 Welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast. Okay, it's question and answer time where I take your questions from social media and your Apple podcast reviews. Okay, this is gonna be fun. I love your questions. I really, as you know, enjoy hearing from you. So stay tuned. We'll be back with today's mailbag Q&A with yours truly. Okay, we're gonna start off. I love this handle. It's at Bulletproof Coconut on Instagram. Hmm, here's the question. Why are certain quest bars okay if they contain sodium, caseinate, almonds, and corn fiber? Okay, where to start? Quest bars way long time ago were really one of the first only approved certain quest bars on our list of good foods. If you remember, and you probably don't, quest bars originally used a different fiber as part of their mix. And then, quite frankly, from what I can tell for economic reasons, they changed to corn fiber. And back then I got on the phone with them and said, what the heck are you guys doing? And again, I have no relationship with quest bars. And they said, oh, well, guess what? It doesn't have any lectins in it. And they were right. Corn fiber do not have lectins. Lectins are proteins. And so corn fiber is a actual excellent soluble fiber. So that's why corn fiber is okay. Almonds, as you know, many people do react to the lectins in almonds. And in fact, in upcoming books, I'm going to continue my warning that almonds are often in my trouble-making autoimmune patients one of the most sensitive foods to avoid, a fun fact way back when the original program in my offices was called the Matrix Protocol. And almonds of any kind were not allowed. We found through the years that about 90% plus of people will tolerate almonds, okay? And that's why certain foods with almonds, certain products with almonds, make it onto our list. Same way with sodium caseinate. It turns out that when you modify these protein molecules that they no longer contain the troublesome lectins. And spoiler alert in my upcoming book on locking the keto code, I'm actually going to allow you to have pea protein isolate, soy protein isolate, pea protein hydrolysate, and soy protein hydrolysate, because there's recently been a paper which I cite that shows that the lectins are removed in those processes. Now, hear me correctly. That doesn't mean that peas are safe. That doesn't mean that soy is safe. That doesn't mean that beans are safe. But these particular breaking down of these molecules makes them safe. So, and the other thing is not all quest bars are even anywhere close to safe because half the quest bars contain sucralose. I have no idea why they do this. Again, I don't tell them what to manufacture. But I'm trying to give people an option that will most likely be safe for most people. Hope that answers your question. And actually I'm gonna jump to one on the kind of the same subject. Anonymous writes, on your updated yes food list in the energy paradox, you say simple mills, almond crackers are okay. I'm confused. They contain both sunflower seeds and sunflower oils, which are your no foods. Why is this okay in your new book? Great question, because we've gotten this question a lot. When I was originally writing these okay lists, simple mills actually didn't have their crackers, but they had mixes for cookies and crackers that did not contain these ingredients. And they were popular, but a pain in the neck. So, when simple mills crackers came out, we, my wife and I have friends, family over. And they really like to have gungery approved cheeses. And we went searching high and low for something close enough that most of the ingredients were gungery approved. And the ingredients that weren't gungery approved were way down the list. And we arrived at simple mills crackers. Do we sit around and munch on them? No, we do not. Do I ask my patients to sit around and munch on them? No, I do not. But as crackers go, they're one of the safest within reason that you can find. And that's why they appeared on the list. But in the Unlocking the Keto Code, they disappear from the list because quite honestly, so many of these foods still have huge amounts of carbohydrates. And it's the carbohydrate content of these foods that throws so many people off. And so, I guess you'll be glad to know in the next book, simple mills crackers didn't make the cut. Okay, based on my raw mushroom soup recipe I posted on Instagram, at notafraidyofiftiasse, I thought mushrooms were worth more nutritional value when cooked a bit and not eaten raw. Is this true or false? And on the same Instagram post, at Megan Mahidi asks, doesn't the bioavailability of mushrooms go up when they're cooked? So let's answer both. There are clearly some people that do react to raw mushrooms. And in fact, when we do food sensitivity testing on my troublesome patients, white mushrooms show up actually quite a bit as a sensitive food to be aware of. The cooking process does, if you will, detoxify these mushrooms. But I can tell you that in Italy, raw mushroom carpaccio is an incredibly popular dish in almost all parts of Italy. And porcini mushrooms are