How to Eat to Beat Your Diet with New York Times best selling author Dr. William Li [Epsiode 913]

This week’s topic: How to Eat to Beat Your Diet with New York Times best selling author Dr. William Li

Hi everyone and welcome back to our Monday interview show. I am so excited to have a very special guest on here today. Someone who I have long been a huge fan of who has a new book called Eat to Beat Your Diet, New York Times bestselling author, Dr. William Li, who is not just an author, he’s a world renowned physician. He’s a scientist. is the president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation. His work has led to more than 40 FDA approved therapeutics and devices for cancers, cardiovascular disease, wound healing and vision loss. What I love about Dr. Li’s work as well is that he’s looking at food as medicine through molecular nutrition, because sometimes we see scientists that aren’t really paying attention to food or bridging this gap into our everyday life. I could go on and on about Dr. Li’s accolades, and I can’t say enough how much I love his new book Eat to Beat Your Diet. Burn fat, heal your metabolism and live longer.

About Dr. William Li

William W. Li, MD, is an internationally renowned physician, scientist and author of the New York Times bestsellers “Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself” and “Eat to Beat Your Diet: Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism, and Live Longer.”  His groundbreaking research has led to the development of more than 40 new medical treatments that impact care for more than 70 diseases including diabetes, blindness, heart disease and obesity. His TED Talk, “Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?” has garnered more than 11 million views. Dr. Li has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC, Rachael Ray and Live with Kelly & Mark, and he has been featured in USA Today, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, O Magazine and more. He is President and Medical Director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, and he is leading global initiatives on food as medicine. For the latest cutting edge food as medicine science, check out Dr. Li’s YouTube Channel.

Guest Resources

• Dr. William Li Website
• Dr. William Li Book
• Facebook
• Instagram: @drwilliamli 
• Twitter
• Youtube

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Overview
02:19 Dr. Li’s Journey into Molecular Nutrition
05:34 The Importance of Understanding How Food Works in the Body
09:19 The Link Between Excess Body Fat and Longevity
13:09 Debunking Dieting Myths and Understanding Body Fat
21:15 The Dangers of Visceral Fat and the Importance of High-Quality Fuel
28:51 The Power of Bioactive Compounds
34:19 Personalized Nutrition: Listening to Your Body
45:32 Dispelling Myths and Simplifying Eating

 

Episode Sponsors

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USE LINK: piquelife.com/kimberlys and get up to 15% off plus a free rechargeable frother and cup with purchase when you go though the link piquelife.com/kimberlys

 

[RESOURCES / INFORMATION]

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• Glowing Greens Powder™
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KIMBERLY’S BOOKS

• Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart
• The Beauty Detox Solution
• Beauty Detox Foods
• Beauty Detox Power
• Radical Beauty
• Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life
• You Are More Than You Think You Are 

OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY!

• Wellness Insights: How to Listen to Your Body for Nutritional Guidance [Episode 878]
• How the Power Foods Diet helps with Weight Loss with Dr. Neal Barnard EP. 877
• How Not to Age with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Greger [Episode #873]
• How to eat to reduce anxiety with Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo [Episode #867]

 

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Transcript:

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (00:00.376)

Welcome to the Feel Good Podcast with Kimberly Snyder. My goal is to help you develop a holistic lifestyle based on our four cornerstone philosophy, food, body, emotional well -being and spiritual growth. This holistic approach will help you feel good, which I define as being connected to your most authentic, highest self. And this is the place from which your energy, confidence, creativity, true power and true beauty will start to explode. Every week we provide you with interviews

from top experts in their field or a solo cast from Yours Truly to support you in living your most beautiful, healthy and joyful life. I’m your host, Kimberly Snyder, founder of Solluna, New York Times bestselling author and holistic wellness, nutrition and meditation teacher. Let’s get

Hi everyone and welcome back to our Monday interview show. I am so excited to have a very special guest on here today. Someone who I have long been a huge fan of who has a new book called Eat to Beat Your Diet, New York Times bestselling author, Dr. William Li, who is not just an author, he’s a world renowned physician. He’s a scientist. is the president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation. His work has led to more than 40 FDA approved therapeutics and devices for cancers, cardiovascular disease, wound healing and vision loss. What I love about Dr. Lee’s work as well is that he’s looking at food as medicine through molecular nutrition, because sometimes we see scientists that aren’t really paying attention to food or bridging this gap into our everyday life. I could go on and on about Dr. Lee’s accolades, and I can’t say enough how much I love.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (01:51.702)
his new book, once again, it’s called Eat to Beat Your Diet. Burn fat, heal your metabolism and live longer. Dr. Li, I have wanted you on our show for so long. This is amazing to talk to you today. thanks for inviting me and having me on. I’m looking forward to our conversation. So first of all, Dr. Lee, before we get into some of this, as a scientist, we hear so much about

Medical school doesn’t really put an emphasis on nutrition At what point in your career? Did you start looking or bridging over into this whole concept of food is medicine and start taking a deep dive down this pathway? You know my journey was started when I was a kid because I grew up in a city, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that was multi -ethnic and so I grew up with people from

Serbo Croatia, Greece, Italy, Italians celebrating the foods of culture. and coming from an Asian background, my culture, food was always important to me in my community. When I went to medical school, it was all about science. But before I went to medical school, I took a gap year and I pursued my interest by embedding myself in the Mediterranean, in Italy and in Greece, specifically to study food, culture and health and that’s really what I was fascinated by is the fact that food builds our community. And I think that when you talk about wellness and food and health and all those biohacking, one of the things we can’t forget is that food is really part of our culture. It humanizes us. It’s part of our human. And so I have always wanted to keep that center in my own life. When I went to medical school, I was flooded like all medical students with information to memorize about diseases, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, know, Hashimoto’s, Lyroiditis, Lupus, et cetera, et I had to memorize drugs, antibiotics and steroids and, you know, these are all the necessary tools in a toolbox to practice modern medicine. But a couple of things really struck me. Number one, I could never forget when

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (04:12.806)
was passionate about, which is food and culture and health. I can never forget what I learned during my gap year in areas of the world where people equated food with something joyful and healthy as opposed to something snacky and devious that you of snuck on the side. There was no guilt, fear, shame with food. was really part of the community. I realized that in medical school, they were not teaching about nutrition.

