Really nice to meet you this week on squats and margaritas. It's internationally renowned nutrition expert. Dr. Michael Greger best-selling author of how not to diet. He's got the how not to diet cookbook that just came out just in time for the new year as you're making your resolutions to get healthy and lose weight. He's got something that's sustainable. I had the best conversation.
Relation with him. He did say some things that I didn't want to hear. We talk about alcohol and I covered my ears when he was talking, but you guys can hear that part. And what he had to say about that intermittent fasting, why we shouldn't be eating after 7 p.m. How we should eat an apple before dinner, and you'll end up eating 300 less calories. And you would had you not had the apple right now. I'm sipping on a green juice Margarita because I feel like that's the only thing doctor
Your would allow its using my favorite Thanh. Thao tequila, the best tequila for margaritas. If you haven't tried them, go to Tonto tequila.com and use squats 10 at checkout for 10% off your order. Here's my episode with. Dr. Michael Greger.
Hello, Erin, Hi, dr. Greger. It's such a pleasure to talk to you. I'm so excited. Great birthday internationally, renowned nutrition expert, best-selling author. I too am an author. It was not a best-seller yet. I wanted to talk to you about what coming into a New Year. Everybody makes the resolutions to get healthy, but I think specifically the big one is to lose weight.
The problem is people going on these trendy diet, and they lose weight, but it's not sustainable. And you seem to have an answer for that. Absolutely, you know what? So much
nutritional noise and nonsense. These days. I just wanted her to finally be an evidence based diet book. I said, literally thousands of stuff, again, up every possible. Tip trick tweak technique proven to accelerate the loss of body fat to give people every possible advantage and basically build the optimal weight loss solution from the
ground up.
I need this book. It's a how not to diet cookbook and you have 21 tweaks to accelerate weight loss. I want to get through it. But while I have you, I have so many nutrition questions and you're going to get us. I struggled with body image for two decades, Eating Disorders are very much focus on wellness and nutrition. Now and I want to see if you could speak on in my past. I thought the right way to lose weight was calories in versus calories out. It's what women are told all the time. So I
Early eight. I worked out mostly cardio seven days a week and I never lost a pound. Can you speak on? Why the women that are over-exercising protecting their calories? Why that may not be the best way to lose weight? Like why they're not seeing results.
Oh, yeah, maybe you can't outrun a bad diet like so, you know, if you're a moderately heavy person doing moderately intense physical activity, like biking or very brisk. Walking in burn off approximately, you know, 350 calories an hour, but you know, most drinks snacks.
Acts and other processed junk, are consumed at a rate of about 70 calories a minute. So therefore, it only takes five minutes of snacking for some of the wipeout in a whole hour of exercise. So you can see how you know, the the control of most of the control we have over our weight balance is really on the calories in side of the equation and and give me you can only starve yourself for so long. Anyone can white-knuckle it in the short term, but the
Reason that that my Approach is more sustainable. It's because the way it makes people feel key difference between plant-based nutrition. More traditional approaches to weight loss, is that people are encouraged e ad libitum, which means eat as much as you want. Is no calorie counting. No portion controls just eating the strategy is to improve the quality of food rather than restricting the quantity of food. So it doesn't leave you hungry instead you get a boost of energy, but that Justin better sleep, but you don't know how good you're going to feel until you give it a
try.
Right? Both of your research backed like through like the plant-based veganism. Like, feel. Like that's all the rage now, and everybody should be is going plant-based. Why should we be eating plant-based?
Well the best available balance of evidence suggests a whole see us die. This is one that minimizes the intake of me to get her processed junk and maximize the intake of fruits vegetables, legumes or beans split peas, chickpeas, and lentils, whole grains nuts, and seeds, mushrooms herbs, and spices. Basically, real food that grows out of the ground. These are our healthiest choices.
There's another movement toward non-dairy. Is it? Because it's processed, like, should be be be looking to cut it out. And why?
