The Dr. Hyman Show - What To Eat For Health And Longevity

Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. So many of the pathways related to aging have to do with including these phytochemical rich compounds, whether it's green tea or quercetin, which is found in onions, or resveratrol is in grapes, or turmeric, which is curcumin, which is in curry, including all these as a regular staple in your diet. Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. It's hard to overstate how important magnesium is for all aspects of our health. There is a long list of symptoms and diseases that can be treated and even cured with magnesium. In fact, way back when I was an emergency room doctor, magnesium was a critical element of our care. We used to treat all kinds of conditions from arrhythmia to constipation to preeclampsia and even seizures.

Starting point is 00:00:49 It's really essential to our health and our well-being. And yet over 80% of the population doesn't get the magnesium they need on a regular basis. Now, this is a problem because magnesium deficiency can increase your risk of all diseases and keep you from performing optimally. But even more critically, there's not just one type of magnesium. There are seven different types that we need in order to ensure both our health and vitality remain strong. Now, I'm normally a big advocate of getting as many of our nutrients as we can through a well-balanced diet. But in this case, it's almost impossible to get enough magnesium intake through your food alone because our soil is so overworked and mineral depleted and lacking organic matter, which helps the plants get the minerals from the soil.

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Starting point is 00:02:04 and use the code HYMmen10 to boost your intake of magnesium and start feeling better today. Now, I don't think there's anything better than waking up feeling super rested, relaxed, and energized. And when we get high quality sleep, this is the norm. But without it, our simple day-to-day tasks can feel impossible and our health suffers. And that's why I'm always looking for ways to upgrade my sleep routine and the bamboo sheet set from Cozy Earth is my new favorite way to get an amazing night's rest. Now you might be surprised to learn that many types of bedding out there contain toxins that can off-gas into the air and absorb into your skin. I mean, do you want to sleep on formaldehyde? I don't either.

Starting point is 00:02:38 So I love knowing that Cozy Earth products are certified to be free of harmful chemicals. Sleep actually impacts every part of your health. It helps us maintain a healthy weight by balancing hormones and blood sugar. It provides time to detox our brains and lets our muscles and organs rest and repair. But so many of us don't get enough sleep or the right quality sleep, and that doesn't allow the body to do all these important things. So better sleep is the cornerstone of better health, and it's something we all have the power to work on.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Now, I know nice bedding can feel like a big investment. So Cozy Earth makes it super easy to try out their products with a 30-day free trial and a 10-year warranty. Plus, right now, they're offering their best sale price ever with 40% off. Just go to CozyEarth.com and use the code MARK40 at checkout. That's CozyEarth.com, C-O-Z-Y-E-A-R-T-H.com with the code MARK40 and you'll check out and get the discount. I know you're going to love these sheets as much as I do. And now let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. In today's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy, Dr. Hyman and his team discuss the food as medicine approach.

Starting point is 00:03:45 You can eat to beat and prevent disease. You can eat to enhance your lifespan. Let food be thy medicine. If you're looking to dial in on your nutrition, this episode is for you. To learn more about Dr. Hyman's tips, including how to use food as medicine, sign up for the Longevity newsletter at drhyman.com slash longevity. The most powerful tool you have to change your health is your fork. Food is not just calories or energy. Food contains information that literally talks to your genes and it turns them on or off and affects their function moment to moment. Food controls your hormones, your immune system, your brain chemistry. It even controls your gut microbiome and your

Starting point is 00:04:39 detoxification system. And of course, it controls your structural system because it's what you're made of. You are literally what you eat. So ask yourself, do you want to become a Twinkie or a raspberry? The most exciting thing I've heard in a long time is that the Rockefeller Foundation is supporting a research effort to map out the tens of thousands of molecules in food, things we've never discovered before, and what they actually do using the most advanced technology and artificial intelligence, creating a literal periodic table of medicinal molecules in food. I get excited about that. I don't know about you, but it makes me really happy. It goes way beyond what we think of as food. Of course, protein, fat, carbs, fiber,

