December 5, 2023 • 33 mins
So instead of just playing whack-a-mole and hitting one disease at a time, by slowing down the sands of time, by slowing down aging, we can address all these different chronic diseases together. -Dr. Michael Greger
It was such a treat to have Dr. Michael Greger on the show on THE day his new book, How Not to Age, hits the shelves (and of course the virtual marketplace)! And did you know that 100% of the proceeds from this book, like all of Dr. Greger's books, go to charity?
The topic of anti-aging and longevity is everywhere we look these days - I mean, who doesn't want to age in slow motion? Well, on today's episode, aging and chronic diseases take center stage as we get insights from physician and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, Dr. Michael Greger. We learn about the ties between aging and illness, and how slowing down the aging process could be the key to tackling multiple diseases.
We journey into the world of holistic health with Dr. Greger, discussing his impactful work through nutritionfacts.org and his best-selling books "How Not to Die" and the accompanying cookbook. Not only do we learn about the nutritional powerhouses that can slow down aging, but we also dive into the secret of maintaining a radiant skin through a healthy lifestyle. Dr. Greger even shares affordable DIY skincare recipes that will save you buku bucks.
Get ready to be inspired and empowered to take control of your health and aging process!
>> VIEW FULL SHOW NOTES HERE. <<
Nutritionfacts.org
LET'S CONNECT! 💝You can also support my mission of making this world a healthier, more compassionate place for all living beings by TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING…
*NEW! Get your Emergency Cravings Kit (free!): A guide that helps you understand your cravings and gives you a simple 5-step system to say goodbye to fighting with willpower and hello to enjoying food again.
Subscribe to the Sexy Fit Vegan YouTube Channel HERE
Subscribe to THE SEXY FIT VEGAN Soul-Aligned Newsletter HERE (free!): Get Ella's Top Updates, Badass Discoveries, Insights, and Explorations (Books, Podcasts, Food, Workouts, Gadgets, & More) Delivered to Your
Follow Sexy Fit Vegan/Ella on Instagram HERE
Follow Sexy Fit Vegan on Facebook HERE
Connect with Ella on LinkedIn HERE
Check out the Sexy Fit Vegan Website HERE
Check out our sister show, The Vegan Life Coach Podcast, HERE
Check out our ...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Michael Greger (00:00):
But then what I realized is that each one
of those diseases has thisage-related component.
Yes, having a high cholesterolcan increase your risk of heart
disease as much as 20-fold, butan 80-year-old has 500 times the
risk of having an heart attackcompared to a 20-year-old.
So age is a risk factor for notjust heart disease but also
(00:23):
cancer and dementia and on downthe list.
So instead of just playingwhack-a-mole and hitting kind of
one disease at a time, byslowing down the sands of time,
by slowing down aging, we canaddress all these different
chronic diseases together.
If all cancer was curedtomorrow, the average life
(00:43):
expectancy would only go upabout three years.
And the reason is because wedon't die from one age-related
disease, you just die fromanother.
Oh, the reason you die fromcancer is because you were going
to die next year of a heartattack, but then cancer got to
you first, right.
So by slowing down aging we cankind of hit all these diseases
together.
Ella Magers (01:05):
Hey there and welcome to Rise and Thrive with
me, ella Majors.
I created this high-vibepodcast from a place of profound
curiosity, fierce compassionand the deep desire to connect
you with the wisdom ofinspirational wellness, health,
fitness and conscious leadersand change makers.
Here's to discovering our blindspots and embracing life as the
(01:27):
adventure it is.
The time is now.
Let's do this.
Hey, hey, everyone, ella here,and today's episode is with the
Dr Michael Greger.
I've been a huge fan of his forso many years.
(01:49):
I've actually met him I don'tknow how many years ago on the
Holistic Holiday at Sea, thevegan cruise, when I was doing a
book signing and he was givinga talk, and now we got to spend
a little bit of time together.
It's a short interview.
He's a very busy man becausehis new book, how Not to Age, is
available as of today, december5th, so that's exciting.
(02:13):
So I'm going to talk a littlebit more about that before we
dive into this interview, butfirst, as usual, I'd like to
start with a personalcelebration, which is that I am
going on a vacation, yes, thismonth going to Guatemala with my
man, quinn.
We are going to stay on LakeAtitlan, lagode Atitlan, and
(02:37):
that's right in Guatemala,surrounded by volcanoes.
We're going to be visiting somesacred ancient Mayan sites,
hiking those volcanoes,exploring the villages around
the border of the lake, or somekayaking, maybe even hang glide
or paraglide, and when we getback we'll record a podcast and
(02:58):
share all about it.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
It's been a rough month withthe passing of my fur baby, shy,
who I am posting about likecrazy on Instagram.
I get up early every morningand I'm writing our story.
She was such a character andI'm grieving.
(03:20):
I'm grieving pretty hard andapproaching myself with
curiosity and compassion, like Ihelp my clients do, and it's
tough and that's just life,right.
So, yeah, so I'm excited totake this trip.
I think it's going to beamazing and I can't wait to
(03:42):
share it all about it with youall when I get back.
So the few more announcements tomake.
First of all, thank you to allof you who donated to Hogs and
Kisses for Giving Tuesday andthose of you who donated to any
nonprofit that has a mission ofmaking this world a kinder, more
compassionate place.
Just wanted to give you a shoutout and thank you.
(04:03):
Thanks to your donations, wemet our goal and so we are now
moving forward in preparationfor welcoming rescued turkeys
onto the land at Hogs and Kisses.
We're expanding our fur familyinto a fur and feather family at
Hogs and Kisses Remember, we dohave a BNB that is on Airbnb
(04:25):
right there.
And so, yeah, thank you guys.
Thank you so much for helpingus make that happen.
Another announcement I'll betaking the rest of December off
from publishing new episodes, sowe'll take about three weeks.
We'll be back in January.
Just a great time for you allto catch up on any episodes
you've missed on this podcast oron our sister podcast, the
(04:49):
Vegan Life Coach podcast.
So, yeah, just get a littlecaught up.
I'm going to do some interviewsand prepare for making 2024 a
season two, remember withamazing guests.
I cannot wait for some of theseguests to come out, these
episodes Some super fun ones.
So I'm not going to give itaway.
(05:09):
But yeah, and if you haven'tsigned up for my newsletter
called the Way, it is coming outtomorrow, it's usually the
first Wednesday of every month,the Way Wednesday where I give
my top latest badass discoveries, like songs I'm obsessed with
or quotes.
I'm pondering books, I'mreading other podcasts, I'm
(05:30):
listening to workouts I'm doing.
I kind of just share what's upwith me and things that I think
could be helpful for you too.
And last, if you're lovingthese episodes, I have a small
request, in the spirit of givingthis holiday season, that would
make a huge impact and take youall of 30 seconds to leave a
(05:53):
rating and review.
It really helps people find usand know that it's worthy of a
listen.
I know there's a lot of showsout there these days, so if you
enjoy this one and couldcontribute by leaving a review,
I'd be so grateful.
(06:15):
All right, so back to today'sepisode with Dr Greger.
It's a short one, a fun one, avery informative one.
Let me tell you a little bitmore about him in case you're
unfamiliar, because when I thinkabout holistic health, I really
think about not only nutritionand sleep and exercise, but also
(06:37):
purpose and living our purposeand finding meaning in life.
And if there's anybody who doesthat, it's Dr Greger.
He's a founding member andfellow of the American College
of Lifestyle Medicine, aphysician and internationally
recognized speaker on nutrition.
His science based nonprofit,nutritionfactsorg, offers a free
(07:00):
online portal hosting more than2,000 videos and articles on a
myriad of health topics.
Dr Greger is a sought afterlecturer and has presented at
the conference on World Affairsand the World Bank, testified
before Congress and was invitedas an expert witness in Oprah
Winfrey's defense in theinfamous meat defamation trap.
(07:22):
A graduate of Cornell UniversitySchool of Agriculture and Tufts
University School of Medicine,dr Greger is also an acclaimed
author.
The how Not to Die cookbook andhow Not to Die.
It became instant New YorkTimes bestsellers.
More than a million copies ofhow Not to Die have been sold
and all proceeds Dr Gregerreceives from the sales of his
(07:43):
books and speaking honor areaare donated directly to charity.
How cool is that?
All the links will be in theshow notes, so make sure you
check them out and, withoutfurther ado, let's do this.
