 Welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast. You know, there's nothing a little more than hearing from my listeners and readers. And boy, have I had a lot of questions about my yes and no list of foods, particularly as I put out a new book, and that list changes. So I get it. You know, one egg replacer that I might have recommended two years ago, I might not recommend now because believe it or not, formulas change without consulting me. So what I said was a really great egg replacer a year ago that formula changed and I no longer recommend that egg replacer. And I, you know, I do try my best to keep the list updated. I assure you, I am always looking for a new food to add. And I'm always looking for when somebody changes something. And if we don't get to the question, I will try to remind myself to talk about the changes that have been made in corn products. That's not corn. It's Q U O R M because I have a lot of patients that ask me about that. So the fundamentals of the yes and no list actually, hopefully never change. Now having said that, you really smart readers, careful readers may know that in the Dr. Gundry cookbook, the original one, I cited a paper that said pecans might have a lectin that in some people attack the pancreas. And that same paper suggested that there is a lectin in seaweed that may be problematic. And it's well hidden in that book, but every now and then an alert reader will pick that up. So why haven't I taken pecans and seaweed off the list? Well, stay tuned because in my upcoming book, the energy paradox, which will be out this coming fall, I have found through multiple food allergy testing in my patients that pecans often, often, often, I would say 75% of the time come up as a food that people are allergic to. So stay tuned. They may be coming off the list. Also, we have found that there is a lectin in spinach that can be problematic for certain individuals, not everybody. And as I get more data from my patients, remember, this is not conjecture on my part. This is data driven from patient blood work. As more data comes in, we may issue a cautionary note on spinach. But for now, don't throw the spinach away. Okay. So there's always going to be great foods to eat, and there'll probably be always foods that you should avoid. Okay, so there's always exceptions to the rule. And we're going to talk about some of the exceptions. Okay, Francia asked, I have a tree nut allergy. So the acceptable flowers on the list are out of my range of acceptability. I am also vegetarian. So meats and chicken on the list cannot be eaten. Dairy is one of my protein staples. Any suggestions? Well, there's certainly a lot of flowers on the list that are not nut based. For instance, tiger nuts are not a nut at all. They are a tuber. Cassava is a tuber. Millet is a grain without a hall as is sorghum. And we're increasingly seeing sorghum and millet flowers available on a routine basis. And if worse comes to worse, you can find them on Amazon or on thrive. So there's multiple other flowers other than almond and coconut flower. Most people don't react to almond and coconut flower, but I'll add the proviso. Make sure it's blanched almond flower, not whole almond flower. For instance, Trader Joe's does sell a whole ground up almond flower and you can actually see the flecks of brown. A number of my patients with autoimmune disease do react to the lectin and the peel of almonds. That's why you actually don't see almonds on the approved nut list. Marcona almonds, which are peeled almonds, are perfectly acceptable. But in my way of thinking there's actually far better nuts to eat than almonds in terms of feeding gut bacteria. And I've written about that in the longevity paradox that there's better choices. Okay, dairy is one of my protein staples. Well, dairy, as a protein, if you find casein A2 milk products and they are increasingly available, that's a perfectly acceptable protein source. You can get it from goat's milk, you can get it from goat's cheeses, you can get it from sheep cheeses, you can get sheep yogurt, which is absolutely fantastic. Sheep and goat's cheeses from Europe, no matter where they come from or safe. And most cows in France, Italy, and Switzerland are A2 producers, as is buffalo mozzarella. Make sure it says buffalo mozzarella either from Italy. There's also a company that we've talked about before from Ecuador called Buf, B-U-F. And you can find in a whole foods, you can find it in actually multiple stores now. And a true water buffalo milk is perfectly safe. Now having said that, there are a number of people in my practice who when we do further testing, they do react to all the caseins in milk and even whey protein in milk. So if you notice that even if you're eating casein A2 milk products and you still have an issue, whether it's irritable bowel, whether it's mucus production, then you're one of those people where milk is one of your off foods. Always remember, there's no human need for milk. We're the only animal that uses some other animal's milk product. Well, cats like it, but we give it to cats. They don't go