 Let's say you're trying to find some solid information about a serious health problem that concerns you. High blood pressure, diabetes, yet everywhere you look someone's trying to sell you something like vitamins, yoga mats, blenders, drugs, well, breathe a sigh of relief because all we bring you are the facts. Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. Live from my treadmill, I bring you answers to a wide variety of questions, like the benefits of milk thistle, dietary recommendations for a polycystic ovary syndrome, and how to use vinegar to combat blood sugar spikes. Okay, let's see what questions we have for everybody. Rocky McFly asked, there is a new concern about meat-based nutrients like arachnidonic acid, taurine, carnitine, carnicine. In the German vegan community, and some advice to supplement, should we be worried, is our new data. Okay, well guess what? You and I are both meat-based. The reason animals make arachnidic acid, taurine, carnitine, carnicine is because they're animals. Guess what? We're animals. We make it. We make all these molecules. We make carnitine. We make arachnidic acid. We do supplement it, unless you're not an animal, but you really are. Next up, Oli asks, is having a high-basic metabolic rate a bad thing? Does it really mean a shorter lifespan? Yes, the candle that burns brighter burns faster. Well, so we do have evidence that slowing metabolic rate does appear to extend lifespan. And so how do we do that? A slow metabolic rate, we can do that through chloroconstriction, or my favorite method, through nitrate-rich vegetables. So that's dark green leafy vegetables, as well as beets. So you can go around starving all the time or just eat a big salad. So anyway, that would be the way to decrease your metabolic rate for longevity. Also, would I recommend a good vegan B12 and Omega supplement brand? So the most important thing with B12 is to get the right type of B12, cyanocobalamin, because the most shelf-stable form. And so buy whatever is the right dose. That's the cheapest cyanocobalamin you can find. Oh, and you also do want to get kind of a chewable or a sublingual or a spray or a liquid, something like that, that dissolves in your mouth, mixes with your saliva. And so whatever you can find out there, I would recommend 2,000 micrograms once a week for those under 65 and over 65, 1,000 micrograms once a day in terms of Omega-3s. I think these days the algae-based DHA is made by one company, it's just labeled with different brands. So it's the same stuff, just in different packaging. So again, might as well get cheapest, but I recommend considering 250 milligrams of a pollutant-free, meaning algae-based DHA in the cheapest form you can buy it. Okay, and you are absolutely welcome for all the work that I do. Next up is Alaina says, is red algae a reliable source of calcium for vegans with us versus need additional sublimation? Calcium sublimation does not help those with us or our process, you just need to have sufficient calcium effect. Calcium supplements aren't safe, they're neither safe nor effective, as I have videos on both of those going through the data. But we do need to get calcium from somewhere, well it's the best source of calcium, low oxalate, dark green leafy vegetables, so there's lots of sources you can get from calcium. So telephone systems, blah, blah, blah, but all dark green leafy vegetables, which is the exception of beet greens, spinach, and Swiss chard, which are fantastic foods, just a little stingy with the calcium. All the other greens like kale and collards and bok choy, et cetera, the best sources of calcium because of all the other wonderful nutrients they have like those vegetable nitrates I just talked about. Next up, Alaina is back again, any science back benefits of milk thistle, milk thistle is a supplement traditionally used for liver issues, the problem is the way it's harvested, for some reason they have to harvest it moist, something to do with the pods or whatever, and however they harvest it ends up being contaminated with mold, in fact, serious chemicals, and so there's these fungal toxins like afro toxin, such that I would stay away from milk thistle supplements regardless of what they can do because they're contaminated with fungal toxins. Bu, or bow, sorry, I don't know how to pronounce people's names, bow McFarland says here are a lot of negative press, the evils of seed oils, let's include black cumin seed oil as a supplement, why not just eat black cumin seeds, ground black cumin seeds, just black cumin seed powder, that would be preferable, but no, that's not what they're talking about with seed oils, they're talking about like cotton seed oil, safflower, sunflower, these high omega 6 rich oils and the deodorization process, refining oils creates compounds like 3 MCPD, which is bad for you, and so yeah, we want to try to decrease our intake of refined oils, but don't have to have any oil at all, and certainly might as well get all the nutrition in your black cumin by eating it powdered. Okay, Brandon says, do women need collagen while pregnant? No women make collagen, in