Dr. Michael Greger (08:02):
I'm so sorry about that.
It's so good.
Ella Magers (08:06):
Oh good, how are you?
Dr. Michael Greger (08:08):
Good, thank you.
Ella Magers (08:09):
Are those all your dogs?
Dr. Michael Greger (08:12):
Oh yeah, no, actually not the.
We got a new one since, sothere's one more, no way.
So what is it?
Five?
You got to do a new holidaycard.
Oh my God.
Ella Magers (08:23):
Oh, that's amazing.
Oh my gosh, all rescues, allrescues.
Thank you, I just lost mine twoweeks ago at 17.
Dr. Michael Greger (08:31):
Yeah, she was 17.
Ella Magers (08:34):
Yeah, she was plant based.
Wow, a rescuer.
She was about three when I gother, so she was 15 years Wow.
Dr. Michael Greger (08:43):
Yeah, but love that.
Ella Magers (08:47):
So good to have you here, happy to be here.
You know what?
I met you.
This was many years ago.
I'm sure you hear this all thetime, but you were speaking at
the Holistic Holiday at Seacruz.
Oh yeah, fun yeah.
And I was doing a book, signingmyself.
And I gave you a book and yousaid to me, because my book is
very fitnessy, oh nice, yeah.
(09:07):
And you said we've got to getthose crossfitters.
Dr. Michael Greger (09:10):
That was your words.
Ella Magers (09:12):
Excellent.
Do you think we've made anyprogress on the crossfit front?
I've been trying.
I've been doing my best.
Dr. Michael Greger (09:16):
Well, we need to clone you.
That's the answer.
Ella Magers (09:19):
Yes, that would be good.
That would be good.
Well, yeah, I've got so manyquestions for you.
We've got this new book comingout.
I want to talk about that.
Also just want to say that whenyou deliver information, dr
Gregory, you almost sing it.
Like I was listening to yourtalk one of your TED talks
yesterday, and I just thoughtyou know you almost sing the
(09:42):
information.
Has anyone ever told you that?
Dr. Michael Greger (09:44):
That only happens when I'm really good at
a talk, when I've memorized thatand that you know the new talks
, it takes a while to get intothe groove, yeah, but once I
have a talk down, you know, onceI can be like coming up with my
grocery list while I'm givingthe talk for the next day or
something then it's really good.
Then I know the timing, yeah.
So eventually it gets there.
(10:05):
But this new talk, the agingtalk, it's going to be a while
before it sounds sing-songy.
Ella Magers (10:11):
Well, it's so engaging and I think that's so
important right when you'redelivering this, you know such
evidence-based this research tolay people right and it's
engaging.
So, thank you, thank you fordoing that Absolutely Well.
Dr. Michael Greger (10:27):
All the information in the world is
useless unless there's peoplelike you in the trenches
actually putting it to use andgiving it to people.
So very excited Cool.
Ella Magers (10:36):
Can you also confirm that you are a real life
human being, that you're notsuperhuman?
Because, seriously, I feel likethis should be an episode on
productivity.
I don't understand how you dowhat you do.
Well do you have a work-lifebalance?
Is there a balance?
God?
No, no, okay, god no.
Dr. Michael Greger (10:55):
But what I do have is a big staff, so
that's what I have.
That I mean.
So I mean you really you can'tdo this.
I mean so we have 14 people onstaff full-time and about 100 or
so active volunteers at any onetime, and so it's like I mean,
how else can you turn throughthousands of articles?
Ella Magers (11:13):
Yeah.
Dr. Michael Greger (11:14):
You know.
So it's really kind of a teameffort.
So, yeah, there's no way I cando it alone.
But yeah, and what's nice isthat we have staff on each side
of the globe and so when youknow, I go bed at night, I give
them a big load of work and it'sall done.
In the morning I can take itback, so we have this kind of
24-hour cycle that keeps itrocking.
Ella Magers (11:33):
What time do you go to bed?
Dr. Michael Greger (11:35):
Oh, I've been trying to be much better.
That's one of the pillars oflifestyle medicine that I'm
still working on, but I've beentrying to do a lot better.
There was a very bad time whenI was doing it three hours a
night.
So I'll bed at 1130, up at 230every night, and I found I was
just not as productive when Iwas unconscious and so I was
(11:55):
like, let's get doing.
But what really stopped me,besides being absolutely
miserable, was that people thinkthat they're most more
productive than they actuallyare when they're sleep deprived.
So it's not just that they aremuch less productive, but they
don't realize it.
Like that's this funny thingPeople think they're doing great
(12:16):
.
You know, there's like certainpeople on drugs like I'm so
creative, oh my God.
And then you look back on whatyou wrote and you're like, oh my
God.
So, yeah, it felt like I was,you know, getting a lot more
done than I actually was.
But yeah, so I'm really tryingto get seven hours of sleep now,
okay, which is what I recommendpeople get, and I'm able to do
that now.
Next week I'm on the road, thebook is out.
(12:39):
That's harder, right?
Some of these book signinglines going for four hours and
then I got some early flight thenext day and it's going to be
difficult to stick with it, buthaving control of my same thing
with diet when I have control ofmy diet, I have no bad food in
the house.
Even if I want to eat somecrappy, it's like too bad,
there's nothing, right, right,but when you're on the road, you
(13:01):
just do your best just to makeit to the next gig.
Ella Magers (13:05):
Yeah, and this will actually come out on the day
that your book is available, sothis will be yes.
There's never been.
That's exciting.
That's the day.
Dr. Michael Greger (13:13):
So then I got 100, doing 100 cities for
the next six months 100 citiesand how many languages is this
book coming out?
Oh, that's a good question.
I know how not to die ended up36 languages.
I don't think I even named 36languages, but this one I mean.
I know we're in the Big E's.
We have a German edition, aSpanish edition.
(13:35):
I'm not sure how many we're upto, but probably less than a
dozen so far.
But we'll see how it does andit does really well.
Hopefully other countries topick it up.
Ella Magers (13:43):
Well, longevity is all the rage, you know.
Yeah, what inspired you todecide on this topic for this
book?
Dr. Michael Greger (13:53):
You know, it reminds me a lot about my last
book, the I'm not to diet book.
You know, both the diet andanti-aging industries are these,
you know, multi-billion dollarbehemoths.
Right, and with so much moneyin the mix, the temptation to
promote products providing allsorts of you know preposterous
claims is apparentlyirresistible.
Right.
And so, you know, even aneducated layperson seeking basic
(14:16):
practical advice in eitherarena living longer or lighter
is faced with this justinscrutable barrage of pills and
potions.
And you know, even as aphysician, with a luxury of
waiting, you know, neck deep inthe medical literature, it's
been a challenge to tease outthe you know naked truth from
the emperor's garb.
But, you know, in the end Irealized that just makes this
(14:40):
endeavor that much moreimportant, right?
If it took me three years to gothrough all the science, right,
and I'm afraid the you know,casual observer would just have,
you know, there'd be no hopefrom, you know, separating facts
from farce, yeah.
Ella Magers (14:52):
So when I look at all the longevity studies out
there, one of the things thatcomes to mind first is, of
course, the blue zones and thecentenarians, and so I'm sure
that that's in the book, right,yeah, but the question I have
because I haven't seen the bookyet is you know, many of these
zones do include fish and oliveoil and wine, Like those are
(15:18):
three at least for the in Greece.
Dr. Michael Greger (15:20):
Right, the Mediterranean.
Ella Magers (15:21):
Even the Mediterranean.
So is there longevity becauseof some of those foods or is it
in spite of, or were you able tofigure that out?
Dr. Michael Greger (15:32):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
So what you want to do is lookat kind of a Venn diagram of
what.
So you know, of all thedifferent blue zones.
What do they share in common?
So they can each do their ownlittle thing, but what is kind
of the core?
What do they share, kind of thecore tenants?
So thankfully we have over 150dietary surveys that have been
(15:52):
done in blue zones.
We can actually kind of lay itout.
And so there's a blue zonesorganization, started by Dan
Butner, that did that.
And so they came up with bluezone food guidelines and you
could, you know, look them up.
There's 10 of them, and numberone is eat a diet at least 95%
plant-based.
And then the next one is reduceprocessed foods, and then the
(16:16):
one after that is a daily doseof beans, telling people to eat
more legumes as like the healthysource of protein, all the blue
zones as their primary sourceof protein, with some kind of
legume.
