May 20, 2025 • 35 mins
A founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Michael Greger, M.D., is a physician and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition. His science-based nonprofit, NutritionFacts.org, offers a free online portal hosting more than 2,000 videos and articles on a myriad of health topics. Dr. Greger is a sought-after lecturer and has presented at the Conference on World Affairs and the World Bank, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in Oprah Winfrey’s defense in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. A graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Greger is also an acclaimed author. How Not to Die, The How Not to Die Cookbook, and How Not to Diet became instant New York Times Best Sellers. More than a million copies of How Not to Die have been sold. All proceeds Dr. Greger receives from the sales of his books and speaking honoraria are donated directly to charity.
Topics covered in this episode:
Plant-based Benefits
Boosting Liver Enzymes
Nutrient Deficiencies in Diet
Protein Overfeeding
Plants as Amino Acid Source
Anti-aging
Community and Purpose Impact
Misconceptions About Health Foods
To learn more about Dr. Michael Greger and his work, head over to https://nutritionfacts.org/
We hope you enjoyed this episode. Come check us out at https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-lindsey-elmore-show
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lindsey-elmore-show--5952903/support.
Topics covered in this episode:
Plant-based Benefits
Boosting Liver Enzymes
Nutrient Deficiencies in Diet
Protein Overfeeding
Plants as Amino Acid Source
Anti-aging
Community and Purpose Impact
Misconceptions About Health Foods
To learn more about Dr. Michael Greger and his work, head over to https://nutritionfacts.org/
We hope you enjoyed this episode. Come check us out at https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-lindsey-elmore-show
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lindsey-elmore-show--5952903/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
RSV is a common, highly contagious respiratory virus that usually
causes mild code like symptoms, but in older adults, RSV
can worse and chronic health problems lead to life threatening
illness or even death. The first RSV vaccine for people
age sixty and older is now available and can be
given at the same time as other vaccinations. Appointments are
(00:22):
open right now at Kinney Drugs. Just stop buy or
visit Kinney Drugs dot Com to RSVP for your RSV shot.
RSV is a common contagious virus that in older adults
can lead to life threatening illness or even death. The
first RSV vaccine for ages sixty and older is now
available at Kinney Drugs. Visit Kinney Drugs dot Com to
(00:43):
RSVP for your RSV shot.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome back, everybody to today's edition of The Lindsay Elmore Show.
We're going to be talking all about aging today because
physicians have long treated aging like a malady, but getting
older does not mean that you have to get sicker.
There are a level even pathways for aging in our
body cells, and we can disrupt each of them. We
(01:07):
can in processes like autophagy or the upcycling of unusable
junk can be boosted with foods like tempe and mushrooms
and wheat germ. Senescent zombie cells that spew inflammation that
are linked to age related diseases can be cleared with
(01:29):
foods like onions, apple and kale, and we can combat
the effects of aging without breaking the bank. Why spend
a small fortune on vitamin C facial serums when you
can make your own for two thousand times cheaper. My
(01:50):
guest today is doctor Michael Gregor, and he has been
inspired by the dietary and lifestyle patterns of centenarians and
residents of the Blue Zone regions of the world where
people live the longest. In his new book, How Not
to Age, Doctor Gregor presents a simple, accessible and evidence
(02:13):
based method to preserve the body functions that can help
you to feel youthful, both physically and mentally. It's brimming
with expertise and actionable takeaways, and How Not to Age
lays out practical strategies for achieving ultimate longevity. I'm very
excited about the interview today. It is a little bit
(02:36):
shorter than our interviews normally are because doctor Gregor is
such an in demand speaker. He has been someone that
I have admired and followed for many many years. I
have read his books, I have watched him in documentaries,
and I love his no nonsense approach for how we
(02:57):
can use our lifestyle to prevent us from aging, dying,
and even dieting. This is The Lindsay Elmore Show. Welcome
to The Lindsay Elmore Show, a podcast for people who
deserve to be healthy. With honest, open and enlightening conversations
with doctors, thought leaders, creatives and spiritual gurus. You'll walk
(03:21):
away with simple and tangible tips and tricks that allow
you to live your healthiest life so you can pursue
your dreams, overcome obstacles, and leave your mark. A founding
member and fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine,
Michael Gregor, MD is a physician and internationally recognized speaker
(03:44):
on nutrition. His science based nonprofit nutrition facts dot Org
offers a free online portal hosting more than two thousand
videos and articles on a myriad of health topics. Doctor
Gregor is a so after lecturer and has presented at
the Conference on World Affairs and the World Bank, testified
(04:06):
before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in
Oprah Winfrey's defense in the infamous meat defamation trial. A
graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University
School of Medicine, doctor Gregor is also an acclaimed author
How Not to Die. The How Not to Die cookbook
(04:28):
and How Not to Diet became instant New York Times bestsellers.
More than a million copies of How Not to Die
have been sold. All proceeds doctor Gregor receives from the
sales of his books and speaking on our area are
directly donated to charity. His most recent book is How
Not to Age. Doctor Michael Gregor, Welcome to the Lindsay
(04:53):
Elmore Show.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I am so honed to be here. Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I am so excited to chat with you. I have
seen you in documentaries and read many of your works
for a very long time. You have a new book
called How Not to Age, So give us a little
bit of a background. You and I are kind of similar.
I'm a trained pharmacist, you're a trained physician. And then
we just took a hard left turn. So what led
(05:17):
you to start out in conventional medicine and then take
this hard left into nutrition.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Oh you know, I actually predated that. It's actually it's
the only thanks to my grandma. I was just a
kid when my grandma was sent home in a wheelchair
to die. Basically she had in stage hard to seize,
already had so many bypass surgeries to basically run out
of plumbing at some point. Confined a wheelchair, crushing chest pain,
(05:46):
her life was over at age sixty five. Then you
heard about this guy, Nathan prittickin one of our early
lifestyle medicine pioneers, And what happened next is actually detailed
in pridicans biography. He talks about Francis Gregor, my grandma.
They wheeled her in and she walked out. Though she
was given a medical death sence the today's sixty five
(06:06):
Things to a Healthy Diet, I was able to enjoy
another thirty one years on this earth at the age
ninety six, to continue to enjoy our six grandkids, including me.
So that's why won medicine in the first place, Why
I practiced lifestyle medicine, why I started a nutrition factor,
or why I wrote the book How Not to Die?
Why all the proceeds from all my books are donated
(06:27):
directly to charity. I just want to do for everyone's
family what Pritikeen did for my family.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Oh that's so extraordinary. So talk to us about what
you have learned over the course of your career that's
led you to create kind of this daily dozen that
you think can help people stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah so yeah, so that came from my book How
Not to Die. The first half of the book is
just fifteen chapters in each of the fifteen leading cause
of death, talking about world diet may play in preventing
arrestling reversing each of our top fifteen killers. But I
even wanted to just got to be a reference book.
