Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000101A
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00:16 Do you ever have trouble sleeping at night?
00:18 If so, have you thought about how the food you eat could be 00:22 a contributing factor? 00:23 On the Ultimate Prescription today we're going to be 00:25 discussing food as medicine. 00:27 Stay with us, because we're going to start in just a moment. 00:31 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:32 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:36 Do you want solutions to your health care problem? 00:38 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:41 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:48 Hello, and thank you for joining us on today program, 00:50 the Ultimate Prescription. 00:51 I'm your host, Nick Evanson, and we're going to be 00:54 discussing food as medicine. 00:55 Dr. Marcum, welcome to the program, and thank you so much 00:58 for your sharing your expertise on how we can use better 01:01 nutrition to treat medical issues. 01:03 Yeah, this is a very important topic, because as time moves on 01:07 we're finding other ways besides prescription medications 01:11 to treat the body and change the chemistry, and also get at 01:14 the cause of disease rather than just treating symptoms. 01:17 And we found that in treating things with nutrition, 01:22 there's much less side effects, there's much less danger. 01:25 These foods are often things that we can incorporate 01:29 into our daily diet; great ways to change our physiology. 01:33 But remember, not all plants necessarily are good. 01:37 You know, some plants aren't so good, so we have to be careful. 01:39 You have to check with your doctor, do the due diligent. 01:42 And that's what we've tried to do here with this 01:45 series of programs. 01:46 We've gone through the literature and found which foods 01:48 can treat specific medical conditions which might help. 01:52 What have the studies shown? 01:54 And a lot of this research has been pulled by my colleagues 01:58 at NutritionFacts.org where they've looked at all the 02:02 studies that have been done. 02:03 They've sort of gone through them all for us, 02:05 and I've sort of collected that. 02:07 And we're talking about how we can apply it 02:09 to a patient's life. 02:10 Yeah, now food is medicine. 02:12 I'm sure in treating cardiology it's frequent that you have to 02:16 tell patients that they need to eat a little bit more of this, 02:18 a little bit less of this. 02:20 How does that go over? 02:21 Well, you know, it's been hard, and it's been a 02:24 learning experience. 02:26 And I've looked at the way I practiced the last 25 years, 02:29 and I've changed the way I approach people. 02:33 You know, some people can do everything at once. 02:37 And they know if they keep eating a certain way that it's 02:40 damaging their body; the fats filling up their arteries. 02:43 They have cancer. They're eating carcinogen type foods. 02:47 And they know that if they continue it 02:49 they're going to die. 02:50 So some people can change just like this, okay? 02:53 But food is such a big part of our culture. 02:56 It's such a... You know, it's how we're raised. 02:59 It's how we're growing up. 03:00 We see all these commercials. 03:03 It's a fast food type thing; it's easy. 03:06 Its appealing to our taste buds. 03:08 We can actually get addicted to food. Right. 03:12 And the food companies know this. 03:15 And all these factors go into this. 03:18 And we also, when I approach a patient, that we're asking them 03:21 to change, it also effects their belief systems. 03:23 You know, how do they believe me? 03:26 You know, they, Oh, this is what everyone says. 03:28 This must be good! Right. 03:29 So what I have to do first of all is a 03:32 little bit of education. 03:33 And I have to say, Well, you know, the way I approach it, 03:35 I have to give them some evidence based medicine. 03:39 That's what we try to do here. 03:40 And I say, Look at the world we live in. 03:42 You know, are we getting better? 03:44 You know, there's more cases of heart disease now, 03:46 more cancer than ever before, more diabetes, sleep apnea, 03:51 You know, people are not healthier. 03:53 And yet the prescription medications go up every year. 03:57 Our technology gets better every year. 04:00 You would think if we were solving problems, 04:03 as technology got better these disease rates, especially for 04:07 chronic disease, would get better. 04:09 So I sort of talk to them about that. 04:11 And then we go into, Well, what causes certain diseases? 04:13 Well, we know that certain diseases like diabetes, 04:17 extra weight, you know, extra fat in the body, 04:20 certain diseases like hypertension, which leads to 04:23 stroke and heart disease, and kidney disease, lots of sodium, 04:26 and processed foods, too much animal based products trigger 04:31 certain types of cancer, okay? 04:34 And it just wears in general. 04:35 It wears our bodies out. 04:37 So once people start to understand that they begin that 04:40 maybe the food we eat aren't the best things. 04:43 And then they start doing a little research. 