Full Transcript Introduction to ultra-processed foods and gut health 0:00 Welcome back, everyone to the Gut Health and Longevity Summit. 0:03 I am so glad you're here. 0:05 I want you to take a moment, because what you're about to hear 0:08 is genuinely going to change the way you think about your health. 0:12 Not just what you eat, but what you're eating and doing. 0:15 Living. 0:16 To the ecosystem that lives inside you. 0:18 We are living through an epidemic that most doctors are not naming correctly. 0:23 Ultra processed foods now make up the majority of the American diet, 0:28 and the science is showing us that they just don't add empty calories. 0:33 They're actively dismantling the gut microbiome that controls your immune 0:37 system, your hormones, your mood, your risk of cancer and chronic disease. 0:42 And our expert is here to translate the science into action. 0:46 Today's conversation is one I'm especially eager to have. 0:50 Is what are ultra processed foods actually 0:53 doing inside your gut, and what can you do about them? 0:57 My next guest has spent his career 1:00 doing something most physicians have never attempted. 1:03 Reading the entire body of published nutrition research. 1:06 Every study, every trial, 1:08 and translating it into plain language that can save lives. 1:12 He's not affiliated with industry, and he even publishes for free. 1:16 That alone should tell you something. 1:18 Doctor Michael Gregor is a physician and New York Times bestseller, 1:21 an internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, 1:24 a food safety, and public health. 1:27 He graduated from Cornell, also a Cornell graduate, and. 1:34 And he is the founder of Nutrition Facts. 1:36 Org, a science based public resource that has published over 2000 free videos 1:41 and articles synthesizing peer reviewed nutrition research for the general public. 1:46 All right, so he's got a number of books How Not to Die, How Not to diet, 1:50 How Not to Age. 1:51 But really we are going to talk this episode about ultra processed food. 1:56 So let's start with the first question. 1:59 Doctor Gregor. Welcome. 2:00 What is something most people think they understand, 2:04 but they actually don't when it comes to ultra processed food?
What counts as ultra-processed and why it matters 2:09 And how is that different from food 2:12 that's simply unhealthy and high in calories? 2:15 Yeah. So there are a lot. Yeah. 2:18 So that's probably the kind of main misunderstanding. 2:21 There are foods that are absolutely horrible for us 2:26 but are not ultra processed. 2:28 And at the same time, there are older processors, 2:31 actually healthier than most foods people eat. 2:33 So there's certainly some generalities. 2:35 But something like, you know, lard, lard is not ultra processed. 2:38 But and so, you know, 2:39 eating spoonfuls of, Lord, you're like, I'm not ultra processed. 2:42 I like it back to nature. 2:45 But, I mean, you'd be raising around their cholesterol, the primary driver 2:48 of our primary killer of men and women. 2:50 So that would be one of the stupidest possible things we could do. 2:53 But a similar hard fat, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil 2:57 that is ultra processed and would have a very similar effect 3:00 on your LDL cholesterol. So they're both bad. 3:03 Just because something is not ultra processed doesn't mean it's good. 3:06 And just because something's ultra processed doesn't necessarily mean it's 3:09 bad, particularly compared to those foods that may be trying to. 3:14 The people might instead. Great. 3:17 So can you tell us that? 3:19 I believe there's a terminology called the Nova classification, 3:23 where they are using industrialized 3:26 ingredients not found in a home kitchen. 3:29 Right. 3:29 So what are these ingredients that we can think of that 3:34 our audience might need to become alert to, 3:37 that are making our foods ultra processed? 3:40 Are there some key words to think of? 3:43 Well, the problem is some of the contaminants 3:47 of ultra processed foods are actually processing contaminants. 3:50 They're in the foods but not actually listed on the label. 3:54 So for example, in products or some of these packaging chemicals 3:58 that leach into the food, you're not going to see, you know, BPA 4:02 or phthalates or, you know, on the actual package. 4:05 But because of the processing method that they use, they appear in these foods. 4:11 But there are certainly are some ingredients that we can 4:14 be wary of that are common in ultra processed foods. 4:18 And one with particular relevance to the gut microbiome is a multiplier. 4:24 Dramatic increase 4:25 in chronic inflammatory diseases over the last three quarter of a century. 4:29 The original studies, 4:30 actually, that raised the alarm was on carboxy methyl cellulose, 4:34 which causes the bacterial overgrowth intestinal inflammation in mice. 4:39 And since then, road models have shown that other emulsifiers like polysaccharide 4:43 can induce colitis, accelerate the development of type one diabetes, 4:47 intestinal tumors, colon cancer, I mean, come on down the risk, promote metabolic
