 They're absolutely wrong because they don't understand what's now known about how polyphenols interact with our gut microbiome, how they feed our gut microbiome, how they change our gut microbiome to a friendly anti-inflammatory microbiome, and who in the world wouldn't want that. Welcome to the Dr. Gendry podcast, dark chocolate, olive oil, red wine. So what do these foods have in common besides the fact that I like them? Well if you guessed polyphenols then you are absolutely right. On today's episode I'm going to talk all about these amazing micronutrients, polyphenols, what they can do for your health, why my critics are wrong about them, and the best and worst sources of polyphenols out there. And I'll invite you to join me in celebrating all the wonderful benefits of polyphenols on National Polyphenol Day, a holiday my team created to educate people about them on July 11th, my birthday. So let's dive right in to discuss the power of polyphenols for feeling and looking your best. All right, what the heck are polyphenols? So phenols are a chemical ring structure that's incredibly common in plants primarily, and polyphenols simply refer to lots of these phenol rings joined together. Now plants protect themselves from harm. We often don't think about this but plants have to harvest sunlight, the photons in sunlight, and their mitochondria, yes they actually have mitochondria, take sunlight and convert it into sugars and oxygen. And the process of that production is actually very damaging to the energy producing organelles in plants and they literally protect themselves from this damage by manufacturing polyphenols. And polyphenols are actually the way the plant, actually if you will, sops up the damage from what are called reactive oxygen species, ROSs. Some people know them as free radicals. So as much as a plant needs sunlight, it turns out the plant is damaged by sunlight simultaneously. So the polyphenols are the plant's method, if you like, of sunscreen. Now interestingly, the more a plant is stressed, for instance the closer it is to the sun, the higher the altitude, the more it's stressed by other factors like poor nutrients, not enough water, other harsh conditions, the more polyphenols the plant produces. Now fun fact, most plant polyphenols are actually in the leaves, where in fact the energy production is done. And if you've ever doubted about why polyphenols are so important to a plant, every fall you get to watch a beautiful color display of polyphenols. Now we often talk about the leaves are changing color. In fact, those colors are actually the polyphenols in the leaves that you didn't see because all of the green chlorophyll was hiding those colors. But as the chlorophyll, the energy producing part of the plant dies off, the polyphenols remain. So in this fall, when you're looking at the brilliant color displays, you can actually in your own eyes see the power of polyphenols that the plant was using to protect itself during that exposure to sunlight. Okay, now I mentioned that polyphenols are concentrated in leaves, but the same thing holds true for the fruit of the tree and the fruit can be damaged by sunlight. So many plants concentrate polyphenols particularly in the skin of that fruit to protect it from harm. And for instance, great winemakers have known this for a very long time, that the more the vines are stressed, the higher the elevation, the underwater they are, the more polyphenols will be present in the grapes of that particular vine, and great winemakers have known for some time that it was the polyphenols in the grapes that brought all the characteristics and benefits from the wine that the vintners were looking for. But getting back to the point, for instance, we're going to talk about olive oil. Olive oil happens to be a great delivery device for polyphenols. And the polyphenols were in the olives, and when you eat an olive, you're eating polyphenols, when you squish an olive and extract the oil, the benefit of olive oil is not oleic acid, which is a monoinsaturated fat, the benefit is in the polyphenol content. And one of the best ways to assess polyphenol content in olive oil is that if it makes you cough as you drink it or eat it, that's a very potent sign of the level of polyphenol. But there's actually more polyphenols in olive leaves, and that's why olive leaf extract is actually an incredibly great source of polyphenols. And if you want to munch on a few olive leaves, be my guest. Okay, so polyphenols protect the plant from damage, from free radicals, from reactive oxygen species. And we eat plants, and we eat the plant polyphenols, either in their leaves when we eat lettuce, believe it or not, we're eating polyphenols. When we're eating red leaf lettuce, we're eating more polyphenols than in green lettuce. In fact, years ago Rutgers University patented a red romaine lettuce that they showed had considerably more polyphenol content than regular romaine lettuce. And I've forgotten the name of it now, but it was something red. But they received a patent because of the polyphenol content. Okay, so polyphenols protect plants from damage. Now years ago we used to think that polyphenols were primarily antioxidants. And for years and years and years, we