The TOP FOODS That Should Be BANNED - Don't Eat These Foods! | Dr. Steven Gundry

1. 0:00 – 5:11

   Gut Bacteria as the Real Drivers of Health

   1. SGDr. Steven Gundry0:00

      12,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, we switched over to things that we had never eaten before, and those were the grains of grasses and beans. Now, the reason we'd never eaten them before is, number one, we didn't need to. There's never been a documentation of an ape eating grass or grains. Beans are so lethal that five raw kidney beans will kill a human being in five minutes by coagulating their blood. [upbeat music]

   2. LHLewis Howes0:47

      [upbeat music] Uh, welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the legendari- dary, Dr. Gundry, in the house. Thank you so much for being here.

   3. SGDr. Steven Gundry0:54

      Thanks for having me.

   4. LHLewis Howes0:55

      I'm ex-

   5. SGDr. Steven Gundry0:55

      Pleasure

   6. LHLewis Howes0:56

      ... I'm excited about this, and you just opened it up, we'll probably leave that in there, um, of kind of your mission is to end disease, and then you're saying it all comes through the gut. Starts and ends with the gut.

   7. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:06

      Correct. Everything.

   8. LHLewis Howes1:07

      Everything, what we eat can, can solve the disease we have within us, right?

   9. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:11

      Correct.

   10. LHLewis Howes1:12

       Based on the foods that we put inside of us.

   11. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:14

       It can actually extend our lifespan to potentially things that people can't even imagine.

   12. LHLewis Howes1:20

       Wow.

   13. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:21

       And it actually has to do not with you and me and what we conceive of our bodies, but it turns out that 90% of all the cells that make you and me, me, are actually non-human cells.

   14. LHLewis Howes1:37

       Hmm.

   15. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:37

       They're bacteria, viruses, funguses, worms that live in us and on us.

   16. LHLewis Howes1:44

       Wow.

   17. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:44

       And the shocking thing is that 99% of all the genes that make up you and me are non-human genes.

   18. LHLewis Howes1:55

       What are they?

   19. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:55

       They're bacterial-

   20. LHLewis Howes1:57

       Huh

   21. SGDr. Steven Gundry1:57

       ... and viral genes. And what we've completely missed from the Human Genome Project is that we have actually very few genes, and our genes are about 99% the same as a chimp or a gorilla. And we're very different than chimps or gorillas, uh, yet we have virtually the same genes. What makes us different is actually the bacteria and viruses that live in us.

   22. LHLewis Howes2:25

       We have different bacteria and viruses.

   23. SGDr. Steven Gundry2:26

       We h- And you can actually show when humans evolved from the other great apes that our bacteria actually changed, and we can actually identify that point in time that the bacteria made us rather than our genes made us.

   24. LHLewis Howes2:44

       So the bacterias made us human or bacteria made us-

   25. SGDr. Steven Gundry2:48

       Yeah. They actually, uh, as shocking as it may seem, most of what happens to us is determined by the state and the variation of our bacter- bacteria, primarily in our gut.

   26. LHLewis Howes3:02

       Hmm.

   27. SGDr. Steven Gundry3:02

       Uh, give you an example. You can take, um, a bowel movement from an obese individual and feed it to a skinny rat. Uh, skinny rats love to eat poop.

   28. LHLewis Howes3:15

       [laughs] Right.

   29. SGDr. Steven Gundry3:17

       And those skinny rats will become fat-

   30. LHLewis Howes3:20

       Really?
2. 5:11 – 7:45

   Addictive Foods and Bacteria Controlling Behavior

   1. LHLewis Howes5:11

      It's kind of like when you're, you know, I, I love candy and sweets. I've never been drunk, and I don't drink, but my vice is, like, I could eat cakes and candy and brownies all day long if I choose to. A- and then when I, when I go off of it, it's hard because I just wanna keep going back to it, right?

   2. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:27

      Oh, yeah.

   3. LHLewis Howes5:27

      Until I change the habit fully, and then I'm like, "I don't need it anymore."

   4. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:31

      Right.

   5. LHLewis Howes5:31

      But it takes that time to kind of transition out of it, right?

   6. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:34

      Yeah. These are very addictive foods.

   7. LHLewis Howes5:35

      Yeah.

   8. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:36

      And it, they're, they're addictive because th- what happens is, like, simple sugars, like in candies and cakes-

   9. LHLewis Howes5:43

      Mm-hmm

   10. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:43

       ... and saturated fats, like on the icing and, you know, the coating on the donuts-

   11. LHLewis Howes5:47

       Yes

   12. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:47

       ... and all.

   13. LHLewis Howes5:47

       Oh, so good.

   14. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:48

       Oh, yeah.