fact we all make collagen, no need to take any in our mouth. Deepak says, there was a video suggesting 1,000 micrograms of B12 daily over 65, that's what I just said, very good, yeah, so yeah, you can get away with 2,500 micrograms a week or even just 2,000 micrograms a week or 50 every day if you're under 65, but yeah, you really do need 1,000 daily over age 65, that's what you should do, and cyanocobalamin, fantastic. Next up, Ronan says, given that tofu and most mushrooms must be cooked, should we treat the utensils that come in contact with them the same way we do raw meat? Okay, well the reason most mushrooms need to be cooked has nothing to do with kind of like a food safety issue, but rather a toxin issue. Garicus mushrooms, which are white mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, or crimini mushrooms, and portobello mushrooms are garicus mushrooms and produce a toxin called garatine, which is destroyed by cooking, so you want to cook those kind of mushrooms, and then you cook shiitakes for a different reason, because they have toxin that can cause flagellate dermatitis, and then morel mushrooms need to cook for a different reason, there's toxins in that too, and I also wouldn't want to eat them with alcohol, but other mushrooms are fine, so oyster mushrooms, for example, you can totally eat them raw. I've actually started growing oyster mushrooms, one of the reasons, one of the things that came out of how not to age my research is the importance of eating fungus, the importance of eating mushrooms and fermented, fungal fermented foods like tempeh, for herbithionine, and spermine, and all sorts of wonderful things, and so I actually started making oyster mushrooms, so cool, you can do it in your house just like you can make sprouts, you can get fresh produce during winter, you can do the same thing with oyster mushrooms, and you don't need to cook them, although yeah, I eat them cooked, because I like them cooked, but anyway, but now tofu, we do want to not eat raw, cooked because it concerns about food safety, bacterial contamination, but it's not at the kind of level where you're going to drip a little tofu juice like chicken juice onto your broccoli and run into problems, and so the answer is no. Okay, Margaret, it's also overdue on our daily consumption of fermented foods, okay, well the big problem with fermented foods typically is the sodium content, it's too much salt and something like sauerkraut, there are ways of fermentation like with tempeh, where you can ferment foods without the addition of salt, that'd be the best way to go. Yeah, if you are going to eat something like sauerkraut, make sure to rinse it under water to get rid of some of the excess sodium. Sheila says they want to fast for autophagy, but have hypothyroidism, how can I get to the point of autophagy? Oh wonderful, I got a whole chapter on autophagy, and fasting is just one way to boost it, you can fast or go fast, 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, aerobic activity will increase autophagy, as would decreasing your intake of acrylamide, which is found concentrated in french fries and potato chips because that inhibits autophagy, and then we should try to go out of our way to eat spermedine rich foods, the target is 20 milligrams of spermedine today, how do we did that? Tempe, mushrooms, peas, and wheat germs, most concentrated and cheapest source, that's another thing I've changed in my diet, I started eating wheat germs, so now I mix my wheat germ with my ground flax seeds half and half, sprinkle that on my foods because I want spermedine as an autophagy inducer and longevity compound, also drinking coffee, coffee induces autophagy, thanks to chlorogenic acid, which is the primary antioxidant in coffee, drinking three cups a day of regular or decap increases autophagy, or at least is associated with increased lifespan, which we assume is an autophagy effect, because chlorogenic acid does increase autophagy in vitro, as well as we can activate autophagy through AMPK, which is kind of an anti-aging enzyme, and I go into boosting AMPK by eating, you know, that's where the black human comes in, Hibiscus tea and vinegar and barberries and on down the list, as well as following recommendations to suppress mTOR, because mTOR, which is kind of a pro-aging enzyme, suppresses autophagy, and we decrease mTOR by avoiding animal protein, we're reducing our intake protein in general and animal protein in particular. Okay, what's next? Okay, Rachel, Walford is 24, hope on base, wonderful. Ah, fantastic. Avoid high AGs. What are AGs? They're gerontotoxins. They're aging toxins, advanced glycation and products, which are created most concentrated forms in high dry heat cooked meat. So boiled, excuse me, broiled, baked, fried, grilled meat, produces these aging pro-aging toxins. So if you're going to eat meat, steam it, boil it, stew it, parboil it, I don't know, anyway. Okay, but this is not a problem here with Rachel, does have polycystic ovary syndrome, and, oh, but her blood sugar control is fine as well as her testosterone. Huh, okay, so those are typical