measured the polyphenol content by what was called an ORAC rating, O-R-A-C. That's the Oxygen Radical Absorbing Capacity and looked at whether these compounds could actually absorb free radicals. And for years and years and years, this was the standard by which we judged polyphenol content. Unfortunately, it turns out that these compounds, when we swallow them, are not doing that at all. And so if you hear people say that the reason to get polyphenols into your diet is that they are antioxidants, number one, don't believe them, and number two, that's not how they work. People actually see exactly the power of polyphenols and it has nothing to do with their ability to absorb free radicals or as antioxidants. That their power is actually far more important. And one of the most recent findings is that polyphenols are actually prebiotics. In other words, if you remember, prebiotics are what your friendly bacteria, the probiotics, like to eat. So first and foremost, whoever says that polyphenols are the plant defense system against being eaten and that polyphenols, because of that, are extremely damaging to your health. First of all, it doesn't know what they're talking about. Number two, that's not how polyphenols work for the plant and they're not a defense system of the plant. That's what lectins are for, that's what phytates are for, not polyphenols. The second thing is, people who say polyphenols are bad for you actually don't realize that polyphenols feed friendly bacteria. And there's a host of evidence about the incredible benefit of polyphenols in actually changing the gut microbiome for the better. In fact, I'll give you a little tease. There's a fascinating study looking at the microbiome and inflammatory markers in three trials in human beings. One group had to drink several glasses of red wine per day. The second group had to drink the same red wine that had the alcohol removed and you can go to a store and find non-alcoholic red wine. And the third group got to drink gin in the same alcoholic amount that the red wine drinkers were drinking. And lo and behold, what they found was that both the red wine with and without alcohol changed the gut microbiome to a much more friendly microbiome. In other words, it increased the gut buddies. And the result was that multiple markers of inflammation fell in both of those red wine drinkers, whereas no effect was found in the gin drinkers. Why? Because the gin, even though it had alcohol, didn't have any polyphenols. So the idea that polyphenols are somehow a plant defense system is absolutely wrong and human studies back up the fact that it's the polyphenols, not the alcohol and red wine, that is the beneficial effect. And its benefit is not the polyphenols directly, but it's the polyphenols being eaten by certain gut bacteria and basically fertilizing good gut bacteria. The other thing we know is that polyphenols in general, when you eat them, are incredibly poorly absorbed. Only only 10% of all the polyphenols that you eat are ever absorbed. But again, the good news is that these polyphenols are eaten by your gut buddies. And it's the products that your gut buddies make from these polyphenols in the form of postbiotics that I talk extensively about in the Energy Paradox that is one of the main ways that polyphenols benefit our health. So that's actually the exciting new science of polyphenols and how they work. All right, so let's play devil's advocate. Some critics, like Dr. Paul Saladino, say that the health benefits of polyphenols are overrated. Here's why they say that, because polyphenols aren't absorbed and that polyphenols are dangerous, they're a plant defense system. Well, they're right that polyphenols aren't absorbed very well. And who in the world wouldn't want that? I don't know. I certainly would. The other thing that's obvious when we look at any of the blue zones, those areas of the world popularized by the National Geographic journalist Dan Butner, and Loma Linda is the only blue zone in the United States, by the way, where I was a professor for much of my career. Blue zones are notorious for having an incredibly high intake of polyphenol rich foods. And we could break them down individually, but let me assure you that each blue zone has its own set and different sets of polyphenol rich foods. We'll just take one example. The Okinawans, the older Okinawans, 85% of their diet was a purple sweet potato. And the purple sweet potato has an incredible concentration of one particular polyphenol called an anthocyanin. It's actually the same polyphenol family that gives the dark blue color to blueberries and blackberries. This is just concentrated in the flesh of a purple sweet potato. And luckily, we're seeing purple sweet potatoes in a lot of our grocery stores now. They're now being grown commercially. So 85% of the Okinawan diet was a purple sweet potato. It wasn't beans, it wasn't rice, it wasn't soy, it was a purple sweet potato. So to think that that horrible dangerous polyphenol was somehow impacting the health of the Okinawans in a negative way, certainly goes against the evidence. Okay, so that's probably the strongest, if you look at societies who have great health and longevity, that's probably the biggest signal