Well, I mean milk is for babies, right? Mean. We're the only
This is, of course a that drinks milk after weaning, and then to drink milk of another species, like it doesn't make any sense. And so look, milk is great. But a couple, you know, Cal smoke is great to put a couple hundred pounds on a baby calf and a few months, but you know, that's I mean, it's not, it's, it's not what we should be eating. It's increase the risk for prostate cancer Parkinson's disease, a number of things and there's just healthier sources of calcium out there. We can get calcium the same place the cow.
Cows got the calcium in the first place from from Plants without the grass. But dark green, leafy vegetables. Grow the healthiest Source because they get all the calcium. But as a instead of the baggage of the century butterfat in the hormones and the cholesterol, you get a bonus of fiber, folate Mattox and some fun of nutrients and iron all the things missing from the from, you know, Dairy calcium sources,
right? Okay. I'm cutting Dairy and then you think to
When you make these cuts out of your diet, diary leaks, but it's going to be boring and you're not going to enjoy your food anymore. Your cookbook has found a solution to that. It's not boring.
Well, it looks there's a
constellation of new consumer choices boring. Have you looked at the dairy aisle? Dairy case, recently. It's like they used to be as like, you know, what? Three types of but, you know, you get the whole milk that's you know, skim milk.
Now, there's likes it. Every time I
go. There's a new kind of milk god, you can have fun to ride around. Some people like one more than another. I mean, there's just yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And look at man, major Dairy. Companies are declaring bankruptcy, just because he give consumers better choices.
You know, they're going that direction. You know, you're actually we're actually seeing the same thing, the meat aisle two, there's all these plant-based meet and you know and look if it tasted good. It tastes just as good, same mouthfeel, same texture with all the, you know that we grew up in love with but just happened to have 0. Plus are less saturated fat, you know, is healthier. Well, then there you go.
I have to ask and I don't know if I want to know the answer. How bad is alcohol.
If you're looking at it from a losing weight perspective or just being healthy in general, is moderate alcohol because my brand is squats in margaritas and I enjoy cocktails daily in moderation because it makes me feel like I'm not surprised and I can stick with my like healthy eating plan because I can have a cocktail. How bad is alcohol from a fat-burning perspective. And for just someone that's trying to live a healthy lifestyle.
I can take it what
and virgin margaritas. That's the way to
go.
Alcohol is increase your risk of cancer, even like drinking. So less than a drink a day increases risk of breast cancer. And so and the reason you don't hear more about this and there isn't a big cancer label on a lot of call. It beverages is because we used to think that mild to moderate drinking protect against heart disease. Heart disease, actually the
Number one, killer of women in this country and so men and women. And so they didn't want to dissuade people just to prevent the cancer deaths, but now we realize, that's a consequence of an artifact where we were mischaracterizing non-drinkers as as never Drinkers, and so and in. So there actually is not a benefit to lower moderate drinking for heart disease. So then we just
Just have the increased cancer risk. There's about 20 different cancers that are increased by alcohol consumption because alcohol is converted into something called acid and all the time in our body which is Kirsten genic. Our body gets rid of it relatively quickly, but but unfortunately increased their risk. And so it's a, what's called category 1 carcinogen mean, we know it causes cancer in human being so we really should try to minimize our exposure.
Even red wine because you're saying it doesn't have that hard benefits. Oh, well, no. No, actually. Oh,
you know, that's, you know, that's actually a really good point. So, red wine is the only alcohol beverages that beverage that has not been tied to increase breast cancer risk. And we think it's because of this compound in the skins of grapes on which axis, what's called an aromatase inhibitor, which prevents the conversion of the, the synthesis of estrogen in your body.
It's an enzyme that that breast cancer cells use to kind of promote the fuel, their own growth, and the aromatase Inhibitors in the skins of Graves and white mushrooms, and other healthy foods that actually blocks that. And so, the wall, the alcohol is increasing risk of breast cancer that that that compound in the skin of grapes on the red wine is decreasing with. Such that red wine has a neutral effect. However, if you ate grapes, then presumably you would actually get a benefit because you
Wouldn't have that competing bump in cancer risk
of clots and great.
