 Hello, this is Dr. Michael Greger coming to you live from my treadmill as I do every month to answer any questions you may have My for those of you who are familiar with my work every year I read through every issue of every English science nutrition journal in the world so busy folks like you Don't have to I think the problem is interest must ground break most practical findings and new videos and articles I upload every day turn on my non-profit site nutrition facts.org everything on the website is free There are no ads no core sponsorships Particularly Malcolm motion not selling anything just put it up as a public service as the labor of love as a tribute to my Grandmother actually whose own life was saved with evidence-based nutrition. Let us get to your questions Rosario asks Um, are there any health advantages to going gluten-free despite not being gluten intolerant? No in fact well, it depends way I mean if Going gluten-free gets rid of all sorts. You know, how's you eating not eating? Wonder bread, then that's great But shouldn't keep you away from whole grain particularly intact whole grain gluten-containing grains such as wheat marlin rye so Yeah, no no what continue to eat Your gluten-containing grains and your non-gluten-containing whole grains are no benefit unless of course you have celic disease or Wheat sensitivity or otherwise Gluten intolerant Helen asks, so what's the best plant foods to eat or avoid to avoid to aid in the prevention of recurring yeast and vaginal yeast infections? I don't think how many videos on that maybe some I never even looked into I do have videos on bacterial vaginosis though different time bacterial infection with Bacteria supposed to ease and if I remember correctly, it's cutting down saturated fat intake to decrease the pH To make your vaginal environment more acidic With these lactic acid producing bacteria and that decreasing your risk of bad bacteria overgrowth But I don't know if I have anything on yeast per se Something I can certainly look into in case there is something one can do about diet Okay Helen again asked is fortified nutrition need something to avoid I heard a celebrity doctor Stay it would be cancer-causing because of synthetic folic acid You know actually raise that in a video as a theoretical concern a while back I think the latest Meta-analysis of my fine correct It was in 2013 that looked at all the randomized controlled trials that have been done with forecasted sublutations And I don't think there was any difference in cancer incidence And in fact, I mean in terms of no increase cancer, instance, I think there was even a decrease in melanoma incidence And so I would not be concerned about and these are people taking folic acid supplements Not just fortified folic acid fortified food. So It does not appear like it's something we need to worry about Just mountains says hello Oh, thanks for your wonderful work What's the best thing to do or not do for eye health especially to decrease myopia and floaters myopia? Unfortunately, nothing to do by near-sightedness In terms of treating the cause But floaters floaters can be serious So this can mean that you're actually bleeding inside your eyeball You should go see an ophthalmologist get back your eyes look that make sure you don't have a little retinal tear or something But in terms of eye health in terms of retinal health have lots of videos talking about keeping your macula healthy Which is eating lots of macula pigment? Lutines the xanthin found in dark green leafy vegetables. Now. Let's talk about berries. I believe for eye health Just type an eye And this should all pop up Do rambutan do rambutans make you fart? Rambutans for anyone who doesn't know are these triple-like right off a Star Trek Fruits that look really cool, but kind of bland inside No idea if they cause intestinal gas or not Andreia Asks oh Just saying that they're joining from Brazil welcome Merlot 427 says hello. Can I talk about or Janine? How it is semi essential at low levels possibly linked to anxiety methionine making people that etc. Thank you Margini as amino acid bias If you're a preterm infant, you may have to get it into your diet and not make yourself But if you're not a preterm infant, don't worry about it. You just get it through food like everybody else Leanne asks Where where'd Leanne go? I had to click the more button and then it scrolled way down. Okay. Now here we go Leanne I suppose the drying process of beans somehow Do something important for health safety is just long-term storage is safe to go all kinds of beans fresher eat You can cook beans fresh. There's no reason to dry them first It's just indeed a storage thing, but you dad, but yeah, okay. Yeah cook fresh beans back Um, yeah, yummy, but they do have to be cooked You can't just eat them raw like kidney beans can't just eat raw so you get a tummy ache bad tummy ache What's healthy potatoes with skin or without? some purple sweet potatoes Regardless, that's the way you do it but I mean Yeah, I mean the Yeah, it doesn't really matter Yeah, I might as well eat them with skin but better eat purple sweet potatoes regardless Um, just scrub them really well Leanne also asked us about wheat grass juice or powder. Why don't people blend it and eat the fiber too Blend wheat grass. That's just like blending