn, which is mycelia mushroom based, get the corn that doesn’t have any breading. My favorite, quite honestly is grounds. It tastes like ground turkey. It works like ground turkey. Make your tacos, your lettuce tacos, please, out of it.
(23:56):
Hillary’s root burger is great. Now please, please, please avoid fake meats like Beyond Beef and the Impossible Burger. These have glyphosate. They have soy. They have genetically engineered heme and the last thing you want is a processed plant food that’s made to look like a burger. It may be from plants. But it is processed nonetheless please stay away.
(24:31):
And in my opinion, traveling is just better if you’re feeling your best, whether you’re on the road for work or for pleasure. So let’s get right to it. First of all, I understand if you’re on the road a lot, eating in restaurants every night is a drag. So while I’ll briefly talk about restaurant strategy at the end of this video, today, I want to focus on snacks, lunches and other meals you can pack at home and eat on the go. First, snacks. Now, if you’ve been with me for a while, you know that one of my favorite snacks on the planet is nuts. They’re high in protein and healthy fat and they keep you full for a long time. But they can get boring, especially if you’re on the road for a while. So I like to mix them up a little by tossing them in herbs and spices. Try garlic and rosemary, paprika and salt or even a bit of cinnamon and vanilla stevia for a sweet tasting treat. But I understand that can get boring on its own. We all need options.
(25:33):
So if you have a refrigerator access on your trip or at least a well insulated lunch bag, consider making a batch of guacamole and bringing some celery, jicama sticks or Belgian endive for dipping. You can also stock your fridge with healthy cheeses like buffalo mozzarella. Costco sells them in individual vacuum packed servings. It’s really super convenient now or try some celery and jicama with almond butter instead. Another great snack option if you’re browsing the grocery store shelves are those little seaweed chips, basically just dehydrated seaweed with salt and seasonings. But read the label to make sure there aren’t any sneaky ingredients in with your healthy seaweed. Now, if you’re on the road a lot, I think it’s handy to get a big plastic container and fill it up with shelf stable pre-portioned snacks like seaweed chips, nuts, those single serving packets of almond butter, bittersweet chocolate or even jicama or coconut chips.
(26:37):
That way, if you’re on the road for hours at a time and you feel a little craving coming on, you know you’re taken care of and remember, if you aren’t prepared, those long trips are a great time to play around with intermittent fasting. It’s great for your health. It’s way better than stopping at a gas station for a bite and as long as you’re staying well hydrated, you’ll probably get used to it fairly quickly and start feeling great fast. If not, there’s always lunch. Now it’s easy enough to find a plant paradox friendly meal at most restaurants and like I said, I’ll talk about dining out at the end of this video. But if you want to pack a lunch on the go, there are a few things you can do to make sure your lunch is delicious and not a soggy mess at lunchtime. First, you know that plastic container you’re filling with snacks? Throw in some sea salt, some pepper, good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
(27:36):
That way, you can stop anywhere for salad greens and you’ll be able to dress your salad and top it with some nuts for extra crunch. Always handy, right? Now when it comes to packing a same day lunch, your possibilities are pretty darn limitless. Though, unless you’ve got access to high quality, lectin-free bread, traditional sandwiches are off the table. If you want something hot and don’t have access to a stove or microwave, I suggest heating up something like a stew or a soup until it’s piping hot, then transferring it into a thermos and sealing it tight. It’ll cool a little. But if you really heat your food up at the beginning of the day, it should stay until lunchtime and if you have access to a microwave but not a fridge, consider packing frozen soups and stews in glass jars. They’ll start to thaw throughout the day. Then just unscrew the jars and warm them up.
