Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000103A
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00:16 How many servings of fruits and vegetables have you had today?
00:19 How about water? Have you been drinking enough water? 00:22 These are important things to ask yourself as we discuss 00:25 food as medicine on today's program. 00:27 The Ultimate Prescription starts now. 00:31 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:33 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:36 Do you want solutions to your health care problem? 00:39 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:42 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:48 Welcome, and thank you for joining us today on the 00:50 Ultimate Prescription. 00:51 I'm your host, Nick Evenson, joined by Dr. James Marcum. 00:54 And we're out doing a series based on food as medicine. 00:58 And we're looking at different ways we can use nutrition to 01:01 have better health. 01:02 And, Dr. Marcum, welcome to the program. 01:04 My pleasure to be here, Nick. 01:06 And we've learned a lot about different things. 01:08 And today we're going to talk about this kiwi fruit. 01:11 That's right. But there's many different fruits and vegetables, 01:14 and nuts and grains that not only help our health in general, 01:17 to keep us from getting disease, but can slow down aging. 01:21 And we're now having studies where it shows specific fruits, 01:25 vegetables, nuts, and grains can treat specific conditions. 01:28 You know, there's a common theme that I hear you talk about a lot 01:32 of times, which is inflammation. 01:34 Why is inflammation such a hot topic when we talk 01:36 about medical conditions? 01:38 Well, that's great, and I'm hoping I can explain this 01:40 in terms that we can all understand. 01:42 You know, sometimes medical terms, they use big words, 01:46 and they scare people, and lots of fancy diagrams, 01:50 but really inflammation is just your immune system turning on. 01:55 Okay. And the doctors and scientists that do this 01:58 are called immunologists. 02:00 They study the immune system. 02:01 So the body, when it sees something it doesn't like, 02:05 it has an immune reaction. 02:07 For instance, if I punch you in the arm, you're going to have 02:12 some type of reaction to that where your immune cells... 02:15 Say if you take a foreign allergy in you can have an 02:18 immune reaction. Okay. 02:19 If you eat certain foods you have immune reactions. 02:23 Something your body doesn't like? Yeah. 02:24 Sometimes the reactions are built in genetically, 02:28 sometimes they're caused by a foreign invader. 02:31 Now the immune system is very complicated. 02:35 And we have different cells that are like my hero cells, 02:39 called natural killer cells. 02:40 You know, they come on the scene and just engulf a bacteria. 02:43 They see a cancer cell they don't like they just eat it up 02:46 like a big Pacman: it's gone. 02:48 Then there are the antibodies that they're like smart bombers. 02:52 They see something they don't like they tag it. 02:54 They tag the cell they don't like, and then someone else 02:58 comes and does it in. 02:59 You know, they tag it. 03:00 Then we have immune sponsors that are in general; you know, 03:04 these cells that cause inflammation. 03:06 You hear some names like cytokines and different types, 03:09 and, for instance, you have an allergy, a certain type of 03:11 immune systems turn on, sometimes you eat the wrong 03:15 food, you have some immune reaction going on in your body. 03:18 So inflammation; in the joints you have inflammation that 03:22 happens in the joints when its stressed. 03:24 Even in your brain. 03:25 If your brain's under lots of stress, it can have what we call 03:29 more inflammation in the cells. 03:31 Well, inflammation, long term, tends to damage our bodies. 03:36 It's not a good thing to have. 03:37 And we know that there's certain foods that promote 03:42 the body to attack itself. 03:43 You know, it makes cells that we don't norm. 03:46 Because remember, a lot of this stuff that we put in our bodies 03:48 really wasn't made to be there. 03:50 And the body doesn't know what to do with it, so it attacks. 03:53 It has an inflammatory reaction. 