And then drink mostly waterthat's the best beverage.
Nuts is the healthiest snack.
And then cut down on fish, cutdown on eggs, cut down on sugar,
(16:36):
cut down on dairy, cut down onmeat, that's all 10.
Ella Magers (16:41):
Wow, got the memorized.
Did anything surprise you whileyou were doing your research?
Dr. Michael Greger (16:47):
Oh my God the whole book, like I knew so
little about going into.
I learned as much as anybodyelse doing one of these books.
In fact, there were entireareas of science that were not
discovered when I graduated frommedical school, like micro RNAs
have old chapter on that.
It undermines the entirecentral dogma of biology which
we all learned.
But it didn't even exist,wasn't discovered till after I
(17:09):
got out.
So completely new, completelyexcited, totally nerded out, had
a great time, and so lots ofstuff was really kind of
shocking to me and reallychanged my own diet a lot,
really.
So what I found about exercise,sleep, red wine, resveratrol,
nad supplements, vitamin D, fishprotein restriction, micro RNAs
(17:34):
I mean just the list goes onand on.
Where it's like I went inthinking, oh, I'd probably
recommend this supplement, thissupplement, similar, and then
they're like oh God, so glad Ilooked, and that's why there's
13,000 citations, it's because Iwanted to cover every possible,
every anti-aging supplementthat's ever been purported,
every organ system preservingyour vision and your hearing,
(17:57):
and your on down the list, andso, yeah, it was just a huge
project.
Ella Magers (18:01):
Can you share any specifics about what you changed
in your diet?
I'm so interested to know this.
Dr. Michael Greger (18:06):
No, totally so.
I'm now using a spice calledpapali, which is a long pepper
which is kind of the blackpepper family, has something
called pipe longumine, which ismaybe a senolytic compound which
destroys these so-called zombiecells in the body, these
pro-inflammatory cells in thebody that contribute to the
aging process.
Wheat germ I remember my momused to give me wheat germ.
(18:27):
I was like she was totallyright all along.
Ella Magers (18:29):
Mom's always right.
Dr. Michael Greger (18:30):
That should be the lesson.
Yeah, so wheat germ issomething called spermedine,
which is this kind of housecleaning process by which your
cells kind of clear outaccumulated debris that adds to
the aging process, the mostconcentrated source of which is
in wheat germ.
Started eating cardamom, eatingmore tempeh than I used to,
started growing my own mushrooms.
(18:51):
You can grow oyster mushrooms,just like you can like sprouts,
broccoli, whatever you can growmoisture, it's so cool.
So, yeah, strawberries, eatingmore strawberries, because some
called phycidins, some curse,people eat fresh, frozen or
freeze dried strawberries.
You know, normally I'd be like,oh well, I'd choose
blackberries because they havefive times the manateoxins as
strawberries, or I've got tochoose one minus one.
Nope, because there's thiscrazy compound in strawberries
(19:15):
that has the effects that youreally can't find anywhere else,
kind of in the plant kingdomand concentrated form.
So, all right, strawberries itis.
So I actually, you know, goingon the road, I have these little
packets of freeze driedstrawberry powder, which I'm not
putting my, you know, hoteloatmeal or whatever, and yeah,
so keep it going on the road.
Ella Magers (19:31):
Do you fly to the locations and then stay?
Dr. Michael Greger (19:33):
in a hotel, Mostly mostly, yeah, mostly yeah
.
Ella Magers (19:36):
You don't have a big tour bus and you get a.
Dr. Michael Greger (19:38):
Tour bus, that's what I need.
Yeah, come on, Dr Greger.
Ella Magers (19:42):
I need the Greger tour bus.
Yes, it needs to be wrappedright Like moving billboard.
Yeah, there we go right exactly.
This is promoting.
That's hilarious.
No, I'm very serious.
Dr. Michael Greger (19:54):
Well, no, no , that's how I started out.
I started out on the road,living out of my car After I got
out of med school and finishedmy post-grad school medical
training, where I just needed toget this information to
everyone's hands.
So I started traveling to allthe medical schools and staying
on people's couches and, justyou know, didn't own a pillow.
You know I was on the road fulltime, but only a certain number
(20:17):
of years you can do that beforeyou finally want to, and then
five dogs later.
Ella Magers (20:22):
Yeah, oh yeah, exactly.
Dr. Michael Greger (20:24):
Yeah, much better.
Ella Magers (20:25):
See, if you had a big tour bus, you could bring
all your oh my God, that's trueTour babies, right?
Oh, that's true, if you need amanager new manager here.
Dr. Michael Greger (20:33):
I could get your tour, bus You're totally
right.
Ella Magers (20:37):
Oh, that's amazing.
Okay, so let me see if I canphrase this correctly.
You had the how Not To Die book, and now you've got how Not To
Age.
They seem very related, youknow, because when you're aging,
you can't be dying yet.
But then there's the healthspan versus lifespan and all of
this.
How do those all kind of fit,how not to die and how not to
(20:59):
age.
Do you see where I'm kind ofgoing with that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, totally,yeah, so you know I talk about.
Dr. Michael Greger (21:04):
There's no such thing as dying from old age
.
There was a study of 14,000consecutive autopsies and all
the centenarians not a singleone, died of old age.
They died from disease, mostcommonly heart disease, which is
the number one killer of menand women in general.
So even people that lookperfectly fine, their physicians
said they were in perfecthealth.
Ah, when you actually cut themopen, or if they die up, no,
(21:26):
they died from disease.
And so, wait a second, ifeveryone dies from disease, and
why wasn't?
How Not To Die?
All the longevity book anyoneneeds, right?
It's just 15 chapters, easy, 15leading cause of death.
I come out with the old dietmaybe preventing, arresting,
reversing each one.
But then what I realized isthat each one of those diseases
has this age-related component.
(21:46):
So, yes, having a highcholesterol can increase your
risk of heart disease as much as20-fold, but an 80-year-old has
500 times the risk of having anheart attack compared to a
20-year-old.
So age is a risk factor for notjust heart disease but also
cancer and dementia and on downthe list.
Instead of just playingwhack-a-mole and hitting one
(22:10):
disease at a time, by slowingdown the sands of time, by
slowing down aging, we canaddress all these different
chronic diseases together.
You know, if all cancer wascured tomorrow, the average life
expectancy would only go upabout three years.
And the reason is because wedon't die from one age-related
disease, we just die fromanother.
Oh, the reason you die fromcancer is because you are going
(22:32):
to die next year of a heartattack.
But cancer got to you first,right.
So by slowing down aging we cankind of hit all these diseases
together.
Ella Magers (22:41):
Okay, interesting.
Now what about from a?
Well, I mean, we're looking atthe fitness perspective.
That fitness is very.
You know, what I learnedworking in the fitness industry
is that it had had very littleto do with true health, right,
it had mostly to do with howpeople looked on the outside.
So, coming from that angle,there's the protein thing.
(23:01):
Right, and we need protein tobuild muscle, and people in the
fitness, they want to buildmuscle, and yet in a lot of
longevity, experts talk aboutreducing protein, although you
do need a little more, right,when you're older.
Can you talk to that a littlebit?
Is this a give or take?
Like you either have muscle oryou can live long Right, right.
Dr. Michael Greger (23:21):
No, that's literally what I thought when I
was going into it.
When I was going into it, I wasbecause I was aware of the
anti-aging literature andthinking and knowing that you
know excess protein can increase, you know, lean mass among
younger middle-aged individuals.
And so was there going to bethe seesaw.
There's a like.
You have to have one at theexpense of another.
But when it comes to proteinaging, less may indeed be more.
(23:44):
Reducing protein intake, meaningrestricting protein intake down
to recommended levels.
It's the only thing that Icould find that could block all
11 of the aging pathwaysboosting NAD, improving immunity
, decreasing oxidative stress,inflammation, insulin resistance
, as well as a cancer, promotinggrowth hormone, igf1.
And, surprisingly, no benefitto adding extra protein to the
(24:06):
diets of older men and women interms of muscle mass, muscle
strength or muscle performance.
It just doesn't work.
Instead, with the excessprotein, what you get that most
Americans get causes a drop inthe pro-longed-jevity hormone
FGF21, a drop in testosterone, aworsening of the
age-accelerating hormone M-Tour.
