 Thank you all for coming and I'd like to over just a couple of ground rules before we start. And the primary one is be skeptical. Is it going to come back up? Okay. I'm talking about ground rules. Be skeptical. And what I said in some of the little announcements that you may have read, we'll talk about bacteria while some of the new bacterial enthusiasm, you know, every little health journal and magazines and stuff. A lot of you probably know what the microbiome is and why it's increasingly significant in clinical care. So we'll take a good look at bacteria, some of the terms that describe bacteria. As I said in the little script, let's be really clear about probiotics and prebiotics. Significant health difference. And then we'll take a look at plant-based nutrition. And I mentioned that I have one significant visual aid. No slides, no handouts, no screen with every sense I say already up on the screen. We're glad for that. This is the visual aid. You won't understand the full significance until we get a little farther along. But that's an important one to keep in mind. There's a little bit about bacteria. You can't see them. On the end of Magdalena's pen, there are probably over 10,000 bacteria on the point. On the point. And scientists probably know it's a tiny fraction of the names of them. It just went off. Everywhere. In the ground and the leaves and the light. And certainly everywhere in the human body. Estimates vary depending on what research you read. But anywhere between 50 and 100 trillion bacteria. It's hard for human beings to even comprehend a trillion. Especially a trillion dollars. But a hundred trillion things that you can't even see. All over our scalp, our ears, our nose, our cranes and crevices, our mouth. All over our bodies. Bacteria. And a very, very important job. Constantly. All over us. Primarily in digestion. Bacteria that take care of things in your mouth and begin the digestion of food. But 70%, 70% of our bacteria reside in our gut. And the last part of our large intestine. Let's think of the large intestine as an upside down human. Like this. Ascending colon. Transverse colon. And the descending colon. The descending colon. About 70% of all bacteria. Okay. Diseases of inflammation. We're beginning to hear more and more about that. Diseases of inflammation. Diseases of what Eric? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Diseases of inflammation. Diseases of inflammation. Okay. Diseases of inflammation. The reason I'm here talking about bacteria. For quite a while I had a long bout with a disease of inflammation. A terminal illness that got tighter and tighter and tighter. Or what can I say, closer and closer and closer. Until it became pretty darn important to find out more about what was going on. I went down to the Dartmouth Medical School Library. And with the help of some of the research librarians there. Just really donated. To find out a lot more about my own disease of inflammation. And what might correct it. What might stop it. Not every physician agrees with the decisions that I've made. But I would point to the fact that after 41 years on antibiotics. Unbelievable number of visits to emergency rooms. All over the country. For three years I've been. No visits to emergency rooms. And no antibiotics. So there's a lot of fascinating stuff. That can emerge from understanding. This bacteria every day. Where do they come from? Where the heck the bacteria get started? When human beings came out of the trees. Let's focus on Africa here. Hundreds of thousands of years ago. There's three or four other relatives of the human being. Very close to ourselves. The great ape. The bonobos. Other types of monkeys. Other types of homos. Different levels of things that look an awful lot like us. But for one or two genes. And the bacteria have been with us for those hundreds of thousands of years. And where homo sapiens of humans really take off. Part was learning how to walk. Knowing how to walk upright. And the eastern savanna of eastern Africa. And the bacteria have been with us all along. Doing their incredible jobs at keeping us healthy. And acknowledge the fact that bacteria are selfish in their own way. All one of them is a toy animal. They get fed. They get protected. They get free transportation. And they're all focused on keeping us well. Certain bacteria have a bad name. And they're antibiotics. Not all bacteria cooperated with us. Concomit to our health. But basically the bacteria are amazing. What's called a commensal. A cooperative community of strains and genetic groups. Families of bacteria that work together as a team. That work together as a team. Particularly in your body. Or let me say especially. Okay. Some words to help us move a little farther along. In terms of understanding the bacteria in our body. And how it keeps us healthy. And dysbiosis is kind of a key one to know. It's just a fancy word for inflammation. And dysbiosis is when the bacteria don't work together as a team. It's an amazingly sophisticated cooperative. Cooperative effort. And just one particular task. Let me describe the role of bacteria in controlling. Hermability. Hermability. The infiltration, that ability that moves through. Your gut wall. Bacteria. Control. There we go. Bacteria control. What gets through your gut wall and your bloodstream. Food gets through. Immune cells get through. I'll think of it in a minute. The cells that can actually talk to our brain. And they get permission from this team. It's a bacteria working together on that gut wall. It's okay. You can get into the bloodstream. You can be food. You can be a neurotransmitter. You can be an immune cell. And if