Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000096A
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00:16 Would you like to improve your brain function and reduce
00:19 inflammation simply by using food as medicine? 00:23 Dr. Marcum talks to us about how to do that today on 00:25 the Ultimate Prescription. Stay with us. 00:28 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:30 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:33 Do you want solutions to your health care problem? 00:36 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:39 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:46 Welcome to the Ultimate Prescription. 00:48 I'm your host, Nick Evenson. 00:50 Today's program we're going to be talking 00:51 about food as medicine. 00:53 And we like to focus on learning how to follow God's design 00:56 for our lives to improve our health. 00:58 And Dr. Marcum, thank you for joining us on the program today. 01:00 And what are we going to talk about? 01:02 We're going to talk about another food and how it can 01:05 improve our health, and a food that can be used to treat 01:09 disease as well as prevent disease. 01:12 You know, there's lots of, you know, foods type stuff 01:15 out there in the news. 01:16 You know, recently we've heard a lot about the Mediterranean 01:20 diet being so good for us, you know. 01:22 And a lot of the reason the Mediterranean diet is so good 01:25 is it's loaded with fruits and veggies. Right. 01:29 Some things bad about the Mediterranean diet that I don't 01:32 know if people realize, is that it has a lot of whole bread. 01:36 Okay? It has a lot of olive oil, which in too much that might 01:40 be too much fat. Sure. 01:42 And also it promotes the use of alcohol in the 01:44 Mediterranean diet. 01:45 Go back just for one second. 01:47 What's wrong with whole bread? 01:48 Well, whole bread doesn't have the grains. 01:49 It's a lot more processed. 01:51 You know the white breads? Refined? 01:52 Yeah, it has more refined. 01:54 And most people would say that, you know, the whole wheat, 01:57 the whole grain is much better than, you know, 02:00 than some of the whole breads. 02:01 And it also has a lot of bread. 02:03 And bread does carry quite a bit of calories. Okay, right. 02:07 So there's some negatives about the Mediterranean diet 02:10 that are out there. 02:12 But most of the benefits we get from any diet is eating the 02:15 things that grow, and eating the right nutrient compositions. 02:19 We've talked about that before. 02:20 And we've been going through different foods. 02:23 And we've been showing the scientific studies behind it. 02:26 Now a lot of these foods help a lot more than 02:29 we've talked about. 02:30 We just haven't discovered it. 02:32 And I think blueberries that we have here is one of those. 02:35 So what can you tell me about blueberries that's interesting? 02:37 Blueberries, this is actually one of the very few foods you 02:41 can find that is naturally blue. 02:44 Can you think of any other foods that are blue? 02:46 actually blue in their natural state? 02:47 The only thing that I can get close to that... 02:49 No, I can't right off the top of my head. 02:52 I couldn't either, and so that's an interesting fact. 02:55 I also, these are primarily produced in the 02:57 United States and Canada. 02:59 We make, let me see here, up to 95% of the world's 03:03 blueberries, between the U.S. and Canada. 03:05 In the U.S. it's mostly in Maine where they're produced. 03:08 So you know what we should do is, you know, we've talked 03:10 before about how turmeric and curcumin comes from India. 03:14 We should trade our blueberries for their turmeric. 03:17 Yep, I think that would be a good trade. 03:19 Because we'd give them good things for blueberries, 03:21 and they can give us good things. 03:22 And that can go back and forth. 03:23 But, you know, in some parts of the country, or in some parts 03:25 of the world it's hard to get ahold of blueberries 03:28 and other things, I'm sure. 03:30 What should people do if they're in an area where it's hard to 03:32 get fresh fruits and vegetables? 03:33 Well, that's always a challenge. 03:35 And sometimes you just do the best you can. 03:38 But some people can try getting dried foods, 03:41 okay, that are dried. 03:43 A lot of people can store them those for long periods of time. 03:45 Canned foods, sometimes that helps people. 