Number two, they’re not even teaching about health. teaching, we’re only learning about disease. And drugs. And drugs. And listen, I certainly appreciate the importance of that to help save lives. But something that I realized, having also studied history of science and history of medicine, is that before the early 1900s, there were no drugs. There was no pharmaceuticals. And in fact, all we had was diet and lifestyle. And somehow in the last hundred years, we lost track, we lost touch with that tool in the toolbox that we always had as humans walking around to each other. so I wanted to bring it back, number one. Number two, what is different about modern medicine, modern science as a scientist is

We have incredible tools to understand how foods actually work in our body. know, so we don’t have to hand wave. We don’t have to just be a preacher on the soap box or a preacher in a pulpit. Scientists can really get in there and begin understanding what is in the food. How does the body respond to what you feed it? How does that actually make sense when it comes to fighting cancer, when it comes to improving our circulation, when it comes having a better metabolism and fighting body fat and melting fat away, all those answers become clear. So we now understand better why nutrition and why food is so important for our health. That’s really kind of how I got into this. And by the way, because I’ve been involved with, and this is sort of by disclosure, I’ve been involved through the Androgenesis Foundation in developing biotechnologies. And so for me, I’m not a doctor who basically said,

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (06:30.892)
I’m done with drugs, throw out the prescription pad, now it’s just about eating lettuce, the salad bar. I’m still involved with all these feelings. It’s everything. You don’t want throw away the baby with the bath water. So I’m saying there’s two babies in a bath. I love this, Dr. Lee, and our community, one of the things we talk about is and, not or. It’s not this or that, but it’s and. And there’s times and there’s places and there’s lifestyle, which you talk about so much in your book.

I love that you’re bridging these two worlds. And I really relate to that Dr. Lee, because my mother’s from the Philippines and she came over here and I also lived with, we lived with my Filipino auntie. So two Filipina women in the household, that was what we ate. It was heavily influenced by that culture. My grandmother lived nearby. So there wasn’t, you what I see today is so much confusion and overthinking and diet foods. We ate lots of soups and.

vegetables and rice and fruit. And it wasn’t this, I don’t know, it just felt like natural, like you said, and celebratory. And yet there wasn’t no one in my family was overweight and there was an easefulness and a joy. So you talk about, you know, respecting traditions in here, which I appreciate. And we’ll get into this in a moment. I love how you talk about the Mediterranean,

Fusion because these cultures are bringing so much of these powerful antioxidant fiber rich foods without again this headiness this confusion, which we see a lot today Absolutely. I mean listen as we are Seeing society wake up to this idea that Our health is more important than ever. It’s not just about disease Care sick care. It’s really about health

and sick care happens in the hospital and doctor’s office, healthcare happens at home and it’s what we do for ourselves and it’s really getting back in touch with our own roots and health should be joyful, not kind of a chore or something that you actually have to be obsessed with. Although, you know, there are many people that, you know, spend a lot of time thinking about their health increasingly today. I love, I love what you just said, sort of this ease of health, health should

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (08:53.046)
really be something that you can ease into. It doesn’t feel far away, it doesn’t feel difficult, and it’s got to taste great. Yes. So Dr. let’s get right into some information in your book, which is so comprehensive, those of you watching this can see, but yet fun to read. I’ll say I was just going along, really enjoying the book, which I can’t always say for some of these more, you know, dietary medical books. It’s written really beautifully, Dr. Lee. So right from the top, you get right into this scientific fact, which sometimes we skirt around, sometimes we don’t pay attention to, which is that excess fat on the body decreases longevity. And this is something we really need to pay attention to because sometimes in culture, Dr. Lee, we don’t talk about it as much or we want to be accepting, of course, but you talk about from a chemical standpoint, this is one of the most important things that we need to pay attention to to get into that. Yeah, no. Well, so, you know, I wrote my first book, Eat to Beat Disease, that wasn’t a book about disease. It was a book about health. And I wrote about Eat to Beat Your Diet, which isn’t a diet book. It’s an anti -diet book that talks about you can actually have a really, truly healthy metabolism without having to go on a diet.

And that really brings us into this conversation about body fat because as you just absolutely nailed excess body fat is really dangerous for our health. And the excess body fat isn’t the stuff that you can see. The most dangerous part isn’t what you can actually see. Obviously we’re all familiar with what you can see, right? So we all take a shower, step out of the shower naked and we’re drying ourselves and out of the corner of our eye, we see our reflection. And if you see a lump or a bump,

You don’t want to be there. What’s the next thing you do? You step on the scale after you dry off. And if that number isn’t exactly what you were hoping for, you curse and you go, man, I got to lose some weight. I got to get on a diet. I got to exercise. I got to do something about it, right? Yeah. There’s a real importance to feeling good about yourself. So I don’t have any problem with that aspect of wanting to

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (11:14.03)
more pleasing to yourself. But what I really think is important for people who are watching and listening to understand is that even if you are skinny, even if you are a twig, your body is a tube. Right around your waist is a tube. And you can have a small thin tube if you’re a tall skinny person or a small person. Or you could have a bigger tube if you’re a large body person. And that doesn’t mean fat. That just means you’re big or you’re thin.