04:46 We give them some websites, and they realize, Yeah, we're 04:48 putting a lot of chemicals, and preservatives, and, you know, 04:51 there's got to be a better way. 04:52 So I try to also incorporate God's way. 04:55 And I show, you know, God's original plan was lots of 04:58 fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains. 05:00 And, unfortunately, what we're doing to our food source might 05:03 not be the best, so learn about it. 05:05 And then, wherever they're at, I say, Well, listen, the first 05:08 place I want a person to start is in prayer. 05:12 Talk to God about it. 05:13 Give Him a part of your life, a part of your health. 05:16 And I explain how our health and our 05:19 spirituality go hand in hand. 05:21 The better we feel, the better our body is, the better we 05:25 communicate with God. 05:26 The better we communicate with God the more we learn these 05:28 things, and have the power to maybe make a change. 05:31 And then I don't try to do everything, okay? 05:34 And if I say, Well, let's just pick one thing that you can do 05:37 and pray about it, and see if it helps your body out. Right. 05:40 So we talk about some of the things that they love, 05:43 and things that they like, and things that they might not like. 05:46 And then we say, Well, why don't you do this first? 05:48 You know, why don't you try to substitute? 05:50 Maybe you could eat all the good things first, and it would... 05:52 And just eat enough bad stuff to be happy? Uh huh. 05:55 Let's eat early in the mornings so we're not so starved we make 05:59 the chemicals, Ghrelin and some of the leptons that make us not 06:02 able to make a good decision. 06:04 Let's try to find substitutes. 06:06 And it might take years, and years, and years to get a person 06:09 heading in the right direction. 06:11 And we don't want them to change because of guilt, or we don't 06:14 want them to feel pressure. 06:15 We want them to do it because God is changing their lives. 06:18 That they do it because they want to have a better 06:20 relationship with God. 06:22 They want to take care of this gift. 06:23 And we understand that we don't have to do everything at once. 06:26 We're a work in progress. That's right. 06:28 And even if we can't be perfect on food and everything, 06:31 as long as we have God in our lives, His grace makes up 06:35 for our weaknesses. 06:36 None of us are ever going to be perfect in health 06:38 about anything, okay? 06:39 But we can head in that direction with God's help. 06:42 So I just tried those things, and I pick at least one thing 06:45 a person can do to do better. 06:47 And I have some patients that the only single thing that they 06:50 can do is drink water. Yeah. 06:52 I have some that all they can do is eat breakfast. 06:55 I have some that all they can do is only eat greens once a day. 06:58 But once they start doing this, their physiology changes. 07:02 When they're working with God, God shows them ways, 07:04 and gives them more power, and before long I find out, 07:07 you know, they feel better. 07:09 And the people that I can get to make the big changes, 07:12 they feel better than they ever have. 07:14 They get off prescription medicines. 07:16 They have the chance to reverse or halt disease, diabetes, 07:20 lose weight, better inflammation, think better, 07:23 sleep better at night. 07:24 The list goes on and on. 07:25 But it's not so easy. 07:27 And I pray for them, too, that I reach them as well as I could. 07:32 But it's really God's power that gives them the ability to make 07:35 changes for the right reasons. 07:37 So that's my approach right now. 07:39 It hasn't always been that way. 07:41 Now, Nick, I have some patients that come, they can't walk 07:44 across the room, because they have angina. 07:46 They know if they don't make these changes now, 07:48 they're not going to live long. Right. 07:50 So they make changes very quickly. 07:52 I have some people that have had cancer, and they know that 07:56 the only way to keep, to lower the risk of cancer is to 07:58 change the way they eat. 08:00 So they can make changes right now. Yeah. 08:02 We have some that have some bad side effects on medications, 08:05 and sometimes when they're feeling bad they can 08:07 make changes quicker. 08:09 Some people have to stay alive to take care 08:11 of their loved ones. Right. 08:12 They seem to make changes quicker. 08:14 But I think the key, the approach is, I get them to 08:17 turn to Christ as not only someone to help them, 08:22 but to see the things that they need to do, and give them the 08:25 power to make things. 08:26 And try to just done one thing at a time. 08:28 Some people can't do everything at once. 08:30 And give them the important things. 08:32 And then as they do this we'll try to encourage them, 08:35 and bring on... And some times I can say, Well, why don't you 08:37 at good 80% of the time, and only eat bad 20% of the time? 08:41 Well, when people start eating good, after a while their 08:45 receptors in their brain change, and food tastes different 08:48 to them, and then they're able to make a change. 