 Hello everyone welcome this is Dr. Michael Greger coming to you live from my treadmill as I do every month on both Facebook live and YouTube to answer any questions you may have for those of you unfamiliar with my work every year I read through every issue of every investment institution in the world so busy folks like you don't have to I then follow the most interesting most ground-breaking most practical finds new videos and articles I upload every day to my non-profit site nutrition facts.org everything on the website is free there are no ads no corporate sponsorship strictly non-commercial not selling anything just put up as a public service as a labor of love as a tribute to my grandmother whose life was saved with lifestyle medicine which is why I went to medical school why I became a lifestyle medicine doctor and why I started nutrition facts.org let us get to your questions oh it looks like a bunch of questions are already there sweet okay I'll just start at the top and go down Surge 112 asks about Colleen following a daily doesn't one may get about 300 milligrams a day while at while the adequate intake in the EU is 400 in the US it's 550 actually I think that's just for men women it's around 400 something studies show deficiencies are possible raising the liver enzymes what would less than really be bad like taking a less than supplement less than really would be that bad we don't want to be taking less than the supplements just like we don't want to be taking carnitine supplements because because of TMAO trimethylamine oxide by eating culling rich and the carnitine rich foods we are fostering the growth of bacteria that can take those molecules and turn them into trimethylamine resoxides by the liver into this toxic compound TMAO which with travels throughout our body increase a risk of heart disease and heart failure and kidney failure and cancer progression also some other bad things and so we want to stay away from carnitine rich foods like red meat culling rich foods like eggs seafood dairy but also carnitine supplements even if you don't eat steak and culling supplements like less than even if you don't eat eggs and other food so but 300 milligrams a day is what typically most people in America eat so that may actually be a good thing that we're kind of on the low side of intake on not suffering deficiency on one side but on the other side not getting too much to foster the growth of any TMAO producing bacteria surge 112 also as erythritol consumed with fructose excess fructose certainly causes GI symptoms because it actually competes for absorption with the fructose in the intestine and so is erythritol yellow light erythritol was never yellow light erythritol is a red light food because it's a highly processed a plant food an ultra processed plant food there's no resemblance whatsoever to you know melons grapes where erythritol is found naturally so we should eat melons and grapes and pears and other healthy plant foods if however you want a sweetener it's certainly better than table sugar certainly better than some of these other some sucralose or aspartame or artificial sweeteners and so indeed if you the nice thing about erythritol as opposed to xylitol or other sugar alcohol it's actually absorbed in small intestine excreted unchanged in the urine so it doesn't make it down to the colon get the osmotic diarrhea if however you drink a can of coca-cola plus some erythritol all that fructose will compete with the erythritol and so you'll absorb the fructose erythritol make it down to the colon and then you get osmotic diarrhea and so the the answer is not to avoid erythritol but to avoid drinking coca-cola avoid eating added sugars industrial sugars like high fructose corn syrup and the tapers are in the first place so so if you're going to use a sweetener then erythritol maybe monk fruit actually someone asked me about monk fruit and I've started to look into it in terms of the research so far so good but no stamp of approval yet because I'm not just interested in looking some of the literature but all the literature once I've read everything I can find a period of your medical literature on monk fruit I will do a video about it and tell you what I think or not what I think what the science shows make up your own mind all right hello Jay Luo loud sorry if I'm mispronouncing everybody's name has a question heard that we should yes eat lots of whole foods what is a whole food is a whole grain considered a whole food absolutely whole grain is considered a whole food so by whole I mean unprocessed what I mean by processed I mean processed food is something is a food from which something good has been taken away or something bad has been added so refined grains are processed not whole foods because they've had the germ and parts of it removed and other foods have salt or sugar or oil things added that'd be processed as well so by whole foods I mean yes so what am I talking about whole plant foods include fruits vegetables legumes your beans flipies chickpeas and all those whole grains nuts and seeds