plant-based
We Saved Thousands of Dollars Eating This Way | Marc Ramirez Part 2 | Plant Power Stories
In my opinion, food is medicine,
food is what healed me. And it's when I changed the foods … that I was able to eliminate
all of my medications. Never underestimate
the body's ability to heal itself … if we just fuel it with the right foods. So, before my wife and I
adopted a plant-based lifestyle, I was a fast-food junkie, I used to run through the fast food once
and sometimes multiple times a day, whereas … now it's all whole-food, plant-based, it's the four main food groups,
which are all the fruits, all the vegetables, all the grains, and all the legumes. We eliminated, like I said,
all of the fast food, and that's the lifestyle,
that's the food we eat now. We are going to start making
veggie sandwiches. And it's really simple, you just use
whatever veggies you have in the house.
Today we are using … mushrooms, bell peppers, onion,
and we are also using … some pre-packaged
salad that we got at Whole Foods. And instead of using mayonnaise or cheese,
we are using avocado as a condiment. I like to use mushrooms
because they are meaty, they sort of have a texture similar to meat. So they make the sandwich feel more filling. And because they are kind of bland,
they soak up the flavors around them. They kind of go with anything. I used to eat a meal, I would go to a burger joint, but within half an hour to an hour I'm crashing, my body is struggling to try and digest
all these foods. Whereas, now when I eat – and I eat a lot of food –
it's all whole-food, plant-based, but I eat a lot of food,
and now I don't get those symptoms anymore. I'm energized, I'm ready, my tummy feels full, but I don't feel like
I have a rock inside of my belly. And next we are going to slice up an onion. So the onion… It will make it a little bit savory.
But purple onions or red onions,
they're more mild than … white or yellow. It tastes great to eat them raw.
Some of the other ones are too pungent. And next we are going to scoop out avocado … and put that on our pita bread. This is like a base for the sandwich … or pita. You could use bread, whatever kind you like. We like these pitas because it's very pure,
it has just four ingredients, it's whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, and water. We do not spend more,
we actually spend about a third less on groceries. But that's because we buy whole foods
that are reasonably priced. Things like brown rice
and dried beans and pasta, potatoes, things like that.
And then if you consider the money we've saved
with medications and doctor bills, we've saved thousands and thousands
of dollars by eating this way, so it's definitely not more expensive. Those colorful bell peppers add a lot of nice crunch,
the onions adding some savory flavors to it, and then this is a pre-packaged
salad we got at Whole Foods. So we're just going to put
some of that on top. And you can use whatever veggies
you happen to have at home. It's also great
for a cleaning-out-the-fridge meal. And that's how you make
a quick veggie sandwich. My dream one day would be … to not have anybody see the suffering … that has happened to my family happen to yours. You could change that by simply
changing the foods you eat. I would love one day if all the people
on this planet would eat plant-based.
Not only would we be helping our health,
we would be helping the environment … and we wouldn't be causing all the pain
and suffering to these poor animals … that committed no crime other than being born. Find what motivates you if you want to try this, and use that to inspire you. You know,
originally for us it was for health issues, and that's what gave us the prompt to dive in. For other people it might be
environmental issues or things like that, so find what motivates you and explore it. It's not as hard as you might think. I hear a lot,
"It's impossible, I can't do that." What I need you to do is cut that impossible word
after the first two letters: "I'm" and then "possible". If I can do this, if this big meat-eating
macho man, football player can do it, and I'm nobody special,
you can do it as well..
Video Transcript – As found on YouTube
Raw Food Diet Myths
"Raw Food Diet Myths" Is it better to eat our vegetables
raw or cooked? If you’re thinking raw,
you’re right! But if you guessed cooked,
you’re also right! A number of nutrients, like vitamin C,
are partially destroyed by cooking. On the other hand, some nutrients
become more absorbable upon cooking. For example, we get three times more
antioxidants in cooked carrots than raw. More cancer-fighting
indoles in cooked broccoli, and more lycopene
in cooked tomatoes. Leavening increases the mineral
absorption in grain products, and dry roasting can increase
the mineral absorption from nuts. There’s no good evidence
that raw diets are superior to other whole foods,
plant-based diets. In fact, the published evidence
that does exist is fairly disappointing. The only dietary survey I’m aware of
found raw food diets deficient in energy, protein, vitamins B12 and D,
calcium, selenium, and zinc. There are a number of
seriously flawed myths that circulate within the
raw foods community— like the belief that we have only a
limited amount of enzymes in our body that somehow get used up,
and so we need to consume live plant enzymes,
which are deactivated by cooking.
Well, they’re deactivated
by our stomach acid too, but even if they weren’t,
specific enzymes catalyze specific reactions
within our body. And since we’re not plants,
we have no need for plant enzymes. Our body makes all the enzymes we
need to function from the protein we eat, and cooking actually renders
proteins more digestible. So, I advocate eating a combination
of cooked and raw foods. Having said that, we should all be
eating huge salads every day.