the bacteria. This is the gut wall. If the bacteria aren't working carefully. And really what can I say. Healthily together. They fall down on their job of maintaining the integrity of that gut wall. And what gets through. Well the causes of rheumatoid arthritis. Multiple sclerosis. Secondary sclerosis and cholangitis. Which I can describe if you want. Pleasure. Huge role in obesity. Lupus. Crohn's. Well we'll get there. I'm sorry. Acne. When you think of all the things that we put on our faces as adolescents. I mean outside. Really taking care of your bacteria. And preserving the integrity of that wall. Or re-establishing that now. And the part of adolescence. The same though. It's an amazing transformation. And to see before and after photos of people who weren't taking care of their bacteria. And what that's able to do. It's a significant wake up call. Selena mentioned a whole range of. Well basically inflammatory bowel disease. You've got Crohn's. You've got Ulterative Colitis. And very common. And really tough illnesses. For which a lot of physicians will prescribe antibiotics. Which further upset. The bacteria that are maintaining the wall. And if you could make those bacteria healthy again. You can step past. You can let me be clear. Sure. Many of those diseases of inflammation. So where do we really begin to make a difference. Think of keeping your bacteria healthy. How do you maintain that teamwork. How do you feed bacteria. Bacteria last less than a day. Some of them last only an hour. And they're constantly through nuclear fission. Just reproducing about 70% of what's in our poop. There's an old bacteria. They're just working. If you had a microphone of some kind. You'd hear an amazing engine. I'm sure. What do you feed bacteria. Have you ever heard anybody tell you what to feed bacteria. What do bacteria eat. They're less than an hour. 100 trillion. They're maintaining the gut wall. They're sending transmissions up and down the Vegas nerve. They're sending out immune cells. I've talked about little cuts you've got out in the Brambury bushes. All kinds of things happening. Where does that energy come from. Fiber. I've heard about fiber. I have weak sex or something. Anyway, everybody's got their idea of what fiber is. A kind of fiber that feeds your bacteria. And this is so essential. Particularly in the modern western world. Meat has no fiber. Dairy, milk, cheese, yogurt. No fiber. Wow, how are we going to get fiber to feed those bacteria. You've got your upper GI tract and your lower GI tract. Your upper GI tract will go after the ice cream cone. The Hershey bar. The really rich sugary stuff. And it gets digested in a flash. And it doesn't get down in your colon. It's already digested. And if you have... I was looking at the same shelf for these things. There are eight or nine others that are loaded with sugar and honey. And God knows what else. Let me digress just for a moment. You're back on the Savannah in eastern Africa. And it's 100,000 years ago. And what have you got that you can eat? Reliant on that. Anytime you really need it. There's probably not much dairy. It's simple. There's no sugar. The occasional honey. Maybe. Extraordinary little meat. Essentially none. This is a desert. If you look at a great ape. Our ancestor. What do they do for 13 hours a day? They eat leaves. They eat leaves. They eat greens. They eat some of the wonderful things that's in the... Little delicatess. You know, the food things downstairs. It's incredible in torment. Really healthy green stuff. That's what human beings ate for the first several hundred thousand years. And sugar on herdo. Until 1900. When did everybody have all the sugar they wanted? Okay, we're coming back to flavor. You need non-digestible. Non-digestible. What's called a polysaccharide. And that's just a fancy name for a short chain of sugar. What are these? They're in... All the things your grandmother told you to eat. Brussels sprouts. Cauliflower. Spinach. Spirurgis. Name any vegetable. You can think of bananas. These have digestible fiber. Some of them can be sweet. But they have the non-digestible fiber that gets through your upper GI tract. With a hydrochloric acid bath that takes care of any air in germ that's trying to get down into the rest of your system. But this fiber can get past that date. It's ending your colon. And what happens? Through fermentation, the bacteria break down that short chain fatty acid. Hang on your hat. We won't go into this too much. In the short chain fatty acids. There are three critical short chain fatty acids. Just food for bacteria. And with enough fiber, the bacteria through fermentation make abundant what are they, many of these short chain fatty acids that they use as their own food and it's the food for the cells of the gut wall. If I do this, I'm undermining something. It's also the food for the cells of the gut wall. Okay. And there are different estimates, but a fairly consistent one is about 97% of North Americans do not get anywhere near adequate fiber. And we have this incredible range of inflammatory illnesses that are just, what should I say, the figures are just going like this. Obesity is certainly a part of it. Type 2 diabetes is part of it. Fiber, fiber myelgia, something myelgia, which is part of inflammatory disease. What's getting in from it? Where's the flame? Where's the problem? The gut wall is. And flame, the gut wall is often, what shall I say, colonic disorders, it bleeds. It just is really a very tender sore like a cut on your arm. And what's part of the reason that bacteria are not getting fed, that bacteria are not able to make the short chain fatty acids, but not only