Starting point is 00:05:22 vitamins, minerals, yeah, that's food. And they dig deep into the realm of food as medicine, exploring the realm of what we call phytonutrients. These are plant-based chemicals that have medicinal properties. When you eat, if you eat a whole foods, plant-rich, nutrient-dense diet, you are literally eating your medicine every single day. Food is the fastest acting and most powerful medicine you can take to change your life. And it works fast, literally in minutes to regulate almost every single function of your body for better or worse, depending on what you eat. Yes, we are stuck with the genes we got from mom and dad, but here's the headline news. You have amazing control over how those genes are expressed, and the biggest factor controlling your

Starting point is 00:06:13 genes is what you eat, or sometimes what you need that you don't eat. Think of your genes as the software that runs everything in your body, just like your computer software. Your genes only do what you instruct them to do, like with the stroke of your keyboard. The foods you eat are like the keystrokes. They send messages to your genes telling them what to do. They create health or they create disease. We know that poor diet is linked to many preventable lifestyle diseases

Starting point is 00:06:42 like type 2 diabetes, many cancers, heart disease, dementia, and lots more. We also know that a real whole foods diet that's rich in these phytochemical dense plants that has clean protein, plenty of fiber, and healthy fats can prevent, treat, and even reverse most chronic diseases. You see, food impacts each node of the functional medicine matrix that we discussed in episode one. It can boost your vascular system, your immune system, your hormones, your detox system, your energy system, your microbiome, and everything in between. And there are specific functional foods and superfoods that assist with things like DNA repair, stem cell activity, and that feed the healthy bugs in your gut. This means that there

Starting point is 00:07:32 are foods that can actually fight disease. More importantly, there are foods that literally create health. Let's just take COVID-19, for example. Just one study found that if you have good levels of selenium in your blood, you are three times more likely to be cured of COVID and recover. But if you have low levels, you are five times more likely to die. That's a 500% increased risk of dying. That is massive. And that's just one nutrient. And it's easy to get from a few Brazil nuts, but of course don't have more than two to four a day because you're gonna OD. Now, I don't know about you, but I wanna incorporate as many

Starting point is 00:08:12 of these disease-fighting foods as possible. In this episode of the Longevity Roadmap, my team will walk you through our favorite functional and superfoods that can help you make your healthspan equal your lifespan. Now, I don't want you to think that you can eat a diet of junk food and just incorporate a few of these superfoods to live longer and healthier. Extending your healthspan and making your healthspan equal your lifespan requires a complete lifestyle overhaul. So we're also

Starting point is 00:08:39 going to discuss how to personalize your diet, how to test your nutritional status, how to balance your blood sugar, and lots more. So let's dive in. So the vegan diet essentially was a goofball joke I made once on a stage with some friends who were fighting. We were a paleo doc and a vegan doc, and I just said, well, if you guys are paleo and you're vegan, I must be pegan. But then I thought about it, and what are the common principles that most diets, even in the diet wars, have in common? And what I realized was there is far more in common with being paleo or vegan, which are the extremes, than with the traditional American processed, sad, or standard American diet. What are those principles? Well, both agree that we should be eating

Starting point is 00:09:27 a plant-rich diet that's full of colorful fruits and vegetables that are incredibly nutrient-dense and full of phytochemicals. We should be eating good quality fats like olive oil, avocados, that we should be eating omega-3 fats, which are so essential for us. So we should be eating a-3 fats, which are so essential from us. So we should be

Starting point is 00:09:45 eating a diet rich in high-quality seafood that doesn't have heavy metals and mercury. Things like sardines and mackerel and herring and anchovies and things that I love that my wife doesn't love. That we should be eating a diet that's got whole grains and beans, but not whole grain flour. So not whole wheat flour, not even brown rice flour. Those are dangerous, but literally whole grains. And the more weird the grains, the better. Things like black rice or quinoa or red rice or buckwheat. I mean, buckwheat is an interesting one. There's a form of buckwheat from the Himalayas that is the most powerful superfood on the planet that's anti-inflammatory and regulates all these pathways. And the good quality beans aren't too starchy. So these are the basic principles. And if you're eating animal