(28:34):
Now, if you’re more of a salad person, I suggest either packing your salad undressed and using that oil and vinegar I mentioned earlier or if you don’t have access to a fridge during the day and you want the convenience of a pre-dressed salad, ditch the delicate greens and make your meal with hardier ingredients like broccoli slaw, kale, chopped radishes and shaved asparagus. Not only will it make your salad a little more delicious and exciting because it’s not your average lettuce, you’ll avoid that end of the day soggy green thing too. But if you are someone who craves leafy greens, make your salad upside down. Put your dressing in the bottom of the container, followed by the heavy ingredients like animal protein, avocado and chopped veggies. Then put the greens at the very top. When you’re ready to eat, just invert the container onto a plate and you’ve got an instantly dressed salad and not a soggy green in sight. Bonus, if you’ve got refrigerator access and are packing multiple meals at a time, you can make a lot of salads this way at once.
(29:52):
I find that actually keep in five, six days in the fridge just like this. That’s not bad or you could also just make a meal of snacks, some nice goat cheese, a little prosciutto, plenty of leafy greens, maybe a fig or two. Think of it as a plant paradox cheese board. Now, if you’re staying in a hotel, first thing you should do is ask for a refrigerator. Most hotels have them though they may charge a small deposit. But that way, you can keep things like salads and sparkling water cool for when you’re hungry and you can stash coconut yogurt, hard boiled eggs and pre-chopped veggies inside when you want an easy breakfast or a snack and also if your room comes with a hot water heater, buy a pack of miso paste. You’ve got everything you need to make miso soup, which is fantastic any time of the day. They actually eat it for breakfast in Japan. But when you do need to go out and eat, first and foremost, check out the nice long video I made about doing the plant paradox at restaurants. It’s right here on this channel.
(31:05):
But also remember these simple tips. One, when in doubt, just get a salad with oil and vinegar. Most restaurants will have some version of it, even fast food places and diners. Just make sure to pick off the crotons and tomatoes and go ahead. Pay extra for that avocado. Your health is worth it. Check out the appetizers. I’ve been seeing lots of buffalo cauliflower, sauteed Brussels sprouts and fennel salads on menus, most of which are perfectly compliant. Skip the meat and make your dinner vegetarian. Salads, roast veggies, even a nice bake sweet potato with a little Parmesan are all delicious options and they’re great for you too. Plus, when you skip the meat, you can rest assured you’re not getting all the lectins that come from grain and corn fed animals. So you’re keeping your body safe too. Like I said, life’s too short to stay at home. But traveling for work or for fun should not be a reason to let your healthy habits slide. In fact, I think you’ll agree when you feel your best, those trips are even more enjoyable.
Heather Dubrow (32:25):
Hi everyone, it’s Heather Dubrow telling you to check out Heather Dubrow’s World on PodcastOne. Every week, we discuss the hippest, hottest news trends in health, wellness, parenting style and so much more, including all things Housewives and Botched. Download new episodes of Heather Dubrow’s World on Thursdays and Fridays on PodcastOne, Apple Podcast, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Dr. Gundry (32:53):
It’s time for the audience question. This question comes from Jane Pepst on YouTube. “Should I take my vitamins in the morning on an empty stomach or should I wait until I eat at noon or later in the afternoon?” Well, Jane, that’s a great question. Quite frankly, it really doesn’t make too much difference what time of day you want to take your vitamins with a couple of exceptions. Some women in particular react to B vitamins with an upset stomach, nausea, queasiness. Other people react to B vitamins when they take them at night by the B vitamins keeping them awake. Other than that, there’s really no right time or bad time to take vitamins. It’s your choice. They do not interrupt a fasting schedule. Great question. Now it’s time for the review of the week. This comes from Happy Pippa on Apple Podcast. “Dr. Gundry has guests from all aspects of health, not just dietary guest speakers. I have learned so much since I discovered his podcast three months ago.” Well, thanks. Happy Pippa.
(33:54):
We always try to give you good information that you can use to improve your health, to improve your mood, to improve your daily activities and we’ll keep bringing it to you. So thanks for writing in. Glad you liked it and please share your comments with us wherever you get your podcast and who knows? We might be talking to you next.
(34:16):
Thanks for joining me on this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcast and if you want to watch each episode of the Dr. Gundry Podcast, you could always find me on YouTube youtube.com/drgundry because I’m Dr. Gundry and I’m always looking out for you.