feed the gut wall, but feed the bacteria themselves who are amazingly strict patrol officers, control officers of what gets into your bloodstream. I'll name one just for the fun so you know I can at least say the name of one of the bacteria. Akramansia mucinophila. Okay, Mr. Akraman, Dr. Akraman discovered. Ah, Akramansia. And mucinophila means that it likes and supports mucin. Well, it's basically a mucilage. There are two very, very fine, basically mucous walls as part of that gut wall. And what keeps them selective and very, very specific about what they let through is Akramansia mucinophila. That's one of the bacteria that's critical for that team that works in the gut wall. So we come back through feeding our bacteria. You can do it easily at every meal. And I can't promise results, but if you're not eating at the moment with a lot of sources of really good non-digestible bacteria, chances are you see a lot of very healthy changes. Let me say if you haven't had a lot of fiber in your Christian for a while, go easy on the Brussels sprouts and the asparagus and the Jerusalem artichokes or some of the things that you know have a lot of fiber. Go easy. Fiber has to get used to having a full plate and slowly repair the cells of the gut wall. The gut wall is one epithelial cell thick. They only last a little less than a day. We've got bacteria that are turning over some as quickly every hour. The cells of the back of the colon wall in less than a day. Again, if we had the mic down there listening to that rumble, it would be an avalanche of things happening and the energy involved there that we don't really think about, energy is here, energy is here. What's going on in our gut is phenomenally demanding of good food, of good nutrition. You're going to provide the fiber to provide the short chain fatty acids that feed that gut wall and the bacteria themselves. Let me step into probiotics and prebiotics. When I dug in at the Dartmouth Medical School Library, a lot of things sort of popped up very quickly. What the heck are prebiotics? I tried it out on a couple doctors who very tenderly corrected me and said, no, no, Eric, you mean probiotics. I realized that I was on a roll that many doctors haven't taken yet, about as kind as I can. It's a new field. Most of the information that you get, most of the books that have been currently written about it, are based on mice or based on the research that's happened in mice. And what you do find related to human beings is profound. The difference is incredible. The differences that can be made, I mentioned adolescence and acne, lupus erythematosis. My brother is a physician. He works a lot with plants and plant-based and high-fiber diets. And he's classic. And these are the kinds of things that science and medicine generally dismisses as the spontaneous remission. And my brother lectures a lot in various countries about plant-based nutrition. He has a lot of physicians in his audience. He works a lot with public health people in different countries. And his classic example is a physician, a woman physician in her early 30s who had multiple sclerosis, developed somewhere in her 20s in a wheelchair, the kind of person that, say, a president, Trump would mock at a rally. And this physician heard some of this. Not so much the strong emphasis on bacteria per se, but on the fighter and plant-based nutrition. And Essie, my brother, has written that for this woman and will happily show you the film over the second 10K. Wow. What we're transforming here is a permeable wall with constant stuff coming out that doesn't belong. And rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, something gets into your joints. In my case, there were continual things that landed in the liver. There are bacteria that if they get out and get away from this community where everybody's kept under control, there are bacteria that get out and nibble on the insulation of nerves, the myelin, the myelin-covalent nerve. There are certain, we'll call them bad guys, pathogens. As long as they're there and in this community where there's somebody keeping an eye on things, those pathogens don't don't exercise any damage, don't do any damage there. Out in the bloodstream through a permeable, a weak gut wall and a zingo. The lupus, the acne, secondary sclerosis and colonitis, the MS, type 2, type 80s and I don't want to overdo this, but nutrition plays a significant role in Alzheimer's and you're getting, if you want, there's overwhelming scientific research supporting that and we've all got friends or relatives or people we know who are drifting into Alzheimer's and everybody says, well, it comes with the old age and it does but it begins when we're in our 40s and 40s and nutrition can nutrition may play a role. I don't want to drop that on anybody's head but it's there, it's important in every aspect of our health. Probiotics, prebiotics. From all deference to the folks who work here, there are six shells down there, each 140 feet long and you can find a probiotic for people who are left handed, not probiotic, for people who are under 16 and right handed. Probiotic for golfers, probiotic for the post-menopausal women, post-apop, you know, probiotic for golfers. There is absolutely no federal control of any sort over the quality of probiotics. Most of the studies I've read show that about 60% of them probably don't have what they claim to have on a label and they have an enormous emotional effect and help some people. I've taken, I took antibiotics for 41 years and a lot of people said, oh, I've got to take probiotics to reduce the impact of your antibiotics. The antibiotics were to knock out some