Joel Fuhrman - Nutritional Tips for Brain Health, Longevity, and Healthy Aging

You know that you should be eating better, but it's hard to know where to start.

Nutrition is one of the most important factors in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it can also be one of the most confusing.

The baby boomer generation is entering into a critical phase of life, where maintaining good health and cognitive function is essential for enjoying a long, active lifestyle.

One of the most effective ways to slow down the aging process is to eat a healthy, balanced diet. A diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and unprocessed whole grains can provide our bodies with all the nutrients we need to function optimally. And by adhering to this type of eating plan, we can reduce our risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions that are commonly associated with aging.

One option for those looking to transition to a healthier way of eating is the Eat To Live Retreat. As the name suggests, this retreat is all about helping participants achieve their health goals by providing them with the education, guidance, and support they need.

Led by renowned nutrition expert Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., this intensive residential program teaches people how to eat for life - not just for quick fixes or temporary results.

Whether you're dealing with chronic disease or simply want to improve your overall quality of life through better nutrition, this retreat could be exactly what you need to achieve optimal wellness. So if you are a baby boomer ready to embrace new approaches toward health and longevity, consider signing up for a retreat.

By utilizing this diet, baby boomers can protect their brains from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and support healthy aging at the cellular level.

Overall, the nutritarian diet is an ideal choice for supporting brain health, longevity, and healthy aging during this crucial phase of life.
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Bio:

Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a graduate of the Univ. Penn Medicine medical program. He currently serves as a Professor of Health Sciences at Northern Arizona University and is also President of the Nutritional Research Foundation. He has published in medical journals and contributes to ongoing nutritional studies. With hundreds of thousands of people worldwide overcoming obesity, food addiction, diabetes, and heart disease through virtual speaking engagements and Eat to Live Retreats, Dr. Fuhrman has become one of the most influential voices in health and nutrition today.

Visit Dr. Fuhrman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-fuhrman-m-d-61887112/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrFuhrman
His Website: https://www.drfuhrman.com/

Transcript

[0:00:00]
Hanh Brown: Hi, I'm Hanh Brown, the host of the Boomer Living Podcast. On the show, industry experts and I discuss topics relevant to the aging population: health care, dementia, Parkinson's disease, caregiving, technology adoption, affordable senior living options, and financial insight. 

[0:00:20]
Hanh Brown: Primarily, all of this is to address the social determinants of health. Today's topic is nutritional tips and brain health, longevity, and healthy aging.

[0:00:31]
Hanh Brown: Well, you know that you should be eating better, but it's hard to know where to start. Nutrition is one of the most important factors in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

[0:00:41]
Hanh Brown: But it also can be one of the most confusing. The baby boomer generation is entering into a critical phase in life where maintaining good health and cognitive function are essential for enjoying a long and active lifestyle.

[0:00:56]
Hanh Brown: One of the most effective ways to slow down the aging process is to eat a healthy, balanced diet.

[0:01:02]
Hanh Brown: A diet full of fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and unprocessed whole grains can provide our bodies with the nutrients that we need to function optimally. By adhering to this type of eating plan, we can reduce our risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions that are commonly associated with aging.

[0:01:22]
Hanh Brown: By utilizing this diet, the baby boomers can protect their brains from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and support healthy aging at a cellular level.

[0:01:36]
Hanh Brown: Another option for those looking to transition to a healthy way of eating is the "Eat to Live Retreat".

[0:01:44]
Hanh Brown: As the name suggests, this retreat is all about helping participants achieve their health goals by providing them with the education, guidance, and support they need. Led by the renowned nutrition expert Dr. Joel Fuhrman, this intensive residential program teaches people how to eat for life.

[0:02:04]
Hanh Brown: This retreat doesn't provide quick fixes or temporary results. Whether you're dealing with chronic disease or simply wanting to improve your overall quality of life through better nutrition, this retreat could be exactly what you need to achieve optimal wellness. So, if you're a baby boomer ready to embrace new approaches towards your health and longevity, check out the retreat.

[0:02:28]
Hanh Brown: So today, my guest is Dr. Fuhrman. He's a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Medical Program.

[0:02:36]
Hanh Brown: He currently serves as a professor of health sciences at Northern Arizona University and is also the president of the Nutritional Research Foundation.

[0:02:47]
Hanh Brown: He has published in medical journals and contributes to ongoing nutrition studies. With hundreds and thousands of people worldwide overcoming obesity, food addiction, diabetes, and heart disease through virtual speaking engagements at the Eat to Live Retreat, Dr. Fuhrman has become one of the most influential voices in health and nutrition today.

[0:03:07]
Hanh Brown: So, Dr. Fuhrman, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. How are you doing?

[0:03:23]
Joel Fuhrman: Good. I think what you're doing to motivate people to take better care of their health is really terrific. It's very necessary, you know, before, during, and after COVID. It's increasingly crucial to keep our physical and mental brain health in check because if we're blessed enough to live a long life, we want it to be a quality life. So thank you for what you do.

[0:03:50]
Joel Fuhrman: I wish, unfortunately, there was more nutritional information put out to people to protect against this COVID-related suffering and deaths because nutritional excellence can protect your brain against damage. It would also not only protect against cancer and heart disease but also protect against infectious disease-related morbidity and mortality. Building your immune system with the proper food is a major intervention that could have saved lives that we didn't take advantage of.

[0:04:19]
Joel Fuhrman: Yeah, there are so many unfortunate things happening, you know, and I am so excited as we ease back into life. Part of that is aiming to live a healthier life. The fact that we're still living, that's a blessing because I know for me and my family, we've had our own loss as well.

[0:04:37]
Hanh Brown: Yeah, let's get started. Can you share with us a little bit about yourself, personally and professionally?