   15. LHLewis Howes5:49

       [laughs]

   16. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:49

       Uh, used to love them. [laughs]

   17. LHLewis Howes5:51

       Yeah. [laughs]

   18. SGDr. Steven Gundry5:52

       And so these things actually, the obesogenic bacteria can actually live on them. They love it. They love simple sugars. They love saturated fats, and they go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give me more."

   19. LHLewis Howes6:03

       Hmm.

   20. SGDr. Steven Gundry6:03

       And they actually tell our brain to do that. It's kinda like, you remember the, uh, movie Little Shop of Horrors with the, with the blood-sucking plant?

   21. LHLewis Howes6:12

       Sure, sure.

   22. SGDr. Steven Gundry6:12

       It was a very famous-

   23. LHLewis Howes6:13

       Sure

   24. SGDr. Steven Gundry6:13

       ... uh, Broadway show.

   25. LHLewis Howes6:15

       Sure.

   26. SGDr. Steven Gundry6:16

       So, uh, Rick Moranis stan- starred in the movie, and there's this blood-sucking plant that he ... grows and Audrey, and Audrey keeps getting bigger, and Audrey has to have human blood

   27. LHLewis Howes6:27

       Mm

   28. SGDr. Steven Gundry6:27

       And long story short, Audrey, whenever it's Aud- Aud- Aud- Audrey is, uh, the speaking part, and Audrey says, "Feed me, Seymour. Feed me." And it turns out that this whole concept is actually true, that our bacteria control our behavior

   29. LHLewis Howes6:46

       Mm.

   30. SGDr. Steven Gundry6:46

       For instance, you can take depressed mice and put their bacteria in happy mice, and those happy mice will go-
3. 7:45 – 11:59

   Young Gut Bacteria, Mitochondria, and Longevity

   1. SGDr. Steven Gundry7:45

      We now know that you can take bacteria from young animals' guts and put them in old animals' guts, and the old animals will become young again

   2. LHLewis Howes7:59

      No way. You mean like-

   3. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:01

      Honest. It's the fountain of youth

   4. LHLewis Howes8:03

      No way. So they'll like, their cells will get younger?

   5. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:06

      Yes

   6. LHLewis Howes8:06

      Or they'll have youthful energy, or what?

   7. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:08

      All of the above. They will actually extend their lifespan by about 30%.

   8. LHLewis Howes8:13

      What?

   9. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:14

      Yeah, because here's the deal. What, what, what I'm trying to get people to understand is this is not about you and me or what we conceive as us. This, we're just a condominium for the people who really run us

   10. LHLewis Howes8:30

       Mm-hmm

   11. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:31

       And these are all these little one-cellular organisms. And what we're beginning to realize is we're a condominium for these bugs, and we're their home. We've exchanged them living in us, and actually taking care of us, for food and-

   12. LHLewis Howes8:48

       Mm

   13. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:48

       ... and shelter for them

   14. LHLewis Howes8:50

       Huh.

   15. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:51

       And-

   16. LHLewis Howes8:51

       That's crazy

   17. SGDr. Steven Gundry8:51

       ... so, I know. And the really cool thing is, so we can take bacteria from young animals, you know, and put them into old animals, and the bacteria say, "Man, this place is decrepit, you know. I, I need to do a complete total renovation here because this is where I'm stuck, and I bet- better make the best of it"

   18. LHLewis Howes9:11

       Mm-hmm

   19. SGDr. Steven Gundry9:11

       ... "And I want everything to be nice." You know, it's like, you know-

   20. LHLewis Howes9:15

       Yeah

   21. SGDr. Steven Gundry9:15

       ... gentrification of the neighborhood

   22. LHLewis Howes9:18

       Yeah, yeah. Of course

   23. SGDr. Steven Gundry9:18

       And this actually-

   24. LHLewis Howes9:19

       So what do they do?

   25. SGDr. Steven Gundry9:20

       So they actually instruct, here's, here's the take-home message. They actually send t- text messages to the mitochondria, and you probably know all about mitochondria

   26. LHLewis Howes9:30

       Yes

   27. SGDr. Steven Gundry9:30

       ... the little energy organelles

   28. LHLewis Howes9:32

       Yes. In the brain, right?

   29. SGDr. Steven Gundry9:33

       In, in, in, in every one of you-

   30. LHLewis Howes9:35

       Got it in every part
4. 11:59 – 17:49

   The Plant Paradox: Plants' Chemical Defenses and Fruit Timing

   1. LHLewis Howes11:59

      And so you, you lived in a blue zone, is that right? The Loma Linda-

   2. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:03

      Yeah, Loma Linda's a b- blue zone, that's correct

   3. LHLewis Howes12:05

      Yeah. So-

   4. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:05

      But when I was living in that blue zone, uh, I was eating a low-fat vegetarian diet. I was running 30 miles a week. I was one of these Clydesdale runners. I weighed 70 pounds more than I do now

   5. LHLewis Howes12:17

      Really?