pretty nasty things in my gut and I never took any probiotics in a sense creating competition for what the antibiotics were supposed to do but you will often hear somebody say, well, take probiotics and, well, okay. Let's look at what probiotics are. Divide bacteria into two major classes. There are some that live in air, there are aerobic bacteria that can thrive in air and then there are anaerobic, anaerobics bacteria that cannot survive in air. Okay, everything inside there is an anaerob. It's an anaerob that doesn't work in oxygen. There are a few. Remember, we've got 100 trillion and there are a few bacteria that live in air and have they, yogurt folks worked on loads. You can look at the fables and see again and again and again this tiny group of bacteria that can be pushed and molded and mixed with blueberries and sugar and cream and everything else. They'll survive in a big food factory. That's a very limited group of the whole extended family. Okay, remember we've got 100 trillion and I'm going to take some probiotics because I'm over 50 and it says on the label over 5 billion live organisms are alive. I forgot the term at the moment. 5 billion okay so we've got this many already there working together and we're going to pour in 5 billion. With the dubious reputations so it's an uphill slog. The European Union does not allow anybody to make any health claims whatsoever about probiotics nor does the national health plan in England. America's a little more robust about some of those things. However, take a good look at what's there realize it's a very, very small select group of bacteria and recognize that it's impact a grain of sand in the gravel bank and if it makes you feel better do it, but be aware that the placebo effect on probiotics is probably one of its strongest parts from its strongest selling points and there are a lot of people who beat me about the head and shoulders for those marks but I think they're scientifically accurate. What's the heck are prebiotics? Those are the fibers. Probiotics just more of the same. Prebiotics getting something in your gut that the bacteria can use to provide their own food and where are the prebiotics now? They're not in that 40 foot shelf they have all the fancy labels and all the numbers fancy names like Akramanshi, Nusen and Philip step out into the fruit section all the colors there look at the vegetables look at all the incredible greens that's where the fiber is that's where the fiber you want is and as much as you can mix the colors get the colors the different colors what you're getting one of the important things you're getting out getting out of the fruit and the vegetables and various almonds and pumpkin seeds and oats or phyto plant phyto nutrients we're back on the savanna in eastern Africa what are we going to eat what have our bacteria been used to for hundreds of thousands of years nuts seeds plants and where are they they're in the fresh veggie section the fresh fruit section there are a few exceptions but if it comes in a box watch out we'll get to this later one of the ground rules that I mentioned was be skeptical the other ground rule is if you've got something on your mind or something that I've presented that you'd like me to amplify at all or expand a bit or describe more fully or go over it again feel free to ask a question push me hard the only reason I'm here I was an English major the only reason I'm here that because the game was a bit over and it was time that they got a little deeper than clinical care had been able to go at that point and my information since July 2016 wonderful helping research librarian at the Dartmouth Medical School let's move on to the next this is one thing you said to me it was really clarifying so there we are eating meat and all the things that don't have fiber and gradually the bacteria get hungrier and hungrier and the one thing that these gut walls made of is fiber so the bacteria start eating the gut wall and making holes in it and that was so clear to me oh I see how that works and only the only thing you said to me was only the last hundred years we've had chemicals high sugars, high salts and it's hitting our bodies with this great change and we haven't evolved at fast so the more fiber you can do the better actually your cousin I mean your I was saying if you actually grabbed a handful of kale six times a day just gobble it down like seeds like pills you would be very, very healthy because it just gives you so much fiber so fast and there's Jerusalem artichokes my kids call them artichokes but they're really very full of fiber it's been a merry chase I have a question too can you clarify good versus bad bacteria sure because we always hear about you know bacteria versus viruses causing illnesses okay virus is very different right but I'm talking about bacteria that's you know come back to the word commensal cooperative working together community and the scientists have just begin to name some of these bacteria they've got a long list to check out and there are a lot of pathogens pathogens are the bad guys disease causing infection causing bad actors ones that might take the lining off nerve fiber ones that may or multiple sclerosis interfere with the synovial fluid in your joints those are clearly bad actors they all they all dwell this sounds a little like childcare training center but they all get along beautifully when they're together and the classic is yeast having an IV antibiotics I can tell you about yeast yeast are sort of in the mix they're comfortably walking along with everybody else but if suddenly the crowd gets thinner or the line gets shorter yeast take over and they