Starting point is 00:10:33 products, you want to make sure they're regeneratively raised. There's an incredible body of research now showing that grass-fed, regeneratively raised animals actually contain phytonutrients, which are plant-based compounds that you wouldn't expect to see in animal food, but that are there because of what the animals are eating. So you're not only what you eat, you're whatever you are eating already ate. So we have an incredible strategy for eating a diet that is rich in all these things and is including all these protective foods and removing all the harmful foods. So getting rid of the starch and sugar. A little bit is fine, but we shouldn't be eating flour on a regular basis, whatever it is. We shouldn't be eating a lot of sugar or any form of sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Starting point is 00:11:26 Occasionally it's fine, but it's not a staple. It's a treat. And we definitely shouldn't be eating things that aren't food that are in our food, like pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, additives, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, chemicals, like those just not be in our food. And another principle is if we're eating dairy, we should be very smart about what we're eating. Most modern dairy is conventionally grown, has got a lot of hormones and a lot of inflammatory proteins that are

Starting point is 00:11:57 because of how we've raised the animals and bred them to produce a certain type of casein that causes all these consequences of inflammation and gut issues. But if you have, for example, heirloom cows or sheep and goat, you don't get the same level of casein. And if you can tolerate it, those are fine to include in your diet. But for most people, they don't tolerate it so much. And most people are lactose intolerant. So those are the principles of a vegan diet that we can include in designing our daily meals. So, for example, yesterday I had shishuka, which is a cheated, but it's a Moroccan dish with red peppers, tomatoes, spices.

Starting point is 00:12:37 It's made from whole ingredients. And I put it in a little cast iron pan. I broke some pasture-raised eggs in there and I baked it. So it's like baked eggs and it was a delicious breakfast. I actually made something the other day. It was kind of fun. I made cashew waffles because I don't really eat waffles very often, but I had a friend over, a little kid, and I made cashew waffles, which is cashews and eggs and almond milk. Pretty simple and it turns into waffles, believe it or not. For lunch, I would often have a salad. So I'll make a nice big salad with tomatoes and olives and avocados and pumpkin seeds. I'll open a can of mackerel or sardines or herring off on the side

Starting point is 00:13:19 and eat that with it. That's lunch. I'll use olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Really simple. Dinner is usually some form of high quality protein. Sometimes I'll use olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Really simple. Dinner is usually some form of high quality protein. Sometimes I'll use tempeh or tofu. I'll have grass-fed beef occasionally, pasture-raised chicken. I've had fish. For example, I like black cod and salmon and some of these other fish that are low in toxins. I'll make lots of veggies. So I'll literally have the protein as a side dish and I'll have a mountain of whether it's stir-fried bok choy or broccolini, artichokes. So I'll make two or three side dishes of vegetables and might have a piece of dark chocolate after dinner. So that's essentially what I eat and it's essentially what is going to help promote longevity. I use a lot of spices.

Starting point is 00:14:06 I use a lot of good quality fats. I use a lot of veggies and colorful veggies. And I really try to focus on not the five to nine servings, which is the minimum, right? That's the minimum. And a serving is half a cup. So that would be like two cups of vegetables. I think we should be having eight to 10 cups of vegetables a day. And it's not easy to do, but I like to do it. Sometimes we make a, what we call an alcogizer shake in the morning, which is lots of veggies, cucumber, celery, greens, avocados, blend it all up. And my wife likes to take all the vegetables and freeze them. So we have them in packets and we just throw it in the blender. And then we have this nice cold green smoothie in the morning.

