Welcome back to the Dr. Gundry podcast. Today I’m waving my imaginary magic wand to share the changes I believe could have the biggest impact on transforming the health of our nation and our world. You know, America is facing unprecedented health challenges from soaring rates of autoimmune disease to obesity, brain disorders, and fatigue. Over my decades in medicine, I’ve found the root cause our gut. Now I want to share how bold structural changes rooted in microbiome science could get us back on track. Now, this is not theory. These are 10 real policy and cultural shifts that could completely transform health outcomes in this country and the world. So let’s talk about those 10 transformative changes that I’d like to make. Number one, require microbiome education for medical professionals. I wanna require every medical education program to include gut microbiome science, how it drives disease, immune responses, and brain health.
Most doctors today receive zero training in this essential system. Plus, we need to require in medical education that students should understand that bacteria are not necessarily bad and that our job is to kill them off. Number two, ban pharmaceutical advertising from television like they do in Europe and all other countries in the world except for New Zealand. Number three, prohibit glyphosate, diquat residues in consumer foods. Now both of these compounds impair gut barrier integrity and they promote inflammation. We need to enforce stricter tolerances or bans to protect public gut health, and we should fund research for non-toxic weed killers. We have to make consumers aware by labeling whether the products they’re buying are free from these pesticides and herbicides. Next, support antibiotic-free animal farming. Now unfortunately, the overuse of antibiotics in livestock disrupts the human microbiome. Like I’ve always said, not only are you what you eat, you are what the thing you’re eating ate.
So giving antibiotics to animals to make them grow faster and fatter, those antibiotics are incorporated into their flesh. And even though we’re told that it is illegal to give antibiotics, for instance, to chickens, China to this date, refuses to buy American poultry products because they’ve submitted data that 60% of the antibiotic free poultry that they buy from the United States has antibiotic residue and this is tolerated and shoved under the table and it’s got to stop. How do we do that? We simply shift subsidies towards sustainable pasture raised grass fed, grass finished regenerative farming that avoids routine antibiotics. Next, we need to ban all junk foods, hyper processed foods from food assistance programs. Instead, we need to fund access to foods rich in prebiotics, polyphenols and resistant starches like artichokes, olives, yams, leafy greens, which are proven to support gut flora and reduce inflammation. Next, we need to support the establishment of community gardens, especially in inner cities.
What do I mean by this? The government provides empty, unused lots for community gardens. The government provides water seeds, plants for people in these communities to grow their own food, and if they grow more than they can use or their family can use, whatever is left over, they can sell and they get to keep the money. Next, we absolutely have to revolutionize the standard health check that doctors perform on Americans on at least a yearly basis. Sadly, I still train residents in family medicine who are about to graduate to become practicing physicians, and we are teaching them the wrong things to look for right now. We look for cholesterol levels, we look for electrolytes. We may look for liver function and we may look for kidney function, but most physicians are not taught to look for vitamin D levels. None of my residents have ever been told to check a fasting insulin.
No one has ever been taught to look for insulin resistance, uric acid levels and magnesium levels are not part of a standard screening and so on. Finally, if we really want to change long-term health, we should require not only leaky gut screenings, but microbiome stool screenings to know what in fact is happening in the most important organ in our body, the gut. Next, we need to promote food as medicine in public health programs. We need to integrate gut healing diets into federally funded nutrition programs targeted at diabetes autoimmune diseases, cognitive decline, including plant paradox style guidelines. We need to redo the food pyramid to do this, and we need to reform foods in institutions like our schools, like our institutions that provide chronic care for the elderly. We need to design institutional meals or beverages in schools, hospitals, the military to prioritize microbiome supporting nutrients like polyphenols and prebiotics, not sugar and refined grades.
We can provide incentives for companies to start producing meals with organic non-processed foods. And finally, we need to have a public awareness campaign that all disease begins in the gut. We need to launch nationwide campaigns to educate the public that most chronic diseases from arthritis to Alzheimer’s originate with the gut microbiome and leaky gut and can usually be prevented through lifestyle changes. We could recruit celebrities to do this, just like the milk campaign doing this will reeducate America about what’s really important for our health rather than what we see on commercials on TV for pharmaceutical drugs. Five foods that you should always have in your kitchen. I know life can get pretty busy and a busy schedule can often lead to very poor food choices. That’s why I always keep these five essentials in stock. And you should too. First of all, always have some dark bitter greens and lectin-free vegetables in your refrigerator.
