Little one: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.
Hi there and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and I’m again immediately with return visitor, Dr. Steven Gundry. And on this episode, we break down and debunk the myths of the Blue Zones. And I really like this matter as a result of Blue Zones, I really feel like, are sometimes quoted and cherry-picked for his or her knowledge to attempt to promote completely different plans or dietary supplements or merchandise that individuals have. And I really like that we obtained to go deep on what the info really says about Blue Zones. And it may not be what you assume. I actually realized some issues about this that I didn’t know, together with some stunning statistics. I do know considered one of these will completely shock you about one of many components that is perhaps contributing to longevity in sure Blue Zones. And it’s positively not gonna be what you assume.
And Dr. Gundry breaks down how, whereas Blue Zones are sometimes used to advertise vegetarian or vegan or excessive grain diets, that’s not what the info really says. And there’s some distinctive different issues that stand out, together with consumption of sure uncommon meals that aren’t as frequent within the US however accessible now within the US. We discuss their motion patterns and their each day life-style habits, in addition to components and knowledge round nutrient consumption and mineral consumption and why these are such vital components.
And on the finish, he additionally shares his private non-negotiables and 80-20 of what he does every single day to take care of his well being and power and vitality whereas he nonetheless maintains a really energetic profession, working with sufferers, writing books, and doing analysis as properly. And also you’ve in all probability heard of him, however Dr. Gundry is the founder and director of the Worldwide Coronary heart and Lung Institute, in addition to the Heart for Restorative Medication. He’s written many bestselling books, together with The Plant Paradox and the companions to that, The Longevity Paradox, The Vitality Paradox, his new Intestine Examine ebook, and lots of others. He has over 300 articles printed in peer-reviewed journals, and he focuses on a dietary method to decreasing illness and reversing issues like autoimmune illness. Actually, his statistic for doing that along with his sufferers is over 94%. He’s been doing this work for many years, and he’s one of many actually robust voices on this house. I’m very excited to share him with you immediately, so let’s leap into the episode. Dr. Gundry, welcome again. I’m so excited to have you ever again once more.
Dr. Gundry: Hey, it’s nice to be right here, thanks.
Katie: Nicely, I’m tremendous excited to leap into a subject that the title is perhaps a little bit stunning to individuals at first look, however I do know that you’ve got a number of knowledge and expertise to assist this, and I’m tremendous excited to study from you immediately. We’re gonna discuss debunking Blue Zones. So to start out broad and provides some background, I’d love so that you can clarify what are the largest misconceptions on the subject of Blue Zones as a result of I’ve been watching this knowledge now for over a decade, and it looks like a number of individuals cherry-pick the info from Blue Zones to attempt to show their very own level or promote their very own product. And I do know you’re a really first ideas pushed particular person and you actually go to the basis of issues. So what are these misconceptions on the subject of Blue Zones?
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, as I discuss in that chapter within the, within the new ebook, Intestine Examine, the chapter is principally entitled, Cigarettes, Cheese, and Meat: New ideas from the Blue Zones. Simon & Garfunkel used to say {that a} man hears what he needs to listen to and disregards the remainder. And initially, the Blue Zones, everyone wonders, properly, the place the phrase Blue Zones come from? We’re speaking about a number of these locations the place within the water or islands or within the Mediterranean, and possibly it’s the ocean.
Now the Blue Zones, there was a gathering in Montpellier, France, which is within the south of France, numerous years in the past, and a researcher obtained a blue-tip felt-markering pen and went to a map of the world and drew some circles round 5 locations that he thought, he thought had the very best longevity on this planet. And who could be within the viewers however Dan Buettner, who really has trademarked the time period Blue Zone. So I’ve to watch out once I say it or use it. And so Dan is a vegetarian, virtually vegan. And so he needed, I believe, to select these elements of the Blue Zone cultures that assist his perception system. And, sadly, if you really take a look at what individuals eat in these areas, that doesn’t assist his perception system one bit.
We may use Okinawa for an instance. The Okinawans, the one detailed description of the Okinawan food regimen was carried out by the US navy in 1947 as an occupying nation. We took over Okinawa. And the one description of what Okinawans ate again then was by the US navy, primary. The Okinawans, 85% of their food regimen is a purple candy potato. The soy that they eat is miso. They hardly eat any rice, and so they actually don’t eat every other grain merchandise. The opposite factor that’s distinctive in regards to the Okinawans is they really eat an enormous quantity of bitter, spicy inexperienced leaves and spices. Actually, in Japan, they’re referred to as the spice eaters. So there’s nothing of their food regimen that helps the concept beans and rice is what makes them nice. It’s a candy potato. Sorry about that. The opposite factor that’s distinctive about Okinawa, actually, as I discuss within the ebook, the Okinawans can’t develop rice as a result of their local weather doesn’t assist rice rising. So, oh properly.