And that’s because we tend to judge and oversimplify fat or skinny. But what I’m telling you is the body fat that you need to worry about can occur inside that tube, which is a tube of your belly, regardless of your body size, regardless of your body weight. And that tube is called, that fat, the dangerous fat is called visceral fat. And we all need some fat. Actually, fat’s an actual organ in our body, but when there’s too much of

It becomes inflammatory. It derails our hormones. It actually tricks our brain into being hungry all the time. It actually interferes with our ability to get energy. And then ultimately, the inflammation and metabolism leads us inexorably down this path, this dangerous path to chronic disease. so, you when I tell people, said, look,

from a vanity perspective, if you want to lose some weight to look better, to fit into a bikini or a dress or a shirt, fine, do that. But that’s not the real reason to lose, from a health perspective, to lose weight. You want to get rid of that stuff growing inside your tube, the tube of your body. That’s the stuff when there’s too much of it, is really a powder keg for disease. And you want to get away from that by really melting that away.

Dr. Lee, this fat that we can see is that indicative of the visceral fat that we cannot see. Is there a direct parallel? Yeah. Okay. Let’s talk about body fat because unpacking that helps us understand metabolism, which helps us understand how we can actually eat to have a better metabolism. Let’s start from the top. There’s a bunch of myths that are out there. The myth is that if you want to lose weight, you’ve got to stop eating. That’s the classic, the original, the OG of

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (13:39.566)
stop eating and you’re going to lose weight. Sure. And if you’re in a desert and you don’t eat for the three or four days you’re crawling out in your hands and knees and 100 degrees heat, sure will lose weight. You’ll actually become a skeleton and then that’ll be all they find, your bones. So this whole idea of dieting is not about extremes. or I should say the whole idea about dieting tends to be about extremes. And that’s not really what body fat is about. Body fat

absolutely critical for our health. And I want to explain first, how do you get to healthy body fat? So many people don’t realize this, that we have an instinctive reaction to fat. If you say the word fat, it kind conjures up this reaction like, ugh, I don’t want to talk about that. If you go into the grocery store, even if you’re a vegan or a vegetarian, you’re wheeling your cart around when you go, you’re going to wheel by the butcher section no matter what. All that

You see that thick white rind around that rib eye or whatever roast and immediately go, man, I hope nobody is sad. That’s disgusting, right? And of course, that’s actually kind of how we’ve societally started to associate with body fat. And we have this like grimace, but we know fat can’t be all bad because there was one situation where we smile, we grin ear to ear when we see body fat. And that’s when we see a baby. You see a baby.

A nice chubby baby, I mean, just thinking about it makes us smile, right? And we know a chubby baby is a healthy baby. And we know, by the way, that if you saw a baby that was like a runway model, thin thighs, thin arms, angular cheeks and jawbone, you’d say there’s something seriously wrong with that baby. And you’d be right. Fat is natural in a child. And in

A lot of people don’t know this, but when your dad’s sperm met your mom’s egg and you were just a bottle of cells, didn’t even have a face yet, the first organ in your body that formed is your circulation, because you’re going to need to have those highways and byways that deliver nutrients and oxygen to all of your organs later on. So your blood vessels form. The second organs that form are your nerves, because as we become humans, you need electrical wires, nerves, to be able to move things around and make things work.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (16:02.242)
And then a third tissue that forms very early on is body fat. what? Body fat forms around blood vessels. So around every blood vessel, which is a tube, you’ve got this like bubble wrap forming around the blood vessel. And it’s not around, it’s not under your chin. It’s not around your thighs. You don’t have thighs yet at that stage. All right, you don’t have a muffin. There’s no muffin to have a muffin top around, okay?

And so the thing that’s really amazing is asking the question, why does fat form around blood vessels? Well, it turns out that body fat forming so early tells, already gives away the secret to why, what it actually does. Fat cells are fuel tanks for our body. Our fat is a fuel tank, among other things it does. And the reason that the fat cell is parked next to the blood vessel

is the same reason why we park our car next to the gas pump at the filling station for when we’re trying to fill up our car. When you take out that nozzle and you’re to fill up your car with gas, for those of you who drive gas cars still, put that nozzle in, you crank that handle, and you feel the petrol, the fuel running into the fuel tank of your car, which is metal and very sturdy. That’s what you do when we eat. When we

We’re loading up on fuel. Look, we call it gallons when you’re actually, liters, depending on what part of the world you live in, but gallons if you are in parts of North America, filling up your gas tank. Food energy units are called calories. So when we’re eating, we’re filling up our tank. Instead of gallons, we’re putting in calories. And when we put those calories in the gallons, they own to

fuel tank in the car, in our body, they go into our fat cells because our fat cells are our fuel tank. All right? And that’s why we actually, one of the reasons that why fat sits next to blood vessels early on and it stays around blood vessels and blood vessels are everywhere. And that’s one of the reasons that fat is really important. It’s just to store the energy. Now, just like a car, you you fill to the top and then you,

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:24.77)
The clicker goes off, you put the nozzle back and you drive off and you don’t even think about your fuel anymore. But imagine, and that’s basically what we do in our body too. You’re done eating, you stand up and you go about your way, right? You don’t think about food until the next time. Now, unless you’re one of those people that are constantly thinking about the next meal and the next meal. Well, so this is what I’m saying is that if you had no control or you had a problem or

with filling up your car and all you did was force gas into your fuel tank by the filling station, what would happen? The gas tank would fill up naturally, then it would overflow, spill down the side of your car, around the tires, pool around your feet, and guess what? You’d be standing in a dangerous, toxic, flammable mess. It’s hazard, all right? Very dangerous. Now, if you overeat all the time,

we’re overfilling our fuel tank. Now, fat, our gas tank in our car is rigid, it’s metal, so it can’t expand, but our fat, our body allows our fat to expand. So every fat cell we have can expand three times to accommodate fuel. So you can really overeat and really stretch out your fat cell. Think about it like a suitcase, hard suitcase versus soft suitcase, soft suitcase, you can overstuff it with clothing, you’re going on a trip over packed.