herbs and spices mushrooms basically real food the gross out of the ground these are our healthiest choices all right on Olivier asks a doctor Bowden and Atia Atia say that cholesterol is fine and that the problem is actually high triglycerides and so recommend a low carb diet what are my thoughts my thoughts or they are not familiar with the literature which very clearly shows that LDL cholesterol so-called bag cholesterol is a leading risk factor for the number one killer of men and women so if you are suicidal then trying to boost your your cholesterol by eating saturated fat and dietary cholesterol and trans fats is a good thing if however you're not and actually care about your health and longevity you should try to decrease your LDL which means decreasing intake of dietary cholesterol saturated fat predominantly and trans fats and look having high triglycerides is bad too but you do that but in whole foods not refined junk and by exercise Olivier has another question what is my take on the hypothesis that meat was essential to evolve our human brains my certainly my any any adaptation that allowed us to get access to highly calorically dense foods would be an evolutionary advantage and so even though the first 90% of our evolution from about 20 million years ago to 2 million years ago but we we ate what other great apes ate which is almost exclusively a diet composed of whole plant foods we feel we figured a way to scavenge and get at bone marrow and brains and that's super calorically dense which helps us survive to reproductive age and that's what it's all about right now though what those big brains have enabled us to do is make science right is to is to come up with a process by which we can get at the questions of what's the best thing to eat and right now it's just not about to make you through puberty now it's about a living long and so we need to decrease a risk of chronic disease and that means decreasing a risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes and various cancers and that means eating healthfully and so not eating not consisting on brains which is I think the one food that actually has more dietary cholesterol than eggs. Olivier we already did that one hero just the same question fruits and vegetables are nothing only whole foods other whole plant foods are whole foods too. Olivier has another question some friends thinks I believe in a conspiracy theory when you show them the science well if it's based on science not a conspiracy theory it's the science one does not have to believe in conspiracy other than no one doesn't have to believe in conspiracies at all I mean that's just the way the world works I mean the reason that Coca-Cola isn't selling you broccoli is there's just not money to be made on broccoli that's how the system works the stockholders wouldn't allow Coca-Cola to sell broccoli because it's just not enough markup they don't want they're not out to make kids sick and fat they're just out to make money that's the system it's not conspiracy it's just that's the way the system works it rewards selling foods that's non-perishable that sits on the shelf makes more money can be branded can be you know made from subsidized sugar etc anyway all right okay comment Matt asks is a whole food form of coconut like dried frozen coconut flakes a green yellow or red light food so a whole coconut would be a green light food because it is a whole plant food so studies show that eating a like whole unsweetened flaked coconut has a neutral effect has no effect on one's bad cholesterol and you say wait a second has all that saturated fat in it right but also has fiber and plant protein which help lower cholesterol now if you take de-fatted coconut flakes which you can't actually buy but you can make experimentally in a lab you give that to people what happens the cluster actually goes down why because the whole plant food without saturated fat and so cholesterol goes down so the fiber the plant protein is trying to decrease your cholesterol while the saturated coconut oil is increasing your cholesterol on the whole food so as a neutral effect overall now you could argue certainly well why not instead of eating coconut eat foods without the saturated fat so actually lower your cholesterol why eat foods that just have a neutral effect we eat foods actually reduce your risk further that's certainly a legitimate argument and so yes all green light foods are not created equal iceberg lettuce is green light food kale is better right white potatoes green light food sweet potatoes better etc. All right Matt also asks black brown red or green lentils which is the healthiest problem smaller is better and probably black would be the healthiest so like little those little kind of French lentils that are small and black probably the have the highest nutrient content but any lentils basically the healthiest lentil is the lentil you'll eat most up so that may be the most convenient the one you can find down the street the one that's cheapest whatever gets you to eat more lentils is the way to go all