So we really should try tostick to the recommended level
(24:27):
of 0.8 grams per healthykilogram body weight, which
comes out to be about 45 gramsthrough the average height woman
and 55 grams through theaverage height man.
Ella Magers (24:35):
Hmm, very interesting.
Okay, yeah, because even someof the longevity experts are
still touting protein, protein,protein.
Dr. Michael Greger (24:43):
Well, they're not touting it based on
the evidence.
They're not touting it based onthe literature.
I mean, the anti-agingliterature is very clear.
I mean, the most potent thingyou can do is methionine
restriction in terms oflongevity.
Methionine is an amino acidfound in concentrate in certain
proteins.
So that's why caloricrestriction works, because
you're actually cutting down onmethionine, because you're
eating less protein.
(25:04):
Or you can just keep caloriesthe same, cut down on protein,
that'll lower your methionine,or you can keep the protein the
same and just shift from animalsources to plant sources tend to
be lower in methionine.
Any of those above can decreasemethionine, which is kind of
our best bet of one kind ofsilver bullet for longevity, and
so that's why we think caloricrestriction works.
(25:25):
It's really it's not about thecalories.
It's really about and not justprotein in general, but specific
amino acids, like thesulfur-containing amino acid,
cysteine, methionine,branched-chain amino acids.
We really want to keep thoseminimized.
It certainly gets sufficientlevels, but not to get excess
levels in terms of improving ourlifespan.
Ella Magers (25:44):
Now, when you bring all this new stuff home and
you're saying, okay, we're goingto add this, I'm going to add
this how does this affect yourfamily?
Dr. Michael Greger (25:51):
Are they like oh God, why is there
parsley and everything all of asudden?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean at this point theyjust know that all of a sudden,
no more bananas in thesmoothies because of the new
study or whatever.
Ella Magers (26:07):
It's just like yeah all right, okay, wait, why no
bananas in the smoothie?
Dr. Michael Greger (26:11):
Oh, yeah.
So yeah, this new study.
I just did a webinar about it.
There's an enzyme in bananascalled polyphenoloxidase.
It actually destroys some ofthe nutrition in berries and
cocoa, and so if you mix it upin a smoothie, you're actually
particularly if it waits aroundfor a while You're actually
getting less nutrition, had younot add banana.
So I encourage people, you know, do frozen mango instead or
(26:32):
something like that.
Ella Magers (26:33):
But yeah, oh, it is a lot right.
It can be a little overwhelming.
So I eat a huge kale saladevery day.
That's my amazing.
I love it, I love it except andthen I realized I was drinking
a matcha tea.
Oh yeah and then my iron levelswere low.
Yeah so then I was like okay,no, I have to wait an hour.
Dr. Michael Greger (26:51):
Yeah, my kale salad, and right, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Ella Magers (26:54):
It's a lot.
How do you help?
Yeah, no, no, no.
Dr. Michael Greger (26:56):
Well, first of all, the really core tenants.
Right, it's really the basiccommon sense, lifestyle factors
that can really mean the bigdifference.
You know, living a decade ormore.
It's the not smoking, not beingobese, regular exercise, more
fruits and vegetables.
It's really the basic stuff.
Never too late to start eatinghealthier, to start moving, to
stop smoking, and so that's like80% of the problem, right?
(27:18):
Okay then, yes, if you want toreally optimize, right, and you,
you seem to me as theoptimizing type.
Okay, yes, there's all sorts ofcool stuff we can learn and we
can tweak, but I don't wantpeople to be like, just throw
their hands up in the air and belike, oh, it's too complicated
and right, eat whatever garbageput in front of them.
Food industry loves that kindof Muddying of the waters, but
(27:39):
no, no, I mean really the coretenants of healthy eating.
Healthy living is really thebasics they get in most of the
way.
There, you know.
And so, and that's why I reallytry to emphasize in the book,
in fact, the whole conclusion istime back.
Okay, let's take a step backhere.
It's two important things.
I know there was a lot here,but then, yes, there certainly
is Stuff, for you know everyother little.
(28:02):
You know body function you wantto optimize.
But let's not force for thetrees, you know.
Ella Magers (28:08):
Yes, I get that completely very good.
And then the last kind ofquestion about aging.
So sticking on the physicallevel skin yeah.
I think you know that's a bigthing.
I mean, I'm 43.
I'm looking down, I'm like oh,my elbow.
I'm like having getting oldlady elbows, is that?
So I like down thing, and thenI just Approach it with
compassion and say that's justpart of the process and blah
(28:29):
blah blah.
But is there things we can do,because you know most collagen?
Dr. Michael Greger (28:33):
is animal-based.
Tons of stuff we can do.
Well, yeah, it's animal-based,because animals make collagen,
like ourselves, we make collagen.
You don't have to eat collagen,thank you.
It's like saying you know, it'slike.
It's like I want to be smart,I'm gonna eat brains like this,
but can you give us like two orthree?
There's lots of things we cando for our skin.
(28:53):
The single most effective thingto slow the Signs of skin aging
is protect your skin from sundamage, though ambient air
pollution can also Contribute.
But it's really, you know,daily sunscreen, spf 15 or
higher.
We want the mineral sunscreens,the titanium or zinc, and so
that's really the most importantthing.
In terms of diet, thecarotenoid nutrients in certain
(29:14):
colorful fruits and vegetablesare deposited in the skin.
Give you this kind of healthyglow.
Both light and dark skin, andNot just appearance, actually
improves skin elasticity,collagen status, facial wrinkles
, probably due to this kind ofinside out sunscreen effect.
So you actually, you know, dothese experiments where you burn
people with lasers.
You know before and aftereating more.
(29:34):
You know sweet potatoes, andyou can get significantly less
redness after eating thesehealthy foods.
Drinking extra water canimprove skin dryness and
roughness.
Honey bush tea can reduce eyewrinkles.
Cocoa powder Can increase skinthickness, skin thinnings a real
problem in old age.
Elasticity to increase wrinkleseverity.
Almonds can also decreasewrinkle severity, again because
(29:56):
of probably some UV resistancein the skin Ground.
Flaxsees can improve skinsmoothness.
Soy foods can improve skinelasticity, fine wrinkles.
And then, in terms of topicaltreatments, most of the
anti-aging creams actually don'twork better than just simple
moisturizers.
But the gold standardanti-aging skincare is the daily
facial moisturizer with thesunscreen.
(30:18):
And you know we have randomizedcontrolled trials proving that
randomized people more sunscreencan significantly cut down a
visible skin aging.
There are these retinoids is aprescription retinoid called
Tritinium or retinae that canactually reverse signs of
existing sun damage, but a Smallfraction is absorbed into your
bloodstream and actually mayincrease your risk of premature
(30:40):
death.
So I don't recommend taking.
In fact, that was just a videothat went up, I think, today
talking about the concerns aboutthat low concentrations of
alpha hydroxy, alpha hydroxyacids.
Skin lotions can improve facialphoto damage but also increase
skin photosensitivity.
So then, can make things worthin the long run.
But there are a few things thatI found that could be useful.
(31:02):
Topical vitamin C and topicalnicotinamide can reduce wrinkles
and salinus and improve skinfirmness, and so I have recipes
for like DIY.
You know, vitamin C serums.
There's like 2,000 timescheaper than you can get at
retail.
Basically just mixing threegrams of bulk ascorbic acid Into
30 grams of water into like aone ounce dropper.
(31:25):
It costs you about a nickel perounce as opposed to like a
hundred twenty dollars an ounce.
Ella Magers (31:30):
Oh my gosh.
Dr. Michael Greger (31:31):
And then topical nicotinamide is even
more expensive over two hundreddollars an ounce but all you do
is mix 1.4 grams of bulknicotinamide for every ounce of
your favorite skin lotion.
Apply pea-sized amount To eachside of your face once a day.
That's like a 5,000 percentdiscount.
Ella Magers (31:54):
Dr Gregory now.
Thank you so, so much foreverything that you do.
You know this is a show aboutholistic health and a big piece
of that is live in our purpose,and you certainly do that day in
, day out.
I love that you have rescuedanimals as well at home, and I
appreciate you so much.
Can you just tell us where toget this book that is out today?
Dr. Michael Greger (32:14):
You can get this book anywhere from your
local public library or anybookseller, and all the proceeds
from all my books are alldonated directly to charity.
Ella Magers (32:23):
You're amazing.
Thank you so much, dr Greger.