grass grass. You'd have to have a really good blender Um is the safe to consume during pregnancy So I do have I think I have one video on wheat grass juice for ulcerative colitis I believe uh, but I think that's the only study that exists in the medical literature on wheat grass So that's really all I can say about it um, eric R is this Going uh, it is too early Oh holding a book I don't know what eric R is saying yt mv Burgy b s is unhealthy to consume plant-based protein powders if your body doesn't Absorb protein well from whole plants. How would you know your body wasn't absorbing protein? Well from whole plants. It's always better to eat whole foods rather than processed foods Why eat protein and powdered form when you can get it all the other one of the things in the whole food form So instead of getting pea protein powder Why not eat peas and what they're talking about is yellow split peas typically the source of Uh split pea powder you make a wonderful, uh Oh, I know kind of indian dish like uh with um With split yellow peas make soup all sorts of yummy things do that instead All right leon Ask what is the role of dad's diet and insemination for the health of a new baby aside from fertility? um A little bit dad's diet and assuming for health of the new baby um Oh, that's a good question um, I don't know if uh, I don't know if I've ever looked into that um Nothing comes to mind um leon asks Okay, leon is done with questions. Landon mars asked. I just went plant base four months ago drop my total cholesterol from 270 to 186 congratulations But tried what threads went up and they did why? um well, um Some people are sensitive to a powdered Um grain so even whole grains 100 whole grain wheat Um Is uh, it's physiologically unnatural. We were never meant to break them and sell walls. Ideally we would wall off our um our nutrients and get um All of our protein carbs and fat um Packed inside cell walls which are made out of fiber which actually slows the rate at which um foods are absorbs lowers the glycemic index Activates something called the ileal break provides all sorts of wonderful goodies for our friendly um Flora, so it's not just about the fiber which is Canadian the plant walls plants that walls back see surrounding So fiber acts as a carrier to transport goodies like starch down to our gut flora um, and so um So if you absorb calories too quickly you can bump your triglycerides up So I encourage you to move from whole grains to intact grains and see if that doesn't bring your triglycerides down Of course, avoiding um all refined carbs like um, uh, you know, uh, the white flour and sugar, etc. Okay Frolicks with danger ass as a vegan with low iron is a colonoscopy and endoscopy necessary other tests to consider Um, absolutely. So if your doctor is considering Uh colonoscopy they're concerned about I presume that you tested positive for cold blood It's called guac positive that they found hidden blood Um, and if that's the case they really should find out what's going on and see if you have some sort of information or um, or worse, um, and so um I cannot believe that they're going to a colonoscopy just because you had low iron But they must have suspected that you're bleeding in your digestive tract in which case endoscopy makes a lot of sense Ken dv asked is there anything bad about supplementing uh daily with two scoops of weight protein to reach my protein requirements To why would anyone eat? Any kind of protein isolith, you know what the protein requirements are pointy grams for healthy kilogram body weight. That's like so, uh, ken sounds like a man's name 56 grams is the um like the Recommended daily amounts 56 grand um, you should be able to eat the eat the Easily with whole foods in fact the typical um, this is for men 19 through 50 the average protein intake is um latest uh national survey 2016 was 106 grams, I believe so that's almost twice what your protein requirements are all right Doug Ask good afternoon. Hello Uh, considering already followed the daily dozen What should I do to prevent and stop allergic rhinitis? um allergic running nose, I believe I have you looked on nutrition facts for um, rhinitis I remember have one video um, I think it was uh allergic rhinitis in response to cedar um, so kind of pollen allergies Um, but I forget what the video was about so type in rhinitis and nutrition facts that organ everything I know will pop up um Egress zero zero ass are there any specific foods and drinks that would help them for the use of endometrial cancer? um before during or after Sterectomy surgery endometrial cancer um Uh, again, uh nutrition facts that org type it in great website. Just check it out. Um Uh, nothing nothing uh jumps to mind. I mean there's some things in terms of Preventing but in terms of endometrial cancer survival. I'm not aware of any dietary Studies unless it's already up not it's not something I've come across um Marie asked I've read conflicting advice. Is it dangerous or not to eat saturated fat? uh, look no further than the presidential advisory from the american heart association so um frustrated with this internet nonsense That uh questioning the role of saturated fat disease that the american heart association put out this special position paper This presidential advisory saying yes saturated fat is bad for