Now possibly essentially the most spectacular factual knowledge comes out of Sardinia. So Sardinia is an Italian island. It’s principally obtained two populations, bunch of people that stay down by the ocean, they’re fishermen, and a bunch of people that stay up within the mountains, and so they’re goat and sheep herders. The one individuals who have longevity stay within the mountains. The individuals who stay down by the ocean don’t have longevity, fascinating sufficient. Uh, yeah. And the individuals who stay within the mountains, what makes them have extra longevity is definitely the lads stay so long as the ladies. Now, most individuals know that males on the whole stay about seven years shorter lives than ladies. You guys are the stronger intercourse, we obtained to confess it. However in that island, the lads really exceed the ladies’s longevity. Why is that? Nicely, about 95% of the lads smoke, and solely about 25% of the ladies smoke. And we see this repeated in a number of different Blue Zones, like Ikaria, Greece, like at Ciroli within the south of Italy. The lads are people who smoke, and the ladies aren’t a lot. And it’s really the nicotine in smoke that is without doubt one of the greatest mitochondrial and couplers, longevity brokers identified to mankind. Now, I don’t smoke. I don’t advocate smoking. The issue with nicotine, it’s addictive. But it surely’s actually nice for longevity. And in reality, all of those longevity compounds that everyone’s speaking about, nicotinamide, riboside, NMN, niacinamide, nicotinic acid, that’s a cousin of nicotine and that’s really why they stay a lot longer. Sorry about that Dan.
Now the opposite factor that’s fascinating, they’re sheep and goat herders. So every single day they’re consuming sheep and goat yogurt, sheep and goat cheeses, and as I’ve talked about in my final two books, these cheeses have two health-promoting properties. Primary, they’re loaded with medium-chain triglycerides. A 3rd of the fats in cheese and goat milk and cheeses are MCTs. Secondly, they’ve these compounds that I write about referred to as polyamines, which as soon as once more are extremely lifespan-promoting compound. So, a lot for the principle grain and bean principle there.
Nicely, let’s discuss a spot that does eat grains and beans, the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. Now, all of Costa Rica eat beans and eat corn, and that’s their state. And the Nicoya Peninsula does eat beans and corn. However what’s distinctive about this little half is that they’re sheep and goat herders, and so they eat a number of sheep and goat cheese and goat yogurt, in contrast to every other a part of Costa Rica. And there’s a very fascinating paper that I reference that the individuals in that area credit score the goat and sheep with their longevity, and so they assume that the beans and corn are a unfavourable facet to their food regimen that they need to tolerate only for energy. Oh properly, and we may go on and on.
Katie: Nicely, that’s actually a far cry from the US the place these issues are simply tolerated for energy and easily getting sufficient energy to exist. That’s an enormous distinction than the breakdown of nutritionally what most individuals eat, actually within the US. That’s completely fascinating to me that you simply stated smoking may really be a think about longevity for these individuals as a result of I’ve seen a few of this knowledge as properly about nicotine itself, particularly if we will isolate it from smoking and the dangerous elements that include that. Would you say there is perhaps a time and a spot for nicotine consumption that’s not from smoking for longevity perspective?
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, once more, I believe my buddy Dave Asprey makes use of nicotine drops on a regular basis. He argues, maybe accurately, that every one nice concepts took place in a restaurant with smoking cigarettes and ingesting espresso and having a glass of wine. And he may not be far off. However apparently sufficient, an island in Papua New Guinea, the Katawans, the Katawans smoke like fiends. They’ve by no means been identified to have most cancers. There has by no means been a case of a stroke or coronary heart assault in these individuals. And so they eat a food regimen with a number of tubers. They do eat a number of coconut. However right here’s one other instance the place the smoking doesn’t appear to have the unfavourable impression that we discover.