08:50 Sometimes I can say, Well, why don't you... 08:52 You know you like ice cream a lot. 08:54 Well, why don't you, instead of eating ice cream every night, 08:57 Right. Why don't you substitute it one night? 08:59 Eat berries with that, you know? 09:01 Well, why don't you, you say you like to eat chips, 09:04 and I used to be a big chip eater, Nick. I used to. 09:06 So what now? I loved to eat chips and dip stuff. 09:09 But now I'm trying to take my vegetables like celery, carrots, 09:14 and I'm try to dip it in something like tahini, 09:17 or hummus, or something like that, and find a substitute. 09:20 And praying that God will change my taste buds so I'll like 09:23 that even more. Right. 09:25 So that's sort of my general approach. 09:26 And then when I treat myself, I like to treat, you know, 09:29 put spices on things; trying to find substitutes that God's 09:32 given us that we have even more. 09:34 But that's the approach I take now. 09:37 Who knows what it will be in the future. 09:39 And each person, Nick, is an individual. 09:42 And not one program works for everybody, you know. 09:45 And you have to be flexible, because you don't want to 09:48 change them, you know, if their diet effects their belief system 09:51 that might hurt them, too. 09:53 So it's much more complicated by saying, 09:55 you need to do this, this, and this. 09:56 Here's why you need to do it. 09:58 It's working with people, loving them, not judging them, 10:01 working with their belief system, their cultures. 10:03 There's some parts of the world that don't have access 10:06 to healthy foods. Right. 10:07 You know, I had someone one time that all they had to eat 10:09 was a bad food, but I would rather have them eat that bad 10:12 food and stay alive, than have low blood sugar. 10:15 That's right. You make the best you can out of a situation here. 10:17 Exactly, and you don't beat yourself up, you know? 10:20 If you have one bad day, just try not to have two bad days. 10:23 Sure. You know, and try to let God work with you 10:26 in your nutrition, giving you the power to see things. 10:29 And that's what we're trying to do here is giving some people 10:31 some options where they can learn, and maybe make some 10:35 changes where they can feel better. 10:37 And that's why I've researched these different plants, 10:39 and different things that we can use, and maybe substitute some 10:42 of these for prescription medications. 10:44 Yeah. Well, let's talk about it here. 10:45 Today we've got sesame seeds, and we also have 10:48 some pumpkin seeds. 10:49 What are these good for? 10:51 Well, if you think about seeds, seeds are like power packed. 10:56 Because seeds grow into big plants. Right. 10:58 So there are very concentrated good things in seeds. 11:01 And we've been told about how God has given 11:03 us the seeds to eat. 11:05 And there's a sesame seed there. 11:07 And a lot of people can incorporate that. 11:09 You know, you can eat those, but they tend to be 11:11 salty a little bit. 11:13 But a lot of people incorporate those into baking. 11:15 You know, you can bake with this. Right. 11:18 They're a little nutty. 11:19 It's the main ingredient of a product we hear 11:22 about called tahini. 11:24 Have you ever had tahini? 11:25 You know, I think I have, but I can't recall 11:26 what it tastes like. 11:28 Did you know that that's sesame seeds? 11:29 Now one of the things that sesame seeds have that are 11:31 valuable, they have a lot of trace elements. 11:36 Okay, these are elements like copper; very high in copper. 11:40 Things like magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc; 11:44 different things like that have a lot of selenium in it. 11:48 And sesame, that has a chemical called sesamum, and those are a 11:53 type of chemical called lignins, okay? 11:55 And lignin's, that chemical, I wish I could have a lignin pill 11:59 that I could just give separately. Sure. 12:01 But there seems to be something special about it when a lignin 12:04 wrapped in a plant that it gets absorbed better. 12:08 And that's why, sometimes, people pull out the nutrients 12:11 and concentrate it. 12:12 Well, those as a supplement don't seem to work as well as 12:16 if you eat the whole food itself. Right. 12:18 So when we have these chemicals it always works in a delivery 12:21 system if you eat the food that it was packaged in. 12:24 Well lignin's, they have phytosterols. 12:26 And the phytosterols in the lignin's, they seem to lower 12:29 cholesterol, and they seem to also lower blood pressure. 12:33 And also it seems to help the liver to protect it from this 12:37 process called oxidation; the aging part of the liver. 12:41 You know, stress causes oxidation. 12:42 Different things can cause that. 12:44 For instance, copper, that's a trace element. 12:47 You've heard of copper, right? in pennies? Right. 12:49 But we need copper in our bodies. 12:51 And copper seems to help in some types of pain. 12:54 You know, for arthritic pains, for years we used to give people 12:57 gold, or trace elements seemed to help with 13:00 rheumatoid arthritis. 13:01 Magnesium, which we can get in sesame seeds, helps with asthma. 13:06 It helps with rhythm of the heart. 