Transcript of Dr. Michael Grossman talks about the different foods you can eat that can help you live longer. You may view the YouTube video here.
Transcript Start Here:
Hi, It’s Dr. Michael Grossman, anti-aging expert and we’re happy to talk to you about aging gracefully today. We have a special guest today, Dr. Nick Delgado. Dr. Nick is a specialist in anti-aging; he is a specialist in Vegan approach to eating healthy. He’s a world strength-endurance record holder and he’s written many books and he’s really quite well-known in the area of reversing aging. One of his books is, “Simply Healthy” cookbook. My wife loves the cookbook; it’s a great, great book on eating healthy through vegan eating. And he has another book, “Growing Young and Slim,” which he wrote a few years ago, great book on eating healthy. And last time on the show, we talked about “Mastering Love, Sex and Intimacy,’ which is a book we highly recommend and encourage you to read that book. But today, we’re going to talk about nutrition and how nutrition affects our health and we want to pick your brain and get yours ideas because you have such great expertise in this area. And you consult with people on a regular basis. And often, I have patients who come to see you because they want a full program of how to eat healthy and how to gain strength. And so why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you do in that arena.
Dr. Nick Delgado:
Nearly 40 years ago, I was struggling with my own weight, high blood pressure and I couldn’t quite get a hold of it except by fasting severely, going days on water fast, I was able to lose weight. There’s a research, a doctor called Valter Longo, and he’s at USC and he’s been talking about what he describes as the longevity diet. And he advises against water fasting. He talks about intermittent fasting but not using that term but eating between a 12-hour window from 8:00 in the morning ’til 8:00 at night. But he also talks about the longest-lived cultures are eating principally plant-based proteins. And they’ve replicated this not only in animal studies, but looking at worldwide epidemiological studies. So, it’s really encouraging. And the difference I think is that there are a whole group of plant-based doctors who are advocating not using oils in their cooking. Valter Longo includes the use of olive oil. I agree, leave the olive oil out, but include the whole nuts and seeds and avocados and olives because as we get older, we don’t want to be underweight, we need to sustain our caloric needs. And we also, for exercising, which we all should be and I love to exercise, particularly in endurance strength, endurance competitions with dumbbell weights and you love to dance, you have to have calories to do these acts of energy and performance. And it’s really important because if your caloric intake drops too low, our sex hormones drop; our sexual pheromones, our energy, our mental clarity suffers. If we go too long without eating, we get distracted and we just think about eating all the time. So, we really have to understand that the meals have to sustain us with larger quantities if you’re going to go plant-based as I have for 40 years. You’re going to have larger serving portions of not just, maybe if you’re trying to lose weight, start with the salads and soups and things, and then eat the more dense foods, the whole grains, the beans, the yams, sweet potatoes and things, depending on your body weight. So, I think it’s really important to get a sense for what is that regulation of blood sugar, triglycerides, that whole kind of mixture of energy and then really recognize that the foods that you eat is really the most important thing because the foods that we eat comes in contact with our entire circulation, our lymphatic system, our intestinal system; if we have leaky gut syndrome or not, it affects the outcome of our immune system. So, the foods that we eat is really important and I really strongly believe now that there’s a huge body of evidence and worldwide epidemiological studies showing that plant-based proteins are the great way to go and just so long as you sustain the caloric need. The biggest problem we have is our culture is being overweight and it’s so hard to keep your weight under control on a meat-dairy-based-chicken-egg-type-cheese diet and oils because the foods are so calorically dense. I think we have epidemic obesity situations now, not only in our culture but around the world where fast food chains are bringing these foods to people. Not only are they highly processed, loaded with sugar and fat, they have too much protein and I think, that discussion has to be really brought up because people think, ‘The more protein we eat, the better it is,’ when in reality, the study shows, somewhere between 40 grams to 60 grams of protein will meet even the most elite athlete nomore than 0.33 times your body weight so 0.33 times if you weighted 200 pounds, that’s 66 grams of protein will meet even a 200 pound individual’s protein needs.
Dr. Michael Grossman:
So, now in the field of medicine, the big new interest now is the keto diet. What are your thoughts about that?
