Youngster: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.
Good day and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and I’m again at this time with return visitor, Dr. Steven Gundry. And on this episode, we break down and debunk the myths of the Blue Zones. And I really like this subject as a result of Blue Zones, I really feel like, are sometimes quoted and cherry-picked for his or her information to attempt to promote completely different plans or dietary supplements or merchandise that individuals have. And I really like that we obtained to go deep on what the information really says about Blue Zones. And it won’t be what you suppose. I actually discovered some issues about this that I didn’t know, together with some surprising statistics. I do know one in every of these will completely shock you about one of many components that is likely to be contributing to longevity in sure Blue Zones. And it’s positively not gonna be what you suppose.
And Dr. Gundry breaks down how, whereas Blue Zones are sometimes used to advertise vegetarian or vegan or excessive grain diets, that’s not what the information really says. And there’s some distinctive different issues that stand out, together with consumption of sure uncommon meals that aren’t as widespread within the US however obtainable now within the US. We discuss their motion patterns and their every day life-style habits, in addition to components and information round nutrient consumption and mineral consumption and why these are such necessary components.
And on the finish, he additionally shares his private non-negotiables and 80-20 of what he does each day to take care of his well being and power and vitality whereas he nonetheless maintains a really lively profession, working with sufferers, writing books, and doing analysis as effectively. And also you’ve most likely heard of him, however Dr. Gundry is the founder and director of the Worldwide Coronary heart and Lung Institute, in addition to the Middle for Restorative Drugs. He’s written many bestselling books, together with The Plant Paradox and the companions to that, The Longevity Paradox, The Vitality Paradox, his new Intestine Test e book, and lots of others. He has over 300 articles printed in peer-reviewed journals, and he focuses on a dietary method to lowering illness and reversing issues like autoimmune illness. The truth is, his statistic for doing that together with his sufferers is over 94%. He’s been doing this work for many years, and he’s one of many actually robust voices on this area. I’m very excited to share him with you at this time, so let’s leap into the episode. Dr. Gundry, welcome again. I’m so excited to have you ever again once more.
Dr. Gundry: Hey, it’s nice to be right here, thanks.
Katie: Nicely, I’m tremendous excited to leap into a subject that the title is likely to be a bit surprising to folks at first look, however I do know that you’ve plenty of information and expertise to assist this, and I’m tremendous excited to study from you at this time. We’re gonna discuss debunking Blue Zones. So to start out broad and provides some background, I’d love so that you can clarify what are the most important misconceptions relating to Blue Zones as a result of I’ve been watching this information now for over a decade, and it looks like plenty of folks cherry-pick the information from Blue Zones to attempt to show their very own level or promote their very own product. And I do know you’re a really first ideas pushed individual and you actually go to the foundation of issues. So what are these misconceptions relating to Blue Zones?
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, as I discuss in that chapter within the, within the new e book, Intestine Test, the chapter is principally entitled, Cigarettes, Cheese, and Meat: New ideas from the Blue Zones. Simon & Garfunkel used to say {that a} man hears what he desires to listen to and disregards the remainder. And to begin with, the Blue Zones, everyone wonders, effectively, the place the phrase Blue Zones come from? We’re speaking about plenty of these locations the place within the water or islands or within the Mediterranean, and possibly it’s the ocean.
Now the Blue Zones, there was a gathering in Montpellier, France, which is within the south of France, quite a few years in the past, and a researcher obtained a blue-tip felt-markering pen and went to a map of the world and drew some circles round 5 locations that he thought, he thought had the perfect longevity on the earth. And who can be within the viewers however Dan Buettner, who really has trademarked the time period Blue Zone. So I’ve to watch out after I say it or use it. And so Dan is a vegetarian, virtually vegan. And so he wished, I feel, to select these elements of the Blue Zone cultures that assist his perception system. And, sadly, whenever you really have a look at what folks eat in these areas, that doesn’t assist his perception system one bit.
We might use Okinawa for an instance. The Okinawans, the one detailed description of the Okinawan food regimen was finished by the US navy in 1947 as an occupying nation. We took over Okinawa. And the one description of what Okinawans ate again then was by the US navy, primary. The Okinawans, 85% of their food regimen is a purple candy potato. The soy that they eat is miso. They hardly eat any rice, they usually actually don’t eat some other grain merchandise. The opposite factor that’s distinctive concerning the Okinawans is they really eat an enormous quantity of bitter, spicy inexperienced leaves and spices. The truth is, in Japan, they’re known as the spice eaters. So there’s nothing of their food regimen that helps the concept beans and rice is what makes them nice. It’s a candy potato. Sorry about that. The opposite factor that’s distinctive about Okinawa, in actual fact, as I discuss within the e book, the Okinawans can’t develop rice as a result of their local weather doesn’t assist rice rising. So, oh effectively.
