In this week's webinar, Dr. Miller and Dr. Marbas answer all your plant-based questions.
Questions Answered
- (01:53) – Getting started on a while food plant-based diet.
- (02:59) – Do food deliveries create a risk for coronavirus infections?
- (07:08) – Will drug-eluting stents prevent my endothelial cells from healing while on a whole food, plant based diet?
- (08:03) – What is the best diet for multiple sclerosis?
- (13:05) – Medical issues to watch carefully when switching to a WFPB diet, especially with high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes.
- (16:10) – Can naltrexone dampen the autoimmune response from toxins?
- (18:27) – Are vaccines the answer to addressing COVID-19?
- (21:51) – Should we be concerned about fluoride in the water?
- (23:07) – What can we do to optimize our immune systems?
- (31:51) – Why do some people believe nightshade vegetables are bad?
- (39:27) – What to do about any gas and bloating when switching to a WFPB diet?
- (41:28) – How to deal with cholesterol, but very low blood pressure?
- (45:39) – What kind of supplements, if any, would you recommend to improve the immune system?
- (50:56) – Do teas help the immune system?
- (52:42) – Boosting vs Optimizing the immune system and ulcerative colitis.
- (1:00:22) – How can I gain weight healthily on a WFPB diet?
- (1:03:53) – Should we be concerned about arsenic found in brown rice?
- (1:06:35) – Is eating seaweed good for meeting our iodine needs
Complete Transcript
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(00:05)
I'm Dr. Laurie Marbas from Plant Based TeleHealth. In this week's webinar, Dr. Chris Miller and I answer many questions regarding a whole food, plant based diet and much more. We have weekly webinars occurring every Sunday at 2:00 PM Mountain Standard Time. If you'd like to pre-register for our webinars, please click the link below, and we hope to see you there.
Narrator
(00:25)
We are making plant based lifestyle medicine available to everyone who desires it. With telemedicine, we are removing barriers that prevent many people from accessing this type of care. Lifestyle medicine promotes healthy behaviors, and when adopted, individuals can expect improvement and in many cases reversal of chronic disease.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(00:44)
Okay. So, today, we are going to talk about basically starting on a whole food, plant based diet and maybe some of the things that, as a physician, I worry about my patients, that they might be running into trouble, especially if they're on insulin or blood pressure pills. It looks like we're streaming live on Facebook now, so excellent. Welcome, everybody, back to the webinar. These are live Q&As with the plant based doctors. It's myself, Dr. Laurie Marbas, and Dr. Chris Miller. You can say hi, Chris.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:12)
Hi, everyone. Welcome.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:14)
Chris is in New Hampshire. Wait. Or are you in Vermont?
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:18)
You're in New Hampshire. I forget. Work in Vermont, live in New Hampshire. This is Plant Based TeleHealth. Please check out plantbasedteletealth.com if you're looking for a plant based doctor, but we just want to have these webinars every week to share information that you may have regarding nutrition or lifestyle. Today, it's really answering all types of questions you may have about getting started on a plant based diet, or if you've been doing it for a while, if you have some concerns or some questions, you're struggling with something. Chris, do you want to give us a little intro into how do you approach someone new who's entering a whole food, plant based diet?
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:53)
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Nice to see everyone, have you all here today. With a plant based diet I always like to start with where a person is. For all of you guys who are here today, I don't know where you are in your journeys or what you're eating, so we'll just assume that you're kind of moving right along and know a little bit about this already. Then it's also important to know what your goals are. That's important for you to define as well, because that really helps understand how much you really want to ramp it up, whether you just want to do kind of a general learn to eat nutritiously and age well or you're trying to reverse a chronic illness and what your goals are with that, whether you want to do it quickly, whether you're a person who wants to add in one thing at a time and make slow changes to make it sustainable, so kind of addressing the big picture I think is really important as we're getting started. Once we establish our goals, then we can start with a plan, as far as what we're going to eat, and how we're going to build it, and how we're going to make it last. I don't know if you want me to get into all of it right now or you want to jump in.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(02:59)
Yeah. I was just looking for the livestream. If you guys are on Facebook, feel free to share this. We do have a few questions. Mark says, “Some of my family members are losing their minds in corona protection methods, letting groceries sit outside, spraying everything down, not letting any deliveries from restaurants come into the house. Is this overkill? Thanks.” That's a good question.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(03:26)
I think it depends on your risk factors, number one, to the extremes that you need to take. I think precautions are smart. To my knowledge, there's not been any studies or any evidence showing that these can be spread from groceries bringing into the home. I'm not sure about delivery, food delivery or something. Chris, I know you, with your lupus and everything, you guys are taking some measures. Do you want to maybe describe some of the things that you feel is important for someone like you and then maybe someone who's not as at high risk. I can tell you what I'm doing, but if you want to start.
Dr. Chris Miller
(04:00)
Yeah. Mark, thank you for that question. People with weakened immune systems or possibly, so chronic illnesses, especially the ones that are showing to be more high risk, so people with diabetes, high blood pressure, autoimmune issues, just kind of ongoing inflammation, because this has sort of become an inflammatory type illness, and that's where people get in trouble, and so for all of us type of people, we definitely are taking more precautions. We're definitely staying more isolated. We are washing hands, washing everything as it comes in. Supposedly the studies are showing that it lasts 24 hours on softer surfaces and up to three days on things like plastic and stainless steel. So, depending on what it is, if we can wait, like mail, if I can let it wait 24 hours before I open an envelope, that way I don't have to be worried. If it's something important, then I'll wipe it down first.
Dr. Chris Miller
(04:59)
As far as the food goes, it's been shown that if you order something carry out or delivering, that if you heat it to at least 150 degrees, that will kill the virus, so at least 30 minutes to an hour at least 150 degrees will kill the virus. If you are worried or if you were to order something and you were to heat it up, then you wouldn't have to worry so much about it. Then that does depend on the person. The healthier the person, like Laurie was saying, is going to have less of a risk and not have to worry about it as much, so might scale that back a little bit.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(05:39)
Those are some really helpful hints. What we're doing here is honestly we're very cautious when we're out, so we're wearing masks, which is a really weird sensation when you go into a grocery store and everybody's wearing a mask. I had to get fingerprinted for my New Jersey license, and afterwards we're like, “Well, might as well just stop by Whole Foods.” There were these huge precautions, being stopping at the yellow line, waiting for someone to ask you to come forward. They're spraying down between each person that comes into the groceries to check out. They're spraying those all down, which is really interesting.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(06:14)
We come home. We use plastic bags. Granted, I usually use recyclable bags, but these are things that I can leave out in the garage for a while. If these are things that are in plastic or if they're fruit or something, I'll wash them, but then other things are going straight into the freezer or they're sitting out. If there's something I put … like we have nuts. They're not doing bulk anymore, so we buy nuts in a plastic container. I pour them in the jar, and I throw that away, washing my hands before and after. We've been doing that for four weeks. We have had cases in our county, so I'm not too worried about that.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(06:51)
Basically, those are the things that I'm doing. Again, everyone, just be aware that we are recording. We're streaming live to Facebook, so if you have a Facebook question, please feel free to also ask it there. If you do have any questions, just beware that we are recording this and we'll be sharing it again later.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(07:08)
Another question we have, “Will drug-eluting stents prevent my endothelial cells from healing while on a whole food, plant based diet?” That is from Mark as well. Chris, I don't know about you, but as far as the drug-eluting stents, no. You're decreasing inflammation, and no. They should not prevent your endothelial cells from healing while you're on a whole food, plant based diet, not at all. Your body's still going to do what the body does. The drug-eluting stents are important not to help prevent clotting as the stents are being recovered I guess you could say. So, that should be fine, not a problem. Chris, do you have any thoughts or-
Dr. Chris Miller
(07:53)
No. I agree completely. It's as important as ever to eat the whole food, plant based diet and to recover, because you'll heal the inflammation around that and decrease your risk. Agree.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(08:03)
Absolutely. Then there's a question from Clara. “Could you say something about the best diet for multiple sclerosis?”