Starting point is 00:14:49 There's probably like five cups of vegetables. So there's a lot of ways to sort of hack the process, but getting your veggies and your phytochemicals is so important because so many of the pathways related to aging have to do with including these phytochemical rich compounds, whether it's green tea or quercetin, which is found in onions, or resveratrol is in grapes, or turmeric, which is curcumin, which is in curry, including all these as a regular staple in your diet. And if you do that day after day, day after day, and are consistent, you will see the benefits over the long term in terms of your metabolism. You'll increase your organ reserve. You'll decrease body fat.

Starting point is 00:15:31 You'll increase muscle mass. You'll reduce inflammation. You'll increase your antioxidant enzymes. You'll boost your mitochondria. You'll improve your brain chemistry. All the things that we want as we age. So food is the most powerful drug on the planet. It is the place to start and it works anytime at any age for anybody. So carbohydrates are a necessary macronutrient for

Starting point is 00:15:55 our health and well-being. But as most of you know, there's a wide range of carbohydrates. So on one end may be something like simple sugar or soda. That's a carbohydrate that's really broken down and absorbed really quickly into the body, causing insulin spikes, which causes inflammation. And we all know that's not good for us. And then on the other end, that may be something like broccoli, right? It's also a carbohydrate, but it's slow to get digested and absorbed into the body. And it influences our body in a much different way. So all carbohydrates are not equal as we know. And carbohydrates are really important, necessary food for our health and wellbeing. We just want to make sure we're making the right choices of carbohydrates. We want to be

Starting point is 00:16:41 choosing those healthful carbohydrates. And of course, most of us all know, okay, we want to avoid the simple sugars and we want to eat more of the vegetables. But so what about the in-between part? The in-between part is where people have a lot of confusion many times. And they're like, well, what about bread? And what if it's gluten-free? And what if it's whole grain? And what if it's, what about potatoes? And what about, you know, and what about beans and legumes even? So there's a continuum of carbohydrates. We've got our vegetables and then we've got our beans and legumes. For most people, beans and legumes are a wonderful food that's rich in fiber and is good for us. For some people, they could be too high in carbohydrate. And so we have to think about that.

Starting point is 00:17:27 And then we've got the refined and processed carbohydrates, right? We know we want to eliminate those. We want to avoid things like cookies and crackers and baked goods most of the time. And even things like breads and pastas, they're not usually very nutrient dense, which means per calorie, they're not giving you all the nutrients your body needs as much as, let's say, a sweet potato. So you always want to think about, I want a better carbohydrate option. So my root vegetables are going to give me more vitamins and minerals per calorie than

Starting point is 00:18:01 something like pasta or bread would. It doesn't mean for most people they can never eat pasta or bread, but those are better choices. Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. Now something I get more and more excited about every year is personalized medicine. Now when I began practicing functional medicine over 20 years ago, it was clear to me we have to look at how unique each body is. Now with technology advancing in amazing ways, we can truly take that concept to the next level.

Starting point is 00:18:28 Like one of the tools that I recently discovered that can help us all do this from home is InsideTracker. Founded in 2009 by top scientists in aging, genetics, and biometric data from MIT, Tufts, and Harvard, InsideTracker is a personalized health and wellness platform like no other. It's purpose-built to help you live a longer, more productive life. Their cutting-edge technology analyzes your blood, DNA, your lifestyle, to give you highly personalized recommendations.

Starting point is 00:18:55 Then, using the app, you can track your progress every day. Inside Tracker tells you what to do and why, so your health goals are clear and actionable, and most importantly importantly based on exactly what your body needs. And now you can connect InsideTracker with your Apple Watch to unlock deeper, more precise insights into your health. With real-time exercise, resting heart rate, and sleep data synced with your InsideTracker plan, you can truly wear your health on your sleeve. My team took InsideTracker for a spin and really loved it. They discovered some important

Starting point is 00:19:25 things about their health that led them to stop procrastinating when it comes to certain parts of their health, like, for example, finally taking a vitamin D supplement after seeing they were deficient, or eating more iron-rich foods due to low ferritin and hemoglobin, and making an effort to embrace stress reduction techniques after seeing high cortisol levels. Now, health is not black and white. Your wellness plan shouldn't be either. If you're curious about getting your own health program dialed in to your unique needs, I highly recommend checking out InsideTracker. Right now, they're offering my community 20% off at insidetracker.com forward slash Dr. Hyman.

