Milk and Microbiome: How Dairy Affects Gut Health | Dr. Will Bulsiewicz Live Q&A

milk and microbiome should we be setting our relationship status to It's Complicated that's what we're going to find out here on the show today hi I am the weight loss Champion Chuck Carroll welcome to the exam room live brought to you by the Physicians committee watched and downloaded in more than 150 countries around the world making this one of the healthiest podcasts anywhere on the planet today and indeed Dairy is the topic so when it comes to Dairy and your gut you're about to find what's up and the man with all of the answers today is the Mack Daddy of microbiome he is a two-time New York Times best-selling author Dr will bolswitz he's here to clear up all of the confusion that we have about milk in the microbiome some say it's the perfect way to level up your health others say it's just going to drag it right on down so what is the truth what does the science say what is the research show we're gonna find out and if there's a question that you would like to ask Dr bolsowitz post that in the comments or in the chat we're going to open up the doctor's mailbag and get to as many questions as we possibly can here on the show today we have one from Selena wondering about lactose intolerance Karen wondering about the bacteria the beneficial bacteria that is in yogurt and whether you can find that in non-dairy sources we've got Justine wondering about vegan cheese Rachel about probiotics and vegetables and maybe your question as well comment chat that's where you drop it or you can find me on Instagram or Twitter at Chuck Carroll wlc send it there as well and with that we welcome the man with the microbiomaster plan Dr will bolsow it's good to see you again my friend it's nice to see you Chuck and um hello everyone I'm coming to you live today from the fiber-fueled studio presented by Chuck Carroll uh yes happy belated birthday my friend true story I sent that to you uh for your birthday a little belatedly but uh I I just felt it was appropriate since you know came down there I helped you build the studio and it is the fiber-fueled studio so we just needed to make it official you know it's a fixture in the fiber field Studio presented by Chuck Carroll there it is all right and boy did I pay for those sponsorship rights uh okay Matt um so let's talk microbiome and dairy here because here's the deal like when it comes to Dairy and health in the plant-based Community um somewhat of a controversial topic and I guess you could say that that extends outside of the plant-based Community as well what I know is that milk and dairy those are like the top sources of saturated fat in the standard American diet and then when we talk about saturated fat we know that that contributes to things like heart disease and diabetes and Alzheimer's we also know that there's research as we uh about to as we're about to turn the calendar over to October we know that that's been linked to breast cancer and then other cancers like ovarian and prostate cancer as well but when it comes to the microbiome when it comes to gut health is it in fact a fair statement to say that it's kind of complicated yeah it is kind of complicated um you know let me let me lead by saying this I I personally don't consume Dairy and I'm happy to explain the reasons why I don't consume Dairy but before I do I I'm going to answer the question the question is what happens with the microbiome when we consume dairy products and what you'll find in dairy products is one of the only examples of carbohydrates that you will find in animal products and that is lactose so we hear about lactose lactose is a sugar it's actually two sugar molecules that have been combined together and 70 of the world is intolerant of lactose what this means is that when they consume Dairy containing products that they actually are likely to have digestive symptoms even when they're consuming regular amounts of those Foods so it could be gas bloating diarrhea basically things that you don't want so you know the first thing when it comes to Dairy and digestive health is that this is perhaps the number one trigger of digestive symptoms from a food perspective out there there is not a food intolerance that I can name that matches 70 in the way that lactose intolerance does on a global scale but if we're going to talk about the microbiome then we have to look at microbiome studies specifically Chuck and what's interesting about lactose is that lactose actually is probably the most redeeming part of dairy in the entire picture so this sugar molecule it actually turns out to be what we describe as a conditional Prebiotic what that means is that in certain circumstances the lactose and dairy products actually can be a Prebiotic to feed the gut microbiome and so when they've studied this what they've discovered is that people who consume dairy products there is a shift in the microbiome towards what I would describe as beneficial bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria and this is the result of this lactose this conditional Prebiotic now there's a reason why I don't make recommendations based upon microbiome studies in isolation because that would be scientific reductionism when we take complex science that's nuanced and we reduce it down to one thing we're oversimplifying it it's like people who only use their blood sugar to make determinations about what they should eat no you should not do that you are far more complicated than your blood sugar and the same is true with the microbiome we are more complicated than that and the reason that I personally choose to not consume dairy products is the connection of dairy products to a number of different conditions some of which you've already named so one is prostate cancer my grandfather died when he was 75 years old I feel like his life was cut short by prostate cancer and there is a very very powerful connection between dairy products and dairy proteins and the development of prostate cancer which is the number one cause of cancer-related death in men in the United States so there are a number of reasons that a person may not consume dairy products I think another consideration would also be Animal Welfare and a third consideration is the impact on the environment land use water use greenhouse gas emissions antibiotic resistance are all ethical concerns from an environmental perspective that come from the dairy industry so but I guess