milk a cow. So milk is not essential for your good health. Also remember that while there may be cheeses, aged cheeses that have a really cool compound called polyamines, which appear to promote longevity, milk in general, liquid milk has lots of insulin like growth factor to make baby cows or baby goats or baby sheep grow quickly. So I'd much rather you use the finished product of milk like an aged cheese or even a yogurt rather than the milk liquid itself. Okay, hope that helps. Robin asks, can you drink almond milk? Well, yeah, you can drink almond milk. I find it a little watery and bland. I think there's actually a lot better products out there on the market now. I'm particularly fond of a combination of macadamia and coconut milks that are available. There's some really, I think, thick, delicious coconut milks that are available. There are some combinations of almond and coconut milk that give you the thickness you want. And if you want to have some fun, look for several of the products that are non-dairy half and half, which are often a mixture of macadamia or coconut or almond milks. And you're going to get more of a thicker texture for those. But yeah, you can drink almond milk. Christiana asks, what about honey? Is that on the yes or no list? So you'll notice in the Plant Paradox Family cookbook, I do recommend in a few recipes using a little bit of local honey. You got to remember that honey is sugar. There's no other way of looking at it. And in general, we have far too much sugar in our diet, period. That being said, if you use local honey, there is some interesting evidence that they contain health benefiting properties, including actually some interesting probiotics and even prebiotics. So it's not, it's neither on the no or yes list because when I originally made the list, if I put everything that everybody asked a question about, it would take the entire book just to do the yes and no list. So rather than put it one place or another, it wasn't a big thing that my patients were demanding. And so I just left it off the list one way or another. But yeah, honey does appear, you'll notice in several of my recipes, but do try to get local honey and, you know, again, support your local beekeeper, support your local farmer's market. And that's where you're going to find local honey. And please don't make the mistake that local honey, so for instance, I live in Palm Springs, my local honey is not from Orange County. It's from Palm Springs. Same way, if I'm in Santa Barbara and my other home, I buy Santa Barbara honey. Do I use it? Quite frankly, I almost never use honey, except to make one of these recipes. Rose asked, am I correct in understanding that much of the no list is perfectly fine if pressure cooked? She's specifically looking at squash, quinoa, rice, lentils. The answer in a general rule is yes. There are, there is evidence that pressure cooking destroys most lectins. The exception to the rule, and I listed on the list, is gluten, which is present in wheat, rye, and barley, cannot be destroyed by pressure cooking. It is a really nasty protein that can't be broken apart by pressure cooking. Having said that, there is a protein in oats that mimics gluten. And so I've had a number of my canaries test even pressure cooking oats for an hour, and they still react to oats. So you'll notice that that's on the off. I have a number of people who still want to maintain their traditional diet, their family diet, and that includes lentils and, for instance, quinoa. And they do extremely well by pressure cooking their quinoa. In fact, interesting that just this past week, I have a family who have quinoa, and they pressure cook their quinoa and are thriving on that. And they invited their in-laws over to have pressure cooked quinoa. And the in-laws said, there's no way we're coming over. That's not how you cook quinoa. And you know, you're going to make some regular stuff for us. And they actually didn't. And they fed their family the pressure cook quinoa. And he said, you're not going to believe this. My in-laws actually said, why didn't you tell us about this before? This is so much better than the way we've been preparing it. So true story from just this past week. As you know, in the plant paradox, I write about a woman who immigrated to LA from Peru and wanted to continue her traditional diet, which included quinoa. She developed some impressive bowel issues and autoimmune disease. And humorously, her mother two weeks before her appointment with me flew from Peru and basically said, you stupid girl, didn't I tell you you have to pressure cook quinoa? And she took her to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought her a pressure cooker. And when I met her, she said, you know, my mother would beat you to me. And ever since she's been pressure cooking her quinoa, she has resolved her issues. So these are real things. White Basmati rice, I personally feel is the safest of the rice is please pressure cook it. And as you've read, even with any of these starches, your best off to pressure cook them, put a little coconut oil in the pressure