Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast, where Dr. Stephen Gundry shares his groundbreaking research from over 25 years of treating patients with diet and lifestyle changes alone. Dr. Gundry and other wellness experts offer inspiring stories, the latest scientific advancements, and practical tips to empower you to take control of your health and live a long, happy life.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now, you heard it time and time again. Eat whole grains, fruits, and veggies. We’ve been told for years that more plants equal better health. But what if, for a short time, cutting out plants could actually heal your gut, and in turn, your brain and your emotional health. Now, I know it sounds radical, but this is exactly the kind of protocol I design for patients who’ve tried everything. Anti-inflammatory diets, multiple doctor visits, prescription drugs, and still feel bloated, foggy, anxious, or inflamed. Today, I’m walking you through my short-term gut reset called the Chicken and the Sea Program. I introduced it in my book, The Gut Brain Paradox, and it’s really simple. It’s powerful. And if your gut’s out of balance, it may just change your life. Okay, so what is the Chicken and the Sea Program? Now, this is a six to eight week reset protocol, which I introduced in my latest book, The Gut Brain Paradox.
(01:29):
It temporarily removes all plants, yes, all, and focuses instead on clean, non-inflammatory, animal-based foods. Why? Because if your gut’s inflamed, I can guarantee you your brain is inflamed. So this reset is designed to, number one, starve harmful gut bacteria. Number two, reduce neuroinflammation. Number three, reset the immune system. Number four, give the gut lining time to heal. The purpose? Well, to improve your mood, your focus, your energy, and digestion. Okay, so what foods can you eat? Well, poultry. Any kind of pasture raised poultry. Think chicken, turkey, duck. Now, no eggs, because many of my patients are sensitive to eggs. Now, the good news about poultry is that we’re beginning to see pastured chicken more and more and more available. It’s even in Trader Joe’s. Now, word to the wise. Organic does not mean pasture. Most organic chickens are fed corn and soybean that just happens to be organic.
(02:51):
You’re much better off looking for the word pastured, where the chickens or the ducks or whatever have the chance to go out in fields and eat what they were designed to eat, which is bugs and grass. The second part of this is seafood. Wildcaught fish and shellfish. Now, these are rich in omega-3 fats. They’re easy to digest, and they’re free of plant lectins. The most important part of these two foods that bears repeating over and over again is that poultry and fish have a sugar molecule that is identical to the sugar molecule in us that lines our gut, lines our blood vessels, lines our blood-brain barrier, and lines our joints. And that sugar molecule is called Nu5 capital A. Little C. Why is that such a big deal? Sadly, beef, lamb, pork, and dairy products have a different sugar molecule called Nu5 capital GC. These molecules are virtually identical, yet Nu5GC promotes a very vigorous immune response in us when we eat it.
(04:11):
Sadly, because these two molecules are virtually identical, Nu5GC can be substituted for Nu5AC. In the lining of our gut, our blood vessels, our blood-brain barrier, and our joints. And because we make antibodies to it, we attack the lining of our gut, our joints, our blood-brain barrier, and our blood vessel barrier. So getting rid of these other carnivore options is one of the really fundamental principles of this program. Now, here’s the good news. Even though dairy contains Nu5GC, if you ferment dairy, if you ferment goat or sheep milk, kefirs, yogurts, aged hard cheeses like pecorino, Romano, Parmesan, Guillerre, Nu5GC is eaten by the bacteria. So there isn’t any new 5GC in these foods, and they’re part of the program. Now, here’s something that’s really gonna surprise you. On this program, you’re going to only use perilla oil. P-E-R-I-L-L-A. Perilla oil is the number one oil of Korea and most of China.
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It’s made from the perilla plant, which you know as a choleus plant. And if you don’t know what a choles plant is, Google it and it’ll be instantly recognizable. It’s a very multicolored leaf plant that many of us grow in our gardens or even as a house plant. Perilla oil blocks LPSs, little pieces of you know what, from getting through the wall of our gut. Now here’s what’ll shock you. During this time, you’re not gonna use any olive oil, no avocado oil, no coconut, and absolutely no other seed oils. You’re not gonna use ghee. You’re only gonna use perilla. That’s why you’re gonna use it. Here’s the bad news with these other oils, even my favorite olive oil. LPSs can travel on fats through the wall of our gut. The great news is perilla oil blocks them from traveling through the wall of our gut.