I want it to be kind of a practical, day
to day grocery store type guide. And so that's the
(07:06):
second half of the book where I send to my
recommendation surround it daily doesn't checklist of all the healthiest
of healthy foods. I encourage people to try to fit
into their daily routine. So, you know, darkening leafy vegetables
every day, the healthiest types of vegetables, berries every day,
the healthiest fruits, uh, you know, tablespmrom the ground flax seeds,
courtesan turmarked, the best beverage is how much exercise to
get every day. Again, just try to kind of inspire
(07:29):
people to to to kind of crowd out some of
the less healthy options. It's available as a free app
Doctor Gregor's Daily doesn't youn kind of check check boxes
and try track your progress. Again, just try to as
kind of an aspirational goal. But yeah, people seem to
have found it useful in terms of just uh, you know,
reminding them, Oh, I forgot to eat this today quick,
(07:52):
I all put some on my salad or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it is so simple when you get right down
to it, that it is. We talk a lot about
these big concepts about health and wellness and how to
be healthy and how to avoid disease, and it's like,
really and truly, if you get down to it, it's
just a series of mundane activities done over and over
and over again. And so let's talk about diet. Let's
(08:17):
talk about what is the best diet to prevent you
from aging and dyeing and really dieting in general. And
so what do you think is the best diet to
help people live longer and healthier lives.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, just to emphasize your mundane point, I mean, I
think that's really important, right. One need not make drastic choices,
not all or nothing, even just basic common sense lifestyle
factors can mean literally living a decade longer, meaning not smoking,
not being obese, regular exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables.
(08:56):
It's never too late, never too late to start eating healthier,
never too late to stop smoking, ever too late to
start moving. We really do hold the power, and I
think that'll take people, just that kind of advice to take.
People can eighty percent of the way there, and then yes,
for those who want to optimize. You know, I got
all these you know, big books and talk about kind
of all the details. But in terms of longevity and diet,
(09:19):
there's been a four one hundred and fifty dietary surveys
in the so called blue zones. These are areas of
exceptional longevity around the world throughout history. So based on those,
we should really try to center our diets around whole
plant foods, so we're minimizing processed foods, meat, dairy, eggs, salt, sugar,
maximizing fruits and vegetables, whole grains, leggoms, which are beans, splitpyes, chippies, lentils, nuts,
(09:45):
and seeds or and spices, mushrooms, basically real food that
grows out of the ground. These are really our healthiest.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Choices, absolutely, And so you have educated a long time
about vegetarian diets and vegan diye, and I think vegan
diets have kind of taken a wrong turn towards becoming
ultra processed and becoming where you can eat vegan all
day long and still be just as unhealthy as someone
(10:13):
who is eating a more conventional omnivorous diet. What do
you think the latest research says about focusing on plants
as like the cornerstone of the diet. And why after
all these years are you still saying, look, at least minimize,
if not completely avoid meat, eggs, and dairy.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah no, yeah, not just as unhealthy. You can be worse. Yeah,
I mean, so you know we should try to primarily
eat plants, though not necessarily exclusively plants. Plant based are
really more about maximizing the intake of the healthiest foods.
You know, as a physician, these labels like vegetarian vegan,
(10:57):
that just tells me what you don't eat. I mean,
do you actually eat vegetables right? Right? And look, it
doesn't matter what you mean, your on birthdays, holiday, special cases,
one day to day basis, really should try to eat
healthy centrodets around these natural foods from you know, fields,
not factories, these unprocessed plant foods. But yeah, I couldn't
agree with you more. Look, twenty years ago you came
(11:19):
to me said you're vegan. I'm like, oh you shopping
the produce. Ie like eat he the food?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
But now, but now there's all this vegan junk food. Right. Look,
the processed food industry will give us any flavor of
junk food, won't they want. Well, they'll give us low,
low fat junk food, right, they'll give us, you know,
they'll get a snack, well, cookies, they'll give us high
fat junk food. They'll give us ironically paleo junk food, right,
(11:44):
keto joe, any kind of jump food. But what they
can't make money off of is real food, right because
real food goes bad ruts on the shelf, it's perishable.
They need a snack cake that's just on the shelf,
and they'd be happy to you know, spray it with
vitamins or do whatever it is that's gonna get you
to eat it. When really the you know, the incentives
are all wrong and that you know, that's why you
(12:07):
never got to see an add on the Super Bowl
for sweet potatoes or something, just because there's no they're
not branded products. Even if Swooptato growers not gonna put
an ad for sweep testk because you buy their competitor's
sweet poatatoes. Like, the whole system is just set up
to sell people, you know, bottles of brown sugar water
because that's it's a pure profit right. It's just like
all my tax bigger subsidized sugar. I mean, it's just
(12:30):
like so that the head of the soda companies not like,
how can I contribute to the childhood obeste epidemic. They're
just like, how do I satisfy the quarterly earnings for
my shareholders? And if they got a conscience, all of
a sudden, they'd be booted out and they'd bring somebody
else in that would make money for them. And so
it's just the system is set up to just bombard
(12:52):
us with ads for fast food and junk food and
candy and you name it, these profitable foods. But they
these companies don't have the best interest of our families
at heart. No and they never have.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And it's not even a modern problem.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You look back to the very.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Founding of the United States. The second law that we
have on the books is wheat and corn subsidies that
allow us to create, even back then, massive amounts of
what was then a life sustaining food but has now
transitioned into this weird paradigm that we live in. That
you can be a farmer in Iowa and still unable
(13:31):
to feed your family out of your backyard. It is
extraordinary what we have, what we have done to create
this hyper palatable food while while pushing everything out. And
another thing, you know, going back to what you said
about like beans, legumes, nut seeds. I don't think people
(13:54):
have a concept of what even plant based foods are anymore.
And I I don't know if this is exactly in
your wheelhouse, but I'm sure that you've come across this,
this monoculturalization of crops that we are seeing in not
just the United States but globally. What do you see
(14:14):
as the risk to human health when we are narrowing
the number of foods that we eat into more, you know,
just one version of a potato, one version of a
banana versus the way our ancestral diets were kind of
set up, and how can we encourage people to diversify
(14:35):
the amount of plants that are in the diet on
a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Yeah, I know, that's a fantastic question. It's not just
about the quantity of foods are reading and even the
quality of foods are reading, but the diversity of foods
that we're eating. Yeah. So I have a lot of
videos talking about this. You know, this is getting that
garden variety and factors. Even talk about my latest book,
this researcher suggests we should eat fifty types of foods
a week. We should like check off the fifty different
(15:01):
foods every week. And the reason is because they are
talking about the supporting the microbiome. There's a you know,
we all know about dietary fiber. There's actually thousands of
different fibers that catch all term for these indigestible carbohydrates
that that that feed our good bugs. And there's thousands
of different types. They all feed different types of good bacteria.