[0:04:48]
Joel Fuhrman: Well, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1988, so I've been in practice now for more than three decades. I went to medical school with the specific intent to be a doctor specializing in nutritional medicine. I'm a board-certified family physician but have been a nutritional advocate and am passionate about telling people they don't have to be sick.

[0:05:11]
Joel Fuhrman: They don't have to get heart attacks and strokes. They don't have to get demented and we can wipe out more than 90% of most cancers through nutritional excellence. So I started this many years ago and what I'm saying and teaching is the same. This nutritional protocol that maximizes human lifespan and protects against strokes, cancers, and heart attacks can also be used therapeutically to reverse people's illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, and even autoimmune diseases like psoriasis and lupus can be reversed through optimal nutrition. So, nutrition is a powerful intervention.

[0:05:52]
Joel Fuhrman: Unfortunately, in today's society, we only focus on pharmaceutical interventions which very often give people the impression that they're okay because the numbers look a little better, but they're not okay because the drugs allow them to live unhealthily. So, my career has always been focused on giving people the right nutritional guidance.

[0:06:12]
Joel Fuhrman: People have the option to use nutritional excellence as a methodology to prevent and reverse disease. And now, we're talking about how as people get older, they don't have to have dementia or experience poor brain function, cognitive impairment, or be on so many drugs and have medical conditions that make their lives uncomfortable. They don't have to struggle to make a living or live an unenjoyable life. Nutrition gives us an unprecedented opportunity in human history to live longer than ever before and to be in better health in our later years due to advances in nutritional science over the last decade.

[0:06:59]
Joel Fuhrman: This is what I'm passionate about sharing with people. In my career, I've written twelve books, seven of which have become New York Times bestsellers. My most recent book is called "Eat for Life," which provides the most recent information. Each chapter is filled with easy-to-digest material and actionable steps, along with great-tasting recipes to make these nutritional interventions palatable and enjoyable. It also includes many case studies and success stories of people who have reversed their diseases, gotten well, and transformed their lives. It's about giving power back to people and giving them hope, teaching them that they can get well. Most of my work is through my books, videos, teaching people on the internet and through Zoom conferences, and on the web. People can transform their health right in their own homes. They don't need to come and stay with me to do so. They can do it right in their own homes.

[0:08:14]
Hanh Brown: So, everything you describe is the Nutritarian Diet and "Eat to Live." Can you do a deep dive and explain what it is and how it can improve brain health?

[0:08:26]
Joel Fuhrman: The Nutritarian Diet, by its definition, is a diet rich in nutrients per calorie. It's about getting the most nutritional bang for your caloric buck. What you eat matters, and we know that certain foods have a scientific link to longevity and brain health. I have an acronym to help people remember the six foods they should eat every day, which is part of the Nutritarian Diet. That acronym is G-BOMBS: Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds. Let's talk about them in more depth.

[0:08:57]
Joel Fuhrman: We are green vegetable-dependent animals, and without sufficient consumption of both raw and cooked greens, including different types of greens, we can't have adequate brain health, heart health, or cardiovascular function. Our cardiovascular system is dependent on the nutrients present in green vegetables. Raw vegetables, in particular, have the most consistent and powerful association with the reduction of cancers of all types and the protection of brain health. One thing I advocate people do is to have a big salad every day, at least once a day. Make your lunch a large salad and a bowl of vegetable-bean soup, and have some fresh fruit for dessert.

[0:09:55]
Joel Fuhrman: The salad is not a six-inch super bowl, it's like a nine-inch serving bowl. We're mixing both lettuce, which is the richest source of phytochemicals that protect the digestive tract, and the ITCs (isothiocyanates) that are found in green cruciferous vegetables. The green cruciferous vegetables include things like broccoli, kale, bok choy, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. We want people to have a mixture of those types of green vegetables and make a nice salad with onion and a little raw onion or scallion in there. Also, add a bit of flax seeds, mushrooms, and red onion. Even a little bit of these additions to your daily diet has miraculous and powerful long-term effects in protecting the health of your body and brain.

[0:10:56]
Joel Fuhrman: The problem is that most Americans are only eating 2% or less of their calories from vegetables. They don't eat mushrooms, onions, and greens, and both types of lettuces and cruciferous greens and cooked greens at dinnertime. This is called the Nutritarian Diet because we're minimizing processed foods and animal products while maximizing high-nutrient plant foods that have brain-protective nutrients. With this approach, you don't have to lose your creativity, intelligence, passion, and fun in life. Your golden years can truly become golden, with your faculties intact.

[0:11:58]
Joel Fuhrman: And you know what? It's not a Blue Zone diet either. The Blue Zones live longer than Americans, but the Nutritarian Diet is not just about eating what they do socially and what they grow in that area, based on cultural habits passed down for generations. The Nutritarian Diet is scientifically designed to be maximally protective and utilitarian, incorporating the best of all the Blue Zones' nutritional science. Wild blueberries prevent throat cancer, flax seeds reduce the risk of developing breast cancer by 71%, and mushrooms reduce the risk of breast cancer by 64%.

[0:12:18]
Hanh Brown: Between fifty-eight and seventy percent reduction of our common cancers in this study and so it's showing that by putting this, the synergy, this portfolio of foods together in a dietary portfolio gives people incredible power and incredibly powerful effects to control their health destiny. So, a nutritarian diet maximizes the use of the most cancer and brain protective foods.

[0:12:39]
Joel Fuhrman: We put together a full dietary portfolio utilizing these foods to make them taste great. I'm so excited about all the thousands of people that have seen this as the way they prefer to eat.

[0:12:59]
Joel Fuhrman: They enjoy eating the most with that full satisfaction. It tastes great at the same time. Now, it sounds like you're never too young, never too old to start eating healthy and what you are promoting is the nutritarian diet and giving them the power back. 

