Habits and Hustle - Episode 123: Dr. Melina Jampolis – Internist and Board Certified Physician Nutrition Specialist

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

Dr. Melina Jampolis is an Internist and Board Certified Physician Nutrition Specialist. She’s been a practicing doctor in the nutrition field for over 20 years and is here to squash myths and break fads. Listen in as Jen gets a scientific, medical check on intermittent fasting, fruit, nuts, diets, cardio, and so much more. If you’re skeptical about all you hear in the health and fitness world and are tired of the constant conflicting information Dr. Melina can clear some of that up for you. Don’t miss it. Youtube Link to This Episode  Dr. Melina’s Instagram Dr. Melina’s Website ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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San Antonio, Texas. I got this Tony Robbins you're listening to Habits in Hustle, fresh it. Alright, so today what happens in Hustle, we have, this is a special episode because I have a friend of mine just who, she so happens to be one of the smartest ladies I know. She is a medical doctor who specializes in nutrition. And interestingly enough, there aren't many in the country who do that. There are like several, you said a few hundred of them, which is so surprising, you would think that that would be something that kind of correlates, especially now with how nutrition is becoming much more well-known as something that helps with disease and so on. So what does that mean? Like how many are you? Like how many?

Yeah, I mean, at last count, it was less than 300 that were board certified. So that means that you've taken a test to really establish that you're an expert in all aspects of nutrition. But it's one of the biggest tragedies. And I have been lobbying in this country for actually the last decade to introduce more physician, nutrition education in medical school.

Because nutrition plays a role in every single disease in the body. There is a nutrition component, whether it's prevention, treatment, management, optimizing health with any condition. And so it really is, it's a major tragedy that this is not more front and center in medical education and also medical practice. And sadly, a lot of it has just has to do with that doctors aren't trained.

And so then they don't do it. And then insurance companies don't cover it. And it's like this vicious cycle. But I believe it's contributing tremendously to the morbidity. So diseases that people are getting in this country. I mean, we know that 88% of pre-diabetics can be reversed with lifestyle changes,

including diet and exercise. 88%. I mean, diabetes is costing us billions of dollars. So this is the fact that it's not more important in the medical community is really, you know, it's a tragedy. I'm maybe with COVID, things will change because I think there has been more of an emphasis on the concept of food as medicine and that lifestyle really can play a role, but it's going to be a long road to get, you know, more physicians really involved in this and educated so that they can, you

know, oversee teams. I mean, that's what it is. The physician may, I have a very unique practice. I love sitting and talking to patients every single day about what they're eating, what their medical problems are. So I spend a lot of time one on one. It's not cost effective, but for me, it's emotionally effective.

And you know what, I learn something with every single patient that I see. There's some different variable that makes it interesting that I go back to the medical journals and try to figure stuff out from a nutrition standpoint. So I love it. I mean, I think it's the best specialty in medicine.

And it's on the forefront of prevention rather than treatment. So it's really flipping the paradigm of what doctors do to not just treat disease, but to act sooner and prevent it. I mean, that's that's that's so well said. And you are and it is a hundred percent true. I know we met because we did a TV show together many, many years ago we did Dr. Drew's life changers and what we were doing basically had a young girl

who was morbidly obese, right? It was 417 pounds at 15 years old. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And you went above and beyond to help her. And it was really nice to see. And so I know what you're when you say it's not a cost effect, because you care about your patients. You really take real pride in your work, and you really want to see a change. And so I mean, that's why I have such respect for you.

And I'm so happy that you're here. You've written now two books that were, the first book was called Spice Up Slim Down. I know you've written other ones, but you wrote now another one to kind of a revised version of it called Spice Up Live Long, which you talk about how spices can really enhance and help disease in cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's.

And I want to get into all of this because to your point, I think there's a lot of medical experts for pseudo medical experts who come out and talk about this the other, but you've done your homework. And I think this is a really, really good way to kind of educate people to help themselves. So let's start with just overall aging, right? Yeah, I mean, and that's how the book started. So I had written Spice Up, slim down five years ago, because I've been obsessed with the concept of polyphenols,

which is a plant-based component that is actually in our BLK water that we left so much. Yes, exactly. Exactly. That, and at the time, my practice, my practice has always been weight-focused, but then I end up focusing on a lot of the diseases associated with weight. So we call them cardiometabolic diseases. That's heart, that's diabetes, that's stroke, and it expands from there.

I see a lot of patients with autoimmune disease. Anyways, so I've been implementing the idea of food as medicine for two decades in my practice, in my medical practice. But the first book, focusing on slimming down, that was the hook. I mean, to be honest, I wanted people to read this book. And because spices aren't that sexy.

I mean, the spice girls were, but spices in your kid, you can't. Well, whatever. OK, now that's a good idea. That's a whole, that's a whole no joke. OK, I'm joking. I know.

So, you know, but the reality is, and I do a lot of speaking across the country on the topic of food is medicine. And one of the lectures that I did about five years ago was the secrets of aging gracefully. And just that there's because aging, I mean, look at us. I mean, we, did you, Iver, I'm 51 years old. I never in a million years thought that this would be me.

Like when I was young, 51 seemed old. Like I just remember people looking old, acting old, slowing down, and now I feel like age is just a state of mind. And but you do have to do the work with diet and exercise. And a few other things I talk about in the new book in terms of stress management and building community. And there's so many other aspects of it. But for me, it's not just about living longer. It's about living better. So I for me, it's not just about living longer, it's about living better. So I talk in the book, not just about your lifespan,

but also your health span. Because nobody wants to get to 90 or 100 and be drooling and slavering and not cognizant and a burden to their family. So what can we do to age gracefully, to look better, feel better, and prevent diseases that are traditionally associated with aging, and I think cancer and Alzheimer's

are two of the big ones that people fear the most. I mean, I certainly do. That's what I do too. It's the idea of your mind slowly disappearing. Like when I was in medical school, the patients in the psych ward that had lost their mind were some of the hardest to deal with because they just don't connect with reality.

And the idea of that happening, and then having to be around your family, it like that terrifies me. And then of course, cancer is just terrifying to everybody because it's so unknown and as advanced as we've gotten, there's still a lot that we can't do and cure. So that's why prevention is for me, the key. And the irony about the book is that I don't cook much.

So this is a caveat much. Yeah, much dot, dot, dot. Yeah, I'm very good at making reservation and defrosting things. But I just realized, for me, let's call me a lazy, untalented cook, and that's probably generous. One of our mutual friends actually wanted me to do a show with her, like, worst cooks in America,

where a real chef burns up. I was like calling her, I literally did not know how to boil an egg, like the duration of time and all that stuff, but that's a whole other story. That's a whole other story. But the idea that, so just in your spice cabinet, you could do tiny things that could have a huge impact on your health. And I'm a big believer in also not making people's lives more complicated and more difficult. I

don't think being healthy should be a full-time job that you're constantly obsessed with, right? So if I can just get people to put a little bit of a ragan on their eggs, or I put cinnamon in my coffee every morning, like really low-hanging fruit, but if you do that every day over years, and I talk about this in the new book, you really can increase your lifespan and your health span, which in my opinion is even more important. I don't only care when I go, I just want to be like ski racing and I want to look decent and I want to feel good

and I want to be able to have lively conversations with amazing people like you. Why? I appreciate that. That's what I think I think is very important. The quality is sometimes more important than the quantity. So let's get into some that you speak about in your new book about what are, like you said, a regano cinnamon. What are some other things that we can do to age better? And also, what are the doses? Because I know it's all accumulative, right? We do it a little bit every day, the consistency, it accumulates. But give us some other examples and what exactly it does.