And I’m going into the ebook, and I’ve talked about it earlier than, one of many issues that in all probability will get these individuals away with the unhealthy results of smoking: Smoking causes oxidative stress, and oxidative stress makes use of up a vital antioxidant referred to as vitamin C. And we’re one of many few animals that don’t make our personal vitamin C. We’ve to ingest it. Vitamin C is important for knitting collagen again collectively. Collagen breaks on a regular basis, and people who smoke have extra wrinkles as a result of their collagen has damaged as a result of the injury of daylight and so they don’t have any vitamin C to place it again collectively, apparently sufficient. Identical means people who smoke have very distinct patterns of coronary artery illness that will be prevented by vitamin C. So I believe the people who smoke in these long-lived areas have a food regimen that’s extremely wealthy in antioxidants in vitamin C. And there’s a really well-known research in rats. There’s 5 genes that make enzymes that take glucose and convert it into vitamin C. So there’s 5 enzymatic steps. We’ve 4 of these genes, however the fifth gene known as a ghost gene. It doesn’t work. And that’s why we don’t make vitamin C. In case you take rats and provides them the human gene sequence, rats make vitamin C, these rats will solely stay half so long as a traditional rat. However should you put vitamin C of their ingesting water, in order that they’re ingesting vitamin C all day, they’ll equal how lengthy a rat would usually stay, providing you with an thought of simply how vital type of a steady provide of vitamin C is.
Katie: Wow, that’s fascinating as properly. I’d love to listen to out of your perspective what the info really says in what our key takeaways must be on the subject of Blue Zones. It seems like actually not grain and bean consumption in excessive quantities, probably root greens and tubers having a better place, particularly ones which can be wealthy in issues like polyphenols are like brightly coloured. I’d guess additionally issues like although they drink wine in lots of of those locations, wine could also be not needed for longevity by any means.
And I do know individuals additionally discuss components like typically they transfer extra, like individuals like goat and sheep herders in all probability get rather more motion than the common American. It looks like they typically have nice neighborhood and/or areas with good mineral, extra minerals within the soil or the ingesting water. However what out of your perspective are the important thing takeaways that we will really study after we take a look at the info with an correct lens that we will all study from?
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, I believe you’ve hit on a number of them. Most of those stay in hilly areas. Loma Linda, the place I used to be professor for a lot of my profession, which is the one Blue Zone in the US. Loma Linda means stunning hill, apparently sufficient. And Loma Linda, the Adventist neighborhood, has the longevity. The remainder of Loma Linda doesn’t, apparently sufficient. One factor I’d add, in Okinawa, the entire medical data, start certificates had been destroyed in the course of the warfare. And one of many theories of why Okinawans had been so long-lived is that when individuals had been requested how outdated they had been, they made wild guesses, and there’s really no data. The opposite factor, notably in Europe, is that pensions are primarily based on dwelling individuals, and a number of instances, you want that pension to outlive, and so that you don’t declare deaths of people that have really died, so that you simply hold getting their pension. So, there’s all types of different issues.
I’d add, one of many issues that shocked me once I was doing the analysis for Intestine Examine, is that individuals with the longest lifespan of any nation on this planet is a little bit tiny nation between France and Spain referred to as Andorra. And it’s solely 150,000 inhabitants. And it’s means up within the Pyrenees Mountains. And the Andorrans have a really, so they really have a lifespan of about 90 years, each women and men. Fairly good. The Andorrans are sheepherders, and so they eat sheep cheese and sheep yogurts, and so they eat sausages every single day. And also you go, properly, wait a minute, that looks like, wait a minute, cheese and sausage is the important thing to longevity? Nicely, as I suggest in Intestine Examine, sure. It seems that sausages, historically ready sausages, have polyamines and the actually nasty sugar molecule in beef, lamb, and pork, and milk referred to as NU5GC, is eaten by the micro organism throughout fermentation of sausages. In order that explains why you may type of have your cake and eat it too. So you may have cheese and sausages like charcuterie and possibly stay a very very long time.
Katie: That’s actually thrilling as properly, as a result of actually you additionally hear them say, you already know, in these areas they don’t eat meat, they don’t eat animal merchandise, and it looks like that can also be some cherry-picking of information and never an correct illustration. And particularly, I do know it’s tougher to search out within the US, but it surely looks like there is perhaps one thing to including extra sheep and goat dairy merchandise to our food regimen, which actually are very minimal in American food regimen consumption from my understanding.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I imply, fortunately, we’re starting to see like plain goat yogurt. It’s a Dealer Joe’s. There are sheep yogurt merchandise now. Uh, it’s, in a means, simple to search out, uh, sheep cheeses, Manchego. You will get at Costco or Dealer Joe’s. Yow will discover pecorino cheese, which is a sheep cheese. Goat cheeses are a little bit tougher to search out, however even Dealer Joe’s has goat brie. A number of corporations are actually making goat mozzarella, goat cheddar. So individuals ought to search for these. They’ll make a distinction.