[0:13:12]
Hanh Brown: In contrast to being in a reactive mode, taking all these medications for all the problems that they have, you're giving them that ownership, that responsibility to make healthy choices that taste really good as well.

[0:13:20]
Joel Fuhrman: That's right. The reality is that ninety percent of Americans are overweight, not seventy-seven percent like the U.S. government says. The health authorities tell us seventy-seven percent are overweight because they use a BMI of twenty-five as the demarcation line between normal weight and overweight, and that's wrong. 

[0:13:39]
Joel Fuhrman: Long-living people and centenarians always have a BMI score below twenty-three, which is optimal for women, and for men, below twenty-two is optimal. By the way, if we use twenty-three as the demarkation line, that makes eighty-nine percent of Americans overweight. And there's no controversy here that fat cells on the body increase the risk of dementia, cancer, heart disease, and make people insulin resistant. 

[0:14:10]
Joel Fuhrman: Fat cells are pro-inflammatory and spew out inflammatory compounds and reduce immune function. We're talking here about making a person lean and strong. And I'm saying something that's very critical. When you're not getting sufficient micronutrients, it's very hard to reduce your calories to the level that's best for your long-term health. 

[0:14:30]
Joel Fuhrman: When your body is micronutrient deficient, you have an unrelenting drive to overconsume calories and you become a food addict because the quality of what you're putting in your mouth is insufficiently adequate for the human species. When you have enough phytochemicals, antioxidants, and the full spectrum of micronutrients that humans require and desire, then you get instinctually in touch with the amount of calories that are right for you. 

[0:14:55]
Joel Fuhrman: You don't feel like overeating, you feel like getting enough. And there's lots of reasons why when you eat healthfully, you desire less calories of the right amount and it's possible for you to be comfortable losing weight. Whereas, when you're eating improperly, just trying to willy-nilly reduce calories, it becomes too uncomfortable to eat fewer calories and lose weight. 

[0:15:20]
Joel Fuhrman: So, I'm saying the starting point isn't to just diet, it's trying to increase more of these healthy foods. Then you'll be comfortable as the weight starts to come off because you're eating more healthy foods and you'll crowd out the unhealthy foods. Over time, you'll desire less of them, and everyone gets better nourished.

[0:16:00]
Hanh Brown: Amen to that. It's not just about the calories, it's really the quality of the food. If only folks in their teens could get this message. The sooner you start, the better. I don't use the word "diet", but it's a lifestyle choice. Nutritional science should be taught in schools before the person gets to college.

[0:16:40]
Joel Fuhrman: What's the most critical factor to control your happiness and your long-term health and well-being and your ability to become fully educated and a logical thinker? Be happy. Right now, we have one in five Americans who are mentally ill. A hundred years ago, it was one in one hundred. 

[0:17:00]
Joel Fuhrman: We can trace this back to the explosion of the commercial food industry. There's a link in the scientific literature between commercial bakery goods and fast foods with depression. Even a few servings a week doubles your risk of depression. There's a link between candy consumption and commercial baked goods with drug abuse and violent crime as well.

[0:17:20]
Joel Fuhrman: White flour products like bread, bagels, pizzas, and hamburgers aren't really food. They act on the body more like a drug because they don't contain the co-factors necessary to convert into energy. They produce free radicals and are readily converted into fat. This makes a person weaker and less motivated. 

[0:17:40]
Joel Fuhrman: They become more dopamine resistant and start craving more calories due to the nutritional deficits. A major part of the American diet is throwing empty calories, oils on the foods, high-calorie oils. We have a combination of sweeteners, high-flour products, and oils which have no fiber or nutrient loads. 

[0:18:00]
Joel Fuhrman: Then thirty-three percent of Americans' diet are animal products, which have no fiber, phytochemicals, or antioxidants. So we have all the ingredients for a nation of sickly elderly people who are suffering in their later years and on drugs for medical conditions who can't live a healthy life.

[0:18:20]
Joel Fuhrman: You're right. It shouldn't be "get sick, go to a doctor, try to eat healthier". My objection to the American Heart Association is they tell people with heart disease to cut back on salt and to eat better. I'm saying, "If you're agreeing that people with heart disease should cut back on salt, why don't you tell the children and the whole population to cut back on salt? We don't wait for a person to get lung cancer to tell them to quit cigarettes. We tell kids not to smoke cigarettes".


[0:19:01]
Hanh Brown: So if the idea is that we wait until a person gets sick and then we intervene, it's all reactive. But what you are advocating is to take ownership starting in your teen years or sooner, so that these issues don't appear in the future. Now, I have a question for people who have led unhealthy lifestyles and made poor food choices but now want to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Do they need to ease into this? Should they gradually incorporate your meal plan, or are there any precautions they need to take? What do you recommend?

[0:19:40]
Joel Fuhrman: It's really important that people do their homework and understand, for example, how the plan works. They need to realize how comprehensive it is. It's not just about switching to a plant-based diet or cutting out animal products and eating fruits and vegetables. 

[0:20:00]
Joel Fuhrman: It's important to recognize that there's a need for Vitamin B12 and some people may not have an adequate Omega-3 index, which is measurable on a blood test. This index has to do with the amount of DHA and EPA, the long chain Omega-3 fats in your tissues, and can be modulated by your diet. 

[0:20:21]
Joel Fuhrman: When you move to a plant-based diet and you're not eating any seafood, certain people who aren't genetically converting enough of the ALA into DHA and EPA may have an inadequate Omega-3 index. This could be a factor leading to cognitive impairment later in life. So let me say this one more time and make it very clear and simple.