Emulsifiers, additives, and microbiome damage 4:52 disorders and even mental disorders that can affect subsequent generations. 4:57 So not just so when exposed to muscle fires in pregnancy 5:00 and lactation, mice appear to be able to pass on to their offspring 5:04 these metabolic impairments, cognitive deficits, anxiety like behaviors, 5:08 even though the progeny themselves were never directly exposed. 5:13 Now, how exactly this is happening? 5:17 The detrimental effects of fires 5:19 may be due to alterations of the gut mucous lining 5:24 that protects the gut from the bacteria in the colon, or direct 5:28 pro-inflammatory targeting of the intestinal microbiome. 5:32 And the reason we know that the microbiome appears to be the critical role 5:37 is that antibiotics can reverse 5:40 the emulsifier induced effects, and the effects 5:44 of a fire consumption can be eliminated under microbiome free condition. 5:48 So if you don't have a microbiome like 5:50 take out a box or wipe out your microbiome, 5:51 then the most fires don't seem to have an effect. 5:53 And most convincingly, emulsifier induced problems can be spread through 5:58 fecal transplants between animals, again demonstrating the role of the microbiome. 6:03 You can even take, you know, bugs in a in a petri dish, 6:08 mix them with the most virus, implant those bugs and recapitulate 6:12 many of the negative effects, even without directly 6:14 even without exposing them to most of ours. 6:16 Just exposing the bacteria to the most fires, was enough to cause these effects. 6:21 So all this led 6:23 to the International Society for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease 6:27 to recommend that patients with IBD limit their intake of carboxy method 6:34 and other such emulsifier additives, 6:37 though they recognize that this is based on limited evidence. 6:41 Mostly animal models. But there. 6:43 But there was a human study showing that, indeed detrimental impacts 6:48 of those randomized to being covertly given carboxylate 6:52 cellulose again through a microbiome mechanism. 6:54 There was another randomized controlled trial found human harm from carrageenan, 6:59 another common binder that you find. 7:01 And then there was a the third trial 7:04 that gave people kind of a mixture of different most of us. 7:08 So basically randomized people to a low or high emulsifier diet 7:12 and found all sorts of interesting paradoxical gut function effects. 7:17 So the bottom line is we can no longer really assume that these emulsifiers 7:21 are necessarily safe. 7:22 And so that's that's why 7:25 these are some of the things that we should look for on the labels to, 7:28 particularly if we suffer from some kind of chronic intestinal disorder. 7:31 Oh, another something look for multiple dextran. 7:34 Not in the most of our uses. 7:36 Bulking agent can have a negative impact on the intestinal health as well. So. 7:41 Well all sorts of things then 7:42 with artificial colors and flavors and yeah, 7:44 I mean, 7:44 we can go through the whole thing of them, but yeah, but those are easy to see. 7:48 Important. 7:49 I don't 7:49 I don't want people to gloss over something you said 7:51 because you were explaining it quite scientifically. 7:54 So individuals that have lost their microbiome 8:00 aka unhealthy individuals, because you do not want 8:04 and like to not have a microbiome, 8:06 these emulsifiers actually don't affect them as much. 8:10 That's why somebody who eats processed food 8:13 and has been on a lot of antibiotics and has been sick 8:17 when they eat more processed food, they don't feel it the same 8:21 because they don't have the microbiome as opposed to somebody 8:24 who's in our community that is plant based and eats quite healthy. 8:28 And then once in a while might pick up something that has one of these 8:33 emulsifiers and it they might feel it because they have a healthy 8:37 gut microbiome and a mucus lining that's going to be more sensitive to this. 8:41 So that's why I've had patients who are like, well, my friend eats like crap. 8:47 And, you know, 8:48 obviously they're not healthy, but they they can eat whatever they want. 8:52 And even if they're eating processed food, 8:55 yes, they might not be healthy, but they could eat it. 8:59 Whereas if I go 9:00 and try and eat that same ice cream I like, it just makes me feel sick. 9:04 And I want people to understand that, that changing that microbiome ecosystem 9:10 that you have in you, 9:11 you do not want to not have a microbiome, because that mucus layer is 9:15 what is inflammatory and keeping inflammation down. 9:18 Now, you gave us a list of these possible additives.