And so by eating a variety of different foods we
(15:22):
are we are fostering the growth of this diversity of
good bacteria in our gut, which not only has implications
for intestinal health, but they produce these compounds, these post
biotics like butterry that get absorbed through the coal wall
into our system, circular throughout our bloodsream even cross the
blood brain bearer have effects in our mental health and
our appetite, decreasing inflammation, improving immunity and so. But that
(15:44):
requires not just some In fact, some of the fiber
supplements like like like cilium or metem usele aren't even
digestible our by our good bacteria, right, so they can
help with kind of regularity, but don't actually have all
those ancillary bats benefits. So, right, we really want to
get a variety of different plant foods. If you think
(16:05):
about it, you know, fruit or fruit, but vegetables basically
any other type of part of the plant that isn't
the fruit. And so you know, root vegtivals have a
very different nutrient composition than stem vegetables like you know
rub barbercelli compared to flour vegetables like cauliflour compared to
leafy vegetables, and so eating and so you know, eating
different families of vegetables, different types of vegetables can have
(16:28):
different effects. You know, it's like you know the you know,
the the reason that you know orange juice is not
as good as the orange it is because they remove
some of those nutrients from the orange, right. But you know,
so that's what we want to eat kind of the
whole food, But that whole orange doesn't have any of
the apple nutrients, right, all these specific phytronutrients which have
(16:50):
all sorts of of of unique properties. There's some things
like vitamin C found throughout the plant kingdom. There are
some places of concentrated more than others. But you know,
you can get vited. You're not gonna get scurvy. You
don't have to pick and choose, right, But there are
some combat like crucifer spacibles have this specific compound. It's
all sorts of amazing effects. And if you don't eat
(17:10):
broccoli family vaghetables every day, you're just not gonna get it.
You know, Flaxis have the lignand strawberries have the physotin.
There's these things there where if you just don't eat
these foods, you are going to be missing out on
some of the benefits.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So I want to talk about the opposite of that,
because proponents of more carnivorous based diets. One of the
things that they kind of throw at people who eat
more plant based diets. They're like, oh, the lectins, Oh,
the oxalates, Oh, the solanines, oh the you know, plants
have these compounds that are made to protect them that
are going to kill us. And so we'll be right
(17:47):
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Speaker 1 (19:28):
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causes mild code like symptoms, but in older adults, RSV
can worsen chronic health problems lead to life threatening illness
or even death. The first RSV vaccine for people age
sixty and older is now available and can be given
at the same time as other vaccinations. Appointments are open
(19:51):
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Speaker 2 (20:00):
And now let's get back to the show. What's your
opinion and like, how do we clear out the noise around?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, no, Look, plants don't want to
be eaten and we want to eat them. But so
there's it's not like the evolutionary battle between predator and prey.
It's not one sided. Right, Just as these plants of
all these compounds to protect themselves, we evolve ways to
subvert their protection, right, and so we have and there's
(20:31):
certain you know, cooking methods obviously, right, we can get
rid of some of the tannins, you know, so we
can end up eating acorns, or we can eat beans,
right because we can, we can we can destroy some
of the lectins, and so now you know there's a
certain amount of like you can't there are certain really
high oxylate foods that you can overdo. So Spanish beet,
green Swiss shardvy cups a day you can increase your
(20:54):
risk kidney stones. But some of these other so called
anti nutrients like fight tapes, we used to think those
are mineral blocks, mineral inhibition kind of mineral blockers. But
that was based on animal studies like fifty years ago.
Now we know fight tates actually have anti cancer properties.
People eat more high fight tape foods actually live longer
or healthier. And so there's been this whole one eighty
(21:14):
with a nutritional feel, uh, and you know, some lectins
are actually good for us. Uh, you know they though
they certain span the spectrum. And so yeah, it's just
like I mean, you know, we've there's been this back
and forth, and some plants still are poisonous indeed, but
other plants actually have a kind of a hormetic benefit
(21:36):
that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. So green
tea broccoli actually so broccoli boos are detoxifying liver enzymes.
So for example, if you eat broccoli, you get less
of a caffeine balls for the same amount of coffee
because your body is so rapidly detoxifying the caffeine. The
reason it boos your liver enzymes is because your your
your body sees broccoli as a threat. But that tiny
(21:57):
little threat causes it's like a vaccine response right there,
that little insult that gets your body to overreact and
then you know, boost boost for the future. Same thing
with broccoli. Green tea. Also, the antioxidant effect is actually
a prooxident. In effect, green tea releases this some called
nerve to this whole antioxidant defense mechanism, which boosts our
(22:20):
antioxidant enzymes overall has an antioxidt effect. But it's because
it's actually a prooxident. In fact, every little sip of
green tea it's like a little stab to our body.
Our body has to ramp up our defenses. It's like
marathon runners suffer higher rates of DNA damage during the race,
but a week later, because they so revved up their
DNA repair mechanisms, they end up with less DNA damage
(22:42):
in their bodies than when they started with. And we
can do the many same things with food. So just
because the food is you know, our body kind of
reacts to it in a negative way, in a way
that can actually be beneficial the long one.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So another thing that comes up when we talk about
nutritional advice and you know, comparing in contrasting vegetarianism versus
an omnivorous or even carnivorous diet, which I just I
cannot understand how anyone could live on one hundred percent meat.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
But that's just me. You know, people talk about, well.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Where am I going to get protein?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And I.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Maybe you said, I can't remember who said this, but
somebody said, take take a journey and memory lane and
try to think of anyone you know in your life
who has been calorically fed and protein malnourished, and so
where is this concept that you must have animal based
foods in order to get protein. And are Americans really
(23:41):
protein overfed at this point?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, So ninety percent of Americans reached the recommended ali
intake for protein, and the small percentage that don't are
typically in these kind of starvation dies where they're just
not eating enough food in general, and so that's why
they're not reaching their protein needs. Whereas there are some
nutrients that there is really an epidemic of deficiency. So
ninety seven percent of Americans don't get enough fiber, don't
(24:06):
even reach the minimum recommended fiber intake. Ninety eight percent
of Americans don't reach the potassium minimum forty seven hundred
milligrams a day. Ninety eight percent of Americans are e
potassium deficient die. So that's really these are the real
nutrients of concerns like, well, wait a second, there's just
this epidemic of insufficient nutrition, and they tend to be
concentrated in the whole plant food. So that's where it's like, well,
(24:27):
where do you get your potassium from? You know, where
are you getting your fiber from? Whereas most Americans on
average get about seventy percent more protein. That's necessary. And
the reason why we're eating protein, the reason we need
proteins for these essential amino acids essential because our bodies
can't make them. We need to get them winter or
die because we as animals can't make them. Well, guess what,
(24:48):
other animals can't make them either. They're essential amino acids.
Where do they get them from? They get them from
where all essential amino acids come from, from the soil,
from plants and microorganisms that make them. We can kind
of cut out out the middle move and get it
straight from the plants ourselves. All plants have all essential
amino acids. There's only one protein source in our food
(25:08):
supply that's actually an incomplete protein, and that's collagen or
gelatin whi's missing trip to fan And so you could
actually die of protein malnutrition if you just ate jello
all the time, because there's actually not a complete protein.
