This ONE Food Combo Starves Cancer Cells (Doctors Won’t Tell You This) | Dr. William Li

1. WLDr. William Li0:00

   Let's take a tomato as a great example. Uh, there are natural substances, natural chemicals, uh, like lycopene. Lycopene is a carotenoid. It helps to make the tomato red. Um, it has lots and lots of healthful properties. It's a powerful antioxidant. I've studied lycopene in a laboratory, and it actually can help starve cancers by cutting off the blood supply. Um, it can slow the shortening of telomeres, um, to slow cellular aging, and it, and it can protect our DNA from even sunlight and ultraviolet exposure. Lots of good things about it. Now, lycopene actually is a, uh, uh, naturally occurs in a tomato on a vine in a chemical form that our body doesn't absorb that well. So if you pick a tomato off the vine and you cut it up and you throw it into a salad, it might taste great. Just got some vitamin C in it, a great source of hydration and great flavors, okay? Especially if it's, like, a homegrown heirloom type of tomato. But you're not gonna get the ly- you're not gonna get as much lycopene. You're probably only gonna get maybe 20% of the lycopene that's in there. But you wanna... Like for me, I wanna get as much of the good stuff as I can. So here's what research has found. If you wanted to convert that chemical structure of lycopene into a form that you can absorb better, your body can avidly absorb, what you wanna do is you wanna heat the tomato, like in a pan, and w- with the heat will change the chemical structure from a form your body doesn't absorb that well into a form that your body avidly absorbs, loves to absorb it. Now you go from 20% absorption to 80% absorption. You flipped, uh, you flipped it around completely, upended that equation completely. Now you're really absorbing it. Now, here's one additional thing, though. How would you heat a tomato in a pan? You put heat, heat it in water or n- nothing? No, not really. You put a little bit of olive oil in it. And why is that? Uh, and, a- and it's because lycopene is a substance that we call fat-soluble. It's a lipid. It loves to dissolve into fats. So a little bit of olive oil in tomatoes on a pan, sauteed, so it's soft. Change the chemical structure. Flavors are really great now. And you have that. Now when you, uh, eat that tomato sauce sauteed in olive oil, the oil, the olive oil with the lycopene is carried into your body even more efficiently-

2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:18

   Mm

3. WLDr. William Li2:18

   ... than if it were cooked in water. And so again, that's an ex- that's just one example of thousands of how oils with fat-soluble foods. By the way, if you didn't wanna, uh, look at olive oil, here's another common snack in, in the United States anyways, kind of tearing a page book from Latin American cuisine. You have these tortilla chips, and then you wind up actually having a salsa and guacamole. The salsa, salsa is often sort of stewed down tomatoes, um, cooked down tomatoes, served at room temperature or chilled, and then the guacamole is just avocado that's been smashed up. Now, avocado has a lot of healthy fats in it. It's, it's, it's a fat-soluble veggie. It's actually quite, uh, nutritious. A- and remarkably, uh, people eating avocado actually shrink their waistline because actually, even though you're eating fat, it actually makes you... It burns down harmful fat. It's a whole other story that we had. But if you have guacamole, avocado, with tomatoes, you get more lycopene, and so that happens to be kind of a popular snack, uh, in the United States.

4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:21

   Yeah. Yeah, I love that. So the right combination of foods can actually help absorb the nutrients. I think black pepper also can do that, right? With certain nutrients.

5. WLDr. William Li3:31

   Well, right. So black pepper is... So this is an interesting thing. We, most of us have heard that turmeric, which is a kind of a, a root, um, when you cut it open, it's this bright, beautiful, bright orange. A lovely color. And, and turmeric is also a dried spice used in Southeast Asian cuisine, uh, including Indian cuisine, is where I first became acquainted with it. It, um, uh, not only makes food beautiful, it actually makes food delicious. It's got a qu- quite a, a lovely taste to it. It's a, it's a spice. Inside turmeric is curcumin. Curcumin is one of those natural chemicals, kind of like lycopene. It's one of those Mother Nature's treasure chests. Mother Nature's pharmacy with an F, not a PH. And the, the, the, the, the curcumin has a lot of properties. Anti-inflammatory. It's antioxidant. It cuts off the blood supply feeding cancers. Um, it, uh, uh, actually is helpful for your stem cells as well. It's, it really activates almost all of your body's health defenses, and it's good for your gut microbiome. So why not just, you know, enjoy turmeric as a spice by itself? Because it's so potent that our body actually doesn't absorb everything that it could. In fact, our body kind of, uh, it kind of gets, a lot of it gets flushed out, you know, uh, at the tail end. And so what we wanna do to improve our body's extraction of the good, um, the good stuff, the, the turmeric, it turns out that if you have fresh cracked black pepper, all right? There's a substance in fresh cracked black pepper called piperine.

6. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:08

   Yeah.