cooker with these starches, but then cool the starch, put it in the refrigerator, and then reheat it the next day. Cooling will take any of these starches and increase their resistance starch content. What resistance starch means for those of you who are just kind of getting into this, it is resistant to normal digestion. So it takes longer to digest number one. And number two, some of it actually resists our normal digestion and then is eaten by bacteria in our gut. So it becomes a prebiotic. Now we can get really nerdy on resistant starches, but really nerdy potatoes, good old white potatoes can be made a resistant starch. But the starch in potato is actually an R2 starch. And it is actually eaten by bad bacteria rather than good bacteria. So it's another reason to avoid potatoes, even if you're going to pressure cook them. Now I do have some of my patients that have to have their white potatoes and mashed potatoes. And yes, we have them peel the potatoes and pressure cook them. But if you're looking for a starch that's good for you, that's way down the list. Okay, Sherry asks, how do you ensure adequate potassium intake on the diet? Bananas are a staple for me to ensure appropriate potassium levels. I know sweet potatoes are a good source but so one has to remember that the United Fruit Company who originated bringing bananas to the United States had to make people adopt to a new foods source. One of the fascinating things about bananas that I hope everyone knows that bananas were the original fruit that could be picked green and then shipped across the country and then ripened with either exposure to air or ripened rapidly with exposure to the gas ethylene oxide. So that was the motivation for making bananas a desired food source. So how do you make people eat bananas when they don't know anything about it? In the early 1900s, the United Fruit Company paid doctors to tell people that bananas were a great source of potassium that people needed in their diet. It turns out that potassium that potassium is not particularly high in bananas. In fact, there are far better foods including leafy greens that have far more potassium per ounce than bananas. But it was this marketing plan over 100 years ago that actually made people and doctors to this day tell people to eat bananas for potassium. Incidentally, the United Fruit Company formed with the new founded Kellogg's Cornflake Company in 1906 to have a coupon for a bunch of jacquita bananas in every box of Kellogg's Cornflakes and doctors were paid to tell people that the healthy way to start your day was with a bowl of Kellogg's Cornflakes with a sliced banana. So that's why you know now why my mom gave me a healthy sliced banana on my Kellogg's Cornflakes every day while I was growing up. And while I was getting allergy shots, little did I know little did she know that's because of the power of marketing. And as anyone learns, if you say an untruth often enough and loud enough, it will become the truth. How's that? Okay, also, calcium is a concern. So most of the world, two thirds of the world cannot drink milk because of lactose intolerance. They did not inherit the mutated gene that allows most European ancestry to tolerate lactose. Many of us don't have the particular lactobacilli that can digest lactose easily. Two thirds of the world does not use calcium, does not take calcium as a supplement. The FDA has warned that in general, we should not take calcium in a supplement form that we should get calcium, which is an essential mineral from food. And so it's incredibly available in all of our green leafy vegetables. It's actually present in avocados do a very good amount. It's present in millet and sorghum. It is present in beans and people have to understand I have nothing against beans and lentils as long as you pressure cook them. They are a great source of prebiotic fiber, but just take the time to detoxify the lectins by pressure cooking. And it's so easy to do. If you don't want to do that, you can go to your friendly store and pick up Eden brand beans. I have no relationship with them. E-D-E-N and they are the only bean that I have found that is pressure cooked in the can. It's pre-soaked and the BPA there is no BPA lining in Eden beans. And believe it or not, I have a shelf full of Eden beans in both of my pantries and I eat them. So whoever puts out on the internet then you know I am totally against beans. It's not true. I eat them. Maybe I'll post a video of me eating beans. That'll be good. Okay. Look for that. Bottom line. How does one ensure the right vitamin and mineral balance? So if you eat a wide range of different vegetables, different starches, different roots, you will maintain an adequate balance. One of the things that has been noted over and over again is that our soil, even our organic soil is terribly depleted of magnesium and selenium. How do you get selenium in your diet? Well, one of the easiest ways is to buy a bag of Brazil nuts and eat three Brazil nuts a day. That will get you your daily requirement of selenium and actually they're pretty good for you. Magnesium on the other