But other than that, as long as you're getting sufficient calories,
you're getting enough protein in fact, and that's a lot
of the anti aging literature actually surrounds methining restriction, which
(25:33):
is amino acid concentrated to animal proteins, so we're actually
restricting down to the recommended level of protein to decrease
IGF one boost something called FGF twenty one. These enzymes
and hormones that have to do with both pro aging
and anti aging mechanisms. So the anti aging literature is
really on about protein reduction down to recommended levels, which
(25:56):
is point eight grams for healthy dilogram body weight, which
is about forty five grams a day for the average
type woman and fifty five day for the average type man.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I saw a bodybuilder and a strength athlete who is
completely plant based one time, and his family was given
him a hard time about only eating a plant based diet,
and they were like, you know, you're strong as an ox,
Like how can you how can you be this strong
only eating plants? And he's like, how do you think
the ox is that?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
What do you think the ox is eating? If you're
like you do right? You think of mountain gorillas and
ell beans and are all these really right there?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Right?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But that's of course they're good A new judge for blant, Yes,
of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Okay, So let's talk specifically about aging, because your latest book,
How Not To Age tell us a little bit about it,
and tell us about some specific foods that you think
everybody should be including in their diet if they're concerned
about aging healthily.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah. So, in terms of avanda agent, according to data
from the Globe Burden of Disease Study, which is the
largest systematic analysis for risk factors in history, the top
five things to do for the to net the largest
lifespan gains would be, in order of importance, more legums
or so. That's so all the Blue zones center as
their primary approaching source one of the legums like beans,
(27:15):
but pet chick pece, lentils. That's the most important thing
we can do. Then number two, eat more whole grains.
Number three eat more nuts, and then eat less meat,
and then finally cut down on sugary beverages like soda.
So three of the top five, in fact, the top
three things were actually not getting enough of rather than
things were cutting down on. And so yeah, so it's
(27:35):
about how can we, you know, add some of these
healthier foods to a diet to kind of you know,
crowd out some of the less healthy options. Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Absolutely. And so the Blue zones, I just I love
learning from them because it's it's not only about the food,
but I think another critical constituent of aging healthily is
the community and the pursuit of purpose. Does your new
book cover more about out about about how people who
(28:03):
live the longest lives kind of approach life, Like what's
their attitude about life versus people that die a little
bit younger?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Sure? Yeah, so I don't just talk about diet, talking
about exercise, sleeve stress, social interactions, weight control, and so. Yeah,
diet is appears to be the largest component, but only
about half. So about half of the longevity of the
blue zones is attributed to diet, since the single most
important component, but that still leaves half unaccounted for. And
(28:33):
that is all these other things. It's not so much
working out per se, but just regular daily activity throughout
the day, I mean, critically important for maintaining muscle mass
and strength, balance, mobility, cutting down the risk of falls,
you know, I mean, the benefits of exercise just go
on and on, improving cognition and mood and treating depression
(28:54):
and proving artery function on down the list. And so
it really hard to underemphasize the importance of exercise. But
you know what, was what I found interesting about the
kind of social isolation piece. So the importance of social
ties is that social isolation and loneliness only appear to
(29:14):
be associated with higher mortality rates because of the the
the it's mediated by adverse lifestyle. So people start drinking more,
they start smoking more, they start eating less healthily. The
same thing with stress, So people are really stressed. They
(29:35):
it's not that the stress itssealth is actually shortening their lives,
but it's because they're stressed that they then engage in
lifestyle behaviors that are shortening their lives. So that's kind
of good news, and that even if we're bereaved, even
if we're stressed, as long as we maintain that healthy
diet and lifestyle, we should not sell for the consequences.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh, that is so interesting. It's not necessarily about the
lack of access to the positive. It's the fact that
when you're isolated, you tend to go more towards the negative.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
That is really genius. Substance use, alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs. Yeah, yeah,
and so, but but if you're able to kind of
statistically control for those factors, you actually don't see all
of a sudden it all evens out and you don't
see any difference. And so that's why it's just so
critically important to be cognizant in that fact and don't
(30:29):
let kind of insult add to injury in those kind
of circumstances.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to kind of crush everybody's
dreams as we're wrapping up today, because we all try
to convince ourselves that certain things that we want to
be really healthy are And I remember the first time
that somebody told me that, like, you know that you
can get the same antioxidants from grapes that you can
(30:56):
from wine, And I was like, don't talk logic to me,
don't you do it? So let's talk about fish, Let's
talk about coffee, let's talk.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
About red wine.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Let's talk about all these foods that have been positioned
as health foods but may or may not be.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah. Well, so yeah, there's some good news and bad news. Unfortunately,
the alcohol is the bad news. So we used to think,
I mean, we've all known that heavy drinking, drinking during pregnancy,
binge drink, has been bad, but there was this concept
that modern drinking was actually beneficial. But that seems to
be a consequence of an artifact of a systemic mischaracterization
(31:36):
of former drinkers as life wound them, stainders of this
kind of sick quitter effect. Basically, people stopped drinking because
they were unhealthy, and so no wonder that people continue
to drink beer healthier. Actually, the same reason why some
studies show that those who quit smoking actually have shorter
lives of those continued to smoking is because why do
they quit smoking? Oh, because they suffered some horrible ravaging
(31:56):
effects from the smoking. That's why they're living shorter lives.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
It's also like if you go and read The Triumph
of Doubt David Michael's book, I mean, there's an entire
chapter about like where did we get this J shaped
curve that like two glasses of wine is good? Well,
you know, the alcohol industry funded some studies.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
It's like, okay, yeah, so there is so that all
of a sudden, when you control that the J, the
J curve disappears and you have a straight linear increase
where really the only safe intake is zero because alcohol
turns into acid. Al Dyde was a known carcinogen in
the body. Even like drinking increases breast cancer risk, et cetera.
So we really should try to cut down. However, good
(32:39):
news for the coffee drinkers. In my in my book
on my liver, in my chapters now not to die
on a liver disease depression Parkinson's I talk about the
benefits of coffee with the liver, mind, and brain. Now,
coffee drinkers do seem to live longer lives, lower rates
of cancer. Overall, it may all worsen acid reflux disease,
bone loss in glaucoma. But otherwise coffee is good for you.
(33:02):
Though every couple of coffee is a lost opportunity to
drink something even healthier, green tea, which is so I say,
with even better a lifespan benefit. So but yeah, coffee
is a healthful beverage, but green tea would be even better.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
And what about fish just as we're as we're closing out.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah, well, I mean, so if we had a if
we had a time machine to go back for the
Industrial revolution to be a different thing. But unfortunately our
oceans have become kind of humanity sewer. Everything eventually flows
into the sea, So all the mercury from all the
cold blands in shine eventually gets the positive builds up
the aquatic food chain. So the highest levels of industry replutes,
the DDT, BCBS, dioxids haven't been et cetera, is all
(33:42):
in the aquatic food chain. That's why we have hundreds
of thousands of babies born with brain damage every year
because their mothers at mercury contaminated to fish, leading to
billions of dollars of lost productivity. Now, having said that, look,
a tuna sandwich still better than boloney sandwich, but you know,
like falafel or or like a hummost wrap would be
even better kind of you know, A Harvard researchers found
(34:03):
that a three percent swap from fish protein to plant
protein associate with six percent decreasing all cause mortality. And
so the so no matter the animal protein where they're
talking about poultry, fish, dairy, swishing to plant protein associated
with a significantly longer life. But some is worse than others,
process meat on being the worst. And so if we're
(34:24):
going to cut down anything, be baking am hot dogs,
lunch meat known to be a causal of colorethal cancer,
second leading cancer killer after lung cancer. So yeah, there's
some foods. You know, if we just cut out a
few things. Cut out the transfest, the processed meat, the soda.