prized to be eaten raw. Having said that, my good friend, Chef Jimmy Schmidt, who has won three James Beard awards, really does think that the nutritional value of mushrooms goes up when you cook them. And you'll notice in lots of my recipes there are plenty of cooked mushrooms. So kind of take your choice. You're going to get huge amounts of benefit by getting mushrooms in your diet for so many reasons that I elaborate on in all the books. So however you want to eat your mushrooms, eat them. Oh, by the way, the benefit of cooking mushrooms is mushrooms are mostly water. And I want to get a lot of mushrooms in you. So if you cook mushrooms, surprise, surprise, they shrink. And you can actually eat a whole lot more mushrooms when they're cooked down, eliminating the water. So there's maybe one reason to do it. Okay, at Ellie Kisses on Instagram says, just finished reading energy paradox. If you're fasting through lunch and only eating dinner, when is it a good time to take your vitamins for better absorption? I read that vitamin D is better taken in the afternoon, but not close to bed. Okay, so Dr. Hollick, who's the famous professor at Boston University, who's kind of the vitamin D guru, was as far as I know, one of the first to prove that vitamin D, even though it is a quote, fat soluble vitamin, is equally well absorbed without fat. So you do not have to take fat soluble vitamins with fat, particularly vitamin D, to be absorbed. So quite frankly, it's okay to take them at any time. I'm not aware of not taking vitamin D close to bed. I will tell you that the B vitamins, they quote energy vitamins, probably shouldn't be taken near bed because as the name implies, we've certainly had patients get energized right before they go to bed. And probably that's the last thing you wanna do. In terms of taking vitamins on an empty stomach, I just completed a four day water fast and I took my vitamins on an empty stomach. I've done that on all my previous water fast. As you know, half the year I only eat one meal a day and I take my vitamins on an empty stomach in the morning. And quite frankly, I've gotten, I guess, used to them on an empty stomach. Just as a proviso, B vitamins in general bother women's stomach much more than they bother men. So if you're taking a multi B, it's probably best to eat it with food. So those are the provisos. Great question. Atlexis draws on Instagram. What are the top spirulina brand powders you recommend? Well, so listened to episode 165, Catherine Arnston's talking about spirulina and algae. I think it's a great episode. We really break down the benefits of spirulina, chlorella, the differences, the pros, and how you should take them. And quite frankly, I think she has a really good brand. But there are certainly other really good brands to find. But watch that episode, episode 165. At Dr. Matthew David on Instagram, does citrus bioflavonoid bergamot actually lower cholesterol? The answer is absolutely. I use citrus bioflavonoid bergamot in some of my patients who are more concerned or their doctors are more concerned with their elevated cholesterol than I am. And we've seen actually dramatic reductions in LDL cholesterol with a citrus bergamot. And I combine it quite frankly with sugar cane-based polycosanol. And when you're buying polycosanol, please look for the words sugar cane-based. Most of them are not sugar cane-based. Those two in combination have seen, we've seen some dramatic reductions. So great question. I don't talk about that because that's something I use in my practice, but it's a good trick. Okay, Sarah Tafuro on Instagram. This question comes from a recent Instagram picture of a plate of eggs I posted. I said, I don't eat a lot of eggs. So we got a lot of questions about this statement. Sarah asks, is it bad to eat eggs every day? Okay, if anybody has read my books, particularly the longevity paradox, but also the plant paradox, you know that as a general rule, the less animal protein that I can eat or convince you to eat, I see in my practice dramatic reductions in a blood marker that we routinely measure called insulin-like growth factor one, IGF one, that correlates actually very strongly with health span, life span, lessening the risk of cancer. And one of the, there's three factors that in general influence this number going down. And that is less sugars, less animal protein and cheese is an animal protein, eggs are an animal protein, and more intermittent fasting, more time-restricted eating. So those are the three factors. And we've done fun experiments with our patients asking them to manipulate one or more of these factors and in fact have shown that insulin-like growth factor goes down. I've had some patients give up animal protein for six weeks and their insulin-like growth factor will plummet 50, 60 points and believe me, that's a lot. So I don't say don't eat eggs lightly. I do eat eggs, as you could see. I was eating eggs and I believe when you're eating them they should be a vehicle to get olive oil into your mouth. And that's why those two eggs were more olive oil than eggs. You'll also