Dr. Chris Miller
(08:11)
Sure. Yeah. MS, being an autoimmune disease, there's quite a bit of data with MS now actually. We've seen this in a lot of our patients. People on a whole food, plant based diet, eating an autoimmune healing type plan, which means really not processed. Some people on whole food diets or plant based diets will eat a little more processed, so really an unprocessed, whole food, plant based diet is the best place to start for an autoimmune disease like MS.
Dr. Chris Miller
(08:42)
At some point then, if you're not getting the results as quickly, we make sure you're eating plenty of raw. The raw has more phytonutrients, and vitamin C, and antiinflammatory factors that you're going to need to really reduce your inflammation, if it's pretty severe. That would mean leafy green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, raw vegetables throughout the day, a little bit of raw fruit throughout the day, as well as a little bit of cooked, and so kind of building a plan around that. Then just make sure that your vitamin D is okay. I do recommend taking vitamin D3, especially for people with MS. It's been shown to be really important. And make sure your B12 is okay.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(09:21)
Awesome. Perfect. I think that's really important. There are going to be micronutrients to really optimize your immune system. Chris had mentioned this last week. It's like we've got to be careful about using the word boost, because boosting is honestly what happens with autoimmune disease. It's too much. You know what I mean? It's too crazy and attacking itself. Those are some things to monitor, but micronutrients. It's really important that we, one, consume a healthy diet before we get sick or exposed, so then when we are exposed, our immune system can actually respond appropriately. Then when it's under the stress of an infection, those needs are going to increase, because things are speeding up. Your body is needing to fight. So, you want to make sure you have the reserve of micronutrients. It's important to eat it throughout before you get exposed, during exposure, and after, so it's really, really important. Those are all super important things to keep in mind.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(10:13)
I'll be creating some special videos, too, about what is the immune system, and very specific micronutrients, and the foods that you can do, and what their role is in the body shortly. Just trying to put that all together, but those are some great, great things. Let's see. If you guys have any other questions, please feel free to ask them on the Facebook Live or here. Chris, how would you say to help someone get started on a plant based diet? What's the very first thing they should do? Is it mindset? Is it clean out the kitchen? What is the first thing they can do to make sure they're starting out on a successful path?
Dr. Chris Miller
(10:51)
I like to start people with asking them why they want to do it, what they're looking for, so they kind of get a goal in mind. With that goal, they can start to build a plan, because it's not always perfect and easy and every second is … There's challenges, for sure. I start them by saying, “Why do you want to do this? What are your goals?” As soon as they have their goals, then, boom, we're going for it. Then we're building a plan. That may be adding in. For me, it's such an important part to add in, so adding in the colorful fruits and vegetables, learning what the cruciferous vegetables are and how we can incorporate that into our meals, learning about leafy green vegetables and how important that is to eat on both raw and cooked, and start adding in the colors of the rainbow, even if it's just one meal a day or adding in something with each meal. From there, star crowding out the pro-inflammatory foods.
Dr. Chris Miller
(11:47)
Once you realize and start to understand what the animal products are doing to our bodies, the inflammation and how it's facilitating our aging and rapidly causing inflammation and autoimmune symptoms, linked with cancer, linked with heart disease, you start crowding that out. That may mean cutting down to one serving a day. That may mean completely cutting it out. That may mean just starting with breakfast and then slowly cutting it down or cutting it down to the size of your hand, and then maybe the next week you're cutting it down, however you can make that happen.
Dr. Chris Miller
(12:23)
I usually start with dairy products first, too, because I think they're highly pro-inflammatory, so I really want all my patients off dairy the sooner the better, basically. It causes direct inflammation in our gut linings. So many people have said, “Well, I'm just having a little bit in my coffee or just having a little bit here and there.” Well, even that little bit is enough to offset any healing that's going on. So, dairy is probably the number one thing that I would tell people. Get that out, and start adding the good, colorful, real vegetables and fruits. Start playing with beans. Start playing with whole grains. Start adding some nuts and seeds, and start building new recipes or start trying the new recipes that we're going to talk about.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(13:05)
Absolutely. So, when you have someone who's starting on this whole food, plant based diet and they jump full-bore, 100%, and now let's say that they have … Sorry. I'm trying to answer. I'm looking at three places to look for questions that people may have. The camera's going a little wild. Basically, if you are having someone who's doing this, and they are going from this standard American diet to suddenly eating these amazing foods that are going to decrease inflammation and improve your [inaudible 00:13:35], so what should we be looking for if you're a diabetic, or hypertensive, or you're on some type of medications that can have a really significant change in those type of vital sign parameters? What would you recommend that people look for? Then I can share what I do.
Dr. Chris Miller
(13:51)
If someone has high blood pressure, for example, and they're on medications, they definitely need to be monitoring their blood pressure at home. A whole food, plant based diet is better than any medication I've ever seen. It's so powerful, and it can cause really rapid results. It's really important that they're monitoring their blood pressure at home a couple of times throughout the day. If they're all out going for it, I often will cut down their blood pressure medicine at the beginning. If they're going in slow steps, we'll just watch it closely and keep a close eye on that.
Dr. Chris Miller
(14:24)
A similar thing applies with the diabetes medications. Some of those can cause life threatening low blood sugar when they change their diet, and so based on what medications they're on, things like insulin and Glyburide, Glipizide, that family, sulfonylureas, those can cause really dangerous low blood sugars. People on those medications, if they're really going for it, again, at the beginning, they have a plan, and they have their recipes, and they're really jumping in, we will definitely make significant reductions at the beginning and then monitor it very closely, because at that point we'd rather be a little bit high than too low, where they can get themselves in trouble. That's important that they're able to monitor it at home. Those are the two really important warnings that anyone with these illnesses should be aware of.
Dr. Chris Miller
(15:10)
People with high blood pressure should also be aware that the blood pressure can fall fast and sort of what to know, what to look for as far as lightheadedness, how to sit quickly, drink plenty of fluids, make sure they're keeping a close eye on this, because we don't want someone getting lightheaded and having an episode. So, really good points, Laurie, for bringing that up.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(15:30)
Yeah. Absolutely. These are the same thing that Chris is mentioning. I'm just reiterate that it's really important. Especially if you're diabetic, I typically will cut someone's insulin dramatically, sometimes in half the first day, depending on their specific case. Monitoring their blood pressure, typically I'll watch them closely, but if they're on more than two blood pressure meds, sometimes we're like, “Well, let's just see.” If they're kind of like, “Oh. My blood pressure runs in the 130s or 140s,” we might do a quicker follow up than someone who's still running in the 150s or 160s. There's some things there certainly to keep track of, so blood pressure and diabetes for sure.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(16:10)
The other question we have is, “I read that a low dose,” I think she meant the naltrexone, “can help dampen down an autoimmune response, such as that occurs with silicon and heavy metal poisoning. Is there some literature on this? Have you heard of it?” Have you? Chris, you want to talk to that? Or I can.