to come back to this can you be healthy and consume some dairy products yes you can are there different types of dairy products and some healthier than others absolutely so this is not an All or Nothing type of thing and that's just being sort of honest with the science I choose not to consume it though all right so when we're talking about not being an All or Nothing thing perhaps there are other sources out there as you were just talking about Karen is wondering specifically about yogurt right we hear so much about the beneficial bacteria that's in yogurt and she's wondering what are some non-dairy sources of the same bacteria what's a good way for somebody to get those yeah so it turns out that the bacteria that you use to create yogurt it's a it's a specific blend of bacteria and it does not require dairy products in order for you to use that blend so the the creation of yogurt involves several microbes but one of the main ones is something called strep thermophilus and this is sort of the classic uh yogurt bacteria or microbe and if you were to take the um uh the microbes that you would use to ferment and create yogurt and introduce them to a non-dairy plant milk alternative you can still create that delicious flavor and have those fantastic microbes present in that yogurt so now you could purchase this from the store as a non-dairy yogurt alternative that's one choice but I'm always a fan personally of making it yourself yeah and so what that involves essentially is having the appropriate microbes which can be purchased off the internet and also having there's actually a device that you would want to purchase which maintains the proper temperature that you need in order to facilitate the fermentation process with non-dairy milk and that's man see you you in the kitchen and doing things I think like you do way more in that kitchen than you lead on like somehow I'm just seeing like this incredible like sauerkraut manufacturing operation that you got going there that's good for the gut health we've got these pre uh or the or the the bacteria stuff you were just talking about there um I I just think that maybe there's a secret basement in the bolsawitz house where you have all of this stuff going on and perhaps someday we're all going to be able to walk walk into a grocery store and see this line of products called bolsowitz's best and it's just going to be fantastic you're funny Chuck I don't I don't anticipate that day is coming but you never know who knows I did not anticipate that my career would be where I am today and having this conversation with you and these great people who are here today so you just you just kind of never know but you know what I what I would say though is this the takeaway message from my perspective is that I do believe that we should be including fermented food in our diet I do believe that this is an important part of a healthful balanced diverse diet like this is almost like it's own type of food category and one of the ways that you can you are not required to consume dairy-based yogurt in order to do that you're not required to do that you can do that if you choose to but there are alternative choices that exist that are great choices that's the point all right so I think you and I I think maybe off of the show over the last month maybe I sent you a study that showed that the probiotic and the Prebiotic market right now is just exploding and it's going to get even bigger um and uh for a lot of that that means supplements Rachel though is wondering which vegetables might be good for probiotics wants to go a more natural route all right so it's not that we need to necessarily um pick a specific vegetable for probiotics instead it's thinking about um the state of that plant so I'm going to broaden this out and make it so that it's not just about vegetables because we we could include uh fruits and other fresh produce so it's about the state of the plant there's two scenarios in which you will find that your food is living and has a microbiome the classic is fermented food fermented food is actually the creation of a microbial ecosystem that involves many different species of both bacteria and yeast to facilitate the transformation of our food we get a number of benefits out of it part of it is food preservation this is why this was so important within the constructs of human history because we didn't have refrigeration but part of it is also transforming the food into something that's more beneficial for human health and that's what we see in yogurt or in sauerkraut or kimchi or pickles things of this variety so the first thing is if you want to get beneficial microbes you can consume fermented food and I as I mentioned a few moments ago I really am a believer that we all should be doing that but the second place that you can get them not as concentrated not as densely packed with microbes but still living and having a microbiome is raw food raw food if you take a plant it could be any plant that plant has a microbiome as a quick example of Chuck they've actually done this with apples so like it's September it's apple picking season in the northern climates and um they've actually taken a look at the microbiome of the Apple and discovered that the Apple has living resident with it about a hundred million microbes and it's a wide variety of microbes literally over a thousand species of microbes living with that apple and that's because much like we have a microbiome that helps to facilitate our health so do each of these plants and all living creatures anything that's alive has a microbiome so if you consume it as a raw food you are consuming it with that microbiome intact now when you cook it and this is by the way not an argument against cooking cooking is also good for us but when you cook your food though you do destroy the microbes because of the heat that's involved in the cooking process so the the argument is fermented food and some raw food as well all right let's go back now to uh the dairy or more specifically Dairy Alternatives here when you go to the store and you're looking for vegan cheeses and vegan yogurts Justine is wondering how you can know whether or not what it is you're buying is actually good for your gut health is there anything that we should be flipping over looking for specifically on the ingredients labels I thought you were going to go on a little bit longer there my bad um I I'm worried about the sugar content I think I'm worried