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This has been shown in experimental animals and it’s been shown in my patient population. It’s truly remarkable. And what about seasonings on this program? Well, get yourself high quality iodized sea salt, or there’s even now iodized Himalayan salt. And please enjoy as much of you want of dried herbs like rosemary, thyme, and oregano. All of the seaweeds are absolutely allowed and incredibly good for you. You can use citrus zests from lime or orange, but don’t use lemon. Lemon juice is out. Any of the other juices is out, but the zest adds brightness without lectin compounds. Also, the zest contains some really cool compounds like delimonine that really helps your liver repair itself and handle toxins. So why no plants at all? Well, as you know, plants contain lectins, oxalates, and many other plant defense compounds that can irritate and already damage gut lining. And sadly, when I see people with leaky gut, autoimmunity, or brain fog, removing these compounds temporarily allows the gut to rest and repair.
(07:53):
Now, this isn’t forever. It’s a strategic elimination to give the microbiome a clean slate. One of the things that has impressed me through the years, as some of my patients have tried the carnivore diet, where they eat mostly beef, is they definitely feel better, and their gut definitely feels better. But every one of them has increasing amounts of detectable inflammatory markers. And when I switch them from a traditional carnivore diet to a chicken in the sea program, they still felt great, but all those markers of inflammation result. And that’s why I know it works in my patient population. Well, how about water? Water is fine. Please try to get reverse osmosis filtered water or mineral-rich sparkling water. Now, hydration is crucial, especially without fiber. What about coffee? Drink your coffee black. No sweeteners, no cream. Now, I like people to add allulose. Yes, it will taste sweet.
(09:04):
But allulose has been shown to actually reduce blood sugar, and it probably improves gut diversity. Green tea, black pooer tea are polyphenol rich, and they’re usually gentle on the gut. Now, herbal teas are fine. Please stick to the clean labels. Peppermint tea in moderation and licorice tea in moderation can really help. But here’s something that shows up all the time in my gut sensitivity tests. A good third to a half of my patients react to ginger. So even though ginger tea is touted as stomach soothing gut healing, that’s the exact opposite of what I see in my patients. Now, how about Kefir and yogurt drinks? Please use the ones only from goat or sheet melt. How about low sugar kombucha? It’s available out there, but you gotta look for the raw ones, the plain ones, and free of flavorings. And also, please read the amount of residual sugars or added sugars because so many of the commercial kombuchas are just sugar bombs.
(10:19):
Okay. So how do you eat on this program? Well, the good news is there’s absolutely no calorie counting. There’s no weighing portions. You just eat until you’re full. Not stuff. The second part of this program is we’re gonna try for a 16 to 18 hour of not eating to allow your gut time to reset. So for instance, if you start eating at 10:00 AM, then you stop eating at 6:00 PM. That’ll give you an eight hour eating window. Why do we do this? Well, look at it this way. We know how important sleep is for your brain and anyone who’s tried to go without sleep for a long time pays the price. Why is sleep so important? Because your brain has to go through a period of rest and repair. Your brain has to go through a period of cleaning, and that’s what sleep does.
(11:19):
We also now know that the same thing has to happen in your gut. Digestion and absorbing food is incredibly hard work and is incredibly damaging to the wall of your gut. So if you keep pouring in food to digest and absorb throughout the day, there’s absolutely no downtime for the gut to undergo that repair cycle like your brain does. So the more we can compress that eating window within reason, the longer the time you have to repair the wall of your gut. And after all, we’re doing this because your gut wall is a disaster area and we need time to do the repairs. Also, prioritize sugar-free electrolytes to support hydration without plant foods. Well, as I mentioned, you might be asking, “Why not just do a carnivore diet?” And again, the reason is these foods, beef, lamb and pork, are loaded with the wrong sugar molecule new 5GC.