Dr. Chris Miller
(16:33)
Yeah. There is some literature actually on it, and my understanding is that the LDN actually dampens some of our hormones that are affected from things like stress, so different stressors. People who have a lot of anxiety might feel a little bit of benefit from that. There is starting to emerge some data, so when you ask if it's related with heavy metals or other toxins, I'm not sure of the data on that. I would have to review it, but there is some reports that it might be beneficial for that.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(17:07)
Absolutely. Basically, it acts like a … What naltrexone is, it's like narcan, so someone who's overdosed on some opiates. Chris would have lots more experience with this than I would, because I wasn't an ER doctor. You literally can save someone's life. The police would have it if they come upon someone, paramedics, that type of thing. Low dose, they're looking at that it might be like an immunomodulator, so there's even been potential improvement of malignant tumors, mental health disorders, and then some autoimmune diseases, because it seems to do something with binding to the receptors. It's an interesting thing. It's still under study, so that's all I know about it. I don't know much more. But, yeah. It's a great question. It's something to keep an eye on for sure. It's very, very interesting. To think taking a drug that's used to reverse opiate overdose to potentially helping autoimmune disease-
Dr. Chris Miller
(18:04)
It helps a lot, because a lot of autoimmune is stress related, as we know. I mean, that's a major, major cause. It dampens that stress response in your brain by binding to those receptors, and that's huge. I mean, if you could right there help your own stress level just by taking that, it's huge, and it's starting preliminary to look very positive, so I'll have to watch.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(18:27)
Absolutely. Again, everyone, welcome that's joining us through the webinar, but also on Facebook Live. Feel free, Facebook Live, to share this or tag people who you feel might be helpful. We're plant based docs. We're here to help answer any questions you have about a whole food, plant based diet or some other questions that you may have regarding your health and what we can do with lifestyle. Please feel free to share and ask questions. Our next question is, “Since it looks like the main goal out there seems to be to develop a vaccine to protect us from this pandemic, do you or can you see an alternative to that, not being a fan of immunization as a general rule?” I could say what I'm going to say, but go ahead, Chris.
Dr. Chris Miller
(19:10)
My thoughts would be it's a tough call, because, yeah, vaccines we know can come with some side effects, but people are dying at high rates, so if they can discover an antibody, and put it out there, and save lives, and get the herd immunity that we need by getting big populations taken care of, so that we know they have antibodies and they're not at risk, if that is what is going to protect the people who aren't able to medically get the vaccine, or the elderly, or the more immunocompromised, that will save lives. It's been shown over years with pandemics, with things like measles, people die, lots of them, things like-
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(19:50)
Polio, smallpox.
Dr. Chris Miller
(19:51)
[crosstalk 00:19:51] We actually annihilated smallpox because of the vaccine, and so it's really important at this point that we act together and we do get that herd immunity. If you have a healthy, strong immune system … I have a strong hunch that the people who have the reactions to vaccines have a weak immune system, and they're just so hyper inflamed at that point, so they get the vaccine and they have this response, and they're like, “Oh my god. I had a terrible response,” but someone who's healthy, who's eating whole food, plant based, who's dealing with their stress, who's living a life with a good lifestyle, has a safe, protected environment already, and that vaccine, which is going to save lives potentially, they're going to react much better. My thought would be to take as good of care of yourself as you can and then get the vaccine. That's my take. I don't know what your thoughts are, Laurie.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(20:46)
Yeah. No. I agree. I am a proponent of vaccines, much to many people's thoughts who are like, “Well, wait a minute. You're plant based. You're a lifestyle whole food.” Absolutely, but I'm still a physician. Look at the science. It saves lives. Vaccines certainly can cause some issues, but for the majority it's saved millions and millions of lives, and so you cannot ignore that. It's just like I consider it a responsibility of those who can take a vaccine to protect those who can't, just like you said. That is why we immunize our children, why I encourage we get the flu vaccine, because over the years you build this memory and you're less likely to get the flu the next time. [inaudible 00:21:30] We're not here to debate vaccines, but that is my personal take on it. Of course, every patient of mine I do discuss the pros and cons individual to them. Again, this is a personal choice, just like other things, but it is a hot topic, but that is my own personal thoughts.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(21:51)
Some others questions are, “Should we be concerned about fluoride in the water?” Chris, do you have any ideas or thoughts on that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(21:57)
Yeah. My thought about the fluoride in the water is that as an autoimmune person, I'm very careful with chemicals coming in, and I don't really like things being added. I want things as clean and natural. The studies have not really panned out is my understanding with preserving our teeth once we're adults. Different when we're children, but once we're adults. There is some evidence that things like fluoride can interfere with iodine in the thyroid. I'm not sure how good those studies are, but that's something I'm very careful about and I try not to. Whether there's good data, if you're drinking fluoride water and people are having problems, I'm actually not sure about that, so I can't really say.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(22:38)
Yeah. I would have to say, too, this is not my expertise at all. I would say do your due diligence and speak to your physician about it. Go to something like PubMed if you have a question regarding something such as fluoride in the water or something that you're worried about toxin wise, because honestly, the science is ever evolving around a lot of different topics. Those are some things to review for sure.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(23:07)
Just getting back to kind of the whole food, plant based diet, Chris, is there something here that you feel that we should be focused on, especially because we had talked about it previously during this pandemic, to really help optimize our immune system? They're going to open up the country, and so states are going to be out and about. People are still going to be carrying this virus asymptomatically or symptomatically, and we will probably be exposed at some point, so we should do everything we can to optimize our immune systems. Is there anything that you feel like we should really focus on to help with that potential exposure down the-
Dr. Chris Miller
(23:44)
Yeah. Totally. Everything you can, like we said last week, to get your immune system in balance. That means reducing inflammation, so reducing the pro-inflammatory foods, is going to be huge for that, any particular food sensitivities a person might have, but that's going to be huge. Then what would we be adding in? In addition to a whole food, plant based diet, which is lovely, that's a wonderful place to start, but I feel like we can even ramp that up and we can step it up quite a bit.
Dr. Chris Miller
(24:14)
Garlic and onions are some of my top two picks right now. There's what's called allicin in garlic and onion. That's the Allium family. What that's been shown to do, it's a phytonutrient, which is a nutrient from the plant in your onion and garlic. What that's been shown to do is it's strongly antiviral actually, antibacterial. But even more than that, now there's some cool studies that I was looking at with raw garlic that it increases your IgA antibody in your mucous membranes. That's in your mouth. That's in your respiratory system. That's in your gut. Basically, the first place that you're exposed to any toxin, the IgA is there. It's very nonspecific. It's part of the nonspecific rapid acting immune system. It jumps on anything foreign right away and gets rid of it.
Dr. Chris Miller
(25:05)
I'm assuming that this is probably what's going on with some of the people who are asymptomatic and they never even know that their immune systems are so in balance and robust that they're able to get rid of things and go about life and not even know. The goal is to eat about one clove of raw garlic a day. I actually should make this a challenge for everyone listening, because it's quite amusing to see what that does to your breath and to your dishes, because we've been trying that. Our salad dressings are quite garlicky, and our salads have little chunks of garlic in it now, and it's kind of fun. We love garlic, and so we're really ramping that up. That's one and two, garlic and onion.
Dr. Chris Miller
(25:46)
Then the cruciferous vegetables, always the cruciferous vegetables. That's the broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower. If you don't know that family, please look it up and make sure you know all of them and you eat all of them. You want to eat them raw, and you can cook them a little bit. It's interesting. The vitamins in them, the B vitamins and vitamin C are better when it's raw. When you cook it, you deactivate those vitamins, but you activate some of the phytonutrients a little bit more. You can pre-chop them before you cook them, so that you activate even more of the phytonutrients. Definitely you want to get those raw and a little bit cooked cruciferous vegetables in every single day right now. Really, really, really important.
