1 00:00:15,570 --> 00:00:18,360 [soundtrack] 2 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,530 [Michal Siewierski] On June 3rd, 1997, 3 00:00:29,570 --> 00:00:33,610 the World Health Organization defined obesity as an epidemic. 4 00:00:33,650 --> 00:00:37,490 That definition was crucial for food and pharmaceutical companies, 5 00:00:37,530 --> 00:00:40,110 because once this became a medical calamity, 6 00:00:40,150 --> 00:00:42,990 then everyone could profit by providing a cure. 7 00:00:43,030 --> 00:00:46,110 The very food companies charged with making us fat, 8 00:00:46,150 --> 00:00:48,860 began making money by trying to help us lose the weight. 9 00:00:48,900 --> 00:00:52,650 It was the beginning of the golden era of the weight loss industry. 10 00:00:52,700 --> 00:00:56,400 In the last 30 years, hundreds of diet programs were created. 11 00:00:56,450 --> 00:01:00,030 Thousands of books got published, and billions in products were sold, 12 00:01:00,070 --> 00:01:03,240 creating one of the most profitable industries on the planet. 13 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,900 In the meantime, people kept getting bigger and everyone got to be blamed, 14 00:01:07,950 --> 00:01:14,610 from fast food, carbs, sugars, fats, to genetics, lack of exercise, and even fruits. 15 00:01:14,650 --> 00:01:16,360 With so much conflicting information, 16 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:18,950 an escalating global health crisis emerged, 17 00:01:18,990 --> 00:01:23,400 leading millions of people into a never ending cycle of yo-yo dieting. 18 00:01:23,450 --> 00:01:30,240 It is now estimated that by the year 2030, 42% of the American population will be obese 19 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:34,030 and 80% overweight, so we've decided to embark on a journey 20 00:01:34,070 --> 00:01:35,570 and look for answers. 21 00:01:52,530 --> 00:01:55,780 So I don't think of obesity as causing disease. 22 00:01:55,820 --> 00:01:59,650 I think of it as sort of like that canary in the coal mine. 23 00:01:59,700 --> 00:02:02,990 It's something that starts happening well before the diabetes 24 00:02:03,030 --> 00:02:06,530 and the heart disease are so bad, that we know about it. 25 00:02:06,570 --> 00:02:11,610 Over time, it catches up to you, and it leads to our number one killer, heart disease, 26 00:02:11,650 --> 00:02:14,950 high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes. 27 00:02:14,990 --> 00:02:17,030 And people get autoimmune diseases. 28 00:02:17,070 --> 00:02:21,650 It's a comorbidity to so many other conditions. 29 00:02:21,700 --> 00:02:26,150 That's why when you look at the charts of obesity and diabetes in America, 30 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:29,360 they go just like this together. And then if you look at 31 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:33,990 high blood pressures, with stroke, they all rise together. 32 00:02:34,030 --> 00:02:38,740 Not because they're different diseases, but they are caused by the same problem, 33 00:02:38,780 --> 00:02:41,490 and they're caused by the kinds of things that we're eating. 34 00:02:41,530 --> 00:02:47,030 We are humans living in, most cases, in what we call a very toxic food environment. 35 00:02:47,070 --> 00:02:51,570 An environment of highly palatable, very processed foods 36 00:02:51,610 --> 00:02:54,610 that keep us addicted and interested in those foods, 37 00:02:54,650 --> 00:02:58,740 and serve us a huge number of calories, without making us feel full. 38 00:02:58,780 --> 00:03:02,030 It's important to lose weight, not only in ways that help us lose weight, 39 00:03:02,070 --> 00:03:04,700 but in ways that don't mortgage our health. I mean, there are lots of ways 40 00:03:04,740 --> 00:03:07,150 you can lose weight that aren't good for you. Amphetamines used to be 41 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,070 a very popular way of losing weight. I wouldn't recommend it. 42 00:03:10,110 --> 00:03:12,360 And so it's important that when we're talking about weight loss, we're talking about 43 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:16,030 how to lose weight in ways that enhance our health, rather than mortgage it. 44 00:03:16,070 --> 00:03:19,900 To try to blame a broken metabolism, 45 00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:24,280 or hormones, or menopause, or, 46 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,650 "I have a knee injury and I'm not working out anymore", 47 00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:30,740 or, "I used to work out and I'm not working out anymore". 48 00:03:30,780 --> 00:03:34,240 I'm not saying those don't have contributions, but they're not the main problem. 49 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:40,110 Think about it this way. The average adult human eats a ton of food in a year. 50 00:03:40,150 --> 00:03:44,200 A ton. Now explain to me how anybody could claim 51 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,950 that putting a ton of food through your body, 52 00:03:46,990 --> 00:03:51,030 a ton of anything, wouldn't have a profound impact on your body. 53 00:03:51,070 --> 00:03:55,200 Of course it's going to. Eat garbage, garbage in, garbage out. 54 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,030 Eat something fabulous, you get health as a result. 55 00:03:59,070 --> 00:04:02,200 And food addictions are so common today, 56 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,700 that people aren't even aware they're addicted because: "Hey, everybody does it, 57 00:04:05,740 --> 00:04:08,530 so I'm not an addict. I'm just doing what everybody does." 58 00:04:08,570 --> 00:04:11,320 You literally are what you eat. I always say that. 59 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:15,950 You know, your mouth is your first and most consistent access to the outside world. 60 00:04:15,990 --> 00:04:18,650 And you put food from nature into your body, 61 00:04:18,700 --> 00:04:21,610 and your body knows what to do with it when it recognizes it. You know, 62 00:04:21,650 --> 00:04:24,950 It knows how to process it and metabolize it and take care of it, 63 00:04:24,990 --> 00:04:27,200 and it helps promote optimal health, 64 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,900 but when you're consuming things that your body doesn't recognize, 65 00:04:29,950 --> 00:04:33,360 that's really refined and manmade, if you will, it's so destructive. 66 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,200 It's so difficult on the body and it really does lead to 67 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:40,570 the disease promoting processes that occur, when you consume these foods. 68 00:04:40,610 --> 00:04:44,400 [Cronise] What other species that's ever walked the planet, 69 00:04:44,450 --> 00:04:47,860 had obesity as a symptom of poverty? 70 00:04:47,900 --> 00:04:51,150 It's not from deficiency. It's not water deficiency. 71 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,900 It's not sugar deficiency. It's not protein deficiency. 72 00:04:54,950 --> 00:04:58,530 It's chronic overnutrition and no one wants to deal with it. 73 00:04:58,570 --> 00:05:04,150 I kind of wish the entire weight loss industry would just disappear overnight, 74 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:10,530 because it is rife with lies, misinformation and products 75 00:05:10,570 --> 00:05:17,200 that are not connecting people more deeply with their food choices and with themselves, 76 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:21,070 but ironically leading them away from that. 77 00:05:21,110 --> 00:05:25,030 [Siewierski] Nowadays, you can find a study to back up practically any theory. 78 00:05:25,070 --> 00:05:29,200 In 2015, a journalist and associate scientists from Harvard University 79 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:34,900 published a hoax study to prank reporters and show how easily the media can be fooled. 80 00:05:34,950 --> 00:05:38,990 The study proposed that by eating chocolate, people could lose weight. 81 00:05:39,030 --> 00:05:41,990 Of course, that was not true, but the media bought into it, 82 00:05:42,030 --> 00:05:45,070 and the story was featured in major publications 83 00:05:45,110 --> 00:05:47,450 and news stations all around the world. 84 00:05:47,490 --> 00:05:50,360 What's shocking is that none of the reporters took the time 85 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:54,320 to investigate the facts. So if we can't trust the media, 86 00:05:54,360 --> 00:06:00,150 how can we, as consumers, navigate this confusing world of diet and nutrition research? 87 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:02,360 Medical journals are so cluttered up with junk, 88 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,400 that you can find a study to support almost anything you want to say, 89 00:06:05,450 --> 00:06:08,400 and by the way, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, 90 00:06:08,450 --> 00:06:10,570 because there's a lot of great stuff in medical journals too. 91 00:06:10,610 --> 00:06:13,860 But, a good example that I think is easy for people to understand 92 00:06:13,900 --> 00:06:16,820 is that if I wanted to give a lecture today 93 00:06:16,860 --> 00:06:20,490 on the fact that smoking is actually not as harmful as we thought, 94 00:06:20,530 --> 00:06:24,240 I can find some studies in major medical journals, 95 00:06:24,280 --> 00:06:26,200 saying that smoking is beneficial, 96 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:29,070 it relaxes people, takes away our anxiety. 97 00:06:29,110 --> 00:06:33,990 Okay, so if I cherry picked a dozen studies and talked about this for a half hour, 98 00:06:34,030 --> 00:06:38,700 I'm sure some people in the audience would be thinking, "Boy, have I been misinformed! 99 00:06:38,740 --> 00:06:41,900 I mean, I really believed all these people who said, smoking is harmful." 100 00:06:41,950 --> 00:06:45,490 The problem with that is that in presenting those studies, 101 00:06:45,530 --> 00:06:51,320 I'm ignoring the larger body of evidence that clearly shows that smoking is terrible for you. 102 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:56,070 There's a lot of junk science out there, so you have to be very careful. 103 00:06:56,110 --> 00:07:02,320 And if you read magazines or see TV news, it is generally very unreliable. 104 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,820 You need to find someone who is very good at analyzing research, 105 00:07:06,860 --> 00:07:11,900 and then be very careful because there is a lot of wrong information out there. 106 00:07:11,950 --> 00:07:16,070 I see these people going on these shows now, posing as experts. 107 00:07:16,110 --> 00:07:20,700 These people have never studied statistics. They've never sat in a scientific meeting 108 00:07:20,740 --> 00:07:22,860 where we review the research at detail. 109 00:07:22,900 --> 00:07:25,700 More importantly, they've never sat across from a patient 110 00:07:25,740 --> 00:07:28,740 and followed a patient for years and seeing how they respond to diet, 111 00:07:28,780 --> 00:07:33,070 and yet, all of a sudden, these are the experts that are on TV talking about diet. 112 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:37,110 [Siewierski] In the month of January, 113 00:07:37,150 --> 00:07:39,030 millions of people from around the world 114 00:07:39,070 --> 00:07:40,700 set their New Year's resolutions 115 00:07:40,740 --> 00:07:43,150 and decide it's time to lose weight. 116 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:47,820 During that month, gyms experience an astonishing 18% increase 117 00:07:47,860 --> 00:07:52,400 in new member signups, with numbers plummeting down in the subsequent months. 118 00:07:52,450 --> 00:07:57,610 So why is it that so many people fail at losing weight through exercise? 119 00:07:57,650 --> 00:08:00,610 What happens though, when you exercise is you get hungrier, 120 00:08:00,650 --> 00:08:03,280 so remember, your body is basically saying 121 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:07,070 the amount of stretch in my stomach means I've eaten enough. 122 00:08:07,110 --> 00:08:10,150 And when you exercise, it's going to say you need a little bit more. 123 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:12,490 So what I find is that some people that are exercising 124 00:08:12,530 --> 00:08:15,450 are still eating the bad standard American diet. 125 00:08:15,490 --> 00:08:18,070 They wind up overshooting by even more calories, 126 00:08:18,110 --> 00:08:20,610 because the food they're eating, they're going to want their bodies 127 00:08:20,650 --> 00:08:23,030 giving them signals to eat more of that. Another problem 128 00:08:23,070 --> 00:08:25,820 is you have someone that hasn't exercised in years, 129 00:08:25,860 --> 00:08:29,030 you know, they're sedentary, all of a sudden they'd start doing things 130 00:08:29,070 --> 00:08:31,530 that their body's just not ready to do. They can get hurt. 131 00:08:31,570 --> 00:08:35,110 So I think there's lots of things that are connected to exercise 132 00:08:35,150 --> 00:08:37,200 that make exercise health promoting, 133 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:40,490 but simply running on the treadmill longer 134 00:08:40,530 --> 00:08:45,240 so that, you know, just to burn more calories, is not the answer. 135 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:48,030 I think diet and exercise go together. 136 00:08:48,070 --> 00:08:51,860 I think exercise is very important for promotion of health. 137 00:08:51,900 --> 00:08:57,700 I do not think that alone as a standalone, it's very effective with weight loss. 138 00:08:57,740 --> 00:09:02,530 So I think again, it puts people into this cycle of extreme frustration, 139 00:09:02,570 --> 00:09:04,780 which is, now they're incorporating exercise and they're getting up 140 00:09:04,820 --> 00:09:07,450 and they're moving, and they're either not losing weight, 141 00:09:07,490 --> 00:09:09,490 or they're still gaining weight. 142 00:09:09,530 --> 00:09:12,950 So you really have to put your diet right first. 143 00:09:12,990 --> 00:09:17,490 Inside each overweight individual is a lean, fit individual. 144 00:09:17,530 --> 00:09:20,860 They just, sort of, have a fat suit, you know, to think about it that way. 145 00:09:20,900 --> 00:09:26,650 Now if I took that fat suit, the 40, the 60, the 80, the 100, 146 00:09:26,700 --> 00:09:29,950 or one of my clients, the 180 pounds he was carrying around, 147 00:09:29,990 --> 00:09:36,610 and I handed their lean person inside that 180 pounds and said, 148 00:09:36,650 --> 00:09:39,320 "Carry this around all day long, every day." 149 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:42,030 Why would that not be called exercise? 150 00:09:42,070 --> 00:09:44,740 And why are we telling these people that they need to move more 151 00:09:44,780 --> 00:09:46,200 and they're not in the gym enough. 152 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:48,950 I'm not saying exercise is wrong. 153 00:09:48,990 --> 00:09:53,400 I'm saying it doesn't matter if they're carrying around a 100 pounds 154 00:09:53,450 --> 00:09:59,110 of steel all day, every day, or carrying around 100 pounds of body fat. 155 00:09:59,150 --> 00:10:01,860 They may not notice it because of the distribution, 156 00:10:01,900 --> 00:10:04,450 but they're spending the energy to do it. 157 00:10:04,490 --> 00:10:06,570 Well, when you weigh 500 pounds, 158 00:10:06,610 --> 00:10:10,650 uhm, you spend a lot more of your energy in managing your body. 159 00:10:10,700 --> 00:10:13,530 What I mean by that is, uh, it's harder 160 00:10:13,570 --> 00:10:15,900 to go up and down stairs, it's harder to do anything. 161 00:10:15,950 --> 00:10:19,820 It's harder to move, to walk, whatever, and it's exhausting. 162 00:10:19,860 --> 00:10:22,070 So, what I would do, because I was cooking, 163 00:10:22,110 --> 00:10:25,530 I would have a private chef, or a personal chef's service at the time, 164 00:10:25,570 --> 00:10:29,070 so I would get up in the morning and go to the store and come home. 165 00:10:29,110 --> 00:10:31,950 And I would cook for three hours then I would have to take a break. 166 00:10:31,990 --> 00:10:37,280 So, I'd be taking these hour long naps or sit downs in between cooking. 167 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:41,780 And I only cooked three days a week, and then let my body rest the rest of the time. 168 00:10:41,820 --> 00:10:44,740 So, I wasn't fully participatory in my own life. 169 00:10:44,780 --> 00:10:47,200 Exercise is clearly important, but most studies show 170 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:51,150 that exercise alone, is hard to lose weight and keep it off, 171 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,700 but if you can combine exercise with a healthy diet, 172 00:10:54,740 --> 00:10:58,360 and meditation, and stress management, and love and support, 173 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:02,030 and getting enough sleep, those are the things that really make it sustainable. 