notice on my good food list that I ask you to eat primarily the yolks and throw the whites away. In fact, I ask you to give them to your dog. Your dog will think you're a fabulous person. So no, it's not bad to eat eggs every day but two and a half eggs will meet most people's protein requirement for 24 hours. So if you wanna get your animal protein requirement from them or get your entire protein requirement, go ahead and have a couple eggs a day but make sure they're pastured, raised, or omega-3 eggs. And they're pretty easy to find. Or go to Italy and France and get the real thing. But great question. This was the Instagram lit up after I posted that picture. On Twitter, at babychief1 asks, how do we tell if your supplements are okay to take with supplements we're already taking to check with interactions? So as you know, I take 120 supplements in the morning, 80 supplements at night. Number of them obviously are my products. I also take a number of supplements that are not my products. I really do not worry nor have I seen interaction between supplements that I take of mine and others. I recommend supplements to my patients that are not mine. As most of you know, I do not sell my supplements in either of my offices. I send people to Costco or Trader Joe's or Amazon, Walmart to get their supplements. One proviso that I would say there is certainly a suggestion with a supplement that I do recommend called Longjevenics, which is a resveratrol-based supplement that vitamin C probably shouldn't be taken near the time that you take Longjevenics. But that's about the only thing I worry about. Okay, on Instagram, Nicole Malzorowski, I think I got it, ask, I want to go to one of your wellness retreats. Where do I get info on this? Well, we're working on a wellness retreat right now. If you missed our retreat at Pause Up a few months ago, if you missed the dinner wellness retreat I did last week in Montecito, we will let you know on Instagram when it's coming. As you know, COVID has made organizing retreats difficult, if not impossible. And I'm wary of committing you and me to a destination that we're all gonna cancel at the last second. But stay tuned, we are working on a really exciting venue, either next spring or next fall, a big venue and watch Instagram for news on this. All right, from Matthew 59918110 on Twitter. If you're trying to add calories to your diet as an athlete, what's the best source of sugar? I'm burnt out on honey, bananas, and maple syrup. What about agave? Well, first of all, as an athlete, you do not need sugar. That's one of the great myths out there. In my upcoming book, Unlocking the Keto Code, I'm gonna go into a lot more on why being in ketosis may not, in fact, improve athletic performance, but may actually be detrimental to athletic performance. On the other hand, agave is unfortunately, agave syrup is pure fructose. And if you wanna interfere with mitochondrial function, that's one of the best choices to screw up your mitochondrial function that I talk about in the energy paradox. You're much better off with loading up on long-acting carbohydrates if you like to use carbohydrates. And by that I mean yams, sweet potatoes, hekama, yuka, artichokes are really great ways of loading up on slowly digestive carbohydrates. From LF Boba on Twitter. Do you know if there are any lectin-free toppings found at Boba shops? Some examples are Boba, aloe vera, and grass jelly. I know that leachy jelly, red bean, green bean, purple rice, mochi are all no-goes. Thanks. Well, quite frankly, I've never had a Boba and don't plan to have a Boba soon. Here's one of the problems with Boba. Those little balls are in general made out of tapioca starch, but they're actually soaked in sugar. And if you read carefully in, for instance, the energy paradox, there's a problem that maybe I've created in saying that there are certain starches that are safe, that is, lectin-free, but that doesn't make them a safe starch in terms of the amount of simple carbohydrates they contain. And I can tell you from my practice that there are so many people who read the yes-food lists that are lectin-free, and see, for instance, like cassava flour, tapioca flour, and think that you are unlimited in the amounts of those products that you can eat. And you always have to be careful that these are still fairly simple carbohydrates. And so many of my patients will gain weight, their triglycerides will go up. I have some people who are having these products that are now pre-diabetic, insulin-resistant, and they don't get it because they're eating lectin-free products, but that doesn't stop you from being an informed consumer about how many carbohydrates you're actually having in these products. So be careful out there. Anand from Instagram says, "'I am 26, have a nodule, "'and suffering from hypothyroid. "'I heard sorghum wasn't great for thyroid issues. "'And you also recommend iodized salt. "'But I've heard from thyroid experts "'that iodized salt is the worst for us. "'Can you please help me understand?' "'Boy, these are really great common internet myths "'and well-meaning