Gut permeability, inflammation, and fiber 9:22 The emulsifier, the strain, the artificial colors, the Korean. 9:26 What are some of the more common foods that people might find them in, 9:30 even in the plant based community where they're like, oh, it's plant based, 9:34 it's healthy. 9:35 Like, what are some common foods that they might be eating every day? 9:39 So just to clarify, when I talk about people, 9:41 when I talk about germ free conditions, 9:43 these are not people who just have bad microbiomes. 9:45 These are experimental animals with no Marco Bom, no bacteria at all. 9:49 That is very unlikely in a person unless they've gone through very heavy 9:53 duty antibiotics specifically designed to wipe out the gut bug, gut flora. 9:57 But in terms of where most of ours are found, what almost fires 10:00 do is they keep water and fat from separating. 10:04 And so a muscle fibers are added to keep things mixed together. 10:09 And so they're found in fatty foods. 10:12 So like whipped cream. 10:13 So like vegan oat milk based whipped cream or something. 10:17 Right. 10:18 I'm sure it's just packed with them 10:19 because otherwise it would just kind of separate out. 10:21 But you see that ice cream I mean, so ultra processed 10:25 fatty foods a process fatty foods I mean, we should be looking 10:28 at ingredients list for everything we eat, but particularly fatty foods is 10:32 where the industries want to is going to want to put muscle fibers to maintain 10:36 shelf life. 10:37 Would that apply? 10:38 So you mentioned ice cream. Would that apply to yogurts? 10:43 Well, actually the yogurt, 10:44 the of yogurt may have to do in part 10:48 by some of the bacterial byproducts which can hold things together. 10:52 But so you'd have to look at the ingredients to this. 10:56 I mean, you know, there's, 10:57 you know, sometimes you open yogurt and there's like a layer of water 11:00 and sometimes they're all nice, mixed up, creamy. 11:02 I wonder if that's most of our effect or just, you know, different bugs that are 11:06 they form these kind of gel like compounds, 11:09 which adds to the gelling of yogurt, which may have nothing to do with 11:13 the added almost firestorm. 11:15 Okay, so I want to go a little bit deeper here. 11:17 There is a concept 11:19 about intestinal permeability that gets used a lot in wellness circles. 11:23 What does the peer review science actually 11:26 say about ultra processed foods and gut barrier integrity? 11:30 And I know you touched upon it with the mucus layer, but can we talk about it 11:33 a little bit more from a inflammatory compound perspective 11:38 and kind of like that downstream effect that's happening? 11:42 Yeah. 11:43 So I mean, you hear this with people talking about a leaky gut. 11:48 And so in the, in, in scientific circles 11:51 that we call this kind of gut lining permeability, you can actually test this 11:55 by giving people various compounds that are not supposed to be absorbed. 11:59 I mean, they should not be able to get through the gut lining. 12:02 And then you look for that compound in people's bloodstream 12:05 and you say, wait a second, this shouldn't even be here. 12:07 And because it is there, we know that the gut is leaky, meaning 12:10 the gut is permeable to things it should not be permeable to. 12:14 And the reason that it's important for our gut not to be 12:18 permeable is because, you know, the inside of the bloodstream, you know. 12:24 Ideally should be sterile. 12:25 You know, we don't want bacteria invading into our bloodstream. 12:28 We don't want inflammatory components. 12:31 We want to have them stay within the gut and get rid of them 12:34 and flush them down rather than getting into our system. 12:37 You can imagine our immune system. 12:39 I mean, we're so our immune system attacks foreign, you know, foreign components. 12:44 So, you know, you know, if you're 12:46 nibbling on the end of a chicken bone and nibbling on that cartilage, why. 12:50 And you have 12:50 that animal cartilage in your system, why doesn't your body attack it? 12:54 Well, because that 12:55 the cartilage is broken down before it ever gets through the gut wall. 12:59 But if but if you have a leaky gut and any of those little, 13:03 you know, cartilage bits get through into our system, our body season says, 13:06 wait a second, that's foreign.