We could easily polish off five cups
of spinach in one sitting, and that’s how we
have to think of greens— not as some little
overcooked side servings. If, for whatever reason,
you want to eat 100% raw, first, of course you
have to take a B12 supplement. Second, a diet based
on modern cultivated fruits is not nutritionally adequate. They’re a pale shadow of the
wild fruits eaten by our ape ancestors. To improve the nutritional content,
one would have to add at least a half-kilo a day of dark green leafies—
5 to 10 cups— and at least 50 grams a day
of nuts and seeds—about half a cup. And third, I explicitly recommend against
raw food diets for young children, as they just don’t have
the stomach capacity. Although an all-raw food diet
can be healthy, there is no reliable evidence
to suggest that it’s more healthy than a diet of whole plant foods—
cooked or not.
Video Transcript – As found on YouTube
Dr. Gundry’s The Plant Paradox Is Wrong
Dr. Gundry's THE PLANT PARADOX is Wrong Earlier this year, I started
getting emails about this book, The Plant Paradox, purporting
to expose the "hidden dangers" in healthy foods that cause
disease and weight gain, foods like beans, and whole
grains, and tomatoes. Why? Because of lectins,
which is a rehashing of the discredited Blood Type
Diet from decades ago; they just keep coming back. Yeah, but this was
written by an MD, which— if you've seen
my medical school videos— you'll know is effectively an
anti-credential when it comes to writing diet books, basically
advertising to the world that you've received likely little
or no formal training in nutrition.
Dr. Atkins was, after
all, a cardiologist. But look, you want to give
the benefit of the doubt. The problem is that it doesn't
even seem to pass the sniff test. I mean if lectins are bad, then
beans would be the worst, and so bean counters
would presumably find that bean eaters cut
their lives short, whereas the exact opposite
may be true with legumes— beans, split peas,
chickpeas, and lentils— found to be perhaps the most
important dietary predictor of survival in older people in
countries around the world. As Dan Buettner points
out in his Blue Zones work, lectin-packed foods are
the cornerstone of the diets of all the healthiest, longest-
lived populations on the planet.
Plant-based diets in general,
and legumes in particular, are a common thread among
longevity Blue Zones around the world—the most
lectin lush food there is. And if lectins are bad, then whole
grain consumers should be riddled with disease, when in fact whole
grain intake is associated with a reduced risk of
coronary heart disease, the number 1 killer
of men and women. Strokes, too, and total cancer, and
mortality from all causes put together, meaning people who eat whole
grains tend to live longer, and get fewer respiratory diseases,
infectious diseases, diabetes, and all non-cardiovascular,
non-cancer causes to boot. And not just in
population studies. As I've shown, you can randomize
people into whole grain interventions and prove cause-
and-effect benefits.
The same with tomatoes. You randomize women to a cup
and a half of tomato juice or water every day, and all that
nightshade tomato lectin reduces systemic inflammation,
or has waist-slimming effects, reducing cholesterol as well
as inflammatory mediators. So when people told me about
this book, I was like, let me guess: he sells a line of lectin-
blocking supplements. And what do you know: assist your
body in the fight against lectins for only $79.95 a month. That's only like a
thousand bucks a year— a bargain for pleasant
bathroom visits. And then, of course, there's
10 other supplements. So for only 8 or 9 thousand dollars
a year, you can lick those lectins. Oh, did I not mention
his skincare line? Firm and sculpt
for an extra $120, all so much more affordable
when you subscribe to his VIP club. But you still want to give him
the benefit of the doubt. People ask me all the time to
comment on some new blog or book or YouTube video, and
I have to sadly be like, look, there are a hundred thousand
peer-reviewed scientific papers on nutrition published in the
medical literature every year, and we can barely
keep up with those.
Ah, but people kept emailing
me about this book; so, I was like, fine, I'll
check out the first citation. Chapter 1, citation 1: "Forget everything you
thought you knew was true" (diet books love saying that). For example, "Eating
shellfish and egg yolks dramatically reduces
total cholesterol." What?! Egg yolks
reduce cholesterol? What is this citation? This is the paper he cites. And here it is. By now, you know
how these studies go. How do you show a food
decreases cholesterol? You remove so much
meat, cheese, and eggs that overall your saturated fat
falls, in this case, about 50%.
If you cut saturated
fat in half, of course cholesterol
levels are going to drop. So they got a drop
in cholesterol removing meat, cheese,
and egg yolks. Yet, that's the paper he uses to
support his statement that egg yolks dramatically reduce cholesterol. I mean it's unbelievable. That's the opposite of the truth. Add egg yolks to people's diets
and their cholesterol goes up. I mean, how dare
he say this? And it's not like some
harmless foolishness, like saying the Earth
is flat or something. Heart disease is the number
one killer of men and women. This can actually
hurt people. So much for my
benefit of the doubt..
Video Transcript – As found on YouTube