will go to every opening and crevice and place in your body because the community has been upset via dysbiosis and upset because the bacteria have killed off the antibiotics have killed off so many critical partners in this cooperating village that the bad guys in this case yeast take over and they venture way outside of your gut and that's an example of pathogen of bad it isn't bad per se we use yeast in other ways in some foods but if it's not cooperating in that commensal community of the amazing variety of different bacteria that can rear its ugly head and there are others that I can't think of I don't but yeast is a bad bacteria it causes a bacterial illness can that I'm really mixed up about when we get antibiotics because we have a bacterial illness so we've had a blood culture and it shows that you've got bacteria in your blood and you'll get that nuclear response and then they'll give you well, I'm saying a lot of kids get antibiotics because they have a bacterial illness and I guess, yeah, they test for it or suspect it or I don't know why it's often suspect when I think of my kids growing up and your marks are so in that they got them in those tubes because there was a possible earache and God, no pediatrician wants to face a genuine ear infection just to be safe that has a profound impact especially kids under the age of three but we won't go there and antibiotics saved his life he had to have them at one point but you just can't sign on them you lose all the balance that's certainly what for 40 years doctors thought with the answer are you okay then? okay, use them using the analog of a village and there's some pretty mean, snotty kids down there on the other side of town but because everybody else works and this school works there's a church, supper everybody's working together they don't upset things very much but if there are a lot of antibiotics and the superintendent and the guy on the corner who keeps his eye on kids I'm trying to make a metaphor for a community that's got nobody's ever perfect but it it functions smoothly and it performs an enormous number of jobs remember it's the immune cells it's the neurotransmitters over half the messages going up and down our vagus nerve our gut giving emotional messages to our brain whatever get a rumbly stomach before you have to give a talk about food at the hunger mountain co-op or in anticipation of some big event like their daughter's wedding you ever get a rumbly tummy you belong all the link between emotions and mostly digestive feelings and the classic phrase that underscores this forever is I've got a gut feeling I've got a gut feeling we sure do and it's constantly being monitored prebiotics are feeding your bacteria probiotics are throwing in some extra villagers that you've got somewhere to go in there and influence the other 100 trillion villagers who are already there you've got my bias that's okay let's really take a hard look at plant based nutrition anybody here would say that they're plant based pretty much okay well I did for a year but I found out that I was totally depleted of B12 but that's another reason why it wasn't even if I had a supplement it wasn't cured but I didn't buy that out until afterwards so I was supposed to eat liver you I love liver for some very complex reasons about the fact that I don't have many organs left I cure myself B12 and the thigh that allows me not one of the shortcomings of a plant based diet can be an absence of B12 which is essential you really need B12 and probably a capsule for some way if you can absorb it find out where we're going to get it you can always put it in your thigh it's first of every month the biggest killer of men and women in America and most western nations by far is hard facts somebody dies every 6 seconds or something in this country every 6 minutes and I've got friends who are a glow with stents caused by what are the building blocks of a heart attack what are the building blocks of artery disease or arteries of the heart itself or arteries in general how do you get these little gelatinous plaques what causes them they're present in babies that have died and have been autopsy you can find in western countries the beginning of atherosclerotic plaques and kids that aren't even born yet because of what their moms eat okay what are the building blocks what what keeps three hard bypass surgeons up in brine chugging away rebuilding the arteries around somebody's heart too much meat okay the building blocks 2% milk 2% milk 2% milk they break up the fat and it's small enough to still go through or it was just like whole milk I hate milk but if it was whole milk the fat is bigger so it's not going to be good stuff whole milk is certainly one of the building blocks oh yeah that's what I meant to skim milk I thought was worse because they break the fat up you know it's 2% fat that's just not to drink milk period I don't drink milk because I I need to lie down can I lie down by here please do you want to lie on the table I'll just lie down on the floor the table can I the table behind you I need to lie down can I help you get on the table can I help you get on the table I can do it myself thank you we have choir tonight but usually there I go no it's starting now we have this we have this ok I like it he's used to having war but that's something so you're saying that you've heard that whole milk that's 1% it's one that's going to drink milk I was talking to George Woodard he's in the Waterbury center he's part of a co-op with organic milk organic dairy, and we were just talking, I don't drink milk because I don't like it, but he was saying that if it's, there's homogenized