(12:27):
So this is not a carnivore diet. It’s a chicken and the sea diet. So what do you expect? This is not a long-term project. It’s targeted. It’s temporary. Now, what most people noticed almost right away is reduced bloating, fewer cravings, and clearer thinking, and usually a lot more energy within two to three weeks. There are a number of patient stories, and there’s even a woman who recently I interviewed, she was actually … I was on her podcast, and she was shocked. She had tried the carnivore diet, and although she lost some weight and really thought it was improving her, she really felt off, particularly the way her brain still worked. And she had heard about this. She had read my book, and she said, “What the heck? I’m gonna interview Dr. Gundry coming up. I’m gonna change over to this. ” And same thing happened to her.
(13:30):
Within two to three weeks, she noticed that that brain fog all of a sudden started clicking on all eight cylinders. And this was a woman who was using the carnivore diet and just getting rid of that Nu5GC in the carnivore diet and replacing it with Nu5AC, which is our sugar molecule, made all the difference for the world. Who needs this? Well, I personally feel it’s ideal for anyone with brain fog, with autoimmune flares, with IBS, or chronic bloating, mood swings, even if you think you’re eating healthy. If you have long haul fatigue post- COVID, this is one of the best ways to fix it. In fact, in my patient population, every one of my long COVID patients have leaky gut, and we should realize that viruses are incredibly good at causing leaky gut. And COVID in particular, a third of people who caught COVID, their symptoms were actually GI, whether it was nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and this is what we see in our long COVID patients.
(14:52):
And once we fix their leaky gut, it’s amazing what happens to this chronic fatigue and chronic brain fog. So it’s one of the fastest ways to quiet down this reactive gut brain access. All right, so what happens after six to eight weeks? Well, now what we do is slowly reintroduce one food at a time. Now, what I really recommend is you start with really well-cooked vegetables from the yes list and literally cook them to, uh, within an inch of their lives. Cook them so much that the best way to eat them is to blend them as a soup. Please, do not introduce raw kale salads right away. You’ll regret it. Keep a journal. So track how you feel 24 to 72 hours later after you introduce a food group. Are you getting bloating? What’s your energy like? What’s your skin doing? How’s your mood? So this is where the real insight happens.
(15:59):
You’ll actually learn which foods truly love you and love you back. Now, if you tried everything and still don’t feel right, maybe it’s time to take a step back. Strip it down. Let your gut heal. Let your brain reset. The Chicken of the Sea program isn’t flashy, but it really works. And sometimes the simplest changes leads to the biggest breakthroughs.
(16:27):
Okay. Today, I’m gonna discuss five supplements that may actually help you shed a few pounds, and you bet. I’ve included these in my own Gundry MD Healthy Weight Management Supplements. So number one, probiotics. We are finding more and more and more studies that show that certain probiotics, which are friendly bacteria are associated with slimmer individuals. And with each passing year, a lot of which I’ve documented in my upcoming book, Gut Check, we’re identifying certain probiotics that are available for consumption in certain foods, and I’ll just throw out one. Aged raw cheeses have a very interesting bacterium that is associated with, uh, keeping your appetite suppressed and a slimmer waistline, just to add one thing. But the real benefit of probiotics, as I’ve written about now in the last three books, is you want a set of bacteria in your gut that, uh, eat a lot of the calories that you eat and don’t send those calories onto you to be absorbed.
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On the contrary, there are obesogenic bacteria that not only take the calories you eat and pass them directly onto you, they actually send text messages to your brain to seek out the foods that they’re interested in, which quite frankly are simple sugars and saturated fats. So getting the right balance of bacteria that are actually going to eat the foods you eat and not pass it on to you and keeping the obesogenic bugs out of your life by reducing sugars or things that turn into sugar or saturated fats is gonna go a long way. And that’s why in many of my products, uh, I have probiotic bacteria that have been demonstrated to be the good guys and they’re in, for instance, Vital Reds and Power Blues and Essential Orange. They’re also in BioComplete three, just to name a few of them. Now that brings me to part two, and that is prebiotics.