174 00:11:02,070 --> 00:11:04,280 You can't out exercise your mouth, 175 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,530 unless you're maybe doing these ultradistance, you know, runs 100 mile, 176 00:11:08,570 --> 00:11:12,110 you're running marathons, but most people, including professional athletes, 177 00:11:12,150 --> 00:11:15,320 are having a really hard time meeting their ideal weight. 178 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:19,570 In fact, if you went out and ate a burger and fries and coke, 179 00:11:19,610 --> 00:11:23,400 you better run 13 miles to lose those calories. 180 00:11:23,450 --> 00:11:28,150 You can't even do that, because even if you burned off the calories at the gym, 181 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:33,860 you are not reversing the deleterious effects that bad food had on your gut microbiome, 182 00:11:33,900 --> 00:11:37,700 and on your insulin spike, on your hardening of the arteries, 183 00:11:37,740 --> 00:11:39,860 the inflammation that was caused. So, I mean, 184 00:11:39,900 --> 00:11:43,950 I can go on and on, but it's not just the calories that you ate, 185 00:11:43,990 --> 00:11:48,530 you are also really affecting your metabolism in such a bad way 186 00:11:48,570 --> 00:11:51,860 that there's just no way to exercise that off. 187 00:11:51,900 --> 00:11:54,400 Most of our society is not agrarian. 188 00:11:54,450 --> 00:11:57,860 They're not going out into the fields and hunting, gathering, farming, 189 00:11:57,900 --> 00:12:00,860 doing the things that we've done for centuries. 190 00:12:00,900 --> 00:12:06,320 And so now, we have much more leisure time and people are actually sedentary. 191 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:09,450 And it is true that the chair is the new cigarette, 192 00:12:09,490 --> 00:12:12,700 but if those are our jobs, then we have to adjust our diets 193 00:12:12,740 --> 00:12:16,530 to try and make sure that we're not always in positive calorie balance. 194 00:12:16,570 --> 00:12:19,570 I used to be 220 pounds and I used to think 195 00:12:19,610 --> 00:12:23,280 that working out at the gym was, you know, the only way to lose weight. 196 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:25,650 I would be at the gym for two hours a day. 197 00:12:25,700 --> 00:12:27,700 I would, you know, my diet was very unhealthy. 198 00:12:27,740 --> 00:12:29,200 I wouldn't lose much weight. 199 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:31,950 I'd always yo-yo between 5-10 pounds, 200 00:12:31,990 --> 00:12:37,070 but it wasn't until I focused more on my health that the weight just started shedding. 201 00:12:37,110 --> 00:12:41,570 For those who don't exercise, if they increase their resting calories, 202 00:12:41,610 --> 00:12:47,200 that's beneficial, such as taking the stairs when you can, walking more when you can, 203 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:50,610 instead of parking the car as close to the entrance as possible. 204 00:12:51,990 --> 00:12:56,400 [Siewierski] About 15% of adults in the US have used a dietary weight lose supplement 205 00:12:56,450 --> 00:13:02,200 at some point in their lives, spending roughly 2.1 billion dollars a year. 206 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,820 People get really wrapped up in supplementation and multi-vitamins. 207 00:13:05,860 --> 00:13:12,150 And for me, real foods, that's where the nutrition lies. That's where your nutrients are. 208 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:16,610 That's where your vitamins, your minerals, your phytochemicals, your fiber, 209 00:13:16,650 --> 00:13:19,320 all of that exists in real whole food. 210 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:24,150 If these supplements really had a beneficial effect, I would have known about it, 211 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:28,610 because then it would have been described in the medical journals that I read. 212 00:13:28,650 --> 00:13:30,990 There has been nothing of that kind. 213 00:13:31,030 --> 00:13:36,110 People are getting fooled and they lose money on things that don't work. 214 00:13:36,150 --> 00:13:39,860 And It's a total waste, if you ask me. 215 00:13:39,900 --> 00:13:42,280 [Dr. Popper] But what do you say to the person who is going to continue 216 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,280 to eat fast food and junk food and the whole nine yards? 217 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:48,030 Wouldn't that person be better off taking some supplements? 218 00:13:48,070 --> 00:13:52,990 Okay, well, no. And I'll tell you why. It's not going to fix the problem, 219 00:13:53,030 --> 00:13:58,360 so asking, "What do you say to the person who won't change his or her diet?" 220 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:02,200 is like saying to a financial planner, "What do you tell the people who won't save money? 221 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:04,990 Who won't get their credit card balances paid up?" 222 00:14:05,030 --> 00:14:07,280 Well, you know what the financial planner would say? 223 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,280 "We don't have a solution for people who are financially irresponsible. 224 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:13,150 There is no way for a person to be financially irresponsible 225 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:17,030 for 40 working years of life and retire comfortably." 226 00:14:17,070 --> 00:14:19,490 There is no way. You're not going to take nice vacations 227 00:14:19,530 --> 00:14:21,570 and get to do fun things in retirement, 228 00:14:21,610 --> 00:14:24,150 if you spend more than you make and write up your credit cards 229 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:26,360 and go bankrupt a couple of times during your working years. 230 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,820 Why is it that we are supposed to come up with some 231 00:14:29,860 --> 00:14:33,030 half-baked solution for people who say, 232 00:14:33,070 --> 00:14:35,740 "I'm not interested in taking care of myself, 233 00:14:35,780 --> 00:14:38,610 so wouldn't popping a couple of pills help me out?" 234 00:14:38,650 --> 00:14:39,700 Actually, not so much. 235 00:14:39,740 --> 00:14:41,950 Stop thinking about the shortcut 236 00:14:41,990 --> 00:14:45,740 and start thinking about how to enjoy real health. 237 00:14:45,780 --> 00:14:48,030 Real health is not pills in a bottle. 238 00:14:48,070 --> 00:14:52,650 Real health is eating the right food, drinking water, getting exercise, 239 00:14:52,700 --> 00:14:56,900 getting sun, sleeping well, living a great life, 240 00:14:56,950 --> 00:15:01,200 figuring out what's bothering you psychologically and fixing it. 241 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,030 You know, that's what real health is. 242 00:15:08,570 --> 00:15:11,320 [Siewierski] Calories in equals calories out, 243 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:14,070 most of us believe that calories are the same 244 00:15:14,110 --> 00:15:17,400 and that our bodies cannot differentiate between them. 245 00:15:17,450 --> 00:15:21,700 That would explain why there is so much focus on portion control diets. 246 00:15:21,740 --> 00:15:26,650 If calories are the same, then all we have to do is eat less of them, right? 247 00:15:27,950 --> 00:15:31,200 Because there is a signal for satiation that comes from your stomach, 248 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,700 where your stomach gets full and then a message from the brain where the brain says, 249 00:15:35,740 --> 00:15:37,360 "Okay, I've had enough calories" 250 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,820 and when they align, satiation happens. 251 00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:46,450 When we are eating a lot of our processed, packaged low fiber, high fat foods, 252 00:15:46,490 --> 00:15:48,450 the message doesn't coincide. 253 00:15:48,490 --> 00:15:50,490 So even though your brain is saying, 254 00:15:50,530 --> 00:15:53,490 "Yeah, that was a 500 calorie donut, 255 00:15:53,530 --> 00:15:57,700 the stomach doesn't register. There is no fiber, there is no water in that food. 256 00:15:57,740 --> 00:16:03,490 It's a packaged refined product that doesn't fill the stomach receptors, 257 00:16:03,530 --> 00:16:07,360 and so there is an argument that happens, between the stomach and the brain. 258 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:09,950 The stomach says, "No, but I'm still hungry," and the brain says, 259 00:16:09,990 --> 00:16:13,780 "Yes, but you've had enough calories." When that battle is going on, 260 00:16:13,820 --> 00:16:16,780 a 100% of the time, the stomach is going to win 261 00:16:16,820 --> 00:16:19,150 because you're hungry. People don't like to be hungry. 262 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,490 The body is not meant to go hungry. 263 00:16:21,530 --> 00:16:25,570 And so then people overeat so they'll have that second donut, 264 00:16:25,610 --> 00:16:29,900 and maybe by then the fibers in the stomach are full enough. 265 00:16:29,950 --> 00:16:32,700 Calorie density is very different than calorie counting. 266 00:16:32,740 --> 00:16:34,820 I've never counted calories, personally. 267 00:16:34,860 --> 00:16:37,780 And think about it, if you're over by 100 calories per meal, 268 00:16:37,820 --> 00:16:42,570 that's 300 calories a day, and at the end of 10 days 269 00:16:42,610 --> 00:16:46,030 its 3,000 calories, 3,500 calories is a pound of fat. 270 00:16:46,070 --> 00:16:52,900 So imagine if you're over by just 100 calories a meal for 10 days, you gain a pound of fat. 271 00:16:52,950 --> 00:16:57,950 You do that for 100 days, that's 10 pounds, 300 days its 30 pounds. 272 00:16:57,990 --> 00:17:00,860 So you can see how you could very easily, get into trouble 273 00:17:00,900 --> 00:17:04,700 if you thought you knew better than what your body actually needed. 274 00:17:04,740 --> 00:17:07,110 To lose weight, it's important to look at not only the amount of food, 275 00:17:07,150 --> 00:17:08,990 but also the type of food. 276 00:17:09,030 --> 00:17:11,650 Some foods are much denser in calories. 277 00:17:11,700 --> 00:17:14,150 Fat, for example, has nine calories per gram, 278 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:16,490 whereas protein and carbs have only four. 279 00:17:16,530 --> 00:17:18,650 So it's the density of the calories that matters. 280 00:17:18,700 --> 00:17:22,070 So if you go from a high fat to a very low fat diet, 281 00:17:22,110 --> 00:17:25,200 even if you had the same amount of food, you're getting about a third fewer calories. 282 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:29,820 There is a particularly high dopamine response or a brain response, 283 00:17:29,860 --> 00:17:32,400 when people eat high calorie, high fat foods. 284 00:17:32,450 --> 00:17:35,780 And the reason is this, when we were wandering around looking for food 285 00:17:35,820 --> 00:17:39,070 and there often wasn't enough of it, if you would happen upon something 286 00:17:39,110 --> 00:17:42,320 that was calorie dense, the pecan grove, for example. 287 00:17:42,360 --> 00:17:45,490 Pecans are high in fat. This brings a lot of pleasure. 288 00:17:45,530 --> 00:17:48,780 This is nature's way of saying, "You don't know where the next meal is coming from, 289 00:17:48,820 --> 00:17:51,900 you haven't eaten for a while, you need to chow down on these pecans 290 00:17:51,950 --> 00:17:54,860 because this is the key to survival." 291 00:17:54,900 --> 00:17:59,360 [Michal Siewierski] Today's military strategy dictates mobility and speed. 292 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:04,610 And to meet these demands, a soldier's rations must be light, small, easily prepared 293 00:18:04,650 --> 00:18:08,110 and still packed with enough nutrition to keep him at top effectiveness. 294 00:18:08,150 --> 00:18:12,610 Currently, many kinds of Natick designed food rations are in use. 295 00:18:12,650 --> 00:18:17,490 Each specifically tailored for a particular environmental or military situation. 296 00:18:20,070 --> 00:18:22,700 [Siewierski] A few years after World War II ended, 297 00:18:22,740 --> 00:18:25,740 America entered the modern age of food manufacturing. 298 00:18:25,780 --> 00:18:28,320 And the processed food revolution got underway. 299 00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:31,450 After having struggled with food scarcity for years during the war, 300 00:18:31,490 --> 00:18:35,240 people developed an appreciation for quick and convenient foods, 301 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,150 but that convenience often came with a price. 302 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:42,150 Foods high in fat, high in sodium, and loaded with toxic preservatives, 303 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:45,820 flooded the store shelves and became family traditions. 304 00:18:45,860 --> 00:18:49,530 It was not until the late '90s that researchers begun raising questions 305 00:18:49,570 --> 00:18:51,650 about the safety of processed foods. 306 00:18:53,900 --> 00:18:58,610 So the more you process something, you know, you're extending the shelf life of it, 307 00:18:58,650 --> 00:19:00,780 but you when you eat it, it's probably going to shorten your life. 308 00:19:00,820 --> 00:19:03,360 So I say get away from the processed foods. You want to eat foods 309 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:06,780 in their more natural state. There are food companies 310 00:19:06,820 --> 00:19:09,200 that are spending billions of dollars 311 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:14,780 every single year in a laboratory, trying to chemically concoct foods 312 00:19:14,820 --> 00:19:17,860 that are going to activate those pleasure centers in your brain. 313 00:19:17,900 --> 00:19:21,700 The same pleasure centers that are triggered by cocaine, 314 00:19:21,740 --> 00:19:25,570 and alcohol, and heroine, and prescription medications. 315 00:19:25,610 --> 00:19:29,700 That's what they're after, because if they can figure that out, and they've got you, 316 00:19:29,740 --> 00:19:33,030 they've hooked you and hopefully, they've hooked you for life. 317 00:19:33,070 --> 00:19:37,400 That combination of fat, sugar and salt seems to be the main ways 318 00:19:37,450 --> 00:19:39,820 the food industry gets people to crave their foods. 319 00:19:39,860 --> 00:19:43,530 Anything that's processed, you should be trying to minimize that. 320 00:19:43,570 --> 00:19:46,150 I'm not saying you can't eat processed food, you know? 321 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:48,240 Crackers are processed, 322 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,780 but what you want to do is you want to try and optimize 323 00:19:50,820 --> 00:19:53,320 the cracker you're going to eat, and not live off of crackers. 324 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:55,490 If I'm going to eat a cracker, I'm going to try and get whole grains, 325 00:19:55,530 --> 00:19:57,650 I'm going to try and get no added oils, 326 00:19:57,700 --> 00:20:01,030 I'm going to try and get, you know, little or no added salt, for example. 327 00:20:01,070 --> 00:20:03,320 That's what works for me, and then I have the cracker, 328 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:07,490 and it can be an enjoyable addition to the diet at times. 329 00:20:08,610 --> 00:20:10,360 [Siewierski] There is historical evidence 330 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:12,740 that suggests that the sugar industry 331 00:20:12,780 --> 00:20:15,700 paid scientists in the 1960s 332 00:20:15,740 --> 00:20:18,860 to play down the link between sugar and heart disease, 333 00:20:18,900 --> 00:20:22,320 and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead. 334 00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:25,490 Even though the role of sugar might have been downplayed for years, 335 00:20:25,530 --> 00:20:27,900 is sugar the only one to blame? 336 00:20:27,950 --> 00:20:31,490 Sugar isn't health food, but the idea that that's the whole problem 337 00:20:31,530 --> 00:20:33,400 with the diet is really not correct. 338 00:20:33,450 --> 00:20:35,400 Is sugar the ultimate evil? 339 00:20:35,450 --> 00:20:40,240 And for me, it's really-- it goes to is it a whole food? 340 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:43,650 Because glucose is what our body thrives on, right? 