Starting point is 00:20:00 That's I-N-S-I-D-E-T-R-A-C-K-E-R.com slash Dr. Hyman. That's me, Dr. Hyman. And you'll see the discount quote in your cart. Now let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. So where does somebody fall in terms of how many carbohydrates they can tolerate? You want to just listen to your body to figure out what's the right amount of carbohydrates for you. First of all, you don't

Starting point is 00:20:25 want to just have your meal be all carbohydrate because most, I mean, I don't think I've had any patient who feels good with that, right? Pancakes with syrup and orange juice, all carbohydrates. And most of the time people don't feel very good after they eat a meal like that. What is the amount of carbohydrates that your body can tolerate? Monitor how you feel after your meal. What's your energy level like? How is your weight? Are you still gaining weight when you don't want to? If you're still gaining weight when you don't want to, maybe you need to cut further back on carbohydrates. If your digestion doesn't feel good after eating some higher carbohydrate meals, maybe some even the root vegetables, or for some people, the beans

Starting point is 00:21:02 and legumes, they may need to cut back there. So it's very personalized when we determine how many carbohydrates somebody can tolerate. For all of us, we want to eliminate the simple sugars and the refined carbohydrates. And then the amount of whole grains, root vegetables, and beans and legumes somebody can tolerate really does depend on their individual health. So for example, if you've got somebody with a lot of insulin resistance, they've got a high fasting insulin, they've gained a lot of weight around their belly, you're seeing skin tags that may indicate insulin resistance, their hormones are out of balance, their periods are irregular if they're a woman. If they're a man, their testosterone is low, right?

Starting point is 00:21:41 If we're seeing signs of metabolic syndrome, we typically cut back further on carbohydrates. That helps people feel more satiated. And when we increase fat a little bit in their meal, make sure they're getting enough protein and cut back more on the grains, even if they are whole grains. Sometimes people just feel better and they'll get to their goal faster.

Starting point is 00:22:01 If your metabolism is really good and if you don't have any signs of metabolic syndrome, you may not have to worry about whole grains and you can enjoy some of those whole grains that are rich in fiber like quinoa and brown rice and even some whole grain breads within your meals and feel really good and satisfied with that. So it really depends on the individual person. The other area we really look at when we're personalizing somebody's diet is we're looking at what are their symptoms? What are they concerned about? What are they complaining about? And we talked about if somebody has that

Starting point is 00:22:36 metabolic syndrome or the pre-diabetes picture, we're cutting back more on carbohydrates, leaning more toward vegetables for their carbohydrate source, getting a good source of fat, healthy fat, and protein at every meal. Protein is an essential macronutrient for our health, and we want to make sure we're getting enough. We don't need too much protein, but we also don't want too little protein. So just the right amount is really important for overall health. So about one gram per kilogram per day is what's recommended for protein intake. So if you are about 150 pounds or 70 kilograms, you want to be getting 70 grams of protein in your day. What I recommend people do in general is to divide that protein throughout all their meals. They don't want to eat it all at one meal at night. They want to have some protein at each meal of the day. So if you eat three meals, you would want to have 20 to 25 grams of protein at each meal. That really helps

Starting point is 00:23:30 with everything from focus and keeping your blood sugar more stable to healing in your body. Protein is necessary for your cells to heal, for good collagen production, and for detoxification. As we get older, we need more protein. There's a few reasons for that. One, we tend to eat less calories as we get older, and we don't always digest and absorb our protein as well as we get older. So for patients after the age of 65 maybe or 70, we're recommending more protein in their day. So they need more like 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram per day. So for that 70 kilogram patient, we try to get them up to 105 grams of protein