hand is really difficult to get by eating food and I have every one of my patients on a magnesium supplement. I particularly like potassium magnesium aspartate. There are several companies that manufacture it. Look for the most you can get per tablet or capsule. The labeling is very inconsistent. If you have any issues with cramps in your legs, cramps particularly at night or if you're doing a ketogenic diet, you absolutely positively must supplement with potassium magnesium aspartate and it's actually one of the better tolerated combinations of magnesium. At high dose, magnesium will act as a diarrhea or soft inducing agent. Milk of magnesium is concentrated magnesium. So those are the two really fundamental minerals that may be lacking in our diet because of our soil depletion. Shelly asks, I love avocados but in the last five years or so I have extreme gut pain when I eat them and have eliminated them from my diet. This diet seems to rely heavily on avocados so I am wondering why I'm having a problem with them and what other options do I have? So I have several patients who clearly react to avocados and some of them actually seem to develop an intolerance for them the longer they eat them. So I think avocados are one of the greatest fruits there is and yes an avocado is a fruit. It's a single seeded berry but on the other hand if you see that there is a food that you react to it's you know like the old doctor joke doctor you know whenever I do this I get a headache and the answer is well don't do that and so if you notice you react avocados don't do it. I can tell you I have a number particularly women who get irritable bladder from eating spinach and they notice it universally and I can tell you I have purposely overloaded myself on spinach and I induced irritable bladder in myself so I believe you when you tell me that and there are compounds and spinach that are capable of doing that and that actually brings me to an interesting point a patient asked me a couple weeks ago the more you kind of stick with this program when you go off even with a little cheat do you notice you're now realizing that that product that food actually bothers you and I think that's actually a great observation because I notice that myself and I've noticed it in lots of patients normally we are so bombarded with compounds that universally make us feel bad have brain fog have bad sleep have pains we are so used to that that when we take all those products away and we finally wake up when we add that product back our sensitivity is now heightened to the actual effect that product was having on us and I'll give you an example it's it's actually in my new book but I'll give you a preface as a transplant surgeon both doing kidney transplants and heart transplants we would have people who were functioning quite well with basically horrible kidneys or a horribly pumping heart and they could do a number of things when we would put a new kidney in them or a new heart in them within a day they would go oh my gosh I forgot what normal felt like this is what normal feels like and it's so interesting I've been so impressed that we have been so surrounded by food that's toxic that's making us feel bad having low energy having fatigue having brain fog that we are so used to that we think that's normal and what really delights me and it delighted me when it happened to me is when that lifts you go oh my gosh I forgot what normal feels like and so when you add something back that is one of the culprits it's wonderful because now your body says hey you idiot you know what you do that for and you can feel it immediately so it's a real thing Scott from Instagram asks can I drink ciders as a beer alternative that is a great question Scott because I have a gentleman who's in his 70s who has some of the most impressive leaky gut that I've come across he does not absorb protein well he is skinny as a rail and his wife is a faithful follower of mine and he's actually a faithful follower of mine except he used to drink a six pack of beer every day we weaned him down to one to two beers per day and he still has leaky gut so I said I'll tell you what let's do a really specific leaky gut test on you and let's find out your culprit knowing full well what I think we thought we'd find and lo and behold all of his leaky gut tests came back and son of a gun I've been telling them this for 10 years he reacts to wheat and surprise a wheat and he reacts severely to gluten and gluten is in his beer no matter what beer he's drinking beer has gluten and his wife you know hits him over the head with her pocketbook and says yes see I told you you got to give up the beer so what I'm going to do next week when I get back to the Palm Springs office is I'm going to have my staff call and say I'm going to make a swap for you let's get rid of beer and let's put insider and we're going to see what happens great question you leave from Instagram asks is teff flour allowed teff is actually a very interesting ancient grain from Africa it's really tiny it grows in incredibly arid awful places and it's a staple of the people I go