341 00:20:43,700 --> 00:20:46,650 It's what composes carbohydrates. It's what's in fruits, 342 00:20:46,700 --> 00:20:48,650 and vegetables, and whole grains, and legumes, 343 00:20:48,700 --> 00:20:51,450 and all of these foods that are health promoting. 344 00:20:51,490 --> 00:20:53,490 So is that sugar bad? 345 00:20:53,530 --> 00:20:58,320 No, I think that sugar is very healthy and very health promoting. 346 00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:00,860 And then there is the other end, which is processed foods, 347 00:21:00,900 --> 00:21:02,360 and I think there needs to be a separation 348 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:05,900 between real whole foods and processed foods. 349 00:21:05,950 --> 00:21:09,820 And yes, we are seeing in the research that sugar, refined sugars 350 00:21:09,860 --> 00:21:13,240 are probably just as bad as the saturated fats. 351 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,900 You know, we keep doing these studies where they're testing which is worse, which is worse, 352 00:21:16,950 --> 00:21:21,400 but what if they're just both health damaging. You know, it's a refined food. 353 00:21:21,450 --> 00:21:24,240 So I went to the US Department of Agriculture because they actually 354 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:28,320 track the entire US food supply every decade since 1950. 355 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:30,860 Not what people say they're eating, because they often don't tell you the truth, 356 00:21:30,900 --> 00:21:34,570 but what they've actually, as a country, what we've been eating. And what have I learned? 357 00:21:34,610 --> 00:21:38,490 Well, we may have been told to eat less fat, but every decade since 1950, 358 00:21:38,530 --> 00:21:41,450 we've been eating more fat, more sugar, more calories, and more meat, 359 00:21:41,490 --> 00:21:44,400 and a lot more. So not surprisingly, we are fatter, not because 360 00:21:44,450 --> 00:21:46,700 we are eating too little fat, but because we're eating too much of everything. 361 00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:51,780 I don't think it's that sugar or fat is evil, 362 00:21:51,820 --> 00:21:57,150 but I think that excess amount of either one can cause issues. 363 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,490 People don't want to give up eating calorie dense foods. 364 00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:02,200 They don't want to give up eating fat. 365 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:04,700 They don't want to give up eating a lot of protein. 366 00:22:04,740 --> 00:22:07,860 They don't want to give up eating animal foods, which are very calorie dense, 367 00:22:07,900 --> 00:22:12,950 so they're easily persuaded that if you're willing to sacrifice, say sugar, 368 00:22:12,990 --> 00:22:17,900 they get to keep butter, and cheese, and ice cream, and steak, 369 00:22:17,950 --> 00:22:20,360 and that's a trade off many people are willing to make. 370 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,150 I always tell people, I eat fruit all day. You know, I live on sugar. 371 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:26,820 You know, sugar is what energizes the cells in our bodies. 372 00:22:26,860 --> 00:22:29,740 It's what I use for pre-workouts. It's my new candy. 373 00:22:29,780 --> 00:22:32,610 The thought that a doctor, a doctor with no nutritional training, 374 00:22:32,650 --> 00:22:34,320 by the way, could tell their patient, 375 00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:37,110 "Don't eat fruit because it causes diabetes," 376 00:22:37,150 --> 00:22:41,320 is absolutely insane because there's so many studies showing 377 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:44,780 not only that it doesn't cause diabetes, but it prevents diabetes. 378 00:22:44,820 --> 00:22:47,860 I know diabetics who eat tons of fruit and they have some 379 00:22:47,900 --> 00:22:50,740 of the most controlled diabetes you've ever seen, Type one diabetics. 380 00:22:50,780 --> 00:22:55,070 I've been on shows where there is a nutritionist or a chef saying, 381 00:22:55,110 --> 00:22:59,070 "Well, be careful with bananas and be careful with mangoes because you can gain weight," 382 00:22:59,110 --> 00:23:03,490 but they never say anything about ham, and sausages, and all these animal fats. 383 00:23:03,530 --> 00:23:05,490 Why? Off camera, I've told them, 384 00:23:05,530 --> 00:23:07,950 "Why are you talking about mangoes and bananas?" 385 00:23:07,990 --> 00:23:12,070 Of course, if you eat bacon and then you eat bananas, 386 00:23:12,110 --> 00:23:15,490 they're going to create a lethal weapon there in your body, but it's not the bananas, 387 00:23:15,530 --> 00:23:17,400 it's obviously the animal fats. 388 00:23:17,450 --> 00:23:19,860 So there is a huge misunderstanding, 389 00:23:19,900 --> 00:23:25,820 but the banana producers or the orange producers don't have a huge corporation 390 00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:29,530 that can come out and pay millions of dollars for a campaign that says, 391 00:23:29,570 --> 00:23:34,780 "Bananas are good for you. Fruits are good for you. It's not us, you know." [Laughs] 392 00:23:34,820 --> 00:23:36,950 So there is a huge misunderstanding. 393 00:23:38,150 --> 00:23:42,030 [Siewierski] When it comes to oils, consider that one tablespoon of olive oil 394 00:23:42,070 --> 00:23:46,110 and a large banana each contain about 120 calories. 395 00:23:46,150 --> 00:23:48,780 It's easy to see which one will be more filling, 396 00:23:48,820 --> 00:23:51,610 resulting in less food consumed throughout the day, 397 00:23:51,650 --> 00:23:56,740 so what is the role of oil in all this? And can it spell danger for our waist lines? 398 00:23:56,780 --> 00:23:59,110 Pure oil is 4,000 calories per pound, 399 00:23:59,150 --> 00:24:01,900 so you can imagine just pouring a little bit of oil, 400 00:24:01,950 --> 00:24:04,900 how quickly you add calories to a dish, 401 00:24:04,950 --> 00:24:07,320 and it's not going to really stretch your stomach. 402 00:24:07,360 --> 00:24:11,110 Sugar is pure carbohydrate, and oil is pure fat. 403 00:24:11,150 --> 00:24:14,240 They're not whole foods. They're super calorie dense. 404 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:19,030 They're not healthy. One has been demonized, sugar, as pure evil. 405 00:24:19,070 --> 00:24:23,280 The other one is seen somehow or another as "Okay, healthy." 406 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:29,280 And someday we will realize that oil is an unhealthy food, 407 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,820 and people will begin to change their diets. 408 00:24:31,860 --> 00:24:35,820 You know all the oils that are out there, olive oil, coconut, safflower, sunflower, 409 00:24:35,860 --> 00:24:38,700 flaxseed, it's all highly processed. 410 00:24:38,740 --> 00:24:41,150 No nutritional substance, whatsoever. 411 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,570 Truly a black hole of nutritional nothingness. 412 00:24:43,610 --> 00:24:48,150 And coconut oil, my goodness. Lard is 43% saturated fat. 413 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,200 Coconut oil is 91% saturated fat. 414 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,400 The question now is, "Are they necessary? 415 00:24:54,450 --> 00:24:58,240 Do they bring something that we cannot obtain by whole foods?" 416 00:24:58,280 --> 00:24:59,990 And the answer is quite simply, no. 417 00:25:00,030 --> 00:25:01,280 [Dr. Lederman] If you're going to eat fat, 418 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,400 do it in its whole form. 419 00:25:03,450 --> 00:25:05,360 Don't extract the fat and think 420 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,820 that there's going to be something miraculous 421 00:25:07,860 --> 00:25:09,990 from doing that. It just doesn't make sense. 422 00:25:10,030 --> 00:25:11,650 [Hever] You know, we're all trying to cut calories. 423 00:25:11,700 --> 00:25:14,360 It's like the easiest way to do that is to just 424 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:18,740 not use oil as people are using it. Not sautéing and making dressings 425 00:25:18,780 --> 00:25:20,820 and glug, glug, glug all over your salad. And there you go, 426 00:25:20,860 --> 00:25:23,280 you've got 1,000 extra calories in your diet. That's not going to even 427 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,570 contribute to feeling satisfied or all that. 428 00:25:25,610 --> 00:25:28,400 You know, when you go out, it's almost impossible to avoid oil, 429 00:25:28,450 --> 00:25:31,990 but at home it's so easy to cook without oil and just sauté with water, 430 00:25:32,030 --> 00:25:34,030 or vegetable broth, or vinegar, or whatever. 431 00:25:34,070 --> 00:25:37,110 Oil is definitely the calorie excess, and it's hilarious, 432 00:25:37,150 --> 00:25:38,740 because people go and buy these cooking sprays, 433 00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:41,070 and the cooking sprays says on them low fat, 434 00:25:41,110 --> 00:25:45,070 so that cooking spray is 100% fat, so how can it say low fat? 435 00:25:45,110 --> 00:25:50,200 If you look at the serving size, it's a quarter of a second of a spray. 436 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:54,320 I mean not even like "sitz." You know that's what it is, but that's not what people do. 437 00:25:54,360 --> 00:25:57,860 They take that cooking spray and go "shhhhhh," and they don't even count that. 438 00:25:57,900 --> 00:26:00,900 These oils, regardless of whether they come from animal, 439 00:26:00,950 --> 00:26:04,900 whether they come from a plant, can end up damaging your endothelial layer, 440 00:26:04,950 --> 00:26:07,700 which is the single cell layer inside of your blood vessels, 441 00:26:07,740 --> 00:26:09,860 and that can set the stage for atherosclerosis, 442 00:26:09,900 --> 00:26:13,030 peripheral artery disease, and coronary artery disease. 443 00:26:13,070 --> 00:26:15,700 The problem is it's not disease promoting quick enough. 444 00:26:15,740 --> 00:26:18,030 You know, so you drop dead after you ate it, 445 00:26:18,070 --> 00:26:21,530 you know from a heart attack, and people would stop eating that food. 446 00:26:21,570 --> 00:26:27,200 The issue is that it takes 10, 20, 30 years sometimes, some people sooner, 447 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:31,150 to really manifest the diseases that are the result of eating that food. 448 00:26:32,530 --> 00:26:35,570 [Siewierski] One of the fastest growing diet movements in the US 449 00:26:35,610 --> 00:26:37,740 is the Saturated Fat Movement. 450 00:26:37,780 --> 00:26:39,950 For some reason, people started believing 451 00:26:39,990 --> 00:26:43,150 that eating copious amounts of saturated fat is healthy 452 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,030 and does not contribute to weight gain. The explosion 453 00:26:46,070 --> 00:26:50,400 in popularity of those diets has many experts concerned. 454 00:26:50,450 --> 00:26:54,280 Few things can make me angrier than saying saturated fat is good for you. 455 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,990 That blows my mind. The fact that someone comes into my office 456 00:26:58,030 --> 00:27:00,200 and they're putting butter in their coffee 457 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:05,570 because they think that's good for them, is insane. It's preposterous. 458 00:27:05,610 --> 00:27:08,570 It's A huge movement. There are some scientists out there and doctors 459 00:27:08,610 --> 00:27:11,820 who are really pushing it. I'm astounded at people's 460 00:27:11,860 --> 00:27:18,150 willingness to deceive themselves and to not read countervailing evidence. 461 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:24,490 It has discouraged me quite a bit, actually. They just don't want to read the science. 462 00:27:24,530 --> 00:27:25,900 They want to believe what they want to believe. 463 00:27:25,950 --> 00:27:26,990 [Barnard] If there's one thing 464 00:27:27,030 --> 00:27:27,820 we have been concerned about 465 00:27:27,860 --> 00:27:28,950 for decades, 466 00:27:28,990 --> 00:27:30,740 it's the saturated fat 467 00:27:30,780 --> 00:27:32,780 that's in foods and the cholesterol. 468 00:27:32,820 --> 00:27:38,490 Well, meat is second biggest source of saturated fat. 469 00:27:38,530 --> 00:27:41,280 The biggest source is dairy, particularly cheese 470 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:45,610 and yet people consume huge amounts of it. That saturated fat in your body 471 00:27:45,650 --> 00:27:49,450 causes your body to make more cholesterol. It's bad for your heart, 472 00:27:49,490 --> 00:27:52,740 but researchers in Chicago have also found that saturated fat 473 00:27:52,780 --> 00:27:57,200 increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The people who eat the most saturated fat, 474 00:27:58,150 --> 00:28:00,950 the most cheddar cheese, and bacon, and these kind of things, 475 00:28:00,990 --> 00:28:04,070 their risk of Alzheimer's is tripled compared to other people. 476 00:28:04,110 --> 00:28:08,240 Red meat on average is 40% saturated fat. 477 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:12,400 Your leanest piece of chicken breast is 30% saturated fat, 478 00:28:12,450 --> 00:28:18,570 and your leanest piece of wild caught Atlantic salmon is 20% saturated fat. 479 00:28:18,610 --> 00:28:22,240 An egg is right around 20% saturated fat, 480 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,780 so why do we want to continue to put in saturated fat, 481 00:28:25,820 --> 00:28:28,700 dietary cholesterol in a weak source of animal protein 482 00:28:28,740 --> 00:28:30,990 that all promote all of these diseases, 483 00:28:31,030 --> 00:28:33,860 heart disease, major cancer, type 2 diabetes? We don't. 484 00:28:33,900 --> 00:28:38,110 A lot of people imagine carbohydrates are fattening, but the fat grams, 485 00:28:38,150 --> 00:28:40,320 that's where the calories really are. 486 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,900 Uh, but not only does fat have a lot of calories in it, 487 00:28:42,950 --> 00:28:45,030 but when the fat gets into your body 488 00:28:45,070 --> 00:28:47,490 it actually slows down your metabolism. 489 00:28:47,530 --> 00:28:51,700 Your calorie burning speed, it's impaired by fatty food, 490 00:28:51,740 --> 00:28:55,200 and that happens very, very quickly as well, but the last thing 491 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,030 is to turn off your appetite, you need fiber in your foods. 492 00:28:59,070 --> 00:29:02,240 The fiber fills you up, tells your brain, "stop eating". 493 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:06,530 Well, fiber is in plants. Cheese is not a plant. 494 00:29:06,570 --> 00:29:08,780 So you'll see a lot of experts say, 495 00:29:08,820 --> 00:29:11,650 "America tried a low fat diet and look at us, 496 00:29:11,700 --> 00:29:14,780 we're getting more and more overweight." 497 00:29:14,820 --> 00:29:19,570 But the reality is America never truly tried a low fat diet. 498 00:29:19,610 --> 00:29:23,110 [Siewierski] But wait a second, don't we need some healthy fats? 499 00:29:23,150 --> 00:29:28,280 And how can we get them if we are avoiding oils, butter and animal foods? 500 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:33,070 Most people don't know that green leafy vegetables, on average are 10% fat. 501 00:29:33,110 --> 00:29:38,400 Oatmeal is 16% fat, strawberries are right around 7% fat, 502 00:29:38,450 --> 00:29:43,200 tofu is 40% fat, nuts and seeds 80% fat, 503 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,570 and it's all the polyunsaturated and essential fatty acids that we need. 504 00:29:46,610 --> 00:29:49,030 [Siewierski] Some of the most heated and controversial debates 505 00:29:49,070 --> 00:29:52,150 in the weight loss world are often about carbs. 506 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,700 If you ever tried to lose weight, you probably got exposed to information 507 00:29:55,740 --> 00:29:59,070 about low carb diets. The internet is clogged with articles 508 00:29:59,110 --> 00:30:01,240 telling people to cut carbs. 509 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:03,490 But do carbs really make us fat? 510 00:30:03,530 --> 00:30:07,860 Carbs are not your enemy. Bad calories are your enemy. 511 00:30:07,900 --> 00:30:12,450 So for example, if you eat an orange or an apple, there's sugar in that, 512 00:30:12,490 --> 00:30:16,700 but it also comes with tons of fiber and it's a whole food. 513 00:30:16,740 --> 00:30:21,570 When you say carbs, you could be referring to any carbohydrate rich foods. 514 00:30:21,610 --> 00:30:23,900 You could be referring to quinoa and beans, 515 00:30:23,950 --> 00:30:26,360 which are some of the most health promoting foods. 