you whether we're talking about coca-roa whether it's talking about um meat dairy We need to decrease our saturated fat intake if only to decrease the risk of the number one killer of men and women anyone who tells you otherwise um is uh Is is it's going against the scientific consensus? um, and is going against what indeed the science says um ap asks if I get my carbs and fiber from vegetables and fruits and berries nothing sees Why do I need to eat whole grains? Why can't I carve the fiber? Well, I mean so fiber so People have the sense that they're getting a lot of fruit from a fiber from fruit, but fiber are one of the least um Uh, one of the the the the least sources of fiber whole plant foods because um fruits are like 80 water by way um, and so uh That's why legumes um being split these chickpeas And lentils and whole grains are the most concentrated sources of fiber because they're actually dry um, and so uh, you get a lot more fiber But if you look at the fiber content of fruits, it's actually quite low. Um, just because it's mostly water Um, thea dragon spirit. So that'd be one reason why you want to eat whole grains as a primary source of fiber Thea dragon spirit asks what are the best foods to improve digestion? What's the best way to improve digestion in general this exercise help? Um, uh, I'm not sure what you mean by improve digestion. So I have videos on dyspepsia, which is kind of like upset stomach Um, maybe that's what you mean by improving digestion. So I would type that in Um, d y s p e p s i a I presume Um, and hopefully that will help Um raw recovery says does manuka honey have healing benefits Um, I'm sure someone selling you manuka honey will suggest so but the only thing the only um healing benefits I know from any kind of honey is for topical application for cold sores I'm gonna have a video about that as well a ps this is Wrt oxalate since effect on kidney stones is half to one cup of spinach leave a day too much No, uh, one half to one cup of spinach leave is not too much a day in terms of oxalate content If however, you're eating multiple cups of greens a day as everyone should I would encourage you to diversify your greens And uh, not use the top three Um, uh oxalate containing greens, which is spinach, beet greens and swiss chard But so I would not do cups a day of any of those but uh, definitely do cups a day of things like arugula and colored greens and kale Um, and uh, yeah, I recommend at least two servings of dark green leafy vegetables every day. Um, well Um, what's in my daily does? There's definitely there's a cruciferous And uh, I do encourage people to eat dark green leafy vegetables In this another vegetable she'll be she'll be asked what health tips you recommend for teenagers on the plant-based diet? um Is there anything particular for teenagers on the plant-based diet? Um Just uh, not to get uh um You know obsessed with all the um plant-based junk out there teenagers have historically been uh Uh and not led the healthiest diet and so you know a vegan teenager 20 years ago would be stuck eating fruits and vegetables But now vegan teenagers can be eating vegan donuts and ice cream and all sorts of things Which should not be healthy plant-based or not um Adry ask any advice for eczema um I do have some videos on eczema But I think they're mostly for children with eczema In terms of treating eczema. It's mostly just oh and I have videos on topical application I go through vaseline versus other like, uh Other creams for eczema versus steroids. Oh, yeah So I do have some excellent videos type in eczema to mr. Specks at organ. They should pop right up Raw recovery says what's the best advice for IBS IBD sufferers? Well, those are two very different conditions and a bunch of types of inflammatory bowel disease In fact, there's different types of irritable bowel as well Um, and so if you have ulcerative colitis, look at my ulcerative colitis videos You have Crohn's look up Crohn's videos Um IBS I'm going to have a whole another series of videos coming out looking at the pod map diets um Yeah, so just um, those are all different disease entities and you can um Find all my videos about them on nutrition facts.org Uh Marie asked should someone take more in the rda omega 3 is a supplement if they suffer from dry eyes Oh, I actually do have a video about dry eyes and I believe the conclusion of the video is hydration drink more water seems kind of obvious But uh, but it works apparently okay um sloba slobadan asks is it necessary to avoid beans during breastfeeding god No, why would you do that? That doesn't make any sense. Jeremy rinfret asks can't wait for the new book Wonderful there's a lot not to lie. I wish December 10th. I believe I'm really excited about it. It's going to be fantastic Um lgb says what's the best way to repair telomeres? Oh, I have some old telomere videos talking about telomerase um, uh, the best way to repair your telomeres is to boost your enzyme of telomerase, which Um does that very thing and you can do that by eating a healthy diet centered around whole plant foods Alexis h. Ford green says hello. I have hydra not hydradonitis subrativa And can I have nutrition east or any east at all? Yes, indeed very smart I have two videos about that. Do I have any recommendations for replacement for this cheesy