Okay. So cinnamon, let's start with cinnamon. No, no, no, no, let me talk about spices in herbs overall first because I think that's one thing that is, and it trickles down to everything else. And I also, I'm going to kind of outline kind of what I feel aging gracefully in tails. So first of all, the wonderful thing about all spices is that they're very potent antioxidants and they can also help your body reduce inflammation. Why do we need antioxidants? As you age, first of all, you're naturally producing

in every time your muscle twitches, any utilization of oxygen in your body, which every system uses actually produces free radicals. So that's free radicals can damage cells, they can cause. We now know that a lot heart attacks don't happen because of the gradual accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries. It's actually an acute event which antioxidants and inflammation that acutely block off an artery. So all of these things are pro-oxidants, oxidative stress to the arteries, which actually causes loss of flexibility in that sort of thing in the arteries.

But, so, having an antioxidant rich diet, and I think it's even more important in modern times, for two reasons. A, because our soil quality has deteriorated so much over the last 50 years, that even if you ate the recommended whatever it is, 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, you may actually not be getting the nutrients that you need. And polyphenols are a big part of that story. But also we are constantly, we are exposed to oxidative stress more in our present day. So even from, you know, the environment, from pollution, from the water we drink, from the beverages that we drink, from the, you know, plastics that are leaching it from the environment, from pollution, from the water we drink, from the beverages that we drink,

from the plastics that are leaching it, from the cans, from the toxic food that we eat, like ultra-processed food, it causes oxidative stress. So we are really under attack almost all the time. So having an antioxidant rich diet and fruits and vegetables are a great way to do that. But and things like green tea and are, but you know, you can augment that with any herb or spice.

So that's number one, antioxidant to augment. And then that protects your cells from damage. So from, and that's, you know, some theories about the initiation of cancer is that it's oxidative stress, which causes damage to a cell or to DNA, and then it reproduces and goes over and over. So, the importance of that, and there's theories also about Alzheimer's, early stages of Alzheimer's being due to oxidative stress in the brain. So any way that we can augment our antioxidant status is useful.

And then inflammation. And I have been talking about inflammation. It's so funny because now it's more in the prime time. I am super popular in an ambulance. I've literally been lecturing on it for 15 years. I have been talking about inflammation. I can show you my lectures from 2007 where, but inflammation now we know really has head to toe, deleterious effects on the body. I mean, you know, every system,

your brain, your gut, your, you know, limbs, your nerves, I mean, every system in the body is in some way affected by this low grade chronic inflammation, not the acute inflammation that you use to fight infection. So spices and herbs have the potential to, they work, you know, biochemically to regulate inflammatory pathways. And so that, those two antioxidant and fighting inflammation is why really, you know, and I like to focus on all spices. Like everybody always wants me to narrow it down.

I don't want to say, yeah. Give me the few that are super powerful. Okay, well, I will give you some, so all spices and herbs, so you know, have what you like. But if I had to choose, first of all, everybody talks about turmeric. I mean, obviously that's a big one. The active ingredient, curcumin,

has like thousands of published studies about it. I think mostly, most importantly, when it comes to brain health. And it's interesting because when you look at the population of like Northern India, they eat a lot of curries and they have four times less Alzheimer's disease. So is that a direct evidence? But one of the theories is because they have so much more

curcumin in their diet that actually that reduces their risk of Alzheimer's disease. But turmeric also has actually been shown to be therapeutic in inflammatory bowel disease, so things like Crohn's disease and it may actually be beneficial. A lot of people including our mutual friend, Orion, are actually taking turmeric for their joints. So there's some research on that

and osteoarthritis, by the way, which unfortunately I have, is one of the really most debilitating diseases of aging. Like we don't think about it, but these people, arthritis becomes like a vicious cycle. So they can't exercise, they can't move, so they gain weight, and then our arthritis gets worse, and it's a vicious cycle. So they can't exercise, they can't move, so they gain weight, and then our arthritis gets worse, and it's a vicious cycle. So turmeric is definitely something that you should try to integrate as much as possible. I have a really hard time with

the flavor of it. Like I don't know what to do with it. Again, maybe that's just my, you know, cluelessness in the kitchen, but so, but you can get blends. You could get, that's what I think is so great. There's all these great spice companies online that are making spice blends that have turmeric in them. So, that's an easy way to amp up your diet. I think cayenne pepper is tremendous. There's actually one of the studies I talk about early in my book, but they looked at, it was a study done in China, 14,000 people over years

and years and years, and those with the spiciest diet had the like 16% decrease risk of dying from any cause, just from spices. So cayenne pepper is very interesting. It has the active ingredient capsaicin can actually give you a little bit of a metabolic boost, which is great because one of the things associated with aging that I see all the time in my practice is change in body composition. And I tell you may have the same weight, but how your weight is distributed is completely different.

So there's something called sarcopenia, which is age accelerated muscle loss of aging. So, avoiding that is very important. And then, avoiding the accumulation of what we call visceral adiposity. So, not the fact that you can pinch the fat that's deep in your abdominal cavity that is actually very inflammatory and has been associated with diabetes and heart disease and Alzheimer's disease and worse prognosis with different types of cancer. So body composition is really important as we age as well.

So cayenne pepper, I don't think that it's completely irrelevant to get a little bit of a metabolic boost. And cayenne, so easy, you get to be careful, because it's spicy. I did with my kids. I accidentally put a little too much in their abs and that didn't go well. But you could put that in can soup,

just put a pinch of cayenne. So that one's great. And contrary to what people think, it actually, there's some evidence that capsaicin can actually help ulcers heal. So people think of spicy food, oh, they're not supposed to eat spicy food when they have ulcers, but there's some evidence that the capsace

and actually activates cells in the gut that can help with healing of ulcers. So I think I'm a big fan of Capsacean, of chili pepper. And you can, if you don't like heat, if you don't like spicy food, you can get it from chili powder, which is great in chili recipes. You can get it from paprika.

There's a lot of related spices that I talk about in the book. So those are two. Cinnamon is easy. Everybody knows how to use it. Just get, I mean, I use it for everything. In baking and my coffee and this and that. I mean, you know, anything that I can integrate it, it's very, it's a very powerful

and accident. It's very good for blood sugar control, you know, a huge percentage of the population is pre-diabetic and two-thirds of them don't even know it. So I mean, don't think that just it's extraordinary. Healthcare in this country, that's a whole nother podcast, but it's been an exception. It's my next podcast. Oh, but, yeah.