Unsafe additives and regulatory gaps 13:08 I mean, we know what cartilage looks like and that doesn't look like our cartilage. 13:11 And so what attacks are thinking is, you know, some kind of invader, 13:14 some kind of foreign body, and in doing so may create antibodies, 13:18 may create an immune attack against cartilage in general. 13:22 So by attacking chicken, Carlos may all of a sudden their knees start aching 13:26 because our own body has this kind of auto immune inflammatory response, 13:30 which may be, you know, the underlying cause of cases of rheumatoid arthritis, 13:35 for example, an autoimmune condition where your body attacks your own joints. 13:37 Why would your body attack your own joints? 13:39 Maybe they're caught in this friendly flier fire, 13:42 this kind of molecular mimicry. 13:44 So we want to make sure our gut is not leaking. 13:46 How we do that is we feed our good gut bugs. 13:50 How do we do that with prebiotics? 13:52 That's dietary fiber. 13:53 And resistant starch. Found only one place. 13:55 And that's in plant foods and only in one place concentrated. 13:58 And that's an unprocessed whole plant foods, particularly the drier plant foods. 14:03 When people think fiber, they think, oh, I tons of fruits and vegetables. 14:06 I eat lots of fiber. 14:08 But, you know, fruits and fruit could be like, you know, 90% water. 14:13 Vegetables can be 80% water. 14:15 If you want really concentrated forms of fiber per serving, per cup per 14:19 unit volume, you got to go for some of these drier foods, 14:22 like the whole grains and the leg gums, which are only about 70% water. 14:26 And so, you know, so in one survey you can get, you know, large 14:30 dose of fiber, which you just wouldn't get even, you know, evening. 14:33 Some watermelon or something. 14:35 Yeah, absolutely. 14:36 So don't be afraid of the carbohydrates from whole grains 14:40 and legumes are body actually needs them to feed the microbiome. 14:44 Now you talked about 14:47 pretty much I know you wrote a book on ultra processed foods, and you talked 14:52 about nearly every ingredient in the processed food supply. 14:56 You've mentioned a few of them. 14:59 Which one does the industry claim is safe? 15:04 But the research says otherwise. 15:07 Claims they're all safe, obviously, right? 15:09 How could they put it that way? 15:11 No one's like, oh, this is going to hurt your kids. 15:13 But we put it in there because we hate kids. 15:15 Like, know everyone's gonna say their stuff is sick. 15:18 But there are certainly things that we've known are toxic 15:21 and are banned in many countries, but still continue to be used to this day. 15:24 So, for example, you know, red dye number three, right? 15:27 It's been banned literally for decades 15:30 from anything going on our skin because we because it causes cancer. 15:34 So like you can't put cancer causing stuff on your skin, but because food 15:38 ingredients are regulated differently, it continued to be allowed in food. 15:42 So like the maraschino cherry, you're eating like 15:45 is illegal to rub on your skin. 15:47 Like if you put it in a skin cream, 15:48 you couldn't sell it in the United States because it's illegal. It's cancer. 15:51 Oh, but you could eat all you want in a fruit salad. 15:53 I mean, so that's crazy. 15:54 Now, thankfully, California was the first state 15:58 to move forward and to ban red dye three. 16:01 The federal government has stepped in as well. 16:04 I believe by 2027 we're going to get a national ban. 16:07 But it's the kind of thing. 16:08 Where are you saying we've known 16:08 this has been a problem for decades, but there's just not been movement. Why? 16:12 Because we have a very weak consumer movement, 16:15 and the power within the Beltway here in D.C. 16:18 is more with the big food lobbyists than it is with the, 16:22 you know, those standing up for families. 16:26 Yeah. 16:26 I think that makes people very upset that and, 16:30 you know, honestly, like, I'm somebody who travels, I travel a lot. 16:33 So experiencing foods outside of the US and really seeing the difference. 16:39 But the majority of Americans actually don't even have a passport, 16:43 so they don't even travel outside of the US to understand that our food supply