flavor? Oh, that's a good question. Well, it would be a good cheeseless cheesy flavor That doesn't have nutrition used in it. That's a good question. You need to ask a chef If you are a chef or someone who knows how to cook and has some cheesy recommendations that don't involve nutrition use or cheese write a response to um, Alexis I wish I could help you Alastair asks any spin fruits and vegetables long cancer risk and its smokers stop smoking about four years ago Um and like to reduce lung cancer risk. Well, there I do Remember doing a video about cruciferous vegetable intake and lung cancer survival um, so uh But I don't know if that was um in term but in terms of prevention Um, I yeah, I would have to just look up lung cancer and nutrition back story to see what pops up Um Yeah, but uh, the most important thing you do is as you already done stop smoking and don't take back up the habit Um, but good for you for being able to stop net geo jugs Oh, wow long name jugs to gate asks um It's uh, when will you publish your book on? Oh longevity? Uh, yeah, uh, it'll be out uh, december 2022 That's my next book. I'll start january 2021. I'm on a three-year book cycle now um, joel as in men fasting is it bad is it good is it a miracle or a joke you will find out tomorrow my three hour intermittent fasting webinar Um, and if you haven't heard about this, obviously you're not subscribed to my free monthly newsletter go to nutrition facts.org And press subscribe. It's too late to sign up for tomorrow. We have I think 3 000 people already Um on the webinar. I have another fasting webinar coming up september 29th. I believe Yeah, so um, you'll be able to sign up for that if you subscribe But what if you really want to see all my videos about intermittent fasting? They should be compiled in a dvd out monday um And so and again, we'll announce that in the newsletter as well so that's how you will find out and uh everything you ever want to know about intermittent fasting Jennifer crissy asked can you reverse hypothyroidism with a plant-based diet depends on what the cause is if hypothyroidism undirected thyroid gland if We do know that people who eat plant-based diets have Um, uh, more likely to have normal thyroid function Um, but what if you already have hypothyroidism in terms of the cost of the causes iodine efficiency, for example getting in a phiodine and your hormone and your Your body needs iodine to actually create the um iodine containing thyroid hormones and so then that's a simple fix, but if it's because of an autoimmune disease, which is uh, probably the most common cause then, um It's a matter of your Thyroid being scarred up and although there's case reports of people reversing that It's not something that's been put to the test in a more general manner Um, it's still important to eat healthy for any kind of diet, but I would not expect I would expect people with hypothyroidism due to autoimmune thyroiditis to be on Thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of their life Um, erin S. Do hovel plant-based eaters have lower rates of appendicitis than meaters? That's interesting um Uh, yeah, so if you get people eating higher fiber diets, which and fibers only found in abundance and whole plant foods Do have lower rates of appendicitis? Um, uh, so yes the answer is yes um Yeah, you know, I don't think I have a video about that Um, but I should do uh, I should tell you that that was the one of the things that berkett found Um, in addition to lower rates of diverticulitis, um, also lower rates of appendicitis among those who eat more fiber Fly shacker asks What do you say to someone who says they will continue to eat a bad diet? Well, they're young because they have plenty of time to eat right and restore their health with a proper diet Well, okay. I mean, yeah You can see the rationale there if Um, uh, plant-based diet is so powerful to be able to even reverse end-stage heart disease Why not eat whatever the heck you want and then oh you have heart disease fine Then get with the program and reverse your heart disease open your heart is back up the problem with that plan Is the number one cause of death for men and women but actually particularly women with heart disease some called Sudden cardiac death meaning um, you don't even know you have heart disease and then you're dead um within A few hours of your first symptom Um, so you feel some chest pain be like boy, I should go to the doctor, but no you're dead within a few hours sudden cardiac death Um, uh a little over 50 percent men and women who die from heart disease. So you don't have a chance I mean no matter how much you tell your ambulance driver to uh To uh, you know skip the fast food place on the way to the emergency room It's too late at that point. Um, so that's why I announced prevention It's way more than powder cure because there is no cure for dead All right Where are we? Okay, eric asked I cannot buy breakfast cereal at my local supermarket um It seems to be a minefield of toxic sugar, but does anybody care? Um, there are some um good serials out there. Um, you could just of course just make some oatmeal or something But for example, uncle sam's is just uh, like uh, we've smushed wheat berries with some flax seeds. Um Has a good 5 to 1 uh fiber carb ratio No added sugar salt anything