If there's the food things you could add add the greens,
add the beans, add the berries, and you'd be a
(34:44):
long way tours living a healthier, longer life.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Oh, everybody go pick up a copy of How Not
to Age, doctor Michael Gregor's newest book, as well as
his other books, How Not to Die, How Not to
Die Cookbook, and How Not to Diet. Doctor Michael Gregor,
it has been my honor today to have you on
The Lindsay Elmore Show.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Thank you so so much for having me on. Keep
up the great work.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The Lindsaylmore Show is written and produced by me. Lindsay Olmore.
Show segments are produced by Sueproco and Derek Lugo. Sound
design and editing is by Jive Media. Support The Lindsay
Elmore Show by heading to Lindsaylmore dot com slash podcast.
Your contribution, no matter how big or how small, helps
(35:28):
us to bring the best guests to the interview chair.
Thank you so much for listening, Subscribe, rate and review
the show on Apple Podcasts. Share this and all of
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Be sure to tag at Lindsay Elmore Show and help
us bring the pod to more people.
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causes mild code like symptoms, but in older adults, RSV
can worse and chronic health problems lead to life threatening
illness or even death. The first RSV vaccine for people
age sixty and older is now available and can be
given at the same time as other vaccinations. Appointments are
(00:22):
open right now at Kinney Drugs. Just stop buy or
visit Kinney Drugs dot Com to RSVP for your RSV shot.
RSV is a common contagious virus that in older adults
can lead to life threatening illness or even death. The
first RSV vaccine for ages sixty and older is now
available at Kinney Drugs. Visit Kinney Drugs dot Com to
(00:43):
RSVP for your RSV shot.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome back, everybody to today's edition of The Lindsay Elmore Show.
We're going to be talking all about aging today because
physicians have long treated aging like a malady, but getting
older does not mean that you have to get sicker.
There are a level even pathways for aging in our
body cells, and we can disrupt each of them. We
(01:07):
can in processes like autophagy or the upcycling of unusable
junk can be boosted with foods like tempe and mushrooms
and wheat germ. Senescent zombie cells that spew inflammation that
are linked to age related diseases can be cleared with
(01:29):
foods like onions, apple and kale, and we can combat
the effects of aging without breaking the bank. Why spend
a small fortune on vitamin C facial serums when you
can make your own for two thousand times cheaper. My
(01:50):
guest today is doctor Michael Gregor, and he has been
inspired by the dietary and lifestyle patterns of centenarians and
residents of the Blue Zone regions of the world where
people live the longest. In his new book, How Not
to Age, Doctor Gregor presents a simple, accessible and evidence
(02:13):
based method to preserve the body functions that can help
you to feel youthful, both physically and mentally. It's brimming
with expertise and actionable takeaways, and How Not to Age
lays out practical strategies for achieving ultimate longevity. I'm very
excited about the interview today. It is a little bit
(02:36):
shorter than our interviews normally are because doctor Gregor is
such an in demand speaker. He has been someone that
I have admired and followed for many many years. I
have read his books, I have watched him in documentaries,
and I love his no nonsense approach for how we
(02:57):
can use our lifestyle to prevent us from aging, dying,
and even dieting. This is The Lindsay Elmore Show. Welcome
to The Lindsay Elmore Show, a podcast for people who
deserve to be healthy. With honest, open and enlightening conversations
with doctors, thought leaders, creatives and spiritual gurus. You'll walk
(03:21):
away with simple and tangible tips and tricks that allow
you to live your healthiest life so you can pursue
your dreams, overcome obstacles, and leave your mark. A founding
member and fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine,
Michael Gregor, MD is a physician and internationally recognized speaker
(03:44):
on nutrition. His science based nonprofit nutrition facts dot Org
offers a free online portal hosting more than two thousand
videos and articles on a myriad of health topics. Doctor
Gregor is a so after lecturer and has presented at
the Conference on World Affairs and the World Bank, testified
(04:06):
before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in
Oprah Winfrey's defense in the infamous meat defamation trial. A
graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University
School of Medicine, doctor Gregor is also an acclaimed author
How Not to Die. The How Not to Die cookbook
(04:28):
and How Not to Diet became instant New York Times bestsellers.
More than a million copies of How Not to Die
have been sold. All proceeds doctor Gregor receives from the
sales of his books and speaking on our area are
directly donated to charity. His most recent book is How
Not to Age. Doctor Michael Gregor, Welcome to the Lindsay
(04:53):
Elmore Show.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I am so honed to be here. Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I am so excited to chat with you. I have
seen you in documentaries and read many of your works
for a very long time. You have a new book
called How Not to Age, So give us a little
bit of a background. You and I are kind of similar.
I'm a trained pharmacist, you're a trained physician. And then
we just took a hard left turn. So what led
(05:17):
you to start out in conventional medicine and then take
this hard left into nutrition.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Oh you know, I actually predated that. It's actually it's
the only thanks to my grandma. I was just a
kid when my grandma was sent home in a wheelchair
to die. Basically she had in stage hard to seize,
already had so many bypass surgeries to basically run out
of plumbing at some point. Confined a wheelchair, crushing chest pain,
(05:46):
her life was over at age sixty five. Then you
heard about this guy, Nathan prittickin one of our early
lifestyle medicine pioneers, And what happened next is actually detailed
in pridicans biography. He talks about Francis Gregor, my grandma.
They wheeled her in and she walked out. Though she
was given a medical death sence the today's sixty five
(06:06):
Things to a Healthy Diet, I was able to enjoy
another thirty one years on this earth at the age
ninety six, to continue to enjoy our six grandkids, including me.
So that's why won medicine in the first place, Why
I practiced lifestyle medicine, why I started a nutrition factor,
or why I wrote the book How Not to Die?
Why all the proceeds from all my books are donated
(06:27):
directly to charity. I just want to do for everyone's
family what Pritikeen did for my family.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Oh that's so extraordinary. So talk to us about what
you have learned over the course of your career that's
led you to create kind of this daily dozen that
you think can help people stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah so yeah, so that came from my book How
Not to Die. The first half of the book is
just fifteen chapters in each of the fifteen leading cause
of death, talking about world diet may play in preventing
arrestling reversing each of our top fifteen killers. But I
even wanted to just got to be a reference book.
I want it to be kind of a practical, day
to day grocery store type guide. And so that's the
(07:06):
second half of the book where I send to my
recommendation surround it daily doesn't checklist of all the healthiest
of healthy foods. I encourage people to try to fit
into their daily routine. So, you know, darkening leafy vegetables
every day, the healthiest types of vegetables, berries every day,
the healthiest fruits, uh, you know, tablespmrom the ground flax seeds,
courtesan turmarked, the best beverage is how much exercise to
get every day. Again, just try to kind of inspire
(07:29):
people to to to kind of crowd out some of
the less healthy options. It's available as a free app
Doctor Gregor's Daily doesn't youn kind of check check boxes
and try track your progress. Again, just try to as
kind of an aspirational goal. But yeah, people seem to
have found it useful in terms of just uh, you know,
reminding them, Oh, I forgot to eat this today quick,
(07:52):
I all put some on my salad or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it is so simple when you get right down
to it, that it is. We talk a lot about
these big concepts about health and wellness and how to
be healthy and how to avoid disease, and it's like,
really and truly, if you get down to it, it's
just a series of mundane activities done over and over
and over again. And so let's talk about diet. Let's
(08:17):
talk about what is the best diet to prevent you
from aging and dyeing and really dieting in general. And
so what do you think is the best diet to
help people live longer and healthier lives.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, just to emphasize your mundane point, I mean, I
think that's really important, right. One need not make drastic choices,
not all or nothing, even just basic common sense lifestyle
factors can mean literally living a decade longer, meaning not smoking,
not being obese, regular exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables.