about the sugar content and the other thing is that I do think that we need to be cautious with any plant-based uh alternative choice we need to see these foods for what they are which is that in some cases they're Ultra processed foods and um so it's hard to like give broad rules but I think a simple rule that I tend to apply you know look I was a chemistry major in college and when I flip over and look at the label of many of the foods that exist within our store I have no clue what's even in there I have no clue what these these chemicals are right so um true food should be quite simple and you should be able to recognize the ingredients and if we were to make this yogurt at home the way that I'm proposing you would quite simply take plant milk and combine it with the appropriate microbes and that is it that is all you would do so the ingredient list would be very simple and you would you wouldn't know exactly what's in there so when we go to buy something from the store there's the convenience that comes from purchasing at the store not having to create it ourselves but it comes with the the trade-off that potentially we're buying something that is more on the spectrum of an ultra processed food I encourage people to take a look at the label take a look at the amount of added sugar that exists in there and also to take a look at the ingredient list the longer the ingredient list the more I'm getting apprehensive what are your feelings on adding sugar to a fermented food specifically I I'm a huge fan of kimchi I make no bones about that here on the show absolutely adore kimchi the majority of kimchi though that I have seen in the store actually has sugar added to it I've only been able to find a couple of brands that don't put sugar in there how does that affect the benefits in terms of gut health as to whether or not there's sugar in something like kimchi you know it kind of depends on how much um food prepared by the food industry we should expect that they are trying to attack our pleasure sensors they want you to get a dopamine hit from consuming their food dopamine implying that you like get a response that makes you feel really good and the reason that they do that is that it brings you back and so um it's a challenge because we live you know who who am I to pretend that I don't go to the store and buy products I do we all do right so I think what we're trying to do here is to the best of our ability to curate healthier versions of this but when possible this is why coming back to spending time in the kitchen and preparing your own kimchi kimchi you know by the way Chuck um in my new book the fiber Fields cookbook there's an entire chapter about fermentation and it includes a number of different recipes I forget the exact numbers between 12 and 12 and 15. but that includes like kimchi cucumbers and they're addictive and delicious and you make them yourself and they're not hard to do and you make a batch and it will last you for weeks that to me is where we ultimately need to transition is to um see the opportunity to create our own food when possible and have control over what exactly goes into that food is it wrong that it's football season Sunday afternoon kimchi cucumbers just sounds like an incredible snack for me on game day I mean my taste buds have really changed man but is that is that football food to you I think anything spicy is football food from my perspective you know what I mean so I like and and you can and you can like um uh uh doll up or like you know turn something into a first class type of deal like taking chili for example you take your chili it's got a ton of beans it's delicious it's spicy and then you put a dollop of sauerkraut or kimchi in the corner of it that's delicious just takes it up that notch man it absolutely takes it up that Notch uh let's do a roll call here exam room is checking in worldwide Dr B uh we have uh baluhia from Algeria I'm sorry that uh if I mispronounced your name but I do appreciate you being here we have Anon checking in from India says uh best wishes I watch your show regularly excellent one as always keep it up that's awesome uh Rochelle just wants to say hi hi uh we have so many people from all over the world so go ahead post uh let us know where you're watching today we would greatly appreciate it uh wherever it is that you're raising your health IQ is with us appreciate you being here my friend uh Davis is looking for a little bit more clarity on lactose here uh Dr B he's wondering whether you consider lactose to be a good Prebiotic uh no so so if we were to line up all of the prebiotics that exist okay so what are prebiotics first of all this word Prebiotic for those who haven't heard me talk about this before the term that means the food that feeds your microbes like this is their energy source and as a result of them consuming this energy source they repay you with health benefits so in order to qualify as a Prebiotic you have to meet those criteria you have to be food for the microbiome and it has to ultimately lead to Downstream benefits to human health as I mentioned a moment ago lactose does qualify as a Prebiotic this is the only Prebiotic that I'm aware of that comes from the Animal product world that's the only one that I'm aware of uh the you know almost exclusive um presence of prebiotics is in plants all plants contain prebiotics that's fiber and polyphenols and resistant starches so whether it's fruits vegetables whole grain seeds nuts and legumes if it's a plant you know it's got prebiotics and if we were to create a rank of the top prebiotics it would be rather challenging for me to do because the science is rather incomplete but what I would do is I would look at the Prebiotic that exists Within These foods and the broader food and the benefits of that broader food I wouldn't just think of it as just this fiber or just this polyphenol but instead what does it mean within the bigger picture of things and what I would offer to you is that we would have these fruits and vegetables and whole grains and seeds and nuts and legumes and I could for every single one of them point you towards the research that suggests that they're beneficial to your health Beyond just being Prebiotic I could point you to the research that exists for every single one of them and how they will help you and then I would come to Dairy and it would be the Prebiotic lactose in there and I would say but there's a problem there is a compromise that