Now possibly essentially the most spectacular factual information comes out of Sardinia. So Sardinia is an Italian island. It’s principally obtained two populations, bunch of people that dwell down by the ocean, they’re fishermen, and a bunch of people that dwell up within the mountains, they usually’re goat and sheep herders. The one individuals who have longevity dwell within the mountains. The individuals who dwell down by the ocean don’t have longevity, fascinating sufficient. Uh, yeah. And the individuals who dwell within the mountains, what makes them have extra longevity is definitely the boys dwell so long as the ladies. Now, most individuals know that males on the whole dwell about seven years shorter lives than ladies. You guys are the stronger intercourse, we obtained to confess it. However in that island, the boys really exceed the ladies’s longevity. Why is that? Nicely, about 95% of the boys smoke, and solely about 25% of the ladies smoke. And we see this repeated in a number of different Blue Zones, like Ikaria, Greece, like at Ciroli within the south of Italy. The lads are people who smoke, and the ladies aren’t a lot. And it’s really the nicotine in smoke that is without doubt one of the finest mitochondrial and couplers, longevity brokers recognized to mankind. Now, I don’t smoke. I don’t suggest smoking. The issue with nicotine, it’s addictive. However it’s actually nice for longevity. And actually, all of those longevity compounds that everyone’s speaking about, nicotinamide, riboside, NMN, niacinamide, nicotinic acid, that’s a cousin of nicotine and that’s really why they dwell a lot longer. Sorry about that Dan.
Now the opposite factor that’s fascinating, they’re sheep and goat herders. So each day they’re consuming sheep and goat yogurt, sheep and goat cheeses, and as I’ve talked about in my final two books, these cheeses have two health-promoting properties. Primary, they’re loaded with medium-chain triglycerides. A 3rd of the fats in cheese and goat milk and cheeses are MCTs. Secondly, they’ve these compounds that I write about known as polyamines, which as soon as once more are extremely lifespan-promoting compound. So, a lot for the principle grain and bean idea there.
Nicely, let’s discuss a spot that does eat grains and beans, the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. Now, all of Costa Rica eat beans and eat corn, and that’s their state. And the Nicoya Peninsula does eat beans and corn. However what’s distinctive about this little half is that they’re sheep and goat herders, they usually eat plenty of sheep and goat cheese and goat yogurt, in contrast to some other a part of Costa Rica. And there’s a very fascinating paper that I reference that the folks in that area credit score the goat and sheep with their longevity, they usually suppose that the beans and corn are a destructive side to their food regimen that they should tolerate only for energy. Oh effectively, and we might go on and on.
Katie: Nicely, that’s actually a far cry from the US the place these issues are simply tolerated for energy and easily getting sufficient energy to exist. That’s an enormous distinction than the breakdown of nutritionally what most individuals eat, actually within the US. That’s completely fascinating to me that you just stated smoking would possibly really be a consider longevity for these folks as a result of I’ve seen a few of this information as effectively about nicotine itself, particularly if we are able to isolate it from smoking and the dangerous elements that include that. Would you say there is likely to be a time and a spot for nicotine consumption that’s not from smoking for longevity perspective?
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, once more, I feel my buddy Dave Asprey makes use of nicotine drops on a regular basis. He argues, maybe appropriately, that every one nice concepts happened in a restaurant with smoking cigarettes and ingesting espresso and having a glass of wine. And he won’t be far off. However curiously sufficient, an island in Papua New Guinea, the Katawans, the Katawans smoke like fiends. They’ve by no means been recognized to have most cancers. There has by no means been a case of a stroke or coronary heart assault in these folks. They usually eat a food regimen with plenty of tubers. They do eat plenty of coconut. However right here’s one other instance the place the smoking doesn’t appear to have the destructive influence that we discover.