Ultra-processed foods and chronic disease risk 16:49 is absolutely horrendous compared to the rest of the world. 16:53 So let's talk about the chronic disease connection, 16:56 because ultra processed foods are definitely a key 16:59 player in what is happening and what's at stake here. 17:03 The research linking ultra processed food consumption to cancer, 17:07 cardiovascular disease, diabetes, 17:08 dementia has dramatically increased in the last five years. 17:12 So tell us about some of these findings and research 17:15 that we have seen linking ultra processed foods to chronic diseases. 17:20 Yeah, there are dozens of different diseases, these killer 17:24 chronic diseases that have been linked to ultra processed foods. 17:27 But you know something we talk about a lot in science. 17:29 Some is correlation doesn't mean causation. 17:31 Meaning just because something is linked, just because something is associated 17:34 with something else doesn't mean you know it necessarily causes one another. 17:39 So, for example, 17:40 having a lot of ashtrays in your house is correlated with lung cancer, 17:43 but that's traits aren't causing you, you know, the trace aren't the problem. 17:47 You know, getting more or less in your house is not going to matter. 17:50 It's the smoking that really does it. 17:51 And so same thing, processed foods. 17:53 Is it the ultra processed foods itself, or is it 17:55 something about the people who choose to eat ultra processed foods? 17:59 So for example, one of the conditions 18:02 associated with higher rates of death with ultra processed 18:07 foods is, is accidents like car accidents, he said. 18:11 Well, wait a second, 18:12 what possible rogue ultra processed foods be playing in car accidents? 18:15 So something like that. 18:16 It's less about the food itself and more about the kind of people 18:20 that eat the food. 18:21 They have a, you know, higher risk tolerance, for example. 18:23 They don't care about them. 18:24 Maybe they're not wearing their seatbelt, right. 18:26 And for the same reason 18:27 that they don't care about, you know, eating bacon and eggs for breakfast. 18:31 And so you have to be careful when you look at these observational studies. 18:36 That's why it's so important to have these interventional studies 18:39 where you can actually randomize people to eat ultra processed foods more or less, 18:43 or, you know, take capsules filled with ultimate fires 18:46 or capsules filled with, you know, sugar pills, you know, 18:49 and so and actually show, oh my God, these are most of us actually do harm. 18:53 It's not just associated with harm, you know. 18:55 So if you find that people 18:57 who eat a lot of ice cream, you know, don't tend to do as well, 19:01 okay, maybe it's the most advanced in the ice cream, 19:03 but maybe it's all the other crab in the ice cream. 19:06 By separating it out 19:07 and doing an intervention trial, you can actually show a causes B. 19:11 Therefore, by removing A we can remove some of B. 19:13 And so that's why it's important to go a little deeper. 19:15 And when you actually look at another thing 19:17 I'd like to bring up about these large population studies, 19:19 which have been very illuminating in many areas of medicine, is, 19:24 ultra processed food is a really broad topic. 19:27 If you actually break it down to find out. 19:29 Wait a second, which ultra processed foods are actually increasing the risk 19:34 of cardiometabolic diseases and cancer and, you know, heart disease, etc.? 19:39 The two 19:40 the only two classes of ultra processed foods 19:44 associated with increased old cost mortality, meaning living a shorter life, 19:48 are sweetened beverages both artificially and sugar sweetened beverages. 19:53 So not just soda with most of it, but also, you know, sports drinks and, 19:58 you know, energy drinks, 19:59 things like that, sweetened beverages and ultra processed animal products. 20:03 So this is like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, you know, fast 20:07 food burgers, hot dogs, lunch meat, sausage, that kind of thing. 20:11 So really it's only those two categories. 20:13 So for example, lots of breakfast cereals ultra processed. 20:16 And I mean there's all sorts of ultra processed cooked cakes and cookies 20:20 and on down the list, but they have not been associated 20:24 with an increased all cause mortality, just the animal products 20:28 and the sweetened beverages. 20:29 So if you're just going to cut out any ultra 20:32 processed foods, it would be those two categories first. 20:35 Okay. 20:36 And so what about like I've seen like some critics are saying 20:41 that these studies are showing that poor people eat more processed food. 20:45 Is this a fair criticism of the data? 20:48 Because like, I've had patients where they're like, 20:51 I literally had to decide between buying my children Christmas gifts, 20:56 and this is why I chose dinner to be not chose and ground beef.