right it looks like I'm paused for a moment I don't know if I should keep talking or should I wait until it pops back up I'll just hope that it pops back up Matt also asks any updates on vitamin D versus D3 is D3 still the superior form D3 is a superior form you can get you can get D3 derived from plants derived from animals or you can get it derived from your own animal yourself when you walk out and get adequate sunlight hold on I'm getting a message oh all right good I got a message from the saying that the video still seems fine that's great okay Matt asks is sorghum flower healthy so in general we should try to eat intact grains so non-flower products so whole wheat flour is a whole food nothing bad and unbad taken away nothing bad added nothing good taken away but there are healthier forms so eating wheat berries so you know that's why steel cut oats are actually healthier than instant oats even though it's all they're both whole foods it's just oats but because of the way our body digested it's better to eat intact grains whenever possible rather than flower products because that leaves some little bits for a good bacteria to eat our bacteria eats starch our healthy bacteria eat starch and so by you know chewing instead of puraying you know so eating chickpeas healthier than eating hummus even though it's it's the same thing because of those little bits of inadequately chew chickpeas make it down to the gut and feed you good bacteria instead of getting absorbed higher up in the gut so in general in tech grains but if you're going to eat flour the sorghum flowers find any whole grain flour is fine in fact you can actually take those oats take rolled oats put them in a blender and make your own oat flour if you want I just made some some latkes recently and the first overnight's recipe for latkes uses oat flour and that's how I made it Matt also asks our hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds healthy absolutely seeds are super healthy I recommend people to eat nuts and seeds every day it's part of my daily dozen if you don't know what the daily dozen is I there's a free app on iPhone Android you can get it and these are just the things I encourage people to fit into their daily diet whenever possible so greens every day the healthiest vegetables berries every day the healthiest fruits a quarter teaspoon of turmeric a tablespoon of ground flax seeds the best beverages how much exercise etc all there in my book how not to die and free on those apps Dr. Berger's daily dozen Surge 112 is back saying most algae-based DHA EPA use alpha tocopperol and basically use antioxidants preservatives is that harmful to get a few milligrams of vitamin E as a preservative no so nope that's fine Colleen oh we already did that okay oh did I go all the way back to the front no here we go okay Mike M asks been eating whole foods for two years LDL oh still high 110 is it okay it is not okay and well C-rect approaching is really low that's excellent oh my god blood pressure is gorgeous systolic 105 hopefully your diet stocks is around 70 or lower a BMI is beautiful normal blood sugar is great your LDL is still too high I'm sorry I encourage you to add to your diet so you already eliminated all the things that increase your cholesterol like saturated well I try it probably trans fats on dietary cholesterol you may be eating saturated fats you're eating lots of coconut oil would not be a whole foods but I'm trying to think of a whole food source of saturated fat if you're really not eating any of that junk you're pretty much eliminated everything that increase your cholesterol so now you just have to add your diet things that pull actively pull cholesterol from your body so we're looking at like the portfolio diet Dr. David Jenkins the University of Toronto developed this diet was a plant-based diet but in addition added specifically foods like foods lots of soluble fiber slimy foods like okra oatmeal ground flax seeds that pull cholesterol from your body trapping the small intestine they say wait a second I'm not eating any cholesterol ah but your liver makes cholesterol and if your cholesterol is too high your little LDL receptors on your liver are not adequately clearing it from your system and so you can grab on to you cannot rely on your liver's detoxification pathway and grab on to it by eating huge amounts of fiber foods and also adds nuts and all sorts of things and so check out the portfolio diet and also you may want to get your thyroid tested if you have a symptoms of hypothyroidism an underactive thyroid gland can lead to high cholesterol regardless of what you eat and so of course you'd want to treat the cause rather than if however possible and should that be the case once your hypothyroidism is taken care of your cholesterol should drop like a rock and reflect your gorgeous diet which for most people eating the way you describe your eating is you know a total cluster all around you know 125 or something pushing LDL at least below 70. Ellie asks is kombucha safe well you know there's these rare extremely rare