Starting point is 00:24:17 in a day. And that can be hard for some people because they're eating less calories and they are not always reaching for protein-rich foods. In general, I recommend that people balance their protein sources. So you don't want to get all your protein from animal products, but you don't want to get... For some people, if they get all of their protein from vegetable sources, we can see deficiencies over time. So in general, we work on balance. We work on a balance of animal and vegetable protein. So mix it up. Try half the time getting your protein from beans and legumes and nuts and seeds. And the other half of the time getting it from wild-caught salmon or sardines or grass-fed beef or eggs, mixing it up so you get some from both animal and plant sources

Starting point is 00:25:08 is a great general way to get what your body needs. Sometimes we see people showing signs of protein deficiency because they're not digesting or absorbing their protein well. So if we see things like weak nails or hair loss or lackluster skin, or maybe they get bloated after they eat. Maybe they feel really full after they have some animal protein, or it just feels very uncomfortable in their stomach. It feels hard for them to break it down. If I see any of these signs,

Starting point is 00:25:40 I say, oh, maybe somebody's not digesting or absorbing their protein well. And then we have to ask that question, why? You know, we have to look for things like antibodies and autoimmune disorder that can damage the cells in the stomach called the parietal cells that produce acid. And that's a very common cause of having a hard time with breaking down protein and absorbing it. We also look for things like dysbiosis or an imbalance in the good and bad bacteria in the digestive system. Because if there is that dysbiosis, that can cause more inflammation. And then if there's inflammation in the digestive system, your digestive enzymes don't work as well. And you don't digest and absorb your protein as well. So if that's the case, we've got to work to rebalance that gut microbiota. Many times people will benefit from some sort of digestive aid for a period of time,

Starting point is 00:26:29 like a digestive enzyme or something to increase stomach acid like bitters or betaine HCL for a period of time to help them break down and digest and absorb their protein better. If somebody has more concerns with autoimmune disease, maybe they've got a lot of autoimmune disease going on, they've got a lot of joint pain from rheumatoid arthritis, maybe they've got a lot of digestive issues, maybe they've got a lot of inflammation in their body, many times we'll try some elimination diets. Elimination diets are a great way to clear the playing field, to see if any foods are triggering inflammation in that person's body, to see if any foods are triggering inflammation in that person's body, to see if any foods are triggering that autoimmune process, to see if any foods are

Starting point is 00:27:11 triggering their digestive issues, to see if any foods are triggering fluid retention and weight gain or headaches, for example, or asthma. So comprehensive elimination diets are a diet where you pull away very commonly eaten foods, as well as you pull away alcohol and caffeine. You pull away gluten and dairy for a period of time. You even pull away corn and soy and red meat sometimes. Foods that are very commonly eaten and foods that commonly increase inflammation in people's body. And most people, when they're doing a comprehensive elimination diet, work with somebody to, like a nutritionist, to see, to make sure they're doing it in the right way. But there are some good elimination diet programs out there that you can try on your own as well.

Starting point is 00:28:00 And when you remove those foods, you want to remove them for at least three weeks. That can help give you an idea of how much that food is impacting your health. The most important part of an elimination diet is the reintroduction. So when you reintroduce those foods, you want to introduce them one at a time and really get a sense of, is that food causing my symptoms? And that's a great way that you can see how much food is impacting your health. Well, I would say that, you know, any foods that nurture the microbiome, so things like fermented foods, sauerkraut, kimchi are also great foods for nurturing the gut microbiome. I would also say that the spices, things like turmeric, which is also a good food for overall immune function. Mushrooms are fantastic.