is required there may be some benefits to Dairy consumption relative to say I don't know Coca-Cola right there I mean truly there may be some benefits to Dairy consumption in that setting if you replace Coca-Cola with dairy products or particularly if it were fermented dairy products but it's also coming with a compromise which is that it increases your risk of certain specific conditions such as prostate cancer perhaps endometrial cancer perhaps breast cancer so to me why would I choose the food that requires my compromise when I could choose the food that requires no compromise those are the plants all right let's uh do one more here on Dairy and then we'll open it up and do a wide range of uh questions here Selena is looking for kind of a brass tax kind of final answer from you here um is dairy good for your gut since so many people are lactose intolerant yes or no I think you said at the top of the show more than two-thirds of the global population is in fact lactose intolerant I don't think it's good for your guy I think that there are far better choices that you can make like choosing plant-based sources there you go all right let's go ahead and open it up uh you my friend uh have spoken glowingly in the past about sourdough bread and Mommy vegan dummy at 12 13 writes when I'm using sourdough starter to make bread well the beneficial bacteria die in the baking process uh good question uh the answer is yes they will die when you bake the bread but prior to their death which sounds gosh that's so morbid and dark so I feel a little bit bad it sounds like very uh catastrophic but but prior to that happening they will produce healthy bread and they transform the bread so um sourdough bread is not the same as consuming regular bread fermented with baker's yeast and that transformation process basically like takes the flour and turns it into something that's slightly different and so you still get the benefit of that transformation even if the microbes are not present and I think it comes back to the point that when it comes to fermented food the benefit is not just the microbes the benefit is the microbes and also what the microbes produce for us and so let's not lose sight of that you still get all of that with the with the sourdough all right uh quick departure here vegan Todd says loving the Led Zeppelin t-shirt Dr Bay that is fantastic you've got good taste and threads vegan Todd uh question from uh Ian here at 1209 Ian checking in from Norway by the way that's pretty cool uh Ian writes uh I eat ground flax ground Chia and hemp seeds mixed into my steel cut oats along the same lines of what it was we were just talking about with sourdough Ian is wondering will cooking those things destroy any of the nutrients or should he mix them in after the cooking process particularly when it comes to so ground flax the um the flex if you don't grind it you can't release the lignans um and get access to the Omega-3s so so it's a requirement for the flax Fort to be ground and the issue is that when you grind it you actually expose it to air and that that introduces an oxidation process so from my perspective given sort of the um and I don't want to sound like excessive fragility of these of of the ground flax but there is some fragility to it given that fragility I prefer to add the ground flax after you cook the steel cut oats so cook first then add after uh for those of us who don't know what exactly is a lignin that you just referenced uh within so these are uh um unique component that you will find specifically in the ground flax like you you won't find it in the Chia or the hemp and quite similar to what you will find in soy products which are that they have benefits to people for hormonal mediated diseases so for example um lignans will reduce the likelihood of developing breast cancer in women or prostate cancer in men which is quite interesting because that is actually the implication there is that it's protecting you from the consumption of dairy products and really what we're talking about here is sort of blocking these hormone receptors that's that's effectively what these lignans do is help to block these hormone receptors and protect us from hormonally mediated diseases all right uh if you have a question for Dr B remember doctor's mailbag wide open right now post it in the comment or in the chat we're going to get to as many as we can here today next one comes to us from Mary at 12 17. we were talking about sugar a little bit earlier and Mary is wondering how much sugar is bad so I'm guessing like what's the daily limit that you would recommend oh gosh I mean I I I I I really don't have a number um I think that the amount of sugar that we consume as Society is excessive I think that's quite clear and in order for us to move in uh towards a reduction in our sugar consumption it really requires us to step away from using Ultra processed foods and so that to me is where my focus is is let's try to whenever possible replace these Ultra processed food sources with instead sources that are whole food plant-based then we're cooking at home we've touched on this one in the past but always seems to come up so it's always good to answer it again RJ wondering about kombucha and gut health what's the connection there thumbs up or thumbs down somewhere in between I'm not I'm not I wouldn't sit here and advocate for kombucha consumption to people who don't consume it saying that you're missing out on something that's crucial to your health it is a fermented food there are benefits to fermented foods you also have many different alternative choices when it comes to fermented foods that include we've mentioned some of these sauerkraut kimchi plant-based dairy alternative uh like kefir um uh tempeh miso these are just a couple of examples of fermented foods pickles these are just a couple of examples that you could that you could consume it's you know nutrition like getting back to Dairy for a moment Chuck it's all about substitutions nutrition is about substitutions what what are you replacing with what you could make you know butter seem healthy if you're comparing it to something that's less healthy so it's always what are you comparing to what and when it comes to uh kombucha would I prefer for you to drink kombucha than to drink soda yes would I prefer for you to drink kombucha compared to water no that's kind of where it falls there you go it's uh compared to what I think that that's always an important