Dr. Chris Miller
(26:34)
If you can do a variety, variety's really good, because it adds different nutrients to keep you at a broad level to make sure you're getting everything that you [inaudible 00:26:42] and having then more protection, more robust protection. If you can't, eat what you have. If you're shopping once every two weeks, like I am, eat what you have at the end of those two weeks and make it work. I'm buying big heads of cabbage right now, because they last for a while in the fridge, and so two weeks later I still have it there. I can chop it up and food process it. I'm doing the same thing with my brussel sprouts. Broccoli only lasts about a week in the fridge, so I've got to eat that the first week, and then I'm switching over. Kale's just a few days, so we're cooking with a little bit of that. I'm just trying to dial in that I'm getting variety by having it last for right now.
Dr. Chris Miller
(27:19)
After the cruciferous vegetables, that was number three, then I would say mushrooms, definitely mushrooms. Ramp it up. Mushrooms are so cool. They do so many things, but one of them that I think is cool is part of your immediate immune system is your dendritic cells. They're out there. They kind of look like fingers kind of. They grab things if they're abnormal, like a virus or a bacteria, and they help your body to identify it and get rid of it quickly. They're kind of like the soldiers out there. We have them in our skin, so if you were to touch something that's infected. We have them in our mucous membranes also, in our gut lining, and in our lungs.
Dr. Chris Miller
(27:57)
Mushrooms actually enhance the function of dendritic cells. It's been shown as people age, that the dendritic cells start to shrivel down a little bit, but mushrooms help them kind of become more robust and work better. I'm not sure the exact amount. I've read anywhere from one button mushroom a day to a cup a day. Somewhere in between there I think is the right amount for mushrooms. Always cook them, because if you eat them raw, they can add a little bit of a toxin to your liver, so you want to make sure that you do cook your mushrooms. We do things like we cook our mushrooms in soups with our cruciferous vegetables, with our beans, and they're in the freezer, so that way every day I can grab a soup already made, and I don't have to worry about the veggies going bad, and it has my mushrooms in it for me for the day. That's something I've been doing.
Dr. Chris Miller
(28:43)
Those are my top four picks. Then I would I guess leafy green vegetables would be probably number five for so many reasons, all the nutrients, and it's so anti-inflammatory, and it really boosts our immune system. The last one I would say is a little bit different one, number six. Well, I guess I have a couple more. Number six would be … Wait. What did I just say? Oh. I just said the leafy greens. My next one is spices. I think it's really important to start spicing things up. What's better than the spice is the root sometimes, like turmeric root.
Dr. Chris Miller
(29:19)
If you can get your hands on any of that, you can start adding to dishes. Ginger root, wonderful in stir fries, and smoothies, and in salad dressings. But also the spices are good, too. If that's what you have, that's great. But things like red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper, rosemary, cloves, cinnamon, saffron. These are highly antiinflammatory, potent antiinflammatory, and they're all going to be very protective. The more you spice up … If you have curry powder, if you have … This is a time to play with your spices and have some fun.
Dr. Chris Miller
(29:54)
The last one I would say is just vitamin C rich foods. It kind of goes without saying that they're in your plant based, whole food diet, but it's just a good reminder, because I'm stepping mine up as well. I'm adding kiwis. I'm adding oranges and grapefruits. I'm adding more broccoli. I'm adding red bell peppers. Remember what I said. When you cook these, you lose the vitamins. Vitamin C is actually deactivated when you cook it, so this is another reason it's really important to eat raw, raw berries, raw vegetables. Leafy greens are really high and cruciferous, so if you're eating that salad every day, you're adding colors of the rainbow, you're getting your raw vitamin C, and so that's really important to remember this right now.
Dr. Chris Miller
(30:32)
Vitamin C is a strong immune booster, and there's pretty good evidence supporting right now that vitamin C is actually helping to knock out this virus and actually can kill it, help your body to kill it, enhance your body's own function to kill this virus, so really ramp this up right now, and make sure you're getting enough raw. Those would be my top tips right now to support the immune system.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(30:56)
Well, that-
Dr. Chris Miller
(30:57)
We're doing all of those, so-
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(30:58)
Yes. That is phenomenal. Just a few things that you might want to add. When you're cutting up your broccoli and some things like that to really set those phytonutrients off, you might want to sit them for 15 to 20 minutes to let them kind of do their thing. The other thing is you can mix raw with cooked, so then you're getting a variety of the nutrients. Some things like tomatoes, lycopene is better if they've been cooked. Again, try to do the raw. Try to do the cooked in a variety of things. We actually create these little packages of smoothies. Sp we put in our greens and our berries and everything. Then honestly it's so easy. You just throw it in the blender, add in either water or your non-dairy milk, and blend that up, and you have your smoothie. It's ready to go. That also saves time, and it saves [inaudible 00:31:44] our green leafies that go that go very quickly if you don't use them.
Dr. Chris Miller
(31:48)
Do you keep those frozen or fresh?
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(31:49)
Yup. I keep them frozen.
Dr. Chris Miller
(31:51)
Nice.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(31:51)
So, I literally just pull them out of the freezer. I add banana in there, blueberries, strawberries, kale. I have cocoa powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, because I like the chocolate flavor. Yeah. It's enough to make a good 12 ounce smoothie, and it's great. It's just some ideas there for you. We have a lot more questions. Everyone, again, on Facebook Live, feel free to also submit your questions. We're keeping an eye on the comments. Let me get back over here. Jessica asked, “Here's a whole food, plant based diet question. Can you talk about nightshades and why some people think they are bad? Similarly, can you talk about lectins? Do either of these groups actually cause real problems?”
Dr. Chris Miller
(32:34)
As far as nightshades go, let's start with those. In some people they do. There's evidence with autoimmune disease, so especially the joint pain, so people with systemic joint pain, so things like lupus, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other systemic joints pains, that about 10% of the population are going to actually be susceptible or sensitive to the nightshades. What it is is I think it's a protein in it that people it will irritate them initially. We take that out and they do feel better. Usually, I have people do about a 30 day trial, so eliminate them and see how they do. I don't start everyone with that, not necessarily, because the other 90% of people usually don't react, and so I, for one, have severe joint pains, and I did fine with those foods. They were not what caused my joint pain, so it was other foods. With food sensitivities, we're pretty individualized I have found, but there are a few common ones, and nightshades is a little bit more of a common one, being that it's 10%. You'll want to play with that. That's the nightshade one.
Dr. Chris Miller
(33:39)
If you're not, if after 30 days you don't notice a difference, definitely bring them back in one at a time and given it a couple days. If you add tomatoes, bring them back in, a few tomatoes, and then the next day do a few more. If you're feeling okay, then do a few more, and give it about 48 hours to know, because you can have a delayed reaction with it. If you do bring in tomatoes again, let's say, and you notice a response, so you start to get achy again, then you're going to want to take it out and keep it out probably about six months I would say. This does not mean forever.
Dr. Chris Miller
(34:12)
Those sensitives, for the most part, usually heal as your gut heals. It's a sign, when you have food sensitives, including something like the nightshade, it's a sign that your gut is out of balance. It's not normal to attack food and have inflammation. Once you start to heal the microbiome, and you start to heal the gut lining, and you get the nice mucous layer there like you're supposed to, those food sensitivities go away. We're going to be talking a lot more. We're going to be writing out the steps you can go through to heal your gut and to help us get better. For those of you who don't know, the nightshades include the family of tomatoes, bell peppers, sweet peppers, not black pepper, but the other peppers, sweet bell peppers and the spicy peppers, goji berries, eggplant, and white potatoes. Those are the nightshades.