516 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,240 At the same time, you could be referring to white bread, 517 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,360 which obviously, is not really a health promoting food. 518 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,450 And so to lump those together under the term carbs 519 00:30:34,490 --> 00:30:36,530 really just adds to confusion. 520 00:30:36,570 --> 00:30:40,450 When I read health books about low carbohydrate diets, 521 00:30:40,490 --> 00:30:44,110 and why that's the answer to diabetes and heart disease and cancer, 522 00:30:44,150 --> 00:30:48,860 it really hits me at my core, because that information is not truly evidence based 523 00:30:48,900 --> 00:30:52,150 and the evidence that these low carbohydrate advocates cite 524 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,030 is always small numbers of people over short periods of time. 525 00:30:55,070 --> 00:30:58,610 We're not looking at large collections of people over long periods of time. 526 00:30:58,650 --> 00:31:01,700 If you really do, then it's very obvious low carbohydrate diets 527 00:31:01,740 --> 00:31:05,280 actually cause more chronic disease. Very few people will argue 528 00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,860 that refined carbohydrates can be detrimental to your overall health. 529 00:31:08,900 --> 00:31:11,700 I don't see anybody saying, "eat more refined carbohydrates". 530 00:31:11,740 --> 00:31:15,200 That's fine, we've established that as a society, we can now move on. 531 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:19,400 Studies are showing that, you know, you can lose weight on different diets, 532 00:31:19,450 --> 00:31:23,650 but when you lose weight on these high protein diets that are often high in fat, 533 00:31:23,700 --> 00:31:25,570 you often mortgage your health in the process. 534 00:31:25,610 --> 00:31:28,860 When you go from, say, a whole wheat flour to white flour, 535 00:31:28,900 --> 00:31:32,700 or from brown rice to white rice, you're turning a good carb into a bad carb, 536 00:31:32,740 --> 00:31:35,490 because you're removing the fiber and the bran, 537 00:31:35,530 --> 00:31:38,860 and the fiber and the bran are what normally fill you up before you get too many calories. 538 00:31:38,900 --> 00:31:42,030 You know, if you eat really healthy foods, good carbs, 539 00:31:42,070 --> 00:31:44,400 you're going to get full before you get too many calories. 540 00:31:44,450 --> 00:31:47,950 It's very, very difficult for the body to turn a carb to fat. 541 00:31:47,990 --> 00:31:50,490 When you eat carbs, it does not turn to fat. 542 00:31:50,530 --> 00:31:53,400 They did overfeeding studies where they load people up with carbs 543 00:31:53,450 --> 00:31:55,740 and only about 2% gets turned to fat 544 00:31:55,780 --> 00:31:59,150 through a process called de novo lipogenesis, but when you eat fat, 545 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:03,110 they go straight to fat, and so you absorb it very quickly into your tissues. 546 00:32:03,150 --> 00:32:06,240 A potato chip has carbs in it, but it's got more fat than carbs. 547 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:09,650 Donuts have more fat than carbs, but these are considered carbs. 548 00:32:09,700 --> 00:32:14,200 People ask me all the time, what's your ratio of carbs to fats to protein? 549 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:18,110 I never know how to answer that question. I've never given it a second thought. 550 00:32:18,150 --> 00:32:23,950 I don't pay attention to that because I think nature takes care of it itself. 551 00:32:23,990 --> 00:32:27,530 If you just graze on a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, 552 00:32:27,570 --> 00:32:31,490 whole grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, you're going to be fine. 553 00:32:31,530 --> 00:32:34,780 You don't need to worry about it. Nature has resolved this. 554 00:32:34,820 --> 00:32:39,570 People hundreds of years ago didn't worry about their ratio of macros, 555 00:32:39,610 --> 00:32:44,400 just eat plant foods close to their natural state. This stuff takes care of itself. 556 00:32:44,450 --> 00:32:47,780 [DR. Ornish] If you replace the bad carbs with good carbs, you get a double benefit 557 00:32:47,820 --> 00:32:50,570 because not only you're not eating the foods that are harmful, 558 00:32:50,610 --> 00:32:53,900 but there are literally hundreds of thousands of protective substances 559 00:32:53,950 --> 00:32:57,070 that you find in fruits and vegetables, and whole grains and legumes 560 00:32:57,110 --> 00:33:00,900 that have anti-cancer, anti-heart disease and even anti-aging properties. 561 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,530 [Siewierski] Diets that villainize grains are also growing in popularity. 562 00:33:07,570 --> 00:33:10,700 They claim that grains cause weight gain and inflammation, 563 00:33:10,740 --> 00:33:13,950 so are these foods the health villains that many claim they are? 564 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:21,860 You would be very hard pressed to find a study that shows a negative health outcome 565 00:33:21,900 --> 00:33:25,780 to eating whole grains and that's the bottom line. 566 00:33:25,820 --> 00:33:30,990 Study after study among literally hundreds of thousands of people 567 00:33:31,030 --> 00:33:34,990 followed for many years shows over and over again, 568 00:33:35,030 --> 00:33:39,610 that whole grains prevent heart disease. They prevent cancer, 569 00:33:39,650 --> 00:33:43,490 they reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in people who've had cancer, 570 00:33:43,530 --> 00:33:46,820 they lower the risk of premature death. 571 00:33:46,860 --> 00:33:50,950 They're actually the number one type of food that prevents type two diabetes 572 00:33:50,990 --> 00:33:55,650 and I could go on and on. Whole grains are this incredible food 573 00:33:55,700 --> 00:33:58,240 that really should be a core part of most people's diet. 574 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,070 And they're actually very anti-inflammatory, 575 00:34:01,110 --> 00:34:05,240 contrary to what people talk about when they say grains cause inflammation. 576 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,700 [Dr. Davis] Look at the healthiest cultures in the world. 577 00:34:07,740 --> 00:34:10,860 They're eating lots of grains, they're eating lots of fruits. 578 00:34:10,900 --> 00:34:15,700 It's just preposterous to say grains are bad for you, so I'm going to eat a steak. 579 00:34:15,740 --> 00:34:18,030 And that's the diet of America and look at our health. 580 00:34:18,070 --> 00:34:19,740 We're one of the sickest countries in the world. 581 00:34:19,780 --> 00:34:22,570 [Dr. McMacken] So the Blue Zones are parts of the world 582 00:34:22,610 --> 00:34:27,320 that have a significant proportion of people that actually live to be 100 or more. 583 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:32,110 And they are not just living to 100 with a medicalized life, 584 00:34:32,150 --> 00:34:35,950 they're actually living with a really high quality of life, and that's what's so amazing. 585 00:34:35,990 --> 00:34:38,450 They have a lot of things in common in terms of lifestyle, 586 00:34:38,490 --> 00:34:41,030 but in in terms of what they all eat, 587 00:34:41,070 --> 00:34:45,650 they share in common that they're mostly eating unprocessed plant foods. 588 00:34:45,700 --> 00:34:49,700 Individuals in the Blue Zones are following a predominantly plant-based diet. 589 00:34:49,740 --> 00:34:52,030 They're not vegan by any stretch of the imagination, 590 00:34:52,070 --> 00:34:55,110 but they're eating small amounts of meat, 591 00:34:55,150 --> 00:34:58,150 small amounts of fish, and small amounts of dairy products. 592 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:02,900 The overwhelming majority of their diet comes from plant sources. 593 00:35:02,950 --> 00:35:07,150 [Siewierski] We all heard the popular advice of just eat less and exercise more, 594 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:12,700 but is eating smaller portions of any kind of food the solution for staying trim? 595 00:35:12,740 --> 00:35:19,240 Fifty pounds over 20 years is an extra 168 calories a week. 596 00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,650 It's like 16 M&Ms a week. 597 00:35:21,700 --> 00:35:23,400 This is not a lot of food. 598 00:35:23,450 --> 00:35:28,110 No one guesses their diet to within 168 calories a week. 599 00:35:28,150 --> 00:35:31,030 They say eat whatever you want, but control your portions. 600 00:35:31,070 --> 00:35:36,240 No, that is so wrong, that was like science from the 1980s and people are still doing that. 601 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:40,490 The volume of food tell you nothing about the calories. 602 00:35:40,530 --> 00:35:42,110 [Dr. Pulde] I don't think yo-yo diets are sustainable, 603 00:35:42,150 --> 00:35:44,950 I think that's the whole idea of yo-yoing, 604 00:35:44,990 --> 00:35:48,530 and you know, is that you may go down but you're going to come back up. 605 00:35:48,570 --> 00:35:55,200 There's no way to sustain deprivation and calorie restriction long term. 606 00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:59,450 What we do as a society is we try and lose weight very quickly, 607 00:35:59,490 --> 00:36:02,490 and we try and adopt some kind of behavioral pattern 608 00:36:02,530 --> 00:36:05,360 that's going to make me lose 40 pounds in the next three weeks. 609 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:09,030 And so what we're programmed to do is get instant gratification 610 00:36:09,070 --> 00:36:12,110 and try and adopt some diet where we can do things very quickly, 611 00:36:12,150 --> 00:36:14,780 and as a result of losing a lot of weight very quickly, 612 00:36:14,820 --> 00:36:17,700 we end up becoming incredibly hungry. 613 00:36:17,740 --> 00:36:21,360 We end up with all types of strange hormonal effects that happen in the brain, 614 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,860 in the thyroid gland, and then over the course of time, 615 00:36:23,900 --> 00:36:26,820 you end up with these insatiable food cravings that make you want to start 616 00:36:26,860 --> 00:36:29,860 eating a bunch of food again, because you haven't been eating food, 617 00:36:29,900 --> 00:36:31,990 and then you're likely to gain that weight all back again. 618 00:36:32,030 --> 00:36:34,070 And that's where this yo-yo pattern starts. 619 00:36:34,110 --> 00:36:35,990 Mounting evidence shows that when people 620 00:36:36,900 --> 00:36:40,450 lose weight in the short term, and then regain the weight, 621 00:36:40,490 --> 00:36:44,990 that tends to have very deleterious metabolic effects, 622 00:36:45,030 --> 00:36:48,610 and it then becomes even harder potentially, to lose weight the next time. 623 00:36:48,650 --> 00:36:50,740 In addition to the metabolic effects, 624 00:36:50,780 --> 00:36:54,030 there can be psychological effects to constantly losing weight, 625 00:36:54,070 --> 00:36:56,320 gaining it back, losing weight, gaining it back. 626 00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,400 And so I think a more constructive approach 627 00:36:58,450 --> 00:37:02,200 is to look at building healthy habits over a lifetime. 628 00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:05,200 It doesn't sound sexy, but it actually works. 629 00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:09,360 To change your diet just for a matter of a few weeks or a few months, 630 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:13,450 then go back to eating your usual diet, chronic problems are going to come back. 631 00:37:13,490 --> 00:37:16,780 No diets or fat diets work in the long term. 632 00:37:16,820 --> 00:37:20,030 I mean the success rate is approaching zero. 633 00:37:20,070 --> 00:37:23,900 You know that you're on a good path if it gets easier over time. 634 00:37:23,950 --> 00:37:27,030 If it's getting harder over time, it means you're using willpower 635 00:37:27,070 --> 00:37:28,780 or you're just bored with it, you know, 636 00:37:28,820 --> 00:37:30,360 that's a sign it's not going to work. 637 00:37:32,110 --> 00:37:34,320 [Siewierski] Dieting for most people means eating less. 638 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:38,360 The idea of eating lots of food on a diet sounds very counter intuitive, 639 00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:42,450 but what if there was a way to eat more and weigh less? 640 00:37:42,490 --> 00:37:45,950 Most people, when they think of dieting or they think of getting healthy, 641 00:37:45,990 --> 00:37:49,200 automatically imagine that they're going to have to eat less. 642 00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:53,950 And when I talk to my patients, I say: "You know what, actually, you could probably eat more. 643 00:37:53,990 --> 00:37:56,240 In fact, you will be eating more." 644 00:37:56,280 --> 00:38:00,070 I see eyes lighting up at the-- you know, first, it's a disbelief. 645 00:38:00,110 --> 00:38:02,150 Like, "What are you talking about? You have no idea. 646 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,150 [Dr. Davis] You could eat as much as you want. I don't care 647 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,030 how much you eat of low calorie density foods, 648 00:38:08,070 --> 00:38:11,450 because you will get full before you get too many calories. 649 00:38:11,490 --> 00:38:14,200 Could you eat so many apples that you get fat? 650 00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:18,950 I guess, possibly you could, but it would be a lot of apples, and who does that? 651 00:38:18,990 --> 00:38:25,400 I get to eat as much as I want. I fill myself every meal. I'm not like stuffing myself, 652 00:38:25,450 --> 00:38:30,070 but it's like, I want to feel comfortable. I want to feel satisfied. 653 00:38:30,110 --> 00:38:32,950 It's the opposite of compromising. Everybody else is compromising 654 00:38:32,990 --> 00:38:36,110 by forcing themselves to stop eating when they still want to eat. 655 00:38:36,150 --> 00:38:40,780 For about 500 calories you can have a big Snickers bar 656 00:38:40,820 --> 00:38:45,280 or you can have three potatoes. What is going to fill you up more? 657 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,530 You know, If you had three potatoes or if you had one Snickers bar? 658 00:38:49,700 --> 00:38:53,110 [Siewierski] Another global phenomenon is the Paleo diet. 659 00:38:53,150 --> 00:38:56,240 An increasing number of people are adopting this lifestyle. 660 00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:58,530 And although many claim there are benefits, 661 00:38:58,570 --> 00:39:01,490 the question is do those benefits come with a price? 662 00:39:01,530 --> 00:39:05,280 All these diets, people will feel better, "I did the Paleo diet, I'm feeling better" 663 00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:10,030 Well, of course, I mean, you just got rid of processed foods, you got rid of dairy, 664 00:39:10,070 --> 00:39:14,860 you got rid of-- You know, you're eating whole foods a lot of the time. 665 00:39:14,900 --> 00:39:17,450 You know, so of course, you're going to-- The standard American diet is so bad 666 00:39:17,490 --> 00:39:20,860 that you could pretty much eat, follow any other diet and feel better. 667 00:39:20,900 --> 00:39:24,820 But the question is, "What does the evidence show? How can you optimize?" 668 00:39:24,860 --> 00:39:30,070 And It's really, eating whole foods plant based as much as you can. 669 00:39:30,110 --> 00:39:33,740 [Khambatta] So low carbohydrate diets have been around for approximately 50 years now. 670 00:39:33,780 --> 00:39:37,650 In the 1970s, Dr. Atkins first came out with the Dr. Atkins approach, 671 00:39:37,700 --> 00:39:40,700 and then it got re-popularized again in the 1990s. 672 00:39:40,740 --> 00:39:44,570 And then, it got turned into the South Beach diet, the Zone diet, 673 00:39:44,610 --> 00:39:46,860 the ketogenic diet, the Paleo revolution. 674 00:39:46,900 --> 00:39:50,700 So there's many incarnations of this low carbohydrate approach. 675 00:39:50,740 --> 00:39:54,780 And what people find is that when they adopt a low carbohydrate diet, 676 00:39:54,820 --> 00:39:57,320 that their health improves dramatically. 677 00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:01,740 They see a lot of rapid weight loss, they see a rapid reduction in blood glucose, 678 00:40:01,780 --> 00:40:03,700 a rapid reduction in insulin use. 679 00:40:03,740 --> 00:40:07,320 Their LDL cholesterol falls, their total cholesterol falls 680 00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,740 and from the outward perspective, if you look at their labs, 681 00:40:10,780 --> 00:40:13,570 you say, "Okay, fantastic." You've solved the problem. 