You have interest in the state of healthcare. But so cinnamon is a tremendous one. You know, oregano, I love because it's, you know, I also like things that are easy to use. And oregano is great. It's good for the gut. I mean, it's hard and narrowed down. Rosemary is a phenomenal antioxidant, it's good.

You know, Napoleon actually used to bathe in baths of rosemary because his physician told him it was the key to longer life. So, and there's truth to that. So rosemary is, it's incredible for the skin. You know, it's a very potent antioxidant, can protect you from skin cancer, I mean, not better than sunscreen,

but as an adjunct, I wear sunscreen all the time and I still had a skin cancer. That's another thing with aging. I mean, most people over a certain age have skin cancer on some level. So, spices we know nutmeg actually activates proteins in the skin, in the dermal layer that actually help with repair and reversal of collagen loss so it may actually help you. I'm gonna write that back. I'm not bad because my new best friend is starting nutmeg where you add cinnamon. These sweet spices. That's what I like blends

Actually, you could just use pumpkin spice, which is a blend of nutmeg and cloves and, you know, cinnamon. So there's all these easy things that you can do with spices. Yeah. And that's what I like about this. It's very, you can integrate it super, super easy. Um, blazing deals, boundless options. It's hot grill, summer at Whole Foods Market from June 14th through July 4th. Fire up the grill with quality cuts at the best prices. We're talking animal welfare certified meat. Check out the sales on Bone In at the best prices. We're talking animal welfare certified meat. Check out the sales on Bone-In-Ribb, beef kabobs, and New York strip steak. Round out your barbecue with plant-based proteins, slice cheese, soft buns, and all the condiments.

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All episodes now streaming only on Hulu. Now okay, wait, because I want to just kind of ask you a couple questions, what you said. Number one, when you're saying all these spices, number one, is it better to do fresh if you can or is dry just as effective? Because some people say dry is even better. Yeah, that's a great question. The really there's benefits to both. So the fresh herbs are going to have more like vitamin C,

little things like that, and where as those get dried out. But in some cases, the dry herbs, you're right, are a more concentrated form of all of know, all of the powerful nutrients, the polyphenols that are so health promoting. So, you know, I really encourage people to go with what they like. It's also much more of a pain in the butt to use fresh herbs. Because like for me, and this is what, when I was working on the book,

I was trying to get this chef to help me, but because I love cilantro and guacamole, but I always buy a big bunch, and I only use half of it. And then I have no idea what to do with the other half. Which just sits in molds in my refrigerator or I buy fresh dill for eggs. That's great in eggs.

And then I use a few sprigs of it and then I have no idea what else to do and then it just goes bad. So I personally, except for cilantro and basil, I have a basil plant on my window that I'll just grab it, I'll throw it into like a turkey wrap or something instead of lettuce. I mean, those two I find fresh is obviously with cilantro, you have to get it fresh because coriander, which is actually the seed of the cilantro plant, doesn't have the same flavor profile. seed of the cilantro plant doesn't have the same flavor profile. So, so people are fine if they have the dry.

It's just as effective anyway. But that's a difference between herbs and spices. So, herb is a leaf and then spices are from every other part of the plant. The root, the seed, the fruit. So, the only time you can really, well, I guess, no, you can, like, you can get turmeric roots and ginger roots. I'm not that ugly. I do.

So I was buying for a long, long time. I was making myself ginger turmeric tea. Oh wow. Yeah, and I was buying the fresh turmeric. It made such a mess though, because it's staying. So terribly, my counters were staying, my clothes were staying, my fingers were staying. It was a nightmare.

And then someone said to me, why are you bothering? You can just do the same with the powder. It's just as effective. So I stopped doing it. But I assumed I'd be cut this afresh, the root would be better for you. Not necessarily. It would be more potent.

But it's not. No, actually, in the case of turmeric and ginger, both, I think the spice would be more potent for sure. So, and ginger is a really interesting one, too, by the way, because I know, you know, we think of ginger as being for nausea, you know, ginger ale when you were stomach, more morning sickness. I don't know if you had that or did anything, but ginger actually, a study showed, and this is actually like the idea of teas too.

And so I do it, but having ginger tea before a meal can actually make you fuller faster in that subsequent meal. So I'm a big fan of ginger tea. I think it's easier to drink. Actually, I found a ginger tumeric tea blend. So you're getting all the same active ingredients. And I probably should have

included T in the title of this because you really can get a lot of these things in T form as well, which, you know, again, makes it easier. I'm all about making people's life easier and healthier. Like every little thing really adds up. Absolutely. Again, it's all it's all being consistent and it's all accumulative. So wait, you said something. I also, I find I was curious about why is it that as we age, we do gain weight in our midsection and that becomes like the really hard area to fight. Is there? Well, with women, there's a hormonal reason.

So I say that I used to say this a lot. Like we have a shift from our fat, from the butt to the gut. And that is wonderful. It's all I need to hear. That's very much great. That's very real. That's very related to hormonal changes. So drops in estrogen and increase in testosterone can lead to insulin resistance, more fat accumulation

deep in your belly. But it's also related to the fact that people don't move as much when they age. So loss of muscle, whether it's excess or just, but people, you just don't do as much physical as you age. You don't push yourself as much. My patients who are my age, I'm like dropping down doing push-ups in the office and they're like, oh, yeah, my physical therapist said I should just use bands. And I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, that's really gonna build a lot of lean body mass.

No, I mean, it can, well, obviously, so changes in the muscle actually, and then inflammation. Inflammation is a big part of belly fat. So there's some things that we have under our control. You can control the amount of muscle that you preserve, you can control how much cardio you do to burn the visceral fat. It's very, the good thing about it is it's much more readily mobilized as a fuel source than fat

from your butt and legs. Unfortunately for me, because I would, I would have like stick legs, but I always get my stomach goes first and then, you know, I have to like starve myself to get to the bottom. You said a couple of things. Everyone, there's always this, there's a back and forth about cardio versus strength training, right? So strength training of course helps with building lean muscle mass, burden more calories overall, right?

Because of your building more muscle in your body, which then of course burns more calories throughout the day, week, whatever. But you're, are you saying, what do you think about that? What's your... There's not a controversy. Okay. The experts know what's right. Right. It's both. It's a combination. It's a combination. And I'll tell you, I actually, but I go to the obesity meeting every year, the obesity society has an annual meeting. And I learn, you know, I don't learn that much usually because I've been in this field for 21 years now, but I actually learned, so I had thought about straight training exactly like you.

Like over time, I mean, you know, your daily, your total energy expenditure, one of the components that you have the most control over is your lean body mass. So building or maintaining lean body mass is really key. So long term and weight loss, you know, it's strength training is as important. But cardio in the short term in terms of burning calories, you know, if my patients come to me and they say, you know, I'm, listen, I'm barely work out. I'm only going to do one or the other.

