On this episode of Anti-Aging Hacks, we talk about how to Eat To Beat Disease.
Here are some of the main topics we cover:
1. Why does blood flow (too little or too much) have a big part in diseases as we get older?
2. How we can eat the right foods to restore the blood flow to all parts of our body?
3. How you can use a common beauty technique to improve your skin and hair quality even more!
William W. Li, MD, is an internationally renowned physician, scientist and author of the New York Times bestseller “Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself.”
His groundbreaking work has led to the development of more than 30 new medical treatments and impacts care for more than 70 diseases including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease and obesity. His TED Talk, “Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?” has garnered more than 11 million views.
Dr. Li has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC and the Dr. Oz Show, and he has been featured in USA Today, Time Magazine, The Atlantic and O Magazine. He is president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation and is actively researching COVID-19.
Here are the show notes from our episode:
01:18: Dr. William, how did you get interested in food and angiogenesis?
“What we eat is delivered via blood vessels to every cell in our body. That’s kinda connected to the food.”
He lived in Italy. There, he started to learn how food and culture impacts health and lifestyle.
William discovered that food helps our blood vessels. That’s the realization where everything began.
04:16: Can you explain how angiogenesis has to be in perfect harmony in the body? What happens when we get out of sync on both sides?
Blood vessels are important because they are transferring oxygen and nutrients to every part of our body.
They live in balance. Our body knows how to create the right number of blood vessels.
The number of blood vessels increases when we need them.
“Having the right balance of the blood vessels is incredibly important as we age.”
06:44: How did you get so famous?
Dr. VIlliam was always focused on his work. He was very fortunate to meet people who have a great deal of influence and success in their lives. They got really interested in his work.
08:37: “Finally, for the first time, we can measure foods like we measure drugs.” Can you explain how we do that?
The whole idea of food medicine is a concept. He studied how our body responds to food.
10:14: In your book “Eat to beat diseases”, you talked about five defense systems in our body. Can you explain them?
Our health is a result of our body’s self-defense systems.
Five of these systems were studied. In biotechnology, we know that they are important.
In his book, he wrote about 200 foods, and how which food activates each defense system.
12:57: You said in your book that we all have cancer. When you said “We all have cancer”, what did you mean by that?
Cancers develop really slowly over the years. It can’t grow more than 2mm. When the immune system detects that cancer cell, it removes it from our body. We get “cancer disease” when that small cell escapes from our immune system and gets larger.
15:35: Most of our cells are pretty close to the proximity of the blood vessels. How then does cancer grow?
Every cell in our body is about 100 microns away from the nearest blood vessel. When cancer sprouts, it fits within 100 microns.
Cancer cells will create the same proteins that our body uses to heal wounds. That’s when blood vessels penetrate the cells.
17:43 Can you recommend a few foods from your book which naturally fight cancer?
One of Dr. Williams’s favorite foods for preventing cancer are the tomatoes.
Tomatoes have natural chemicals whose job is to help our defensive system. One study showed that people who ate 2-3 servings of cooked tomatoes every week had a 30% lower risk of developing a prostate cancer.
*Heating up tomatoes with olive oil*
21:59: Do we need to avoid soy? Is it helpful or harmful?
Soy is rich with estrogen. Many people don’t know that estrogen in soy actually helps our body to decrease our estrogen level.
Soy is really helpful in fighting cancer. One study showed that women who have breast cancer and eat soya had a 30% less chance of dying.
25:24: Which type of soy is the best for our bodies? (GMO vs Organic vs Fermented soy)
Fermented soy concentrates much more good stuff for fighting cancer.
The great thing about soy is because there are more than 100 ways of preparing it.
26:27: How can somebody tell if he is at risk of having too many blood vessels or too few angiogenesis?
Family history is definitely one of the biggest risk factors. Also, we are at risk even without a family history.
*10% of cancers are due to genetics.
*90% of cancers are due to our diet and lifestyle.
Quality sleep is one of the times when your body boosts your defense to repair your body.
30:52: Reducing and enhancing angiogenesis?
Heart disease – when you don’t have enough blood vessels in your body.
*apple peels, dark chocolate, and cacao can stimulate blood vessels to grow
Our body knows how to keep a balance of blood vessels in our bodies. We don’t need to worry about eating too much blood vessels increasing/decreasing food.
33:37: Do more blood vessels mean more blood flow?
“More blood vessels do mean more blood flow, but the blood vessels have to be open and clear.”
*eat healthy fats (They have a positive effect on circulation.)
34:58: What would you recommend for people that are going thru hair loss?
Keep your blood flow open and flowing. Avoid things that can clot it.
Regular exercise stimulates better blood flow.
37:20: How would you suggest people improve circulation?
Avoid smoking, too much alcohol, high-fat diets, and pre-diabetes.
39:54: What is your opinion on saturated fats and carnivore diets?
Saturated fats are not good for you.
Eating red meat changes your microbiomes within 24 hours. Your body needs 2 weeks to redo your microbiomes back to the normal level.
Avoid processed meats.
43:12: Are there two types of immune systems? How can we improve immunity?
“Our immune system is a really complicated defensive system in our body, and that is great!”
We don’t want to take antibiotics; it is best to use our immune system.
*We can protect our circulation
“Eat to beat disease!”
Some great foods for immunity are *mushrooms, tea, blueberries