03:49 They can store it in the off seasons. 03:51 I know that my Mom still puts up, you know, things in jars. 03:55 You know, fresh fruits and vegetables in jars that 03:57 when they don't have it, then they can whip it out. 04:00 And frozen foods. You know, it might not have as much of the 04:05 benefit, but you can still get frozen foods 04:07 and put it in freezers. 04:09 And that's another way you can do it if you 04:10 can't get a hold of it. 04:12 And one of the things that I would do is I know that your 04:15 folks, for instance, live way up... 04:17 Up in Alaska, yeah. 04:18 ...in winter land. Yeah. 04:20 Yeah, it's very cold. 04:21 I know that in the cold... 04:22 How cold was it there the other day? 04:24 You were telling me. 04:25 Minus 48 degrees. That's pretty cold! It was very cold. 04:27 So I think that one thing, if I lived in that environment, 04:28 when it was, when the weather was nice, okay? 04:31 And when I could get it, I would get as many fruits 04:33 and vegetables I can, and I'd put it in the freezer. Yeah. 04:37 I guess they could just leave it outside if they wanted to. 04:40 And that way I would have it when things weren't growing 04:42 fresh; when they weren't in season. 04:44 But you, that's a good point. 04:45 You want to try to buy things that are in season. 04:48 Not only are they less expensive, but you tend to 04:50 get them a lot fresher. 04:51 Yeah, less preservatives and that kind of thing. 04:53 Yep, that's a good thing. 04:54 But blueberries are one that I think helps in a lot of ways 04:59 that we don't understand. 05:00 And one of the things that blueberries are full of, 05:03 and it's one of the best of a property called antioxidation. 05:07 Okay? Antioxidants. 05:09 When the... for instance, let me give you an example. 05:12 The brain makes up about 2% of our bodies weight. Okay. 05:16 Okay? Now some people have heavier brains, some people have 05:19 not so heavy brains. 05:20 Hopefully, my brain's 2% of my weight. Yeah. Okay? 05:23 But it uses about 50% of our oxygen. 05:27 So our brain is doing lots of work. 05:29 It has lots of metabolism. 05:31 Your brain's doing stuff all the time. 05:33 You know, my ear doesn't do much all the 05:35 time, but my brain does. 05:37 You know, my heart's working all the time, but some organ 05:40 systems really don't do as much as others. 05:42 But the brain is controlling things, doing things. 05:45 It's using a lot of oxygen. 05:47 But in that process of metabolism, you know, 05:50 burning oxygen, what it does is you create chemical reactions. 05:54 It creates a substance called free radicals. 05:57 And there's other things that trigger free radicals, too. 06:00 But you make a lot of these free radicals. 06:02 And free radicals, over time, can, if there's too many of them 06:05 built up, can damage the body. 06:07 For instance, if you exercise too much, you go into different 06:10 types of metabolisms, you know. Right. 06:12 And some of the things you make, because you make some of 06:15 these free radical type cells. 06:17 And they eventually can cause problems for you. 06:19 Well, free radicals aren't a good thing. 06:21 This is the process called oxidation. 06:25 And we do that, you know, different foods cause oxidation, 06:28 different activities in our body cause oxidation. 06:30 But you can start to blunt that response by antioxidants. Yeah. 06:34 So antioxidants actually helps protect us from some of these 06:38 oxidation processes. 06:39 So we know that antioxidants slow the rate of aging. Okay? 06:43 So it protects our DNA. 06:45 And the studies have shown that the antioxidants in blueberries 06:50 are some of the strongest ones we have on earth. Right. 06:52 So you want to eat blueberries just for the antioxidants 06:56 to prevent this oxidation. 06:57 Now some of the studies that I've been looking on, 07:00 we know that just eating blueberries every day can 07:04 decrease the cognitive decline. 07:07 What that means, the study that was done in the 07:10 Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, recently showed 07:13 that people that eat blueberries, they don't get, 07:15 their brains don't get old as quick. 07:17 Okay? Cognitive decline. 