03:55 That can happen in our bowels. 03:56 It actually happens in our blood vessels, and it can trigger 03:59 heart attacks, inflammation in the blood vessels. 04:02 It can happen in the brain and trigger all sorts of bad things. 04:05 It can happen in the bowels. 04:06 So inflammation can happen all over the body. 04:09 We know that people that eat plant based diets 04:12 have less inflammation. 04:14 There's all of these antioxidants and good cells 04:17 that our bodies are made to see, and knows what to do with. 04:21 This lowers inflammation. 04:23 So if a person is going to have a problem, like in the bowels, 04:27 I would say a plant based diet should help. 04:30 If people are having brain stress, you know, 04:32 mental health problems, a plant based diet should help that. 04:35 If people are having joint pains, a plant based diet will 04:38 help to some degree with that. 04:40 If people are having inflammation in the blood 04:42 vessels, a plant based diet will help with that to some degree. 04:46 Same with allergies. 04:47 And you're talking about a whole food plant based, 04:49 not just a vegetarian diet. No. 04:51 We're talking whole food. 04:52 So we're not, not packaged foods, and things that come out 04:54 containers for the most part. 04:56 That's a good point, because sometimes people that are 04:58 vegetarians still eat lots of processed foods. Right. 05:01 Lots of canned foods, lots of things that 05:03 damage our bodies, too. 05:05 So vegetarians can be healthy, but a lot of vegetarians still 05:09 eat dairy and cheese, which can trigger inflammation 05:13 in the body as well. 05:14 So that's why inflammation is such a big ticket item. 05:17 It causes aging, it causes disease states, it causes a lot 05:22 of people not to feel well. 05:23 So a lot of people will come to the doctor. 05:25 Let's say you have inflammation some place, and we give them 05:28 anti-inflammatories. Sure. 05:31 We don't really address the cause, 05:33 but let's give them a medicine. 05:35 If you have inflammation in the bowel, sometimes we give 05:37 medicines for that. 05:39 You know, inflammation of the bowel, they have certain 05:40 diseases which cause inflammation, and we treat 05:43 them with anti-inflammatories. 05:45 Let's say your brain's inflamed, and you're under 05:48 stress, and bad things are happening. 05:49 Well, we might give you an anti-anxiety medicine. 05:52 So we treat inflammation because it causes 05:55 symptoms in different ways. 05:56 But sometimes if we address the cause, 05:59 that would solve a lot of problems. 06:01 And that's why I wanted to talk about the different foods, 06:04 and how it treats different conditions. 06:06 Yeah. But we've got a kiwi fruit here today. 06:08 And it's nice and brown and fuzzy on the outside. 06:12 Cut it open and it's quite green, and... 06:15 There's seeds inside, too. 06:16 Pretty nice looking. 06:17 Yeah, little seeds; kind of like a watermelon it almost looks 06:19 like, except that its green rather than red. 06:21 Well, tell me about the goji berry, or whatever it is. 06:25 This kiwi fruit; the interesting fact about it... 06:27 It's not a goji berry is it? 06:29 Well, the original name... 06:30 And it comes originally from China, and it was called the 06:33 yang tau, which means strawberry peach. 06:35 That's what they called it. 06:37 Peach, I guess, because its fuzzy on the outside maybe. 06:38 And later it was replaced by the name, the Chinese gooseberry. 06:43 Okay. The Europeans, that's what they called it. 06:45 And then it was introduced to New Zealand in the 20th Century, 06:48 and later cultivated there. 06:50 And the people in New Zealand, there was a tax on berries, 06:52 and they didn't want to pay the tax to export these kiwi fruits, 06:55 so they changed the name to the kiwi, which is named after the 06:58 kiwi bird, which was also small and brown. 07:00 So that's why we call it the kiwi fruit today. 07:02 And it looks like you could pet it, too. 07:04 It looks like its got little sparkly things on it. 07:06 I don't think it's going to purr or anything 07:08 like that, but you could. 07:09 Wow! Well, you know, New Zealand has put a lot of money into 07:13 studying this fruit. Really? 