Dr. Nick Delgado:
I’m really opposed to the keto diet. It’s cause temporary weight loss because people are taking in so much fat and protein but fat and protein require a lot of water to digest. So initially, the person will get excited in the first few weeks because they’re going to drop some water weight because it metabolically takes more water to digest calorically dense foods that come from animal protein and animal fat. And the other reason people lose weight in the first few weeks is because, think about it, meat and dairy product and cheese and eggs and oil have no fiber, so everything that’s in intestines, that’s ten pounds of weight you lose by evacuating what’s in the intestines because they’re small rock like stools. A big problem with the keto diet is constipation, also bad breath because they’re starting to digest their own body proteins; it’s not defaulting just because they’re eating more fat, they’re going to burn more fat. The body’s going to search for glucose because the red blood cells can only operate under the trickle of glucose that come from complex carbohydrates. Also, the brain prefers glucose as the desired source of energy versus fatty acids. Although the body can convert over and burn and live off almost anything, but the reality is if you want performance mentally, physically, emotionally, you really need to convert over to a high-fiber, high-plant protein based diet. Don’t add the processed sugars and oils and use and get your fats from whole nuts and seeds and avocados. I’m not opposed on nuts and seeds and avocados because I think that when.. fiber to the diet. Worldwide studies show that long-lived cultures do eat olives, nuts and seeds and avocados. And the South Pacific, they’re heavy people – they eat a lot of cooconut but they don’t use coconut oil, their skin is clear, they eat a lot of plant-based proteins, genetically, they’re very heavy and strong people. And so they need a caloric density that meets their needs. Their cholesterol is a little bit higher because of the saturated fat coming from coconut, but they don’t have cardiovascular disease. When you autopsy, instead of a cluster of 160, they have a cluster of 180 versus a group in South Pacific that doesn’t eat coconut. And we see that it’s not harmful at all. I think the problem is because I have access to microscopy, I can look at people’s blood if they’re adding oils to their diet, it’s just too concentrated. And at the microscopic level, it thickens the blood, a condition called Rouleaux, and that suppresses oxygen in the brain and in every cell in the body.
Dr. Michael Grossman:
I think that the research, as I read the research, the people who have done the Atkins kind of diet, which is extreme keto diet, they don’t live as long term. Short terms as you describe, they do better, so I’m not a big fan of long term of doing the Keto diet. I think, as you’re describing it, I actually agree that you want to have much more of a plant-based diet to really create that longevity.
Dr. Nick Delgado:
Yes and I think, doctor, even Josh actually wrote a keto book admits that you should only do a keto program if you’re going to do it for like three months or so, maybe six months maximum. In fact, if you’re going to do a keto diet, go with whole food, keto foods – meaning, nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, coconut. I’m fine with that because it’s still plant-based, the protein ratio is fine; it has a little bit of carbohydrate in it. But then when you want to do it what I looked at the reason all these keto diets require fasting is because they’re taking in so many calories from protein and fat that they have to go long periods, several days of fasting, even advocating water fasting and shorter windows of eating. And the study showed that those shorter windows of eating are not what the human body adapted to perform properly. Yes, we can live on fasting; we can survive from our own body fat, but it isn’t really conducive to an enjoyable sex life to have enough energy. You want to kind of minimize your energy, when you’re on low diet, low fat that is low calorie diet. And Roy Walford lived in one of those biospheres and he came out after two years on very minimal calories with a group of people and they looked so emaciated – looked like war vet victims, you know out of the World War and he ended up dying prematurely of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. There’s susceptibility, I believe as we age to not have enough calories particularly,past age of 65, to infectious diseases, a much higher incidence. So, you’ve got to be careful if you’re having some diet telling you, ‘You got to fast because the foods basically are just so high in calories,’ but by default, plantprotein foods have so much fiber. By definition, they’re high in water like watermelon and cucumbers and cauliflower – all these things have very little calories so you get a little bit more food, actually quite a bit more food, to sustain your needs and really, kind of regulate your caloric needs without having to fast anything more than a 12-hour window from 8 in the morning ’til 8 o’clock at night.