   6. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:18

      Yeah. I was a Clydesdale

   7. LHLewis Howes12:19

      There's a lot of unhealthy people in blue zones too

   8. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:21

      Oh, yeah. And-

   9. LHLewis Howes12:21

      They have the vegans that just are overweight, and you're like, "How are you this overweight?"

   10. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:26

       Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, it actually is because you're giving your bacteria the wrong stuff

   11. LHLewis Howes12:30

       Mm

   12. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:30

       And that's really part of the plant paradox. The plant paradox is that there's- Certain plants that absolutely, positively do not want us to eat them

   13. LHLewis Howes12:42

       At all

   14. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:42

       At all

   15. LHLewis Howes12:42

       In any circumstance

   16. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:43

       Under any circumstance

   17. LHLewis Howes12:44

       Whether you cook them or chop them or slice them or skin them, doesn't matter

   18. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:48

       They were here first, and they had it really great before animals arrived, 'cause nobody wanted to eat them.

   19. LHLewis Howes12:54

       [laughs]

   20. SGDr. Steven Gundry12:55

       And my, you know, my, my research at Yale was in human evolutionary biology, so plants have the same evolutionary drive as animals.

   21. LHLewis Howes13:04

       Mm.

   22. SGDr. Steven Gundry13:04

       They wanna grow, and they wanna have babies, seeds.

   23. LHLewis Howes13:07

       They wanna protect themselves.

   24. SGDr. Steven Gundry13:08

       And they wanna protect themselves.

   25. LHLewis Howes13:09

       They don't wanna die.

   26. SGDr. Steven Gundry13:10

       They, exactly.

   27. LHLewis Howes13:10

       Right.

   28. SGDr. Steven Gundry13:10

       So when animals arrived, they had a problem, 'cause animals can run, they can hide, they can fight, but plants are stuck. But plants are chemists of incredible ability.

   29. LHLewis Howes13:21

       Mm.

   30. SGDr. Steven Gundry13:21

       So they can turn sunlight into matter, like around your wall here.
5. 17:49 – 20:56

   Lectins, Beans, and Pressure Cooking

   1. LHLewis Howes17:49

      What are the main plants that we should never be eating, then?

   2. SGDr. Steven Gundry17:52

      Okay, real quick. Uh, up until 10,000 years ago, we lived primarily on the leaves of trees, and we ate tubers that grew in the ground, like a sweet potato-

   3. LHLewis Howes18:03

      Uh-huh

   4. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:03

      ... or a yam.

   5. LHLewis Howes18:04

      Mm, love those.

   6. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:05

      Yeah, they're actually-

   7. LHLewis Howes18:06

      They taste so good

   8. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:06

      ... they're pretty darn good for you. You know, you were actually designed to eat them. And-

   9. LHLewis Howes18:10

      Pretty good

   10. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:11

       ... 12,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, we switched over to things that we had never eaten before, and those were the grains of grasses and beans. Now, the reason we'd never eaten them before is, number one, we didn't need to. There's never been a documentation of an ape eating grass or grains.

   11. LHLewis Howes18:31

       Mm. Mm-hmm.

   12. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:31

       Beans are so lethal that five raw kidney beans will kill a human being in five minutes by coagulating their blood

   13. LHLewis Howes18:43

       What?

   14. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:43

       Five raw kidney beans

   15. LHLewis Howes18:44

       Raw kidney beans

   16. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:45

       In fact, you know, most people have heard of the poison ricin, the white powder you send to your elected official.

   17. LHLewis Howes18:52

       Uh-huh. [laughs] Oh, yeah.

   18. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:52

       Lots on the way to Washington.

   19. LHLewis Howes18:54

       Yeah, yeah.

   20. SGDr. Steven Gundry18:54

       But that's another subject. Um, so ricin is the lectin of the castor bean, and we'll talk about lectins next. A lectin is the plant defense system. These are proteins that are designed to-

   21. LHLewis Howes19:06

       Huh

   22. SGDr. Steven Gundry19:06

       ... basically kill us in one way or another.

   23. LHLewis Howes19:09

       Oh my gosh.

   24. SGDr. Steven Gundry19:09

       And so ricin, so powerful that about four molecules of ricin will kill a human being instantaneously. There's a great st- study that was written up in one of the journals about a few years ago, they decided to have a healthy eating day in Boston.

   25. LHLewis Howes19:29

       Yeah.

   26. SGDr. Steven Gundry19:29

       And they served the kids, uh, beans-

   27. LHLewis Howes19:31

       Hmm

   28. SGDr. Steven Gundry19:32

       ... and 'cause it's so healthy.

   29. LHLewis Howes19:34

       Right.