question that gets overlooked a lot of times right so compared to what if you're gonna have I guess kind of you know like Coca-Cola versus the kombucha the kombucha is going to win nine times out of ten right um you my friend love some sauerkraut obviously we've talked about that a lot in the past a lot of people have written to me both with sauerkraut and kimchi and they're concerned about the sodium content in there so we have a question here from Vi at 12 12. and Phi says I want to eat homemade sauerkraut but it is so high in sodium can you get the same results with the probiotics by using less salt in the fermented cabbage there's a certain threshold of salts so when you make when you make sauerkraut at home um what you want to do is actually use a kitchen scale and that kitchen scale will allow you to be very precise in the concentrations of salt and in in the interest of food safety you have to meet those concentrations when you don't meet those concentrations you are taking the risk that this could become unsafe food so um I think it's important for people to understand that there's going to be some salt involved now you know one of the issues that exists within the plant-based community and I I think that this is like important to unpack is that we have been talking about the problem with salt intake in the United States and how this is you know harmful to our health I completely agree the salt intake in the United States is completely excessive and it is harmful for your health but where is it coming from it is not coming from sauerkraut it is coming from Ultra processed foods it's coming from fried foods and the excessive consumption of ultra processed foods and fried foods lead to this excessive consumption of salt and it leaves you no wiggle room but if you're eating a whole food plant-based diet that does not include that exposure to salt and the fear or concern that you are excessively consuming salt I mean I understand that we have like sort of said we got to cut down our salt intake we do but once you cut it down you don't need to live in fear that a couple of bites of sauerkraut are sometimes somehow destroying your health I would actually argue very much the opposite you know personally not speaking on behalf of the organization here just personally I'm really happy to hear you say that because you know somebody wrote me an email the last time you were on the show and kimchi came up and they were like just so you know dot dot dot dot you know you should not be eating kimchi we're talking all caps multiple exclamation points underlying bold you name it as much as they could possibly do that's what they did to this you should not eat kimchi because it is high in sodium they were like essentially they were trying to make the point that it's as bad as a french fry or as a potato chip or something like that and as a guy that used to eat bags of potato chips and tons and tons and tons of french fries I can sit here with confidence and tell you like there's nothing nothing that you could draw a comparison to between those things you know the potato chips the fries and the kimchi like they're just not the same thing whatsoever so to hear you say that I think that that is a very important mess message and it goes back also Dr B to something that I've heard said on this show too is like a lot of times we get hyper focused on one nutrient or in this case you know one ingredient in that case is salt so when we do get hyper focused I mean are we just kind of get getting you know lost along the way yeah I think we're losing the Nuance I think I think the I think that you know part of the problem is that we become conditioned by the conversations that take place wherever those conversations may be the internet or wherever we become conditioned by these conversations to really sort of vilify specific nutrients when in fact you need salt intake in order to live like you do you can't go zero salt you would die right so um I think it's like understanding the context of all that which is that within the context of a diet that is 60 or 70 Ultra processed foods the amount of salt intake is excessive and when you clearly need to reduce it right we clearly need to reduce it but when you reduce your salt intake you shouldn't live in fear that salt is causing harm to your body you need salt intake in order to live and that's it's true of many different nutrients Chuck you know you could take omega-6 fats for example so it's quite simple and easy to vilify omega-6 fats we consume way too much of them we're outpacing omega-3 intake 15 to 1 in the United States most of these omega-6 fats are coming from vegetable based oils and it could be very simple to say you should have no omega-6s in your diet that would actually be completely wrong it's an essential fat we need omega-6s in our diet it's actually a part of a healthful diet it's just that we need to have them balanced the appropriate about them so how does one balance right because it's it's so Ultra easy to get swept up in this whether we're talking about eating an exclusively plant-based diet or a keto diet or the South Beach Diet or the standard American it doesn't really matter I mean we all get swept up in this or that and it kind of makes us neurotic to a point right like Ultra obsessive so it's like how does one find that balance between like being mentally well when it comes to what it is that we're eating and then also physically well based off of what we're eating like how do we do this because it's complicated man oh man I can see it in your eyes and and these are these are complicated things and your speaking is the voice of the people because I know that there are people who are feeling the exact same way that you're describing right now and what I what I come back to Chuck is and what I've described in my books you know if you know me then you know that I'm actually not a very big fan of eat this not bad I'm much more of like a hey food is great food is fun let's eat for variety let's eat for abundance right but like if you're getting stressed out because of say my recommendation to eat 30 different plants and it's actually causing you to be bothered by this that's not what I want and it has gone too far and to me the point at which we cross the line so we are in a relationship with our food Chuck like it or not and that should be a relationship that brings you great joy eating food is one of life's greatest pleasures and when it stops