Pika symptoms. So what do I think of an acetal spearmint? Okay, spearmint decreases testosterone, but says your testosterone is fine, unless you've been taking spearmint, and that's where testosterone is fine. That's possible. I'm looking through these various compounds. So one is, so I'm trying to think, do I have, I do have videos on Pika's, PCOS. Check out my videos on NutritionFacts.org. I forgot what my recommendations were, but I do have dietary recommendations. Maybe mint was one of them for decreasing testosterone. That doesn't seem to be your issue. And these other ones, I don't remember them popping up in the video, although berberine, which you can get from Barberries, is an AMPK booster, which is one of those anti-eating pathways. Carolyn says, I have balsamic vinegar sometimes. They're wonderful to reduce blood sugar spikes, which is one of the many benefits. It's also an AMPK inducer. Is it okay daily? Is this okay? And is there one type of vinegar that's better? So the magic is in the acetic acid, which is the definition of vinegar, which is water, which is the dilute solution of acetic acid. So all vinegars have acetic acid. And so choose your favorite vinegar. I mean, something like apple cider vinegar has a few little apple phytonutrients along with the acetic acid. And balsamic is a few little grape phytonutrients, but even plain white nasty distilled white vinegar have those benefits that you're talking about. And yeah, sometimes a day is fine. You just don't want to ever have vinegar straight because you can burn yourself, I guess. But yeah, in fact, that's one of my 21 tweaks for weight loss is the two teaspoons of vinegar with every meal. All right, fantastic. Good job. Okay, Rachel's back saying, any advice on getting rid of ankylalkylitis? I have never looked into lifestyle interventions for that condition. So I'm sorry, I can't help you. Do you think it's essential, Ms. Carolyn, taking a omega-3 supplement every day is better to have high-dine? Oh, a separate question. Okay. So I think we should consider taking 250 milligrams of pollutant-free algae-based DHA every day. Yes. Is it better to have high-dine from seaweed or supplements? Well, I mean, you can take it for a supplement. I mean, you can get high-dine from... I mean, high-dine is found in a variety of crops. It just depends on what the high-dine content of the soil is to depend on what is in your crops. And you never really know where your crops are grown. So you don't know if it has enough high-dine. So yeah, getting a country source of high-dine like seaweed, so you can snack on nori sheets, which is a convenient way and a tasty way to get your high-dine. You can use kelp, not kelp, dulce powder, which is very kind of mild, seaweed or allaria, which is kind of noodle-like, seaweed in soups and stuff. So yeah, I'd encourage people to find a way to eat sea vegetables. But yeah, you can do a supplement, particularly important for pregnant women to have a regular, reliable source of iodine. So, you know, 150 micrograms a few times a week is all you need. Okay. What are my thoughts on the health benefits of burberry? Well, if you're getting from barberries, that sounds good. So, barberries are sure some burberry. Barberries are these little tart berries you can find in Middle Eastern grocers, because they make a Persian rice dish out of it. But I just sprinkle it on everything because they're delicious. In fact, I'm actually out. I've got to make myself a... I was just looking for them. I got orders from more barberries. And so, yeah, but I do think there's a caution for pregnant and breastfeeding women with barberries, because of the barbarine. So, that'd be my only caution on that point. I would not take it as supplement. I would get it from a whole food source. Okay, Jeff, suggesting for landing a plant-based industry job in Southern California. Oh, how funny. Well, hey, if anybody has a job, talk to Jeff. I don't... there's like some kind of plant-based bore. Like, I know I like some of the healthcare... in the healthcare arena, I know, but I don't know in the non-healthcare arena. So, I'm sorry, I don't know the best place for industry job board. If anybody knows a plant-based industry job board, let me know so we can tell Jeff about it. Okay, Sheila says, oh, I'm a mail carrier. My dad was a mail carrier. That's awesome. Well, working the heat and sweat a lot. Salt's still not advised. You should be able to get all the stuff you need from food. No need to take salt or salt supplements. How Jeff is back saying, how do my opinions differ or agree with the following doctor's opinions or recommendations? Dr. McDougal spelled wrong. Heavy potato and starch diet. Dr. Esselstyn, wow, spelled right. That's the tough one to spell. He said it was a good thing. Nuts and oil even all the while. So, I agree 99% with both of those doctors. In fact, I just saw Dr. Muzul speak at the international plant-based nutrition healthcare conference. It was a rousing... Oh, in fact, I think it's free on the Plantation website. They gave him a luminary award. Well-deserved. And so, he encourages