adjacent and pasteurizing. So if it's minimally pasteurized, not homogenized, apparently it's less dangerous than usual. That's what I was thinking. Well, that's interesting because that's what I think we all, I grew up eating, drinking four glasses of, you know, unhomogenized milk a day, whole milk. And so far I've only got a heart attack. Of course it's not part of a plant-based diet. Yeah, but it's not plant-based, but it's just interesting the difference between whole milk and skim milk. Essie and I grew up on a dairy farm. I can go back to the days of 40 gallon cans. I had milk quite a time, probably until I was in my 20s, and discovered beer. It's the building blocks, cholesterol and fat. It's sacrilegious to say this in Vermont, but dairy is, I don't care what anybody says, you know, that it's grass better, it's organic, or no, it's loaded, loaded with saturated fat. And nothing tastes better than cheese. I know. That's all right. My question is, okay, what about... Magdalena, I can't hear you. Some voices just don't... Yes, what about keeping your bone healthy? Calcium part. Calcium part. For bones. For bones. If we can get it from the dairy problem, how do we... You're surely going to calcium and other things. Okay, that's a question I know. Cultures, I don't have milk at all. Okay, that's... The fruits, the vegetables, the nuts, the seeds. Very good. Leafy greens. I can't, off the top of my head, say spinach has calcium, but I'm sure there are a number of green vegetables that have calcium. So again, from the plant... Let me just make it clear, since this is public television in Vermont, I'll probably get hate letters by tomorrow. No, you can do very, very well without any dairy and to just drop it, the ice cream. Cheese. Cheese, the milk. We're getting rid of one huge saturated fat. In saturated fats, role in heart health is clear. And in brain health. Why do we... Why don't we have giraffe milk or buffalo milk? Hypopotamus milk. Good question. No, what the heck are we doing? You can go to Mongolia and you can go to the hills of Monrovia or somewhere and look at the cheese and the cultures they've had for hundreds of years and they don't use the milk until after the calf is off the lawn for several months or something so that the really big hormone load that is turning that calf into a 400 pound bigger calf that goes to the calf. There's so many reasons to avoid milk. Okay, heart attacks and strokes. I just added strokes, heart attacks and strokes. I can say this because I've read it so many times at this point. A cholesterol level, your overall cholesterol level, of less than 150 essentially makes your heart attack proof. Heart attack proof. Not a bad... Not a bad... Let's say someone has like 200 or 225 but their HDL is 100 and their triglycerides are 60. I mean there's exceptions, right? We're all interested. Let me acknowledge and graciously acknowledge and I'm sure there are exceptions. Let me say that in 1994, Bill Castelli of Second Annual Conference on Elimination for Art and Disease Boina Vista, Florida put on by the President of Disney with people from all over the world because he had a heart attack. And so he set aside their own in his hotels down at Disneyland, Disney World, whatever it is in Florida. People from all over the world. A lot of people who were heart surgeons were there and Bill Castelli, who was William Castelli? He's retired now. He was director of the longest longitudinal health study in the world. What's called the Framingham study in Massachusetts. Just following generation after generation after generation after generation of this community basically of related people in Framingham Mass. This is Bill Castelli. This is a bunch of heart surgeons out there. This is the Plenary Session he's had. He asked questions. And Castelli's as well. And all our records. We've never seen a heart attack in anybody with a cholesterol of under 150. And the inhalation in the audience practically took the curtains off the wall. These are the heart surgeons. Dr. Castelli, do you mean that a cholesterol of under 150 renders someone heart attack-proof? This is Castelli. That's exactly what I mean. These are the guys with the facts. These are the guys with the facts. It's been proven again and again and again that you can eliminate coronary arteries. The blockage of arteries in your heart was plant-based nutrition. It took years of this kind of fight in Medicare. Medicare is happy to pay 54,000 bucks for a heart attack, yes. No problem. If a doctor says the patient coming in, you've got pretty advanced arteries that are pretty clogged here. But we can take care of that with nutrition. Medicare will now pay the doctor to give that message to heart patients. It's not 54,000 bucks, but it's the great breakthrough in terms of doctors who are perhaps a little less aggressive. Anyway, that shouldn't be the case. It's there, it's big business, and it's a lot of... It's expensive. You got it going to go? Yeah, we're late. Thank you, everybody. Bye. So when you have cholesterol, and you have a high cholesterol, how do you get rid of that? Like eating a plant-based? Does it ever go away once it's... Let me be, again, very... There is a disease called hypercholesteroid. People who have a hard time processing cholesterol and have naturally, consistently high cholesterol. And if I study it one, you can take cholesterol from well over 150 to 83. It's just why you don't want any cholesterol. So many sources are me. A lot of sources are me. Oh, oh, okay. You doing okay? I'm doing fine. Thank you. I'm doing really well. I had a problem with my shoulder. She just needs a little TLC. Just pat her gently on