7. WLDr. William Li5:08

   Piperine is one of Mother Nature's, um, again, you know, these remarkable chemicals that actually, uh, in- influences the body, and piperine helps the body hang on to the curcumin. So if you have fresh cracked black pepper with your turmeric, uh, you a- you're actually creating a one-two punch that allows you to absorb more of the curcumin.

8. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:30

   Yeah, I love that. So the right combinations can actually help us get more out of these incredible whole foods. But I think the wrong combinations potentially can also make certain foods less beneficial. One example I've heard you talk about before is what happens when you put milk into tea. I know you're a big fan of tea. On the last conversation, you spoke about a lot of the benefits of tea. But I think I've heard you say that if you add milk to your tea, that actually you reduce some of the beneficial effects. Is that right?

9. WLDr. William Li6:01

   You know those scientists that do television shows to actually, uh, make science accessible to people? This is kind of where we need to go with this, this topic. So lookTea, green tea, uh, especially has a natural polyphenol that's called catechins, EGCG, uh, uh, epigallocatechin gallate, uh, EGCG. And the cate- and the catechin is actually just part of the natural substance in the tea leaf. So whether you're, um, uh, brewing tea with a bag or whether it's loose leaf tea or whether it's matcha, which is just powdered tea leaves, um, the fact of the matter is that into the brew, into the liquid, the h- hot liquid, uh, comes all these phytochemicals, including these catechins. So when you sip straight tea, the catechins go right in. They're easily absorbed, uh, by your body. And so, you know, your, our blood levels of catechins go way up. So many things that catechins can do. One of the things that's important is it's actually, it's, it's a relaxant. It actually helps, uh, s- lower your stress. It lowers the catecholamines. And so, uh, other things, it helps your lipids. It actually also helps fight cancer. It's anti-inflammatory. Kind of like curcumin, it's, it's a substance that has so many beneficial things that at least when I drink tea, I want, I wanna get as much as I can out of my food. All right. Now, I res- I deeply respect traditions of, yeah, of eating and drinking. And one of the things that, um, you know, I know is a tradition in England is, you know, you put, or in Ireland, you actually put some milk or cream into your tea. It actually, um, changes the flavor profile. Uh, a- and, and it's lovely. I, I, you know, I've, I've had plenty of teas in England before. And, and I, I, I find it to be just such an, a incredibly, um, uh, uh, nice, I feel great, you know, sort of like having, uh, an English, uh, tea. Put dairy in it, here's what you need to know. Dairy, and I'm talking about cow dairy, right? So not, not, nut milk. This is applies to cow dairy. We'll come back to the nut milk in a second. Cow dairy, okay, actually is fat. Milk has got fat in it, like butter, which is made out of milk. And, um, and the fat, when you put it into your tea, does change its flavor, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the fact that when milk or cream is put into tea, the fat molecules in the cow dairy form little soap bubbles. These are microscopic soap bubbles. They're called micelles. Fat likes to stick with fat, and so, um, tea is mostly water. And so when you pour milk into tea, the, the bubbles s- the, the dairy fat sticks together in a little, makes a little, tiny soap bubble. And what does it do? Those soap bubbles trap the polyphenols from tea. It traps the catechin. So you've got some good stuff wrapped in a soap bubble of, of dairy, and now when you drink the tea, the catechin is trapped in the soap bubble. It doesn't get absorbed as easily in your stomach.

10. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee8:58

    Wow.

11. WLDr. William Li8:58

    And it just rolls down your gut, and a lot of it comes out the other end, okay? And so you're missing out on a lot of the good stuff. You get a great, you know, you get a nice flavor. And so I have, uh, you know, what I'm telling you is that if you're drinking, uh, uh, milk, uh, or, or cow milk, dairy, put it in your tea, you're, you're getting the, you're getting good flavor if you, if that's what you like. But you're missing out on all, as, as most of the, uh, polyphenols. So just be aware that that's what you're actually doing. Now, if you wanna actually still cut the tea with something that is, uh, milk-like, nut milks are fine because they don't actually f- have the same fatty reaction that the-

12. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee9:35

    Wow

13. WLDr. William Li9:35

    ... dairy, cow dairy has. So almond milk, uh, cashew milk, um, uh, those, those soy milks, they're all fine.

14. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee9:42

    I mean, that's really interesting, and I like the way you frame it s- with this deep respect for cultures and traditions because I hear that, and I think for someone who might be listening or watching this, and they think, "Yeah, but you know what? It's just a part, part of what I do. Like I, I love putting milk in my black tea," or I know some people even put it in their green tea, which I certainly haven't tried before. They might hear that, and they may not want to change what they do, but is this where potentially supplements could come in? Let's say someone, they like the taste of milky tea, but they hear that and think, "Well, I want all those benefits, so those polyphenols and the catechins that Dr. Li was talking about. Maybe I can boost that another way by taking a supplement." Is there any merit to that way of thinking? And I guess you could expand that broadly into what is your view of, you know, supplements is a whole huge category, but there are some really good quality supplements out there. Perhaps you could speak to those issues a little bit, please.