Dr. Chris Miller
(34:59)
Then the question was about lectins, question two. Lectins is a crazy thing, how it's come out as being this bad guy, because lectins actually, one, when you eat them raw, they can cause problems in people, but no one eats raw beans say. Right? They're a protein that's found in certain things, like beans and whole grains when they're raw. But, two, they also have advantages. They help with regulating that you absorb just the right amount of nutrients, because you don't want to absorb too much calcium. If you at a whole bunch of calcium, you want to absorb just what your body needs to keep you in balance. That's why our bodies are so amazing. Lectins have actually been shown to be helpful to do that and actually have been linked with preventing cancer and having many benefits down the road. So, that's just kind of the general lectin thing.
Dr. Chris Miller
(35:50)
Again, lectins are found in things like beans and whole grains. I'm not sure if there's other vegetables as well, but those are kind of what I always … Maybe some nuts and seeds, too, I think, but that's what I think of it. To avoid those food groups, like legumes and grains, is actually detrimental, because we know that people who eat beans live longer in all studies, in all the longevity studies, the blue zones and the Seventh-day Adventists. In all the longevity studies they've looked at, they're always eating some sort of legume. Same thing with whole grains. We know that people who eat whole grains have less heart disease now and have less cancers, and so there's really good evidence on both of those foods.
Dr. Chris Miller
(36:29)
That being said, I have a caveat. As an autoimmune person, they often can trigger autoimmune sensitivities at the beginning. When someone's gut is a mess, when you're sensitive to a lot of foods, beans and whole grains can be big triggers. As wonderful as they are, as the goal is to get them in the diet, at the beginning we often do take them out initially, and we flood the body more with vegetables and a few other things, and then add those back in once the gut has reestablished a health environment and can safely tolerate. Then you definitely want to be eating them down the road. It's kind of a long winded answer to those questions.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(37:09)
No. I think those are great questions. Just remember about the nightshades, don't forget about spices, like cayenne pepper, things that come from the nightshades, also like condiments, like ketchup and salsa. If you are sensitives, that 10%, to the nightshades, you do want to be wary of other things, just not just the whole food. Lectins are found in most plants. They're naturally occurring. They're protective of the plants, but the highest containing are the beans, the tomatoes, lentils, potatoes, eggplant, things like that, because, again, but when you cook them, they're deactivated, and it doesn't take long. Who eats a raw dried bean? Nobody.
Dr. Chris Miller
(37:49)
Not intentionally.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(37:50)
Not intentionally. You're going to be fine. Lectins are not going to be harmful to you. Please eat your plants. They're very good for you. People who say that lectins are unhealthy usually have some commercial interest and are selling supplements that block lectins. Again, I will just leave it at that.
Dr. Chris Miller
(38:07)
It's such a shame that that's happened, because these are such good, health promoting foods, and now people are so afraid of it. Unless you have a food sensitivity where it's bothering you specifically, I would say yeah, make that your goal. And they do so many things. They're prebiotic foods, so they're feeding your microbiome. People who eat things like beans and whole grains have a more robust microbiome, and that's what's needed for health and longevity. They're wonderful prebiotic, and they also help the microbiome that you have, the healthy bacteria, to form the healthy metabolites, like butyrate, which then heals your gut, and actually heals you faster, and helps promote make things like vitamins and minerals, and protects against cancer, and makes essential fatty acids. It's so, so, so valuable of food, so hopefully you all understand. If you have a food sensitivity and you can't eat it initially, the goal will be to eventually get it in when you're healthier, so keep that in mind.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(39:03)
Absolutely. Perfect. I think it's just important that beans are the one food associated with longevity around the world, so eat your beans if you can. Start small. Lentils are a great way to start, a small amount. Then build up if your gut can't handle it. Great questions. Again, those who are on Facebook, please feel free to post your questions in the comments. We're keeping an eye on that. We'll be happy to answer those questions. We have people here in the webinar, we're answering their questions as well.
Dr. Chris Miller
(39:27)
Actually, Laurie, that's a good question for people. If they're getting significant gas and bloating, what do you like to tell them to get them started? Because they're kind of scared off now with this fiber.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(39:36)
Yeah. Absolutely. Well, one, you have to eat the fiber to get the gut bacteria growing, and it should subside, but I usually start them … I pull them back and say, okay, instead of the raw, let's do cooked, so anything cooked and if we can process the raw into a smoothie. We do cooked vegetables first, and then we do very starchy veggies. We may do white rice instead of brown rice, because just to get that into their system, and cook everything really well, and do that for a week, and start adding slowly. The last things I add in are those whole grains, nuts, and seeds, and beans. Then I start with lentils. It's a process, so every person is so very different. If you have someone with just a little bit of IBS, not a big deal, but if you have someone with Krohn's, that's a whole nother level that you have to be very careful of. Yeah. That's what I typically do. Do you have any other suggestions or thoughts on that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(40:29)
No. I do a very similar thing, and I typically have them start more with the cooked veggies, just like you said, and I might even have them blend it initially. Every time cooking it is going to break down some of the fiber. Blending it is going to break down sone of the fiber, even more of the fiber, so now you're getting the nutrients without having to chew it, and your body doesn't have to do any of the work. It's already there pureed. That's kind of the easiest. I will have them avoid most fruits at the beginning, because that's so high in wonderful, lovely fiber, but it's too much [inaudible 00:41:02]. It really just starts with cooked vegetables and then start adding in. Then maybe you don't have to puree it, and then maybe you can start adding them. I just add it to a little bit of the raw. Like you were saying before, I might have someone add a little raw greens and then add the soup or cooked veggies on top of it. You kind of mix it in, so you're kind of easing your way into it. But I would just say be careful of that fruit at the beginning, because as much as we love it, it can be hard to jump into.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(41:28)
I would avoid onions and garlic, too, until towards the end as well, so that can be a little bit offsetting to come people. We got a lot more questions, so let me jump over here to this one. “A friend has high cholesterol, but very low blood pressure, and he's thin. Would he benefit from a whole food, plant based diet? What should he do so his blood pressure does not decrease even more?”
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(41:51)
I mean, personally, anybody's going to benefit from a whole food, plant based diet, especially someone who has high cholesterol. You should be consuming cholesterol. Your cholesterol will decrease, depending on your genetics to a certain level. Your blood pressure, unless you have a certain ailment, your blood pressure will regulate itself. Even someone who they're measuring their blood pressure, like someone could say … I typically run 104 over 60 something. Someone's going to go, “Oh. You have low blood pressure.” I am not symptomatic. This is probably a normal blood pressure.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(42:21)
Someone under 115, this is probably normal, so I don't know what you mean by low blood pressure. If someone is on a high blood pressure medication, and it's too low, and they're symptomatic, they need to revisit their doctor and say you need a different dosage or a different medication. There are some things here. Eating a healthy diet should not make a person with a normal blood pressure lower. You can't be frightened away from a healthy diet concerned that you're going to get low blood pressure, unless you're taking blood pressure medication. If you're taking blood pressure medication, and you eat a healthy diet, and you get better, you will need to wean down or stop it very quickly. That's why a healthcare professional's very important to have as a friend on this journey of getting on a healthier diet if you're on medication. Chris, do you have anything to say to that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(43:08)
Nope. Same thing exactly. I would emphasize all the same things. We do every now and then see people with really low blood pressure, and that can be a sign of stress sometimes and it's a little bit too low. Some people use the term adrenal fatigue, but I don't really like that term, so-
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(43:27)
Yeah. I'm not a fan of that term either.