[0:20:49]
Joel Fuhrman: As you move your diet to plant-based, you have to be concerned about adequate Vitamin B12 and taking in enough DHA and EPA to make sure your Omega-3 index is still adequate. A low Omega-3 index can be linked to an increased risk of dementia in later life. 

[0:21:09]
Joel Fuhrman: We want to protect against dementia by flooding the body with plant-derived phytochemicals. At the same time, we need to make sure our intake of Omega-3 fatty acids is adequate. In many cases, this necessitates a supplement to ensure people get adequate Omega-3 or Omega-6, especially if they're not eating seafood.

[0:21:33]
Joel Fuhrman: I'm saying that there's a lifespan enhancement from reducing animal protein in general. The most significant finding that turned nutritional science upside down in the last decade was that people who eat more plant protein live longer, but as people eat more animal protein, they live shorter lives.

[0:22:04]
Joel Fuhrman: So we're trying to explain to people why they should be reducing animal products in general. The old ideas, like eating more lean animal protein such as chicken without the skin, fish, and egg whites, have been proven to fail because the excess amount of animal protein is converted into IGF-1.

[0:22:22]
Joel Fuhrman: Excessive amounts of IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor, can promote replication and growth of cancer cells. So we want to keep IGF-1 levels lower by reducing animal protein and eating a diet that is mostly plant-centric. The higher-protein plant foods like nuts, seeds, beans, and green vegetables, for example, still have tons of protein which people don't recognize.

[0:22:42]
Joel Fuhrman: Eating these high-protein plant foods has the best association with protection against dementia and brain health, and can slow the aging process later in life. So we're talking about getting more of your protein from plants, less from animal products, and eating larger portions of these plant-based foods. 

[0:23:02]
Joel Fuhrman: But when you do so, you might have to supplement conservatively to make sure you're taking in adequate Vitamin B12 and adequate Omega-3 fatty acids, especially for people who aren't eating regular seafood. Because of the dumping of plastic into the ocean, there's more microplastic infiltration into seafood.

[0:23:39]
Joel Fuhrman: So we're eating less seafood and not using seafood as a major source of DHA. There are now more vegan sources of DHA and people aren't relying on fish to get all their Omega-3 fatty acids. This is an important thing to consider because there is also data in the scientific literature suggesting that deficiencies in Omega-3 fatty acids can increase susceptibility to the toxins that cause Parkinson's disease.

[0:24:14]
Joel Fuhrman: Low levels of Omega-3 fats in the brain can also increase the inflammatory reaction of the brain to chemical toxins. So we want to make sure the diet is plant-based, yes, with lots of vegetables, less animal products, yes, but also make sure we maintain a favorable amount of Omega-3 fatty acids as we make that switch.

[0:24:35]
Hanh Brown: How does our body adapt to these changes as it goes on? I guess what should a person expect to go through when transitioning to this type of diet?

[0:24:46]
Joel Fuhrman: It depends on the individual. Some people going from a diet with a lot of salt and fried foods to a healthy diet 'cold turkey' might experience fatigue in the first week of the switch. This is because their body is circulating more toxins for removal.


[0:25:06]
Joel Fuhrman: Rolling from in and the extra salt the in, they were not having a lot of salt in their diet, which means that kidneys are not acclimated to holding on to sort of still gonna be pushing a lot of salt out. The flux of sodium could drop rapidly in their tissues, so what I'm saying is it's normal to feel a little bit weak or fatigued or headachy.

[0:25:26]
Joel Fuhrman: Or flu-like, which usually peaks on day three and four, and you start to feel better already by day five or six. So it's an important question you ask me because some people switching to a healthy diet could say, "I tried that way, but I felt worse, so I went back to my old diet," and they don't recognize that it's normal to enhance detox.

[0:25:46]
Joel Fuhrman: The case and channels and to feel poorly.

[0:25:49]
Joel Fuhrman: For the first week or so until you start to lose weight, you know, maybe even lose three or four pounds the first week, but then people generally settle into losing about fifteen pounds the first month, about ten pounds the second month, and then they lose about two pounds a week, as they sort of approach their ideal weight, and once they get closer to their ideal weight, of course, the weight loss slows.

[0:26:10]
Joel Fuhrman: Down and then levels off, because obviously we're saying here that when you, when your metabolic furnace is turned down, you're aging slower, and most people think it's better to turn the metabolic furnace up to burn their body temperature higher to run their side right higher to try to burn off more calories, so they need more from the not get.

[0:26:30]
Joel Fuhrman: That and I'm saying no, the opposite is true: we want our metabolic rate to slow slightly, so we can eat less food and not get too thin and so our weight loss slows and stabilizes when we get to our ideal weight so we can eat so we don't have to overeat to maintain muscle and skeletal size and strength with aging so.

[0:26:50]
Joel Fuhrman: When you put all the signs together, we can give people a program that is ideally suited to maintain health, brain health, and muscular-skeletal health as they age to the point where they can maintain their mental faculties as well as their physical abilities to enjoy life, to be more on to play sports into hiking, and play tennis and swim and cinema, to do whatever they want to do, to travel, to have a life that they can really enjoy.

[0:27:17]
Hanh Brown: Wow.

[0:27:19]
Hanh Brown: This is so important, you know, it's important not only for the folks that we're talking about - the baby boomers and everything, and I think this is one of the key components that should be taught in elementary middle school and high school, right?

[0:27:33]
Hanh Brown: Lifestyle food choices because I think when you feel good, you have that sense of energy and fitness. We can suppress a lot of these mental health problems that we see across the board, particularly in teens right before or after college, right.

[0:27:50]
Hanh Brown: Now you talked about the G-BOMBS earlier, can we do a deep dive on that, I guess elaborate on each of those?