(08:56):
It's never too late, never too late to start eating healthier,
never too late to stop smoking, ever too late to
start moving. We really do hold the power, and I
think that'll take people, just that kind of advice to take.
People can eighty percent of the way there, and then yes,
for those who want to optimize. You know, I got
all these you know, big books and talk about kind
of all the details. But in terms of longevity and diet,
(09:19):
there's been a four one hundred and fifty dietary surveys
in the so called blue zones. These are areas of
exceptional longevity around the world throughout history. So based on those,
we should really try to center our diets around whole
plant foods, so we're minimizing processed foods, meat, dairy, eggs, salt, sugar,
maximizing fruits and vegetables, whole grains, leggoms, which are beans, splitpyes, chippies, lentils, nuts,
(09:45):
and seeds or and spices, mushrooms, basically real food that
grows out of the ground. These are really our healthiest.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Choices, absolutely, And so you have educated a long time
about vegetarian diets and vegan diye, and I think vegan
diets have kind of taken a wrong turn towards becoming
ultra processed and becoming where you can eat vegan all
day long and still be just as unhealthy as someone
(10:13):
who is eating a more conventional omnivorous diet. What do
you think the latest research says about focusing on plants
as like the cornerstone of the diet. And why after
all these years are you still saying, look, at least minimize,
if not completely avoid meat, eggs, and dairy.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah no, yeah, not just as unhealthy. You can be worse. Yeah,
I mean, so you know we should try to primarily
eat plants, though not necessarily exclusively plants. Plant based are
really more about maximizing the intake of the healthiest foods.
You know, as a physician, these labels like vegetarian vegan,
(10:57):
that just tells me what you don't eat. I mean,
do you actually eat vegetables right? Right? And look, it
doesn't matter what you mean, your on birthdays, holiday, special cases,
one day to day basis, really should try to eat
healthy centrodets around these natural foods from you know, fields,
not factories, these unprocessed plant foods. But yeah, I couldn't
agree with you more. Look, twenty years ago you came
(11:19):
to me said you're vegan. I'm like, oh you shopping
the produce. Ie like eat he the food?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
But now, but now there's all this vegan junk food. Right. Look,
the processed food industry will give us any flavor of
junk food, won't they want. Well, they'll give us low,
low fat junk food, right, they'll give us, you know,
they'll get a snack, well, cookies, they'll give us high
fat junk food. They'll give us ironically paleo junk food, right,
(11:44):
keto joe, any kind of jump food. But what they
can't make money off of is real food, right because
real food goes bad ruts on the shelf, it's perishable.
They need a snack cake that's just on the shelf,
and they'd be happy to you know, spray it with
vitamins or do whatever it is that's gonna get you
to eat it. When really the you know, the incentives
are all wrong and that you know, that's why you
(12:07):
never got to see an add on the Super Bowl
for sweet potatoes or something, just because there's no they're
not branded products. Even if Swooptato growers not gonna put
an ad for sweep testk because you buy their competitor's
sweet poatatoes. Like, the whole system is just set up
to sell people, you know, bottles of brown sugar water
because that's it's a pure profit right. It's just like
all my tax bigger subsidized sugar. I mean, it's just
(12:30):
like so that the head of the soda companies not like,
how can I contribute to the childhood obeste epidemic. They're
just like, how do I satisfy the quarterly earnings for
my shareholders? And if they got a conscience, all of
a sudden, they'd be booted out and they'd bring somebody
else in that would make money for them. And so
it's just the system is set up to just bombard
(12:52):
us with ads for fast food and junk food and
candy and you name it, these profitable foods. But they
these companies don't have the best interest of our families
at heart. No and they never have.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And it's not even a modern problem.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You look back to the very.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Founding of the United States. The second law that we
have on the books is wheat and corn subsidies that
allow us to create, even back then, massive amounts of
what was then a life sustaining food but has now
transitioned into this weird paradigm that we live in. That
you can be a farmer in Iowa and still unable
(13:31):
to feed your family out of your backyard. It is
extraordinary what we have, what we have done to create
this hyper palatable food while while pushing everything out. And
another thing, you know, going back to what you said
about like beans, legumes, nut seeds. I don't think people
(13:54):
have a concept of what even plant based foods are anymore.
And I I don't know if this is exactly in
your wheelhouse, but I'm sure that you've come across this,
this monoculturalization of crops that we are seeing in not
just the United States but globally. What do you see
(14:14):
as the risk to human health when we are narrowing
the number of foods that we eat into more, you know,
just one version of a potato, one version of a
banana versus the way our ancestral diets were kind of
set up, and how can we encourage people to diversify
(14:35):
the amount of plants that are in the diet on
a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Yeah, I know, that's a fantastic question. It's not just
about the quantity of foods are reading and even the
quality of foods are reading, but the diversity of foods
that we're eating. Yeah. So I have a lot of
videos talking about this. You know, this is getting that
garden variety and factors. Even talk about my latest book,
this researcher suggests we should eat fifty types of foods
a week. We should like check off the fifty different
(15:01):
foods every week. And the reason is because they are
talking about the supporting the microbiome. There's a you know,
we all know about dietary fiber. There's actually thousands of
different fibers that catch all term for these indigestible carbohydrates
that that that feed our good bugs. And there's thousands
of different types. They all feed different types of good bacteria.
And so by eating a variety of different foods we
(15:22):
are we are fostering the growth of this diversity of
good bacteria in our gut, which not only has implications
for intestinal health, but they produce these compounds, these post
biotics like butterry that get absorbed through the coal wall
into our system, circular throughout our bloodsream even cross the
blood brain bearer have effects in our mental health and
our appetite, decreasing inflammation, improving immunity and so. But that
(15:44):
requires not just some In fact, some of the fiber
supplements like like like cilium or metem usele aren't even
digestible our by our good bacteria, right, so they can
help with kind of regularity, but don't actually have all
those ancillary bats benefits. So, right, we really want to
get a variety of different plant foods. If you think
(16:05):
about it, you know, fruit or fruit, but vegetables basically
any other type of part of the plant that isn't
the fruit. And so you know, root vegtivals have a
very different nutrient composition than stem vegetables like you know
rub barbercelli compared to flour vegetables like cauliflour compared to
leafy vegetables, and so eating and so you know, eating
different families of vegetables, different types of vegetables can have
(16:28):
different effects. You know, it's like you know the you know,
the the reason that you know orange juice is not
as good as the orange it is because they remove
some of those nutrients from the orange, right. But you know,
so that's what we want to eat kind of the
whole food, But that whole orange doesn't have any of
the apple nutrients, right, all these specific phytronutrients which have
(16:50):
all sorts of of of unique properties. There's some things
like vitamin C found throughout the plant kingdom. There are
some places of concentrated more than others. But you know,
you can get vited. You're not gonna get scurvy. You
don't have to pick and choose, right, But there are
some combat like crucifer spacibles have this specific compound. It's
all sorts of amazing effects. And if you don't eat
(17:10):
broccoli family vaghetables every day, you're just not gonna get it.