Dr. Michael Greger (32:26):
Thanks, you have the good work.
Ella Magers (32:27):
Hey, you too.
Bye, bye.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of Rise and
Thrive with me, ella Majors.
I truly hope you found itinspiring and, if you did,
please help me spread the wordby leaving a rating and review
on your Favorite podcast playerand by sharing the show with
(32:49):
your friends.
As you probably know by now, mylife's purpose is to use my
voice to make this world a moreconscious and compassionate
place, and your reviews andshares Make a huge impact.
And last, I'm getting a ton ofinsanely positive feedback about
my short and sweet Monthlynewsletter called the way short,
for the way out is through.
(33:10):
I give my top five latestbadass discoveries, insights and
explorations, like Veganproducts and recipes.
I'm obsessed with books andshows I'm loving and workouts
that have me fired up.
Head on over to my website,ella Majorscom, to sign up and
check out all the other awesomeresources I have for you and
(33:32):
projects I'm involved with,including hogs and kisses farm
Sanctuary, where our mission isto create the best life for farm
animals while inspiringcompassion for all living beings
.
Thanks a lot, and I'll see youon the next one.
But then what I realized is that each one
of those diseases has thisage-related component.
Yes, having a high cholesterolcan increase your risk of heart
disease as much as 20-fold, butan 80-year-old has 500 times the
risk of having an heart attackcompared to a 20-year-old.
So age is a risk factor for notjust heart disease but also
(00:23):
cancer and dementia and on downthe list.
So instead of just playingwhack-a-mole and hitting kind of
one disease at a time, byslowing down the sands of time,
by slowing down aging, we canaddress all these different
chronic diseases together.
If all cancer was curedtomorrow, the average life
(00:43):
expectancy would only go upabout three years.
And the reason is because wedon't die from one age-related
disease, you just die fromanother.
Oh, the reason you die fromcancer is because you were going
to die next year of a heartattack, but then cancer got to
you first, right.
So by slowing down aging we cankind of hit all these diseases
together.
Ella Magers (01:05):
Hey there and welcome to Rise and Thrive with
me, ella Majors.
I created this high-vibepodcast from a place of profound
curiosity, fierce compassionand the deep desire to connect
you with the wisdom ofinspirational wellness, health,
fitness and conscious leadersand change makers.
Here's to discovering our blindspots and embracing life as the
(01:27):
adventure it is.
The time is now.
Let's do this.
Hey, hey, everyone, ella here,and today's episode is with the
Dr Michael Greger.
I've been a huge fan of his forso many years.
(01:49):
I've actually met him I don'tknow how many years ago on the
Holistic Holiday at Sea, thevegan cruise, when I was doing a
book signing and he was givinga talk, and now we got to spend
a little bit of time together.
It's a short interview.
He's a very busy man becausehis new book, how Not to Age, is
available as of today, december5th, so that's exciting.
(02:13):
So I'm going to talk a littlebit more about that before we
dive into this interview, butfirst, as usual, I'd like to
start with a personalcelebration, which is that I am
going on a vacation, yes, thismonth going to Guatemala with my
man, quinn.
We are going to stay on LakeAtitlan, lagode Atitlan, and
(02:37):
that's right in Guatemala,surrounded by volcanoes.
We're going to be visiting somesacred ancient Mayan sites,
hiking those volcanoes,exploring the villages around
the border of the lake, or somekayaking, maybe even hang glide
or paraglide, and when we getback we'll record a podcast and
(02:58):
share all about it.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
It's been a rough month withthe passing of my fur baby, shy,
who I am posting about likecrazy on Instagram.
I get up early every morningand I'm writing our story.
She was such a character andI'm grieving.
(03:20):
I'm grieving pretty hard andapproaching myself with
curiosity and compassion, like Ihelp my clients do, and it's
tough and that's just life,right.
So, yeah, so I'm excited totake this trip.
I think it's going to beamazing and I can't wait to
(03:42):
share it all about it with youall when I get back.
So the few more announcements tomake.
First of all, thank you to allof you who donated to Hogs and
Kisses for Giving Tuesday andthose of you who donated to any
nonprofit that has a mission ofmaking this world a kinder, more
compassionate place.
Just wanted to give you a shoutout and thank you.
(04:03):
Thanks to your donations, wemet our goal and so we are now
moving forward in preparationfor welcoming rescued turkeys
onto the land at Hogs and Kisses.
We're expanding our fur familyinto a fur and feather family at
Hogs and Kisses Remember, we dohave a BNB that is on Airbnb
(04:25):
right there.
And so, yeah, thank you guys.
Thank you so much for helpingus make that happen.
Another announcement I'll betaking the rest of December off
from publishing new episodes, sowe'll take about three weeks.
We'll be back in January.
Just a great time for you allto catch up on any episodes
you've missed on this podcast oron our sister podcast, the
(04:49):
Vegan Life Coach podcast.
So, yeah, just get a littlecaught up.
I'm going to do some interviewsand prepare for making 2024 a
season two, remember withamazing guests.
I cannot wait for some of theseguests to come out, these
episodes Some super fun ones.
So I'm not going to give itaway.
(05:09):
But yeah, and if you haven'tsigned up for my newsletter
called the Way, it is coming outtomorrow, it's usually the
first Wednesday of every month,the Way Wednesday where I give
my top latest badass discoveries, like songs I'm obsessed with
or quotes.
I'm pondering books, I'mreading other podcasts, I'm
(05:30):
listening to workouts I'm doing.
I kind of just share what's upwith me and things that I think
could be helpful for you too.
And last, if you're lovingthese episodes, I have a small
request, in the spirit of givingthis holiday season, that would
make a huge impact and take youall of 30 seconds to leave a
(05:53):
rating and review.
It really helps people find usand know that it's worthy of a
listen.
I know there's a lot of showsout there these days, so if you
enjoy this one and couldcontribute by leaving a review,
I'd be so grateful.
(06:15):
All right, so back to today'sepisode with Dr Greger.
It's a short one, a fun one, avery informative one.
Let me tell you a little bitmore about him in case you're
unfamiliar, because when I thinkabout holistic health, I really
think about not only nutritionand sleep and exercise, but also
(06:37):
purpose and living our purposeand finding meaning in life.
And if there's anybody who doesthat, it's Dr Greger.
He's a founding member andfellow of the American College
of Lifestyle Medicine, aphysician and internationally
recognized speaker on nutrition.
His science based nonprofit,nutritionfactsorg, offers a free
(07:00):
online portal hosting more than2,000 videos and articles on a
myriad of health topics.
Dr Greger is a sought afterlecturer and has presented at
the conference on World Affairsand the World Bank, testified
before Congress and was invitedas an expert witness in Oprah
Winfrey's defense in theinfamous meat defamation trap.
(07:22):
A graduate of Cornell UniversitySchool of Agriculture and Tufts
University School of Medicine,dr Greger is also an acclaimed
author.
The how Not to Die cookbook andhow Not to Die.
It became instant New YorkTimes bestsellers.
More than a million copies ofhow Not to Die have been sold
and all proceeds Dr Gregerreceives from the sales of his
(07:43):
books and speaking honor areaare donated directly to charity.
How cool is that?
All the links will be in theshow notes, so make sure you
check them out and, withoutfurther ado, let's do this.
Dr. Michael Greger (08:02):
I'm so sorry about that.
It's so good.
Ella Magers (08:06):
Oh good, how are you?
Dr. Michael Greger (08:08):
Good, thank you.
Ella Magers (08:09):
Are those all your dogs?
Dr. Michael Greger (08:12):
Oh yeah, no, actually not the.
We got a new one since, sothere's one more, no way.
So what is it?
Five?
You got to do a new holidaycard.
Oh my God.
Ella Magers (08:23):
Oh, that's amazing.
Oh my gosh, all rescues, allrescues.
Thank you, I just lost mine twoweeks ago at 17.
Dr. Michael Greger (08:31):
Yeah, she was 17.
Ella Magers (08:34):
Yeah, she was plant based.
Wow, a rescuer.
She was about three when I gother, so she was 15 years Wow.
Dr. Michael Greger (08:43):
Yeah, but love that.
Ella Magers (08:47):
So good to have you here, happy to be here.
You know what?
I met you.
This was many years ago.
I'm sure you hear this all thetime, but you were speaking at
the Holistic Holiday at Seacruz.
Oh yeah, fun yeah.