like that. Um, marie says it's dangerous to have a bmi of 17.9. There are no symptoms um Well, so uh, so, you know typically we want a bmi kind of so 18 to 25 is normal the ideal on bmi is probably 20 to 22 um And so the question is uh, it's only dangerous if you are underweight because you have a disease underweight because you have um, eating disorder or um, if because you have so little body fat you lose your period if you're of reproductive age those kind of things um, but if not um then Uh, you really I mean ideally you want to be a my of 2022 I mean that's for the observational evidence suggests the best so um, but uh, yeah, so um, yeah, what can I tell you? I would try to get it within that range ideally um, a p s omega 6 omega 3 omega 6 ratio should be 104 ideally 1 to 1 um not necessarily No, uh, and so then trying to make a a point that one should eat One kind of beans or another kind of beans you have to realize there's so little fat and beans that doesn't matter what the ratio is Um, uh, and the reason we care about omega 6 omega 3 a ratio is make those long chain fatty acids if you're getting them Um supplement your diet directly. It doesn't matter Um, and the most important thing is just avoiding junky omega 6 rich oils like concealed oil safflower oil sunflower oil um, corn oil, which just Um, will really throw your ratio off. Um, you should eat any kind of bean you want See a dragon spirit has best ways to improve. Yeah. Oh, we've already digested him seven asks Have I ever heard of dr. Matthew Walker? I've not he says the sleep seems more important than diet and exercise Wow Since if you don't sleep then it's worse than both of those things. Well If you don't eat you're dead, too Um, yeah, no, I've not heard dr. Matthew Walker Um that would certainly surprise me but not to minimize the importance of getting enough sleep I have a whole chapter of that my new book coming out in december ashwagandha any effects on hypothyroidism problems I do not know. I have not yet looked into ashwagandha um AJ smith For someone who is not going to the bathroom frequently. What is best to take? Um, uh So I assume you're talking about constipation in which case you need to drink lots of water and eat lots of fiber-rich foods um, um, uh most uh concentrated fibers most concentrated legumes be smoothies cheekbees lentils also whole grains All right, um Okay ginger beard Almost a gingerbread ginger beard ass Would you consider impossible burger to be a healthy indulgence for a plant-based diet? Have you ever had an impossible burger? um so I view um beyond meat burgers and possible burgers and you know to furky all these new um uh fangled meat substitutes on the market to be a fantastic stepping stone Um towards a healthier diet. Uh, not everyone can go from cheeseburgers and milkshakes to you know, canola quinoa um, and so these offer a way to kind of have a you know, similar taste and textures um From our youth to help people make that transition. Um, so I think they're fantastic Um, but I wouldn't want someone to get stuck there want people to continue to improve their diets um And move towards whole plant foods that wouldn't have the added sodium I mean certainly they're better in terms of all cholesterol free typically lower saturated fat But some have comparable sodium levels, etc. Etc. So I'm better absolutely um, but not the best Swag astronomer asks any research and health benefits of neuro feedback on mental health It's a good question. Not something I have looked into Peaceful abundance. It's a nice name ask any advice for dealing healing with from Interstitial interstitial cystitis Good question. I don't know of any I don't think I've ever done any videos in interstitial cystitis um But it may just it's not not something I looked into if you go to pub med.gov In fact, I think they just got rid of the gov. So pub med.org Hopefully we'll take you there. That's uh, the national library medicines, uh database the largest medical database in the world They've been just just the status and died of any pops up send it my way and I and if it's something that's interesting ground breaking practical I will do a video about it. All right, and we have one minute to go Um, let me see if I can get to one or two more questions. Naja bwf says I have constant diarrhea every day um And uh, so what should I do? Well, so um 15 days um of Diarrhea you qualify for um the kind of definition of chronic diarrhea in which case you need to go to a gastroenterologist and get figured out Um, uh, it sounds like it says you had tested a normal to have you in scope to have you I mean, there's um, they they can do They go for parasites they can do Um biopsies check for celiac. There's all sorts of things you can do um And I and if tests haven't shown anything and just keep needing to get more tests until they can Figure out what the cause because you always want to treat the cause you can always take anti-diarrheals But ideally you would treat the cause if they haven't found it yet. They should keep doing tests until they figure it out And that takes us up to 130. Thank you so much everybody And I uh, look forward to our q and a's next month and in fact Well, hopefully q and a's in your very town and doing 200 cities on my spring tour next year. Hopefully I'm coming to a city near you