   30. SGDr. Steven Gundry19:34

       Part of the blue zone.
6. 20:56 – 22:00

   Gluten, Grains, and Gut Damage

   1. SGDr. Steven Gundry20:56

      So grains, uh, so for instance, everybody heard about gluten.

   2. LHLewis Howes21:01

      Yes.

   3. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:01

      All right. So gluten is a lectin, and again, a lectin is a plant's defense system. It's a protein that actually is designed to act like incoming guided missile attacks-

   4. LHLewis Howes21:14

      Wow

   5. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:14

      ... on the inside wall of our gut. And these things actually pry open the lining of our gut and actually break through the border.

   6. LHLewis Howes21:24

      Really?

   7. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:25

      Yeah, they really do. And that's-

   8. LHLewis Howes21:26

      That's what causes eczema and-

   9. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:27

      Bingo

   10. LHLewis Howes21:28

       ... causes breakouts and-

   11. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:29

       Yeah, exactly. Acne-

   12. LHLewis Howes21:31

       All that stuff

   13. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:31

       ... brain fog, uh, irritable bowel. Uh, this is actually all part of that process.

   14. LHLewis Howes21:37

       Wow.

   15. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:38

       And so it, it's fascinating to see people who e- either have come to see me or have even read the book and then write on Amazon, "Oh my gosh, you know, I had this horrible eczema, and now a month later, it's all gone, and all I did was, you know, take grains and beans and nightshades away from my diet-

   16. LHLewis Howes21:58

       Hmm

   17. SGDr. Steven Gundry21:58

       ... and everything got better."

7. 22:00 – 25:17

   Nightshades and American Plants: Peel, Deseed, Pressure Cook

   1. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:00

      So that brings us to the second kind of group of things we shouldn't eat. All of us are not from, uh, the United States, uh, America. We're actually from Europe, Asia, or Africa.

   2. LHLewis Howes22:14

      Mm-hmm.

   3. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:15

      Every one of us.

   4. LHLewis Howes22:16

      Yeah.

   5. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:16

      So, and even our Native Americans are actually not Native Americans.

   6. LHLewis Howes22:21

      Hmm.

   7. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:21

      They're from Asia.

   8. LHLewis Howes22:22

      Hmm.

   9. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:22

      You know, get over it.

   10. LHLewis Howes22:23

       Right, right. [laughs]

   11. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:25

       Uh, so none of us were exposed to an American plant until 500 years ago when Columbus started trade. So getting to know a new plant, a new lectin, in 500 years is speed dating in evolution.

   12. LHLewis Howes22:43

       Hmm.

   13. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:43

       I just don't think it can be done. For instance, the-

   14. LHLewis Howes22:45

       Wow

   15. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:45

       ... Italians refused to eat tomatoes for 200 years after their native son, Columbus, brought them back because they knew how dangerous they were. They were part of the deadly nightshade family.

   16. LHLewis Howes22:58

       Really?

   17. SGDr. Steven Gundry22:59

       And they, when they started eating them, they always peeled and deseeded their tomatoes because the peels and the seeds actually have the vast majority of the lectins. And-

   18. LHLewis Howes23:11

       Huh

   19. SGDr. Steven Gundry23:12

       ... it, it's interesting, years ago, I was, uh, did my fellowship in children's heart surgery in London, England, and I had a, a house officer from Italy, and he invited me up for pasta and tomato sauce.

   20. LHLewis Howes23:26

       Yes.

   21. SGDr. Steven Gundry23:26

       And so I, I, I brought... You know, it'd be nice, so I bought a couple cans of canned tomatoes, you know, help out.

   22. LHLewis Howes23:33

       Sure. [laughs]

   23. SGDr. Steven Gundry23:33

       And he looks at it, he says, "Why did you bring me this? We can't use this." So I said, "What do you mean? It's, you know, canned tomatoes." He says, "It's got peels and seeds. You can't make sauce with peels and seeds." He says, "Ah, m- mama mia."

   24. LHLewis Howes23:46

       [laughs]

   25. SGDr. Steven Gundry23:46

       "What am I gonna do with you?"

   26. LHLewis Howes23:47

       Sure.

   27. SGDr. Steven Gundry23:47

       He says, "You, you can't use peels and seeds." And I said, "Why?" He says, "They're deadly." And I said, "Really?" And he says, "Yeah, everybody knows that." And-

   28. LHLewis Howes23:57

       Wow

   29. SGDr. Steven Gundry23:57

       ... then I thought back. Uh, as a child, my mother, my grandmother was French, and she taught my mother that you always peel and deseed tomatoes before you slice them and, and serve them. So until I went to Yale, I had never had a slice of a tomato with a peel and a seed.

   30. LHLewis Howes24:14

       Wow.
8. 25:17 – 27:00

   Why Peanuts Should Go

   1. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:17

      Now, there's two American beans that everyone should stay away from. Peanuts are not a nut, they're a bean.