Dr. Michael Grossman:
What’s your thought about tofu and soy products?
Dr. Nick Delgado:
I think that the world literature studies show that if you get organic tofu, that’s non-gmo, it’s a little hard to find. You can obtain it. It turns out that tofu, which is a phytoestrogen, tends to go to the similar estrogen receptor sites. So, since we’re a society that has estrogen dominance and a lot of that estrogen dominance comes from xenoestrogens, endocrine disruptors, plastics, they come from cosmetics; and not only that, pesticides. But they also come at alarmingly high rate from meat, cheese, eggs and dairy products because animals have estrous cycles. So those kind of estrogen overload leading to estrogen dominance and man boobs and overweight, actually a conversion to soy products in reasonable quantities. I think, you know if you have a small plate with some tofu-type dish and you have a little bit of soy milk that only studies that showed excess estrogen levels from soy was people were drinking like a gallon of soy milk. So, just don’t overdo it.
Dr. Michael Grossman:
Right, excellent. What’s your thought about fasting? I was looking at some people who said don’t fast on water, rather you should fast on salt water because you tend to get salt deficient when you’re fasting and so I never have people fast on water in any case. I usually give them various nutritional supports to help their liver detoxify while they’re fasting. What’s your thought about fast?
Dr. Nick Delgado:
If you look at that probably the premiers of facility that is medically monitored for fasting, because keep in mind, when people go fast or they go on water fast or a protein only fast, there are clinically reports of death. I mean, you’ve got to be careful – electrolyte imbalances, gallstones form on too prolong fasting, number of side effects. But, TrueNorth, what they do is they do, maybe a limited a day or two under medical conditions monitoring to kind of break the addictions that people have the sugars and oils and fats and meats. And then they transition to plant-based as quick as they can. Plant-based foods you know, in lower caloric amounts but they also keep them under kind of calm, relaxed conditions. You know, not something you can go and run out and just practice fasting on your own, out in the general public. So, there are risks I would recommend. I don’t advise water fasting and I think maybe the salt makes sense because you need trace minerals. And certainly, people could develop a serious electrolyte deficiency on a fast. And where’s your body getting calories from when you’re fasting? After about two hours, you use your cycling glucose then the glycogen storage is from the muscles so then your body has only one choice to burn calories from either your body fat storage or your glucose storage, excuse me, your protein storage. It’s because protein can be broken down into glucose more efficiently than fat can and the only thing I’ve ever seen that could portray an accelerated fat burning potential is not necessarily getting into a state of ketosis by limiting carbohydrate intake. A famous body builder names Lee Haney wrote the book, “Fit at Any Age,” and when he’s burning calories to get shape for his body building competitions, he takes in 500 grams of complex carbohydrates a day, not fifty, five hundred. And he said, training effect like “Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey”- the book, famous book- over about an eight month period, with few consistent training, the body learns to burn more fat and less glucose just by the fact that fat has more calories to sustain one and it burns the body fat more efficiently but only through exercise can you mimic a, shall we say, a training effect where the body prefers to burn fat over glucose.
Dr. Michael Grossman:
Now, you’re a world record holder in creating strength and endurance, what are your recommendations for our listeners?