That’s another example of over stuffing. So, you too many calories, it’s like over stuffing your suitcase. Man, are you sorry you did that when you’re traveling, right? You’re lugging it around, you’re opening it up. They rip. And they rip open. On the carousel, yeah. Exactly. All right. And the same thing in the car. If you overflow your gas, it’s dangerous.

Same deal with food. Now when you overflow your, when you overload on your fuel, body fuel, you’re filling up your fat cells. Every fat cell can expand three times at 300 % size. you’re still eating? Let’s take another fat cell, fill it up and fill it, expand it three times. Still eating? Expand another one. Now let’s use up all of our fat cells. man, you were still eating the next day. You haven’t really stopped eating. Let’s take some stem cells in our body. These are cells that can become anything and make another fat cell.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (20:45.23)
These are fat stem cells, so you can make more suitcases, more fuel tanks, and just fill them up 300%. And now you can kind of see, if you overeat day after day, week in and week out, month after month, year after year, you can imagine more than you burned your calories. This is like understanding in a more sensible way why you don’t want to overflow your fuel tank. You’re just going to be loaded up in your fuel tank. This is like getting jerry cans of gasoline and pile them in your backyard.

It’s dangerous to have so much fuel. You don’t need that much fuel. And if you’re not burning it off, it’s just sitting there waiting to go off like a bomb. And that’s exactly where you go from normal amounts of fat that store your fuel to having too much fat that becomes dangerous and toxic and inflammatory. That is the visceral fat that’s there. And the visceral fat fills first. So in your body, the fat you can’t

It fills up first inside the tube of your body, inside your gut. You can’t see it. And by the way, there was a study I read about in my book, Eat To Be Your Diet, that’s really fascinating. Thin people can overload on fuel and develop excess body fat. And do you know where is the first place that it builds up? Guess, inside the body, anywhere. geez. You think it might be in your belly, right? Yeah.

Maybe you might pooch out your belly. It’s not. It’s actually in your tongue. Thin people who are developing body fat because the tongue is part of your gut. right? Yes. And so this has been studied now. The tongue is made out of three parts anatomically. The front is very muscular and acrobatic. It’s like Cirque du Soleil of the mouth. All right. The middle is super muscular. All right. Because it’s going to be moving food to the right, to the left. All right. When you’re eating.

The back of the tongue is like a big slide. It’s big and fat and it just allows food that’s been chewed to slide right down to the back of your throat. The back third of your tongue is largely visceral fat. So when you start to overload your gas tank and your fat cells start to puff up, one of the places that you notice it is in your tongue. Now, how do know you have fat tongue? You can’t see it in the mirror.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (23:12.992)
I can tell you your sleeping partner might tell you that you started to snore. Whoa. Now this is an early sign that you’re building up extra body fat regardless of your body size and especially in people because you know what happens? What happens when you’re sleeping? You relax. Your tongue relaxes. Your fat tongue relaxes and when your fat tongue relaxes because it’s building up there, it sags back and blocks your airway. Wow. Super interesting Dr. Lee. Now you’re snoring and

Again, this is where you go from normal fuel storage to over storage. matter your body size and the kind of fat you want to fight is the visceral fat that can build up inside the tube of your body.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (24:01.762)
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Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (25:26.414)
This is incredibly fascinating. And then you go on to talk about, know, very specifically in your book about particular diseases. I mean, it just sounds so scary the way you’re describing it. So let me ask you this. In one section of your book, you say that you don’t recommend liposuction or gastro bypass surgeries necessarily because there’s some harmful implications. But then, you know, the way you’re talking about it seems like this is toxic. This is really dangerous.

So many people today are turning to Ozempic, right, to get their weight under control. Some people say, okay, that’s a short -term solution. Some people are maybe going to treat it long -term. Your book is all about changing lifestyle. What do you think about some of these drugs? Yeah, I’m going to come back to the procedures and the pharmaceuticals in one second. Yeah. As a medical doctor and as a researcher, I can talk about that very specifically. But

Let me just say that everything we’ve just been talking about is saying that fat is good. It’s actually critical for us to have energy until you overload on the fuel. So don’t overload on the fuel. just when you’re filling up your car, think about it. You’ve got all kinds of choices, right? You’re at the filling station. You can get the cheap stuff. You can get the better stuff. can get the best stuff. The premium fuel, right? Now look, I don’t care what kind of car you have. If you’re low on

credit card, your low on cash, it’s totally fine to have some cheap fuel every now and then. Your car’s going to be just fine. You’re not going to notice it. It’s going to run fine. But if you actually put cheap fuel in your car every single time, now your car, your body is a Ferrari, okay? All right, it’s a really valuable, good car, designed to be a sports car, to last into your 80s and 90s. You got to take good care of that thing. the problem is