   2. LHLewis Howes25:25

      God, they're so good though.

   3. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:26

      94% of human beings carry a preformed antibody against-

   4. LHLewis Howes25:31

      Ugh

   5. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:31

      ... the peanut lectin.

   6. LHLewis Howes25:32

      [laughs]

   7. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:33

      We can take rhesus monkeys, our cousins, give them peanut oil, and they will develop atherosclerosis, heart disease.

   8. LHLewis Howes25:41

      Really?

   9. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:42

      If we take the lectin out of the peanut oil and then give them the peanut oil, they will not develop heart disease.

   10. LHLewis Howes25:50

       So if you get lectin-free peanut-

   11. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:52

       [laughs]

   12. LHLewis Howes25:53

       ... butter.

   13. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:53

       There, there is no such thing.

   14. LHLewis Howes25:54

       Dang it. Okay.

   15. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:56

       So get almond butter instead.

   16. LHLewis Howes25:57

       Yes.

   17. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:57

       It's much safer.

   18. LHLewis Howes25:58

       So no peanut butter.

   19. SGDr. Steven Gundry25:58

       No, stay away from it.

   20. LHLewis Howes25:59

       You should eliminate it-

   21. SGDr. Steven Gundry26:00

       It's really g-

   22. LHLewis Howes26:00

       ... 100% from your-

   23. SGDr. Steven Gundry26:02

       Absolutely

   24. LHLewis Howes26:02

       ... system.

   25. SGDr. Steven Gundry26:03

       We can take, and this has been done, men, feed them peanuts, take their bowel movements, feed them to rats, and you will grow cancerous cells in the rat colon-

   26. LHLewis Howes26:17

       What?

   27. SGDr. Steven Gundry26:17

       ... because they've been exposed to the peanut lectin.

   28. LHLewis Howes26:21

       Ugh.

   29. SGDr. Steven Gundry26:22

       Yeah.

   30. LHLewis Howes26:23

       I love peanut butter though.
9. 27:00 – 31:52

   Big Ed and Gundry's Leap from Surgery to Prevention

   1. LHLewis Howes27:00

      What's the cause of these heart diseases?

   2. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:03

      So it's a-

   3. LHLewis Howes27:03

      And the reason why you have to do so many of these

   4. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:05

      ... it's all in The Plant Paradox. So 17 years ago, I met a guy by the name of Big Ed, who was a 30-year-old, 38-year-old guy who came to see me at Loma Linda 'cause I'm one of these surgeons who will operate on anybody.

   5. LHLewis Howes27:17

      Wow. Big Ed.

   6. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:18

      Um, take the ri- Big Ed. And-

   7. LHLewis Howes27:20

      500-pounder or-

   8. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:20

      Big Ed, actually-

   9. LHLewis Howes27:21

      Wow

   10. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:21

       ... when I met him, weighed 265 pounds.

   11. LHLewis Howes27:24

       Wow.

   12. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:24

       But he had such extensive coronary artery disease that you couldn't put stents in him, you couldn't do bypasses-

   13. LHLewis Howes27:31

       Mm

   14. SGDr. Steven Gundry27:31

       ... 'cause there wasn't any place to land. And he was from Miami, and he'd been going around the country carrying his angiogram, the movie of his heart, his cardiac catheterization. And everybody's turning him down. And he finally, after about six months of this, comes to see me, and I'm looking at his angiogram and I'm going, "Eh, you know I don't like to turn people down, but everybody's right. You know, we're not gonna do you any good." And he said, "Well, wait a minute. Here's the deal, Doc. I've been on a diet for the last six months, and I've lost 45 pounds." Now this is a 265-pounder sitting across from me. He looks like a, you know, a biker, um, big gut. And he says, "And I've, I've gone to this health food store, and I've taken all these supplements." And he actually brought in this shopping bag full of supplements, and he said, "You know, maybe I did something in here." And I'm going, "Yeah, right." You know, I'm kind of scratching my professor beard and-

   15. LHLewis Howes28:22

       [laughs]

   16. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:22

       ... and saying, "Well, you know, I know what you... Good for you for losing weight."

   17. LHLewis Howes28:25

       Yeah.

   18. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:26

       "But it, it's not gonna do anything in here. And I know what you did with all those supplements. You made expensive urine."

   19. LHLewis Howes28:31

       Right. [laughs]

   20. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:31

       And I really believe that. So he says, "Well, come on, you know, it's been six months. I've come all this way. What would it hurt to get another angiogram, another cardiac catheterization?"

   21. LHLewis Howes28:42

       Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

   22. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:42

       I said, "Okay." And so we, we get a new cath on him, and in six months' time, this guy cleans out 50% of the blockages in his heart.