physician myths.' "'First of all, believe it or not, "'the first internet myth was that millet "'was terrible for your thyroid. "'And now there's a sorghum internet myth. "'I can tell you that cultures in Africa and India "'have been consuming sorghum and millet "'as their primary grain since before recorded time, "'and nobody's suffering from goiter and hypothyroidism. "'So no, these do not cause thyroid issues. "'Iodized salt is the single most important ingredient "'you can add to your diet "'to reverse non-Hashimoto's low thyroid.'" We have an epidemic of low thyroid in this country because we have switched from iodized salt to pink salt and sea salt. The federal government mandated in the early 1900s adding iodine to salt because we had an epidemic of hypothyroidism and goiter as people moved from the coasts into the Midwest and West where there was no iodine in freshwater fish. Our ancestors got iodine from eating ocean fish and ocean shellfish. And it literally saved millions of lives in the early 1900s and 23 countries still mandate adding iodine to salt for that purpose. Now, you don't go buy iodized table salt. There are now multiple companies that make iodized sea salt and you can find them in a number of grocery stores now you can find them on Amazon. I try every iodized salt there is there more and more every year. You would not believe the look of amazement on my patient's face after I add iodized salt to their diet and recheck their thyroid stimulating hormone their thyroid hormone that tells your thyroid to make hormone and watch it plummet just with the addition of iodine back into their diet. If you don't want to get iodine go buy some spirulina and start taking spirulina tablets that'll do the trick as well but iodized sea salt is so easy to get and it'll make a huge difference. Now having said that you may be hypothyroid from Hashimoto's thyroiditis and if that's the case please, please follow the recommendations in the plant paradox yes and no list and as you know about 90% of people who follow those recommendations will reverse their Hashimoto's thyroiditis and publish data from me at the American Heart Association. So great question though. Okay, Anand from Instagram says what do you say about the recent study on PubMed that says plant lectins or potent inhibitors of COVID? Talk about a paradox. Well, talk about a paradox as they say in Vegas and I will paraphrase what happens in a test tube stays in a test tube. So an in vitro study of looking at whether lectins can bind to a cell and blocked COVID from binding has absolutely positively nothing to do what happens in a living animal that swallows lectins and is exposed to COVID. In fact, the lectins will make your gut wall leaky which will increase your inflammation and increase your cytokine storm. So if that's what you wanna do please swallow lectin containing foods during COVID but if you wanna prevent a cytokine storm please stop making holes in your gut. These patients with pre-existing conditions have a leaky gut and that's why they're so sensitive to getting sick from COVID. Remember, that's why in all of my product promotion and all the information you get about products we show you human studies that form the basis for why we're asking you to take our product or why we formulated the product the way we did. We don't base it on test tube studies. What goes on in a test tube stays in a test tube. Pearl Volita on Twitter asks, what would you recommend for people who are allergic to salicylates? There is a growing number of people who are allergic to aspirin. Well, it turns out that salicylates are in a lot of foods and you can find the list of salicylates containing foods just on any website. But what I found with my salicylate sensitive patients is that it's actually leaky gut that is contributing to their sensitivity and when we seal their leaky gut, their sensitivities go away. One fun fact about salicylates is that there are potential anti-inflammatory compounds in fish oil which are called resolvins but you have to have a tiny amount of salicylic acid, salicylates, to activate turning fish oil into resolvins and without a small amount of these salicylates you won't convert fish oil into resolvins. So that's why I like patients to consider taking white willow bark. I drink white willow bark tea as part of my tea regimen every day or an enteric-coated baby aspirin which will give you a microscopic dose of salicylic acid once it's absorbed and but more importantly, once you figure out fixing leaky gut and that involves getting lectins out of your diet, most of these conditions resolve and it's actually exciting to watch. The Luke Hills from Instagram asks, are slippery elm and cacao powder keto? Well, yeah, so slippery elm is actually in my formula of total restore. It's useful for increasing the mucus layer on the wall of our gut. Cacao powder, that's ground up cocoa beans, there's nothing inherently either keto or non-keto about these. They don't really have virtually any carbohydrates. So alone, those are perfectly fine. You'll see a whole lot more about