And I’m going into the e book, and I’ve talked about it earlier than, one of many issues that most likely will get these folks away with the unhealthy results of smoking: Smoking causes oxidative stress, and oxidative stress makes use of up an important antioxidant known as vitamin C. And we’re one of many few animals that don’t make our personal vitamin C. We’ve got to ingest it. Vitamin C is crucial for knitting collagen again collectively. Collagen breaks on a regular basis, and people who smoke have extra wrinkles as a result of their collagen has damaged as a result of the harm of daylight they usually don’t have any vitamin C to place it again collectively, curiously sufficient. Identical method people who smoke have very distinct patterns of coronary artery illness that will be prevented by vitamin C. So I feel the people who smoke in these long-lived areas have a food regimen that’s extremely wealthy in antioxidants in vitamin C. And there’s a really well-known examine in rats. There’s 5 genes that make enzymes that take glucose and convert it into vitamin C. So there’s 5 enzymatic steps. We’ve got 4 of these genes, however the fifth gene known as a ghost gene. It doesn’t work. And that’s why we don’t make vitamin C. For those who take rats and provides them the human gene sequence, rats make vitamin C, these rats will solely dwell half so long as a standard rat. However should you put vitamin C of their ingesting water, in order that they’re ingesting vitamin C all day, they’ll equal how lengthy a rat would usually dwell, providing you with an thought of simply how necessary form of a steady provide of vitamin C is.
Katie: Wow, that’s fascinating as effectively. I’d love to listen to out of your perspective what the information really says in what our key takeaways ought to be relating to Blue Zones. It feels like actually not grain and bean consumption in excessive quantities, doubtlessly root greens and tubers having a better place, particularly ones which might be wealthy in issues like polyphenols are like brightly coloured. I’d guess additionally issues like although they drink wine in lots of of those locations, wine could also be not obligatory for longevity by any means.
And I do know folks additionally discuss components like usually they transfer extra, like folks like goat and sheep herders most likely get way more motion than the typical American. It looks like they usually have nice group and/or areas with good mineral, extra minerals within the soil or the ingesting water. However what out of your perspective are the important thing takeaways that we are able to really study once we have a look at the information with an correct lens that we are able to all study from?
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, I feel you’ve hit on plenty of them. Most of those dwell in hilly areas. Loma Linda, the place I used to be professor for a lot of my profession, which is the one Blue Zone in the USA. Loma Linda means stunning hill, curiously sufficient. And Loma Linda, the Adventist group, has the longevity. The remainder of Loma Linda doesn’t, curiously sufficient. One factor I’d add, in Okinawa, all the medical information, beginning certificates had been destroyed through the struggle. And one of many theories of why Okinawans had been so long-lived is that when folks had been requested how outdated they had been, they made wild guesses, and there’s really no information. The opposite factor, notably in Europe, is that pensions are based mostly on dwelling folks, and plenty of occasions, you want that pension to outlive, and so that you don’t declare deaths of people that have really died, so that you simply hold getting their pension. So, there’s all kinds of different issues.
I’d add, one of many issues that shocked me after I was doing the analysis for Intestine Test, is that individuals with the longest lifespan of any nation on the earth is a bit tiny nation between France and Spain known as Andorra. And it’s solely 150,000 inhabitants. And it’s method up within the Pyrenees Mountains. And the Andorrans have a really, so they really have a lifespan of about 90 years, each women and men. Fairly good. The Andorrans are sheepherders, they usually eat sheep cheese and sheep yogurts, they usually eat sausages each day. And also you go, effectively, wait a minute, that looks like, wait a minute, cheese and sausage is the important thing to longevity? Nicely, as I suggest in Intestine Test, sure. It seems that sausages, historically ready sausages, have polyamines and the actually nasty sugar molecule in beef, lamb, and pork, and milk known as NU5GC, is eaten by the micro organism throughout fermentation of sausages. In order that explains why you’ll be able to form of have your cake and eat it too. So you’ll be able to have cheese and sausages like charcuterie and possibly dwell a very very long time.
Katie: That’s actually thrilling as effectively, as a result of actually you additionally hear them say, you understand, in these areas they don’t eat meat, they don’t eat animal merchandise, and it looks like that can also be some cherry-picking of knowledge and never an correct illustration. And particularly, I do know it’s more durable to seek out within the US, but it surely looks like there is likely to be one thing to including extra sheep and goat dairy merchandise to our food regimen, which actually are very minimal in American food regimen consumption from my understanding.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I imply, fortunately, we’re starting to see like plain goat yogurt. It’s a Dealer Joe’s. There are sheep yogurt merchandise now. Uh, it’s, in a method, simple to seek out, uh, sheep cheeses, Manchego. You may get at Costco or Dealer Joe’s. Yow will discover pecorino cheese, which is a sheep cheese. Goat cheeses are a bit more durable to seek out, however even Dealer Joe’s has goat brie. A number of corporations are actually making goat mozzarella, goat cheddar. So folks ought to search for these. They’ll make a distinction.