Dr. Chris Miller
(43:29)
[crosstalk 00:43:29] Some people can have a little bit of a low blood pressure though truly, and so that is just a lifestyle thing as well, so with the whole food, plant based diet and a good lifestyle. I would say, yeah, don't ever shy away from this diet. Whatever's going on, your body's going to normalize it. That's the beauty of it. I think this would be a perfect plan. Just be careful, like Laurie said, that they're not on medications.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(43:52)
Yes. The other thing here she just mentioned, “He's not taking medication. His pressure's low naturally, gets lightheaded.” Two things. One, is he staying well hydrated, and is he eating enough food? That could be another reason why someone ha low blood pressure. If I have an elderly patient … In this family practice, you're taking care of delivering newborns to my oldest patient I think's been 104. This is when it is are you eating enough food? Are you malnourished? are you drinking enough fluids? That would be a question. Then there's some, like I said, there are certain diagnoses that can lead to a low blood pressure, but that's a whole nother lecture.
Dr. Chris Miller
(44:29)
Actually, something with going whole food, plant based, if people stop eating salt pretty rapidly .. your kidneys get used to a high level of salt, and they're used to excreting that salt. Your kidneys are amazing. Right? They'll filter the water, absorb water back, and you'll lose the salt. If you're used to a high level of salt, and suddenly you go whole food, plant based, and you jump right in, and you cut your salt down dramatically, your kidneys are still filtering out that salt, so in the first couple weeks to a month we'll see people actually with lower than we actually love blood pressures perhaps. That's a sign that their kidneys are kind of re-
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(45:04)
Recalibrating? Yeah.
Dr. Chris Miller
(45:07)
Yeah. Then once they do, the blood pressure falls. And like Laurie's blood pressure, 104, that's a perfectly good blood pressure, unless some symptomatic, like she said, or have problems. We kind of watch a person, but that initial person, if someone's used to having high salt or higher blood pressure and it falls, they may feel lightheaded. They may feel weak. They may feel yucky and not do as well. That's going to take a little time to normalize. One, you could slow down your transition. Two, make sure you drink plenty of fluids, and really rest, and pay attention to self-care, eat good food. Make sure you're eating enough, like she said, and let your body normalize.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(45:39)
Absolutely. Those were very good points. Just some others things, too, guys. Please feel free, if you're on Facebook Live, to comment, and we'll answer those questions. Then share this comment. Tag someone. Share this to whomever you feel like might be having some questions, and we'll be happy to answer them to the best of our ability. Different question. “What kind of supplements, if any, would you recommend to improve the immune system?” Any thoughts there?
Dr. Chris Miller
(46:06)
Number one is whole food, plant based diet, mostly raw. That's my number one supplement that I recommend to everyone. Following that though, yes. Vitamin D3 is really important, so especially living here in New Hampshire, where we're so far north, we definitely need some extra D3. You don't want that level low. I'm not sure what the right number is. Is it high? Is it low? But I know that absolutely it's not in a low range. Make sure you take enough vitamin D3 to keep it at I would say at least over about 40. Between 40 and 60 is kind of what I usually aim for.
Dr. Chris Miller
(46:41)
B12, especially if you're whole food, plant based. Then to help your immune system further along, when people have a lot of inflammation and say we're getting them off prednisone, or we're tapering down their immunosuppressives, or they're just really inflamed, having a hard time, we'll do a little bit extra EPA DHA. We'll try to do it through things like flax and chia seeds, green leafy vegetables, walnuts, but then also we might do algae, a little extra algae oil, and sometimes even a little bit of fish oil to calm them down. Then that's not something you want to be on for a long time, except for the foods, the flax and chia seeds.
Dr. Chris Miller
(47:18)
We do the little extra EPA DHA as we're tapering off the other immunosuppressives or just to kind of start them, so that can be helpful, though remember, something like that, that's an immune suppressant, similar to those medications. It's pretty potent, too, and so taking a higher dose of that at a time where there's coronavirus running around is going to be a little more detrimental. Now, you are suppressing your immune system, which is what autoimmune people might want a little bit, but you want to be careful with this if you're running around with the coronavirus. So, I would say I'm only using that in patients who are actively needing it temporarily.
Dr. Chris Miller
(47:52)
Then absolutely turmeric and ginger, like we talked about before, strong immuno support with that, especially turmeric. I like to recommend a little bit of turmeric right before each meal to help with the gut inflammation that tends to happen that leads to the joint pains or the systemic autoimmune systems, whether it's gut issues, whether it's neurologic changes, whether it's something else going on. I like to recommend a little of that and then just any ginger to whatever during the day. It's a huge immunomodulator and really kind of dampens it down.
Dr. Chris Miller
(48:26)
I also often will do a probiotic when people are just starting, especially when people's guts are a mess, when there's food sensitivities, when the inflammation is just kind of running rampant, when we know that the gut's messed. We need to heal that. We want to normalize the microbiome. The way to really do it is feed prebiotic rich foods, which are plants, and a little bit of a probiotic has been shown to be helpful at the beginning, too, so usually twice a day with meals, breakfast and dinner. That I think is my autoimmune. Am I missing anything? I think that's what I use.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(49:00)
Okay. That's some really helpful information, especially for your autoimmune disease. For those who aren't, just your normal, everyday person, I'm a big fan of Dr. Kahn. He says, “Tests don't guess.” Absolutely 100%. This kind of goes to a question we had from it looks like from Facebook. “Do you have a strong DON DHA algae based supplementation?” I'll just kind of give my view on that. Number one, the one you absolutely need, and if a doctor tells you you don't need it on a plant based diet, is B12, find another doctor. We need B12. We do not get B12 from … Unless you're eating nutritional yeast in large amount, and again, we don't even know how much is in that, you do not get enough B12 in a plant based diet. Sorry. It doesn't come in any plants. Please supplement accordingly, and test your levels.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(49:45)
D3, majority of people are going to require. Again, test. Then modulate that dosage accordingly with the help of your doctor. That's very important for your immune health. There are some other micronutrients. If you're not eating a whole foods, plant based diet in a wide variety, that you might be low in, so things like selenium, iron, zinc, different things like that. But, again, these are things that can be tested, and then you'll determine if you need to.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(50:13)
DHA, I have had a few patients who switched to a whole food, plant based diet end up with joint discomfort. It's a very small percentage. I can think of maybe 10 at the most over eight years of seeing patients. When we add an algae omega-3, they do very well. I find that if you're on a very low fat diet, sometimes that's helpful to have that supplementation. Again, if you're not eating the walnuts and those type of things, you might be worthy to look into. Again, you can test for that and then determine if that's appropriate for you with a discussion with your doctor. Some people shouldn't be taking certain supplements. Those of you, the three that I would be actively speaking to most patients regarding.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(50:56)
Then we have some other questions. There's so many questions. I think we got those. How about, “Do holy basil and green tea help?” I'm not sure if they mean help your immune system or help with the corona. I wouldn't say anything will prevent you from getting the coronavirus, but it will help optimize your immune system. I'm a big fan of green tea. Chris, do you have any thoughts there?
Dr. Chris Miller
(51:17)
I agree with you. I'm a huge fan of green tea, and green tea is a major immunomodulator. For autoimmune people it actually increases what's called Treg cells, your T regulator cells, which is a type of immune cell, which dampens down the immune system. People with extra inflammation and all these different symptoms that we're having, we usually keep up a low amount the Tregs. Green tea's actually been shown to dampen it, so it's very beneficial. As long as someone doesn't have a food sensitivity, green tea can be helpful for autoimmune.