I would start with cardio, but the strength training has to come in and I believe like you do in building habits early on. But the other thing is there are actually some metabolic alterations within the muscle cell that I didn't realize. There's changes in genetic expression within the muscle cells with where they can actually

become less efficient at burning calories, which is a good thing because then it actually requires more calories. So it changes the type of muscle fibers can change. So straight training has some benefits. I think beyond what we perceive, just the sheer calorie burning of muscle, there's some very interesting new research coming out about the importance. And of course, you know. I the sheer calorie burning of muscle. There's some very interesting new research coming out

about the importance. And of course, you know, like body composition. Yeah, it's, but there's some, you know, and this is, you know, the other interesting thing that hopefully we'll have time to talk to is, you know, the genetic side of things. That's what I like to say. Yeah, to, right now,

because I think this is something that is very big and that genetics, so, yes, that's a great segue. Well, yeah, so one of the areas in nutrition that I'm most interested in lately is nutrient genetics. So this is really kind of the genetic component of how our bodies respond to food, to nutrients, and even actually to muscle building. It's, so I've been testing patients in my office

and the interesting thing about it is that it really helps explain why there's so, in my opinion, why there's so much confusion out there with nutrition research. Because let's say I want to do a study on vitamin D to see if it's effective in preventing X, okay? And unbeknownst to me, 30% of the people in the study have a defect in the vitamin D receptor from a genetic cause that they don't respond to the same dose of vitamin D like the other 70%. I could have a false negative that vitamin D doesn't work, but it's not because it's vitamin

D. It's because those 30% actually needed a higher dose of vitamin D to overcome the genetic defect and the receptor. So it's very interesting. You know, there was a big study that came out a couple of years ago that was very publicized out of Stanford called the Diet Fit Study. And the authors came to the, it was a huge study, millions of dollars funded by the NIH. And they said genetics doesn't work in dieting. But it was completely the wrong conclusion. First of all, I don't think it's ideal for weight loss.

I think there's some ways where it helps me with my patients, but I'm more interested on the nutrition side. And people that have, for example, it was very interesting. And even on the body composition side, I had a patient that was really working out hard in the gym, doing everything that I told him from a nutrition standpoint. And he just wasn't gaining muscle, like we both thought he should be. So after, and losing fat, by the way.

So after about six months, I decided to do this genetic test on him that looks at both different markers of both weight and nutrition and cardiometabolic disease and body composition. And he actually had a genetic defect. They've made it more difficult for him to accrue muscle in a SNIP.

It's called a single nucleotide, nucleotide, nucleotide, I get a SNIP, let's just go with SNIP. But it's a single nucleotide polymorphism. So he in his genetic code, he had, you know, a problem making so that common. No, it's not that common, but it's important to know. And so then that's somebody that like, maybe I would put be more aggressive with supplementation

on the workouts. Maybe we would do different. We also found that it was very interesting because he was following a vegetarian diet. For no other reason than he thought it was healthy, but he also had a genetic defect in this SNP involved with B12 is one of the vitamins that you can really only get from plant based, from animal based sources and fortified foods. So he was really eating in and he also had a third genetic variant, not defect actually. I'll call him variant. That's the more appropriate terminology.

He had a genetic variant that he needed a little bit, researchers showed that if he ate a little bit more protein, he would lose weight more effectively. So that's something he's on a vegetarian diet, which is generally lower in protein, unless you supplement. He was at the enzyme, you know, the variant where he wasn't absorbing B12, like he should, and where he wasn't building muscle. So that's somebody in my book that needs more protein. It needs to be concentrated pre and post workout in order to maximize muscle protein synthesis. So his genetics helped me change everything.

And so people, do I think that genetics is everything in terms of your fate? Absolutely not. I think lifestyle is 80% of the equation if not more, but for subtle things like that, genetics can really help. And that's where we're moving is towards precision nutrition, precision medicine, not taking the one size fits all approach. That's great to know. So is that a test then?

I've never heard of that. So if people need to have some self-awareness and like check themselves. And I, and in terms of if they really are doing the right things, like going, like working out appropriately and properly, eating the right foods. And if they're still not seeing any type of change, do you recommend them checking this test, like doing this test? Well, first of all, I could be something more of a Leo B store, or these people who are trying at a harder time. I think I've been doing weight management for 21 years now.

I think there's a lot of super-attentorial, which means it's above, it's in your head. There's a lot of that, of successful long-term weight loss. There is a huge psychological component. And the longer I've been in this field, the more convinced I am of that. And what is it? Tell us what the psychological component is. Everything. I mean, people eat for the wrong reasons. Right. Because they're happy. They're sad. They eat because they're emotional eating. They eat to relieve stress. They, you know, there's,

it's people in this country have a very unhealthy relationship with food. So, you know, I think, one thing I don't think is that you can just biohack yourself. I know you have a lot of those types of people on the show, but I really believe that there's a huge amount of data that needs to be considered on an individual level. So somebody can't just go do the test on themselves and try to figure out what's going to work for them. They really have to work with somebody who can factor in all the variables. And because genetics is hard, just because you have a genetic variant doesn't mean you will have the condition. There's a component of genetics called penetration,

the penetrance of genes, how clinically relevant they really are. And so we're not there yet in knowing everything about it. So, but the company that I work with, you could definitely, they're actually Canadian company, Nutri-Geno X, yeah, there you go. But finding a qualified healthcare practitioner to help you navigate that. But, and there is the specialty of obesity medicine

for people that are really struggling, it may be something, a lot of my patients who are pre-diabetic or who have Hashimoto's disease, autoimmune diseases, there's different things that I can do to help them. So, but I do think a lot of people's challenges is just staying on a diet. Whatever diet you choose, I can stay on it. And when you do too extreme, whatever extreme it is, it's much harder to stay on long term.

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Rules and restrictions may apply. Is it possible, like, you know how you, when you're working out, or you can, you can plateau because you're doing the same exercises over and over again, right? And your body doesn't change. Can you also food plateau? Like if you're eating the same foods day in, day out

without any variety, did your body get acclimated to that and then therefore not really kind of shift or change? Well so I'm not there there's the short answer is first of all you should have variety just to have a balanced nutrition. I mean it depends on what you're you can be be, like, I'm saying someone who's healthy, but yeah, like, you know, a couple of other doctors were, I think we were talking about this because, you know, you can, if you eat something too much, you end up having, you're not, you don't become allergic, but you can, your body can become, what is the word? You're a doctor. I'm not sure that that's actually been established scientific.

So that's not something that you think that happens. I think you're in the same thing over and over again. If you're trying to lose weight and you're doing that, yes, I do believe the body can become acclimated. But and and the thing that we are not just weighed on. I'm talking that they can plateau in the weight, but in general, like your body becomes so acclimated to the same foods, you're not giving it any variety. Is there any kind of downfall for that?