Katie: That’s nice to know. I’m curious should you noticed any information, and possibly not, that is only a analysis subject for me proper now of mineral consumption in these areas or if their atmosphere naturally has extra of the minerals that we’re not getting in our food regimen, particularly if we’re consuming processed meals.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, one of many issues that I do plenty of YouTube movies about this, our soil is so depleted right here in the USA of minerals. The truth is, there’s a Senate doc from 1939 that I’ve written about in earlier books that principally says, our soil is so depleted, this was 1939, that we must eat constantly and nonetheless couldn’t make up for the dearth of minerals in our food regimen, consuming constantly.
The opposite factor that’s occurred in our soil, is glyphosate is an antibiotic, and it’s killed off the microbiome of the soil. And the microbiome of the soil was really liable for taking these natural compounds and minerals and placing them into the soil, primary, after which aiding the foundation system of the plant to take up these minerals into the plant. So, you understand, corn could appear like corn now, but it surely bears no relationship to what corn was 50 years in the past. A chunk of broccoli could appear like broccoli now, but it surely actually has a 3rd of the minerals of fifty years in the past. So yeah, we’re profoundly mineral-depleted. And fortunately, these Blue Zones, or these long-lived people who aren’t, quote, official Blue Zones, they dwell in distant areas, glyphosate has by no means come close to them. They farm the land or decide the land. They’re consuming greens and leaves which might be rising in eight toes of loam soil. And they also’re getting these vitamins which have lengthy been lacking in our food regimen.
Katie: Nicely, and based mostly on that statistic of we’d should eat constantly and we nonetheless wouldn’t get sufficient minerals, it looks like there’s two keys there to spotlight. One is, after all, avoiding glyphosate nevertheless potential. And the second, it will seem to be that is additionally a theme in podcast friends that I’ve had is we’re just about at some extent within the trendy world the place we do should complement with sure issues to achieve these minimal quantities. Like, sadly, we’re not at some extent the place we are able to get every part from meals, even when, such as you stated, we ate all day lengthy.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, and one of many theories that’s really come out of animal research is that animals, in the event that they’re disadvantaged of a specific nutrient, will constantly eat of what’s obtainable to them to get to this essential nutrient quantity of their physique. Issues that they’d by no means contemplate consuming or an animal that doesn’t eat plenty of carbohydrates, however the carbohydrate that’s offered within the food regimen has these important minerals, the animal will go and eat these things till it will get what it’s on the lookout for. I imply, I at all times comply with my canines within the spring. They’re consuming younger shoots of grass. And I’m going, yeah, that’s fascinating. What are you guys doing that for? They’re not throwing up. They’re on the lookout for younger shoots of grass. Nicely, and that’s the place all the latest little bits of polyphenols and minerals are coming from. Canine are fairly good, too.
Katie: I feel that highlights one thing actually necessary as a result of I’ve questioned this for a very long time. We hear usually that Individuals particularly are overfed and undernourished. A couple of years in the past, I switched from excited about energy and macros in any respect and checked out nutrient density in meals, particularly micronutrients. I consciously began upping my mineral consumption, and I observed that I used to be far much less hungry and that my physique appeared to be way more in tune with what it wished to eat. I’ve questioned if many of those issues we’re having within the US, after all, are multifaceted, but it surely’s as a result of we’re so poor in a few of these micronutrients that our our bodies are craving additional meals like canines would to attempt to hit these minimums for survival and if we might really profit ourselves by being much more acutely aware in our mineral consumption and our nutrient consumption.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, completely. One of many research that I alluded to in earlier e book was they took some, effectively, let me preface that. We all know that our microbiome determines plenty of what we’re on the lookout for by way of energy and the kinds of energy we’re on the lookout for. And one of many themes of the e book, Intestine Test, is we’ve primary, starved our microbiome as a result of we don’t eat any soluble fiber. And we’ve, you understand, genocided our microbiome as a result of we actively eat glyphosate, we actively eat antibiotics, virtually all of the meats that we eat are loaded with antibiotics, a brand new examine out two weeks in the past confirmed that every one quick meals meals have antibiotics in them. And glyphosate.
So should you take regular volunteers in China and put them on a two-week water-only quick, and half the group will get 100 energy of prebiotic fiber, indigestible by us, however the meals for the intestine microbiome. The group that obtained the prebiotic fiber on a water quick had completely no starvation for 2 weeks. The group that simply obtained water had been actually hungry for a few week earlier than they adjusted. And I feel that confirms that principally the microbiome was being fed, then sends textual content messages, these are literally postbiotics, to the mind saying, hey! We’re good down right here. You’ve finished your job. We’re joyful. Don’t have to go search for anything. Thanks very a lot. Let’s have a very good day. And I feel that basically does communicate to the facility that we used to have in a wholesome microbiome that we fed what they wanted, like a tuber for example, nice supply of prebiotic fiber, and we didn’t attempt to kill our microbiome each day with what we ate.