Dr. Chris Miller
(51:51)
As far as coronavirus is concerned, it's also been shown to help support the immune system when it comes to natural killer cells and fighting off viruses, so it's got multiple effects. Also, it helps repair DNA. It helps your mitochondria. It helps your microbiome, your gut, become a healthier microbiome with less inflammation in the gut area. So, it has multiple benefits. If you like green tea, drink it. Be careful with too much caffeine though. It definitely has caffeine.
Dr. Chris Miller
(52:22)
Holy basil, I'm not as well read. I've read a little bit about it, and I think I can't really give a really good answer about it yet, but I know it can help calm things down a little bit, but I'm not sure what the data actually shows on that one.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(52:35)
Dr. Krant, from New York, also says, “Green tea also helps get zinc into the cells to fight the virus.”
Dr. Chris Miller
(52:40)
There we go.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(52:42)
There's some excellent help there. Another question from Facebook, “If you have ulcerative colitis and not on an immune suppressant, do you still want to boost the immune system?” I think maybe this person is asking it after we kind of mentioned it. I'm not a big fan of the word boost. I'm more a fan of optimizing your immune system, because I feel like there's going to be a balance. Right? Chris, so do you want to talk about ulcerative colitis, and immune suppressants, and the word boost versus optimize, and why you would suggest thinking that way?
Dr. Chris Miller
(53:10)
Yeah. Everybody's talking about boosting their immune system, and I think they do mean optimize their immune system, because the immune system is in balance, and that's what the beauty of it. Too much of it and we're going to have autoimmune, so if you boost your immune system too much, you're going to have an autoimmune disease. You can potentially have an autoimmune disease, or allergies, asthma. Those are all hyperactive immune systems, so that's not our goal with the immune system. If you have not enough, you can have cancer running rampant that you can't control, these viruses, and bacteria. So, you really want it balanced, where it does its job and it fights off the bad stuff, but it's not going crazy, and it knows how to shut down. That's making sure all the parts of the immune system are in balance. It's optimizing it and bringing them to balance. That's what we're trying to do. What was the question about that as far as-
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(54:05)
They were just worried about do you still want to boost or optimize …? I mean, she said, “Yes. Optimize.” So, boosting versus optimization. I would say yes. You want to optimize your immune system, because when you have an autoimmune disease, you obviously already have your immune system is not optimized. It's not in balance, so you want to feed it the foods that will allow it to hopefully kind of recalibrate and get back to an optimal state. It doesn't mean that you don't require medications. It just means that we're trying to get you into the best health you can with the right foods. Medications are still sometimes required, even those who are eating a whole food, plant based diet. Do you have any other thoughts on maybe ulcerative colitis specifically?
Dr. Chris Miller
(54:49)
Ulcerative colitis, especially if it's active, just like every autoimmune, you're going to want to get that in check. Even myself, I'm really ramping things up right now with the coronavirus, really doing everything I can to make sure my immune system is quiet. Eating the foods that don't trigger you. In addition to whole food, plant based, you don't want to be eating foods … so beans might be way too much for you to digest right now. Whole grains might be way too much to digest, and you may be someone who's going to want to start with something like cooked vegetable. Easy peasy, get some nutrients in.
Dr. Chris Miller
(55:21)
You want to get the colors in, the greens, the oranges, the yellows, the reds. Those colors are the carotenoids in it, in the cruciferous, with all those compounds that are going to really heal you. Again, depending on where your symptoms are, that would vary with how strict the diet was, how precise versus whether it's more broad. Maybe you're in remission and you're doing great, in which case you're going to be wanting to eat salads and a little more different types of foods that you can't tolerate when it's inflamed.
Dr. Chris Miller
(55:54)
Removing potential triggers, so anything that's irritating your gut. If you drink a cup of green tea and you find that your symptoms are worse, then you get that out. It's not for you right now. Your body's reacting to it negatively. So, you're going to want to pay close real close attention to triggers. Things like turmeric can be real helpful for ulcerative colitis.
Dr. Chris Miller
(56:13)
Really mind body is a huge component of it also. This is a stressful time. We're all worried about a lot of things right now, and so I would say extra, extra attention to mind body to help calm things down right now and really get that under check is really important.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(56:30)
Absolutely. Patricia is asking these questions on Facebook, and she said, “So, cooked fiber's okay?” Yes. Cooked fiber is okay. Then she just came off steroids. Patricia, you may actually do real … I know. Right? I'm excited for her. You might do really well to consult with Dr. Miller at plantbasedtelehealth.com. She'd be an amazing person to discuss. Honestly, I have thyroid disease, and she's my doctor. I'll leave it at that. She's my doctor's doctor, so you guys, check her out. You can see both of us at plantbasedtelehealth.com. We're also adding more doctors and covering more states, so please check us out.
Dr. Chris Miller
(57:08)
I love working with autoimmune people, so if you're out there, make an appointment with me if you're interested, because I totally relate and have been through a lot of it as well and seen a lot of patients with autoimmune. There's some nuances sometimes where we get caught up and we're not making progress or we're not getting what we want, and we are different, so there isn't a one size fits all, I've found. There's a basis, but then there's a lot of little tweaks that we can do to get people on track. If you're struggling or having questions or anything, please do contact me, because I'd be so happy to work with you.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(57:40)
Just another story, Chris has lupus. I've known Chris for almost a decade. We did a webinar just recently, and I also had her on the podcast. If you check out the Healthy Human Revolution Podcast, we talk all about Chris' story, and there was a webinar all about autoimmune disease. She talks about her story and answers a ton of questions, please. Dr. Chris Miller. She says, “Sorry. Who?” Dr. Chris Miller, who's the doc who's been talking with me-
Dr. Chris Miller
(58:06)
That's me.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(58:06)
… at plantbasedtelehealth.com. Check out the Healthy Human Revolution Podcast and the Plant Based TeleHealth page. You'll see the webinars, or our YouTube channel, and we're posting those every week as well. She's a huge resource for autoimmune disease. We have a few other questions. Let me see here. “Can you talk about fermented foods? What about fermented dairy? What about sodium in these foods?”
Dr. Chris Miller
(58:34)
Good question. Really good question.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(58:37)
It's a really good question. It's funny. I get that question a lot actually. Go ahead.
Dr. Chris Miller
(58:38)
I'm a huge fan of fermented foods, to tell you the truth. I think they're really good for us, especially if you can do your own, number one. One, you get the local bacteria, and you can adjust the amount of sodium in it. It's been shown things like lactobacillus, which is found in kimchi, which has actually been very beneficial for repairing our gut and longevity. That being said, there's some caveats to it for sure. There is a lot of salt in it, and you do need to pay attention to that. That is a high amount of salt. If you can buy the lower salt kinds, or rinse it, or, again, make your own is really the way I try to recommend it to people.
Dr. Chris Miller
(59:14)
Fermented dairy, I'm not a fan, because it's dairy, and we know that the inflammation is caused by the dairy products. There's so many other ways you can get fermented and probiotics in you without having to eat dairy. That being said, you don't have to eat fermented food. Eating prebiotic food, such as anything with fiber resistant starch, so in your beans, and your green leafy vegetables, and your mushrooms or onions, all those types of foods are going to feed your good bacteria, so it's not like we have to, but there are some studies that it can be beneficial. If you like it, which I love fermented foods, our fermented veggies, so you can definitely bring them in, and they are health promoting.