Not that I'm aware of medically. And frankly, most people eat a pretty narrow range of foods at the end of the day. Like, I know for me, I have almonds every day. I have the same protein, you know, the, whatever Hemp seed protein bar every morning for breakfast. I have a very narrow, and you know what? Honestly though, what the research does show is that having less choices is better. Yeah. Because I read a study once you have over, you make over 200 food and beverage related decisions

every single day. If you're somebody that doesn't know a lot about it or struggles with their weight, what are the odds that you're gonna make the right decision over 200 times? You, there, even, you know, people don't know as much as I do about, I mean, I've been doing this for 20 years. Well, I still don't make always the best decisions, you know?

I make it, I bring up this point because I've been eating the same breakfast every single day for probably like 20 years. And people give me a heart, not everyone, but people give me a hard time about it because I'm so regimented. I think that's great, because I'm glad to hear it, because I just don't wanna think about it.

I want to literally not think about what I'm eating for breakfast. I wanna have the same thing where my brain can focus on other things and not make those mistakes. I don't wanna like, veer to a pancake. Yeah, and I feel, but I know how I'm gonna feel. I know exactly how my blood sugar and energy level

is gonna respond. If I go, you know, it's amazing to me. If I go out for brunch or something like that and change things up in the morning, it screws up my entire entire day. It turns out, I'm the same way. And, you know, so, no,

there is no scientific reason why your body would adapt or become allergic. It's the, you know, food is broken down into basic nutrients. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more.

I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more. I'll And so I went to see an allergy specialist. And he said that now, this was years ago, that maybe, I was a, I had like, I wasn't allergic to it. Like, you know when you take those allergy tests

and tolerance. And tolerance, that's the word I was looking for. Thank you. That maybe it was because I was eating so many green beans and so many of this that my body has become intolerant. So that's why I was kind of like, it's a, I don't think so, but can that, that's where that whole, that's why that whole conversation is changing. No, you can have changes in food tolerance based on, and this is an area of medicine that

is more considered, you know, integrative, but you could have, for example, if you have inflammation that causes, you know, and I don't like to use the term leaky gut, but it's the easiest way of explaining it, because it's not really as, you know, it's a hot topic now too. Yeah, it's a hot topic. But so if you think about your gut, one of the things the role is kind of like a net, and it needs to keep all the bad things out, right? So inflammation can help kind of loosen the nut orake it is que so that you know different food

components could you know potentially be absorbed and trigger some sort of reaction like you're in it can manifest in the skin it can manifest in the gut it can manifest so you know but but with green be I mean I would think of that more with like proteins I mean that's what right is actually the protein in grain so it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Good. I think one of the things the more I have studied nutrition over the past 22 years, the more I know, the more I realize we don't know.

So, you know, I thought I knew everything 15 years ago. Now, I never say never. Could it be true? Absolutely. It could be true. Is there any evidence that I know of scientifically? No. Well, thank you. The problem is too much information. I mean, knowledge is power, I got it. But too much information becomes extremely confusing. So then let's start with the trends of diets. Especially when it's conflicting. Well, a lot of it is,

depending if you're following a social media influencer or this person, that person, you have to be cognizant of who your sources are, right? And just stay with those. Because to your point, when we, and I'm a big believer in this, no diet is going to work. If you kind of pepper, you pick a few things from this diet, you pick a few things from that diet, and you combine them all together,

nothing's going to work. But on that point, what do you think about intermittent fasting, about ketogenic diets? What is your take on those forms of diets? So I actually, the obesity meeting last year did an entire symposium on intermittent fasting and they presented all the latest data. And I think, and I've been interviewed on this a lot, I think intermittent fasting is legit.

I think it is, you know, first of all, it's been done for thousands of years and places all over the world, but from a health standpoint. So particularly for people who are pre-diabetic, it may have some unique benefits. The problem with intermittent fasting is that to do it correctly, the eating window needs to be 10 to 6. If you're doing the 16-8 fasting regimen where you eat for eight hours and then fast for 16, and there was actually a study presented at obesity week that if you move that window to 12 to 8 instead and you eat later, that actually it's worse for you. So one of the things that here's a sign for somebody who is not a nutrition expert really. If they say calories in, calories out and it's just that simple of an equation, then they don't actually

know the latest science because we know that calories later in the evening are actually metabolized differently. They have a different impact on your metabolism. So, and they count more. So, you know, it's saying it's as simple as calories in, but so the eating window for intermittent fasting, the correct one, that all the research has been done, showing the beneficial effects, particularly with pre-diabetes and heart disease, is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

So, I think that's a viable approach. It's just hard for people not to eat after six. I mean, people are bored. They're letting down. They're relaxing for the day. So my patients that are really trying to do that, they can have tea at night. This is where I bring in kind of the flavored teas,

that urbels, that's not gonna keep them awake. The ketogenic diet, I'm actually very good friends with one of the main guys, Steven Finney, I've known him for 20 years. He and Dr. Jeff Fulick are like the big keto guys. They've been doing this for over 20 years because I met him in a previous life when I was with a startup doing breath diagnostics

and we were looking at ketones in the breath through infrared spectroscopy. I'm doing that right now with a new company. Yeah, have you heard of this thing? You breathe into it and it tells you your metabolism. Yeah, it's different. That's different. But I have one of those machines in my office, by the way,

that measures resting metabolic rate through CO2. Yeah, anyways. So, no, do you like that machine? Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting. You have to do it correctly. I don't know which hand holder you're doing. It's probably not as accurate. But it's brand new. I'll start off afterwards. I'll report back on that once I

kind of become more of a me even on it. Perfect. With the ketogenic diet, listen, there is no question that it's effective for weight loss. There's really no question about it. My issue is, I don't think it's livable long-term, although people do, and there's healthier ways of doing it. My issue is a, I don't think it's livable long term, although people do, and there's healthier ways of doing it. And I also have very, very significant concerns about the long term impact 20 years of having so much high fat red meat on the incidence of colon cancer, because that's something that we know. I mean, it is pretty clear. Lack of fiber and excess, you know, red meat, a particularly processed red meat, but can really lead to colon cancer. So I have, and I'm not convinced yet that it's not deleterious to the heart, right? I'm not, it just,

and now if you lose weight, the benefits of weight loss in terms of cholesterol, it may be a wash. But I just, there are, it's an interesting approach. I think you can do a healthier ketogenic diet more. I mean, of integrating more things like avocado and olive oil, and that's great. But I do have concerns about having a lot of high fat animal protein over a 20-year duration. If they tell me, if a keto expert said, well, how can you back that up? I can't, because guess what? 20-year cancer nutrition studies are almost impossible to do.

So I will never be able to tell you for sure, because how do you follow what somebody eats over 20 years? I can't even keep track for a week. I forget what I ate yesterday. So that's one of the challenges with nutrition research. So I think if you want to use it as a kick start to a diet plan, if you want to do, I think that can work. I like to see a healthier keto if possible.