[0:27:58]
Joel Fuhrman: Right, we were talking about green vegetables, necessity greens, as a prime... we're primed to animals that do depend on the nutrients greens, the major element in our cells in our DNA that repairs damage to DNA and prevents cancer is called the antioxidant response element which is fueled the which, which encourages gene silencing that when you have the AR reactivated predominantly from the intake of green vegetables, especially green cruciferous vegetables.

[0:28:31]
Joel Fuhrman: We can silence abnormal genes that could have led to some problem developing. But in any case, the body's cellular mechanisms to kill, repair, and remove toxins are activated by the consumption of green vegetables, and if you don't like to eat green vegetables, you cannot be healthy and the fascinating thing about that is that.

[0:28:51]
Joel Fuhrman: We have an ergothioneine receptor on our cells and ergothioneine is high in mushrooms and we have a high need for organosulfide compounds coming from onions as well, so we're saying here that that the human development of the human body over the years, made it so the nutrients present in these.

[0:29:11]
Joel Fuhrman: Foods like onions, mushrooms, and greens became part of the building blocks of our immune system.

[0:29:17]
Joel Fuhrman: In our modern society, when we're not eating those foods that maybe our ancestors ate or primitive primates ate in the past, you know, eating that we can't function or have a normal immune function, nor can our bodies grow and function.

[0:29:30]
Joel Fuhrman: So the green vegetables, our sea... have a high amount of protein, but they're very rich in all vitamins, minerals. Measuring all thirty-six different nutrients recorded by the U.S. government shows that green vegetables have the highest nutrient per calorie density of all the foods and then we move on to beans, legumes like lentils and.

[0:29:52]
Joel Fuhrman: Split peas and red beans and kidney beans and azuki beans and soybeans, that is, beans have the most slowly digestible carbohydrates which have the lowest glycemic effect; they don't raise blood glucose because the carbohydrates are absorbed so slowly.

[0:30:10]
Joel Fuhrman: And they're very high in fiber and resistant starch, and the word "resistant starch" means it doesn't turn into sugar, it doesn't turn into calories, it's resistant to enzymatic degradation, which means they become a prebiotic to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut.

[0:30:29]
Joel Fuhrman: Then you have the nutrients to promote these probiotics, so these bacteria that create a film over the villi and scientists call that film a biofilm, which then slows the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream from everything you eat. So when you have a mango or a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, the glycemic load of that is lowered because you eat beans and grains and mushrooms and onions, particularly the beans, which coat the biofilm which lowers the glycemic load of the other foods.

[0:30:49]
Joel Fuhrman: Saturated fat, or meat, does the opposite - saturated fats inflame the digestive tract and cause more trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) production.

[0:31:09]
Joel Fuhrman: Trimethylamine oxide, a more pro-inflammatory compound, now the saturated fats impair the insulin receptor, right? They make the insulin receptor not function normally. So now you have a higher glucose response when you eat oatmeal, or if you have a mango or something, a pineapple. So sometimes people, I mean, cheat or die, try to get all this.

[0:31:29]
Joel Fuhrman: Sugar and carbohydrate out of their diet, they're on keto, all these animal products.

[0:31:35]
Joel Fuhrman: This is impairing the function of the insulin receptors, so now when they go to eat something that has carbohydrates in it, they push up their sugar too high, so they think they have to avoid those foods.

[0:31:45]
Joel Fuhrman: So what we're saying is no, you know, the consumption of berries and fruit is linked to lower rates of cancer, as well as vegetables. The Women's Healthy Eating and Living study showed that women who ate the most vegetables had the lowest rates of cancer, but when they ate fruits and vegetables combined, the cancer rates.

[0:32:04]
Joel Fuhrman: Went even lower, leading to this concept of nutritional biodiversity - that you have a better microbiome and you have better health when you have a variety of different foods in your diet. We're talking about a variety of different types of green vegetables, a couple of different species of mushrooms, not just the same white button mushroom all the time.

[0:32:24]
Joel Fuhrman: You know, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, eat some white button mushrooms, and maybe some other mushrooms you can find in the store as well. Eat three different types of berries every day, eat different types of nuts and seeds, and we're talking here about going through these G-BOMBS, the 'S' is for seeds.

[0:32:44]
Joel Fuhrman: The seeds, in particular, like flax seeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds. The flax seeds and chia seeds are very high in lignans that bind the estrogen stimulation in the breast and prostate tissue, lowering the risk of breast and prostate cancer. One study, for example, showed women who had breast cancer were followed for ten years.

[0:33:04]
Joel Fuhrman: And they had a seventy one percent reduction in breast cancer-related death when they ate just one-third of a milligram of lignan a day and a teaspoon of ground flax seeds has seven milligrams of lignan in it. Just a little bit of chia seeds, and I recommend people have a teaspoon of ground flaxseed, a teaspoon of ground chia seeds and a teaspoon of hemp seeds every day in their diet, or more if they need more calories. But in any case, we're talking about.

[0:33:41]
Joel Fuhrman: The studies that show the miraculous protective effects of each of these things individually. But when you put together a dietary portfolio that puts them all together into one as a package, then you see miraculous protection against later life diseases like cancer and dementia. For example, a study on mushrooms showed.

[0:34:01]
Joel Fuhrman: That ten grams of mushrooms a day reduced occurrence of breast cancer by sixty-four percent. But when you compare people not eating mushrooms to people eating mushrooms and greens or green vegetables or green tea, then the risk reduction for breast cancer was.

[0:34:22]
Joel Fuhrman: An eighty-nine percent reduction in breast cancer incidence from people eating mushrooms. The size of your thumb is about ten grams a day, and I'm saying we should be eating thirty grams a day. And we're eating more than a third of a milligram of flaxseed lignan, we're eating more than that, like ten milligrams. So even earlier studies that show prolonging life, even later in life, where you get the benefits of reduced mortality, the personal benefits are still substantial.