07:16 Yeah. They put a lot of money. 07:17 There's quite a few studies, scientific studies. 07:19 And that's what I've tried to do is go back to the studies 07:21 and find some evidence base that we can talk about 07:24 the things that this fruit can do to help you. 07:27 Yeah. So what are some of the things that its good for? 07:29 One of the big things in the literature, if you take this 07:32 fruit about two hours before bedtime, 07:35 this will help you go to sleep. 07:38 And that comes from the Aging Pacific Journal of Clinical 07:41 Nutrition back in 2011. 07:42 They did this study, and it helped people sleep better 07:46 if they ate this kiwi fruit about two hours before bedtime. 07:49 I did not know that. 07:51 Yeah. It's also showed to help inflammation. 07:53 So it helps immune function in the body. 07:56 Because of the potassium in it, you know, when you have the 07:59 little potassium it helps lower blood pressure, so it counteracts 08:03 some of the sodium that we might get. 08:05 Again, it's an antioxidant, and antioxidants prevent oxidation, 08:11 which damages our DNA, so it can protect our DNA some. 08:15 It lowers the ability of the body to clot. 08:19 So if you're a clotter, kiwi fruit might help 08:22 you not clot as much. 08:23 It also lowers triglycerides. Right. 08:26 One of the studies, there's a condition in the eye called 08:29 macular degeneration, and people that eat kiwis have higher 08:34 levels of a substance called lutein. 08:36 And lutein helps prevent macular degeneration. 08:40 And again, what seems to help is a pigment... 08:43 You know, we've talked about pigments before. 08:45 There's a pigment that has a chemical in it called 08:47 zeaxanthin, that helps increase lutein, so you lower the risk of 08:52 you having eye problems from macular degeneration. 08:54 So it also has vitamin E in it, good source of vitamin E. 08:58 And vitamin E is an important vitamin that helps our skin 09:02 integrity, which helps protect us from the 09:04 environment that we live in. 09:06 Those are just a few of the things that 09:09 kiwi's do to help us. 09:10 So I don't know if you like kiwi's, but I think it could 09:14 help a lot of different people bringing this into their diets. 09:18 Kiwis are one my favorite foods that we've talked about. 09:20 Things like beets, they're not maybe quite as easy to eat 09:24 sometimes, but kiwi fruit is so sweet, and it's delicious. 09:27 I love it. Yeah. But remember, kiwi's aren't the only fruit 09:31 that has health benefits. 09:33 You know, we've talked about different berries. Uh huh. 09:35 You know, one of the things that in looking at the different 09:38 fruits and the research... 09:40 Do you like watermelon? Yeah, you bet. 09:42 Yeah, well watermelon is another fruit that they've 09:45 studied, and it makes a chemical called citrulline. 09:48 And that's the enzyme that's responsible for helping 09:53 the blood vessels regulate better. 09:55 So lots of different fruits help different 09:58 mechanisms in different ways. 10:00 So I would say for people to add fruit to 10:04 their dietary regimen. 10:05 Now one of the fruits we have to be a little bit careful with, 10:08 if you're on medication, is grapefruit. 10:11 Really? Why's that? 10:13 Yeah, grapefruit suppresses enzymes, which are important 10:17 for breaking down medications in the body. Okay. 10:20 So there's certain medications that grapefruit 10:24 will interfere with. 10:26 So you've got to be a little bit careful if you're... 10:28 Let your doctor know if you're going to eat 10:29 a lot of grapefruit. 10:30 Let him know whether you're on the medicines 10:32 that would effect that. 10:33 Is it to keep them from being absorbed, or...? 10:35 Well, it keeps it, sometimes it increases the level of the 10:38 medicines, and sometimes it effects... 10:40 If your blood sugar medicines, it makes them more potent. 10:42 It can effect different calcium channel blockers. 10:45 It effects different things through the liver. Uh huh. 10:48 Another important... 10:50 You know, I had goji on the mind, because when you started 10:53 talking about sleep, goji's have helped the body with melatonin. 10:57 And melatonin is, again, another thing that helps people sleep 11:01 better, and it helps the body do a lot better. 