Too many of us are putting cheap fuel every single time or most of the time into our body. I guarantee you, if you had a car, a race car, and you put cheap fuel most of the time, you’re going to actually destroy the engine. The longevity of that car, there’s so much conversation about longevity today. The simple thing is to put good quality fuel into your body. Now, the thing is that if you do that, if you don’t over -consume, half the battle is already done.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (27:53.73)
The other part of it is that eating good quality fuel is going to be helpful. And then if you go even further, which is what I write my book about, there are foods, remarkably, that when you eat them, these are almost exclusively plant -based foods. All right, so we’re to talk mostly about plant -based foods. We’re talking about the things you find in a produce section, at the farmer’s market, in your vegetable garden. These are

the colorful foods, eat the rainbow. This is what I’m talking about. Scientists like me are studying exactly what’s in these foods that can activate our body’s metabolism to burn off harmful body fat. So we can eat foods that activate our body to burn down those extra calories, burn down that visceral fat, and that’s the most remarkable thing. We can burn down our own visceral fat. Our body’s hardwired to do it, and if we eat things like tomatoes with lycopene or

blueberries or blueberries with anthocyanins or even dark chocolate with proanthocyanins or strawberries with alachic acid. And I’m spouting this just to let the viewers and listeners know that we actually are now beginning to identify what are the good parts of this. And by the way, we’re also discovering really that if you buy organic, you actually will get more of the bioactive because

these bioactives that can help burn down harmful body fat that I write about, these bioactives are made by the plant to heal itself. What is it healing itself from? The plant is healing itself when plants grow, vegetables grow, fruit trees grow in nature, in an ideal natural environment. What happens? You got little bugs and they’re nibbling on the leaves and the stems of the plant. All right. And that’s an injury to the

plant reacts to that little nibbling by making these bioactives, all right, making the polyphenols to heal itself. So when you got the nibbling, you got more polyphenols. Now you spray it with pesticides and you get rid of all those bugs. right. The plant’s not as injured. Doesn’t looks a little nicer. But guess what? The plant doesn’t need to make as many polyphenols. So all the research has shown.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (30:13.922)
And this is really amazing because I’ve been working with botanists to understand this. Plants grown in their most natural environment actually make more polyphenols. It’s just part of how they evolve to be able to heal themselves. We get the extra benefit when we eat the plants, the fruits and the vegetables and the herbs and the legumes from the plants. get, you know, there’s double the benefit of those same bioactives when

get the organic. So for me, I used to get really pissed off about the idea of organics in the beginning. Like, what? You want me to pay more money so I could have less of something I don’t want to begin with? Are you crazy? Now that I really, I mean, I’ve switched completely because now that I realize, you know, I’m willing to invest a little bit more in the quality of the fuel that I have. You know, we talked about the quality of the fuel earlier. Grown in a way that’s going to have more of the good stuff that I can get

Yes. And by the way, organic frozen also has a benefit as organic as fresh. So if you can’t get fresh stuff all year long, that’s okay. The fruits and the vegetables and the legumes that you can get frozen also have great value all year long. Dr. Lee, I want to pause here because I want to say you obviously have so much knowledge and so much wisdom. But when I was reading the

It’s easy to follow along and I liked how it’s like blueberries and there’s some interesting facts and then the next part. And then pretty early on you talk about how you eat in a day. And that’s where I feel like we can really connect to you because as a scientist, sometimes these books are written in a way that’s really difficult for the lay person to read them. But I felt like you were just like one of us. I was like your food journal. You’re like, well, breakfast comes and.

da da, and then you’re like, for dinner, I think about which vegetable I like. It’s just very accessible. So I want to share that with our listeners and our viewers that Dr. Lee is, yes, very scientific and knowledgeable, but it’s very interesting. And for anyone viewing this, you can see all the little sections that are laid out. So it’s actually easy to read the book. I also want to say, Dr. Lee, that good friend of mine is Dan Buettner, who you may know as well. He’s been on here many, many times.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (32:31.03)
And back to the culture, so Dan’s studying the Okinawans and the traditional foods and what they’re eating in Costa Rica. And then as a scientist, there’s so much crossover. You talk about legumes, you’re talking about the quality beans, sometimes you eat for breakfast, fruit. I love how, because there’s a section of our society, Dr. Lee, as you know, that gets to extremes. No fruit, no sugar. And you’re like, hold on here. There’s even a section on grains. You talk about barley. So there isn’t

In the beginning we talked about there’s culture, there’s history, there’s the scientific facts versus food fads. And I think that’s also dangerous for people because they go along and then they don’t eat any fiber. Maybe they’re doing a carnivore diet. They can really disrupt their gut microbiome or whatever. So what you’re suggesting here is enlightening. You talk about how chilies are really important for metabolism, but I also found it very accessible for the average person. The normal person can eat this

And be plant -based, by the way. just want to say that. So here’s the thing. I am like everyone else. mean, we’re just going about our way and we need the fuel to be able to, we need food to be able to kind of run our bodies. Our body’s quite remarkable. You don’t need to know any science about the body. What you need to know is that you have a choice to make and you have a shot on

three times a day if you’re eating three meals a day, but you don’t need to eat three meals a day. Sometimes two meals is fine as long as you don’t overeat. And every time we make a choice, it should be something that really kind of fits with you. I think too often the influencers and wellness, the biohackers, they try to put us in a box. And this is what I’m saying. I’m just like everyone else. Nobody wants to be in a box. right? we can’t, one size clearly doesn’t fit all.

I mean, look, you know, if you have siblings, all right, and best friends, I mean, you know what you like isn’t necessarily going to be the cup of tea for the next person or your sibling. All right. They might like something you don’t quite like, and that’s okay. Everyone can be healthy. There are so many bioactives that have been studied in food. These are the natural chemicals. Look, I think, you know, number one, you need to be true to yourself. What you eat that’s healthy should fit you personally. So personalized nutrition.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (34:49.368)
for us, really important. getting to, you know, so often we’re running around and not thinking about ourselves, but like everything else, get to know thyself. If you take a moment to food journal without any food, but to think about like, what are your, you know, take out a pen or, you know, your mobile device and open up the notes and take a moment quietly and think, what are some of my favorite foods? What do I really, really love?