682 00:40:13,610 --> 00:40:16,030 The problem with these low carbohydrate diets is that 683 00:40:16,070 --> 00:40:20,780 they give you rapid improvements in your metabolic health in the short term, 684 00:40:20,820 --> 00:40:23,900 but if you fast forward 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 685 00:40:23,950 --> 00:40:26,990 and you delve into the period of your research, what you'll find 686 00:40:27,030 --> 00:40:30,320 is that when you compare low carbohydrate diets versus low fat diets, 687 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:36,450 truly low fat diets, your low carbohydrate diets increase your risk for premature death. 688 00:40:36,490 --> 00:40:38,530 This is called all-cause mortality, 689 00:40:38,570 --> 00:40:42,240 and all-cause mortality is effectively death from any cause. 690 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,280 And so, those that are following a low carbohydrate diet, 691 00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,030 regardless of the type, whether it's ketogenic or paleo, 692 00:40:48,070 --> 00:40:53,860 those individuals die quicker and they die of more health diseases. 693 00:40:53,900 --> 00:40:56,490 [Dr. Davis] I don't even know what people mean when they say, "Paleo diet" anymore. 694 00:40:56,530 --> 00:40:59,570 I mean what was the Paleo diet? Are we talking about the Paleo diet 695 00:40:59,610 --> 00:41:03,570 of people in northern hemispheres in the Antarctic? 696 00:41:03,610 --> 00:41:05,650 Are we talking about people in desert? 697 00:41:05,700 --> 00:41:08,820 You know, what were they eating back then? And for some reason, 698 00:41:08,860 --> 00:41:10,860 the Paleo diet is loaded with meat, 699 00:41:10,900 --> 00:41:13,820 but these people did not have access to meat all the time. 700 00:41:13,860 --> 00:41:17,650 They had to run for miles to hunt and they would barely get that meat. 701 00:41:17,700 --> 00:41:20,490 Most of the food, uh, that they ate was gathered. 702 00:41:20,530 --> 00:41:24,490 If you look at Australopithecus, one of the oldest fossils out there, 703 00:41:24,530 --> 00:41:28,780 when they look at the teeth, it was plant based matter that was in their teeth. 704 00:41:28,820 --> 00:41:33,030 And so, probably, the Paleo man was mainly eating plants, 705 00:41:33,070 --> 00:41:37,700 but what does it even matter what Paleo-- Paleo man was trying to just survive, alright? 706 00:41:37,740 --> 00:41:42,280 They were dying at an early age. You know, we're living into our 60s or 70s, 707 00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:46,860 then we want to be living into our hundreds and not just living into our hundreds, 708 00:41:46,900 --> 00:41:50,820 but living healthy, having healthy, productive lives all the way up, and that's 709 00:41:50,860 --> 00:41:55,740 all we should be focusing on, not what Paleo man did in order to survive until the age of 30. 710 00:41:55,780 --> 00:41:58,150 [Dr. McMacken] These are diets that can be very appealing to people. 711 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:01,150 They have a theme, uhm, people kind of understand 712 00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:05,400 and it's-- It can even be a little bit romantic to imagine that you're eating a diet 713 00:42:05,450 --> 00:42:09,150 that was eaten, you know, many, many years ago. 714 00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:13,360 And we also are living in a time when we have to think about evolving, 715 00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,320 just like, just like people did in Paleolithic times. 716 00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:21,860 They evolved and, uhm, ate in a way that was sustainable for them at that time. 717 00:42:21,900 --> 00:42:25,030 And so, now, with billions of people living on earth, 718 00:42:25,070 --> 00:42:29,820 uhm, we have to consider what is the most sustainable and ethical way 719 00:42:29,860 --> 00:42:34,490 to frame our diets to survive as a species and as a planet. 720 00:42:35,530 --> 00:42:39,200 [Siewierski] The Ketogenic diet leads the way when it comes to promoting the consumption 721 00:42:39,240 --> 00:42:43,070 of large amounts of saturated fat, but is putting butter in our 722 00:42:43,110 --> 00:42:46,780 coffee and eating lard the solution to staying trim? 723 00:42:46,820 --> 00:42:50,320 Every now and then, we hear more about ketogenic diets. 724 00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,950 The idea is that if you don't have any carbohydrates or sugar, 725 00:42:53,990 --> 00:42:58,570 which is the natural fuel for your body, then your body's starving for fuel, 726 00:42:58,610 --> 00:43:01,320 so it's going to burn up fat. There's some truth to that, 727 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:07,530 except that when people don't actually cut calories, they don't lose any weight. 728 00:43:07,570 --> 00:43:09,990 The reason that people are losing weight from that, 729 00:43:10,030 --> 00:43:12,950 is they're cutting out so many foods. 730 00:43:12,990 --> 00:43:16,200 They're cutting out the vegetables, and the fruits, and the beans, and the grains, 731 00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:18,610 all these things, So their calorie content falls. 732 00:43:18,650 --> 00:43:20,360 And that's the reason they're losing weight. If they don't do that, 733 00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:23,400 they don't lose any weight. The other problem is 734 00:43:23,450 --> 00:43:28,070 when you're not having your healthy carbohydrate rich foods, what are you having instead? 735 00:43:28,110 --> 00:43:32,320 When I think of food, when I think of diet, I don't lose sight of common sense too, 736 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:36,700 you know, and when you think of eating higher fat foods, 737 00:43:36,740 --> 00:43:43,360 it just doesn't make sense to expect to lose weight and be healthy. 738 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:45,650 Now, the problem is if you write an article that says, 739 00:43:45,700 --> 00:43:47,740 "Fruits and vegetables and whole grains are good for you," it's like people go: 740 00:43:47,780 --> 00:43:50,780 "Oh, yes, tell me something new." If you put a slice of butter 741 00:43:50,820 --> 00:43:53,030 on the cover of a magazine and say, "Butter is back" 742 00:43:53,070 --> 00:43:56,610 or, you know, "Put, uh, cream into your coffee 743 00:43:56,650 --> 00:43:59,860 and that's somehow gonna to be good for you," it's a great way to sell magazines 744 00:43:59,900 --> 00:44:01,820 by telling people what they want to hear 745 00:44:01,860 --> 00:44:04,530 or to make a best-selling book by telling people, you know, 746 00:44:04,570 --> 00:44:08,150 "Eat fat, it's good for you." But, you know, it's not-- I mean, don't shoot the messenger. 747 00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:11,070 I'm just here to tell people what's real. But, you know, 748 00:44:11,110 --> 00:44:13,700 I've always dreamed about, well, maybe in my next book, I'll write, 749 00:44:13,740 --> 00:44:16,530 you know, "If you eat it off someone else's plate, it doesn't-- it doesn't affect you 750 00:44:16,570 --> 00:44:20,360 and they get all the calories." It'll be an Instant best seller, but it's just not true. 751 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,450 [Dr. McMacken] By using a ketogenic diet to burn fat, 752 00:44:23,490 --> 00:44:25,860 we're actually doing something that's very unnatural 753 00:44:25,900 --> 00:44:28,610 and that has never been studied in the long term, 754 00:44:28,650 --> 00:44:34,110 so it's not something that I would recommend, for, uh, any of my patients. 755 00:44:34,150 --> 00:44:38,570 [Dr. Davis] I will tell you, 'cause I've done ketosis diets myself 756 00:44:38,610 --> 00:44:39,900 and I've done them with my patients. 757 00:44:39,950 --> 00:44:43,070 Extremely hard to stay on them. 758 00:44:43,110 --> 00:44:45,490 There will be people out there that will hear somebody like, 759 00:44:45,530 --> 00:44:50,320 "I do ketosis. I feel great, and what's this doctor talking about?" 760 00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:53,740 I treat thousands of patients, thousands upon thousands. 761 00:44:53,780 --> 00:44:56,700 There may be that one or two outliers that it works well with, 762 00:44:56,740 --> 00:44:59,030 but most of the people feel horrible on them. 763 00:44:59,070 --> 00:45:03,530 I don't trust the Ketogenic diet for cancer, for heart disease. 764 00:45:03,570 --> 00:45:07,780 I wouldn't risk it for myself, my family or my patients. 765 00:45:07,820 --> 00:45:10,150 And then, I really don't recommend you saying, 766 00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:13,110 "Oh, well, ketosis may possibly work if I'm going to eat meat." 767 00:45:13,150 --> 00:45:18,320 In these ketosis diets, your body wants that sugar so badly that if you eat steak, 768 00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:21,950 it'll take that protein and convert it to sugar. It wants sugar. 769 00:45:21,990 --> 00:45:26,950 The only way to really get into ketosis is an extremely high fat, lower protein diet. 770 00:45:26,990 --> 00:45:31,610 That's a true ketosis diet, so you shouldn't even be eating steak on the ketosis diet, 771 00:45:31,650 --> 00:45:33,200 but people have this all messed up. 772 00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:36,280 The truth is we don't have long term data yet 773 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,450 showing that these things are beneficial, 774 00:45:38,490 --> 00:45:43,360 but what we do have is a huge database filled with information 775 00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:48,240 showing that we need to eat more vegetables and fruits, we need to eat legumes, 776 00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:50,320 we need to eat whole grains and nuts and seeds. 777 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:52,860 These are the foods that reduce chronic disease risk, 778 00:45:52,900 --> 00:45:56,610 that help reverse chronic diseases, that help promote health, 779 00:45:56,650 --> 00:45:59,320 and help with weight management. 780 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:02,780 [Michal Siewierski] Most people have heard about the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle 781 00:46:02,820 --> 00:46:07,320 eaten for hundreds of years by strong, healthy people in the Mediterranean basin, 782 00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:10,860 but are people in America following this diet properly? 783 00:46:10,900 --> 00:46:13,860 What saddens me when I think about the Mediterranean diet 784 00:46:13,900 --> 00:46:19,280 is when you look at what that diet was really based on, it was whole food, plant based diet. 785 00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:23,320 So, high in fruits, and high in vegetables, and, uhm, high in legumes, 786 00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:27,360 and a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of animal products, 787 00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,570 and what we took from that is, "Oh, olive oil is really healthy 788 00:46:30,610 --> 00:46:32,820 and feta cheese is really healthy" 789 00:46:32,860 --> 00:46:39,740 and we added that to our already high fat nutrition devoid diet. 790 00:46:39,780 --> 00:46:43,950 [Siewierski] Another subject of a lot of confusion among the public is gluten. 791 00:46:43,990 --> 00:46:47,610 Everyone seems to be avoiding it for both health and weight loss reasons. 792 00:46:47,650 --> 00:46:52,450 But what the heck is gluten and should we really be so concerned about it? 793 00:46:52,490 --> 00:46:57,570 I, myself have an allergy to gluten, so it's become this kind of scapegoat again. 794 00:46:57,610 --> 00:47:01,530 It's a protein found in mostly wheat, rye, barley, 795 00:47:01,570 --> 00:47:05,360 and sometimes oats from cross contamination, but it's simply a protein, 796 00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:08,570 and if you don't have an allergy or you don't have celiac disease 797 00:47:08,610 --> 00:47:12,320 and you don't have an intolerance to it, there's no reason to avoid it. 798 00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:14,360 The reason people feel so, quote unquote: 799 00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:16,860 "Oh, I feel so much better because I got off gluten," 800 00:47:16,900 --> 00:47:19,740 is because, again, they're using a-- like a biochemistry term 801 00:47:19,780 --> 00:47:23,490 to define a food group. And so, what does that mean if you cut out gluten? 802 00:47:23,530 --> 00:47:26,360 Well, usually that means people are cutting out, you know, white breads, 803 00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,860 and cookies, and cakes, and crackers, and all this junk food. Of course, 804 00:47:29,900 --> 00:47:32,780 they're gonna feel better because they're going to be forced to eat more whole food. 805 00:47:32,820 --> 00:47:34,860 But if you don't have a problem, eating a bowl of barley 806 00:47:34,900 --> 00:47:37,240 isn't going to be, you know, cause you to gain weight 807 00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:40,700 or cause a health problem. It's a wonderful whole grain, you know. 808 00:47:40,740 --> 00:47:42,820 It absolutely fits into a healthy diet. 809 00:47:42,860 --> 00:47:45,030 [Siewierski] Nowadays, scientists are using DNA 810 00:47:45,070 --> 00:47:48,400 to determine what is the best diet for each individual. 811 00:47:48,450 --> 00:47:52,320 These so called personalized diets are gaining popularity, 812 00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:55,150 but along with it, lots of criticism. 813 00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:58,280 One of the things that's popular these days is personalized diets, 814 00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,530 let's say. You know, give us, uh, your-- 815 00:48:00,570 --> 00:48:03,700 "We'll analyze your genes and we'll give you a personalized diet." 816 00:48:03,740 --> 00:48:05,360 And that's mostly just a lot of hooey. 817 00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:07,700 Now, there are genetic variabilities. 818 00:48:07,740 --> 00:48:11,570 For example, some people can metabolize dietary refined sugar 819 00:48:11,610 --> 00:48:14,400 and carbs better than others, but if you're eating a diet 820 00:48:14,450 --> 00:48:17,070 that's low in those to begin with, it doesn't really matter so much. 821 00:48:17,110 --> 00:48:20,030 I mean, if you look at countries in Asia 50 years ago, 822 00:48:20,070 --> 00:48:23,530 where obesity and heart disease and cancer were really rare there, 823 00:48:23,570 --> 00:48:26,280 and suddenly, they began to eat like us and live like us, 824 00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,530 and now all too often, die like us, through obesity and heart disease 825 00:48:29,570 --> 00:48:34,860 and many forms of cancer, uhm, it-- it wasn't because of this genetic variability. 826 00:48:34,900 --> 00:48:37,570 It was because their whole diet changed, as a nation. 827 00:48:37,610 --> 00:48:41,780 [Siewierski] Our society is obsessed with meat, protein, and animal products, 828 00:48:41,820 --> 00:48:45,950 but an increasing number of studies are pointing out the dangers associated 829 00:48:45,990 --> 00:48:48,490 with consuming large amounts of animal protein, 830 00:48:48,530 --> 00:48:51,700 as well as its relationship to weight gain. 831 00:48:51,740 --> 00:48:55,200 So there's a number of studies that have looked at what are the types of foods 832 00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:58,780 that are most linked to weight gain over time, 833 00:48:58,820 --> 00:49:02,320 and there was a big study conducted in Europe a few years ago 834 00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:05,320 that, uh, included about 400,000 people 835 00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:08,990 that actually showed that of all foods that they studied, 836 00:49:09,030 --> 00:49:12,820 meat was the number one food associated with weight gain over time. 837 00:49:12,860 --> 00:49:16,450 And that's been backed up now by a number of other studies, as well. 838 00:49:16,490 --> 00:49:19,320 And so, it's not to say that meat is the only problem. 839 00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,820 There are, of course, other foods that can cause weight gain and are not good for us, 840 00:49:22,860 --> 00:49:26,570 but meat is the one food that people tend to think of 841 00:49:26,610 --> 00:49:29,490 as being a healthy food for helping people lose weight. 