And I was doing a book, signingmyself.
And I gave you a book and yousaid to me, because my book is
very fitnessy, oh nice, yeah.
(09:07):
And you said we've got to getthose crossfitters.
Dr. Michael Greger (09:10):
That was your words.
Ella Magers (09:12):
Excellent.
Do you think we've made anyprogress on the crossfit front?
I've been trying.
I've been doing my best.
Dr. Michael Greger (09:16):
Well, we need to clone you.
That's the answer.
Ella Magers (09:19):
Yes, that would be good.
That would be good.
Well, yeah, I've got so manyquestions for you.
We've got this new book comingout.
I want to talk about that.
Also just want to say that whenyou deliver information, dr
Gregory, you almost sing it.
Like I was listening to yourtalk one of your TED talks
yesterday, and I just thoughtyou know you almost sing the
(09:42):
information.
Has anyone ever told you that?
Dr. Michael Greger (09:44):
That only happens when I'm really good at
a talk, when I've memorized thatand that you know the new talks
, it takes a while to get intothe groove, yeah, but once I
have a talk down, you know, onceI can be like coming up with my
grocery list while I'm givingthe talk for the next day or
something then it's really good.
Then I know the timing, yeah.
So eventually it gets there.
(10:05):
But this new talk, the agingtalk, it's going to be a while
before it sounds sing-songy.
Ella Magers (10:11):
Well, it's so engaging and I think that's so
important right when you'redelivering this, you know such
evidence-based this research tolay people right and it's
engaging.
So, thank you, thank you fordoing that Absolutely Well.
Dr. Michael Greger (10:27):
All the information in the world is
useless unless there's peoplelike you in the trenches
actually putting it to use andgiving it to people.
So very excited Cool.
Ella Magers (10:36):
Can you also confirm that you are a real life
human being, that you're notsuperhuman?
Because, seriously, I feel likethis should be an episode on
productivity.
I don't understand how you dowhat you do.
Well do you have a work-lifebalance?
Is there a balance?
God?
No, no, okay, god no.
Dr. Michael Greger (10:55):
But what I do have is a big staff, so
that's what I have.
That I mean.
So I mean you really you can'tdo this.
I mean so we have 14 people onstaff full-time and about 100 or
so active volunteers at any onetime, and so it's like I mean,
how else can you turn throughthousands of articles?
Ella Magers (11:13):
Yeah.
Dr. Michael Greger (11:14):
You know.
So it's really kind of a teameffort.
So, yeah, there's no way I cando it alone.
But yeah, and what's nice isthat we have staff on each side
of the globe and so when youknow, I go bed at night, I give
them a big load of work and it'sall done.
In the morning I can take itback, so we have this kind of
24-hour cycle that keeps itrocking.
Ella Magers (11:33):
What time do you go to bed?
Dr. Michael Greger (11:35):
Oh, I've been trying to be much better.
That's one of the pillars oflifestyle medicine that I'm
still working on, but I've beentrying to do a lot better.
There was a very bad time whenI was doing it three hours a
night.
So I'll bed at 1130, up at 230every night, and I found I was
just not as productive when Iwas unconscious and so I was
(11:55):
like, let's get doing.
But what really stopped me,besides being absolutely
miserable, was that people thinkthat they're most more
productive than they actuallyare when they're sleep deprived.
So it's not just that they aremuch less productive, but they
don't realize it.
Like that's this funny thingPeople think they're doing great
(12:16):
.
You know, there's like certainpeople on drugs like I'm so
creative, oh my God.
And then you look back on whatyou wrote and you're like, oh my
God.
So, yeah, it felt like I was,you know, getting a lot more
done than I actually was.
But yeah, so I'm really tryingto get seven hours of sleep now,
okay, which is what I recommendpeople get, and I'm able to do
that now.
Next week I'm on the road, thebook is out.
(12:39):
That's harder, right?
Some of these book signinglines going for four hours and
then I got some early flight thenext day and it's going to be
difficult to stick with it, buthaving control of my same thing
with diet when I have control ofmy diet, I have no bad food in
the house.
Even if I want to eat somecrappy, it's like too bad,
there's nothing, right, right,but when you're on the road, you
(13:01):
just do your best just to makeit to the next gig.
Ella Magers (13:05):
Yeah, and this will actually come out on the day
that your book is available, sothis will be yes.
There's never been.
That's exciting.
That's the day.
Dr. Michael Greger (13:13):
So then I got 100, doing 100 cities for
the next six months 100 citiesand how many languages is this
book coming out?
Oh, that's a good question.
I know how not to die ended up36 languages.
I don't think I even named 36languages, but this one I mean.
I know we're in the Big E's.
We have a German edition, aSpanish edition.
(13:35):
I'm not sure how many we're upto, but probably less than a
dozen so far.
But we'll see how it does andit does really well.
Hopefully other countries topick it up.
Ella Magers (13:43):
Well, longevity is all the rage, you know.
Yeah, what inspired you todecide on this topic for this
book?
Dr. Michael Greger (13:53):
You know, it reminds me a lot about my last
book, the I'm not to diet book.
You know, both the diet andanti-aging industries are these,
you know, multi-billion dollarbehemoths.
Right, and with so much moneyin the mix, the temptation to
promote products providing allsorts of you know preposterous
claims is apparentlyirresistible.
Right.
And so, you know, even aneducated layperson seeking basic
(14:16):
practical advice in eitherarena living longer or lighter
is faced with this justinscrutable barrage of pills and
potions.
And you know, even as aphysician, with a luxury of
waiting, you know, neck deep inthe medical literature, it's
been a challenge to tease outthe you know naked truth from
the emperor's garb.
But, you know, in the end Irealized that just makes this
(14:40):
endeavor that much moreimportant, right?
If it took me three years to gothrough all the science, right,
and I'm afraid the you know,casual observer would just have,
you know, there'd be no hopefrom, you know, separating facts
from farce, yeah.
Ella Magers (14:52):
So when I look at all the longevity studies out
there, one of the things thatcomes to mind first is, of
course, the blue zones and thecentenarians, and so I'm sure
that that's in the book, right,yeah, but the question I have
because I haven't seen the bookyet is you know, many of these
zones do include fish and oliveoil and wine, Like those are
(15:18):
three at least for the in Greece.
Dr. Michael Greger (15:20):
Right, the Mediterranean.
Ella Magers (15:21):
Even the Mediterranean.
So is there longevity becauseof some of those foods or is it
in spite of, or were you able tofigure that out?
Dr. Michael Greger (15:32):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
So what you want to do is lookat kind of a Venn diagram of
what.
So you know, of all thedifferent blue zones.
What do they share in common?
So they can each do their ownlittle thing, but what is kind
of the core?
What do they share, kind of thecore tenants?
So thankfully we have over 150dietary surveys that have been
(15:52):
done in blue zones.
We can actually kind of lay itout.
And so there's a blue zonesorganization, started by Dan
Butner, that did that.
And so they came up with bluezone food guidelines and you
could, you know, look them up.
There's 10 of them, and numberone is eat a diet at least 95%
plant-based.
And then the next one is reduceprocessed foods, and then the
(16:16):
one after that is a daily doseof beans, telling people to eat
more legumes as like the healthysource of protein, all the blue
zones as their primary sourceof protein, with some kind of
legume.
And then drink mostly waterthat's the best beverage.
Nuts is the healthiest snack.
And then cut down on fish, cutdown on eggs, cut down on sugar,
(16:36):
cut down on dairy, cut down onmeat, that's all 10.
Ella Magers (16:41):
Wow, got the memorized.
Did anything surprise you whileyou were doing your research?
Dr. Michael Greger (16:47):
Oh my God the whole book, like I knew so
little about going into.
I learned as much as anybodyelse doing one of these books.
In fact, there were entireareas of science that were not
discovered when I graduated frommedical school, like micro RNAs
have old chapter on that.
It undermines the entirecentral dogma of biology which
we all learned.
But it didn't even exist,wasn't discovered till after I
(17:09):
got out.
So completely new, completelyexcited, totally nerded out, had
a great time, and so lots ofstuff was really kind of
shocking to me and reallychanged my own diet a lot,
really.
So what I found about exercise,sleep, red wine, resveratrol,
nad supplements, vitamin D, fishprotein restriction, micro RNAs
(17:34):
I mean just the list goes onand on.