One of my favorite sayings is more bitter, more better. Interestingly enough, almost all long lived societies have preferred very bitter greens in their diet. Whether they’re dark green leaves like arugula or Swiss charred or bok choy or radicchio, which many people call that Italian red lettuce, but is actually part of the chicory family. There are some great varieties of broccoli that are extremely bitter like broccoli rabe or broccoli rabe, and you can find it usually right next to the broccoli in most grocery stores. Now, more bitter, more better. The bitterness is a sign that there are lots of polyphenols in these products and get used to that bitterness. Seek it out. The bitterness is what you’re looking for. Also, one of my favorite sayings is, if you eat dark green, you will become lean. Why? Because these polyphenols will uncouple your mitochondria. And we now know that the polyphenols in these dark bitter vegetables feed friendly bacteria that polyphenols are some of the favorite prebiotics that bacteria need.
And the bacteria in turn will turn these polyphenols into absorbable compounds that will uncouple your mitochondria. So it’s always a great idea to keep these dark, bitter vegetables in your refrigerator. And the great news is a number of these, if you buy them whole and please buy them whole will keep for very long time at cool temperatures. In fact, one of the reasons that traditional cultures eat cabbages, which are also quite bitter, is the cabbages will store literally forever through an entire winter. So any think of storage able leaves like cabbages, like radicchio, like bok choy, those are the ones that’ll keep in your refrigerator and they’ll be ready at a moment’s notice when you come home and need something to eat. Second is certain nuts should always be available to you in your pantry. Nuts are a great way to get healthy fats and to help you feel full.
Now, pistachios are one of my favorite, and pistachios are the highest source of melatonin in a food that you can get. And melatonin is not the sleep hormone. People who’ve read unlocking the keto code know that melatonin is actually the essential antioxidant in your mitochondria that protect your mitochondria from damage. Melatonin is an incredibly important protector of your brain. Mitochondria. So some pistachios, macadamia nuts. Now be careful with macadamia nuts. They’re mostly monounsaturated fat. They also have a very cool Omega seven fat that’s really good for blood vessel health and omega five fat. That’s good for blood vessel health. But if you’re trying to maintain or lose weight, watch out from macadamia nuts. Uh, walnuts, walnuts have a are a great source of a short chain Omega-3 fat called alpha linolenic acid. That is one of the best health promoters for uncoupling mitochondria that I’ve ever found.
Study after study, particularly the Predimed study in Spain, showed that adding about a half a couple walnuts to your diet dramatically improved memory in people 65 years of age or older. So my mix at my offices that every patient eats while they’re waiting to see me is walnuts, macadamia nuts and pistachios. Those are the top three, but there are others. Hazelnuts are great peay nuts. Many people think it may be the healthiest nut in the world. Check out episode 2 32 with Jason Thomas, the Peay Hunter, and see what we’re talking about. Now they’re great pre-party appetizers. This is the season where we’re always awash in parties and there are so many temptations. The problem is you’re gonna succumb to those temptations if you arrive hungry and if there’s a drink in your hand. So what I do to prepare, and I actually did this last night, is I have a generous handful of my Gundry nut mix before we head to the party.
I’m satiated. The alcohol’s not gonna be absorbed very quickly ’cause my stomach is full. And then I’m not that interested in what is on the appetizer platters. There are some great nut butter alternatives. Uh, as many of you know, peanut butter is not a nut. Peanut butter is comes from peanut, which is a legume. They’re loaded with lectins. The vast majority of us are sensitive to the peanut lectin. Almond butter is an okay alternative, but almonds have a lectin in their peel. There are several companies that now make peeled almond butter, and that’s a go-to for many of my patients. But there are other, uh, alibi, more expensive butters. Pistachio nut butter is great. Hazelnut butter is great. Peeling nut butter is great. Uh, tahini not from a nut from sesame seeds. It’s great too if you’re looking for kind of that similar mouth feel as peanut butter.