argument about why we should be getting more polyphenols in our diet. And I could go on and on. The famous predimed study from Spain, which some of my critics say is just one of the worst studies in the world, and they're usually low fat critics. The predimed study from Spain that I've written about in most of my books took 65-year-old people who had a heart attack and they randomized them into three groups. One group got a liter of olive oil per week. That's about 10 to 12 tablespoons a day. And they actually had to pick up their liter of olive oil once a week, use it, take the empty bottle back to the clinic and get it refilled. The second group had to have the same number of calories in mixed nuts. And most of the nuts were walnuts and hazelnuts. And if you're guessing walnuts and hazelnuts are great sources of polyphenols, you're correct. The third group had a low fat Mediterranean diet. Now all three, because they lived in Spain, ate a Mediterranean diet. What's impressive is that the walnut and the olive oil group had a 30% reduction in new events, new heart attack, new stents, compared to the low fat group. And the women in the olive oil group had an 87% reduction in breast cancer rate. And what I talk about in the energy paradox is that the olive oil group and the nut group actually had improved memory after five years compared to the low fat group who had actually decreased memory. And the evidence that I present in the energy paradox makes it pretty clear that it was the polyphenol content in the olive oil and the nuts that was responsible for those effects. And again, another stake in the heart of people who say polyphenols are bad for us. Okay, so now maybe you're wondering, okay, so what are the best dietary sources of polyphenols? Well, it turns out that leaves are great sources of polyphenols. So if you're thinking tea, for instance, it turns out that tea is a great source of polyphenols. And tea, whether it's green, whether it's black, whether you grind up tea leaves like in matcha, and just an aside, please, if you're going to use matcha tea, buy it from Japan, not China. The Chinese matcha tea is unfortunately full of pesticides, but that's another subject. Polyphenols are concentrated in fruits, so olives are loaded with polyphenols. Cacao, the fruit and the bean are loaded with polyphenols. Coffee, believe it or not, coffee fruit and coffee fruit extract is available. We use it here at Gundry MD. You can buy coffee fruit powder, but the coffee bean is another great source of polyphenols. Urbimate tea is another great source of polyphenols. So anytime you can get leaves, you're in great shape. And then when you start looking at most of the spices that we think of as leaves, like parsley, like sage, like rosemary and thyme, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, Simon and Garfunkel. So if you go down to Scarborough Fair, you're actually buying polyphenols. In fact, the Romans were so impressed with the ability of sage to improve their health that the Romans named sage salvia as in salvation. And so when we look at these spices, particularly the leaves, we see that it's the polyphenol content that people were after. Now vegetables, the darker the vegetable, the more the polyphenols. And polyphenols in general have a very bitter flavor. And some of you remember from my first book, Dr. Gundry's Diode Evolution, that one of my favorite phrases was more bitter, more better. And that's because the bitterness is actually the polyphenols. And so if you look at countries and cultures with longevity, one of the fascinating things is that they have a preference for bitter foods. And one of the most interesting things about chocolate is that anybody who has had cocoa nibs or 100% dark chocolate knows it's profoundly bitter. And it was actually the Dutch that figured out that people would consume more chocolate if they took away the polyphenol content by treating it with alkali. So if you see on a label of cocoa powder dutched process or alkali process, you've actually removed the polyphenols from chocolate. And so run from those. There's a number of candy companies, particularly Nestle and Cadbury and Mars, who have actually patented ways of adding polyphenols back into chocolate that they have taken away. In a way, it's kind of like looking at fortification of cereals where all the vitamins and minerals have been removed from cereals and breads. And they're now fortified with eight essential vitamins and minerals. So they're actually patents to add back polyphenols. Why have they done this? Because both animal trials and human trials have shown that the polyphenols in chocolate are actually responsible for improvement in cardiovascular flexibility. I've published papers about polyphenols increasing the flexibility of blood vessels in humans. I've published papers about the ability of polyphenols to stop making blood vessels sticky on the inside. And again, these are human studies of polyphenol extracts improving both vascular health and in other human studies improving brain health. So what a great thing. What else should you look for? Again, talked about olive oil and probably more than you want to hear. More bitter, more better in olive oil. If olive oil makes