Where it's like I went inthinking, oh, I'd probably
recommend this supplement, thissupplement, similar, and then
they're like oh God, so glad Ilooked, and that's why there's
13,000 citations, it's because Iwanted to cover every possible,
every anti-aging supplementthat's ever been purported,
every organ system preservingyour vision and your hearing,
(17:57):
and your on down the list, andso, yeah, it was just a huge
project.
Ella Magers (18:01):
Can you share any specifics about what you changed
in your diet?
I'm so interested to know this.
Dr. Michael Greger (18:06):
No, totally so.
I'm now using a spice calledpapali, which is a long pepper
which is kind of the blackpepper family, has something
called pipe longumine, which ismaybe a senolytic compound which
destroys these so-called zombiecells in the body, these
pro-inflammatory cells in thebody that contribute to the
aging process.
Wheat germ I remember my momused to give me wheat germ.
(18:27):
I was like she was totallyright all along.
Ella Magers (18:29):
Mom's always right.
Dr. Michael Greger (18:30):
That should be the lesson.
Yeah, so wheat germ issomething called spermedine,
which is this kind of housecleaning process by which your
cells kind of clear outaccumulated debris that adds to
the aging process, the mostconcentrated source of which is
in wheat germ.
Started eating cardamom, eatingmore tempeh than I used to,
started growing my own mushrooms.
(18:51):
You can grow oyster mushrooms,just like you can like sprouts,
broccoli, whatever you can growmoisture, it's so cool.
So, yeah, strawberries, eatingmore strawberries, because some
called phycidins, some curse,people eat fresh, frozen or
freeze dried strawberries.
You know, normally I'd be like,oh well, I'd choose
blackberries because they havefive times the manateoxins as
strawberries, or I've got tochoose one minus one.
Nope, because there's thiscrazy compound in strawberries
(19:15):
that has the effects that youreally can't find anywhere else,
kind of in the plant kingdomand concentrated form.
So, all right, strawberries itis.
So I actually, you know, goingon the road, I have these little
packets of freeze driedstrawberry powder, which I'm not
putting my, you know, hoteloatmeal or whatever, and yeah,
so keep it going on the road.
Ella Magers (19:31):
Do you fly to the locations and then stay?
Dr. Michael Greger (19:33):
in a hotel, Mostly mostly, yeah, mostly yeah
.
Ella Magers (19:36):
You don't have a big tour bus and you get a.
Dr. Michael Greger (19:38):
Tour bus, that's what I need.
Yeah, come on, Dr Greger.
Ella Magers (19:42):
I need the Greger tour bus.
Yes, it needs to be wrappedright Like moving billboard.
Yeah, there we go right exactly.
This is promoting.
That's hilarious.
No, I'm very serious.
Dr. Michael Greger (19:54):
Well, no, no , that's how I started out.
I started out on the road,living out of my car After I got
out of med school and finishedmy post-grad school medical
training, where I just needed toget this information to
everyone's hands.
So I started traveling to allthe medical schools and staying
on people's couches and, justyou know, didn't own a pillow.
You know I was on the road fulltime, but only a certain number
(20:17):
of years you can do that beforeyou finally want to, and then
five dogs later.
Ella Magers (20:22):
Yeah, oh yeah, exactly.
Dr. Michael Greger (20:24):
Yeah, much better.
Ella Magers (20:25):
See, if you had a big tour bus, you could bring
all your oh my God, that's trueTour babies, right?
Oh, that's true, if you need amanager new manager here.
Dr. Michael Greger (20:33):
I could get your tour, bus You're totally
right.
Ella Magers (20:37):
Oh, that's amazing.
Okay, so let me see if I canphrase this correctly.
You had the how Not To Die book, and now you've got how Not To
Age.
They seem very related, youknow, because when you're aging,
you can't be dying yet.
But then there's the healthspan versus lifespan and all of
this.
How do those all kind of fit,how not to die and how not to
(20:59):
age.
Do you see where I'm kind ofgoing with that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, totally,yeah, so you know I talk about.
Dr. Michael Greger (21:04):
There's no such thing as dying from old age
.
There was a study of 14,000consecutive autopsies and all
the centenarians not a singleone, died of old age.
They died from disease, mostcommonly heart disease, which is
the number one killer of menand women in general.
So even people that lookperfectly fine, their physicians
said they were in perfecthealth.
Ah, when you actually cut themopen, or if they die up, no,
(21:26):
they died from disease.
And so, wait a second, ifeveryone dies from disease, and
why wasn't?
How Not To Die?
All the longevity book anyoneneeds, right?
It's just 15 chapters, easy, 15leading cause of death.
I come out with the old dietmaybe preventing, arresting,
reversing each one.
But then what I realized isthat each one of those diseases
has this age-related component.
(21:46):
So, yes, having a highcholesterol can increase your
risk of heart disease as much as20-fold, but an 80-year-old has
500 times the risk of having anheart attack compared to a
20-year-old.
So age is a risk factor for notjust heart disease but also
cancer and dementia and on downthe list.
Instead of just playingwhack-a-mole and hitting one
(22:10):
disease at a time, by slowingdown the sands of time, by
slowing down aging, we canaddress all these different
chronic diseases together.
You know, if all cancer wascured tomorrow, the average life
expectancy would only go upabout three years.
And the reason is because wedon't die from one age-related
disease, we just die fromanother.
Oh, the reason you die fromcancer is because you are going
(22:32):
to die next year of a heartattack.
But cancer got to you first,right.
So by slowing down aging we cankind of hit all these diseases
together.
Ella Magers (22:41):
Okay, interesting.
Now what about from a?
Well, I mean, we're looking atthe fitness perspective.
That fitness is very.
You know, what I learnedworking in the fitness industry
is that it had had very littleto do with true health, right,
it had mostly to do with howpeople looked on the outside.
So, coming from that angle,there's the protein thing.
(23:01):
Right, and we need protein tobuild muscle, and people in the
fitness, they want to buildmuscle, and yet in a lot of
longevity, experts talk aboutreducing protein, although you
do need a little more, right,when you're older.
Can you talk to that a littlebit?
Is this a give or take?
Like you either have muscle oryou can live long Right, right.
Dr. Michael Greger (23:21):
No, that's literally what I thought when I
was going into it.
When I was going into it, I wasbecause I was aware of the
anti-aging literature andthinking and knowing that you
know excess protein can increase, you know, lean mass among
younger middle-aged individuals.
And so was there going to bethe seesaw.
There's a like.
You have to have one at theexpense of another.
But when it comes to proteinaging, less may indeed be more.
(23:44):
Reducing protein intake, meaningrestricting protein intake down
to recommended levels.
It's the only thing that Icould find that could block all
11 of the aging pathwaysboosting NAD, improving immunity
, decreasing oxidative stress,inflammation, insulin resistance
, as well as a cancer, promotinggrowth hormone, igf1.
And, surprisingly, no benefitto adding extra protein to the
(24:06):
diets of older men and women interms of muscle mass, muscle
strength or muscle performance.
It just doesn't work.
Instead, with the excessprotein, what you get that most
Americans get causes a drop inthe pro-longed-jevity hormone
FGF21, a drop in testosterone, aworsening of the
age-accelerating hormone M-Tour.
So we really should try tostick to the recommended level
(24:27):
of 0.8 grams per healthykilogram body weight, which
comes out to be about 45 gramsthrough the average height woman
and 55 grams through theaverage height man.
Ella Magers (24:35):
Hmm, very interesting.
Okay, yeah, because even someof the longevity experts are
still touting protein, protein,protein.
Dr. Michael Greger (24:43):
Well, they're not touting it based on
the evidence.
They're not touting it based onthe literature.
I mean, the anti-agingliterature is very clear.
I mean, the most potent thingyou can do is methionine
restriction in terms oflongevity.
Methionine is an amino acidfound in concentrate in certain
proteins.
So that's why caloricrestriction works, because
you're actually cutting down onmethionine, because you're
eating less protein.
(25:04):
Or you can just keep caloriesthe same, cut down on protein,
that'll lower your methionine,or you can keep the protein the
same and just shift from animalsources to plant sources tend to
be lower in methionine.
Any of those above can decreasemethionine, which is kind of
our best bet of one kind ofsilver bullet for longevity, and
so that's why we think caloricrestriction works.
(25:25):
It's really it's not about thecalories.
