 There are foods that can actually support your immune system that I've talked about before But there's some really important foods that will destroy your immune system that you should know about first up we've learned that 80% of all of our immune system all of our white cells are Congregated down in our gut down in our abdomen Why because we're learning on a day-to-day basis That most of the mischief that's going to get into us Comes through the wall of our gut from leaky gut and so if you are eating the typical American diet or Even eating a healthy lectin rich diet You're number one going to have leaky gut and number two you're going to have most of your immune system Activated and concentrated down where the trouble is coming now what that means is your immune system is basically Distracted from other jobs that should be doing Simultaneously like checking in on your nose and your mouth Checking in on the airways of your lungs. It's too distracted and most of the army is In the wrong place down in the gut and what I see in patients who have for instance, low white blood cell counts is always they have leaky gut and Shockingly to their doctors to their hematologists when we repair their leaky gut Low and behold their white blood cell count returns into the normal range So all those white cells were kind of out of commission because they were battling the enemy down in the gut So that's point number one point number two Sugar suppresses the immune system. This was proven back in the 1950s by two-time Nobel Prize-winning laureate Linus Pauling the vitamin C Doctor and what was shown in human volunteers that a glass of orange juice would suppress White blood cells from eating bacteria or eating viruses for up to six hours After a healthy volunteer drank a glass of orange juice Now imagine what would happen if you are the typical American Who's not all that healthy? So the last thing you want to do when you're catching a cold or feel something coming on is Down that glass of orange juice. It'll suppress your immune system not help Okay, if sugar is the big enemy of your immune system, then surely Sugar-free foods or sugar-free drinks would be a whole lot healthier Well, not so fast sadly almost all sugar-free sweeteners have been shown to Kill off or suppress the microbiome Now, why is that so important? We now know that much of the information That the immune system gets about who are bad guys and who are good guys And who they should be worried about and who they should ignore comes from Education from the gut microbiome and we know that literally there's a language of communication between our white blood cells and our gut microbiome the gut microbiome in general if it's healthy if it's diverse Tells the immune system. Hey guys We got your back. We're on everything that comes down the pike here will take care of things you guys Relax you have better things to worry about go look for bad guys elsewhere If you use artificial sweeteners or use diet drinks You're going to kill off a huge portion of your gut microbiome In fact a Duke University study showed that one packet of Splenda kills off 50% of your microbiome one packet imagine doing that several times a day like I used to do no wonder I was sick all the time. So you've got to keep your microbiome healthy and in good Population you don't want to kill it off with an artificial sweetener that would be Crazy if you really wanted to support your immune system. Okay, so With that in mind, let's just name three of the worst foods for your immune system number one Healthy whole grains Now you see it everywhere whole grains support your health not so first of all Let's take a piece of whole grain bread or a whole grain cracker. Have you ever seen any whole? Grains in that bread or the cracker. No, of course not. They've been ground up And whenever we grind up a whole grain We also grind up the fats in that grain which go rancid very quickly. So these products have to have antioxidants to stop the oxidation of that product now the antioxidants that are used in these products as I've written about in my books are not only endocrine disruptors, but also great for suppressing your Microbiome in your gut. So rather than supporting your microbiome is worse, but it gets even worse Raisin brand for instance, that's a whole grain cereal. That's full of brand that ought to be a great thing sadly a cup of raisin brand is going to have up to 20 teaspoons of sugar in a cup of raisin brand now you add a cup of milk To that and you're looking at this giant sugar bomb That you're having as a healthy breakfast because it's whole grain goodness And it's no wonder when I see patients in my clinics That are doing this that everything is thrown off and they're always coming down with Infection of the week. So stop eating whole grains particularly Whole grains that have been ground up and still labeled whole grains dairy is right up there as number two Two raisins number one. It's full of sugar Number two almost all dairy milk in this country is casein a one Containing dairy from Holstein cows the black and white cow casein a one is a really good lectin-like protein for causing leaky gut so if leaky gut is what's Distracting your immune system down into the gut from the business of guarding you and It's loaded with sugar which would suppress your functioning immune system. It's a one-two punch Dairy is out in terms of milk number three a fruit smoothie Now I used to joke with my patients that Let's take a trip down to the San Diego zoo and look in all the cages And let's see if anybody has a juicer or a Smoothie machine in any of the cages and of course We have a good laugh and realize that of course you wouldn't give Juices to a great ape you wouldn't have a smoothie prepared for an orangutan you would in season give them Apples or oranges and they would eat them whole when they're whole they have a lot of fiber At least they used to and so they could tolerate these foods but if you juice the fruit or Pulverize the fruit you now have released those bound sugar molecules for instant absorption So if you wanted to suppress your immune system have a glass of juice have a fruit smoothie It's winter time and now is the time to make sure your immune system Operates in tip-top shape and a lot of things we're doing for health is Absolutely suppressing our immune system More amazing episodes just like this one watch now If it says dye it on the label stay away from it at all costs think of diet soda as dye soda