842 00:49:29,530 --> 00:49:32,820 People are always like, "How many grams of- of protein should I get? 843 00:49:32,860 --> 00:49:36,240 How- how much protein should, how much protein?" And I want to pull my hair out. 844 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:39,030 I don't care how much protein you get. I don't want to know. 845 00:49:39,070 --> 00:49:43,110 I don't want you to count. If you're gonna count anything, count grams of fiber. 846 00:49:43,150 --> 00:49:46,320 Whenever I tell people to eat fiber, they're like, "What, like chicken?" 847 00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:48,780 I think they think the fiber in the muscle is fiber. 848 00:49:48,820 --> 00:49:50,820 That's not fiber. Fiber is cellulose. 849 00:49:50,860 --> 00:49:54,030 It is a type of resistant carbohydrate. 850 00:49:54,070 --> 00:49:58,700 It is not absorbed by our bodies, and it is only found in plant foods. 851 00:49:58,740 --> 00:50:02,950 [Dr. Pulde] It's funny. In this country, we are so obsessed with protein 852 00:50:02,990 --> 00:50:07,200 and yet we do not have issues with protein deficiency. 853 00:50:07,240 --> 00:50:10,150 [Dr. Ornish] Animal protein itself is bad for you, particularly from red meat, 854 00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:14,950 one study showed that you're 75% more likely to die prematurely, 855 00:50:14,990 --> 00:50:19,700 you're 400-500% more likely to get heart disease, diabetes, prostate, breast, colon cancer 856 00:50:19,740 --> 00:50:23,150 by eating a lot of red meat. So, it's not just calories, 857 00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:26,070 it's also the whole picture of the food. 858 00:50:26,110 --> 00:50:30,360 [Roll] What we should be talking about isn't protein and how are you getting your protein, 859 00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,530 it's how are you getting your fiber? 860 00:50:32,570 --> 00:50:36,950 Because the average American is completely fiber deprived 861 00:50:36,990 --> 00:50:38,650 because they're not eating whole foods. 862 00:50:38,700 --> 00:50:43,030 The fiber slows down the digestive process 863 00:50:43,070 --> 00:50:47,990 and slowly releases the glucose into the body, so you don't get a huge insulin spike. 864 00:50:48,030 --> 00:50:50,490 That's why it has a low glycemic index, right? 865 00:50:50,530 --> 00:50:56,650 The fiber also produces all these good gut hormones to give you satiety, like GLP-1. 866 00:50:56,700 --> 00:50:59,740 [Hever] Like you go to a restaurant, they say, "Do you want to have protein with that?" 867 00:50:59,780 --> 00:51:02,030 Well, what does that mean? That doesn't mean anything. 868 00:51:02,070 --> 00:51:04,450 So because of-- Instead of getting down that rabbit hole, 869 00:51:04,490 --> 00:51:07,150 why not just focus on eating healthy foods? 870 00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:09,650 And getting-- You're getting all of your amino acids. 871 00:51:09,700 --> 00:51:14,490 You know that all plants have all the essential amino acids in different ratios. 872 00:51:14,530 --> 00:51:19,900 So you can't not get enough protein if you're eating a healthy diet, it's impossible. 873 00:51:19,950 --> 00:51:22,650 Unless you really work hard and construct a diet 874 00:51:22,700 --> 00:51:25,240 that's all refined white bread and you know, 875 00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:27,780 white sugary foods, it would be really difficult. 876 00:51:27,820 --> 00:51:31,150 You can sell a product just by saying it's got protein in it, which is crazy to me 877 00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:36,240 because in the aging world, protein's a bad word. We know that protein ages. 878 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:42,150 All the anti-aging research right now revolves around low protein, not high protein diets. 879 00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:46,240 A hundred years ago, Quaker Oats promoted Quaker Oats 880 00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:48,740 as a method of getting your protein 881 00:51:48,780 --> 00:51:53,280 and it actually promoted Quaker Oats as having the similar 882 00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:56,610 protein content of beef for a lot cheaper. 883 00:51:56,650 --> 00:52:01,240 Plant protein not only helps you grow your muscles and be healthy and look good, 884 00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:03,950 but it also helps you reduce weight. 885 00:52:03,990 --> 00:52:08,110 The risks associated with the consumption of any animal protein, 886 00:52:08,150 --> 00:52:12,530 that's milk, egg white and dairy protein, including casein, including whey, 887 00:52:12,570 --> 00:52:18,570 is that it increases your own body's production of insulin like growth factor one, 888 00:52:18,610 --> 00:52:23,950 which is IGF-1, which is a cancer promoting growth hormone produced by the liver 889 00:52:23,990 --> 00:52:28,030 in response to the consumption of animal proteins like whey. 890 00:52:28,070 --> 00:52:32,360 [Dr. Williams] Red meat kills, and processed red meat kills you faster. 891 00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:37,780 However, if you do the-- what I believe is the proper comparison, 892 00:52:37,820 --> 00:52:42,070 it's not meat versus different kinds of meat or dairy, 893 00:52:42,110 --> 00:52:45,110 but animal protein versus vegetable protein, 894 00:52:45,150 --> 00:52:48,490 there's very clear data that the animal protein 895 00:52:48,530 --> 00:52:53,900 increases mortality of all varieties, just not quite as fast as red meat, in general. 896 00:52:53,950 --> 00:52:59,030 [Dr. Williams] We have done bypass surgeries, stents, bioresorbable stents, 897 00:52:59,070 --> 00:53:04,030 implantable defibrillators, pacemakers, heart failure therapies. 898 00:53:04,070 --> 00:53:08,320 We've done so many things that decrease the death rate of cardiovascular disease 899 00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:10,530 and yet they've caught up with us. 900 00:53:10,570 --> 00:53:13,450 It's getting to the point where cardiovascular disease is on the rise. 901 00:53:13,490 --> 00:53:16,700 If we don't go back and start talking about what it is that we're eating 902 00:53:16,740 --> 00:53:20,400 and what's happening to our hearts because of it, we're going to lose the game. 903 00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:25,150 [Siewierski] There's no doubt that there are many diets out there 904 00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:27,700 that are healthier than a standard American diet, 905 00:53:27,740 --> 00:53:30,240 but what is the optimal diet for humans, 906 00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:32,740 according to the majority of available studies? 907 00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:37,200 If I wanted to design the healthiest diet for people, 908 00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:40,570 whether they're kids or whether they're adults, there are really four groups. 909 00:53:40,610 --> 00:53:44,950 Vegetables and fruits, they really are as healthy as we always thought they were, 910 00:53:44,990 --> 00:53:50,450 plus beans and whole grains. That makes a good, complete, healthy diet. 911 00:53:50,490 --> 00:53:55,900 I think a whole food plant based diet is the best diet for weight loss, 912 00:53:55,950 --> 00:53:58,530 and I think one of the things that I like most about it 913 00:53:58,570 --> 00:54:02,320 is it takes you completely away from the notion of dieting. 914 00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:06,070 A whole food plant based diet is really a great approach 915 00:54:06,110 --> 00:54:09,860 to getting to a healthier body weight and that's for a few reasons. 916 00:54:09,900 --> 00:54:16,200 Number one, is that it's nutritionally an extremely healthful way to eat. 917 00:54:16,240 --> 00:54:21,490 It's not about counting calories. It's not about measuring portions. 918 00:54:21,530 --> 00:54:24,070 It's about just choosing healthier foods 919 00:54:24,110 --> 00:54:27,280 and that's really sustainable for a lot of people. 920 00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:30,860 Their blood pressure go down, their blood sugars go down, 921 00:54:30,900 --> 00:54:34,530 their cholesterol go down. People feel more mobile. 922 00:54:34,570 --> 00:54:37,490 People don't have aches and pains in the same way. 923 00:54:37,530 --> 00:54:41,450 They don't suffer from fatigue in the same way. So you have a lot more energy, 924 00:54:41,490 --> 00:54:46,400 a lot more vitality, a better quality of life. It's incredible. 925 00:54:46,450 --> 00:54:51,320 Stop thinking about this diet as a punishment for being overweight or sick 926 00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:55,570 because I don't think of it that way. I think of this as a gift. 927 00:54:55,610 --> 00:54:59,780 At my age, I'm watching my friends go to doctors and have surgeries 928 00:54:59,820 --> 00:55:02,700 and have body parts taken out. I am losing friends now. 929 00:55:02,740 --> 00:55:06,150 I'm going to funerals now for people my age. 930 00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:10,780 So this isn't a chore, this isn't punishment, this is a gift. 931 00:55:10,820 --> 00:55:12,740 I get to be 60 years old and take no drugs, 932 00:55:12,780 --> 00:55:16,490 and hopefully, live to be 100 if I don't get hit by a bus, right? 933 00:55:16,530 --> 00:55:19,030 Most people feel so much better so quickly 934 00:55:19,070 --> 00:55:22,860 within a few days after making these changes. Then it becomes self-fulfilling. 935 00:55:22,900 --> 00:55:26,400 They get into a virtuous cycle it's like-- and then they literally connect the dots 936 00:55:26,450 --> 00:55:28,780 in their mind between what they do and how they feel. It's like, 937 00:55:28,820 --> 00:55:31,700 "Oh, when I eat healthfully, I feel good. I can think more clearly, 938 00:55:31,740 --> 00:55:34,490 I have more energy, I have better sexual function. I don't have chest pain. 939 00:55:34,530 --> 00:55:38,030 If I have heart disease, I can play with my kids, I can go back to work. 940 00:55:38,070 --> 00:55:41,610 I'm not as depressed." You know, "I sleep better." Whatever those things happen to be. 941 00:55:41,650 --> 00:55:45,240 And when you focus on health, all these metrics fall into place, 942 00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:48,280 including but not limited to weight loss. 943 00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:54,030 [Robert] I was on Metformin, I was on Wellbutrin and allergy medication, 944 00:55:54,070 --> 00:55:56,280 and I used to be on Adderall also. 945 00:55:56,320 --> 00:55:59,490 I thought, well, maybe I'll just add more vegetables to my diet, 946 00:55:59,530 --> 00:56:03,360 and I did that by just what-- you know, putting more vegetables on my pizza. 947 00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:05,650 And I honestly thought that if I added 948 00:56:05,700 --> 00:56:08,030 more vegetables on my pizza, that I would be healthier. 949 00:56:08,070 --> 00:56:12,030 January 4th was the first day I started going plant based. 950 00:56:12,070 --> 00:56:16,950 The night before, I ate two extra-large Papa John's pizzas, 951 00:56:16,990 --> 00:56:20,950 just to say goodbye to all that food, you know. 952 00:56:20,990 --> 00:56:24,240 So I went to the doctor's, to see Dr. Matt Lederman, 953 00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:28,150 and this was day one of my plant based journey. 954 00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:31,450 He took my blood sugar and did all those tests and weighed me, 955 00:56:31,490 --> 00:56:34,740 and I gave him a bag of all my medication. 956 00:56:35,610 --> 00:56:39,280 And Dr. Lederman asked me what I was going to be, what my diet was going to be like, 957 00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:43,280 and we told him the plant based diet, and he took my bottle 958 00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:45,990 of Metformin and he just threw it in the trash right there, 959 00:56:46,030 --> 00:56:47,450 and said, "You don't need this anymore." 960 00:56:47,490 --> 00:56:51,200 In two months, I'd lost over 40 pounds 961 00:56:51,240 --> 00:56:56,400 and in six weeks, I had completely reversed and cured my diabetes. 962 00:56:56,450 --> 00:57:00,280 Gone in six weeks. As of right now, I've lost 80 pounds, 963 00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:04,280 but I'm under 200 pounds for the first time in almost 10 years. 964 00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:07,780 It was really gratifying when you get on the scale 965 00:57:07,820 --> 00:57:10,360 and you see the first number is a one. 966 00:57:12,070 --> 00:57:13,860 I'm going to cry. 967 00:57:15,860 --> 00:57:19,400 [Siewierski] The plant based lifestyle is exploding in popularity 968 00:57:19,450 --> 00:57:22,650 with more and more celebrities, world class athletes, 969 00:57:22,700 --> 00:57:25,070 and influencers becoming part of the movement, 970 00:57:25,110 --> 00:57:28,700 and millions of people transitioning to this lifestyle every day. 971 00:57:28,740 --> 00:57:31,740 But the question is, do people need to become vegan 972 00:57:31,780 --> 00:57:35,360 in order to get started on a healthy weight loss journey? 973 00:57:35,400 --> 00:57:37,950 [Dr. Davis] I get this question all the time. "Do I have to be vegan?" 974 00:57:37,990 --> 00:57:40,490 I get it from my patients all the time. Look, I'm in Texas. 975 00:57:40,530 --> 00:57:44,360 I'm seeing ranchers that come in, you know, raising cattle. 976 00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:46,570 The answer is, no. You don't have to be to be vegan. 977 00:57:46,610 --> 00:57:50,280 To me, vegan, the term Vegan with a V is an ethical term. 978 00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:54,400 It just so happens that vegan is the healthiest diet and lifestyle 979 00:57:54,450 --> 00:57:57,570 that I've seen through much, much research. 980 00:57:57,610 --> 00:58:00,150 But I tell my patients, "Look, you don't have to be vegan, 981 00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:02,780 but you do have to change your plan. I can't help you 982 00:58:02,820 --> 00:58:04,900 if you're going to do what you've always done, you're going to get what you always got. 983 00:58:04,950 --> 00:58:07,150 You have to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables. 984 00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,820 I want your fiber levels up 35, 40, 45 grams. 985 00:58:10,860 --> 00:58:14,030 I want multiple servings of fruits, vegetables and beans today. 986 00:58:14,070 --> 00:58:16,740 Now, if you're eating that much, there's no way you're going to be able to eat 987 00:58:16,780 --> 00:58:19,990 that, you know, 12 ounce steak that you used to eat every day. 988 00:58:20,030 --> 00:58:22,280 When I look at my patients' diet log when they come in, 989 00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:25,780 they're eating animal protein at every single meal. 990 00:58:25,820 --> 00:58:28,150 That they can't do, that has to change. 991 00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:31,280 It's confusing to people. People want simple answers, 992 00:58:31,320 --> 00:58:33,240 and the truth is it is simple. 993 00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:36,820 Eat real food, eat whole foods, 994 00:58:36,860 --> 00:58:43,320 and make sure they're at least 90 or more percent plant based. 995 00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:47,400 You know, want to be on the safe side, eat 100% plant based. That's what I do, 996 00:58:47,450 --> 00:58:49,950 but the main thing is it's the overall pattern. 997 00:58:49,990 --> 00:58:52,490 Eat real foods, mostly plants. 998 00:58:52,530 --> 00:58:55,740 When I first started, I used to demonize animal foods, 999 00:58:55,780 --> 00:58:59,820 and right now I'm vegan for many reasons. 1000 00:58:59,860 --> 00:59:03,400 So not only health, but for the environment, and for ethical reasons. 1001 00:59:03,450 --> 00:59:09,820 So all together, the best decision for me was to be 100% plant based and vegan. 1002 00:59:10,820 --> 00:59:15,320 But, animal foods, a lot of people think are these terrible things, 1003 00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:20,030 and I think, uh, you know, depending on what you do, if you're processing bacon, 1004 00:59:20,070 --> 00:59:23,320 now you've got a carcinogenic type of food, 1005 00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:28,030 but animal foods in small amounts still provide nutrition, right. 1006 00:59:28,070 --> 00:59:30,030 There's still nutrients in them, 1007 00:59:30,070 --> 00:59:34,450 I don't think of them as just these harmful toxic substances 1008 00:59:34,490 --> 00:59:38,780 that a lot of people with a thoroughly vegan agenda might think of them that way. 1009 00:59:38,820 --> 00:59:42,570 But I do think that getting a significant portion of your calories from animal products 1010 00:59:42,610 --> 00:59:45,070 will lead to adverse health outcomes. 