Dr. Nick Delgado:
I think to train effectively and efficiently, you have to have a kind of, a little bit different eating pattern. Now, most people are used to eating two or three meals a day and that might be fine within a window of 8 in the morning, eating, starting out at breakfast, always have your breakfast all the way ’til eight o’clock at night but Ithink, it’s more important to realize if you’re a training athlete, a world class athlete where I broke not only the world record for curl and pressed dumbbels over head but the curl record, the Guinness World Record for curls at the age of 52, I did 1038 curls in one hour. The world record was only 550 curls. I doubled the world record by a man half my age. I also broke the curl and press record that no man has ever exceeded 50500 pounds lifted overhead in one hour with two two thousand lifts but I generated that energy by being really consistent with my sleep patterns, getting to bed early enough. And if I trained, I’d wake up in the middle of the night, go to the beach where it was cool and I trained under cool conditions and I’d make sure I had a lot of fruit to eat leading up to my workouts even next to me while I was working out. Even watermelon’s great during training because it gives you enough water. You got to stay dehydrated when you’re training or dancing or any kind of physical activity because that drop in body’s water levels which can happen on a high protein diet, you can get way too dehydrated. So, a plant-based protein diet that’s going to give, keep you easily more hydrated, it’ll allow you to perform better and you just got to get enough calories. So if you’re feeling weak and you’re doing, what they call “bunk,” you know you’re bunk, you’re running and youu’re bunk, you just hit the wall and you can’t seem to keep going, that’s a sign your glucose level storage has dropped too low and whatever trickle of fats coming in, you’re not able to burn enough to keep up with your caloric needs. So, just have enough food substance with you. Even I carry food with me every day to the office. So, if I can’t get to a restaurant or back home to eat, I reach into my food case and I’m pulling out mixed vegetables from my recipe book – fruits and vegetables and beans and casseroles and crock-pot recipes. I love eating. I enjoy eating. And I love staying lean. And I used to restrict my food intake to lose weight, now, I can eat ad lib based on what’s called, “Hara hachi bu” eat up to where you’re 80% satisfied, stop for a little while, let the calories absorb, especially if you start with soups and salads because there’s less calories. It’ll satisfy you more and then you can eat what you need at the leftover.
Dr. Michael Grossman:
Right. Talk to our listeners about the negative effect of certain kinds of foods and plastics and micro-waves on the hormones that you get and how to handle that and what to do because I know you have a lot of products that interact with that.
Dr. Nick Delgado:
There’s some studies on what’s called, “Age” and it’s an acronym that relates to overheating of food. And we used to think microwave was relatively safe as long as you didn’t have a leaky microwave nearby. You need a microwave detector for any radiation escaping out. But I think the problem is overheating. And so, whenever I can, I encourage a safer, lower temperature cooking methods. I use a crock-pot that keeps it very low cooking beans and vegetables overnight added with some spices; it tastes so good! I do eat raw food wheenever possible, As much as possible, I juice and i go to the store and I buy cold-pressed juices. If I don’t have time to make the juice, about 64 ounces of juices a day and I add in b-vitality in slim blend, two powders that I formulated to give them the nitric oxide from the organic beets to give them the fiber and over 20 different whole organic fruits and vegetables – all organic, non-gmo. So, for me, I think it’s more of encouraging people to recognize that to get optimum nutrition, we need to get enough vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants and that’s where I also supplement. And we look under the microscrope, we see if people are deficient in b12, folic acid, iron, Vitamin D – these are the principal vitamins and minerals that people must have, particularly as we age and particularly for very athletic. So, these are the go-tos. And of course, I like to encourage doctors to do spectra scans. And again, we do microscope evaluations to look for cellular deficiencies but whatever you do, just make sure that you’re getting the nutrient density. So, that’s kind of like I agree with Joel Fuhrman, he talks about “gbomb” and g bomb is greens, “bomb” for berries, “o” for onions, “m” for mushrooms, “b” for beans. And so, gbomb is a good anti-cancer approach. I have a webinar coming up, Tuesday, November 19th at 3pm talking about the whole issue of, ‘What do we eat?’ ‘How do we live to protect ourselves and build up the immune system to fight this ever-increasing horrible disease we call cancer?’ And certainly heart disease is prevalent, cardiovascular disease. And I think that’s just because people have kind of accepted an animal-based diet instead of kind of learning about the benefits of cultures around the world that have followed a plant-based, whole foods diets for most every generation you look back
Dr. Michael Grossman:
This has been great. There’s so much information that you have given out and I just love talking to you and getting your holistic perspective on eating healthy. And so people can interact with you. What is your website?
Dr. Nick Delgado:
nickdelgado.com and that’s where our live webinars and podcasts are from. There they can locate my other websites: nickdelgado.com
Dr. Michael Grossman:
Well, excellent. This has been great. Dr. Nick, it’s such a pleasure to talk with you. And if anyone wants to get in touch with me, it’s through ocwellness.com and interact with you all. And thanks all for being here, we look forward to speaking to you again in a week. Thank you so much.