Starting point is 00:28:46 The mushrooms have multiple, multiple health benefits. They actually are very good prebiotics, and they also help to, some specific mushrooms can raise natural killer cells. So things like shiitake mushrooms, maitake mushrooms are excellent for the gut microbiome. So quercetin is a phytonutrient. It's found in things like apples and teas. And what we find is that quercetin has benefits, multiple benefits, and it has a polyphenolic component to it. And it also actually helps with the synthesis of the tight junctions. So having quercetin in the diet can

Starting point is 00:29:32 actually keep the gut healthy by keeping the tight junctions healthy. So for those who don't really conceptually understand leaky gut, a simple analogy to leaky gut is having a house with a screened-in door. And the screened door allows the air to come in, but it keeps the bugs out. And when your screened door has holes in it, the air comes in and the bugs come in. And that's essentially what's happening when your body has increased intestinal permeability, which is really sort of rampant. Every time anybody eats a food that contains gluten, you'll get transient leaky gut. If you overeat fatty foods,

Starting point is 00:30:12 and we've all experienced that where, you know, I call it the post-Thanksgiving Day dinner where you get a lot of food, there's a lot of fat, and you actually get that sluggish sensation. Part of that is that you're getting transient metabolic endotoxemia, and you don't want to have that all the time. And these high-fat foods, specifically processed fats, not that fat is bad for you, but it depends on the quantity and the type of fat.

Starting point is 00:30:39 Those types of things will increase leaky gut. And then also making sure that you're not exposing yourself to things like the non-steroidal medications, things like ibuprofen and naproxen. Antibiotics can affect it. Proton pump inhibitors can do it. And stress. So all of those things that we can use to protect our gut are really important. And then, again, a simple thing to do is have high quercetin in the diet. Oftentimes when I'm treating patients therapeutically, I'll actually use prescription strength or nutraceutical forms of quercetin and powder form, which I'll add to other things to help

Starting point is 00:31:13 heal the gut. Our body is always regenerating itself. We have stem cells in our body that help our cells heal and regenerate after there's been damage or injury. We know that foods like chocolate and tea, they have a lot of components in them that actually can help repair damage to our DNA and help repair damaged cells in our body. We know that purple potatoes, for example, the phytonutrients in them can have a tremendous benefit in terms of helping

Starting point is 00:31:41 heal DNA damage in our body. Turmeric is a bright orange root vegetable that's a phenomenal spice that's used in cooking all the time. It's rich in curcumin that has a lot of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capacity in it. Turmeric is a wonderful spice that can be added to many different foods. We know that when foods have more spices added to them, we see less inflammation after a meal. If you take two of the same meals, one that has two tablespoons of spices and one that does not, all other things being equal, the food that had the extra spice in it, people have less inflammation after that meal. They can look at that with markers of inflammation, which is pretty phenomenal. So spices are part of those phytonutrients that have a lot of really healthful benefits in our body.

Starting point is 00:32:31 And we want to incorporate more spices into our day all the time. We also know that things like sulforaphane, black tea, coffees even are also really rich in these phytonutrients that can help with DNA repair and stem cell production in the body. So there's a lot of foods that we can eat that can help improve the functioning of our immune system. So we know that oysters are a wonderful food that are rich in zinc. Zinc is really important for overall health, but also for overall functioning of the immune system. We know that in the people who don't get enough zinc, their immune system does not work as well. They may have more allergies, they may have more autoimmune issues, and they may have more frequent infections, colds and flus. Oysters are great because they have the highest amount of zinc per calorie of all of the foods. We also know that

Starting point is 00:33:22 pumpkin seeds and lots of other nuts and seeds, other animal proteins are also rich in zinc. Garlic and onions are rich in thiols. These are sulfur-rich compounds that help support the body's detoxification capacity. So you want to incorporate these garlic and onions into most meals of the day whenever possible. So the research on stem cells is exploding. And what's exciting is that there are some simple things we can do every day to enhance our stem cells. Things like food. Food is medicine. Fish oil, for example. Curcumin, which is basically coming from turmeric that you make curry with. Green tea. And lots of other plant phytochemicals, these compounds in food that are from colorful fruits and vegetables that help to enhance our health in many ways, including stem cell

Starting point is 00:34:12 production. There's a whole field of regenerative medicine out there, and these therapies are not your typical therapies. Drug therapies typically work on one pathway that either help or hurt or interrupt some function to change your biology. That's what drugs do. They also have side effects, and they also are not always so effective. They're marginally effective. But there's a whole set of tools out there that are emerging that are regenerative therapies, that do things in a broad way that aren't treating a specific disease or pathway, that activate all the healing mechanisms that we need to activate to age well. They reduce inflammation. They increase your antioxidant systems. They increase the function and number of your mitochondria and energy production.