It's really about and not justprotein in general, but specific
amino acids, like thesulfur-containing amino acid,
cysteine, methionine,branched-chain amino acids.
We really want to keep thoseminimized.
It certainly gets sufficientlevels, but not to get excess
levels in terms of improving ourlifespan.
Ella Magers (25:44):
Now, when you bring all this new stuff home and
you're saying, okay, we're goingto add this, I'm going to add
this how does this affect yourfamily?
Dr. Michael Greger (25:51):
Are they like oh God, why is there
parsley and everything all of asudden?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean at this point theyjust know that all of a sudden,
no more bananas in thesmoothies because of the new
study or whatever.
Ella Magers (26:07):
It's just like yeah all right, okay, wait, why no
bananas in the smoothie?
Dr. Michael Greger (26:11):
Oh, yeah.
So yeah, this new study.
I just did a webinar about it.
There's an enzyme in bananascalled polyphenoloxidase.
It actually destroys some ofthe nutrition in berries and
cocoa, and so if you mix it upin a smoothie, you're actually
particularly if it waits aroundfor a while You're actually
getting less nutrition, had younot add banana.
So I encourage people, you know, do frozen mango instead or
(26:32):
something like that.
Ella Magers (26:33):
But yeah, oh, it is a lot right.
It can be a little overwhelming.
So I eat a huge kale saladevery day.
That's my amazing.
I love it, I love it except andthen I realized I was drinking
a matcha tea.
Oh yeah and then my iron levelswere low.
Yeah so then I was like okay,no, I have to wait an hour.
Dr. Michael Greger (26:51):
Yeah, my kale salad, and right, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Ella Magers (26:54):
It's a lot.
How do you help?
Yeah, no, no, no.
Dr. Michael Greger (26:56):
Well, first of all, the really core tenants.
Right, it's really the basiccommon sense, lifestyle factors
that can really mean the bigdifference.
You know, living a decade ormore.
It's the not smoking, not beingobese, regular exercise, more
fruits and vegetables.
It's really the basic stuff.
Never too late to start eatinghealthier, to start moving, to
stop smoking, and so that's like80% of the problem, right?
(27:18):
Okay then, yes, if you want toreally optimize, right, and you,
you seem to me as theoptimizing type.
Okay, yes, there's all sorts ofcool stuff we can learn and we
can tweak, but I don't wantpeople to be like, just throw
their hands up in the air and belike, oh, it's too complicated
and right, eat whatever garbageput in front of them.
Food industry loves that kindof Muddying of the waters, but
(27:39):
no, no, I mean really the coretenants of healthy eating.
Healthy living is really thebasics they get in most of the
way.
There, you know.
And so, and that's why I reallytry to emphasize in the book,
in fact, the whole conclusion istime back.
Okay, let's take a step backhere.
It's two important things.
I know there was a lot here,but then, yes, there certainly
is Stuff, for you know everyother little.
(28:02):
You know body function you wantto optimize.
But let's not force for thetrees, you know.
Ella Magers (28:08):
Yes, I get that completely very good.
And then the last kind ofquestion about aging.
So sticking on the physicallevel skin yeah.
I think you know that's a bigthing.
I mean, I'm 43.
I'm looking down, I'm like oh,my elbow.
I'm like having getting oldlady elbows, is that?
So I like down thing, and thenI just Approach it with
compassion and say that's justpart of the process and blah
(28:29):
blah blah.
But is there things we can do,because you know most collagen?
Dr. Michael Greger (28:33):
is animal-based.
Tons of stuff we can do.
Well, yeah, it's animal-based,because animals make collagen,
like ourselves, we make collagen.
You don't have to eat collagen,thank you.
It's like saying you know, it'slike.
It's like I want to be smart,I'm gonna eat brains like this,
but can you give us like two orthree?
There's lots of things we cando for our skin.
(28:53):
The single most effective thingto slow the Signs of skin aging
is protect your skin from sundamage, though ambient air
pollution can also Contribute.
But it's really, you know,daily sunscreen, spf 15 or
higher.
We want the mineral sunscreens,the titanium or zinc, and so
that's really the most importantthing.
In terms of diet, thecarotenoid nutrients in certain
(29:14):
colorful fruits and vegetablesare deposited in the skin.
Give you this kind of healthyglow.
Both light and dark skin, andNot just appearance, actually
improves skin elasticity,collagen status, facial wrinkles
, probably due to this kind ofinside out sunscreen effect.
So you actually, you know, dothese experiments where you burn
people with lasers.
You know before and aftereating more.
(29:34):
You know sweet potatoes, andyou can get significantly less
redness after eating thesehealthy foods.
Drinking extra water canimprove skin dryness and
roughness.
Honey bush tea can reduce eyewrinkles.
Cocoa powder Can increase skinthickness, skin thinnings a real
problem in old age.
Elasticity to increase wrinkleseverity.
Almonds can also decreasewrinkle severity, again because
(29:56):
of probably some UV resistancein the skin Ground.
Flaxsees can improve skinsmoothness.
Soy foods can improve skinelasticity, fine wrinkles.
And then, in terms of topicaltreatments, most of the
anti-aging creams actually don'twork better than just simple
moisturizers.
But the gold standardanti-aging skincare is the daily
facial moisturizer with thesunscreen.
(30:18):
And you know we have randomizedcontrolled trials proving that
randomized people more sunscreencan significantly cut down a
visible skin aging.
There are these retinoids is aprescription retinoid called
Tritinium or retinae that canactually reverse signs of
existing sun damage, but a Smallfraction is absorbed into your
bloodstream and actually mayincrease your risk of premature
(30:40):
death.
So I don't recommend taking.
In fact, that was just a videothat went up, I think, today
talking about the concerns aboutthat low concentrations of
alpha hydroxy, alpha hydroxyacids.
Skin lotions can improve facialphoto damage but also increase
skin photosensitivity.
So then, can make things worthin the long run.
But there are a few things thatI found that could be useful.
(31:02):
Topical vitamin C and topicalnicotinamide can reduce wrinkles
and salinus and improve skinfirmness, and so I have recipes
for like DIY.
You know, vitamin C serums.
There's like 2,000 timescheaper than you can get at
retail.
Basically just mixing threegrams of bulk ascorbic acid Into
30 grams of water into like aone ounce dropper.
(31:25):
It costs you about a nickel perounce as opposed to like a
hundred twenty dollars an ounce.
Ella Magers (31:30):
Oh my gosh.
Dr. Michael Greger (31:31):
And then topical nicotinamide is even
more expensive over two hundreddollars an ounce but all you do
is mix 1.4 grams of bulknicotinamide for every ounce of
your favorite skin lotion.
Apply pea-sized amount To eachside of your face once a day.
That's like a 5,000 percentdiscount.
Ella Magers (31:54):
Dr Gregory now.
Thank you so, so much foreverything that you do.
You know this is a show aboutholistic health and a big piece
of that is live in our purpose,and you certainly do that day in
, day out.
I love that you have rescuedanimals as well at home, and I
appreciate you so much.
Can you just tell us where toget this book that is out today?
Dr. Michael Greger (32:14):
You can get this book anywhere from your
local public library or anybookseller, and all the proceeds
from all my books are alldonated directly to charity.
Ella Magers (32:23):
You're amazing.
Thank you so much, dr Greger.
Dr. Michael Greger (32:26):
Thanks, you have the good work.
Ella Magers (32:27):
Hey, you too.
Bye, bye.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of Rise and
Thrive with me, ella Majors.
I truly hope you found itinspiring and, if you did,
please help me spread the wordby leaving a rating and review
on your Favorite podcast playerand by sharing the show with
(32:49):
your friends.
As you probably know by now, mylife's purpose is to use my
voice to make this world a moreconscious and compassionate
place, and your reviews andshares Make a huge impact.
And last, I'm getting a ton ofinsanely positive feedback about
my short and sweet Monthlynewsletter called the way short,
for the way out is through.
(33:10):
I give my top five latestbadass discoveries, insights and
explorations, like Veganproducts and recipes.
I'm obsessed with books andshows I'm loving and workouts
that have me fired up.
Head on over to my website,ella Majorscom, to sign up and
check out all the other awesomeresources I have for you and
(33:32):
projects I'm involved with,including hogs and kisses farm
Sanctuary, where our mission isto create the best life for farm
animals while inspiringcompassion for all living beings
.
Thanks a lot, and I'll see youon the next one.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!