Dr. Chris Miller
(59:55)
When people are having inflammatory reactions early on in their autoimmune or with gut issues, I don't bring them in initially. I find they can be irritating, and that might be the salt. Salt is definitely a trigger for autoimmune. Remember that. So, another reason you don't want to eat high salt. I won't bring it in until later on, when someone's healthy, doing well, and we rinse it, and try to buy low sodium, or make our own, or do something like that. That's my take on it.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:00:22)
Absolutely. Then we have a question here from Facebook. Please, guys, on Facebook, feel free to comment and share this video as we're going along with anyone you feel like you could that needs it. Scott's asking, “Eating this way keeps me so thin, 5'7″, 115 pounds. How can I gain weight? Eating this way for almost three years.” You need more calories, os you need more of the calorically dense foods if you're looking to gain weight. Are you eating enough right now to sustain your weight?
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:00:51)
I would say you definitely want to check maybe a basal metabolic rate calculator. You can figure those out. That will give you your basic needs, and then depending on your activity, if you're highly active, an athlete, running long distance, lifting weights, or a labor intensive job, you're going to require more calories. This is a matter of more calorically dense foods, nuts and seeds, your beans, whole grains, [inaudible 01:01:14] primary [inaudible 01:01:15]. On occasion, you may need to add a meal replacement powder that's plant based as well. Smoothies would be good. You could throw in nut butters, things like that. Again, that's typically ways. Or you may just be genetically thin, like some people I know that can eat anything, an elephant, and never … just amazing to me how they can stay thin. But go ahead, Chris. Do you have any thoughts?
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:01:39)
No. I don't have much else. I always gauge it by your energy level, too. If you're feeling weak or you don't have good energy, that tells me you're definitely not getting enough calories. If you feel good, and you're pumped, and you've got energy, and you're running, I may worry about it less, but I agree with everything else you said. Yeah.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:01:55)
Yeah. They said, “I eat all day. 68 years old and retired.” How's your energy? That's a really good point. Honestly, I'm 5'7″ and I weighed 118 graduating high school. Some people are just naturally thin. I'm a little more than that now, but you know.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:02:13)
Certain people aren't. For those of you who aren't naturally thin, it's okay. I'm very sensitive to what I eat, and I have to watch it, so we're okay.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:02:21)
Well, I'm at this point now I can't eat like I did when I was a teenager at all, so as you get … As you know, hitting that 50 is a bigger deal. Okay. Scott has great energy. So, honestly, just consider yourself blessed you get to eat a lot of food, stay thin, and feel great.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:02:40)
[inaudible 01:02:40] add those calorie dense foods in, because sometimes with plant based we're cautious, don't eat too much of this, so I would definitely ramp that up, too, a little bit, see if you notice a difference with how you feel.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:02:49)
Yeah. If you have any … I would love to take you offline and talk to you about food. There's so many of your recipes that are way calorically dense that I can't have a lot of. I was like, oh, let me tell you what you could be eating. Then send me a picture, so I can enjoy. Oh my goodness.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:03:11)
I don't want to know.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:03:12)
It makes me jealous. I see it in my boys. They're like 21 and 24, and they're just chowing down on food. I'm like, ah. I look at that, I just can't. Anyway, okay. I'm sorry. I digress. All right. “Are dried mushrooms versus canned okay?”
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:03:29)
I'm not sure how much you lose on dried, but I definitely know you still have nutrients in dried mushrooms. We have dried, and we do use them. We rehydrate them and then use them. There are still nutrients in it, so I'm not sure what the percentage that's lost, but … Really the best is fresh obviously, frozen, but then eat what you have. If that's what you have right now, you're going to get benefits from it.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:03:53)
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I would say the canned, just be careful about the salt content being added. Other than that, absolutely. Sometimes the dried will have added preservatives that you may not want, so just some things to keep in mind. Or if you're drying them yourself at a low heat for a long time, I think you're good. Mark asked, “Should we be concerned with traces of arsenic found in brown rice? You hear so many different things. It's so confusing.” Any thoughts, Chris, on that?
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:04:22)
It seems like there is arsenic now in brown rice, unfortunately. That's kind of runoff from the soil. It's getting contaminated, even organic brown rice. So, yeah. Arsenic is neurotoxic. It can cause problems in the body, and so I am being careful. Now, we still do eat brown rice, but we're being mindful of it, making sure we rotate it with other foods. We buy it organic, but that's even been shown with it, so you do need to pay attention if you're eating it all the time and in large amounts, because you don't want to get arsenic.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:04:54)
High levels of arsenic can certainly cause problems. Things like wild rice from Minnesota I guess it is, the organic wild rice from Minnesota that grows in kind of the riverbeds up there, supposedly that's the cleanest, non-contaminated form of rice available these days, but hopefully as we start to find areas where they cleaned up the soil and can get grow fields for rice, we'll start to get better brown rice that's not contaminate anymore. Right now, I would be a little bit mindful of it truthfully and either not eat too much of it or just be mindful to mix it with other things or something.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:05:27)
Yeah. I'd say just be wary of where you're getting it. Look at places that have the highest arsenic content in their soil. I think the southeast is pretty bad and certain foreign-
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:05:37)
Yeah. The southeast.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:05:39)
Yeah, and certain foreign countries. Just be mindful of it. As long as you're not eating it every day. Then you may choose not to consume it at all, and that's fine, too, because there's other whole grains, quinoa, farro. There's so many other whole grains that you can replace brown rice-
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:05:55)
Brown rice is pretty wonderful, but, yeah, there's other good ones.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:05:58)
Yeah. Also, if you're on a tight budget, honestly, brown rice, it's a great staple to consider. Again, you have to weigh … it's just like conventional versus organic. If you can get organic, fabulous. Wonderful. But if I have to choose between conventional fruits and vegetables versus no fruits and vegetables, I'm going to say get your conventional fruits and vegetables and just wash them well. Again, you can't wash out the arsenic. But these are the questions that you have to look at and individually answer. It looks like one of the last questions here is, “How about seaweed for iodine needs?”
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:06:38)
Good question. Yeah. Seaweed has been shown to have iodine. There's different amounts of iodine in different types of seaweed. You'll want to look up how much iodine is in that seaweed. The thing with that is it's a whole food and it's always good to get your nutrients from whole foods, so I'm a fan of that, but it's hard to monitor exactly how much you're getting, because we don't know how much is in each seafood. It might depend on where it's growing, how healthy an environment, how plush the environment was with iodine for it to absorb in the first place, or how flush. That is a tougher one to get the exact right amount, and you would want to eat around the same amount every day of the same type of seaweed or sea vegetable. It can work. It absolutely can work. So, if that's what you like to do, absolutely. If you're not sure, then we could do a little bit of a supplement, just to be sure.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:07:36)
Yeah. Absolutely. I agree with everything you said there. It looks like we've answered all the questions. We've been on for just over an hour. So, I'd like to thank everyone for attending. Just please feel free to look at our Plant Based TeleHealth website, or not website, well, .com website if you would like to make an appointment with either Chris, or I, or the other docs that are coming on. We see patients. We're in over 30 states now. We're working to get to all 50. Again, we're very thankful for you guys joining us. You can sign up for additional webinars. They're also on the Plant Based TeleHealth Facebook page. We will be posting these to our YouTube page and sharing them to Facebook as well. Thank you, everyone, for your questions. We so appreciate you. Please spread the word that if anyone needs a plant based doctor, they can find us in this national practice that we have launched with Anthony Masiello. We're super excited for you guys all joining us. Thanks, everyone.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:08:31)
If you guys have any questions for next week, please send them our way, because we'll prepare, and we'll be ready for you next week.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(01:08:38)
Absolutely. Please comment, and we'll be happy to answer those. Have a great one, everyone.
Dr. Chris Miller
(01:08:43)
Bye, everyone. Stay safe.
*Recorded on 4.19.20