Starting point is 00:35:06 They enhance brain repair. They enhance tissue repair and healing. They decrease fat storage. They increase lean muscle mass. They increase cognitive function and brain chemistry. And they do this by a mechanism in the body called hormesis, which is essentially where a stress is induced to then create a healing response. So a little bit of stress on the system creates a healing response. And I'll give you a great example of how this happens in nature. Have you ever had a wild strawberry? A wild strawberry is like this big, but the explosion of taste and flavor is unbelievable. Now you might get a conventional,

Starting point is 00:35:53 commercially raised strawberry that looks red and beautiful, but kind of tastes like, you know, cardboard with very limited flavor and juiciness and ripeness. When you look at why does that wild strawberry have so much flavor, it's because it's hard to be a wild strawberry. You don't have somebody taking care of you and taking the weeds out and watering you and giving you fertilizer and doing all these things. You have to work hard. And so this stress on the wild strawberry creates a whole series of increased protective compounds called phytochemicals that help that strawberry defend itself from all sorts of injury and danger.

Starting point is 00:36:32 Well, we're kind of like the conventional strawberry. We don't have any of these stresses on our system, and we don't really respond in this way. And organic food is a little better. Regenerative food is great. But wild food is the best. If you want to turn off the genes that create disease and turn on the genes that lead to health, you have to focus on the quality and the type of food you eat.

Starting point is 00:36:53 And one of the best things you can do for your health today is to shift from a nutrient-poor diet to a nutrient-rich diet abundant in plant foods such as fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains, and seafood, and even regeneratively raised animal foods, which surprisingly contain good levels of phytonutrients because of the grass they eat. This way of eating improves the expression of hundreds of genes, thousands of genes that control insulin function and obesity, and they help address almost all chronic diseases. For example, the array of colors in veggies contains 25,000 beneficial chemicals. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate over 800 varieties of plant foods. We don't consume a fraction of that anymore. I always say, eat the rainbow. Load up on reds, greens, blues, purples, and yellow foods.

Starting point is 00:37:47 Focus on lots of superfoods that we discuss in this episode. Also include healthy fats like olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocados, seafood rich in omega-3 fats, and organic and grass-fed meat and animal food. Eating this way can reduce inflammation. It'll boost your detox system. It'll balance your hormones. It'll improve your brain chemistry, it'll enhance your ability to produce energy in your cells, and it'll provide lots of antioxidant protection, preventing disease, and keeping you younger longer. Now, if knowing all this doesn't make you want to upgrade your diet and upgrade your biology, I don't know what will. So thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you next time for episode seven. Hey, everybody.

Starting point is 00:38:27 It's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into The Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do, and introducing you to all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. And I want to tell you about something else I'm doing, which is called Mark's Picks. It's my weekly newsletter, and in it, I share my favorite stuff from foods to supplements, to gadgets, to tools to enhance your health. It's all the cool stuff that I use and that my team uses to optimize and enhance our health. And I'd love you to sign up for the

Starting point is 00:38:56 weekly newsletter. I'll only send it to you once a week on Fridays, nothing else, I promise. And all you do is go to drhyman.com forward slash pics to sign up. That's drhyman.com forward slash pics, P-I-C-K-S, and sign up for the newsletter. And I'll share with you my favorite stuff that I use to enhance my health and get healthier and better and live younger, longer. Hi, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your

Starting point is 00:39:40 journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.

The Dr. Hyman Show - What To Eat For Health And Longevity

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