You know, Flaxis have the lignand strawberries have the physotin.
There's these things there where if you just don't eat
these foods, you are going to be missing out on
some of the benefits.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So I want to talk about the opposite of that,
because proponents of more carnivorous based diets. One of the
things that they kind of throw at people who eat
more plant based diets. They're like, oh, the lectins, Oh,
the oxalates, Oh, the solanines, oh the you know, plants
have these compounds that are made to protect them that
are going to kill us. And so we'll be right
(17:47):
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Speaker 1 (19:28):
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causes mild code like symptoms, but in older adults, RSV
can worsen chronic health problems lead to life threatening illness
or even death. The first RSV vaccine for people age
sixty and older is now available and can be given
at the same time as other vaccinations. Appointments are open
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Speaker 2 (20:00):
And now let's get back to the show. What's your
opinion and like, how do we clear out the noise around?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, no, Look, plants don't want to
be eaten and we want to eat them. But so
there's it's not like the evolutionary battle between predator and prey.
It's not one sided. Right, Just as these plants of
all these compounds to protect themselves, we evolve ways to
subvert their protection, right, and so we have and there's
(20:31):
certain you know, cooking methods obviously, right, we can get
rid of some of the tannins, you know, so we
can end up eating acorns, or we can eat beans,
right because we can, we can we can destroy some
of the lectins, and so now you know there's a
certain amount of like you can't there are certain really
high oxylate foods that you can overdo. So Spanish beet,
green Swiss shardvy cups a day you can increase your
(20:54):
risk kidney stones. But some of these other so called
anti nutrients like fight tapes, we used to think those
are mineral blocks, mineral inhibition kind of mineral blockers. But
that was based on animal studies like fifty years ago.
Now we know fight tates actually have anti cancer properties.
People eat more high fight tape foods actually live longer
or healthier. And so there's been this whole one eighty
(21:14):
with a nutritional feel, uh, and you know, some lectins
are actually good for us. Uh, you know they though
they certain span the spectrum. And so yeah, it's just
like I mean, you know, we've there's been this back
and forth, and some plants still are poisonous indeed, but
other plants actually have a kind of a hormetic benefit
(21:36):
that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. So green
tea broccoli actually so broccoli boos are detoxifying liver enzymes.
So for example, if you eat broccoli, you get less
of a caffeine balls for the same amount of coffee
because your body is so rapidly detoxifying the caffeine. The
reason it boos your liver enzymes is because your your
your body sees broccoli as a threat. But that tiny
(21:57):
little threat causes it's like a vaccine response right there,
that little insult that gets your body to overreact and
then you know, boost boost for the future. Same thing
with broccoli. Green tea. Also, the antioxidant effect is actually
a prooxident. In effect, green tea releases this some called
nerve to this whole antioxidant defense mechanism, which boosts our
(22:20):
antioxidant enzymes overall has an antioxidt effect. But it's because
it's actually a prooxident. In fact, every little sip of
green tea it's like a little stab to our body.
Our body has to ramp up our defenses. It's like
marathon runners suffer higher rates of DNA damage during the race,
but a week later, because they so revved up their
DNA repair mechanisms, they end up with less DNA damage
(22:42):
in their bodies than when they started with. And we
can do the many same things with food. So just
because the food is you know, our body kind of
reacts to it in a negative way, in a way
that can actually be beneficial the long one.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So another thing that comes up when we talk about
nutritional advice and you know, comparing in contrasting vegetarianism versus
an omnivorous or even carnivorous diet, which I just I
cannot understand how anyone could live on one hundred percent meat.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
But that's just me. You know, people talk about, well.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Where am I going to get protein?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And I.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Maybe you said, I can't remember who said this, but
somebody said, take take a journey and memory lane and
try to think of anyone you know in your life
who has been calorically fed and protein malnourished, and so
where is this concept that you must have animal based
foods in order to get protein. And are Americans really
(23:41):
protein overfed at this point?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, So ninety percent of Americans reached the recommended ali
intake for protein, and the small percentage that don't are
typically in these kind of starvation dies where they're just
not eating enough food in general, and so that's why
they're not reaching their protein needs. Whereas there are some
nutrients that there is really an epidemic of deficiency. So
ninety seven percent of Americans don't get enough fiber, don't
(24:06):
even reach the minimum recommended fiber intake. Ninety eight percent
of Americans don't reach the potassium minimum forty seven hundred
milligrams a day. Ninety eight percent of Americans are e
potassium deficient die. So that's really these are the real
nutrients of concerns like, well, wait a second, there's just
this epidemic of insufficient nutrition, and they tend to be
concentrated in the whole plant food. So that's where it's like, well,
(24:27):
where do you get your potassium from? You know, where
are you getting your fiber from? Whereas most Americans on
average get about seventy percent more protein. That's necessary. And
the reason why we're eating protein, the reason we need
proteins for these essential amino acids essential because our bodies
can't make them. We need to get them winter or
die because we as animals can't make them. Well, guess what,
(24:48):
other animals can't make them either. They're essential amino acids.
Where do they get them from? They get them from
where all essential amino acids come from, from the soil,
from plants and microorganisms that make them. We can kind
of cut out out the middle move and get it
straight from the plants ourselves. All plants have all essential
amino acids. There's only one protein source in our food
(25:08):
supply that's actually an incomplete protein, and that's collagen or
gelatin whi's missing trip to fan And so you could
actually die of protein malnutrition if you just ate jello
all the time, because there's actually not a complete protein.
But other than that, as long as you're getting sufficient calories,
you're getting enough protein in fact, and that's a lot
of the anti aging literature actually surrounds methining restriction, which
(25:33):
is amino acid concentrated to animal proteins, so we're actually
restricting down to the recommended level of protein to decrease
IGF one boost something called FGF twenty one. These enzymes
and hormones that have to do with both pro aging
and anti aging mechanisms. So the anti aging literature is
really on about protein reduction down to recommended levels, which
(25:56):
is point eight grams for healthy dilogram body weight, which
is about forty five grams a day for the average
type woman and fifty five day for the average type man.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I saw a bodybuilder and a strength athlete who is
completely plant based one time, and his family was given
him a hard time about only eating a plant based diet,
and they were like, you know, you're strong as an ox,
Like how can you how can you be this strong
only eating plants? And he's like, how do you think
the ox is that?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
What do you think the ox is eating? If you're
like you do right? You think of mountain gorillas and
ell beans and are all these really right there?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Right?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But that's of course they're good A new judge for blant, Yes,
of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Okay, So let's talk specifically about aging, because your latest book,
How Not To Age tell us a little bit about it,
and tell us about some specific foods that you think
everybody should be including in their diet if they're concerned
about aging healthily.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah. So, in terms of avanda agent, according to data
from the Globe Burden of Disease Study, which is the
largest systematic analysis for risk factors in history, the top
five things to do for the to net the largest
lifespan gains would be, in order of importance, more legums
or so. That's so all the Blue zones center as
their primary approaching source one of the legums like beans,
(27:15):
but pet chick pece, lentils. That's the most important thing
we can do. Then number two, eat more whole grains.