you cough, you're on the right track. Red wine. If the grape vines are made to suffer, to work for a living by being planted in dense rows, by underwatering them, what's called dry farming, by being planted in rocks, by being planted in high elevations, you're going to increase the polyphenol content. So please, if you can, look for organic grown wines. Look for biodynamic grown wines. There are a number of wineries now in the United States, particularly here in California that are biodynamic wine growers. I'll mention two of my favorites, Beckman in Santa Barbara County, Amplos Vineyards in Santa Barbara County, and also Spears, our organic and biodynamic, the first two biodynamic. A great number of wines in France and Italy and Austria are now biodynamic and a huge number of them are organic. I just had an organic wine from Sicily last night as a matter of fact. Look for the label. You're knowing that, believe it or not, you're going to get more polyphenol content and that's the bang for your buck. Same thing with seasonings. We've had Chef Jimmy Schmidt three times James Beard award winner on our podcast and he will assure you and he assured us that seasonings are going to be loaded with polyphenols. And again, all the great spices of the Middle Ages were actually pursued because of their polyphenol content. And here's a fun fact. What's the highest polyphenol content of any spice? Come on, think about it for a minute. I'll give you a clue. You probably studded your Easter ham with it. If you said close, you're correct. Close have the highest polyphenol content of any food. And if you think I take close supplements, you're right. Because of that, if you saw it, I put all my supplements in the longevity paradox and there's close. And it turns out that close was one of the highest sought after spices in the Middle Ages, right behind black pepper, which is loaded with polyphenols and cinnamon, which is loaded with polyphenols. In fact, as you start looking at the Middle Ages spices, you'll notice that people were willing to pay huge amount of money for polyphenols. And I got news for you, people don't pay huge amounts of money just to make food taste better. They were looking for the health benefits of polyphenols way back then. And we're only now beginning to realize what the ancients knew that we're only now discovering. Okay, are there foods with high polyphenol content that I don't recommend? Yeah. It turns out that there are some really interesting polyphenols in soy. And I do talk about them in the upcoming book. You can make soy safe in two ways. Number one, you can pressure cook it. Number two, you can extrude it under high pressure and high heat as texturized vegetable protein, which is TVP, one of the favorite kind of fake foods of Loma Linda cuisine. Or you can actually use soy protein isolates or soy protein hydrolysates, but you'll eliminate the polyphenols in the latter. Beans, pressure cook your beans, soap beans. You'll still get the polyphenol content in beans, but you won't get the lectins. So those are the two provides of. The other thing that's interesting, believe it or not, whole grains have polyphenols. But as those of you know, the problem with whole grains is twofold. Number one, the lectin content of whole grains, you cannot pressure cook the lectins in oats or wheat or rye or barley. I'm sorry, they can't be destroyed. The other problem with whole grains is that so much of our American food supply in whole grains has been sprayed with Roundup. And glyphosate is one of the biggest disruptors of your gut and your energy that we could have ever invented. So long story short, polyphenols were designed to protect the plant from damage. Polyphenols were the sunscreen for the plant. Polyphenols were not insect insecticides. They were not toxins or poisons. They were to protect the plants energy factories. And when you eat plant polyphenols, low and bold, you're not eating antioxidants. You're feeding your gut buddies the food that they need and they in turn turn those polyphenols into health promoting compounds. All right, before we close, I mentioned at the top of the lecture, I want to invite you to join me in celebrating National Polyphenol Day coming up July 11th. So wow, National Polyphenol Day and Dr. Gundry's birthday all in one. As you probably know, my favorite source of polyphenols is olive oil. So to celebrate, I'm going to ask you to do a shot of high quality olive oil and share your video or photo of taking an olive oil shot on Instagram by tagging me at Dr. Stephen Gundry all one word and using the hashtag polyphenol day just like it sounds P-O-L-Y-P-H-E-N-O-L-D-A-Y day. I'll be sure to repost so we can help others know about the power of polyphenol. This is actually going to be really fun. So I hope you'll join me. Get your shot of olive oil ready on July 11th. My birthday bottoms up to your health, to my health, National Polyphenol Day. So this is going to be really fun. Hashtag polyphenol day. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. Make sure to check out the next one here. What kind of chocolate can you eat? The best kind. Bitter sweet chocolate. It's like I always say about leafy greens and other vegetables. More bitter, more better.