As our main story, there are there are there are
two vitamins are not made by plan. So anyone eating a healthy diet, centered around plans, needs to make sure they get a regular reliable source. One vitamins, vitamin D not made by plants made by animals such as yourself. When you walk outside is the sunshine vitamin, but you know these days people are spending more time indoors at this time of year at the higher latitudes. No matter how much you're outside. The sun rays are at such an angle. We may be all bundled up.
So we may not make enough vitamin D. So in the insufficient sunshine, I recommend two thousand international units of vitamin D3 day and the only other vitamin not made by plants is vitamin B12. Not made my hand multi. There may be a little microbe to blanket the Earth. So we used to get B-12 drinking out of a mountain stream. Well, water something. But now we chlorinate the water supply to kill off any bacteria. So they get a lot of B12 in our water anymore. Don't get a lot of Cholera either. It's a good thing that we live in such a nice sanitary.
But because of that, we need to get a regular reliable source of our fellow. Great apes, get all the B12, and even bugs, dirt, and PCs. I'm proven supplement. So two thousand micrograms of what's called scientific obama-clinton week or 50, micrograms a big at all. The B12 you
need.
Amazing. Perfect. And let's talk about your book. 21 seeks to accelerate weight loss. Can you give me a couple? Like, what is 0? If you had to give me one tip to accelerate, there's all
sorts of blockers and fat burners and starts Barker's and appetite suppressant. So, I go through base. Really digging up every possible. Tip technique ever proven to accelerate the
Also body fat you can people every possible advantage. And so, you know simple things like pre-loading so-called negative calorie foods and negative calorie pre-loading. Just means starting out a meal with fruits vegetables, soup salad, or simply a tall glass of water. Basically, anything will less than 100 calories per cup. So for example, eating a large Apple before a meal is so filling that people go on to you about 300 calories, less food from the meal, so hundred calories in from the Apple 300 calories out. So when Apple eaten before a meal effectively has
- 200
calorie. That is amazing. What a great catch. I gotta go get apples. I'm gonna put that on my list, huh?
On every recipe actually describes whether it's easy or quick or not. There are some that are more fancy for more holiday type, you know, Gatherings, but I think most of the recipes are simple. Easy. You can batch cook, make a whole bunch and that's really the way I cook because I'm so pressed for time that I really want something, you know, simple easy, convenient tasty inexpensive and that's really the majority of the recipes in the book
except for everyone.
It's very, you know that real chefs and the moms that are home with their kids. Don't have a lot of time. I think that's basically most of my audience is mom. A lot of us are ending the or nearing the end of our fertility. Can you talk about, like hormones, and what kind of effect nutrition has on hormones? Especially for women, that are like, starting to get into menopause perimenopause to enter their fertility, and are there certain foods that we should be leaning towards at that? Part of our
Just to kind of combat the hormones that we're dealing with.
Oh, absolutely. So on nutritionfacts.org. I have a number of if you just type in menopause. I mean, I have all the videos featuring all the studies that have ever been done looking at the role Foods. Having in terms of, for example, controlling menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes. And so that would be sumption of soy foods, which me
So not only to improve bone health, which is pro estrogenic effect, but decrease breast cancer risk, which is anti estrogen effect, but also right helps with hot flashes. In fact, you know, in Japan which has the highest or consumption of the world. There isn't even a word in the language Rob flashes, just because they suffer at the lowest levels around the
world. Wow. What's the question you get asked the most.
Um, well, I guess it depends. Kind of what I'm talking about.
But you know, what? What did I find? Most surprising? You know, when I when I looked at it, what am I? Some of my favorite recipes? What are they can the Miss audience, but this time of year with, you know, New Year's resolutions. People are really focused on weight loss of what a perfect timing.