Close your eyes and go all the way back to when you were a kid. Think about what the smell is coming out of your mother’s kitchen. Think about some of the highlights of what you’ve eaten over the course of your life. Write them down. There’s no judgment. Write down everything. Besides the pizza and everything else. Write it all down. And then if you get my book, compare it to the list of healthy

the produce section, the middle aisles with Yeah, the watermelon. Watermelon. Listen, it’s seasonal. It’s fun. And once you find something you like that’s also healthy, I’ll tell you, you are already way ahead of the game. And I think that that’s a really easy way to start. No matter where you are in your health journey, you got to start someplace. The first step is always where you begin. And the first thing is to understand, to really know what you like. And then to discover.

And that’s why in both my first and my second book, I actually put lots of lists of healthy foods. I did already all the heavy lifting. I filtered out all the good foods and I put them into tables and charts. And so just look at the charts. All right. Yeah. And by the way, the other way you can do it, if you buy my book, just take a Sharpie or pen and go around through and just circle or highlight every food in a chart that you like. Hey, you know, I like that. I like that. I like that. And then go back and say, like, how many circles or how

things that I highlight, hey, start with those. Those are the really healthy ones already. And then, and so I think that the ideas that don’t make healthy eating too complicated, make it personal, start it personally, know yourself, know what you like, compare what you like with what’s actually good for you and then don’t eat too much. All right. So how do I eat? You know, simple.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (37:05.208)
Well, hold on, Dr. Lee, before you, I want to talk about what you eat, but what I like, what you just said, because I’m doing it right now. And I’m like, wow, quinoa porridge, urban avocado sandwich. I really like a lot of things on your list. And then you have these recipes. This feels natural. Whereas a lot of messages we get are people saying no grains for anyone across the board, like these big rules or keto. Like it has to be this percentage of fat. And

That’s different than saying, I like avocados or like these certain foods. It’s like these big rules, I think, throw people off. know, I totally agree with that difficulty. I have the same struggle when somebody, you know, gives me complicated rules. You know, I’m pretty smart so I can memorize it and and I’ll maybe remember for a couple of days, but impossible for me to keep up

It’s not natural anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, you know who made up the rules? Our grandmothers and our great grandmothers made up those rules. They’ve baked it into the way that they cook, they shop, they prepare, they serve, that the family gathers around the tables to eat. I think what we’ve done, and we’ve also lost a lot of that in our society, that gathering together for people. Cause when you eat with other

This is, the way, something I learned during my gap year that was really dramatic for me. Coming from America and then going to Italy, the first thing I noticed besides the amazing food at every single meal and the fresh markets that were everywhere is that when you actually sat down for a meal, it was never alone. It was always with other people. When you sat down in Italy, I’m just telling you my memories, and you sat down, it was so

than America. I remember in America, like where we are, you sit down with somebody. First, we eat alone a lot. We eat fast, we were distracted, we overeat, we don’t think about what we’re eating. We just whip it out, to just whip out whatever it is, to just shove down your gullet. Not chewing. Not even chewing. But in Italy, not only when they sit down, by the way, then with other people in America, what are we talking about? We’re talking about our problems.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (39:28.152)
The things are crazy. The news. The news. You know what nearly they do? And this is true in many, know, Dan, you know, also talk about this as well. Dan and I have reflected on this a lot for your listeners. Like this is how it’s really done. People, they sit down, they’re looking forward to their meal when they’re presented with their food. You know what they talk about? They talk about the food.

Man, this is good. this is so seasonal. This is how my mother makes it. This is how I prefer it. People sit with each other and they talk about their food. That’s what mindful eating, they’re paying attention. Yeah. And they’re appreciating their food. They’re savoring it. People who prepared a really tasty meal, they get the credit because, man, that’s amazing food, Jouzapur. Thank you so much. Gratitude, right? I these are the human qualities of food.

that are lost when you go too deep into biohacking and you don’t want to measure that. Look, I appreciate that many people, that it raises the awareness of many people of their body. And I think that’s a good thing to be aware. But for me, all I can tell you is that what I espouse as a scientist who studies the details, as a doctor who is trying to help keep people healthy, do it naturally.

Preach, tell us, doctor. You know, do it the way that your grandmother and your great grandmother and the cultures in centuries past have done it. We overthink things. Go back to the fresh, go back to the whole, stick with the vegetables. And by the way, you know, like if you really think about it, like this whole emphasis on animal protein. Yeah. Is really a luxury that has hit society.

in the mid 20th century after World War II, everyone had the ability to become prosperous and eat a lot of meat. But you if you go back in history and study history, most of the healthiest people going back hundreds, if not thousands of years, were eating plant -based foods. were cool, they were seasonal, they were easy to prepare, they tasted great, there was so many varieties. Only the fat kings.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (41:48.52)
and the land barons or even the drums and drums. I always think about this when I’ve been at Disneyland or Disney World. You see those ginormous turkey legs that look like they came off a dinosaur. That’s this mind -blowing stuff that they have there. That’s not people. This is not how healthy people ate for years. is a side effect of the quest for showing off prosperity.

And it’s okay to go overboard once in a while. On your birthday, you knock yourself out, have some cake. But if you do this as a matter of habit, it’s not going to be good for you. You’re putting poor quality fuel. You’re overloading on your fuel. You are going to be standing very quickly with excess body fat, and it’s going to leak out, and you’re going to be in a dangerous, toxic, flammable mess, just like if you overflowed your car. so again, I’m trying to boil it down to be as simple as possible.