But in terms of a long-term diet for health, it's not at the top of my list. That would be the understatement. Okay, understatement, that would be us. How about carbs cycling, right? So to kind of kind of mix up your, what your body's normally accustomed to. So you eat, you know, whatever way you're doing,

and then one day a week, you're really doing high carbs to kind of, you know, whatever way you're doing. And then one day a week, you're really doing high carbs to kind of, you know, I actually really like that concept. I do. And that's something that I do find that patients, in terms of weight loss, they do, if they're having the same macronutrient ratio every single day, you know,

I think it becomes acclimated. To some extent. every single day, you know, I think it becomes acclimated. To some extent, but it's also, you know, I think, it just, it also helps with compliance because it makes things more interesting. You can change things up. So again, psychologically, if I know that on Saturday, you know, I'm gonna have whatever,

sweet potato fries are my favorite carb. You know, I'm not a bread person or pasta, but sweet potato fries forget about it. But if I mentally know that I'm going to have that, you don't have the deprivation mentality and feel like you. There was actually a really successful book. I'm going to look at it. I'm promoting other people's books, but this dietician wrote, it called the Fast Metabolism Diet, where she changed up what she did.

I mean, she positioned it differently, but basically she was changing up the macros every day. So one day you would do no carb, my high protein. One day, it was more Mediterranean, which is more balanced. And I think it's very, it's very, very common in fitness space. I mean, people do, we talk about this all the time. I don't, that book. There's a lot of people who do that because it does, it just shocks your system from doing the same thing over and over again. Just how, when you work out, you don't wanna do the same thing over and over again,

but it becomes acclimated. I think that has, definitely, the macros has more legs than the actual foods causing some, like get a volume in your allergy to green beans doesn't make sense to me. But, you know, we're not cars. You can't put in the same amount of gas, the 93 whatever gas, and go the same distance every single day.

So, having, and I do feel like, the human body is not designed to lose weight. We are evolutionarily created to hold on to weight. So you do have to kind of trick your body a little bit because it's especially for women, especially for women of child bearing age because our genetic, everything is designed for us to hold fat so we can carry a baby during the famine. Like there's ever gonna be a famine again,

but in some parts of the world there are. But so it's not an evolutionarily favorable trait to be naturally skinny when it comes to genetics. So I think tricking your body. I love the idea of carpsi-cling and changing things up and doing different things on different days. And I also talk to patients a lot about fueling your workouts. Like I people forget that food is fuel.

So how am I going to fuel your body to help you perform best and optimize the body composition changes from whatever workout you do? And so that, I think that's a really great point that people can, and even if you don't hire somebody a professional, you can play around with it. But carbs are fuel. So if you're doing a long cardio day, if you're doing a spinning class, you need carbs, you know, to protect your muscle, to be utilized as a fuel source, unless you're fully carb adapted because you're doing a spinning class, you need carbs, you know, to protect your muscle to be utilized as a fuel source unless you're fully carb adapted because you're keto and that's

different. And it's not only flexible, which is the other. Well, metabolic, yeah, metabolic flexibility is a big, it's a new marker of people that are healthier, you know, and don't have insulin resistance, which is tie to inflammation, which can be reduced by spices. We're tying everything back. Exactly. Oh, he's full of a gas in. Let's talk about vulvice.

Exactly. Well, actually, what do you know about vulvice? So, vulvice, we both are fans of this water, BLK, which has a lot of health benefits. It has vulvice, you're the doctor. What are those benefits? Yeah. Vulvice, as you know, before I was turned on to this brand,

I had never heard of it it to be quite honest with you And I have heard of most things in nutrition But I immediately called my colleague who's the head of human nutrition at UCLA and I you know, she's an MD PhD So she's got an extra degree on me, so I defer to her But and she you know, she said of course, I know philvic acid, it's been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. So then, I started looking into it and what the company even didn't realize is that phalvic acid is actually a polyphenol. And there are thousands of papers on the bed.

And it, polyphenol just means the biochemical structure. So it has a ring with oxygens on it. And folic is very unique because it's a very small molecular weight compound, but it's able to hold a lot of oxygen and also trace minerals, and it's able to deliver them directly to the cell. So it's able because of its size to pass through the cell membrane, and microdose to your cell with all the important minerals and electrolytes that your mitochondria and everything else needs to function optimally. So this is truly, it's from the earth, it's produced over thousands of years from microbial degradation of organic matter. That's a really big way of saying, you know, bugs are digesting plants, dead plants essentially.

But and it's like, to me, what's so interesting about it is it really can help compensate for the deterioration and soil quality that we've seen in this country. So having something like Fulvic that is so nutrient dense, it's a very, because it holds so much oxygen too, it's a very, very powerful antioxidant. And it's also a strong key later so it can actually pull toxins out of the cell. So, you know, vote antioxidant so help the cell with all the oxidative stress

that it's under, but also removing some of the toxic byproducts of metabolism and different things. So it has a really unique one-two punch to it. Plus research has shown that it actually helps support the flora and your gut, the microbiomes really hot right now. Every polyphenol can actually function as a prebiotic. And I talk about this in my book, Spice Up Live Long, that all spices and herbs are considered prebiotic. Prebiotics are actually even more important than probiotics in terms, because what people

don't understand is that probiotics don't actually colonize your digestive system. They actually pass through and cause changes to the genetics of the bacteria in your gut. So they're not actually, people think, oh, I'm taking this probiotic and it's like, I don't know what they think, but it's not actually a hearing, I'm sorry, Siri, it's not actually a hearing to your gut. Well, it's inducing changes in the flora that already exists in your gut.

And prebiotics do that even more effectively. Where would be a prebiotic? Give us an example. Most foods with fiber, not all fibers are prebiotics, but all prebiotics are considered fiber. To name some of their most. So, say, name some. I mean, big ones are like they always talk about

Jerusalem artichoke as being one of the most powerful sources. I don't even know what that is. Oh, I love those. You don't know what a Jerusalem artichoke is. I told you, I'm tulis in the kitchen. Oh my god. But there are the chokearts. So delicious.

Yeah. Anything. I mean, there's any component of beans, all the polyphenols. I mean, beans, anything with fiber in it is probably going to have some degree of prebiotic fiber. OK. What is with that watch and prebiotic? Yeah.

So also, but isn't probiotic very specific to who you are like everyone's taking these probiotics, but it depends on what kind of bacteria or good bacteria bad bacteria you have in your body. So so it's there's two answers to that question. Number one is the probe there is something called strain specificity to probiotics. So not all probiotic strains do the same thing. And so they function like there's some that support digestive health. There's some that support immune function. There's some that support vaginal health.

There's some that support that are good for antibiotic associated diarrhea or C-difficile or something like that. So first of all, there's strain specificity. So you can't just, oh, I'm just taking a probiotic and it's going to be fine. You have to know what you're taking it for if you're not just, if you're taking it for something specific. The second thing is, yes, we have a tremendous amount of,

and this is the second part of precision nutrition that I personally, I'm not as focused on because I find that genetics more exciting and interesting, but there's a lot of prolific researchers in the United States where there's a tremendous amount of diversity in the gut. And from one person to another, based on environments, based on genetics,

based on exposures, based on illnesses, you can have changes in your microbiome, which is kind of the overriding term. So it's a complicated area, but it is very individualized. But you can be pretty certain that, you know, if you're eating a balanced diet rich in fiber, any fiber food, so nuts and seeds and fruits and vegetables, I don't think unlike, I do disagree

with a lot of dieticians and doctors. I don't think you have to have whole grains to be healthy. I think there's a lot of things that whole grains are associated with, but I'm not convinced that just having nuts and seeds and vegetables and fruit can't be equally effective in terms of what people attribute the benefits of whole grain. So I'm a little contrarian in that way because the traditional dieticians are like, well, whole grains are a part of any diet.