13:08 Lots of people come to me with palpitations. 13:11 And sometimes it's just because they don't have enough 13:12 magnesium in their diet. 13:14 Of course, magnesium helps lower blood pressure as well. 13:18 And it helps in some studies to lower migraine headaches. 13:21 Really? So just getting magnesium in the body can 13:23 help with a lot of things. 13:25 Now, so those are some of the good things about sesame seeds. 13:28 Now pumpkin seeds... Have you ever eaten pumpkin seeds much? 13:30 I have, you know. Sometimes they're packaged, 13:33 and they're a little bit salty. 13:34 I don't know that they're that way naturally, 13:35 but that's really pumpkin seeds. 13:38 Pumpkin seeds are again another seed that has lots of good 13:41 things that help us. 13:43 One of the trace elements that pumpkin seeds has in it is the 13:46 substance called zinc, okay? 13:48 Zinc is a very important chemical in our body that helps 13:52 our bones do better, helps us not to have as many fractures. 13:55 It improves our immune function, 13:57 and also helps our prostate. 14:00 In fact in the prostate in men, that's where they have the 14:03 highest zinc levels in the body. Really? 14:06 In the prostate; lots. 14:07 And so it's a very important trace element. 14:09 So if you run low on zinc in the body, you're not going to... 14:11 Your prostate's not going to work as well. 14:13 You're going to have a higher risk of broken bones. 14:16 Your immune system's going to go down. 14:17 It's also, these pumpkin seeds are a good source of vitamin E, 14:22 which helps the skin do better. 14:24 And remember, vitamins are important enzymes in our bodies. 14:28 It also helps, again, magnesium. 14:30 It helps all the things we talked about. 14:32 Pumpkin seeds also have Omega 3 healthy fat in them. Right. 14:35 And we've already talked about how the healthy fat helps brain 14:39 function, helps lots of the parts of our body. 14:40 But one of the things I wanted to talk about, and you alluded 14:43 to it in our opening, that pumpkin seeds help with the 14:47 substance called tryptophan in the body. 14:49 Right. Now tryptophan... I'm sure some of our viewers have 14:53 heard of that before. 14:54 That's usually associated with eating turkey at Thanksgiving, 14:56 and it makes you sleepy. 14:58 Is that right? Right, right. 14:59 But turkey's not the best place to get it necessarily. 15:01 It's not the only source, but you can get tryptophan from 15:04 pumpkin seeds, and in the body it turns it into serotonin, 15:08 and also it turns it into melatonin. 15:10 And melatonin helps as a sleep aid. 15:13 So if you're having problems sleeping, maybe you should 15:16 eat some seeds occasionally to see if it will help you 15:20 sleep better at night. 15:21 Now I wouldn't eat it right before I go to bed, 15:24 but I might eat it with my evening meal. 15:27 I might throw some pumpkin seeds in there; see if I can 15:29 increase my tryptophan, which is going to help brain function, 15:33 my serotonin, which might help depression. 15:36 The serotonin could get converted to melatonin, 15:38 which helps us sleep better. 15:40 So just having some seeds might help with sleep. 15:43 It's also been shown in a few studies, pumpkin seeds to have 15:46 anti-inflammatory effects. Okay. 15:49 They ran it head to head, a handful of pumpkin seeds, 15:52 with a medicine called Indocin, and they found that the pumpkin 15:56 seeds helped a lot with inflammation in the body. 15:59 So it helps a lot. Now a lot of people like to... 16:02 You know, you've heard of different types of 16:04 seeds being sprouted. 16:06 Have you heard of that? Uh huh. Okay. 16:08 You know, we hear about sprouting. 16:11 I found that sprouting, it also... 16:14 A lot of people like to do it. 16:15 And the sprouts are very healthy. 16:17 But in my experience, sprouts do take 16:20 a lot of time to do this. Right. 16:22 But sprouting seems to help a chemical called phytic acid 16:25 in the body, which broadens our nutrient 16:29 composition of these seeds. 16:31 So seeds have an abundant way of helping our 16:35 body in numerous ways: the trace elements, the lignin's, 16:40 which help lower cholesterol and blood pressure. 16:42 It might help us with the tryptophan levels, 16:45 which can help us sleep well. 16:46 It does a lot of good things. 16:48 These are just the things that the studies have shown. 16:50 It probably does a lot more good things. 16:52 And we have other seeds that you heard about. 16:54 You remember Chia seeds? Uh huh. 16:56 I like to put some Chia seeds on my oatmeal every day. Right. 16:59 A lot of other different seeds we can incorporate into our diet 17:03 to not only help our bodies do better, but also help specific 17:06 conditions we might get in trouble with. 17:08 Yeah. Well, it sounds like there's a lot of good reasons to 17:10 incorporate these seeds into our diet. 17:12 And we're going to do just that after the break here. 17:15 We're going to look at some more ways to incorporate sesame seeds 17:18 and pumpkin seeds into our diet. 17:19 So stay with us. The Ultimate Prescription 17:21 returns in just a moment. |
Revised 2017-05-02