07:19 The Nurses' Health Study that was done by Harvard in 2012 showed 07:23 that just one serving of blueberries helped slow 07:27 cognitive decline by two and one half years, 07:30 versus those that didn't. 07:31 So you don't want your brain to start pooping out. 07:34 You don't want it to have all this oxidative stress, 07:36 and start aging the brain, and causing the DNA to get older. 07:40 You want to start, you know, keeping that slowed down. 07:42 And we could do that by adding antioxidants to our diet, 07:46 as well as try not to eat a lot of food that causes oxidation, 07:50 which tends to be the processed foods, the meat, the dairy, 07:53 those type of foods. Right. 07:54 So we want to keep our brain functioning great. 07:56 Also, a study that was done not too long ago showed that people 08:00 that eat berries and other antioxidants too, increase the 08:04 type of cells in our body called natural killer cells. 08:08 Do you know what natural killer cells do? 08:09 I don't, but it's not bad. 08:11 Yes, they're bad boys! 08:13 They're the best boys in the immune system. 08:14 Because, for instance, they see a bacterial virus, they just go 08:17 and they gobble it up. Okay. 08:19 It's not like the antibody cells that are like smart bombs. 08:22 You know, they tag it, and then they signal everyone 08:25 else to come get it. 08:26 So a specific type of that, no. 08:28 These gobble up everything that's bad; 08:30 so natural killer cells. 08:31 We know that blueberries increase the ability of natural 08:35 killer cells to increase their numbers. 08:37 An interesting study that I read is sometimes 08:40 people over exercise. 08:42 And I know that you're a triathlon. 08:44 Yeah, well, I ride my bike quite a bit, yeah. 08:46 And sometimes people have a tendency to over exercise. Sure. 08:49 That is a process that causes oxidative stress. Uh huh. 08:54 And you make these free radicals. Yeah. 08:56 And these free radicals in the studies have shown to decrease 08:59 the amount of these natural killer cells a lot; like from 09:03 four billion normally to one billion after oxidative stress. 09:07 Okay. Well, it's been shown that heavy exercisers, 09:09 after they do, have the exercise, if they take 09:12 antioxidants, specifically blueberries, can dramatically 09:16 increase these natural killer cells. 09:19 So just bringing antioxidants like blueberries after our 09:22 body's been under stress can help us increase these 09:26 killer cells, which helps our entire body. 09:28 So I think that's pretty amazing. Uh huh. 09:30 So we see that blueberries can help our immune system, 09:33 help us recover from stressful situations on our body, 09:37 also help our brain to decline. 09:39 And it's also been shown that this is a treatment for 09:42 Alzheimer's disease, which is another cognitive function 09:46 from the same wells. 09:47 So would you rather have blueberries every day, 09:49 or take a pill every day? 09:51 I'd have some blueberries. 09:52 In fact I do often. 09:53 I'll go ride my bike on a weekend maybe for an hour 09:56 or two, and when I get back if we've got blueberries in the 09:58 fridge, that's one of the first things I'll go for. 10:00 Just a big handful. 10:01 Excellent, excellent. 10:02 Now blueberries have been very well studied. 10:04 But there's other berries that have great 10:06 antioxidant effects, too, especially blackberries. 10:10 So I'm sure if they did the studies on blackberries 10:13 they would be shown. 10:14 Now strawberries aren't quite as good, 10:16 but they're good at antioxidants, too. 10:18 Mangos, cranberries, they all have different... 10:20 Berries seem to be very good at having antioxidant properties. 10:24 But other fruits and vegetables God gave us have some level 10:27 of antioxidants as well. 10:29 So those are very good. 10:30 Now there's other chemicals that are in blueberries 10:33 that are now being studied. 10:35 They're called polyphenols. 10:36 Another one's called the flavonoids. 10:39 And we're now learning that those chemicals, when they get 10:41 in our body in the right amounts, they help chemical 10:44 reactions in our body. They help our body recover. 10:45 They help our body recover. 10:47 They protect our DNA. 10:48 They help inflammation. 10:50 They do many good things that help our body. 10:52 In the general neurology it's been shown that berries are used 10:56 as a treatment for Parkinson's disease; another movement 10:59 disorder by the brain. 