the right shoulder. No, no, no. No, you don't need to. You'll be fine. After years and years and years in hospitals, the most powerful medication there is is weight of an inch. When a doctor comes in the morning at the event, difficult night, just puts his hand on your leg, says, you know, how are we doing today? That's worth six car loads in animal health. Four. Let me come back to your question about if you've got a persistent and stubborn cholesterol level. Find out a little more. I mean, if it's really, if you're really playing the game, sticks and twigs, the grains, the fruit, the nuts, the oatmeal. So we can correct. It'll correct. It'll correct. It'll correct. Massively. If you don't feed, let me use the term building blocks again. We're back to the art attacks. The building blocks for those atherosclerotic plaques, the filmy gelatinous stalker goes up in your arteries. Your body makes cholesterol. It makes all the cholesterol it needs. And when you get more than your body needs, it builds up. Let's go back to the heart. Three billion beats in a lifetime, whatever it is. And you just, you don't hear it beating. You don't even acknowledge it. Unless we get in a funny position on the pillow, and we wonder what that film is. So it's a lot of muscle fibers inside the heart that are also fed with tiny, tiny arteries. So we've got the big ones, the coronary arteries. The ones that come over the side of the heart. Those are the ones that the bypasser will stress. I'm trying to remember some of the names. Anyway, the coronary arteries. What did they do? They're bringing energized, oxygenated blood to thousands of little arteries inside the heart that control, provide for the muscles. Things that open and close this amazing routine. Definitely got stuff building up in the size, you know, the size of your little finger. And, you know, from physics to the size of the lumen just changes radically. If you just open up a tiny bit, you've got so much more volume. Inside the heart, this is something the size of a piece of dental floss. Where's the cholesterol? Where's the coronary artery disease there? And what does it take to really begin to compromise the heart? Yes, the big coronary arteries have a feeling of blood. So all the muscles within the heart itself need to get oxygen, blood pressure and food to do all that stuff inside sort of the classic shape of the heart. There's so much going on. Why load up that the size of a piece of dental floss at the same time? You're giving that maybe redwood a remarkable organ for a really hard time. The late wife made our family, I did not become a vegetarian, our family became a vegetarian family but she cooked. The fall of 1972. I don't think I've had enough meat since the fall of 1972. I've cheated. I often get the job of carbon turkey. And if you're serving this way with your left hand you can get a good piece of dark meat. So I've gotten my share over the years to essentially make free food. 60 years of food. Everything still works. In 2005 I wrote a book called The China Study recommended by my brother who's done a great deal of partnership. There was a question in my mind going forward after the Chinese study. The average cholesterol in China now this is 40 years ago. Something like 130 on 41. Where today in America many doctors use well they were okay with that. But once you're under 200 250 there's a zone of all kinds of heart attacks occur and we know the below 150 they don't occur. What am I missing here? Why can't we just say let's prevent, let's stop. Get it down below 150. Okay. I have a question. What about rice and grains? Rice. You gotta say the same thing. What about rice, barley is the meaning? I have not that term in the gluten but a lot of money is being made legitimately is being people are turned into it if you have whatever the disease is but mine is such a good thing. Pay attention. Rice. There's nothing with good bread and buns plus that plastic the ground time for the visual aid nothing in a box obviously occasionally exaggerate but essentially process food if it sounds like a chem class your body is not used to having it. One of them. How do you see the visual aid? How do you see the visual aid? All foods, plant beds what are whole foods? Why do we have so much white flour? White flour. White flour. White flour. White flour. White flour. White flour. White flour. When you grind wheat with a germ with a refresh a health-giving part it will go bad over time quickly. If you take out the rest of the wheat you can keep them in the bag for months over time. If I'm Mr. General Mills and I don't want to be concerned about the fact that it might go bad over time. I put in that really rich, wonderful part. I take that out, the germ, and I make flour. White flour. Okay. Bring the labels. Whatever you do, bring the labels. If it's a chem class, try to find another way around it. I picked up this because it's a classic. Yes. Another gem, or the, if you're going to eat it in the big, well, that's whole foods or something. There's a big section of sushi prepared every day, prepared every day in Columbus, Georgia, if you look at the label. And the label is about 18 inches long. That's a PhD chem class. Barbers shredded wheat. The ingredients are on the bottom. I'm going to pass this around. This is a whole food. Eric. Eric. You know what there was a saying that if you eat cereal from a cereal box, you should eat the box for fiber. And that's the only thing that you're going to get. That was the famous Harvard study. Yeah, I know. There was more nutrition in the cardboard than there was. Thank you. Eric, can you take cilium seed as a part of a fiber? Sure. You