I don't need a lot of grains. I beans when I can, for fiber, I eat sweet potatoes, I eat nuts and seeds. I don't, I feel like I gain weight very easily when I eat too many grains, whether they're whole or not. Me too. I'd rather just. How do you come nuts though? I gain weight very easily from eating too many grains, but I also gain weight from nuts because how do you just eat like a little palm. There's two. I know. Just portioning. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, is a concept called energy density. Okay. So calorie density. So nuts are a very energy dense food

because they have no water whatsoever. So what I tell my patients is never eat nuts alone. Always combine them with a high volume food, a water-based food or a fiber-based food, or better yet both, so that you get the volume. So satiety or fullness is based on two well multiple different things, but actual physical distension of the stomach is one of them. So if you I always tell people this is one of the fundamental things that I

do for nutrition and weight loss is helping people with the out energy density of their diet and always combining. So I would never have you eat nuts alone. I eat nuts in an apple or nuts in carrots or nuts in yogurt or nuts in never nuts alone because it's too calorie dense and it's not going to it's not going to make you full enough fast enough to account for the calories. That's like well thank you for saying that because that's my problem. So everyone's like oh eat nuts. Eat nuts don't eat so much fruit. So what that that's what happened. I bought a bunch of these boxes of these hundred calorie bags. And the entire box, which was, I think, 10, actually, a thousand calories in just in maybe

three and a half minutes because it's fast. It's like three and a half minutes. Well, that's a whole not a conversation. I mean, you may be talking about the eating kit. Yeah, that is a whole other podcast. But I mean, the thing is about that is they're delicious and they're very salty. So, or if you even eat the raw, I'll eat that too fast. is they're delicious and they're very salty so or if you even eat the raw elite that too fast But they're like chips to me. Yeah, because it's like the crunchiness now

Do you still I'm like this has been of course talked about in your book also everywhere almonds almonds and Walnuts is there any other nut or seed that's all just is equally or better? see that just is equally or better. Yes. Yes. I don't like walnuts. I don't like the flavor. They say they're a rich source in omega-3 fatty acids. Well, there are different type of omega-3 fatty acid than you get from fish.

I don't think you need walnuts. Pistachos are incredible. There's a lot of good research. If you think about health, think about color. The green of pistachos, it tells you that that has a different type of antioxidant. There's been some great research done on pistachios. Chia seeds trump all of them. If there's one, yeah, but it's not for taste. I put them in yogurt, I bake with them, I put them in pancakes for my kids. They are high in protein and

fire. And you can even try those tricks and they figure it out pretty quickly. What do you mean, how do they figure out the two flaxis? My kids find out. Yes, they look and you can get out. How do you pick out a, I'm telling you, my children, she is. I kid you not, I would try to make,

I'd make the shakes, I make pancakes and I try to trick them with putting the flaxis or the chia seeds and it goes in the garbage. Okay, I'm gonna make your kids. You're not even a mom's kid. You're not even a mom-cassist. I do only think that I do is bake muffins. I'm really good at baking muffins. In fact, 15 years ago, I wanted to start

a Dr. Molina's muffins business. But I actually remember that. Yeah, that was like my passion. I had a protein market company, but I was wanted to do muffins. Totally remember that. Oh my God, it's hilarious. So I will get you,

but I think chia seed are fantastic. Pumpkin seeds. People forget about that. Oh my god. So I will get you but I think I think chia seed are fantastic pumpkin seeds people They're delicious. They're delicious. They taste great on a salad. Yeah, that's a good one easy one Santa Horacee. Yeah, remember I mean whoever thought they're not sexy, but they're they taste great They're super healthy. So who says they're not sexy. I think they're really So that's maybe they're do for a comeback. What do you think they really do you think? I think they really are. I'm gonna bring them back. I think I'm gonna bring them back. But actually, nuts and seeds are the, I have like eight longevity foods in my book

and nuts and seeds are one of them. And I do think they need to be incorporated every day if possible because there's just so many potential health benefits. And when you look at the research, they are even though they're super high in calories, they are not associated with weight gain, because you know what, they have fiber.

And the fiber at least slows you down a little bit. And caloricly, impairs a little bit with the absorption of calories. But you're using the combination of like having nuts with an apple or a hand. Right, don't eat. Like the, the, the two tablespoons on a salad, you know what I mean? Because you will never get full. Like pumpkin seeds, you'd have to eat like a bushel.

I mean, you know, so portion control is really important, but building it in so you don't have to think about it. Just like you don't think about breakfast at all, you just do it. You just have this stuff built in to where it's automatic. You're just putting two tablespoons of whatever on a salad or a yogurt or whatever. Like I love doing like slivered almonds and yogurt.

That's, you know, an absolute chia. But, you know, chia has no taste. But I had a patient actually, she lowered her cholesterol 50 points just from including chia seeds in her breakfast every morning. Two tablespoons a day, in her breakfast every morning. Two tables from today, lower cholesterol 50 points because they're so high in a type of fiber or to a viscous fiber. It's called soluble fiber. So actually that's how you form the chia puddings instead. We just add water and it forms a gel.

Well guess what? That same gel that's formed actually decreases the absorption of cholesterol and also helps your blood sugar go up less quickly. So it has applications for people with, you know, blood sugar issues as well. That's how she, that's good to know. I was going to actually ask you. I've got a couple of foods here that I wanted to ask you. Number one, eggs with the yolk. Is it, does it cause cholesterol? Does it make your cholesterol higher? Does it not? There's such, there's such that there's such like misinformation if eggs are good or bad for your cholesterol. So you know the answer is what genetics?

There are there's a subset of people and this is why the research has been so confusing over the work over the years in terms of eggs. So the bottom line is though is that eggs having an egg a day with the yolk is is though, is that eggs having an egg a day with the yolk is absolutely fine for the majority of people, maybe even more. There's a small subset. And by the way, the yolk has a very important micronutrient on choline that many people are not getting enough of. And particularly for women who are like trying to get pregnant, it's very important in fetal brain development. But so I really, and by the way, fat also gives you a little bit of satiety, but what we do know now is the cholesterol thing. The cholesterol, what we know is that the cholesterol in food, which eggs and shrimp are very high, are actually not converted into cholesterol in your blood. Interesting. Saturated fat and sugar are more, you know, deleterious when it comes to cholesterol levels.

So having a lot of saturated fat, and you know, this is, saturated fat has been vilified. Maybe there's so many nuances to that. Don't even get me started. But, you know, sugar is, but sugar is really an issue too. It is not the cholesterol and eggs and shrimp that is causing high cholesterol in the majority of people.