being that and it becomes work or something that creates negative energy in your life where you're living in fear of food or you are concerned that you're not doing it properly we've crossed the line and that's when we need to walk it back and this is part of the reason why I always say progress over Perfection because within the space that we are currently having a conversation which is a plant-based diet or a vegan diet within that space it is very easy for people to get carried away and excessively focus on Perfection and I actually take issue with that I think it's problematic I think that it's important for us to find a healthy balance for all of us wherever that may fall and feel good about yourself oh man see because now I could I could go down this path all day because then the other part of me is like all right well if you give an inch the old me would have taken a mile to be like well essentially saying do the best that you can that means well the best I can is by going right back to the drive-through so that's where I'm gonna go right so it's like you kind of give yourself that permission to continue with these unhealthy habits but then it's like you have to realize that the best you can do if you're just getting started is probably a lot better than you're doing today so you have to explore that space as well but then being able to recognize when you've crossed over that line that you were just talking about where you are neurotic about it and you're Ultra obsessive to the point where being healthy has become an unhealthy Obsession and so like it it is a really interesting thing like you know what I would love to do is bring on like a food psychologist or food psychiatrist and then the three of us just do like a panel discussion or something like that because I mean that that's a complex issue but I think that there's a lot of people out there that could get some great benefit from a full show just devoted to having that healthier relationship with food you were talking about you know I think these are complex things and here's here's a couple things that I would say about this so first of all there are many different voices that exist within the health and wellness space there are many different voices and perspectives that exist within the plant-based movement and people come at it from different angles different motivations different contexts and a different sort of way of delivering the message the way that I say stuff is different than some of the other leaders within the plant-based space I embrace that I welcome that in no way do I believe that my way is the only way and the correct way instead I believe that it's nice to have multiple different voices saying multiple different things but we're all sort of pushing in the same direction because ultimately that's going to connect with different people different people connect with different messages right so like I personally would connect with a certain message but I may not connect with other messages and so it's important that we have an environment where all the different types of people that exist out there can find some sort of voice that they latch themselves to and that they want to be a part of that so I I first of all I embrace the fact that there are many different perspectives on this um and when it comes back to this idea of you know for example if you give them an inch they'll take a yard or something of that variety I I understand that but what I would actually say is this this is not about what you need to be or some sort of expectation for the future this is about that one step that you can take today one step and it could be a small step and if you take that one small step then you are making progress and you should feel good about yourself and when you come back tomorrow you'll do it again and every single day when you take a small step in the right direction you're going to wake up one day and you're going to realize that you accomplished your goals but you didn't put the pressure on yourself to say I have to be this by this particular day I don't really particularly like that oh dude I love you so much man and and as a guy who was in that position uh you are spot on I mean with scary accuracy because it's it's so easy at the starting line to see the Finish Line like way way I mean we're talking in a lot of cases like miles down the road and you're like why even bother but if you do one step at a time one step every single day eventually you are going to get to that Finish Line you're going to cross it and it's going to be better than you could ever have possibly imagined and yeah it can be daunting at first but one step at a time makes it a whole lot easier to do yeah this is this is the idea of a growth mindset and I'm not the first person to introduce this nor would I try to claim that Carol dweck is the person who introduced the idea of a growth mindset but it is something that you will find in my books because I believe in it and it's the same idea by the way that as a father I want to pass on to my own children regardless of what they eat I want them to have a growth mindset because it's a healthy way to go through life all right let's see if we can grab a couple of more questions like I said man we could do this all day but let's grab a couple of more questions here before we close up the doctor's mailbag today but uh quickly another roll called Jan checking in uh worldwide Jan is in Wales we've got Angela and Michigan Nikki is in the UK Abe and Indiana 30 seconds to Savory I'm guessing they're a chef uh they're in New York City Misty is in Virginia here we go Marta is in Poland uh we've got somebody in El Salvador we've got more people in Vegas I mean they're all over South Dakota Japan Jacksonville Florida stay safe right now my friend um so yeah I mean just and Zambia I think that that might be a first how about that you ever had somebody check it from Zambia I don't believe so I think that's really cool I love that I'm so and I'm excited about all of them hi Martha from Poland yeah well let's go ahead and take uh coyori from zombies question here uh we were talking sourdough earlier in the show um they are wondering is it possible that consuming sourdough bread actually disrupts microbes in your gut no I don't think so I I there's actually um research being done by one of my friends in the UK um she uh has a program called the sourdough school and uh it's actually quite remarkable what she's