could. It's there, it's available. I'll probably get it downstairs, I'm sure. My sense is that the veggies themselves, because it's textured in this so much more stuff, the micronutrients and what are generally called phytochemicals, the stuff that's in a plant, they're 60 different things when you eat a red pepper. And to get your fiber within that amazingly rich mix of stuff, it just seems like a bonus. If you want to get cilium seed in that, it can make a difference. Sure. But more in the natural state. The more you just get it from real food. I think the better off you are. Okay. What about... There are certain voices that I just don't hear. What about cooked vegetables? Cooked greens. Okay, they're fascinating. There's some vegetables that actually give you more of an eye when they're cooked. And a lot have sustained more vitamins and phytochemicals, phyto nutrients, if they're not cooked. It varies. You could get that information, but I think raw, if you can handle it, I'm not a raw foods buff at all. Selena makes, and Barbara knows this, vegetarian. Well, heck, no. It's delicious. This lady was at our home for lunch on Sunday, a big birthday party. And Selena prepared... A person. I don't want to say a picky eater, but there were some of the folks there who were a little touchy. And I think they were quite surprised. Yes. A person who I know is a meat eater and a fish eater, and by God... He said the best vegetable lasagna ever. Yes. Selena just voted on her chair. This was a very, very meticulous woman about food. This is the most delicious food I've ever had. No milk. No, maybe there might have been a little cheese on top of that lasagna. Vegetarian lasagna with probably 12 different vegetables. There were artichokes in it, I can remember that. Yeah, peppers and zucchini. The whole wheat lasagna strips or whatever they're called. The firmer part. The pasta part. Yeah, I think cooking enhances the health diet of salmon. Raw does quite well on the others. Books, like probiotics. Go to the cookbooks section of big books in million. Well, one of those great big bookstores, the nearest one used to be in Hanover. 60 feet of cookbooks. Just like probiotics. Cookbooks for the gulfer. Cookbooks for the people in menopause. Cookbooks for those over 60. Wonderful books that are good information about plant-based nutrition. One that I like is The Whole Foods Cookbook. A fellow who started Whole Foods. It was me, my forgotten at the moment. He's put out with some excellent support from two co-authors who are physicians of The Whole Foods Cookbook. An introduction about heart disease. Not just recipes, but the reasons behind this kind of eating. If you want to jump into the deep end of the pool, and then the spoken, I think they're all available, probably a bear pond. How not to die? What a crazy title. What a crazy title. How not to die on Google? This is a guy who settled totally by a foundation. He's not making a penny out of the stone. How not to die? And amazing recipes in the book itself will all seem, why did I ever do that? Why did I ever eat that way when I was 30? And once you turn into Alzheimer's, once you turn into heart health and brain health, and just understanding what's going to keep all those bad guys out of your system. I have a question. What are you, here we go. Well this is, you know, when you have to get a colonoscopy they make you drink this stuff. Now does that take away the lining of your intestine? Your big intestine? A colonoscopy? It's a sodium something solution. It chases everything out. Does it keep your mucus lining? That's a good question. I know a colonoscopy tube, maybe a little smaller than your thumb. I can't help but sense that it disrupts things. I would say probably. There are different variations on how far in they go, but if it gets up into the distal third, you should go to the cecum. Cecum, which is where your appendix is. Which is right at the crossroads of the small aniline. All the way around. Anyway, no I'm sorry. That's a trip. I can't help but feel that it must not make the mucus wall feel super good. These are tiny, tiny thin walls. That was not your question. Your question was what happens when you have to take, when you have to drink all that stuff to clean yourself out. The question was when you drink that, that affect your colon wall and get rid of some of the mucus lining. Which we don't know. I would assume yes. It would compromise it probably. I would assume yes. So what are we going to do after we have that? We're going to go to Ezra's cafe because it's vegan and it's really good. We're going to go. It's in Indianapolis. That's where I go. Give it the non-digestible fiber. The bacteria. And they'll rebuild that wall. I'm talking as if they're old friends. They are. They are. Not a necessary question. Anyway, this is the first time I've ever tried this. And I just really appreciate your coming. And if I can answer any specific questions or at all. I just wanted to recommend the China study. I read it years ago. I got it out of the library. I think it was after a workshop here that Linda Woolover, her name at the time, did on raw foods. He did a lot of workshops. So I read that. And his brother figures prominently in this book. And when I first met Eric, I said, they related to the Dr. Esselstyn and the China study. And he went, you know about that. And I said, well, you got it out of the library. And he said, yes, that's my brother. But it reads. It's a really good read. It's technical in many respects, but it's also really entertaining and interesting, informative. And I highly recommend it. Thank you all for coming. You're welcome. Thank you.