And for the cookbook to come out last year around this time, the how not to die at the, the book came out on. So this is a, you know, this is where people are just kind of, you know, self reflecting and really want to work on New Year. New You self-improvement. And so we wanted to have this really as a practical guide to basically to put how not to die it. The kind of mountain of evidence I presented.
That into
practice. Yeah, and for it to be sustainable for not to just be this New Year's resolution you're going to make because you probably will lose weight, but it's going to come back on, you need something that's sustainable. You know, that will it's got to be like a lifestyle change and for me, that's what it was for me. I was 20 pounds heavier. I was only doing cardio. I was barely eating. Now. It's just like I just practice mindful eating. I check in with myself, if I'm hungry, I eat and before I think women would be like watching their calories.
I just hate breakfast. I'm hungry but not going to eat a second breakfast and your body starved and kind of like holds on to everything. So I think just getting past that mindset of like cutting your calories, and living your life hungry. It's hard for women to kind of shift and you just eat all the time and your metabolism starts running again and you're eating healthy foods. You want to put healthy foods in your body. You want to shop the perimeter of the grocery store and get colorful foods, but have it coming in all the time. And that is what changed my body. My man.
Apples and turned back on again. And I think women are so we're just taught calories in versus calories out. Do your cardio barely eat and that never worked for me. My body shut off its stop burning and now that I eat more often, I practiced mindfulness. I'm hungry. I eat and then I check in with myself while I'm eating. Like I'm halfway through dinner. Am I still hungry or am I just eating? Because there's food on the plate. It's just mindfulness.
Good diets. Don't work by definition because going on.
And Diamond place at some point, you're going to go off a diet. My permanent weight loss requires permanent dietary, change healthier habits. Just have to become a way of life and it's gonna be live long. You want it to lead to a long life. Thankfully, the single best die proven for weight loss. May just so happy to be the safest. Cheapest way to eat for the longest healthiest
life. Exactly. And other just lifestyle affects on your weight and weight loss. How much does sleep play an effect on? Like if you're trying to lose weight. You're not getting a lot of sleep. Doesn't that like release a hormone that can
Against you in a weight loss,
sense. Actually, that's one of my 21 tweaks is has to do with S2. We still have a whole chapter on sleep. It's because, you know, you can do laboratory studies very sleep-deprived folks and not only do they eat more, but they less healthy food. So, give them a breakfast buffet for example. After staying up all night. They eat more of worst foods, but what's interesting what I found particularly fascinating is even if you control for the
even if you give people the exact same number of calories sleep-deprived versus not and we're not talking all-nighters, just covering a few hours of sleep every night for a few weeks. You actually retain more body fat in your framing. What's interesting. You don't like to see it on the scale. What happens when you're sleep deprived? Your lean mass goes down. Your fat Mass goes up. It looks like you're not gaining any weight, but actually, you are gaining body fat losing muscle mass.
And so yeah, critically important to get sufficient sleep.
I didn't know that was a tweet. Fantastic. There are a couple more things. I know I don't have you for that. Much longer you talk about the impact of certain foods on our gut is that like probiotics or
prebiotics even more important. People pause. So prebiotics, are these are on the components of food that feed our good gut bacteria, so they will. So they will they will thrive
And so that's a, there's two types, basically, fiber and resistant, starch, found concentrated in whole plant Foods, particularly whole grains and legumes are being split peas, chickpeas, and lentils. So these are the Prebiotic Foods critical to cultivating a healthy gut Flora, which is not only important for gut health, but we're now learning that are good gut bacteria. Play a role in all aspects, all of our body systems, improves immune function, Mental Health,
And so and so, you know ended yeah, certainly appetite weight laws and you can prove this but so-called fecal. Transplant studies. We actually take one person's got floor and switch it to another person. And so of all the sudden you have the guts, lure of someone who's overweight you'll eating the same amount of calories. You start gaining weight. It's really remarkable the effects and we're just now learning about the importance of keeping a healthy microbiome. It's all about fiber rich.