Number three eat more nuts, and then eat less meat,
and then finally cut down on sugary beverages like soda.
So three of the top five, in fact, the top
three things were actually not getting enough of rather than
things were cutting down on. And so yeah, so it's
(27:35):
about how can we, you know, add some of these
healthier foods to a diet to kind of you know,
crowd out some of the less healthy options. Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Absolutely. And so the Blue zones, I just I love
learning from them because it's it's not only about the food,
but I think another critical constituent of aging healthily is
the community and the pursuit of purpose. Does your new
book cover more about out about about how people who
(28:03):
live the longest lives kind of approach life, Like what's
their attitude about life versus people that die a little
bit younger?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Sure? Yeah, so I don't just talk about diet, talking
about exercise, sleeve stress, social interactions, weight control, and so. Yeah,
diet is appears to be the largest component, but only
about half. So about half of the longevity of the
blue zones is attributed to diet, since the single most
important component, but that still leaves half unaccounted for. And
(28:33):
that is all these other things. It's not so much
working out per se, but just regular daily activity throughout
the day, I mean, critically important for maintaining muscle mass
and strength, balance, mobility, cutting down the risk of falls,
you know, I mean, the benefits of exercise just go
on and on, improving cognition and mood and treating depression
(28:54):
and proving artery function on down the list. And so
it really hard to underemphasize the importance of exercise. But
you know what, was what I found interesting about the
kind of social isolation piece. So the importance of social
ties is that social isolation and loneliness only appear to
(29:14):
be associated with higher mortality rates because of the the
the it's mediated by adverse lifestyle. So people start drinking more,
they start smoking more, they start eating less healthily. The
same thing with stress, So people are really stressed. They
(29:35):
it's not that the stress itssealth is actually shortening their lives,
but it's because they're stressed that they then engage in
lifestyle behaviors that are shortening their lives. So that's kind
of good news, and that even if we're bereaved, even
if we're stressed, as long as we maintain that healthy
diet and lifestyle, we should not sell for the consequences.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh, that is so interesting. It's not necessarily about the
lack of access to the positive. It's the fact that
when you're isolated, you tend to go more towards the negative.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
That is really genius. Substance use, alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs. Yeah, yeah,
and so, but but if you're able to kind of
statistically control for those factors, you actually don't see all
of a sudden it all evens out and you don't
see any difference. And so that's why it's just so
critically important to be cognizant in that fact and don't
(30:29):
let kind of insult add to injury in those kind
of circumstances.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to kind of crush everybody's
dreams as we're wrapping up today, because we all try
to convince ourselves that certain things that we want to
be really healthy are And I remember the first time
that somebody told me that, like, you know that you
can get the same antioxidants from grapes that you can
(30:56):
from wine, And I was like, don't talk logic to me,
don't you do it? So let's talk about fish, Let's
talk about coffee, let's talk.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
About red wine.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Let's talk about all these foods that have been positioned
as health foods but may or may not be.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah. Well, so yeah, there's some good news and bad news. Unfortunately,
the alcohol is the bad news. So we used to think,
I mean, we've all known that heavy drinking, drinking during pregnancy,
binge drink, has been bad, but there was this concept
that modern drinking was actually beneficial. But that seems to
be a consequence of an artifact of a systemic mischaracterization
(31:36):
of former drinkers as life wound them, stainders of this
kind of sick quitter effect. Basically, people stopped drinking because
they were unhealthy, and so no wonder that people continue
to drink beer healthier. Actually, the same reason why some
studies show that those who quit smoking actually have shorter
lives of those continued to smoking is because why do
they quit smoking? Oh, because they suffered some horrible ravaging
(31:56):
effects from the smoking. That's why they're living shorter lives.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
It's also like if you go and read The Triumph
of Doubt David Michael's book, I mean, there's an entire
chapter about like where did we get this J shaped
curve that like two glasses of wine is good? Well,
you know, the alcohol industry funded some studies.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
It's like, okay, yeah, so there is so that all
of a sudden, when you control that the J, the
J curve disappears and you have a straight linear increase
where really the only safe intake is zero because alcohol
turns into acid. Al Dyde was a known carcinogen in
the body. Even like drinking increases breast cancer risk, et cetera.
So we really should try to cut down. However, good
(32:39):
news for the coffee drinkers. In my in my book
on my liver, in my chapters now not to die
on a liver disease depression Parkinson's I talk about the
benefits of coffee with the liver, mind, and brain. Now,
coffee drinkers do seem to live longer lives, lower rates
of cancer. Overall, it may all worsen acid reflux disease,
bone loss in glaucoma. But otherwise coffee is good for you.
(33:02):
Though every couple of coffee is a lost opportunity to
drink something even healthier, green tea, which is so I say,
with even better a lifespan benefit. So but yeah, coffee
is a healthful beverage, but green tea would be even better.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
And what about fish just as we're as we're closing out.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah, well, I mean, so if we had a if
we had a time machine to go back for the
Industrial revolution to be a different thing. But unfortunately our
oceans have become kind of humanity sewer. Everything eventually flows
into the sea, So all the mercury from all the
cold blands in shine eventually gets the positive builds up
the aquatic food chain. So the highest levels of industry replutes,
the DDT, BCBS, dioxids haven't been et cetera, is all
(33:42):
in the aquatic food chain. That's why we have hundreds
of thousands of babies born with brain damage every year
because their mothers at mercury contaminated to fish, leading to
billions of dollars of lost productivity. Now, having said that, look,
a tuna sandwich still better than boloney sandwich, but you know,
like falafel or or like a hummost wrap would be
even better kind of you know, A Harvard researchers found
(34:03):
that a three percent swap from fish protein to plant
protein associate with six percent decreasing all cause mortality. And
so the so no matter the animal protein where they're
talking about poultry, fish, dairy, swishing to plant protein associated
with a significantly longer life. But some is worse than others,
process meat on being the worst. And so if we're
(34:24):
going to cut down anything, be baking am hot dogs,
lunch meat known to be a causal of colorethal cancer,
second leading cancer killer after lung cancer. So yeah, there's
some foods. You know, if we just cut out a
few things. Cut out the transfest, the processed meat, the soda.
If there's the food things you could add add the greens,
add the beans, add the berries, and you'd be a
(34:44):
long way tours living a healthier, longer life.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Oh, everybody go pick up a copy of How Not
to Age, doctor Michael Gregor's newest book, as well as
his other books, How Not to Die, How Not to
Die Cookbook, and How Not to Diet. Doctor Michael Gregor,
it has been my honor today to have you on
The Lindsay Elmore Show.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Thank you so so much for having me on. Keep
up the great work.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The Lindsaylmore Show is written and produced by me. Lindsay Olmore.
Show segments are produced by Sueproco and Derek Lugo. Sound
design and editing is by Jive Media. Support The Lindsay
Elmore Show by heading to Lindsaylmore dot com slash podcast.
Your contribution, no matter how big or how small, helps
(35:28):
us to bring the best guests to the interview chair.
Thank you so much for listening, Subscribe, rate and review
the show on Apple Podcasts. Share this and all of
your favorite episodes with a friend and on social media.
Be sure to tag at Lindsay Elmore Show and help
us bring the pod to more people.
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