[0:34:42]
Joel Fuhrman: If it's started early in life, the benefits, of course, are multiplied and enhanced greatly when you start early in life. As we said earlier, and you put it together with all these various factors in people, don't underestimate the magic of mushrooms. Mushrooms are the most powerful anti-angiogenic food.

[0:35:02]
Joel Fuhrman: You need angiogenesis promotion to allow cancer cells to replicate and spread or metastasize, and the word "angiogenesis" means the growth of new blood vessels. When fat is growing in your body and your insulin is sparked up, it's a perfect growth hormone. IGF-1 is also a.

[0:35:22]
Joel Fuhrman: A fat-growing hormone that promotes angiogenesis, or the growth of new blood vessels, to feed the growth of fat cells and allows cancer cells to replicate and metastasize.

[0:35:37]
Joel Fuhrman: When you eat these plants, we're talking about.

[0:35:41]
Joel Fuhrman: They say no way, Jose. I'm not letting you put fat on your body. They're anti-fat and anti-angiogenic, and they're preventing cancer cell replication and cancer growth at the same time. These are what we call G-BOMBS, with anti-angiogenic properties, where mushrooms are the most powerful anti-angiogenic food. But green vegetables and beans also have anti-angiogenic properties and mushrooms also have powerful anti-estrogenic properties where they prevent estrogen stimulation in breast and prostate tissue, lowering the risk of breast and prostate cancer.

[0:36:17]
Joel Fuhrman: And soybeans in particular, but eating a whole soybean like edamame or a dry bean that you make into a miso soup.

[0:36:26]
Joel Fuhrman: Have profound benefits for breast and prostate tissue as well because the isoflavones.

[0:36:32]
Joel Fuhrman: Don't stimulate the estrogen receptors, they block it from being stimulated by the wrong produced estrogens. So what I'm saying is the estrogen-like compounds in soy don't fit deep into the estrogen receptor and don't stimulate the breast and prostate receptors. They block it from being stimulated by estrogen, lowering the risk of prostate and breast cancer.

[0:36:52]
Joel Fuhrman: At the same time, they do stimulate the alpha-2 receptors on the bones and muscles, increasing bone mass and muscle strength with aging, protecting us from osteoporosis.

[0:37:05]
Joel Fuhrman: The consumption of these beans, including some soybeans in your diet, has an effect to maintain bone and muscle mass while preventing against breast cancer. So, they have, like, what's supposed to stimulate similar schools, they block. So these natural foods are designed for the human species to give to.

[0:37:25]
Joel Fuhrman: Really demonstrate that food is our best medicine.

[0:37:30]
Joel Fuhrman: And food and the right food is our best form of healthcare and taking drugs that we know are toxic and poisonous, more cancer is not where health care should be centered about, yeah.

[0:37:42]
Hanh Brown: This, I agree, so progressive, so this is not alternative medicine.

[0:37:47]
Hanh Brown: It's what medicine should be, it's progressive, it's correct medicine, it's the type of health care people should be getting, and luckily we've had the growth of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

[0:37:58]
Hanh Brown: And even in New York now, there are hospitals offering people lifestyle medicine clinics to improve their health, to reverse diseases. Unfortunately, we've made healthcare to be pill-popping instead of living healthily, which has devastated the population, and for a little, and I think everything that you.

[0:38:18]
Hanh Brown: Described, I like to see that in the lunchroom, start them early in the lunchroom, whether it's elementary, middle, and high school, my gosh, I think if we can adapt to these healthy lifestyle choices.

[0:38:32]
Hanh Brown: You're set because those are formative years, so it or when the taste buds, the.

[0:38:38]
Hanh Brown: The flavors choices.

[0:38:40]
Hanh Brown: That you're making will affect your future, so I think it's gotta start much sooner and K so it's I know we are a plan, a lot of people see such great benefits in the taste preferences can be modified, but it takes months, it usually takes two to four months for people to adapt to these new recipes, new eating habits.

[0:39:01]
Hanh Brown: But eventually, they do it, they jump in with both feet and make the take the initiative and make the commitment to improve their health, we find that over time, I actually did a study of more than seven hundred fifty people to show that they preferred eating this way, but it didn't happen right away, they had to stick with it for a few months to rhythms, live at Delta taste, muscle, retrain their taste, nest their taste.

[0:39:21]
Hanh Brown: Referees: Learn the recipes and everything.

[0:39:23]
Hanh Brown: I'm very true. Now I know we touched on this earlier, but it's important enough that I think let's do a deep dive into how and why eating the wrong food causes toxic hunger and the desire to overeat calories, whereas a diet rich in nutrients causes true hunger, like you said, it reduces sensations.

[0:39:44]
Hanh Brown: That lead to cravings and overeating behavior and so forth. How does one overcome this agony of toxic hunger and cravings? 

[0:40:04]
Joel Fuhrman: That's right, people get pushed by their hunger signals to overeat calories, but they think it's real hunger, it's not the.

[0:40:24]
Joel Fuhrman: So let's go to this from it, so what happens is that when we're digesting food, the body, especially the liver, is trying to convert those calories and store them in the body so we convert the glucose into glycogen in the muscle tissues. Then when we're not eating food the body can burn off the glycogen to keep our glucose level consistent.

[0:40:44]
Joel Fuhrman: Our brain has a constant need for glucose, so the phase of the digestive cycle when we're eating and digesting that's called the anabolic phase, the building phase.