1011 00:59:45,110 --> 00:59:48,070 One way that I've always explained this to people that makes sense 1012 00:59:48,110 --> 00:59:51,820 is think about in your bedroom, having a safe on the wall, 1013 00:59:51,860 --> 00:59:53,740 and there's $10,000 in the safe. 1014 00:59:53,780 --> 00:59:56,030 On the front of the safe is a combination lock. 1015 00:59:56,070 --> 00:59:59,110 It takes four numbers to open the combination lock, 1016 00:59:59,150 --> 01:00:01,570 and if you open up the safe, you get the 10,000. 1017 01:00:01,610 --> 01:00:06,530 But what happens if you only open or dial up three of those numbers instead of four. 1018 01:00:06,570 --> 01:00:09,280 You don't get $7,500. 1019 01:00:09,320 --> 01:00:13,570 You got to get that fourth number right. And so that's the way it is with diet. 1020 01:00:13,610 --> 01:00:16,200 You don't have to be a perfectionist. I mean, my gosh, if you eat a cookie, 1021 01:00:16,240 --> 01:00:19,240 you're not going to die, but, on a daily basis, 1022 01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:23,570 you've got to get this dietary pattern right in its totality, 1023 01:00:23,610 --> 01:00:25,610 or you're not going to see the type of weight loss 1024 01:00:25,650 --> 01:00:27,450 and health improvement you want to see. And in fact, 1025 01:00:27,490 --> 01:00:29,700 that's one of the things that plagues people. 1026 01:00:29,740 --> 01:00:32,320 They'll come in this office and they'll say, 1027 01:00:32,360 --> 01:00:34,150 "I don't know how this could have happened to me. 1028 01:00:34,200 --> 01:00:36,900 You know, I tried eating this, and I ate more of that 1029 01:00:36,950 --> 01:00:39,740 and I don't drink soft drinks and we don't order pizza anymore." 1030 01:00:39,780 --> 01:00:41,740 They'll tell me all these little changes they made. 1031 01:00:41,780 --> 01:00:44,150 And at the end of the day, all those little changes 1032 01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:47,200 just didn't add up to enough to make a difference in their health. 1033 01:00:49,070 --> 01:00:52,740 [Siewierski] Eating junk food has one benefit, it is dirt cheap. 1034 01:00:52,780 --> 01:00:57,490 So, what is the alternative if a person is trying to lose weight on a budget. 1035 01:00:57,530 --> 01:01:01,240 Is it possible to eat healthy without breaking the bank? 1036 01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:03,900 Years ago, I worked with the CEO of McDonalds to get salads on the menu. 1037 01:01:03,950 --> 01:01:06,950 I figured, let's, you know-- let's really be disruptive. 1038 01:01:06,990 --> 01:01:10,280 And they have 43 million customers a day. And if they had salads, 1039 01:01:10,320 --> 01:01:12,490 then a lot of people would eat salads instead of burgers. 1040 01:01:12,530 --> 01:01:15,570 Which they finally put on the menu. Uhm, and they were really good. 1041 01:01:15,610 --> 01:01:19,650 They had 14 kinds of lettuce and edamame and all kinds of great stuff. 1042 01:01:19,700 --> 01:01:24,780 The problem is that, because of the perverse subsidies in the agriculture bill, 1043 01:01:24,820 --> 01:01:28,360 the salad was you know, $5.95. A burger is 99 cents. 1044 01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:30,950 If you're on a fixed income, you're going to get more calories for your dollar 1045 01:01:30,990 --> 01:01:33,610 by eating junk food, because it's subsidized. 1046 01:01:33,650 --> 01:01:37,400 And yet, even though the calories may be the same, they are often unhealthy calories. 1047 01:01:37,450 --> 01:01:40,570 There's an obsession, I hear it all the time. "Why do healthy foods cost more?" 1048 01:01:40,610 --> 01:01:44,950 So, the question is misunderstood. So, It's like, 1049 01:01:44,990 --> 01:01:48,110 "Why is healthy food more expensive?" When the real question should be, 1050 01:01:48,150 --> 01:01:52,320 "Why does this inexpensive food not have any nutrients in it?" 1051 01:01:52,360 --> 01:01:56,740 And they don't ever think of it that way. So, I think thinking about it as a cost per nutrient 1052 01:01:56,780 --> 01:01:59,400 is a more productive way to think about it. 1053 01:01:59,450 --> 01:02:02,400 In that sense, healthy food is not expensive at all. 1054 01:02:02,450 --> 01:02:09,150 Healthy food is remarkably inexpensive and the junk food, which has almost no nutrients 1055 01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:12,240 is incredibly expensive because you're paying a few dollars 1056 01:02:12,280 --> 01:02:15,400 and you're getting almost no nutrients. You're just getting empty calories. 1057 01:02:15,450 --> 01:02:18,780 It's amazing how many people tell me that they can't eat healthy 1058 01:02:18,820 --> 01:02:22,780 because it's too expensive, right? They can't afford it, and I say, "You know what, 1059 01:02:22,820 --> 01:02:26,030 that's a flawed argument to the court." This is peasant food. 1060 01:02:26,070 --> 01:02:31,490 This is potatoes, it's beans, it's rice, it's bananas. 1061 01:02:31,530 --> 01:02:34,150 If you don't want to do organic, do conventional. 1062 01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:36,490 If that's too expensive, then do frozen. 1063 01:02:36,530 --> 01:02:41,030 Frozen is incredibly affordable, it's picked at the peak of its ripeness. 1064 01:02:41,070 --> 01:02:42,990 And you should see my freezer at home. 1065 01:02:43,030 --> 01:02:45,900 We've got frozen mango, strawberries, blueberries, 1066 01:02:45,950 --> 01:02:52,280 quinoa, brown rice, spinach, kale, the list goes on and on. cauliflower, broccoli. 1067 01:02:52,320 --> 01:02:57,490 This is not an expensive way to eat. This is drop dead cheap. 1068 01:02:57,530 --> 01:03:02,950 To me, it costs just as much but, if it does cost more, what's more important? 1069 01:03:02,990 --> 01:03:05,030 Your health or your grocery bill? 1070 01:03:05,070 --> 01:03:08,320 Either pay now or pay later. And those hospital bills are steep. 1071 01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:12,030 [Gunn] Fast food businesses need to wake up 1072 01:03:12,070 --> 01:03:18,360 to the fact that consumers more and more these days want to consume real food. 1073 01:03:18,400 --> 01:03:23,150 If you make healthier food choices available conveniently, 1074 01:03:23,200 --> 01:03:27,400 a growing percentage of the population will choose those healthier choices. 1075 01:03:27,450 --> 01:03:33,200 What's happened with traditional fast food is that food has been made artificially cheap. 1076 01:03:33,240 --> 01:03:36,400 Being in the fast food business, it's commonly accepted 1077 01:03:36,450 --> 01:03:39,820 that you're going to have side dishes like French fries, 1078 01:03:39,860 --> 01:03:43,740 but because of our nutritional philosophy, we don't sell any fried food. 1079 01:03:43,780 --> 01:03:49,950 And for a number of years, I had this idea that we could sell steamed green beans 1080 01:03:49,990 --> 01:03:54,860 as our version of French fries and they've proven to be a huge success. 1081 01:03:56,320 --> 01:04:00,780 [Siewierski] Let's face it, the idea of only or mostly eating plant foods 1082 01:04:00,820 --> 01:04:02,860 sounds really boring to most people, 1083 01:04:02,900 --> 01:04:05,820 so what will you be eating if you adopt this lifestyle? 1084 01:04:05,860 --> 01:04:08,280 Can it be both healthy and enjoyable? 1085 01:04:08,320 --> 01:04:11,280 People have this misconception 1086 01:04:11,320 --> 01:04:14,700 that if you're going to eat a plant based diet, you're going to be eating grass. 1087 01:04:14,740 --> 01:04:18,820 Like literally, they make jokes at me, "How long would it take you to eat that tree?" 1088 01:04:18,860 --> 01:04:21,900 Okay-- [laughs] I don't eat trees or grass. 1089 01:04:21,950 --> 01:04:24,200 Or they ask me like, "What do you eat?" 1090 01:04:24,240 --> 01:04:29,240 I eat everything. Everything can be cooked and made with healthier ingredients. 1091 01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:33,990 It's actually one of the easier barriers to overcome is the misnomer 1092 01:04:34,030 --> 01:04:38,030 that on a plant based diet, you're just eating steamed vegetables and salads. 1093 01:04:38,070 --> 01:04:39,740 And when you open up that lexicon, 1094 01:04:39,780 --> 01:04:43,990 when you give people a much richer vocabulary 1095 01:04:44,030 --> 01:04:47,240 of what, you know, What is included in whole plant based foods 1096 01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:51,950 and then ask them to add those, it becomes pretty easy. 1097 01:04:51,990 --> 01:04:55,490 People when they used to go plant based, for some reason 1098 01:04:55,530 --> 01:05:00,030 instead of thinking in the terms of dishes, they think in terms of food groups. 1099 01:05:00,070 --> 01:05:05,650 All this time, they are talking about beans and vegetables and whole grains. 1100 01:05:05,700 --> 01:05:08,740 But on the American diet, you talk in terms of dishes. 1101 01:05:08,780 --> 01:05:12,150 Burritos, stir-fry, burgers. 1102 01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:14,950 And what I tell people is to keep focusing on dishes, 1103 01:05:14,990 --> 01:05:18,240 Burgers, stir-fries, French toast, pizza. 1104 01:05:18,280 --> 01:05:23,740 Just make it with whole plant foods, instead of processed plant foods 1105 01:05:23,780 --> 01:05:25,610 and animal foods whenever you can. 1106 01:05:27,900 --> 01:05:30,860 [Siewierski] Most of the focus in the weight loss and diet world is on food, 1107 01:05:30,900 --> 01:05:34,280 exercise, and supplements, but there's more to the story. 1108 01:05:34,320 --> 01:05:38,280 A factor that is often taken for granted is our mental health 1109 01:05:38,320 --> 01:05:42,320 and the role that stress plays in a person's weight loss journey. 1110 01:05:42,360 --> 01:05:46,110 [Dr. Gonzalez] The biggest predictor in the research that I've done has been, 1111 01:05:46,150 --> 01:05:48,900 why you want to lose weight? And if why you want to lose weight 1112 01:05:48,950 --> 01:05:54,240 is meaningful and it's long term, and it's legacy based, and it's bigger than yourself 1113 01:05:54,280 --> 01:05:58,530 in terms of the impact that it's going to have, then the journey might start off 1114 01:05:58,570 --> 01:06:01,900 about weight loss, but with time it becomes something bigger. 1115 01:06:01,950 --> 01:06:05,820 It becomes about rewriting your story. It becomes about actually doing things. 1116 01:06:05,860 --> 01:06:07,530 It's that I need to lose weight 1117 01:06:07,570 --> 01:06:10,240 so that I can live this sort of quality of life 1118 01:06:10,280 --> 01:06:13,280 or be this sort of example or live out this value and ethic 1119 01:06:13,320 --> 01:06:16,240 that is important to me and my legacy. 1120 01:06:16,280 --> 01:06:19,320 Why don't I stop putting too much meaning about a number on a scale 1121 01:06:19,360 --> 01:06:22,490 and transfer that meaning to what is it going to mean to me 1122 01:06:22,530 --> 01:06:26,110 to actually be around to watch my grandchildren be born? 1123 01:06:26,150 --> 01:06:30,530 What is it going to mean to me to actually be the first person in my family 1124 01:06:30,570 --> 01:06:34,030 to live beyond sixty without having diabetes? 1125 01:06:34,070 --> 01:06:39,320 You know, these are things that if people can focus on those outcomes, they're long term, 1126 01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:41,450 they're going to be set up for greater success. 1127 01:06:41,490 --> 01:06:44,490 But on top of that, that's why we want to lose weight. 1128 01:06:44,530 --> 01:06:46,700 So why not focus on those areas from the get go 1129 01:06:46,740 --> 01:06:49,700 rather than some arbitrary number on a scale? 1130 01:06:49,740 --> 01:06:53,780 This goes all the way back to Victor Frankl's classic Man's search for meaning 1131 01:06:53,820 --> 01:06:56,400 about concentration camp survivors in World War II. 1132 01:06:56,450 --> 01:06:58,820 And he found that the ones who survived were-- 1133 01:06:58,860 --> 01:07:00,740 even if you had two people in the same bunker, 1134 01:07:00,780 --> 01:07:02,780 it wasn't always the strongest and the healthiest, 1135 01:07:02,820 --> 01:07:05,240 as the one who had the strongest sense of meaning and purpose, 1136 01:07:05,280 --> 01:07:08,200 because it's like, "I have to get out of here so I can be reunited 1137 01:07:08,240 --> 01:07:11,240 with my loved ones or bear witness." Whatever it happened to be. 1138 01:07:11,280 --> 01:07:16,240 The most beneficial way to approach weight loss is to step back 1139 01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:19,820 and look at the universe of wellness from 10,000 feet. 1140 01:07:19,860 --> 01:07:25,490 Try to address where your life is going astray and understand that this is a mental, 1141 01:07:25,530 --> 01:07:27,610 emotional, psychological journey, 1142 01:07:27,650 --> 01:07:32,360 as much as it is a journey with food in particular. 1143 01:07:34,490 --> 01:07:38,780 [Siewierski] For many people, the family doctor is seen as the best resource for information 1144 01:07:38,820 --> 01:07:41,950 on diet and nutrition. People rely on their advice 1145 01:07:41,990 --> 01:07:45,570 without realizing that most doctors are not trained in this field. 1146 01:07:45,610 --> 01:07:50,950 On average, US medical schools offer only 19.6 hours of nutrition education 1147 01:07:50,990 --> 01:07:54,990 across four years of medical school. And in a 2016 study, 1148 01:07:55,030 --> 01:08:00,900 researchers from Ohio found that most medical programs in the State average only 2.8 hours 1149 01:08:00,950 --> 01:08:05,280 of instruction on obesity, nutrition, and physical activity. 1150 01:08:05,320 --> 01:08:09,900 [Dr. Goøtzsche] It's a very bad approach that doctors have to obesity, 1151 01:08:09,950 --> 01:08:15,110 because what usually happens is that, when you are obese, 1152 01:08:15,150 --> 01:08:19,570 your blood pressure might be a little too high, your cholesterol might be too high 1153 01:08:19,610 --> 01:08:22,450 your blood glucose might be too high 1154 01:08:22,490 --> 01:08:27,450 and before you know it, you are in treatment with at least three different drugs. 1155 01:08:27,490 --> 01:08:31,110 Which of course, impacts on your quality of life. 1156 01:08:31,150 --> 01:08:33,860 You know, so often when someone's got high blood pressure, 1157 01:08:33,900 --> 01:08:36,360 high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and they say, 1158 01:08:36,400 --> 01:08:38,820 "Doctor, how long do I have to take these drugs that you prescribed?" 1159 01:08:38,860 --> 01:08:41,820 The doctor usually says, "Forever." Sometimes, when I lecture, 1160 01:08:41,860 --> 01:08:44,780 I'll show a cartoon of doctors busily mopping up the floor 1161 01:08:44,820 --> 01:08:47,400 and a sink that's overflowing, and say, "How long do I have to mop up the floor?" 1162 01:08:47,450 --> 01:08:49,950 Like "Forever." "Well, why don't we just turn of the faucet?" 1163 01:08:49,990 --> 01:08:52,860 And to a much larger degree than we once realized, 1164 01:08:52,900 --> 01:08:55,450 the faucet of the diet and lifestyle choices that we make each day 1165 01:08:55,490 --> 01:08:58,240 and how quickly they can affect us for better and for worse. 1166 01:08:58,280 --> 01:09:00,820 Being overweight has become normal in America. 1167 01:09:00,860 --> 01:09:04,150 That has become expected, it's become ordinary, 1168 01:09:04,200 --> 01:09:07,530 particularly I think in the United States. And I've noticed something 1169 01:09:07,570 --> 01:09:13,700 about doctors in recent years. They don't talk about it with their patients much anymore, 1170 01:09:13,740 --> 01:09:18,780 because they don't think it's going to work to talk to people about it. 1171 01:09:18,820 --> 01:09:20,450 They don't want to offend people. 1172 01:09:20,490 --> 01:09:24,150 Eating a diet full of saturated fat 1173 01:09:24,200 --> 01:09:29,530 and animal protein and dairy, all of that is so indoctrinated in our culture. 1174 01:09:29,570 --> 01:09:35,240 It's very difficult to get people to understand how bad that stuff is for you. 1175 01:09:35,280 --> 01:09:38,360 It's very difficult, including the doctors. 1176 01:09:38,400 --> 01:09:39,990 Remember, they are just human. 1177 01:09:40,030 --> 01:09:42,700 So, I was watching a number of documentaries 1178 01:09:42,740 --> 01:09:45,990 that described the benefit of whole food plant based diet. 1179 01:09:46,030 --> 01:09:51,200 Some of those documentaries mentioned, you know, it can reverse heart disease, you know. 1180 01:09:51,240 --> 01:09:54,030 So, I'm like, "Wow, I've been a cardiologist for a long time. 1181 01:09:54,070 --> 01:09:58,610 You can reverse heart disease? I'd like to do that. I wanted to do that since I was young." 