11:04 So kiwi fruit is something that I think people should think 11:08 about adding, but a lot of other fruits, we're finding, 11:11 have valuable pigments, and the pigments, and things that 11:14 are in, that all the chemicals, they do things to our body that 11:17 we're just now discovering, that helps us treat disease 11:20 as well as permit some of these disease conditions. 11:23 Yeah. You know, there's some folks out there watching who may 11:26 take a lot of supplements. 11:27 Let's talk about that for a second. 11:29 The kiwis have a lot of great things in them, 11:30 but the kiwi's don't come with a label that says 11:33 that they're going to do this for you, 11:34 they're going to do that for you, they're going to take 11:35 care of this and that. 11:37 Supplements on the bottle a lot of times will advertise certain 11:38 conditions that they're good for. 11:40 So what should we do? 11:41 Yeah, well for supplements if you eat a whole food plant based 11:45 diet, 3 to 5 fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts a day, 11:48 you do not usually need many supplements. 11:51 We've talked earlier; you might need some vitamin D. Uh huh. 11:56 If you're truly plant based, and don't take a lot of packaged 12:00 foods, you might need a little bit of B12 in your diet. 12:04 We're talked about that. 12:05 That's a supplement you might need. But those two. 12:08 And of course, you can measure your vitamin D, the B12. 12:11 Those are some of the main supplements. 12:13 And remember, supplements are for people 12:15 that have a deficiency. Uh huh. 12:16 If you don't have a deficiency, you don't need it. 12:18 And the problem with supplements is they give you large amounts. 12:22 Now most of them that you urinate right out. 12:24 But the body, the delivery system that God has given us, 12:28 and the flora in the bowel does better if you eat it in the 12:32 packaging that God gave us for ourselves to utilize. 12:35 And it's much more complicated than people even realize. 12:39 So you can have too much of any good thing. 12:42 And sometimes the supplements, you know, they say, 12:44 Oh, if you eat so much of this and this... 12:46 Now if you're using it to treat a condition, for instance 12:49 let's say you're low, you want to sleep better at night. Right. 12:52 So you say, I want more melatonin. Uh huh. 12:54 Let's say you eat some things that increase the melatonin, 12:56 and you don't really feel a lot better. 12:58 Well, you might take a melatonin supplement to help 13:02 a specific problem. 13:03 So you might take a, let's say you take a statin. 13:06 And sometimes statin's make the muscles weak, 13:09 and you need a coenzyme Q10. 13:11 So you might take a substance that would increase coenzyme Q10 13:15 because of something you're doing. Right. 13:17 But for some otherwise pretty healthy, you usually don't need 13:20 a lot of extra supplements. 13:22 But I see people... 13:24 I had one person, Nick, that came to me the other day with 13:26 like twenty-two different supplements. 13:28 Everything that they read on the internet they would buy. Uh huh. 13:31 And unfortunately, the supplements; 13:33 they're not regulated. 13:35 Sometimes the active supplements cannot even be in it. Right. 13:38 So it's sort of scary. 13:40 And everything is so good, but you know... 13:42 It could be a scam. 13:43 Yes, it could be a scam, especially with memory. 13:45 You know, people say, Oh, this is going to make your memory 13:48 better, or this can cure cancer. 13:49 You know, those type of things. 13:51 And those things might be... 13:53 You know, you have to look at those very carefully. 13:55 Yep. Well, we're going to take a break here in just a minute. 13:58 But I want to tell people about a good resource. 14:00 That's our website. 14:02 If you like this kind of content about your health, 14:05 and following God's design for your life, visit our website: 14:09 There's health articles, radio programs, video clips you can 14:13 watch, and you can also ask the doctor, or you can submit 14:16 your health prayer requests there 14:18 and pray for other people. 14:19 So take a look at that, and we'll will be 14:21 back in just a moment. |
Revised 2017-05-11