Katie: That’s nice to know. I’m curious should you noticed any knowledge, and possibly not, that is only a analysis matter for me proper now of mineral consumption in these areas or if their setting naturally has extra of the minerals that we’re not getting in our food regimen, particularly if we’re consuming processed meals.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, one of many issues that I do a number of YouTube movies about this, our soil is so depleted right here in the US of minerals. Actually, there’s a Senate doc from 1939 that I’ve written about in earlier books that principally says, our soil is so depleted, this was 1939, that we must eat repeatedly and nonetheless couldn’t make up for the shortage of minerals in our food regimen, consuming repeatedly.
The opposite factor that’s occurred in our soil, is glyphosate is an antibiotic, and it’s killed off the microbiome of the soil. And the microbiome of the soil was really liable for taking these natural compounds and minerals and placing them into the soil, primary, after which aiding the basis system of the plant to take up these minerals into the plant. So, you already know, corn might appear like corn now, but it surely bears no relationship to what corn was 50 years in the past. A chunk of broccoli might appear like broccoli now, but it surely actually has a 3rd of the minerals of fifty years in the past. So yeah, we’re profoundly mineral-depleted. And fortunately, these Blue Zones, or these long-lived people who aren’t, quote, official Blue Zones, they stay in distant areas, glyphosate has by no means come close to them. They farm the land or decide the land. They’re consuming greens and leaves which can be rising in eight toes of loam soil. And they also’re getting these vitamins which have lengthy been lacking in our food regimen.
Katie: Nicely, and primarily based on that statistic of we’d need to eat repeatedly and we nonetheless wouldn’t get sufficient minerals, it looks like there’s two keys there to spotlight. One is, after all, avoiding glyphosate nevertheless potential. And the second, it might look like that is additionally a theme in podcast friends that I’ve had is we’re just about at some extent within the trendy world the place we do need to complement with sure issues to achieve these minimal quantities. Like, sadly, we’re now not at some extent the place we will get the whole lot from meals, even when, such as you stated, we ate all day lengthy.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, and one of many theories that’s really come out of animal research is that animals, in the event that they’re disadvantaged of a selected nutrient, will repeatedly eat of what’s accessible to them to get to this important nutrient quantity of their physique. Issues that they’d by no means think about consuming or an animal that doesn’t eat a number of carbohydrates, however the carbohydrate that’s supplied within the food regimen has these important minerals, the animal will go and eat these items till it will get what it’s searching for. I imply, I all the time observe my canine within the spring. They’re consuming younger shoots of grass. And I’m going, yeah, that’s fascinating. What are you guys doing that for? They’re not throwing up. They’re searching for younger shoots of grass. Nicely, and that’s the place all the latest little bits of polyphenols and minerals are coming from. Canine are fairly sensible, too.
Katie: I believe that highlights one thing actually vital as a result of I’ve questioned this for a very long time. We hear typically that People particularly are overfed and undernourished. Just a few years in the past, I switched from fascinated with energy and macros in any respect and checked out nutrient density in meals, particularly micronutrients. I consciously began upping my mineral consumption, and I observed that I used to be far much less hungry and that my physique appeared to be rather more in tune with what it needed to eat. I’ve questioned if many of those issues we’re having within the US, after all, are multifaceted, but it surely’s as a result of we’re so poor in a few of these micronutrients that our our bodies are craving additional meals like canine would to attempt to hit these minimums for survival and if we may really profit ourselves by being much more acutely aware in our mineral consumption and our nutrient consumption.
Dr. Gundry: Yeah, completely. One of many research that I alluded to in earlier ebook was they took some, properly, let me preface that. We all know that our microbiome determines a number of what we’re searching for by way of energy and the kinds of energy we’re searching for. And one of many themes of the ebook, Intestine Examine, is we’ve primary, starved our microbiome as a result of we don’t eat any soluble fiber. And we’ve, you already know, genocided our microbiome as a result of we actively eat glyphosate, we actively eat antibiotics, virtually all of the meats that we eat are loaded with antibiotics, a brand new research out two weeks in the past confirmed that every one quick meals meals have antibiotics in them. And glyphosate.
So should you take regular volunteers in China and put them on a two-week water-only quick, and half the group will get 100 energy of prebiotic fiber, indigestible by us, however the meals for the intestine microbiome. The group that obtained the prebiotic fiber on a water quick had completely no starvation for 2 weeks. The group that simply obtained water had been actually hungry for a couple of week earlier than they adjusted. And I believe that confirms that principally the microbiome was being fed, then sends textual content messages, these are literally postbiotics, to the mind saying, hey! We’re good down right here. You’ve carried out your job. We’re blissful. Don’t must go search for the rest. Thanks very a lot. Let’s have day. And I believe that basically does converse to the facility that we used to have in a wholesome microbiome that we fed what they wanted, like a tuber as an example, nice supply of prebiotic fiber, and we didn’t attempt to kill our microbiome every single day with what we ate.