[0:40:55]
Joel Fuhrman: And then when you enter the anabolic phase and maintain it, you're not detoxifying and you're healing and repairing. Your liver slows repair and puts a hold on detoxification in the digestive phase, where it lessens it dramatically. That means it's not taking toxins and converting them into water-soluble substances so they can be excreted in the urine. The toxins we're.

[0:41:15]
Joel Fuhrman: Talking about might be urea, you know, or lipofuscin, free radicals.

[0:41:22]
Joel Fuhrman: Crippled mines, whatever the toxins are the body's eliminating, so when you stop eating food, when you stop digesting food.

[0:41:30]
Joel Fuhrman: That's when the body is living off its reserves of nutrients that are stored, living off the fat, living off the glycogen, and that's when the liver can devote itself to repair and healing, and when the body stops digesting, people, because they're so toxic because they have so much inflammation and so much reactive oxygen species because their diet isn't full of nutrients, they're so full.

[0:41:50]
Joel Fuhrman: Of toxins that when they start digesting food, they feel wiped out, they have a headache, feel weak and uncomfortable and need to eat again to feel good. They think the agitation and fatigue and the stomach cramping and headache are signs of hunger.

[0:42:07]
Joel Fuhrman: And they're seriously mistaken. They think those symptoms are hunger because eating makes them go away, and what they're really doing is maintaining themselves in the anabolic phase of the digestive cycle all the time because they can't tolerate being in the catabolic phase where detoxification happens. There's no metabolic need for the calories that they're consuming to stop detoxification. If they were healthy enough and didn't have a high level of circulating toxins in their tissues, they would enter the catabolic phase and feel nothing. They wouldn't feel weak or have a headache, they'd just be actively living their lives until their glycogen stores were depleted.

[0:42:41]
Joel Fuhrman: And then they would get a signal to eat, which we call true hunger, before the body goes into breaking their muscle tissue to make glucose for the brain. So the body is like a precise computer to direct you to the exact amount of calories to consume in order to maintain your muscle mass. 

[0:42:57]
Joel Fuhrman: But calories are directed to maintain lean tissue, not to put on fat. The body doesn't have a hunger to make you excessively eat in order to maintain lean muscle and lean tissue. So if you have fat on the body, more than fifteen percent for males and more than twenty-five percent for females, then you've got pathological hunger and you've got an increasing risk of cancer and dementia because fat on the body produces pro-inflammatory substances that age the body and damage the brain. 

[0:43:33]
Joel Fuhrman: There's no such thing as a healthy overweight person because fat on the body is detrimental to all causes and accelerates all causes of death and brain health in later life. But the reason the person's overeating is because their body is nutritionally deficient and toxic at the same time because the lack of nutrition leads to toxic compounds in the bloodstream and the cells that make people overeat because they don't feel well and they have to overeat to keep their energy up. 

[0:44:00]
Joel Fuhrman: When you're eating healthily, you don't have to eat for energy, you always have good energy. And then you can feel that you're always energized and you never feel wiped out and you only have to eat when you get hungry, not when you get tired or achy. 

[0:44:11]
Joel Fuhrman: And when you get back in touch with true hunger, then you get back in touch with preferring the right amount of calories. That amount of calories you prefer to eat is the amount of calories you're supposed to be eating, and you're not desiring more calories than your body requires. So eating healthily and keeping your body clean is the secret to being satisfied with the right amount of calories. 

[0:44:40]
Hanh Brown: Amen to that! I tell you, I can listen to this endlessly. So, wow, lots to share. And you know, it's very adaptable. I think people just have to come to a commitment that this is a lifestyle that I want to have. It's not just a diet, it's not something that I'm going to try out for one or two months. I'm going to take this on, and this is my lifestyle, right? Because it's not something you go to and then go back, and then it's that back and forth.

[0:45:07]
Joel Fuhrman: That's right, and yoyoing your weight is not conducive to your health. You know, I explain to people that if

 they lose fifty pounds and then they go on a cruise and gain back ten, the rapid regain of weight puts them at a high risk where they were when they were fifty pounds heavier, just as they gained ten pounds back. The rapid regain of weight and those binges are putting back on fat, and as you know, most heart attacks occur during Christmas time and during the holiday season when people are binging or going to parties. 

[0:45:47]
Joel Fuhrman: We're talking about now that you don't get any benefit from eating healthily for a temporary period of time or losing weight and gaining it back again due to changes in weight. We want people to make a permanent incorporation into their lives, so using the term "diet" doesn't represent something they do temporarily. It represents a nutritional diet. 

[0:46:07]
Joel Fuhrman: A person becomes a nutritarian, a person who's concerned with their own health and wants to eat healthily. They want to take control and take responsibility for their own self-destructive behavior. 

[0:46:33]
Joel Fuhrman: It's not okay to go to bars on the weekends and get drunk on alcohol, of course, and it's not okay to binge and recreate with food until you're bloated and feeling unhealthy. It's not okay to cope with stress by eating because you pay a price with suffering in your life. 

[0:46:54]
Joel Fuhrman: I am at the point in my life where I tell people to make every day count, make every meal count, and make every mouthful count. Eat the right foods, make them taste great, and chew really well. Let's get your body transformed for brain health and don't sabotage yourself.

[0:46:59]
Joel Fuhrman: Because why would people self-sabotage? It shows how powerful food addiction is. Even people self-sabotage with irrational thoughts, rash and irrationalizations that are not logical. They're not in their best interest because the addictions take over the primitive brain. People could hear us talk today, could say, "Well, that sounds so good and so interesting and so scientific, but..."

[0:47:19]
Joel Fuhrman: "It's not for me because I like the zoo too much for my family and my job or my travel." They have a million excuses or expect why they, why the not it a million reasons why the primitive brain is uncomfortable making a radical change in their life to stop and end self-destructive behaviors. This is the way addictions work, the addictive addictions take over the brain so you can't even think to make the best decisions on your own behalf. And I'm saying to people...