Cost, access, and healthy eating on a budget 21:01 And the reasoning behind this conversation is, you know, like people are just like, 21:06 I can pick one or the other when I don't, I have to make decisions. 21:10 So like, what can we advise people in the community when it comes to 21:16 if you don't have enough money 21:18 because they think you need more money to eat healthy, how can they do it? 21:22 Yeah. 21:23 So they studies have control for socioeconomic factors. 21:26 So it's true poor people have worse health outcomes 21:30 and more likely to eat poor diets, but you can control them for that. 21:34 So to essentially compare 21:36 poor people who eat more or less ultra processed foods, or compare 21:39 rich people to moral to process foods and actually able to tease that out. 21:42 But in terms of this misunderstanding that, 21:47 you know, you have to be 21:48 you have to have a lot of money to eat healthy and that, you know, 21:50 well, I have to eat these foods because those are the cheapest foods, 21:53 you know, some of the health or or the same thing with convenience. 21:57 Well, you know, I don't have time to cook, right. 21:59 But some of the cheapest, most convenient foods are also the healthiest foods. 22:04 So, for example, you know, anyone who doesn't know how to eat, you know, 22:08 choose convenience on a healthy diet has never met an apple. 22:11 I mean, look, you can even eat the packaging. 22:13 It's just it's right there. It's ready for it. Right. 22:16 Some of the healthiest foods purple cabbage, sweet potatoes, dried 22:20 beans and peas. Right? 22:21 I mean, cheapest sources of protein. 22:22 So, like, oh, I don't have I have to buy. 22:25 No, I mean, you you just can't get cheaper than chickpeas and want those. 22:29 And I mean, come on. 22:30 I mean, even if you don't cook them yourselves and buy it in a can, 22:34 I mean, it's like $0.50 a can, right? 22:36 I mean, so yeah, there's really no you have to have access. 22:40 I mean, there's these food deserts where, you know, there's just not a lot. 22:43 I mean, you know. Yeah, you'd love to get some sweet potatoes. 22:45 They don't sell sweet potato, right? 22:47 I mean, so that's certainly an issue. 22:48 But you don't have to be rich details. 22:50 In fact, there's a great book series and and in. 22:53 Net resource I think it's called vegan a $4 a day, something like that. 22:57 And it's just like this is out for $4. 22:59 You know, you can eat all you want and eat really healthy food. 23:03 Okay. 23:04 Is there anything we missed discussing when it comes to ultra processed foods? 23:08 Anything else you want to tell the audience 23:10 that we haven't mentioned about what it's doing? 23:14 Oh my God, well, I got a whole book. 23:17 Welcome to check it out. 23:18 All proceeds from the sale, small on books donated directly to charity, 23:22 but it's available on, you know, softcover, audiobook, e-book. 23:26 And I just go through all 60 mechanisms exactly how I talk about the exceptions. 23:30 And so we really didn't talk about the exceptions. 23:32 There are two classes of ultra processed foods. 23:34 They're actually better than the foods that they were designed to replace. 23:37 And one are plant melts like soy milk. 23:39 So swim actually better than dairy milk. 23:41 So I'm technically ultra processed. 23:43 But I mean, you know, there have been 17 randomized controlled trials of soymilk 23:47 versus cows milk. 23:48 And when you randomize people to swim over cows, 23:51 you get significant improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation. 23:55 You get a significant drop in secret active protein, 23:57 a sign of systemic inflammation.