15. WLDr. William Li10:41

    Yeah. Well, let's, let's pick up the thread on tea for a second because I, I had this discovery that might be, uh, useful for your listeners who are in exactly that situation where they like the taste of milk in their tea. I discovered there is something called milk tea, and it's actually from Taiwan.

16. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:01

    [laughs]

17. WLDr. William Li11:01

    It's grown in the mountain. And it actually, it's, it's just pure tea leaves that when you brew it, it tastes like it's got dairy in it.

18. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:08

    Oh, wow.

19. WLDr. William Li11:09

    It's quite, it's quite amazing. I mean, i- if, if I made a cup of that for you and then made a cup of, of, of English tea with milk in it, you would have a hard time telling the difference. It's quite remarkable. Milk tea. It's a kind of, I think it's an oolong style tea.

20. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:24

    Yeah.

21. WLDr. William Li11:24

    So it's, uh, mildly fermented and still got green properties. It's got polyphenols in it. But it r- literally, it has to do with the way, the climate, the, the way that it's naturally grown and, and the type of tea it is. So all right, so let's move that aside for a second. [laughs] Um, uh, um, all right. Well, so what about supplements? You know, I, I think that we should look to the word itself. A dietary supplement means something to top off. So I always tell people, you know, if you have a choice of getting it from the whole food, the whole food will tend to have a lot of other stuff that's good for you if you eat whole plant-based foods, for example. You get the fiber, you get the polyphenols, you get a lot of other chemical substances. You get the natural peptides, uh, that are found in foods. That if you got a pure supplement, you might get-To one molecule or two molecules that it's been created for, like a vitamin C supplement.

22. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:18

    Mm.

23. WLDr. William Li12:18

    Um, if you wanna top off your vitamin C, it's pure vitamin C. You're gonna get a lot of it if you, if you take your, take a mult- a vitamin. But, you know, if you had citrus, you're gonna get all of that flav- you're gonna get the f- a different kind of flavor. You're gonna... Y- you get some, uh, uh, you do get sugar. You get fiber. You get the limonene and the, and all these other, uh, uh, hesperidin, all these other bioactives that you can't get from-

24. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:42

    Yeah

25. WLDr. William Li12:42

    ... a regular supplement alone. That said, you are absolutely right. Supplements can be really important, particularly, uh, for people who have difficulty getting a lot of, of, of, uh, of some nutrients or their food. So for example, um, I think omega-3 fatty acids are a great supplement if you get a high-quality omega-3. Not everybody eats oily fish, you know, day in, you know, two to three times a week, you know? You only need to eat, um, um, the amount in each serving with the size of a deck of playing card, so you don't need to eat very much. But, you know, that's not something people o- most people do. People who live on the, on the coastline, they might be doing it, but-

26. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee13:21

    Sorry to interrupt. If you're enjoying this video and want to dive deeper into the topic of nutrition, I have created a free special guide which contains the five most important changes I think we all need to make when it comes to our diet. If you wanna get hold of this free guide, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box below

27. WLDr. William Li13:43

    ... many people don't. Um, so omega-3s are so important to our health. I mean, this has been shown time and time and again. That's a supplement that's, that's definitely worth taking and, and, and it's a lot easier to swallow, um, omega-3s than it is to actually to go to a fishmonger and then to look at what the catch of the day is. That's an example. Another example of a supplement I think is really worth, worth taking, um, is probably vitamin D3.

28. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:09

    Yeah.

29. WLDr. William Li14:09

    Okay? Vitamin D, uh, you know, for, for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere where we don't have as much sun, uh, all the time, all year round, and where it's cold so we're indoors a lot and not always outdoors under the sunshine. So I'm not talking Costa del Sol. I'm not talking about South Africa, you know, or Australia. I'm talking about, you know, England, Northern Europe, uh, North America, you know, and sort of the northeastern side. Okay, we don't get as much sunlight, and even if we do go outside, because it's cold, we wear a lot of clothes, and so our skin tends to be covered up. And so vitamin D is made by our skin when sunlight actually hits it, and so we don't... We tend to be vitamin D deficient. So here's an example of where you can eat foods like mushrooms that can have vitamin D, for example. Uh, uh, by the way, I don't know if this is a little, little tip, a tidbit for you. Uh, I just told you that human skin with ultraviolet radiation from the sun will make more vitamin D. But did you know that if you took just a plain old lowly white button mushroom that contains some vitamin D, if you were to, um... Before you eat it, when you buy it, if you slice it, like slice it pretty thinly, and you lay the s- the slices out and you put it in your windowsill so your sun, the sun shines on the slice, it will make more vitamin D.

30. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee15:28

    Wow.

Episode duration: 16:16