So get yourself some new spreads. Ditch the peanut butter and please, if you’re gonna use almond butter, get the peeled almond butter that you can find in stores or on Amazon. Avocados. You gotta have avocados in your house because if there’s avocados in your house, there’ll be an avocado in your mouth. You should have an avocado every day. Studies have shown that people who eat a avocado every day lose weight compared to people who don’t eat avocados. Studies have shown that avocados in a salad or mixed in with vegetables make you absorb more of the vitamins and nutrients and polyphenols in those food than if you didn’t have the avocado. It’s loaded with mono and saturated healthy fats like oleic acid, which is the major, uh, fat in olive oil loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin K, and the B vitamins. There’s more potassium in an avocado than a banana.
So if your doctor told you to get potassium from bananas, ditch the bananas and eat the avocado instead. Should you use avocado oil and ditch the avocados? Well, while avocado oil is a good high smoke cooking oil, it doesn’t have near the polyphenol content of olive oil. So eat your avocado because it’ll also get you all that wonderful fiber that your gut bacteria need. Guacamole have some guacamole in the refrigerator. There are a number of companies that now make guacamole without tomatoes, which is not supposed to be in a in guacamole or use those avocados when they’re starting to get really ripe and make your own guacamole and use like Belgian endive as your dipping chip for guacamole and you’ll get a win-win. Alright, MCT oil, it ought to be in all of our pantries. MCT oil, as you know, is medium chain triglyceride oil.
You’re gonna get all the benefits of a ketogenic diet by using MCT oil without the hassle because MCT oil is rapidly absorbed through the wall of your gut, goes directly to your liver and makes ketones regardless of what else you are eating. So you don’t have to go through the trouble of eating a very high fat diet or a low carbohydrate diet or even doing long-term fasting. To get the benefits of MCT oil, you should also have extra virgin organic olive oil and please buy it in small glass containers because once you open olive oil, it will start to go bad and you should look to use up this olive oil very quickly. That’s why as you know, my Gundry MD polyphenol rich olive oil is, is sold in small bottles so that you will use it up and it won’t go ransom. Sesame seed oil, get yourself some uns smoked uncooked sesame seed oil, non roasted sesame seed oil.
We now have it available at Gundry md. It’s sourced from our same providers in Morocco that our olive oil is. It’s another great addition to your diet and put it in salad dressings, pour it on vegetables. It’ll add a great taste and it’s loaded with fighters against these LPSs that get into your bloodstream and cause high blood pressure. Finally, dark chocolate. Have a collection of greater than 72% dark chocolate in your cabinet. Chocolate is loaded with polyphenols. Again, the higher the cacao content, the better it is for you. Have yourself one square a day. It’s perfect for dessert whether you want it or not. Look for Stevia sweetened chocolate like Lilly’s Costco now carries a big bag of Stevia sweetened chocolate chips by a company called Bake Believe. There are on the market allulose sweetened chocolate. Uh, I’ll mention one. Uh, I have no relationship with Gatsby Chocolate is sweetened with Allulose and you can find it on Amazon.
Check out my most recent episode all about the amazing benefits of chocolate to learn more. Now, recently, there’s a new study making the rounds and this comes around every few years that there are levels of lead and levels of cadium in chocolate. And somehow this is exciting. New news folks. We’ve known that there is lead and cadium and chocolate ever since these levels have been measured. Do not let this fearmongering dissuade you from the benefits that you will derive by eating dark chocolate. Study after study after study of people who have dark chocolate cacao in their diets show improved brain health, improved heart health, improved vest vessel health. So please don’t, don’t see this latest news about lead and cam dium and chocolate dissuade you from having chocolate in your kitchen and enjoying it every night.
I spent decades in the operating room and I can tell you some of the so-called health foods are anything, but there are a few foods I won’t touch and you might want to rethink them too. Number one, low fat diets. Let’s start with one of the biggest nutrition mistakes in recent history. Low fat diets. Back in the 1970s, fat became the enemy and suddenly everything in the store was labeled fat free or light yogurt, cookies, margarine salad dressings, all low in fat, but loaded with sugar and starch. The origin of this myth, a scientist named Hansel Keys, he published the famous seven countries study, but he cherry picked only the countries that fit his theory, that fat caused heart disease. So we all cut out fat and what happened? Obesity skyrocketed, diabetes sword and heart disease. It didn’t go away. It actually got worse. Today I eat a high fat, low sugar plant heavy diet.