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So probiotics friendly bacteria. Prebiotics are those compounds that friendly bacteria want to eat, and there are as diverse as prebiotic soluble fiber, and what’s really exciting is the new research that polyphhenols are actually some of the most important prebiotics that you can ingest. So we’re finding that probiotic bacteria need to be fed foods that they like to eat, and that’s where soluble fiber comes in, and that’s where polyphenols come in. Uh, we’ve known for years that polyphenols, uh, are very, very poorly absorbed, and so let’s just use an example like resveratrol in grapes. Uh, resveratrol is very, very poorly absorbed, but what we’ve learned in recent years is that reserveratrol is a very important compound for gut bacteria to eat, and those compounds that they produce are then absorbable by us. The other thing that’s really important, you’ll learn a lot more about this in Gut Check, the, the new book, is that just eating prebiotic fiber is not a guarantee that you’re going to produce probably the most important postbiotic there is butyrate.
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And butyrate is the holy grail of postbiotics of short chain fatty acids, and we could do an entire lecture on why butyrate is so important, but people who have gut bacteria that produce butyrate have better health, better weight, better, uh, less incentive to eat, and so this is all part and parcel to promoting weight loss. I think one of the most important studies that I’ve ever seen about effect of prebiotic fiber was the study done in China of, uh, volunteers going on either a seven or 14 day water fast, where all they had was water. However, one group was given 100 calories of prebiotic fiber. Now, those calories are not digestible by us. They’re eaten by gut bacteria. Interestingly, the group that got the prebiotic fiber, even a 14-day fast, they had absolutely no hunger, whereas the folks who just got water were, as you can imagine, rather ravenously hungry.
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Now, why is that? Well, we now know that if we give our gut bacteria the food they need, they literally send messages to our brain that says, “Hey, our needs are met. We’re good down there. You don’t need to go looking for anything else.” And that’s actually really exciting and explains in, in good way why as part of a weight loss regimen, supplementing with prebiotic fiber is, is so important. And that’s why I have PrebioThrive as my prebiotic fiber and why prebiotics are also in Biocomplete three because you gotta feed the good bugs what they wanna eat and they’ll tell you that they’re doing fine and you don’t have to go looking for more food. Another really cool substance is oleoethanomide. It’s better known as OEA. Now, OEA is a component of olive oil and it’s been shown that OEA actually has direct appetite suppressing qualities in your brain, and that’s why I actually include it in daily weight advantage.
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And studies have shown that when people are supplemented with OEA, that satiety, the feeling of feeling full rises. Now, interesting, the new magic injectable weight loss drugs, uh, actually operate on the same principle, and the appetite suppressing effect of these drugs is really the main mechanism of action, but OEA is <laugh> safer and natural. Number four, here’s something that’s kind of fun. Pine nut oil. Now, interestingly enough, Korean pine nut oil increases satiety hormones and affects prospective food intake. Now, everybody knows about pine nuts. It’s a part of pesto, but what most people don’t know is that the oil is a much more potent source of these compounds to produce a satiety. Now, where did this idea come about? Well, interesting fun fact in some places in the world, people routinely hunt squirrels for squirrel meat and eat a lot of squirrels. And it was observed that people who are squirrel eaters are thinner than similar, uh, people who don’t eat squirrels.
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And people wanted to know, well, what in the world would be in squirrel meat that would make you thinner? Lo and behold, the squirrels were eating pine nuts, and that’s actually how the idea that pine nuts had compounds that made you skinny came about. In one study, Korean pine nut oil showed that they act as an appetite suppressant in overweight women. And again, suppressing appetite is how these new, uh, miracle injectable weight loss drugs, uh, work, and I’ll have a little bit more to say about those in a minute. So this worked in overweight women. That’s why Korean pine nut oil is in daily weight advantage. Now, I mentioned how important butyrate is. So butyrate is number five on the list. Now, here’s the problem with butyrate. We know that butyrate is incredibly important for the health of the lining of your large intestine. These cells are called colonocytes.