Exceptions: plant milks and meat alternatives 23:59 So you get all these benefits. 24:01 Just doing that simple swap from Canada soy. 24:04 And so there you're going from like an ultra processed, 24:08 unprocessed food dairy milk to an ultra processed food. 24:11 And you're actually doing your body favor right now. 24:13 That's a very rare exception. You don't see that a lot. 24:15 And the one other category that I was able to find 24:19 are these, plant based meat. 24:22 So, you know, there's a veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs and, 24:25 you know, sausages and stuff like that. 24:27 Now they have lots of salt and, you know, a lot less fiber than actual 24:31 whole food sources. Whole foods are better. Absolutely. 24:34 But I mean, if you're choosing between, you know, 24:38 a veggie burger and a regular burger, oh my God, veggie burger 24:40 actually has some fiber to feed. 24:41 Your microbiome doesn't have any cholesterol. 24:43 Doesn't that. 24:44 It tends to have about a third of the saturated fat. 24:46 And so you know, let's trans fat 24:48 I mean you kind of go on down the list and oh nutrient profiles so much better. 24:52 And so again that's you know, it's not the ultimate destination, 24:56 but it's kind of a great stepping stone food to move towards an even healthier 25:00 diet centered around whole plant foods from fields, not factories. 25:05 Yes. So as a stepping stone, last question. 25:08 And I want to be very concrete. 25:09 Someone watching or listening right now, they're eating processed food regularly, 25:14 probably more than they realize, and they want to start reversing 25:17 the damage to their gut microbiome. 25:19 What are the three most important things they should start doing this week? 25:25 I love it! 25:26 Forget this week. Today, let's do it today. 25:28 So if there was just three things 25:30 I'd first removed from someone's died, it would be the 25:34 it would be anything with trans fats, which is not so much 25:37 a problem in the United States anymore, 25:38 but some countries is still legal to partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. 25:41 Number two processed meat, bacon and hot dogs. 25:44 Lunch meat significantly increasing risk of colorectal cancer. 25:46 Number one cancer killer of nonsmokers. 25:49 And number three liquid candy. 25:50 These sugar these sweetened beverages. 25:53 We really need to get brown sugar water out of our diets. 25:55 And if there were just three things to add to someone's diet, it would be berries. 25:59 The healthiest fruits greens, dark green leafy vegetables, 26:02 particularly cruciferous vegetables like kale, Collins 26:05 as the healthiest vegetable and number three, the healthiest source of protein.
Three steps to start healing the gut 26:08 Legumes, beans, peas, chickpeas and lentils. 26:10 Get the hummus or the soup or the, you know, or 26:13 or the you know me on down the list black beans. 26:16 Those are that's I mean, it's just packed with fiber 26:20 and it'll make your gut microbiome happy. Yes. 26:24 We're all about making the gut microbiome happy now, doctor Gregor, 26:27 this is been a genuinely eye opening episode. 26:29 The idea that the food system is not just feeding us, but actively 26:33 remodeling our bacterial ecosystem that runs our health. 26:37 And that's one message I want everybody to carry with them. 26:41 Doctor Gregor can be found at Nutrition Fat, 26:44 a completely free nonprofit resource with over 2000 26:47 Evidence-Based Videos and articles, so I encourage you to check that out. 26:52 Look up his books and this science is freely accessible to everyone. 26:56 So here is the key takeaway for the audience for this episode. 27:00 Ultra processed food is not just empty nutrition, it is an active force 27:05 reshaping the microbiome that protects you. 27:08 Every whole plant. 27:09 Food you add back is a form of restoration, so stay tuned 27:14 for our next episode. 27:15 We can't wait to continue this journey with you. 27:18 Thank you.
Comments