cases of lactic acidotic comas and people that are drinking come after drinking kombucha both commercial kombucha and homemade kombucha and so because of that I put a video up describing those rare cases and saying you know why don't we just stick to food that doesn't have any cases of causing of putting people in a coma so I would recommend not drinking kombucha what's the best probiotic you don't need to eat probiotics need to be pre box to feed the good bacteria you already have in your gut what's the point of putting good bacteria in your gut if you're just going to starve them out like you've been starving your good bacteria what do good bacteria eat the fiber and resistant starch found concentrated in legumes main split-piece chickpeas noodles but all whole plant foods and so feed the good bacteria you already have with healthy foods that's the best probiotic quote-unquote unless of core unless you just took an antibiotic or something wiped out your good bugs and you're experiencing symptoms like chronic diarrhea or something then you can talk about them being talked about probiotics as a treatment but not as a regular thing all right Matt is back oh we already did the whole food coconut thing yep yep we already answered all those okay BJK said I recommend no more in a liter of viscous tea yes thanks to the manganese content what about hibiscus what how much hibiscus are we talking about five bags oh oh that's a good question oh yeah I would have to look at that study so there's a study found that there's just you know hibiscus is so packed with nutrition that's actually may have a little too much manganese if you're doing way too much of it and so I would just have to see exactly how many grams of tea they were actually using to make that leader so check out the study I click on the link if you click on sources cited below any my videos you can get a list of all the links to all the PDFs to all the original studies I cite and you can pull that up and see exactly what I meant by one liter of hibiscus tea regularly any day all right in fact I will take a sip of hibiscus tea while we're talking and now what should I do after I drink my hibiscus tea as you rinse my mouth out with water so it's not to erode my enamel castes all the natural acids but we already knew that all right nine minutes to go BJK ass any updates on adding nuts to nitrate rich greens for fat side of the vitamins nuts no the fat the fat they're talking about yeah eat nuts with your greens eat nuts without your greens eat greens with or without nuts don't worry about preventing the the don't worry about making nitrites in your stomach Marie asks can inorganic arsenic consume brown rice be removed from the body with time oh yeah so Marie is asking a question about the arsenic I'm currently doing this 13 video series about the concerning amount of arsenic found in most rice and and the question Marie has is wasting can I get rid of arsenic from my body absolutely guess what your body does it so arsenic is water soluble it unlike some persistent organic pollutants like a PCBs dioxins that build up in your fat you can have for decades something like mercury stays in your body for a long time arsenic I'm as flushed out of your body that's why we can test to see how much arsenic is in people's diet by testing arsenic levels in a urine you want to see how much rice eaters brown rice eaters versus white rice eaters I just did a video on that you just test how much urine that's how much is flowing through the body and a day-a-day basis you don't store it up so how do you get rid of arsenic you stop eating it and guess what your body gets rid of it I mean within a day it flushes out your but and then the only reason you're continue to be exposed because you continue to eat or drink it so super easy to remove it from your body let your body do its magic and just don't eat any more of it that's the plan or minimize your consumption alright rake 922 asks are there negative consequences to a very low sodium diet there are positive consequences to a very low studying day in fact a quote-unquote very low studying that is a physiologically normal diet if you think about it there weren't salt shakers out on the on the savannah in Africa the so the quote-unquote very low certain that that's what we evolved for millions of years to be adapted to and it's only so even a low sodium diet is really a high sodium diet compared to our biology and so the only negative consequences one might find is if someone is on salt wasting diuretics there's certain blood sugar pill excuse me blood pressure medications that work by flushing sodium out of your body and so if you had severe congestive heart failure and you on high doses of these drugs and then also on a very low sodium diet you can wash too much sodium out of your body but in terms of normal people your body very rapidly adapts to a low sodium diet can serve sodium such that you know they have these cases where people fast for hundreds of days over a year there's actually the Guinness Book of World Records someone fast