to eat Starchy foods fruits vegetables and starchy foods like beans and Whole grains I couldn't agree more my we probably differ on White potatoes, I'd rather people see people eat sweet potatoes and white potatoes just because they're Have you know more nutrition, but that's not much to argue over He also I think is skeptical of my vitamin D recommendation For people getting inadequate son He's not a big fan of vitamin D supplements I talk about and he's actually right in terms of all cause mortality But still decreases cancer mortality and so if you're not gonna get heart disease because you're eating a healthy plant-based diet Then cancer is probably your number one nemesis. And so maybe vitamin D three Would extend life spans and those who aren't worrying about cardiovascular disease as much still an unanswered question But I would suggest that's possible Sandy's is in Canada I'm going to be speaking in Canada. I Forget when that's part of my tour. Um, oh cannot find a Chulbul sublingual or liquid B12 and Santa Cabalman. Um, okay, can't get online. I just ordered them online. Oh Yeah, you get it in tablet farm. You could chew those Yeah, so you wanted to mix with saliva ideally for maximum absorption So I guess you could chew like a regular B12 tablet, although I can't promise it'll be tasty But I don't even like the flavored ones. I wish they just make on the flavor list But they have like raspberry or some cherry flavor some gross like that. Anyway, next up Do I recommend yearly doctor visits as we age, you know, I actually talk about I Actually have a video about annual doctor visits and how we don't have evidence to show that's beneficial But Yeah, so it depends at you know, what age are certain You know, you want to make sure that you're getting your cholesterol followed to make sure it's low enough and you know At age 50 this is recommendations for or or at age 45 is recommendation for colorectal cancer screening age 50 Recognitions for shingles vaccine age 65 recommendations for pneumonia vaccine. So there certainly are some landmarks where You would need medical care, but there's not great evidence suggesting that annual medical Follow-ups are useful unless they're actually giving unless you have a lifestyle medicine doctor who's actually Inspiring you to eat healthier to move more to stop smoking, you know If you had a doctor that talked to you about all that stuff and you left that office being like Oh, I'm gonna exercise more and I'm gonna eat healthier and you know, oh my god Now that's the kind of doctor visit that could save your life Then yeah, I gay I don't know how likely that is that your doctors like that. Gianni says I suffer to stroke. Oh god I'm so sorry age 36 Now on warfarin or Coumadin for life haven't been diagnosed with antifascialism. Yeah Client syndrome I'm already unhopeful plump a state. Do I have any particular suggestions on what to eat? So you stay on warfarin for your life period and because Warfarin works things your blood by interfering with the action of vitamin K You need to keep your vitamin K intake steady to kind of match your warfarin dose So if all of a sudden one day you were just like binging on lots of dark green leafy vegetables Lots of vitamin K, then you could impair the ability of that drug to thin your blood So why do you eat lots of greens? But you just have to eat lots of greens on a regular basis And so they can match your warfarin level to kind of effectively block that much vitamin K in your diet Okay, next up Alexander Wants to know if I recommend a protein intake. Yeah. Oh, I do reckon. I do recommend a protein to take 0.8 grams for a healthy kilogram body weight According to this do I have to decide whether my goal is longevity or bodybuilding? That's totally up to you certainly for Elderly individuals, there's no benefit to additional protein supplements On top of adequate protein in terms of muscle mass muscle strength or muscle performance We would love it if you could share with us your stories about reinvention your health through evidence-based nutrition Go to nutrition facts dot org slash testimonials would may be able to share it on social media to help inspire others If you'd like to see any graphs charts graphics images are studies mentioned here Go to the nutrition facts podcast landing page there you'll find all the detailed information need plus Links to all the sources we cite for each of these topics My last two books were how to survive a pandemic and my how not to diet cookbook Get ready this year for the launch of how not to age And of course all the proceeds for the sales of all my books goes directly to charity nutritionfacts.org is a non-profit science-based public service We can sign up for free daily updates on the latest in nutrition research with bite-sized videos and articles uploaded nearly every day Everything on the website is free. There are no ads no corporate sponsorships Kickbacks is strictly non-commercial not selling anything I just put it up as a public service as a labor of love as a tribute to my grandmother Whose own life was saved with evidence-based nutrition