[0:47:50]
Joel Fuhrman: Just do it and take the initiative and let your cerebral brain, the person that's the real you, overpower the primitive brain who has anxieties about making a change. 

[0:48:02]
Hanh Brown: You know, I tell you, if they have been deeply touched by folks with dementia, Parkinson's, or any age-related illnesses, they'll know, hey? 

[0:48:13]
Hanh Brown: I'm going to take ownership of my health because if I'm blessed enough to live long, I want quality, I don't want that decline that gradual decline. So it absolutely feels like we have this incredible opportunity to be in great health, to have a great healthy life expectancy and be in superior health as we age.

[0:48:33]
Joel Fuhrman: I'm suggesting that the human lifespan is between ninety-six and one hundred and seven years old and most people should be living around one hundred years old, not around seventy-five or eighty years old. Then people will say, "Well, who wants to live that long? I don't want to be in bad health and be a cripple are not announcing, no, not that we were talking about. The human brain and the body have the ability to maintain..."

[0:48:53]
Joel Fuhrman: Change or physical capacity to a hundred years old when you eat optimally. The fact that it's not sure how bad people are eating and living, it doesn't show the human body can do that, it shows the extent that we've deviated from the natural plan for foods that we're supposed to be eating.

[0:49:13]
Hanh Brown: Amen to that. I'll tell you. I hope folks, whether you're a baby boomer or any age, start right and be committed. Just look at folks who are in their late life. 

[0:49:24]
Hanh Brown: Whether they're declining or not, you can be different by making healthy choices, as you're suggesting. Just start now. So, I have just one other question before we head towards closing. Now there is your Eat to Live Retreat. 

[0:49:39]
Hanh Brown: It's a place for transformation, can you tell us what happens there? How does it change people's lives? And where is it?

[0:49:59]
Joel Fuhrman: Well, the Eat to Live Retreat is open all year long, every single month. People come here from all parts of the country, sometimes from other countries as well, because they're people who want the extra

 attention because they're in a safe...

[0:50:19]
Joel Fuhrman: Environment of healthy eating, so they can transition from there. Sometimes people are overweight with food addiction and they feel that they overwhelmingly have trouble doing this on their own because they can't stop consuming foods they know they shouldn't be consuming. So in this protective atmosphere, we have chefs making incredibly great tasting food.

[0:50:39]
Joel Fuhrman: That's super healthy at the same time. They learn how to eat this way, they adapt to eating this way, they get cooking classes, education on food, emotional eating counseling, and exercise classes, and recreation. It's a fun place to be in. People stay here for a while with the intention that when they maybe fifty...

[0:50:48]
Joel Fuhrman: Weights lighter, they now have the tools, both intellectually and emotionally, to stick with this diet and stay with it for the long term.

[0:51:08]
Joel Fuhrman: But I also want to say that many people don't have to come here in San Diego to change. This program can be learned from the books, the videos on my website. They can interact with other people and get support.

[0:51:28]
Joel Fuhrman: And communication, they can do this in their own home. Learning how to make healthy changes in their life takes commitment to learning because we know that people who don't learn why and how this works don't have a high chance of succeeding. It's the people that devote themselves to read...

[0:51:48]
Joel Fuhrman: And study, and listen to some videos and become more expert in nutrition, knowing how it affects the body, who are able to stick with it long term. That includes learning the delicious recipes and how to make great salad dressings, desserts, ice creams, and make this healthy food taste great. 

[0:52:09]
Joel Fuhrman: People really get pleasure out of eating while transforming their health. So the retreat is a fantastic place for people to come and experience, but most people can't do it. They can't take the time off work, they can't afford the expense.

[0:52:29]
Joel Fuhrman: So, for most people, the recommendation is to get the book, maybe learn more on my website and see if they can make their own house their healing retreat. Make their own family be the support structure and do it together, have fun and cook as a family, and support each other to be healthy.

[0:52:44]
Hanh Brown: That's exciting, do your own transformation locally. So yeah, thank you, thank you so much for your wisdom, dedication in helping all ages to live healthy. I appreciate your time and clearly the Nutritarian diet is a great way to promote healthy living and brain health.

[0:53:04]
Hanh Brown: So next week, the topic will be age-sensitive design for senior living for limited cognition and mobility. As people age, they often develop physical or cognitive limitations and performing daily tasks becomes more difficult. For seniors, these changes can mean loss of independence and reduce quality of life.

[0:53:24]
Hanh Brown: That's why it's vital to design senior living communities with an age sensitivity in mind so architects and planners can design homes that are safe, comfortable and accessible for seniors. Well designed senior living communities can foster a sense of community and belonging.

[0:53:41]
Hanh Brown: That way we can help seniors live well by designing environments that cater to their specific needs

. Remember to subscribe to our podcast, Boomer Living Podcast, on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and subscribe to the YouTube Channel, EIGHT media show. Thank you so much for your time and see you next week.

[0:54:02]
Hanh Brown: Take care, my friends.

[0:54:08]
Hanh Brown: Thank you for listening to another episode of "The Boomer Living" broadcast. I know you have a lot of options when it comes to podcasts and I'm grateful that you've chosen this one. Please share this podcast with your friends and family, write a review on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play. 

[0:54:24]
Hanh Brown: It helps others discover the show. You can also contact us at 73635068 to leave a review and request content for the show. We love hearing from our listeners. Check out our TikTok, Instagram and YouTube channel EIGHT media show and subscribe to weekly tips on...

[0:54:44]
Hanh Brown: How to best serve the senior population. We want to help them have a great experience as they age. Thanks for tuning in until next time.