1182 01:09:58,650 --> 01:10:03,490 That's really one of my motivations to like, "Okay, I'm going to try this myself." 1183 01:10:04,900 --> 01:10:07,700 I didn't have heart disease, but I still got to try it myself. 1184 01:10:07,740 --> 01:10:10,490 I lost a lot of weight after I tried that, you know. 1185 01:10:10,530 --> 01:10:14,400 So, I think it's kind of amazing that as a practicing cardiologist 1186 01:10:14,450 --> 01:10:17,030 I had to watch a documentary to figure out 1187 01:10:17,070 --> 01:10:21,110 one of the most important things in preventing or reversing heart disease is diet. 1188 01:10:21,150 --> 01:10:25,240 Unfortunately, most physicians don't know much about nutrition. 1189 01:10:25,280 --> 01:10:29,650 And when I was in medical school, we got one lecture for 20 minutes 1190 01:10:29,700 --> 01:10:32,450 by a pediatric specialist who said basically, "Go to McDonald's, 1191 01:10:32,490 --> 01:10:35,280 you'll get everything you need." And we all looked at each other like, "This guy doesn't know 1192 01:10:35,320 --> 01:10:38,030 what he's talking about. "It was obvious to us. And unfortunately, 1193 01:10:38,070 --> 01:10:41,150 I think most physicians aren't very well trained. They don't eat well themselves. 1194 01:10:41,200 --> 01:10:45,400 [Dr. Pulde] The level of education that you get as far as nutrition in general 1195 01:10:45,450 --> 01:10:50,490 in medical school is minimal and then whole food plant based nutrition is nil. 1196 01:10:50,530 --> 01:10:53,360 It didn't exist when I went to medical school. 1197 01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:57,900 In conventional medicine, we're just putting more and more people on medication. 1198 01:10:57,950 --> 01:11:00,320 That's the treatment that we have to offer. 1199 01:11:00,360 --> 01:11:03,450 And it's so limited and it's so depressing. 1200 01:11:03,490 --> 01:11:07,820 And to see the empowerment of just changing the food that you're eating 1201 01:11:07,860 --> 01:11:12,200 and the positive impact that it can make was amazing. 1202 01:11:12,240 --> 01:11:15,740 And for me, that's what I went into medicine to do. To really help people 1203 01:11:15,780 --> 01:11:18,200 and I saw that this was the way that I was going to do it. 1204 01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:22,320 So, in school I actually went to school to become a dietician, 1205 01:11:22,360 --> 01:11:24,280 and there's definitely a discrepancy 1206 01:11:24,320 --> 01:11:28,110 between what I know now and what I was learning in school. 1207 01:11:29,110 --> 01:11:31,860 None of this was covered in our classes. 1208 01:11:31,900 --> 01:11:34,950 They don't talk about the benefits of a plant based diet. 1209 01:11:34,990 --> 01:11:38,860 They are too busy focusing on making sure people are consuming dairy 1210 01:11:38,900 --> 01:11:41,900 and animal products, "And make sure you get your protein." 1211 01:11:41,950 --> 01:11:45,570 I mean, we learned that eating fruits and vegetables is good for you, 1212 01:11:45,610 --> 01:11:50,650 but there was no focus on making sure you get tons of fruits and vegetables 1213 01:11:50,700 --> 01:11:54,490 and whole grains into your diet. I think they are controlled by 1214 01:11:54,530 --> 01:11:57,780 what the government tells them they can say. 1215 01:11:57,820 --> 01:12:01,740 The government is who designs the dietary guidelines 1216 01:12:01,780 --> 01:12:04,450 and that's what our curriculum is based on. 1217 01:12:04,490 --> 01:12:10,110 The more I learn about how diet lifestyle changes can have amazing effects 1218 01:12:10,150 --> 01:12:12,490 on your body and your health, 1219 01:12:12,530 --> 01:12:18,990 the more I learned about how much control institutions and industry has on 1220 01:12:19,030 --> 01:12:23,820 on not only food production and distribution, but my education and my professors 1221 01:12:23,860 --> 01:12:26,570 and the research that they are able to do. 1222 01:12:26,610 --> 01:12:30,700 But they have a lot of control over, ultimately, whether or not I get a degree 1223 01:12:30,740 --> 01:12:33,360 and whether I become a registered dietician. 1224 01:12:33,400 --> 01:12:38,400 And given this, uhm, I'm not really comfortable talking about, 1225 01:12:39,450 --> 01:12:43,610 about all those controls they have publicly you know, until I graduated. 1226 01:12:43,650 --> 01:12:46,030 And I don't even want to associate myself too strongly 1227 01:12:46,070 --> 01:12:48,280 with people that do speak about it publicly. 1228 01:12:48,320 --> 01:12:53,860 They persecute people, uhm, because there's a lot to be lost. 1229 01:12:53,900 --> 01:12:55,610 There's a lot of money to be lost. 1230 01:12:55,650 --> 01:12:59,950 The whole system thrives on people filling their pockets 1231 01:12:59,990 --> 01:13:03,950 and not disrupting the paradigm, because the paradigm's been bought out. 1232 01:13:03,990 --> 01:13:07,070 [Dr. Cyrus] When it comes to nutritionists and registered dietitians, 1233 01:13:07,110 --> 01:13:11,740 they're often taught tactics that are about 30-40 years old, 1234 01:13:11,780 --> 01:13:16,950 and they're taught an old school version of nutrition that simply isn't true any longer. 1235 01:13:16,990 --> 01:13:20,990 A lot of them are sort of taught information that's influenced by the dairy industry 1236 01:13:21,030 --> 01:13:23,740 or influenced by the meat industry. And as a result of that, 1237 01:13:23,780 --> 01:13:27,070 they're told that when your client presents with this issue, 1238 01:13:27,110 --> 01:13:29,650 then teach them to eat more yogurt or teach them to eat more meat 1239 01:13:29,700 --> 01:13:31,530 because that's the solution to their problem. 1240 01:13:31,570 --> 01:13:33,280 [Greger] Now, you hear about calls that there should be 1241 01:13:33,320 --> 01:13:36,490 more nutrition education in medical education, right? 1242 01:13:36,530 --> 01:13:39,450 Doctors need to learn about nutrition, 1243 01:13:39,490 --> 01:13:43,610 but if that information is coming from the National Dairy Council, 1244 01:13:43,650 --> 01:13:47,150 maybe it's good that the doctors aren't taught anything about nutrition, right? 1245 01:13:47,200 --> 01:13:50,320 I mean one really needs to look at the sources of this information. 1246 01:13:50,360 --> 01:13:53,950 I can get free continuing education units 1247 01:13:53,990 --> 01:13:57,450 that's sponsored by the National Beef Council or the National Dairy Industry, 1248 01:13:58,360 --> 01:14:01,490 and it's free. And you know, it costs a lot of money to get a continuing education. 1249 01:14:01,530 --> 01:14:04,950 The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, are-- if you look at their sponsorship, 1250 01:14:04,990 --> 01:14:06,780 it's purely food industry. 1251 01:14:06,820 --> 01:14:09,950 If you go to the expo at their annual event, you know, 1252 01:14:09,990 --> 01:14:13,990 they've got Coca Cola, and Dairy Industry, and McDonald's. 1253 01:14:14,030 --> 01:14:19,950 This is a dietetics conference. So We are taught by food industry 1254 01:14:19,990 --> 01:14:23,150 what to recommend to our clients, and that is wrong. 1255 01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:27,820 Let's suppose all those patients went on a whole food plant based diet, 1256 01:14:27,860 --> 01:14:29,610 what would be the economic effect? 1257 01:14:31,740 --> 01:14:36,490 Yeah, it would bankrupt the hospitals, bypass is going away, stents are going away, 1258 01:14:36,530 --> 01:14:40,070 diabetes is going away, cancer is less. 1259 01:14:40,110 --> 01:14:44,070 If everyone got healthier, I had less to do, I would say, "Man, I did a good job." 1260 01:14:44,110 --> 01:14:46,320 You know, I wouldn't be disappointed. 1261 01:14:46,360 --> 01:14:51,320 You just have to realize that why are not more doctors or hospitals 1262 01:14:51,360 --> 01:14:55,150 or pharmaceutical companies promoting this? 1263 01:14:55,200 --> 01:14:58,950 It's not in their economic interests. It's a big business. 1264 01:14:58,990 --> 01:15:01,900 All of these industries, they're in it to make money, 1265 01:15:01,950 --> 01:15:04,110 and that's exactly what they're doing. 1266 01:15:04,150 --> 01:15:08,320 But, we're getting it done at the expense of the people. 1267 01:15:10,740 --> 01:15:13,490 [Siewierski] Making a film such as this one comes with certain risks. 1268 01:15:13,530 --> 01:15:18,150 I would be lying if I said I didn't consider quitting this project on many occasions. 1269 01:15:18,200 --> 01:15:20,950 The industry has the resources and systems in place 1270 01:15:20,990 --> 01:15:24,610 to stop the mass dissemination of this kind of information. 1271 01:15:24,650 --> 01:15:28,400 And the consequences can be quite intimidating, to say the least. 1272 01:15:31,490 --> 01:15:36,150 [Dr. Breggin] When you get these big corporations in cahoots with big government, 1273 01:15:36,200 --> 01:15:39,240 it's the same everywhere. 1274 01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:42,530 So if you stand up against a nutritionist, 1275 01:15:42,570 --> 01:15:46,820 they will try to keep you out of their universities, they will try to fire you. 1276 01:15:46,860 --> 01:15:49,400 The corruption of my profession 1277 01:15:49,450 --> 01:15:54,530 cannot be overestimated or exaggerated, 1278 01:15:54,570 --> 01:15:57,110 so they try to do anything they can. 1279 01:15:58,070 --> 01:16:03,200 If they think they can do it, many of these forces would try to kill you. 1280 01:16:03,240 --> 01:16:08,200 People can be punished, sued for saying anything negative about them, 1281 01:16:08,240 --> 01:16:10,240 even when they're true. 1282 01:16:10,280 --> 01:16:14,610 [Greger] There's actually been some cases of these lawsuits 1283 01:16:14,650 --> 01:16:18,610 by the dairy industry trying to silence critics. 1284 01:16:18,650 --> 01:16:22,780 There are these so called food disparagement laws 1285 01:16:22,820 --> 01:16:26,570 in more than a dozen states that where it's illegal 1286 01:16:26,610 --> 01:16:29,990 to make unfounded comments against perishable food items. 1287 01:16:30,030 --> 01:16:33,490 Now, you say, "Wait a second. What if I make founded comments against food?" 1288 01:16:33,530 --> 01:16:37,200 That's legal, but you've got to prove that in court. 1289 01:16:37,240 --> 01:16:41,650 But thankfully, we now live in an era 1290 01:16:41,700 --> 01:16:44,610 of kind of information democratization 1291 01:16:44,650 --> 01:16:51,490 and no longer can industry have this kind of stranglehold on the information people get. 1292 01:16:51,530 --> 01:16:56,740 It's in their interest that we're confused, but the science is there, the science is solid. 1293 01:16:56,780 --> 01:17:01,360 We just have to get the science into the hands of individuals. 1294 01:17:01,400 --> 01:17:03,740 [Siewierski] According to the government's dietary recommendations, 1295 01:17:03,780 --> 01:17:07,490 13% of our caloric intake should be coming from plants, 1296 01:17:07,530 --> 01:17:13,200 but the amount of subsidies going to fruit and vegetable growers, is not even 0.1%. 1297 01:17:14,450 --> 01:17:17,320 One of the quirks in the US law is that our government 1298 01:17:17,360 --> 01:17:20,990 is supposed to give us health guidance, and it does. 1299 01:17:21,030 --> 01:17:24,150 Every five years, we get a new set of dietary guidelines for Americans 1300 01:17:24,200 --> 01:17:28,400 that help guide schools and others to know what's healthy. 1301 01:17:28,450 --> 01:17:33,200 But by law, the Government also has to promote American agriculture. 1302 01:17:33,240 --> 01:17:35,950 [Dr. Popper] So you have this institutional conflict here. 1303 01:17:35,990 --> 01:17:39,280 You've got an agency that is supposed to represent farmers, on the one hand, 1304 01:17:39,320 --> 01:17:44,280 and advocate for them. And if they really would fulfill their-- their responsibility 1305 01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:46,320 to the public with dietary guidelines, 1306 01:17:46,360 --> 01:17:50,400 they might have to, they would have to tell American consumers 1307 01:17:50,450 --> 01:17:55,700 to consume less of some of the things their true constituents, the farmers produce. 1308 01:17:55,740 --> 01:17:57,990 The Government could be subsidizing healthier foods, 1309 01:17:58,030 --> 01:18:01,320 but members of Congress know that if they cross the industry, 1310 01:18:01,360 --> 01:18:03,070 they're going to have a fight on our hands. 1311 01:18:03,110 --> 01:18:06,450 We have an amazing system in America, 1312 01:18:06,490 --> 01:18:12,860 where we have the farmers that will grow whatever they can get paid to grow. 1313 01:18:13,990 --> 01:18:18,360 If we wanted farmers to grow organic fruits and vegetables 1314 01:18:18,400 --> 01:18:20,280 and produce them at a cheap price, 1315 01:18:20,320 --> 01:18:24,110 all we have to do is subsidize it and they would do it. 1316 01:18:24,150 --> 01:18:28,030 Right now, if you look at what we're growing, we're growing corn, and we're growing soy. 1317 01:18:28,070 --> 01:18:32,610 And we grow those corn and soy products to feed animals. 1318 01:18:32,650 --> 01:18:36,780 And it makes me mad as hell as a public health official 1319 01:18:36,820 --> 01:18:43,860 to know that our Government is complicit in the leading causes of death in America. 1320 01:18:43,900 --> 01:18:48,740 And If you look at the direction of China and Canada, now they're focused on 1321 01:18:48,780 --> 01:18:53,400 their constituents' health rather than on supporting the industries 1322 01:18:53,450 --> 01:18:59,360 that they're using to feed their population. So that shift in focus, 1323 01:18:59,400 --> 01:19:04,320 where you're using the science to promote what's best for the constituents 1324 01:19:04,360 --> 01:19:07,860 from a diet perspective is really where we need to be. 1325 01:19:09,070 --> 01:19:11,530 [Siewierski] So you might be asking, "What's next? 1326 01:19:11,570 --> 01:19:14,450 Where do we go from here? How do we start?" 1327 01:19:14,490 --> 01:19:18,200 If you find yourself struggling with your weight, know that you're not alone 1328 01:19:18,240 --> 01:19:21,280 and know that there are ways to achieve your goals 1329 01:19:21,320 --> 01:19:23,650 without losing your health in the process. 1330 01:19:23,700 --> 01:19:26,070 If I could do it, so can you. 1331 01:19:27,030 --> 01:19:30,280 For me, that signal of carrying excess weight 1332 01:19:30,320 --> 01:19:33,950 is actually a blessing in one sense, 1333 01:19:33,990 --> 01:19:36,780 because it's a signal to the person that, 1334 01:19:36,820 --> 01:19:40,070 "Hey, maybe it's time I need to make some changes. 1335 01:19:40,110 --> 01:19:44,030 And maybe this excess weight that I'm carrying is a sign to me 1336 01:19:44,070 --> 01:19:45,860 that it's time to make those changes," 1337 01:19:45,900 --> 01:19:48,900 versus the people who drop dead of a heart attack 1338 01:19:48,950 --> 01:19:52,610 and that's their first sign that something's wrong. 1339 01:19:52,650 --> 01:19:55,780 You are not the victim of your genetics. 1340 01:19:55,820 --> 01:19:59,320 You are simply a victim of what you decide to put on your plate. 1341 01:19:59,360 --> 01:20:03,110 Which means you also get to be a hero in your own story. 1342 01:20:04,070 --> 01:20:06,110 Conquer that next meal. That's it. 1343 01:20:06,150 --> 01:20:09,490 One day you're going to wake up and you're going to go, "Wow, 1344 01:20:09,530 --> 01:20:12,320 I completely changed my life. Not by focusing on 1345 01:20:12,360 --> 01:20:14,570 the rest of my life, but by focusing on today." 1346 01:20:14,610 --> 01:20:16,990 [Rip Esselstyn] People for some reason, they think that 1347 01:20:17,030 --> 01:20:22,820 eating plant based is extreme or somehow radical. 1348 01:20:22,860 --> 01:20:26,110 Let's just say for a second it is extreme and it is radical, 1349 01:20:26,150 --> 01:20:31,320 what better thing to get fanatical, and radical, and extreme about than your health? 1350 01:20:31,360 --> 01:20:35,110 And taking care of yourself, taking care of the planet, right? 1351 01:20:35,150 --> 01:20:37,820 and putting a stake in the ground and saying, 1352 01:20:37,860 --> 01:20:39,780 "You know what? I stand for something. 1353 01:20:39,820 --> 01:20:43,900 And I stand for something at every breakfast when I eat, 1354 01:20:43,950 --> 01:20:47,610 at every lunch, at every dinner and every snack, right? 1355 01:20:47,650 --> 01:20:52,950 I have a purpose that goes beyond myself and also includes myself." 1356 01:20:52,990 --> 01:20:56,070 What better way to basically say that you love yourself? 1357 01:20:56,110 --> 01:20:59,950 So to me, if you're going to be fanatical about something, 1358 01:20:59,990 --> 01:21:03,450 be fanatical about what goes into your mouth 1359 01:21:03,490 --> 01:21:07,400 because this is the most important issue facing you 1360 01:21:07,450 --> 01:21:11,110 and facing us as a country and as a world. 1361 01:21:13,740 --> 01:21:16,070 [instrumental music]