Katie: Wow, that’s positively a hanging instance. And I’d love to listen to in our previous few minutes, really, what your individual every day habits and food regimen and foundational issues that you just do each day, your non-negotiables, your private 80-20 since you are nonetheless a really prolific author. You talked about you’re nonetheless seeing sufferers. You appear to have this large quantity of inside power and drive to enhance the world. So I’d love to listen to what your private life appears to be like like for a minute and what your every day non-negotiables are.
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, let’s see. Each day non-negotiable is I’ve to take our canines for a two-mile stroll, hike within the hills. That’s non-negotiable in response to the canines. Then I don’t eat breakfast for essentially the most half. Throughout the winter months from January by way of June, I don’t eat lunch both. I eat all my energy in a few two-hour window from 5 to seven at night time. Do I’ve to do this? No. I’ve been doing it now, I feel, for 25 years, so it appears to be working. Throughout the summer time, I form of again off from that.
There’s fairly good proof, and I talked about it in Intestine Test, and I’ve prior to now, that most likely should you actually wished to make peace together with your intestine and promote longevity, a six-hour consuming window, might be optimum. So meaning an 18-hour fasting window. One of many issues I’m going over and over and over in Intestine Test is it’s a must to have downtime to your intestine wall to restore itself. It can not always be concerned in digestion and absorption of meals. It has to have restore. And you’ll do that to a automotive, you’ll do that to an airplane engine. The concept, the typical American eats 16 hours a day from the second we stand up to actually earlier than we go to mattress. And so there may be just about no restore time for our intestine. And whereas there are plenty of superb causes to do time-restricted consuming, intermittent fasting, I feel one of many causes that’s missed by so many individuals is the necessity for restore of the wall of the intestine.
Years in the past, , there’s a worm mannequin of longevity. The worm is C. elegans. And the worm mannequin of longevity, this mannequin has labored for each longevity selling polyphenol drug, et cetera, we at all times begin with this worm mannequin as a result of no matter works within the worm mannequin at all times works in greater organisms. So one of many fascinating issues is the worm begins to die. Because the wall of its intestine, and it has a bit tiny digestive system, however the wall of its intestine is just one cell thick like ours. And as gaps seem within the wall of that worm’s intestine, the worm begins to die. The extra that wall will get destroyed, the quicker the worm dies. And that has had, and Hippocrates stated it 2,500 years in the past, all illness begins within the intestine, and all illness begins in a leaky intestine. So the actually intestine test is all of us want a intestine test to advertise the integrity of the wall of artwork. And all of the methods of how to do this that I’ve discovered now in 25 years of working with my sufferers is in that e book. And in order that’s what I do. I take plenty of dietary supplements. I’m a man who a very long time in the past stated dietary supplements make costly urine. They don’t. You’re proper, our meals, our soil is so depleted that you just simply can’t sustain with what we ought to be getting in our food regimen with out supplementing.
Katie: And I do know you talked about that statistic, which appears so staggering to me as effectively, that individuals eat a median of it in a 16-hour window within the US. And I feel I additionally learn that the typical, we expect we simply eat three meals a day, however out of your intestine’s perspective, any time energy enter the physique and should be dealt with, that’s an consuming occasion. And I feel the latest one I noticed was it was one thing like 17 occasions a day, one thing is coming into your physique that your intestine has to cope with. So it’s really such as you stated, we’re not getting any intestine relaxation. We’re bombarding our guts, usually with issues which might be harming it, actually not usually with issues which might be serving to it. So possibly a few of these shifts like specializing in these nutrient-density, including in some sheep and goat cheeses. I do know you may have dietary supplements that assist with the restoration course of in case you have leaky intestine. And I do know you go tremendous deep on this subject in Intestine Test on learn how to actually resolve the issues at a intestine stage. However it looks like these easy methods usually get missed as a result of they’re easy, and I see that sample again and again. However the nice information is that our our bodies, once we can do these easy issues, know learn how to heal they usually need to, and they’ll. And so I really like that you just give folks their energy again by making that so accessible on this e book and really in your entire books, which I’ll be sure that are linked within the present notes. However Dr. Gundry, I at all times study a lot from you. It’s at all times an absolute pleasure to get to speak to you, and I’m so grateful to your time. Thanks for being right here at this time.
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, Wellness Mama sustain the great work.
Katie: Nicely, thanks. And thanks as at all times to all of you for listening and sharing your most dear sources, your time, your power, and your consideration with us at this time. We’re each so grateful that you just did. And I hope that you’ll be part of me once more on the following episode of the Wellness Mama podcast.
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