The plant -based foods are filled with natural substances that activate our metabolism. When you actually lower that extra body fat, guess what? It raises your metabolism. It’s not what we thought. We used to think that, I was born with a slow metabolism. My sister was so lucky, she can eat anything she wants, and she’s skinny as a stick, and I’ve had to struggle with my food. That’s the common thing you hear people say. No, we’re all born with the same metabolism. When we were born, for the most

We are like a laptop out of the box. If I had a model of a laptop that you and I agreed to go buy, we go to the computer store, buy the same model, plug it in, charge it up, hit the start button, you hear that sound, it’s going to boot up. It’s got the operating system, your operating system that you just bought and the operating system and the laptop I bought, they’re going to be working exactly the same. Really? What about genetics, doctor? So genetics can play a

But what I’m saying is that humans are born with a heart working the same way. Our ears work the same way. Our eyes work the same way. Our taste buds work the same. Sure, I can tell you the genetic differences in heart. I can tell you the genetic differences in hearing. I can hear you tell you the genetic differences in kidney. But we are all cookie cut, punched out like Hershey kisses as humans from our mom. And I think, again, you know, this whole idea of over ascribing the genetics.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (44:11.306)
Moliads are perfectly fine when we’re born. It’s what the journey of life, all the things we encounter, the habits we get into. And by the way, once you slip on that banana peel, so to speak, and you wind up overeating, over consuming, choosing poor quality food, unfortunately, that can set off trigger a behavior pattern that takes something that was good to not so good, to bad, to worse.

and then you can actually take it all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. Like that’s not good. So what I’m saying is that about the computer, the laptop out of the box is that we’re all born pretty much the same. don’t blame genetics. Genetics is sort of a cop out. Yeah, I can’t do anything about it. I was born with bad genetics. No, actually we’re born largely the same. Take advantage, and this is what I read about it, eat to beat your diet. You can beat your diet

understanding that the hard wiring in all of our bodies allow us, give us a fighting chance to be healthy because that’s how we were when we came out of the box. Yes. It’s habits, it’s patterns, it’s behaviors that actually can really derail us. So get back on to who you were at the very beginning. It’s easy, it’s simple. Don’t overcomplicate, don’t eat too much. Make good choices, select good quality fuel.

stay in the produce section or go to the farmers. love this. Yes. Let’s talk about that. Yeah. Let’s talk about that, Dr. Lee. When you get into specific foods, you go right to fruit, then you go to legumes and you go to vegetables and you’re going to these very fibrous foods which help to fill us up. For anyone listening to this though, again, there’s just so much noise out there. How much in general, because we’re trying to get away from these specifics, people are like, well, should I be trying to get more protein?

Dr. Lee is telling me I don’t want too much visceral fat, but I’m supposed to eat some fat. And this is where people, and I get a lot of questions about this as well. This is where people get a little bit in trouble because they’re like, should I, do I need protein? How much is this? Like, you everybody’s body’s different. So what advice do you tell people that are starting to get a little bit, starting to feel complicated? Yeah, listen, mean, personalized nutrition was right for you and your body.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (46:30.702)
and at different ages because our body changes over our needs change over age as well is not a cake recipe. You got to follow it to the T and you’ll get a cake and if you vary from it, you’re going to you’re going to your cake is not going to come out right. We’re not a cake recipe. So what I would tell you is that yes, we do need protein. No, you don’t need to get it from meat. Absolutely. You can get it from plant based foods. Lots of great sources of plant proteins.

They’re legumes, legumes, seeds, all great sources of protein, beans, one of the best, one of the common denominators of the longest lived, healthiest lived peoples in the world, the common denominator. What they all eat in the blue zones where they live long, healthy lives are beans. I love it. Of some sort. They have stews, they have soups, they make, I mean – Tofu. Tofu. Yeah.

Beans are great because they have a lot of dietary fiber. And if there’s one body system that I would tell you is one of the most to focus on is gut health. Yes. We now know that our healthy microbiome, gut health is good, healthy bacteria in our gut, does all kinds of stuff. It’s like a whole orchestra of health inside our intestines. When we feed fiber to our gut bacteria, they’re really happy. It’s

Our gut bacteria is like a pet dog or a pet cat or a pet fish, a goldfish or pet bird, parrot if you have one, whatever. If you have a pet, you’re feeding your pet every day as part of responsible parenting of your pet, right, ownership. We all have to be responsible to our gut bacteria and feed it dietary fiber every day. And it is, let’s say, 39 trillion bacteria that live here. When we feed our bacteria, they pay us back by lowering inflammation.

improving how we use glucose and respond to insulin, helping to heal our bodies, text messaging our brain in order to be able to put us in a better mood. Gut health is really important. fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes and seeds packed with dietary fiber. And for those people who say, well, you know, like, what about this issue about fruit? It’s got sugar, right? We should be cutting out sugar, all sugar, right? Wrong.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (48:57.31)
Your body needs sugar. We actually need sugar to survive. In fact, if we didn’t eat any sugar, our bodies would try to make more sugar. Our brains would make more sugar. And so that’s how dependent it is. In fact, if you had no sugar in your body, you’re going to have brain fog almost instantly. So you absolutely need to be able to actually have that. You need to absolutely be able to have that. That sugar, that fuel. Exactly.