   23. LHLewis Howes28:52

       Mm.

   24. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:52

       50% gone.

   25. LHLewis Howes28:53

       Pretty good.

   26. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:53

       It was pretty darn good. It's unbelievable.

   27. LHLewis Howes28:55

       Wow.

   28. SGDr. Steven Gundry28:56

       For instance, statistically, on the best statin drug, you know, like Crestor or Lipitor, with the lowest levels of LDL, uh, we scientists at the American Heart Association get crazy if after five years your plaque burden has decreased a half of a percent.

   29. LHLewis Howes29:17

       Wow. And he did 50%.

   30. SGDr. Steven Gundry29:18

       And we go crazy, and we go, "Oh my gosh, this is a miracle. It's the greatest drug or discovery of all time."
10. 31:52 – 38:02

    Autoimmune Disease, Gut Bugs, and a Chronic Pain Patient

    1. SGDr. Steven Gundry31:52

       up, uh, an institute in Palm Springs where all I ask people to do is every three months let me take about 10 tubes of blood out of you, and we'll send it to some labs, uh, have s- Yeah ... insurance will pay for it. Wow. And see what asking you to eat certain foods does. Right. And asking you to take certain supplements that you could find at Costco or Trader Joe's does. Mm. And that resulted in my first book, uh, in 2008 called Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution. But then subsequently, uh, I've seen about 50% of my practice is autoimmune disease, and people go, come in and say, "Hey, what do you know about autoimmune disease?" And I go, "Oh, I don't know anything about autoimmune disease, but I'm a transplant immunologist." Mm. And that means how do I get the immune system of you to accept the heart of a pig, for instance. Geez. And I'm, actually I hold the world record for the longest pig to baboon heart transplant, 28 days. Wow. That's the world record. Wow. So I started manipulating the immune system by food, and sure enough, um, you've got an autoimmune disease, we can teach you to get rid of it by changing, primarily getting lectins out of your diet. That's it, huh? And changing your gut bugs to be basically friendly gut bugs. And the friendly gut bugs actually tell your immune system that, "Hey, guys. We're all great down here. We're down at the beach. We're singing Kumbaya." Yeah. "Beautiful bonfire." And your immune system is basically the cops, uh, and the cops go, "Oh, yeah, we know these kids. Great kids. Uh, let's go have a donut." And now, so that's how it's supposed to be. But let's suppose a gang member moves into your neighborhood. Now all of a sudden you got, you're putting up bars on your windows, and you got neighborhood watch patrols, and you're shooting guys with hoodies without asking questions. So what's happened to most of us, through some of the foods we eat, like all these wonderful snacks we're talking about- Mm-hmm ... we've, we've let these gang members loose, and the good guys actually can't eat simple sugars and these saturated fats. They, they want leaves and they want tubers. Mm. What are called- So they die off. They die off, exactly. So the gang members are running rampant, and now your immune system is going, "Oh, my gosh," you know, "the city's taken over by gang members, and we're gonna have armed patrols everywhere, and anytime we see anything that looks a little odd, we're gonna shoot and ask questions later." And so what's happened to everybody with autoimmune disease is their immune system is just hyper on guard 'cause it's no longer getting the messages from the good bugs, "Chill out. Everything's cool. You know, kumbaya. Love, love, love. Peace and love." And that's what's happened. And it's, it's so cool to get somebody who can just, you know, change the food they eat. They may not want it initially, but when they start feeling better- Yeah ... they go, uh, for instance, on Monday, young lady, 36 years old, lives out in, uh, La Quinta- Mm ... was sent to me with what's called chronic pain syndrome. Now a lot of doctors toss this off as, "Oh, you're crazy," or, "You're depressed," or, "You're just anxious," and you treat them with antidepressants. And she was in constant pain. It was so bad that she actually had to work from home. Mm. Really couldn't move, and she had a kid and a husband and- Right ... so she had heard about me. She said, you know, "I've heard about you." Um, you know, "What do you think?" I said, you know, "Come on, let's, let's do this." I said, "What's happening is that your pain is actually coming from nerve cells inside your gut that are being stimulated by rogue, um, cops, if you will, and they're trying to tell you that you shouldn't move." Mm. Um, "So let's start." So I saw her a couple months later in January, February, and I said, "How are we doing?" She said, "You know, the pain's less, but it's definitely still there." So I said, "Well, you know, just stay at it." Mm-hmm. "If you can feel a difference, don't give up." Yeah, yeah. So sh- I walked in, um, on Monday, and I almost didn't recognize her. [laughs] And I said, she's got a giant smile on your face, and I said, "So, you know, how you doing?" She said, "Perfect." I said, "What, what do you mean?" And she says, "Do you know what it's like to not have pain?" [laughs] And I said, "Well, yeah, I do, um- [laughs] ... now." Uh, she said, "I forgot what not having pain feels like." Wow. "And it, it's amazing." She said, "I just feel great. I, you know, it's been so many years, I'd forgotten what, you know, feeling normal felt like." Uh-huh. She said, "But let me tell you a story. You can't cheat." And I- [laughs] And I, I sh- I said, "Yeah, I know that, but how'd you find out?" She said, "Well, you know, there was this office party a couple weeks ago." And all they had, they had some, they had some chicken, and they had some nachos, and they had some guacamole. And she said, "I noticed that the guacamole had tomatoes in it." Uh, believe it or not, guacamole is not have, supposed to have tomatoes. Your, your listeners should realize that guacamole-