what's really keto and what's not keto in my upcoming book, Unlocking the Keto Code, which will be out in March 2022 and I'm really excited about it because as you can guess, most people doing keto are doing it completely wrong. I've been at this for over 20 years now and you'll be shocked with how ketones really work. I can't wait for you to read it. All right, that's it for today's episode. If you've got any questions of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments below and I'm happy to answer them and make sure to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a thing. I've got a lot of exciting information coming your way because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you. See you next time. Sure. Three more. There we go. Okay, at Alexis Draw Two on Instagram, what are the top best spirulina brands? So there are actually a number of ways to get spirulina. If you head on over to the Dr. Gundry podcast, we feature one of my favorite brands on that podcast with the founder of the company. But for instance, now brand makes spirulina. Unfortunately, Trader Joe's used to make spirulina in most places, it's been discontinued. But spirulina is not as important in terms of worrying about as Corella. You'll see a lot of Corella products that are not cracked Corella and you gotta crack the outside cell wall of Corella because we have no digestive enzymes to break down Corella. By the way, I love spirulina as a source of iodine in your diet. Since so many people are now using pink salt or sea salt, they're unaware that there's no iodine in sea salt or Himalayan salt. And we have a real iodine deficiency in this country. So spirulina is a great way to get it into your diet. Ramos delaying on Instagram. I heard your podcast on Vitaligo and it blew my mind. Along with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and allergies, I also have melasma. May I ask if you have any specific advice on melasma? Well, so this channel is not to give out medical advice. However, we have a number of patients who, when they change their diet, when they follow the yes and no rules, which you can find on the drgundry.com website. You can find it on Gundry MD. And if you follow those rules, all I can tell you is I have a vast experience with reversing all of these conditions, including reversing Vitaligo. So please take my advice and head on over there and follow the rules. Or get the Plant Paradox quick and easy. That's the paperback version, the quick start version, and the easy, the cliff notes of the Plant Paradox program. And it's a great way to get introduced to this. Wanderlust on Twitter. I feel like I have a pretty healthy gut and overall good health. But why do I and my whole family have digestion issues when we eat Conjac noodles? It happens every single time. It can be as mild as a gurgly stomach to full-on diarrhea or vomiting. Is that why Australia banned these noodles? Yeah, great question. So we certainly haven't seen that experience with my patients. I've not personally had that experience. There are a lot of different Conjac noodles out there. A number of the Conjac noodles, and I was just exposed to this yesterday from patients bringing in Conjac noodles, and the second ingredient was soy. I had another patient bring in Conjac noodles, and the second ingredient was pea protein. We had another patient bring in Conjac noodles, and the second ingredient was oat. So all three of those would be a no starter. When you're looking for Conjac noodles, the only ingredient should be Conjac root. For instance, miracle noodles, and I'm a big fan of them from Dr. Karp. That's all that's in, miracle noodles. They're miracle rice. That's all that's in miracle rice. Now I do have some patients who notice a lot more bloating, gurgling, farting after eating any of these prebiotic fibers. Believe it or not, that's your gut bloodies saying thank you so much for giving us what we want to eat. And they're producing postbiotic gases that are actually incredibly good for you. So whenever I'm introducing new fiber to my patients, we do it slowly, and you'll gradually get used to those things. But I'm very suspicious that you've got packages that have been added to make these noodles have a better texture. And it's usually pea protein or soy or oats. So watch out for that. Great question. Well, folks, that's all the time we have for today's Q&A session. You know, that's fun. Internet myths are out there. And part of my job at the Dr. Gundry podcast is to help break down some of those myths and where they get started. Thank you all for the wonderful questions today. You know, I really do appreciate hearing from you. And oftentimes you stimulate me to go find out something I didn't know before. And thank you. And don't forget to follow, rate and leave any additional questions or comments for me on the Dr. Gundry podcast, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. And you know why I love this because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you. We'll see you next week. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you.