So, what do you think of for lunch? I can't. I'm getting new window treatments. So I gotta go home and wait around all afternoon for a design consultation just to get a quote. It's gonna totally mess up my workday. Why don't you just go to Blinds.com? Because I need custom products.

Blinds.com products are made to order and totally customizable. And you get upfront pricing right on their website to easily get your quote online. But I want to see the products in person. Blinds.com ships samples to you fast and free. They can even verify your measurements and handle the installation. Wow, how convenient. Tell me more. Blinds.com also has a huge selection

of stylish shutters, shades, curtains, and options for motorization, even for your patio. Plus, they're 100% satisfaction guarantee. Well, you've convinced me. Let's go eat. I've got time now. Shopblinds.com and save 40% on selected products. Get 40% off selected products right now at Blinds.com. I've got time now. And you look at the fact, the nutritional facts, and there's so much sugar, carbs. I mean, what happened to, you know, almond milk

or even cashew milk or coconut milk? Well, I mean, so first of all, none of those are actually milk. They're all almond milk, beverage, coconut milk, beverage, because they're actually not. Well, you can make your own, but. But, when milk has become extremely popular. And it only has, I mean, I believe you can get varieties without added sugar.

I'm not sure what it is. Just like with almond milk, you can get everything without added sugar. If you're looking at just carbs, oats are carbs, so you're not gonna get around that. But they also have fiber. And they have the same sort of sticky fiber, that soluble fiber.

Okay, so let me phrase this question. What's your take on oatmeal? Do you think it's healthy or not healthy? I think it's fine. I believe it's a matter of personal preference. I mean, for somebody who's diabetic, I'm not sure that they've got to add something to the fiber, to not make it form a gel. So I'm not sure that it would be as effective for a diabetic, and it may be a heavier carbohydrate load than I would like. But people think, I guess the point is, people think they're doing themselves like a service,

like they're being healthier by having oat milk versus having almond milk by having oat milk versus having almond milk or having regular milk. I mean, okay, if your lactose intolerant together. Regular milk is a whole different type of diet. That's right. I think they all have different benefits. And I think, I tell.

What's the benefit of oat milk versus almond milk? I mean, it's less protein, less sugar. I mean, if you're doing it, like, let me just say hypothetically, if you're doing it in a pre-workout smoothie, you want carbs that your body can actually utilize this fuel. If you, you know, almond milk is just, you know, a few almonds in water basically. Coconut milk is, and coconut milk, I just did an interview on this one actually because it has a type of fat in it called medium chain triglycerides, which actually are better

for the metabolism, but it's in such a trace amount that it's not really clinically relevant. So I tell patients, have whatever milk you want, don't think that any of these milk alternatives are a source of protein. That's a common mistake. My patients will be like, oh, yeah, I have protein for breakfast. I put almond milk. No, that's not protein for breakfast. You know, dairy milk and soy milk are the only two that are actually decent source of

high quality protein, which I also talk a lot in the book. Quality matters. And it matters even more as you get older in terms of, you know, aging gracefully and preserving lean body mass because your ability to absorb protein from the digestive system decreases with age, and also your ability to build and repair muscle starts to, you know, wane as you age. So you need those high-quality proteins that have all the amino acids to make sure that that's optimized and it becomes really more important the older you get. I think over the age, so right about now, I'm 51, I got to start paying more.

So, you know, I mean, I think it's a, I don't think any of them, any of the beverages should have a health halo, but they're not unhealthy. It's not like, you know, soda or juice, you know, not so sugar water. It's definitely wouldn't call it that. All right, one more and then we got to wrap it up. Soy for females. Breast cancer. Does it cause breast cancer? Does it cause cancer?

Okay, so no, no. So you have to understand studies that have done with minimally processed soy seem to be protective in most. In fact, there are, it's a very, you can't just, we can't, I know, I got it. There is such a nuanced challenging question. If you have, there is theoretically, if you have an estrogen receptor positive, cancer,

but minimally processed soy is always going to be better for you. Like tofu and edamame and things like that, that I definitely would not be doing the soy protein shakes and soy bars and all that stuff if you were concerned about I just think those highly processed foods aren't good for anybody the less processed things are the better but right it's it's you know when they look at populations like in Asia that eat a lot of soy not you processed bars, but actual soy,

they have not been associated with higher incidence of breast cancer. All right, so that was a loaded question. That was very loaded, I know, I'm sorry. You get it at the end, it's okay. I'm sorry, okay, so you're like I said, I can sit here and talk to you for hours. And I'll have you back because I have

a hundred more questions for you. But in the meantime, how do people find you if they want to know more? And guys, her book is called Spice Up Live Long. There's tons of just great information like we were talking about, about lots of different spices and ways to live longer and help with, you know, fighting or not or preventing cancer, diabetes, stroke and the list goes on and on. And there's great recipes in the book. And there's a lot of recipes from the Soko House

in West Hollywood to do my recipes. Oh, amazing. So he's Aaron Robbins is a really talented job. And he did, so even if you're not a cook like me, you'll enjoy the book, because you can just add, you know, a reaganote to your eggs. But if you are a cook, there's some incredible recipes in this book too. Yeah. There's like a lot of book is recipes.

Yeah. It's a book is recipes. Um, so tell us where to find you. Yeah. So you can, I mean, I have a website. I'm, you know, not as good as you are updating it. DrMalina.com. Uh, I'm on Instagram kind of, uh, is Dr. Malina and Facebook. I'm more into, I'm old.

So I'm still like the Facebook doctor Malina, but everything is Dr. Melina and Facebook. I'm more into, I'm old, so I'm still like the Facebook, Dr. Melina, but everything is Dr. Melina. And you could also find her on Kelly and, what does that mean? It's always changing the name. Live, live, live, live, live, live, live with Kelly and Ryan, because I feel like you're always on there. And you were on the doctors for a while too a lot, and are you still doing that show too? They moved to the East Coast. So yeah, I haven't been doing it as much. But yeah, everyone's in a while on CNN. If there's a good good story, I'll come in. That's right. I mean, you've been great. And like I said, you're the real deal.

You have a lot of information. You really, you, you, you research and you take this stuff super seriously, which I really appreciate. So thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. Habits and hustle time to get it rolling. Stay up on for coming. Thank you for having me. Hey, it's a hustle time to get it rolling. Stay up on the grind. Don't stop. Keep it going.

Habits and hustle from nothing in the summit. All out hosted by Jennifer Cohen. Visionaries tune in. You can get to know. Be inspired. This is your moment. Excuses. We in heaven.

The habits and hustle podcasts. Power by happiness Hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Heather monahan host of creating confidence a part of the Yap Media Network the number one Business and self-improvement podcast network. Okay, so I want to tell you a little bit about my show We are all about elevating your confidence to its highest level ever and taking your business right there with you. Don't believe me, I'm gonna go ahead and share some of the reviews of the show

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