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These cells that line your s- your large intestine are 90% dependent on butyrate for their energy. They do not get enough energy from blood supply, so it’s direct application of butyrate that increases their ability to survive and function, and increases their ability to not … To prevent leaky gut. And studies over and over again show the more butyrate that is in your large intestine, the healthier the wall of your gut is, and similarly, the less butyrate that’s in your lar- large intestine, the more abnormal cells develop in your large intestine. Now, you may have noticed on the news that, uh, we are seeing a major increase in colon cancers in younger individuals. And in fact, now the recommendations are to start colonoscopy at age 45 rather than 50 because of the alarming increase in colon cancer in younger individuals. And I propose to you, and it’s backed by science, that part of that alarming increase is that our diet is devoid of soluble fiber that feeds friendly bacteria that in turn makes butyrate.
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And it’s no surprise to me that we have more and more abnormal cells in our colon because your colon is not being fed properly. Now, sadly, as I’ve written about before, you could swallow all the butyrate in the world, and there are capsules. Unfortunately, it’s not going to get to where it needs to be. So one of the things I did with BioComplete three is nanoencapsulate butyrate, uh, butyric acid, so it’s delivered where it’s supposed to be. But the more you eat prebiotics, the more you eat precursors for butyrate in the form of other short chain fatty acids, like propionate, like acetate, acetic acid vinegar, fermented foods, the more butyrate you’re going to start making on your own, and it’s a winner for weight loss. Number six, berberine. Now, berberine has several sources. Uh, one of them is the in Barberry root. There are other Oregon grape root extracts that have berberine.
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It definitely is a cheaper alternative to some very trendy weight loss drugs. It has very interesting comparisons to a popular diabetic prescription drug. And so berberine is a polyphenol and as you know, polyphenols, among other things, act as important prebiotics for friendly bacteria. Now, the exciting thing about berberine is it has been shown to reduce blood sugar and insulin levels. It works among other things by activating an enzyme, which is called AMPK, that is really one of the master regulators of metabolism and body energy expenditure. So berberine is a really great substance to add to your armamentarium of supplements. It’s in several of my supplements, including metabolic advance, and that’s why it’s in there, because it has proven benefits. Number seven, chromium picolonate. Well, chromium, particularly chromium picolinate, uh, is one of the ways of regulating your glucose, which, uh, in turn regulates the traffic jam in your mitochondria.
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I devoted an entire book, The Energy Paradox, to the traffic jam that occurs in your mitochondria when you intake large amounts of simple sugars or large amounts of fructose, the sugar in fruit and in high fructose corn syrup. And it’s in almost all of our processed and ultra processed foods. This really creates a log jam in your mitochondria. And your mitochondria basically are like in rush hour trying to produce ATP the energy. So chromium picolonate is part of the process that breaks up that log jam. And there are studies that chromium picolonate also in itself is an appetite suppressant. And that’s why you’ll find it in several of my supplements, in- including metabolic advance. Uh, number eight. As you know, I’m a big fan of MCT oils and powders, particularly, uh, carbon eight MCT oil or powder. One of the beauties of MCT oil is that it is absorbed unlike any other fat that we eat or drink.
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It’s absorbed directly through the wall of the intestines and goes directly into our liver where it is made into ketones. Now, if you’ve read unlocking the ketocode, you know that the benefit of ketones is uncoupling your mitochondria. And it literally does a caloric bypass, instructing your mitochondria to number one, waste energy, but number two, to make more mitochondria called mitogenesis, to compensate for each individual mitochondria working less. The benefit of that is you get healthier, more myochondria, at the same time you actually protect the mitochondria from damage. So part of the reason MCT oil became a part of the ketogenic diet was you get a lot of the benefits of carbohydrate reduction from a ketogenic diet, but the MCT oil will let you generate ketones without reducing carbohydrates, and that’s part of unlocking the keto code. MCT oil is actually good for people who aren’t even on a ketogenic diet because of this ability to generate ketones, which again, is a signal to uncouple and protect mitochondria.
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Now, I have MCT oil in our MCT creamer, and I found with my patients that women in general, uh, do better with powdered MCT oil than with the liquid. And it’s, uh, in MCT creamer really for that purpose. Now, what makes MCT oil so great? Is it just all hype? Well, there’s a very famous Columbia University study that I wrote about in unlocking the keto code, where they took individuals, put them on the same diet. One group got olive oil as their oil. The other group got the exact same calories in terms of, uh, calories from fat as MCT oil. One group olive oil, which is good in its own right, one group MCT oil. After six weeks, the MCT oil group lost significant weight compared to the olive oil group. And the only difference, there was no difference in calories. The difference was just the MCT oil, which performed a caloric bypass on these patients.