11:00 So also there are some studies that I read out there that says 11:04 that also berries protect us against certain brain toxins 11:07 like pesticides. Uh huh. 11:09 So I think that berries, especially blueberries, 11:12 blackberries, all these berries have antioxidants that help 11:15 our body on many levels. 11:17 Inside the arteries of the body, you know, 11:20 we have inflammation going on. 11:21 So it might be that antioxidants help those type of situations, 11:25 so it might help cardiovascular disease as well. 11:27 So I want everyone to include blueberries, different types of 11:31 berries into their regimen, not only to prevent disease 11:34 but also to treat disease. 11:36 Well, we've got a clip from our friend, Kristina McFeeters, 11:39 and she shows us one way that she loves to use blueberries 11:42 in her diet for a nice, cool, summer treat. 11:46 So let's take a look at that. 11:49 Welcome to Kristina's Kitchen. 11:51 I'm Kristina McFeeters. 11:54 Today we will explore one of my favorite ways to include 11:57 blueberries into my diet. 11:59 To make Blueberry Smoothie we're going to start with 12:02 1 cup of our favorite type of milk. 12:05 You can use soy milk, or you can get the 12:08 non-refrigerated soy milk. 12:09 You can get almond milk. 12:11 You can use coconut milk. 12:12 Any kind of milk that you would like to use that's your favorite, 12:16 you can put in here. 12:18 And you need 1 cup. 12:22 You do not have to have a large, fancy Vitamix 12:26 to make this recipe. 12:27 I've also made it in a smaller version in a Nutribullet, 12:32 or a Oster Blender, or whatever kind of blender you want to use. 12:37 A Ninja works, too. 12:39 Anything you want to use to blend it. 12:40 The next thing that we're going to put in is 1 frozen banana. 12:44 Bananas are so easy to freeze. 12:46 You just peel them, and put them in a Ziploc Bag, 12:50 and stick them in the freezer. 12:51 I like to break them up in smaller chunks so 12:53 they're easier to blend. 12:55 Then we need 1 cup of frozen blueberries. 12:59 You can also use fresh blueberries. 13:03 The nice thing about using frozen is if you want more 13:06 of an ice cream consistency instead of a drink. 13:09 It'll make it nice and thick. 13:17 Next we need some kind of sweetener. 13:19 You can use apple juice concentrate. 13:23 You can use raw honey. 13:25 Or you can use a few dates. 13:27 I usually use about 2 to 3 tablespoons of 13:30 some kind of sweetener. 13:37 And then for a little bit of flavor we're going to put in 13:39 a little bit of vanilla. 13:41 This is vanilla powder, vanilla liquid, vanilla extract; 13:44 any kind of vanilla works just fine in this recipe. 13:47 We're going to put in about a half a teaspoon. 13:53 And then to add just a pinch of flavor, we're going to 13:56 put a pinch of salt. 13:59 If it doesn't blend well, or you need it thinner, don't be afraid 14:03 to add more liquid. 14:13 Now what we have here is more like an 14:16 ice cream than a smoothie. 14:17 That's the way I like Smoothie; not a lot of water in it, 14:21 but lots of fruit. 14:22 And it's the most healthy ice cream that you'll ever eat. 14:25 Now let's pour it and see what we have. 14:33 See how easy and simple that was, and so much fun? 14:38 It improves your memory. 14:39 It's full of antioxidants, so many nutrients, tastes amazing, 14:44 and totally guilt free. 14:45 Be sure and try this at home. 14:50 Thanks Kristina. That really was a really good recipe. 14:53 One of my favorite ways. 14:54 And it tasted just as good as ice cream, 14:56 but it was so much healthier for you. 14:58 Yeah, and I think once you get used to eating those healthy 15:01 type foods full of antioxidants, your brain sort of knows 15:06 you're doing it a favor. 15:07 You know, and I think that sort of changes the way you 15:09 think about things. 15:10 You think man, I'm doing good! 15:12 And your inflammation starts getting better. 15:13 Then all of a sudden another thing that happens is your 15:16 belief system starts to change. 15:17 Because you believe it's helping you; that has a power in itself. 15:21 When the body thinks it's helping, it seems to help. 15:24 So you get a double health benefit from eating things 15:27 and understanding how it can help you do better. 15:29 Right, right. We've got to take a break, but stick around. 15:33 There's more to come on the Ultimate Prescription 15:34 where we're going to learn more about using food as medicine. 15:37 Stay with us. |
Revised 2017-04-04