Katie: Wow, that’s positively a placing instance. And I’d love to listen to in our previous few minutes, really, what your personal each day habits and food regimen and foundational issues that you simply do every single day, your non-negotiables, your private 80-20 since you are nonetheless a really prolific author. You talked about you’re nonetheless seeing sufferers. You appear to have this enormous quantity of inside power and drive to enhance the world. So I’d love to listen to what your private life seems to be like for a minute and what your each day non-negotiables are.
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, let’s see. Day by day non-negotiable is I’ve to take our canine for a two-mile stroll, hike within the hills. That’s non-negotiable based on the canine. Then I don’t eat breakfast for essentially the most half. In the course of the winter months from January by June, I don’t eat lunch both. I eat all my energy in a couple of two-hour window from 5 to seven at night time. Do I’ve to try this? No. I’ve been doing it now, I believe, for 25 years, so it appears to be working. In the course of the summer time, I type of again off from that.
There’s fairly good proof, and I talked about it in Intestine Examine, and I’ve up to now, that in all probability should you actually needed to make peace along with your intestine and promote longevity, a six-hour consuming window, might be optimum. So meaning an 18-hour fasting window. One of many issues I’m going over and again and again in Intestine Examine is you must have downtime to your intestine wall to restore itself. It can not continuously be concerned in digestion and absorption of meals. It has to have restore. And you’d do that to a automobile, you’d do that to an airplane engine. The concept, the common American eats 16 hours a day from the second we rise up to actually earlier than we go to mattress. And so there may be nearly no restore time for our intestine. And whereas there are a number of excellent causes to do time-restricted consuming, intermittent fasting, I believe one of many causes that’s missed by so many individuals is the necessity for restore of the wall of the intestine.
Years in the past, , there’s a worm mannequin of longevity. The worm is C. elegans. And the worm mannequin of longevity, this mannequin has labored for each longevity selling polyphenol drug, et cetera, we all the time begin with this worm mannequin as a result of no matter works within the worm mannequin all the time works in increased organisms. So one of many fascinating issues is the worm begins to die. Because the wall of its intestine, and it has a little bit tiny digestive system, however the wall of its intestine is just one cell thick like ours. And as gaps seem within the wall of that worm’s intestine, the worm begins to die. The extra that wall will get destroyed, the sooner the worm dies. And that has had, and Hippocrates stated it 2,500 years in the past, all illness begins within the intestine, and all illness begins in a leaky intestine. So the actually intestine verify is all of us want a intestine verify to advertise the integrity of the wall of artwork. And all of the methods of how to try this that I’ve realized now in 25 years of working with my sufferers is in that ebook. And in order that’s what I do. I take a number of dietary supplements. I’m a man who a very long time in the past stated dietary supplements make costly urine. They don’t. You’re proper, our meals, our soil is so depleted that you simply simply can’t sustain with what we must be getting in our food regimen with out supplementing.
Katie: And I do know you talked about that statistic, which appears so staggering to me as properly, that individuals eat a median of it in a 16-hour window within the US. And I believe I additionally learn that the common, we predict we simply eat three meals a day, however out of your intestine’s perspective, any time energy enter the physique and need to be dealt with, that’s an consuming occasion. And I believe the newest one I noticed was it was one thing like 17 instances a day, one thing is getting into your physique that your intestine has to cope with. So it’s really such as you stated, we’re not getting any intestine relaxation. We’re bombarding our guts, typically with issues which can be harming it, actually not typically with issues which can be serving to it. So possibly a few of these shifts like specializing in these nutrient-density, including in some sheep and goat cheeses. I do know you will have dietary supplements that assist with the restoration course of you probably have leaky intestine. And I do know you go tremendous deep on this matter in Intestine Examine on how you can actually resolve the issues at a intestine stage. But it surely looks like these easy methods typically get missed as a result of they’re easy, and I see that sample again and again. However the nice information is that our our bodies, after we can do these easy issues, know how you can heal and so they need to, and they’ll. And so I really like that you simply give individuals their energy again by making that so accessible on this ebook and really in your whole books, which I’ll be sure that are linked within the present notes. However Dr. Gundry, I all the time study a lot from you. It’s all the time an absolute pleasure to get to speak to you, and I’m so grateful to your time. Thanks for being right here immediately.
Dr. Gundry: Nicely, Wellness Mama sustain the great work.
Katie: Nicely, thanks. And thanks as all the time to all of you for listening and sharing your most respected assets, your time, your power, and your consideration with us immediately. We’re each so grateful that you simply did. And I hope that you’ll be part of me once more on the following episode of the Wellness Mama podcast.
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