discovering in terms of the benefits of sourdough consumption on the gut microbiome so but the key is to remember that what you're starting with is you're starting with the flower ideally this is a um well-sourced whole grain flour right like in a perfect world you're Milling it yourself and then this is being transformed into what ultimately is output as sourdough bread and um you know could could you consume this to excess of course would I argue that this is the backbone of healthful diet absolutely not like this is not like the backbone but we also may we also find that in the blue zones for example Sardinia what are they eating literally every single day for lunch it's a big old bowl of minestrone tons of veggies tons of legumes and a slice of sourdough bread that's how they roll so you're a minestrone guy not a minestrone minestrone minestrone tomato tomato I got you there everybody disagree Chuck That's it man whatever if we're gonna fight over this so be it but like any way you want to pronounce it it still tastes good to me right that's all that matters uh Barbara is in Switzerland that's another Global check-in uh Irena is in Serbia hello there Regina Cincinnati Diana in Pennsylvania I'm just I love the global feel of the show it's so cool uh and then uh get you to comment on this has nothing to do with health but I I just think that when it comes to being plant-based you can't put anybody in one specific box because it takes all kinds so Mark here is saying I can't imagine vegans enjoying football um I love football covered it for a living yeah that is hilarious I I Mark I wish I could I wish I could get back the hours a day that I obsess over football yeah I mean I know you've got a fantasy team I've got a fantasy team um I've interviewed vegan NFL players on this show uh the quarterback of the Chicago Bears he's vegan Trent Williams left tackle for the San Francisco 49ers will be going back to being vegan after the NFL he and I have talked extensively about that during his time uh in Washington there's so many out there and you know with full respect to Mark obviously I don't know Mark but with little respect to Mark Mark let's not be generalizing about people based upon the food that they eat I mean yeah like you're you're you're better than that look man I got love for Mark marches doesn't know I mean maybe Mark's not a sports guy you know and and so we we have these generalized ideas that we have in our head and sometimes you know it's just like that's not really the way things are so let's just pull back the curtain and show them show them the world for what it is the football world real quick there's someone in the crowd Brandon who just said he's a die-hard football fan and he's a Fantasy Football writer and podcaster Brandon I listen to about five fantasy football podcasts today you're gonna have to reach out to me later on and tell me which one is your show I want to take a listen to it thank you yeah find a name drop it man I'll give you a subscription to that most definitely that's fantastic um all right so let's uh let's take a hard turn here uh turn into the bathroom here Dr babe we're not afraid to do that here on this show because 46 minutes to get there yeah question frog God I love Do It shows with you question from VA um I'm pooping five times a day is that Norm normal I can't stop uh they say that they've even gone so far as to start taking some acai powder with Prebiotic fibers slightly firmer but just can't seem to turn off that faucet yeah what do you do well it depends on how you feel it depends on how you feel because if you if you poop five times a day and every time you go it's a good complete relaxed evacuation and you stand up and you walk out of the room and you feel fantastic you have nothing to worry about my friend flip side you're pooping five times a day you're straining to go it never feels complete you finish up but then you feel like you still gotta go you come back again in another hour every single time is just a little nugget well that is a different story because that isn't actually like five good complete evacuations that's five micro bowel movements and you're not completely emptying and so there's a difference between these two um so people who eat a high fiber plant-based diet they will poop more than once a day typically and when you poop more than once a day and you feel really good and satisfied when you go then you're in a great spot but if you don't feel that and you're feeling these other symptoms that I'm describing then it may be something to discuss with your doctor all right and uh final question comes to us today from Stockholm Sweden and ASA who is checking in from there how do you reset gut health after taking antibiotics oh good question uh I would actually argue ASA that the the the number one factor believe it or not is what you eat before you take the antibiotics we actually have this uh research where a high fiber diet reduces the impact negative impact of antibiotics on your gut microbiome so what you want is you want to be on a high fiber diet before antibiotics during antibiotics and after antibiotics what you discover is that if you were to like sort of dig a ditch with the antibiotic that ditches the decline in the bacteria numbers that ditch would be a small little blip when you're on a high fiber diet and when you're on a low fiber diet it is a deep hole and a slow climb out of that hole so you cause less injury and you recover much faster when you're on a fiber diet before you even need the antibiotics the time to start is today now what else can we do you can also support yourself with a Prebiotic fiber supplement that's one thing that I would recommend and then beyond this you want to look at this time of this period of time while you're on antibiotics and the two weeks to four weeks after the antibiotics and really protect your body during that time so this is the time to really be attentive to getting a good night's rest spend some time Outdoors exercising managing your stress and perhaps most importantly don't sabotage your health so you take antibiotics now is not the time to go out and have too much to drink now is not the time for excess saturated fat intake now is not the time for sugar intake so give your body a rest and a break and allow it to heal itself and it will now one thing real quick Chuck this may surprise some people but believe it or not the vast majority of people should not be taking probiotics