    2. LHLewis Howes37:24

       [laughs]

    3. SGDr. Steven Gundry37:25

       ... should not have tomatoes.

    4. LHLewis Howes37:26

       Sure.

    5. SGDr. Steven Gundry37:26

       But, uh, she said, "I figured, well, the safest thing to eat is to put some guacamole on my plate and have a piece of chicken 'cause, you know, I want to be nice." She said, "I'll tell you, within an hour-"

    6. LHLewis Howes37:38

       Ugh

    7. SGDr. Steven Gundry37:38

       ... "my left elbow just started throbbing, and then my hand started-"

    8. LHLewis Howes37:44

       Oh, man

    9. SGDr. Steven Gundry37:44

       ... "freezing up." She said, "I actually had to leave the party and go home," and she said, "I had to lay down, and I couldn't get up for about two hours." And she said, "A- and I was trying to be good." And she said, "It's, it's amazing that, you know, this could do this."

    10. LHLewis Howes38:00

        Wow.

    11. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:00

        Yeah.

    12. LHLewis Howes38:01

        This is crazy.

    13. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:02

        Yeah.

11. 38:02 – 41:15

    Restorative Medicine and Whole Grain Myths

    1. LHLewis Howes38:02

       So you said you essentially ca- was, uh, you know, were doing heart surgeries, 10,000 of them-

    2. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:07

       Yeah

    3. LHLewis Howes38:07

       ... and said, I don't wanna be offensive here. I wanna make sure I'm saying the right thing, but you're now essentially a functional med doctor.

    4. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:14

       Yeah, I don't-

    5. LHLewis Howes38:15

       In a sense, right?

    6. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:16

       Correct. I, um-

    7. LHLewis Howes38:17

       Without-

    8. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:17

       With all, with all due respects to Mark Hyman-

    9. LHLewis Howes38:19

       Yes

    10. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:19

        ... uh, Jeff Bland created the, uh, created functional medicine, and Jeff's a friend of mine. I don't know what functional medicine is.

    11. LHLewis Howes38:26

        Right, right, right.

    12. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:27

        What I do is restorative medicine.

    13. LHLewis Howes38:30

        Right.

    14. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:31

        All of us have the power to heal ourselves. Now, the guy who said this was Hippocrates, and Hippocrates, uh, brilliant, he, he believed that any organism had the ability to have perfect health.

    15. LHLewis Howes38:47

        Hmm.

    16. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:48

        And that every organism had the ability to achieve perfect health as long as the obstacles to perfect health were removed.

    17. LHLewis Howes38:57

        Hmm.

    18. SGDr. Steven Gundry38:58

        And Hippocrates believed that the physician's job was to identify the obstacles to that organism having perfect health, the patient, and remove them from the patient.

    19. LHLewis Howes39:10

        Right.

    20. SGDr. Steven Gundry39:10

        And the patient would do the rest.

    21. LHLewis Howes39:13

        Yeah.

    22. SGDr. Steven Gundry39:13

        So what, what I try to do, I basically do detective work, and I think I'm pretty good at finding the obstacles. And many of those obstacles, believe it or not, are lectins.

    23. LHLewis Howes39:28

        Hmm.

    24. SGDr. Steven Gundry39:29

        And the other obstacle is you gotta get the gang members out of your gut by basically starving them to death and giving the good guys what they wanna eat.

    25. LHLewis Howes39:39

        Starving them of the lectins.

    26. SGDr. Steven Gundry39:40

        Starving them of simple sugars-

    27. LHLewis Howes39:43

        Yes

    28. SGDr. Steven Gundry39:43

        ... and lectins and saturated fats. Like-

    29. LHLewis Howes39:47

        You remove those things.

    30. SGDr. Steven Gundry39:49

        Yeah. They, they have nothing to eat, and they leave. For instance, I'll give you an example of something interesting. Uh, we actually have bacteria in our gut that enjoy eating gluten, uh, a lectin.
12. 41:15 – 43:05

    Cashews, Chia Seeds, and Olive Oil as the Secret

    1. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:15

       And a cashew. A cashew is a nut too.