Rich foods, resistant starch, rich foods, which are the those healthy dryer. Plant Foods.
Hydration is water. One of your tweaks, like up in your water and making sure you're not thirsty, instead of just thinking that you're hungry and you're really thirsty is water. Like a big
thing that we should have on water. Is a critical? Absolutely. So water actually has boosts. Gives us a boost in the adrenal hormone called noradrenaline, which it's kind of a weird.
Accelerates the, the the burning burning body fat. And you can actually, I mean, you can so I recommend two cups of water for each meal. Not only is the pre-loading, but because it increases fat burning, it's amazing something so simple basically free, but that's why I'm here. No one's ever heard about no one's going to profit from, you know, telling people to, you know, drink some tap water. But yeah, really, really quite remarkable effects in terms of
Number of calories, you burn with, and without full
perfect. Other thing that I feel like is all the rage right now is intermittent fasting. I need to know what you feel about, intermittent fasting if I should be doing it and what really are the benefits to doing it.
So that's actually the largest chapter in the book just because there's so many different kinds. There's alternate, day fasting, you know, 52 fasting, 25 fasting, mimicking diced. I'm restricted, feeding. The bottom line is
Is that there's benefit to early time, restricted feedings. That means narrowing your daily feeding window to 12 hours or less, but critically the timing that window, which would be early, rather than late. If you're going to skip any meals, you skip supper not breakfast. We should try to shift our calories towards beginning of the day. Big breakfast is definitely the way to start
up right? And you people are doing it the opposite way. It's like you get up and you try not to eat
breakfast. They are exactly. And yeah, and so and that's not just bad for her.
Or yeah, it's not as bad for weight gain, but for triglycerides and blood sugar's the exact same food, even at night, is more fattening than the same number of calories, exact same food, even in the morning. It's a different effect. The calories, not account, just a calorie. It's not just what we eat. But how, and when,
When do you suggest like stopping eating? Before you go to bed? Is it two hours? And then an
hour, it doesn't matter when we go to bed. What matters is our circadian rhythm. So, 7 p.m. We should fast after seven because of our circadian rhythms food and light is more fattening. The exact same food even earlier. So the fewer calories, after Sundown the better,
this is amazing. Oh my gosh, dr. Greger. Thank you so much. The how not to diet cookbook, perfect going into the new year and all the resolutions, but it's not a quick fix. It's not one of those.
Trend diet, they're going to lose weight. It's a sustainable lifestyle shift. I love it and then we can find you on. Instagrams. It's dr. Michael Greger. And then nutritionfacts.org, you've got daily tips there. Anywhere else that we can find you or anything else coming up? You want to talk about
that all sounds perfect and keep up the good work and eat some great.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you for being so patient with my son. Oh,
of course. I'm so glad.
Said that that you are able to not just feed yourself. But but keep your family healthy as well during this tough time.
Dr. Greger nutrition expert, best-selling author. You can get the how not to diet cookbook. Now, on Amazon, it's more than 100 healthy recipes that are sustainable for a healthy lifestyle. It's not a quick fix. It's not a diet. Start, this New Year jumpstart into a weight loss program. That is sustainable and a healthy.
I'll thank you for all the tips. Dr. Greger. You can follow him on Instagram or nutritionfacts.org where he's got daily. Tips facts about nutrition, diet weight loss. He kind of hurt my feelings about alcohol but he's right. I am going to try to cut out Dairy as well. And work on not eating after seven. He's got all the tips. Check out his book, go follow him on Instagram, and thank you so much for joining me. If you were sipping on the green juice Margarita, it's using my favorite. Tequila. Thanh. Thao you can go to town.
Te'o, tequila.com, and make sure you use squats 10 to get ten percent off your order. And thank you guys so much for listening. If you haven't subscribed, please please do it. We're on Spotify podcast one. Apple podcast in Google podcast. I really want to keep doing this. Please, please subscribe. So you'll get updates as soon as a new episode drops and I'll see you guys next week for a new episode of squats and margaritas.