So one of the things that I think we need to be able to pay attention to is to be able to, I’m sorry, you know what? I’ve got a distraction in my house. Are you okay if I stop here for a second? Yeah, stop here for a second, Dr. We can edit this. Let me just take a pause and edit this out, right? I’ll be right back. Yeah, no worries. I’ve got something going on in my house. got to… I can tell something is going on. You’re no worries and then we’ll wrap

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (51:07.544)
Was that your dog, Lee? no, no, no, no. There was some commotion going on, so I wanted to make sure I took care of it. Where were we? So we were talking about how your brain needs sugar. That’s why we eat food. OK. Let me know when you’re ready. Yeah. So I’ll go like this. So Eric, this is where we’re going to start back up. So I want to just take a moment to address this whole

about fruit not being healthy for you because of its sugar. Sugar is absolutely vital for our health. Our brain needs sugar. If we don’t eat sugar from our food, a piece of broccoli has sugar in it. If we don’t eat any sugar, we’re going to have brain fog. And then our brain is going to freak out and try to make its own sugar to be able to kind of run in our body, run our body and our organs. So it’s a myth that it’s a well -intentioned statement.

But it’s wrong that sugar in fruit is harmful as general rule. Fruit, in fact, is incredibly healthy because fruits are packed with bioactives. Oranges have neregenin, blackberries have anthocyanins, grapes have resveratrol, so on and so forth. Watermelon has lycopene.

We want all these things because they enhance our health, they help our metabolism, they help us burn harmful body fat, they cut off the blood supply to cancers, lower inflammation, they feed our gut microbiome, all these good things, okay? And the dietary fiber is very, very important in fruits, all right? We want to eat fruits in order to be able to actually feed our health. It’s a myth, all right? Vegetables also have sugar in them.

Totally fine to eat vegetables as well. And the only thing I would tell you about vegetables is how we cook it matters. boil it and you over boil the vegetables like we had when we were in grade school in the cafeteria, the limp disgusting, know, nothing in there. Nothing left is in there. You just have boiled and leached it all out. But this is where the recipes of the past come right down to telling us the healthiest way to cook. Listen.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (53:29.056)
If you want to know how to cook a vegetable that you haven’t seen before, or you want to find one that you’re familiar with, you want to do it better, type that name into Google, type recipe, hit video, and watch somebody who really knows what they’re doing. Not always a pro, but somebody who’s passionate and knows what they’re doing, show you how it’s done. That’s how easy it is today. A lot of it’s so simple too, doctor. know, it’s just, like you said, fresh ingredients. Your recipes also are, you know, some of them are quite simple.

and then the ingredients come through and they’re delicious. You don’t need a lot. This is actually really doable. Yeah, no, it’s totally doable. And I think that, you know, what you want to do is you want to stay with that in that produce section that has got pretty much anything you need. The middle aisles, by the way, which you were supposed to stay away from, honestly, is it’s also a myth that we should not go into the middle aisles.

I think you want to be informed to go into the middle aisles and picked out your dry beans and your coffee and your tea, spices and your dried spices, and the healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil. There’s a lot in there. And again, this is why I think when it comes to nutrition and health, so many people try to create rigid rules, big long lists of things that nobody can remember. You focus and obsess on things that doesn’t make you feel relaxed, doesn’t make you feel natural.

And then you take all the joy out of eating. know, like I honestly, when I go to a farmer’s market in the summertime, it’s like going to a carnival to me. I go there and I’m looking at all this amazing stuff that Mother Nature’s produced. I wish I could buy it all. But so I have to and it’s an opportunity to learn from the purveyor, the seller, you know, like more about the food. I always find things that I never knew about before.

And I’m somebody who’s pretty studied in food as medicine. I go to farmers markets to learn about things. if I see a grocery store, don’t know. I will ask the produce manager to come out and explain what it is to me. Then I’ll look it up some more. I encourage people to lean forward, lean into your food, love your food, to love your health. All the science shows us we can really

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (55:54.082)
what we’re eating in order to be able to live a long and healthier life. Dr. Lee, I could talk to you all day. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. And I have to say something, just speaking to you, really are such a powerful combination of not just head scientists, but so much heart, right? There’s just so much connection to the food, to wanting to help people, to the joy, to life. And it spills out into the energy in which you wrote your book.

So I feel like that’s really why I connect to you so much and to your material, because there’s lots of scientists that can go have a million degrees and give us facts. But this feels very human. It feels natural. It feels doable. So once again, I just can’t tell you enough, Dr. Lee, how much I appreciate you and your work. I can’t recommend this book enough to everyone. Eat to beat your diet, burn fat, heal your metabolism, and live longer.

Honestly, Dr. Lee, might have to have you back here another time for part two because I didn’t even get to 90 % of my question. But you can read the book. I would be happy to come back. And actually, for anybody who wants to keep learning about the latest research, you come to my website, which is drwilliamlee .com, or I actually just launched a new YouTube series.

Wonderful. it’s really, I try to answer the questions that people are asking me left and right, and I try to answer them one on one, but I’m like, you know what? I’m just going to go on YouTube and actually just talk about the stuff that people really want to know and new research that I’m actually seeing as well. Amazing. So I’d love to come back, but check me out on YouTube. So what’s the name of your YouTube channel? You can find me. It’s Dr. Dr. William Lee, L

Amazing. Well, we will link to all of Dr. Lee’s channels, information, the direct link to get his new book on our show notes at mysaloonah .com. Wow, I’m just so excited to dive back into the book. It’s one of those books that you can go into again and again. So thank you once again, Dr. Lee, so much for being with us. And thank you so much, everyone, for tuning in. We’ll be back here as always Thursday for our next Q &A show.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (58:17.57)
Be sure to check out the show notes. Be sure to come to our site. Also, pre -selling the next book, The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts at mysalina .com slash five hearts book. So please check it out all over there and have a wonderful rest of your week. Thank you everyone.