    2. LHLewis Howes41:18

       I can't eat cashews?

    3. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:19

       No. The Amazonian Indians always threw the cashew bean away.

    4. LHLewis Howes41:23

       Oh, what if, [laughs] what if I manipulate it in a certain way and make it into a sauce and-

    5. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:29

       Y- you could pressure cook it.

    6. LHLewis Howes41:30

       I can pressure cook cashews.

    7. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:32

       Yeah.

    8. LHLewis Howes41:32

       Then I can eat it.

    9. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:32

       Yes.

    10. LHLewis Howes41:33

        What about peanuts?

    11. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:33

        And stay away from chia seeds.

    12. LHLewis Howes41:35

        No chia seeds?

    13. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:35

        No.

    14. LHLewis Howes41:36

        These are all the things people are telling you to eat right now.

    15. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:37

        Of course, and that's why everybody's getting sicker. Chia seeds, there's two human studies that show chia seeds promote inflammation in human beings.

    16. LHLewis Howes41:46

        [laughs] What else do we need to be aware of?

    17. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:49

        I used to be a big fan of chia seeds.

    18. LHLewis Howes41:50

        What do you eat?

    19. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:51

        Uh, you eat what you're supposed to eat. You're supposed to eat leaves.

    20. LHLewis Howes41:54

        Yes.

    21. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:54

        You're supposed to eat tubers, uh, like jicama, like sweet potatoes-

    22. LHLewis Howes41:59

        Uh-huh

    23. SGDr. Steven Gundry41:59

        ... like rutabagas. You're supposed to eat tons of olive oil.

    24. LHLewis Howes42:04

        Really?

    25. SGDr. Steven Gundry42:04

        Tons, tons. I use a liter a week.

    26. LHLewis Howes42:08

        Of olive oil?

    27. SGDr. Steven Gundry42:08

        Of olive oil.

    28. LHLewis Howes42:09

        You drink it or you're cooking with it or?

    29. SGDr. Steven Gundry42:10

        No, but no, I pour it on everything.

    30. LHLewis Howes42:12

        Oh, really?
13. 43:05 – 44:49

    Closing: Gundry's Journey and Definition of Greatness

    1. LHLewis Howes43:05

       there's so much more I wanna learn, uh, but we are limited on time here, so make sure you guys get this book, The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in quote-unquote "Healthy Foods" That Cause Disease and Weight Gain by Dr. Steven Gundry. Um, I have one final question for you because there's a lot I wanna learn still. Um, first I wanna acknowledge you for your, your transformational journey, your journey of doing one thing that most doctors would probably believe is the solution, and then being aware and saying, "You know what? Maybe there's a different way."

    2. SGDr. Steven Gundry43:39

       Yeah.

    3. LHLewis Howes43:39

       Certain things aren't working. Past a certain point, it's just a Band-Aid, so let me reevaluate, educate, test it on myself, and then help other people. So I wanna acknowledge you for the journey you've been on-

    4. SGDr. Steven Gundry43:50

       Thank you. Appreciate it

    5. LHLewis Howes43:50

       ... and, and how much you help people. Um, make sure you guys get this book, and you're on social media. What's your...?

    6. SGDr. Steven Gundry43:56

       Go to gundrymd.com. Uh-

    7. LHLewis Howes43:58

       gundrymd.com.

    8. SGDr. Steven Gundry43:59

       Yeah, but I'm on Instagram, and come visit. Yeah.

    9. LHLewis Howes44:02

       Amazing. Amazing. The Plant Paradox. Your, my final question for you is what's your definition of greatness?

    10. SGDr. Steven Gundry44:09

        Ooh. Uh, well, yeah, this is The School of Greatness.

    11. LHLewis Howes44:12

        Yes.

    12. SGDr. Steven Gundry44:13

        Uh, the, I think I judge myself in the ability of being able to give something to somebody else and having them come back and say, "Thank you." That's all I could ever ask in my life.

    13. LHLewis Howes44:28

        Hmm.

    14. SGDr. Steven Gundry44:28

        And whether I was a surgeon fixing a newborn baby's heart or having somebody like that woman come back and say, "I forgot what being without pain felt like, and thank you."

    15. LHLewis Howes44:40

        Hmm.

    16. SGDr. Steven Gundry44:40

        So that's, I, what, what, what makes me feel great. How's that?

    17. LHLewis Howes44:44

        Yeah. Well, I appreciate it, and thank you for coming on. It means a lot to me.

    18. SGDr. Steven Gundry44:47

        Yeah. Thanks a lot. I'm-

    19. LHLewis Howes44:47

        Appreciate it

    20. SGDr. Steven Gundry44:48

        ... glad I'm here.

    21. LHLewis Howes44:49

        Yeah.

Episode duration: 45:02