some very obese person fasted ate nothing but water for a year and without any salt zero salt diet and and maintain their sodium levels because our body was made our kidneys were made to hold on to sodium at all costs what do I think about Nicole ask what do we think about V8 juice and how beneficial our hemp seeds hemp seeds like all seeds are helpful the problem with V8 juice is it's a juice it's had all the fiber or most of the fiber removed from it and so what I would recommend is instead make your own V8 smoothie so I have a I think called my V10 it's my new favorite drink I think there's the recipe in the upcoming how not to die cookbook for it basically it has all the stuff in VA like you know celery and you know carrots and all sorts of stuff but you blend it into a smoothie and horse radishes all sorts of really good stuff in it and it's delicious actually tastes better and it's a whole food you're basically drinking your vegetables I mean what can be possibly healthier than just drinking massive amounts of really wonderful vegetables so that would be my recommendation so stay tuned for that recipe in fact maybe I'll even do a Dr. Greger in the kitchen video showing people how to make it just because I love it so much all right four minutes go BJK is back saying and expect the benefits of having sodium intake yes there's benefits how about not dying from strokes and heart disease and yes under 100 under 1500 milligram sodium is what we want to do Daniel asked eating seeds and up butters has it been connected to pimples ah do I've been following on eating a higher whole plant foods and acne I don't know of any data linking whole food sources of fat such as avocados nuts and seeds with acne there's there's certainly a dairy literature a high glycemic index food literature but don't know of any high fat whole plant food linkages but if you do start from acne what I would recommend check out my barbarians video how cool is that that was really an extraordinary so treating acne with the most antioxidant packed dried fruit which you can buy in Middle Eastern stores check it out so just type in barbarians or acne into new shoes facts dot org and it should pop right up on car asks what does the evidence say about glucose amine can threaten MSM blah blah blah what does the evidence say oh about using it presumably they're talking about for osteoarthritis and I looked at that literature a long time ago and it's very unimpressive I have not yet looked at it again but regardless of what the latest says you always want to treat the cause why do you have osteoarthritis in first place rather than trying to treat it with supplements or drugs Marie asks how can you know that brown rice was harvested as opposed to where it was processed oh interesting so when I talk about how certain countries have higher levels of arsenic than others writes from certain countries the question is well what if it says it's Indian basmati was relatively low arsenic rice but it just was like shipped from India but actually came from some place like Arkansas which has high arsenic rights and all I can say is it just wouldn't make sense to grow rice in Arkansas or Texas where it has the most arsenic then ship it to India put it in a new bag and ship it back so it's probably processed and grown in a very similar geographic location would be my assumption Marie also asked eating brown rice leads to lower instance of colon polyps ah but higher instance of bladder cancer oh yeah oh this is so cool so what should we do should we eat brown rice we not eat brown rice that's why I got videos about in fact that's I think the name of video should we eat brown rice and it's coming up check it out on nutrition facts.org all right Matt one minute left is a whole form oh we already did a whole form of coconut yep we're ready to do that good Connor asks roughly how much glycogen can you body store before it's reached and turn into fat glycogen isn't turned to fat but it's stored in your liver and muscles you only have enough for about really less than a day you only can store about a days worth of carbohydrates before it's exhausted and you have to start making sugar from scratch mostly in your liver also kidneys as well as start dipping into your fat stores and so so not much with but no problem because you can just eat and store some more and it is 330 and bummer that's it for this installment I do want to say mention that on August 8th at 8 p.m. is the premiere of my new PBS special we're gonna live streaming on nutrition facts.org put it down your calendar 8 8 at 8 Eastern oh isn't Eastern maybe not because it's in Detroit so Detroit time 8 p.m. wherever that is for you we will live stream my new PBS special on nutrition facts.org but then they're gonna make us take it down so it's like live only otherwise you gotta actually watch it on TV when it comes out this fall but you can check it out we'll have it on the homepage nutrition facts.org and I'll be actually live in Detroit at the time if you happen to be around anyway have a wonderful week and stay healthy