dig wells for in Ethiopia and teff is actually a safe grain it's another one of those hauls grain try to buy teff you actually support indigenous farmers so Hannah from instagram asks for high fat dairy products how important is it to stick with organic dairy products yes get organic dairy products but warning if it says grass fed but doesn't tell you the cow breed most of our cows in the United States are Holstein or their Jersey cows jerseys are half a one and half a two so they do have a one casing in them the picture Elsie the cow was a Jersey cow for those of you who remember Borden fame you're better off getting excuse me cheeses from raw cheeses from France Italy and Switzerland which have all been grass fed and so they're all organic you're just much safer so the follow-up with that what about cream cheese well cream cheese does not have any casein in it I mean there's a microscopic amount but it's really basically unmeasurable so you're safe with organic cream cheese as one of the safe you know cow's milk product if you're going to use cream cheese so Kristen asks what about blue cheese so there's lots of great blue cheeses out there but I would prefer if you got your blue cheese from particularly France Italy or the mountainous areas of Germany and Switzerland which are all a two cows blue cheese from England and having lived in England I love Stilton cheese it's the wrong breed of cow it's a Holstein so you're much better off getting your blue cheeses like Penny and I do from from France that's the blue cheeses we use or Italy so a goldstein from Instagram asks please recommend a perilla oil to cook with well there's actually a number of perilla oils that are available if you go to an Asian market perilla oil is the most popular oil for cooking in Korea and parts of China you can go on Amazon and get it I get mine from a company called Dr. Wonderful which is easy to find on Amazon I have no relation I may be wonderful for all I know but and I've been using that for a number of years my personal feeling is that long-term in phase two or beyond olive oil is your best buddy because it has far more polyphenols than perilla oil the benefit of perilla oils it has a lot of what's called rosemaryic acid which is one of the secrets to the longevity and good brain health of the acerolies that community that is south of Naples which has the oldest the biggest percentage of over 100 year old people of any community so rosemaryic acid which by the way is in one of several of my products is one of the real secrets to longevity so 303 Charlie from Instagram wants to know about mycotoxins in coffee and chocolate and other things and he wants to know are they really as bad as certain people say they are that's a great question and I I actually take care of a number of people who come to me with a mold exposure or mycotoxin exposure including one of the world's experts on it and I'll give you my take on all of this I don't test for these things the fact that you may test positive for IgG to various molds or other fungi does not mean that those molds and fungi are in you or that you were ever infected with them it means that you were exposed to them and you appropriately made a antibody to these having said that your immune system most of our immune systems because of leaky gut and quite frankly I think about a hundred percent of us walking around in America have leaky gut and your immune system is so hyper on alert that any foreign protein will activate them to attack not only them but you normally when your gut is sealed and you have a normal component of microbiome with lots and lots and thousands and millions of different species those species literally educate your immune system that we've got your back whatever you're going to swallow we'll take care of and even if we don't they're not going to bother you and you guys can just rest and stand down I'm a perfect example of that I got allergy shots for most of my teenage and young adult life I don't have any allergies anymore I was allergic to every mold there was I could live in a moldy house I will not have any reaction to mold exposure because my immune system is different by the way the Italian government has issued statements that there are no mycotoxins in espresso so there are none because the process even if there were the cooking process the high temperature kills and deactivates any mycotoxin same way with chocolate so if you react to these molds or fungi it's because your immune system is hyper reactive and that's actually telling you that these guys are not the problem the problem is you got leaky gut and you got a horribly imbalanced microbiome we fix that that problem goes away as it did with one of the world experts in mycotoxins when we changed your leaky gut so that's it for this week from the Dr. Gundry podcast please send your questions on in it's really fun to get a chance to answer your questions and send more and we'll be happy to put me on the firing line because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you before you go I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you