after antibiotics this is based upon a 2019 study published in the journal cell from the Weitzman Institute in Israel and what they discovered is that when you take probiotics after antibiotics you actually slow the body's recovery so you actually are sort of standing in the way of that natural healing um so for the majority of people when I say majority I don't mean all but for the majority of people I recommend that they not take a probiotic after antibiotics very interesting very interesting all right now I've got the lowdown on the podcast uh from Brandon Niles it's called the most accurate podcast I've got it right here on my phone and look what I'm gonna do I'm gonna hit that follow button right there boom all right so Brandon you've got a new subscriber and I'm pretty sure you see that logo right there Dr B uh and I'm pretty sure that you're gonna get another one here momentarily Brandon I need help man treylands went down I'm in a superflex league I'm in big trouble help me man uh oh all right that's it that's it it's a podcast I mean maybe we can do a plant-based uh guest spot I don't know super Flex yeah yeah uh all right so here's the deal though um speaking of podcasts if you have not yet subscribed to the exam room podcast by The Physicians committee uh we dropped that on Tuesday and Thursday on Apple podcast and Spotify wherever it is that you get your shows just Lance uh launched a brand new segment on there Dr B I'm excited about that I call it five star success so if you go to uh subscribe to the podcast leave a five-star waiting Force hit that five star and then in the review let us know about your health success that you've had in your life by adopting a plant-based diet you leave that five star rating leave that comment with your five-star Health success I will read that back on the podcast and give you the shout out that you deserve for making this incredible Health Improvement in your life and you can find a link to do that right now on Apple podcast in the show description so please go ahead and do that five star Health success I'm super excited about that so we'll be doing more on tomorrow's episode um of the podcast as well but Dr B doctor's mailbag is closed for today I want to thank you for being here and raising our health IQs and and yeah I mean I feel like we learned a lot about milk in the microbiome today and and a lot about other things as well thank you Chuck it's always a pleasure to come to you live from the fiber fuel Studio presented by Chuck Carroll here it is there It Is Well no hold on hold on hold on hold on what what do you have going on right now do you have any classes coming up obviously the fiber-fueled cookbook is available on Amazon or wherever it is that you get your shows or or your books rather um what's what's going on with you right now man uh uh a lot of exciting things are happening with me Chuck and I some of them I I can't talk about but uh one thing that I can talk about I guess this is an exclusive for the exam room so no one I haven't announced this publicly yet but I'm launching a new course on October 10th um so you'll be hearing about this in probably five days if you follow me on my social media channels and it's going to be all about diagnosing food intolerances so if you are a person who you eat food and then you suffer with symptoms gas bloating discomfort whatever it may be if food is causing trouble and being disruptive in your in your life the first step is understanding what is causing the problem and that's what this course is going to be focused on so the course will be on October 10th for those of you who are interested so stay tuned save the date that's my wedding anniversary I've already got that one circled on my calendar man good deals yeah right cool uh yeah and I'll shout that out on my social media as well uh in the days leading up to it at Chuck Carroll wlc um had a lot of viewers today in New York uh Albany New York I'm headed your way this weekend as a matter of fact gonna be I'm seeing a vegan comedy show uh with our old friend Mike Kaplan at co-host Music Hall in Albany on Friday night and then Sunday I'll be speaking at the Albany veg Fest at the Albany Capital Center um and then T Colin Campbell comes on the stage shortly thereafter so it would be great if any exam roomies are checking in today from the Albany area I would love to meet and greet with you this weekend that would be so much fun the comedy show I mean like that's just wild I didn't know that they had vegan comedy shows but apparently they do and I am stoked for this one man you ever been to a vegan comedy show no I haven't but it's very I'm very excited to hear this Chuck because you know I grew up just outside of Albany New York so not very far yeah about 45 minutes away um a small town near Saratoga New York and so that's where I did high school so you know I didn't when I was a kid I was eating hot dogs so I didn't think of this as being any sort of place where there might be a vegan community so it's actually quite exciting for me to hear that there's a thriving vegan Community there oh I will give you the full rundown man and shoot me a text with some uh with some suggestions for eats while I'm up there man I always like to do the little restaurant tour uh while I'm there uh by the way if you're interested in going to the vegfest or the comedy show capreach and vegans.org is the web address cap regionvegans.org is the website to go ahead and pick up your tickets uh but for today my friends that is all the time that we have again thank you Dr B for being here and and being the Sultan of sauerkraut the Mack Daddy of microbiome and just the wise man that you are thank you so very much for bestowing your wisdom with us and to the crew behind the scenes that makes the magic happen thank you as always and to the exam roomies thank you for so many wonderful questions we will get to as many as we can that we didn't get to on the show today on a future episode I promise you that we saved them and and I promise you I will do my best to get you an answer but for today that's going to wrap things up for everyone here at the Physicians committee I am the weight loss Champion Chuck Carroll we'll talk to you again soon but until then keep it plant-based

Channel: Physicians Committee

Views: 253,191

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Id: xF0M5w0dCoc

Length: 54min 14sec (3254 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2022