(36:00):
So great addition. Uh, one of the interesting things, some of the healthiest, longest lived people in the world are the katavans in Pape New Guinea. And these people, about 60% of their diet is coconut, and coconut is a rich source of MCT. Now, here’s a fun one that you might not have ever heard of, but is well known, cis quadrangularis. This is a, a plant pri- primarily in Asia. It’s actually a, a family of grapes, and it contains a fat blocker that keeps fats from being absorbed, and it’s a known, particularly in Asia. The other fascinating thing about this compound is it suppresses the enzyme lipase that breaks fat down, so you can’t absorb them, and it also increases 5HTP, which is the precursor for serotonin. And we know that people who have higher serotonin levels actually are less hungry. In fact, there was an eight-week double-blind placebo-controlled trial on 67 individuals.
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They were requested by a dietary counselor to maintain their normal exercise and dietary routines. They were randomly divided into two groups, a placebo, 32 participants, and this group that got the CQR 300, 35 participants, and the placebo group got either corn starch or the group got the active ingredient. After eight weeks, participants in the placebo group had a whopping 1% decrease in body fat, oops, and the treatment group had an 8.9% decrease in weight and a 12.8% decrease in body fat. That’s pretty impressive, all from one ingredient. You might guess that it’s in one of my products called TriTrim, just for that purpose. Finally, Allulose. Allulose, as you probably know by now, is a true sugar, but it has no calories. But what’s exciting about Allulose, it was the first non-nutritive sweetener that has been recognized by the FDA as a prebiotic. And the exciting thing about allulose is that alulose, when added to your regimen, decreases blood sugar right off the bat, and several well-known health authors, uh, have talked about adding allulose to their coffee, as I do, to reduce the blood sugar rise that coffee does entail.
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Fun trick. There are now studies coming out that adding allulose to humans AIDS in weight loss because of its blood sugar lowering effect and acting as a prebiotic, which increased the society. So stay tuned. And as you may know, uh, I have alulose as a product at Gundry MD, and you’ll find that going forward, you will see allulose in a lot of my consumable products, uh, because I’m that high on allulose. Okay. Finally, let’s talk about this miracle prescription, uh, drug that’s sweeping the country, and it has multiple names, none of which I will mention. These drugs are GLP-1 agonists, and they basically work by profound suppression of appetite, uh, even to the point of nausea. But here’s the rub. There are not a lot of studies looking at weight loss and where the weight loss is coming from, but sadly, those studies that have been done, looking at percentage of weight loss from fat or muscle mass, at least one study showed that 44% of the weight loss came from the loss of muscle.
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And if you’ve listened to me or anyone else for that matter, losing muscle is the last thing you wanna do in weight loss. Why? Because muscle is what eats the calories that you eat. And sadly, in my practice, I have a number of patients who have been given these drugs by well-meaning physicians, I hope. To a person, they have lost weight, but to a person, their insulin levels have risen and their insulin resistance has gone up. Why? Because they’ve lost muscle mass. And thankfully, uh, all of my patients who see this on their blood tests have, uh, given up on these drugs. We also know from clinical studies that when people stop these drugs, they not only rebound back to their previous weight, but they overshoot. Believe me, these big pharma folks want you to be on a drug for life. That’s their guaranteed goal, and it looks like once you start these drugs, you may be on them for life.
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Uh, not a good idea. Finally, I found an article titled A Guide to Top Weight Loss Supplements. So I’ll summarize it very quickly. One is multivitamins. Well, I want you to look at my seven useless supplements video right here and enough of that. Protein powder. Now, protein powder is okay, but one of the reasons protein got such attention long ago with the Atkins diet is that whole protein, let’s say in … Well, let’s just choose a chicken breast. It takes considerable amount of energy and heat to break down this product into individual amino acids to be absorbed into your body. In fact, about 30, 35% of all the calories in a whole protein is lost. If you break down protein, whole protein, into a protein powder or protein isolates, you’ve predigested that protein for immediate absorption. So you’ve actually lost the weight loss benefit that you were going to get by eating that whole protein.