I pour extra virgin olive oil on everything I eat, avocados, nuts, coconut oil, and I never touch anything labeled low fat or fat free. If the front says low fat, flip it over the back probably says added sugar. Number two, diet sodas. I used to drink diet sodas every single day, even in the operating room, zero calories. I thought it was a smart choice, but I was wrong. Artificial sweeteners like a Spartan and sucralose trick your brain and harm your gut bacteria. Studies show they can lead to glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, the very things you are trying to avoid. Plus, they are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, which numbs your taste buds. Real foods stops tasting sweet and you crave even more sweetness. So what do I drink instead? Sand Pellegrino my Coke recipe. Sand Pellegrino with one or two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.
It’s my fake Coke recipe that made the internet rounds, tastes like what I was used to, but has all the benefits of a sparkling water loaded with sulfur, which you want, and the polyphenol content of balsamic vinegar. Number three, whole grains. Now, grains like wheat, Ryan barley all contain gluten. And gluten is a lectin. Lectins are plant proteins that can damage your gut lining, causing leaky gut and confuse your immune system. Okay, so what about quinoa? The ink has ate it, but they didn’t just boil it and eat it. They soaked it, they let it rot, they fermented it, and then they cooked it because they knew quinoa was toxic, less properly prepared. And unfortunately, that direction is not on the package label. They knew how to detoxify a particularly bad grain. We unfortunately don’t. Now my advice, if you’re going to eat quinoa pressure, cook it to destroy most of the lectins, or better yet, skip it entirely and eat naturally lectin-free grains like millet or sorghum.
These don’t have a haul and are lectin free, and quite frankly, they taste great. Number four, US cow dairy. Now first of all, cow’s milk is designed to fatten up and grow a baby calf quickly, and it’s loaded with a substance that does that. It’s called insulin like growth factor IGF one. Now, IGF one promotes rapid growth, and that’s the last thing we want in our children or as adults. Our children are not baby cows and neither are you. Now, secondly, most American dairy comes from a Holstein cow. That’s that black and white cow. These cows make a protein in their milk that’s called casein A one. KC A one is a lectin like protein that’s been linked to leaky gut, pancreatic damage, autoimmune responses, and set funny feeling that many of us get when we drink milk. So what do you eat instead? So I’ll use a two milk cheeses, especially those that come from France, Italy, and Switzerland.
For instance, true age Parmesan re gano from Italy is one of my top picks. Now the good news is that goat, sheep and buff milk products like kefi yogurts and cheeses are all rich in MCTs and easier on the gut because they contain Cain A two. The good kind of Cain. Number five coffee creamer. I know it’s a staple in a lot of kitchens, but most coffee creamers are toxic to your gut. Yes, I used coffee mate, yes, even the ones that say sugar free. So what’s in them? Emulsifiers that damage the gut wall. A lot of them are loaded with pea protein, a common irritant for sensitive individuals. And omega six oils like corn oil, safflower oil, cotton seed oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, even so-called healthy options aren’t safe. Almond creamers are often made with whole almonds plus the skins, which unfortunately contain lectins and they’re often loaded with sugar oat milk creamers.
Now most oats in the US are sprayed with glyphosate, even most of the organic brands. They also test positive for a banned herbicide linked to birth defects. So if you’re using oat creamer, you’re getting two toxic chemicals in every cup. So what do I recommend? Look for MCT based creamers made with coconut milk or blanched almonds, or even hazelnut or pistachio milks. For instance, Gundry MD makes an MCT creamer other good options for a sigmatic or brands with monk fruit, stevia or allulose, or skip the creamer and sprinkle cinnamon in your grounds or on top of your coffee.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry Podcast. If you did, please share this with family and friends. You never know how one of these health tips can completely transform someone’s life when you take the time to share it with them. There’s also the Dr. Gundry Podcast YouTube channel, where we have tens of thousands of free health insights that can help you and your loved ones live a long, vital life. Let’s do this together.