(43:25):
And that’s what I see in my patients. These protein powders unfortunately go direct. Now, I think that animal protein may not be the best way to get your protein. And if you’re going to eat protein, you also want fiber to slow the process down. That’s why in my proplant shakes, I have plant-based proteins, but I also have prebiotic fiber, so we mitigate those effects. So beware of protein powders. Now, one of the recommendations is magnesium, and I’m a big believer in magnesium. As a heart surgeon, we knew that most people were incredibly deficient in magnesium, and we actually had to give people IV magnesium for 48 hours, um, during and after heart surgery, to keep their magnesium levels up. Magnenesium really assists insulin in delivering sugar into your cells, in breaking down insulin resistance. So that actually is a good recommendation. Another good recommendation is B vitamins.
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Bee vitamins are called the energy vitamins for a reason, and that’s why in vital reds, primal plants, Power Blues, and Essential Orange, I give you a full day’s dose of all the B vitamins right in that delicious beverage. And that’s … I totally agree that B vitamins are one of the secrets for weight loss supplements. Finally, as you might have guessed by now, their final recommendation is fiber, but be careful. You want soluble fiber and you want soluble fiber that’s delivered with precursors for butyrate. So, you know, get out the vinegars, get out the kimchi, get out the unsweetened kefir, get out the unsweetened kombucha, and enjoy your fiber.
(45:39):
You know, I’m all about what goes in your body, but what about what’s around your body? Your lungs, your skin, your food, they’re all affected by what you clean with. And get this. Studies and real world reports show that simply removing a few of the worst offenders from your home can start improving your health in as little as three to seven days. I’m talking better breathing, fewer headaches, less irritation, and even improved hormone balance. So today, I wanna walk you through 10 common cleaning products that could be silently hurting your health, and what to use instead. These swaps are simple. They’re science backed, and yes, they actually work. Okay, number one, let’s start with bleach. Look, bleach works, no doubt about it, but it’s also considered a pesticide by the EPA. And even just breathing in the fumes, especially while you’re scrubbing your shower or doing laundry, can irritate your lungs and throat.
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There’s a study published in the British Medical Journal that looked at kids who lived in homes where bleach was used regularly, and it found something really concerning. Those kids had significantly higher rates of respiratory infections, things like the flu, bronchitis, tonsillitis, compared to kids in bleach-free home, and that’s just from passive exposure. So what do I recommend? Spray white vinegar first and wipe it down. Then spray hydrogen peroxide from a separate bottle, and let it sit for a minute or two before wiping again. And for laundry, skip the bleach. Use baking soda or oxygen powder to whiten your clothes naturally. Number two, next is synthetic fragrance. That one word fragrance on a label, that can represent thousands of different chemicals, and companies don’t have to tell you which ones. Many of these contain phhalates, which are known to disrupt hormones. They’ve been linked to fertility issues, developmental problems, and even changes in thyroid function.
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These compounds are in just about everything. Air fresheners, candles, laundry, detergent, dish soap, multi-purpose spray, the list goes on and on. So here’s what we do at my house. We go fragrance free wherever we can. And if we want a little scent, we’ll simmer some orange peels and cloves on the stove. Or we’ll use essential oils, the real kind, not the cheap synthetic stuff. Number three, laundry products, and I’m talking about the whole category. Detergent, softeners, dryer sheets, boosters, you name it. These often contain a cocktail of chemicals like benzyl acetate, which has been linked to pancreatic issues and diclorobenzine, a known respiratory irritant. The environmental working group has flagged many of these ingredients as potentially hazardous. And remember, these products go on your clothes, then those clothes touch your skin all day, every day. So here’s what I suggest. Use a fragrance-free detergent. Add white vinegar to the rinse cycle to soften close.
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And please replace dryer sheets with wool dryer balls. They work and they’re reusable. For tough stains, you can spot treat with baking soda paste or a little dish soap. That’s usually all you need. Number four, glass cleaners. Now, Windex is the big one here, and yes, it works, but it works because of ammonia. Ammonia evaporates quickly, which gives you that streak-free shine, but it’s also a strong lung irritant. The occupational safety and health administration, OSHA, considers ammonium hydroxide a high hazard chemical, especially for the eye skin and the respiratory system. Instead, just fill a spray bottle with half vinegar, half water. Add a drop of dish soap if you want a little extra cleaning power. Then use two microfiber cloths, one to clean, one to dry. It really is that easy. Number five, disinfecting wipes and multi-purpose sprays. Most of these contain quarterary ammonium compounds, also called quats.
(50:13):
And long-term exposure to quats has been linked to asthma, hormonal disruption, and in animal studies, even reduced fertility. One study published in reproductive toxicology found that mice exposed to quats at significantly impaired reproductive function, even at low doses. And the CDC now actually recommends soap and water as your first line of defense, not antibacterial wipes, just soap and water. So that’s what I do. Clean with soap and water first. Then, if you need to disinfect, spray white vinegar, wipe it, then spray hydrogen peroxide from a separate bottle, and let it sit again before wiping. Number six, drain cleaners. These are among the most dangerous things in your home. Most contain sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid, highly corrosive substances. According to the National Institutes of Health, ingesting drain cleaner, or even just getting it on your skin can cause severe burns, permanent tissue damage, and respiratory distress, and death.
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I can’t tell you as a heart and lung and esophageal surgeon, the number of people that I have had to treat for drain cleaner ingestion, even going so far as removing their swallowing tube because it was burned beyond recognition. So if you’ve got a clog, here’s a better way. Try a plunger or a drain snake first. If that doesn’t do the trick, pour in a half a cup of baking soda followed by a half a cup of vinegar. Let it bubble. It’s a lot of fun for 10 or 15 minutes, then flush with boiling water. That usually does it. Number seven, dish soap and dishwasher detergent. Dish soaps often contain sodium laurel sulfate, artificial dyes, and, yep, fragrance. But dishwasher detergent, even worse. Those pods are extremely alkaline. And according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, they’re a top cause of child poisoning in the US.
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So here’s what to do. Choose a fragrance-free dish soap. Check environmental working group ratings if you want to make sure it’s safe. And always keep those pods in a locked cabinet, far away from kids or pets. And rinse your dish as well, especially if you’re using conventional brands. You don’t want that residue building up. Number eight, anti-bacterial sprays. These were everywhere for a while, but oversanitizing can actually hurt your immune system. One ingredient, Tricosan, was banned by the FDA for use in hand soap because of its hormone disrupting effects and its role in antibiotic resistance. But here’s the thing. Similar compounds are still allowed in surface cleaners. So what do I do? Soap and water for daily cleaning. That’s it. If you need to disinfect, say after someone’s been sick or you’ve been prepping raw meat, just use hydrogen peroxide or vinegar. Again, keep them in separate bottles and use them one after the other, not together.
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Number nine. Oven cleaners like EasyOff. Phew, these are nasty. They contain methylene chloride, which is a suspected carcinogen and a neurotoxin. OSHA has listed it as a serious health hazard. And yet people spray it into their ovens, wipe it down, and then cook food in there. Instead, mix baking soda and water into a paste, spread it on the inside of your oven, let it sit overnight and wipe it off in the morning. That’s it. No fumes. No residue. Number 10, toilet bowl cleaners. Most are a mix of bleach, hydrochloric acid, artificial dyes, and fragrance. If you’ve ever walked into the bathroom after cleaning and your eyes started burning, that’s why. So here’s what I do. Sprinkle baking soda in the bowl. Add a little natural soap scrub with a toilet brush. And if you want it to smell fresh, add a drop or two of tea tree oil.
(54:25):
Works great. So that’s it. 10 swabs you can make today to reduce your toxic load and help your body function the way it’s meant to. You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Start with one thing. See how you feel and take another step. You just might notice clearer breathing, better sleep, calmer skin, fewer headaches. It all adds up.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
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.
