The Cancer Protocol She Wishes She Had Known Sooner | Liana Werner-Gray

Summary

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The Dr. Josh Axe Show – Episode Summary

Episode Title: The Cancer Protocol She Wishes She Had Known Sooner

Guest: Liana Werner-Gray
Original Release: July 23, 2026
Host: Dr. Josh Axe

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Episode Overview

In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Dr. Josh Axe interviews Liana Werner-Gray—a best-selling author, nutritionist, and cancer survivor—about her natural healing journey from cancer at age 21. The conversation traces her immersive story of healing through nutrition, holistic protocols, and faith, while tackling myths and misdirections in mainstream cancer treatment and nutrition. They dig deep into healing foods, the dangers of seed oils, the importance of emotional and spiritual health, and actionable steps anyone facing chronic illness can take.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Liana’s Cancer Diagnosis & Turning Point

• Background: Liana grew up in Australia, living naturally, but began binge eating junk food at 16, leading to a "golf ball-sized tumor" in her throat after 5 years.
  • Quote:
    "At 16, I started to binge eat on junk food. Every single meal was a high and after five years of that, I ended up with a golf ball sized tumor right here in my throat, which was the biggest wake up call that I needed." (16: [01:16])

Rejecting Conventional Treatment & Seeking Roots

• Conventional Advice: Doctors recommended surgery.

• Liana’s Choice: She refused surgery, citing indigenous wisdom that if you don't fix the root, disease returns.

  • Quote:
    "If you just get something cut out of your body and don't address the root, that will most likely pop up somewhere else." (17: [01:42])

• Instead, she pursued a naturopathic and functional medicine route, focusing on gut detoxification and nutrition.

Healing Protocol: The Earth Diet

• The Earth Diet: Born from a challenge to eat only foods from the Earth for a year, this protocol focused on nourishment over deprivation.
• Liana creatively made “natural” versions of junk foods—like a McFlurry made from whole, unprocessed ingredients.
  • Quote:
    "So the Earth diet helped me to create a natural McFlurry and after three months of doing this, the tumor was completely dissolved." (18: [01:55])
  • Detailed Protocol: Emphasized plant-forward eating; included some animal proteins; relied on juicing, daily chlorophyll, and replacing cravings with healthy substitutes.
• Detox: Fasting, colonics, coffee enemas (daily for two months), and juices were core parts of her initial protocol.
  • Quote:
    "After three months of doing this, the tumor was completely dissolved." (19: [07:44])

[03:56–08:56]

• Plant-based, “Biblical” foods and boosting natural immunity; recognized the impact of chronic fatigue (Epstein Barr) and parasites.

Key Healing Tools & Supplements

1. Juicing & Chlorophyll

• Daily green juices rich in chlorophyll, calling it the “leaves for medicine” (Ezekiel 47:12).
  • Quote:
    "I attest chlorophyll to be one of the main, main things...And that's the thing too, is like healing cancer. But then we want to stay cancer free. That's the next goal." (22: [13:10])

2. Bentonite Clay

• Used traditionally to remove parasites and cleanse the blood.
  • Quote:
    "The doctor said, start drinking bentonite clay because it will help to absorb them and clean out your blood and clean out your gut. So I was all on board for it." (23: [08:56])

3. Herbal Teas

• Lemon myrtle tea (native Australian plant with antiviral properties) was supportive during her healing.
  • Quote:
    "My naturopath had a lemon myrtle tree… So I would do that almost every other day. And that helped to boost my immune system." (25: [13:10])

4. Vitamin B17 (Amygdalin) from Apricot Seeds

• Discovered post-healing, used for her mother’s breast cancer.
  • Quote:
    "What it does is…the apricot seed has B17, amygdalin and leotrel. When it finds a cancer cell, it will explode cyanide …it kills the cancer cell and spares the healthy cell so it doesn't destroy all the healthy cells too, like conventional chemo." (37: [16:12])

5. Sulforaphane from Broccoli Sprouts

• Recognized as the most potent and broadly studied cancer-fighting food.
  • Quote:
    "Sulforaphane just came up over and over and over again as number one…it's impossible for a tumor to hold form with sulforaphane presentation." (41: [22:02])

6. Sleep & Rest

• Describes sleeping up to 18 hours a day during healing, emphasizing deep rest as critical restoration.
  • Quote:
    "I was only awake six hours a day. I was sleeping a lot. And so, yeah, I just gave my body the fuel that it needed. And when we do that, it responds." (31: [08:30])

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Addressing Emotional & Spiritual Roots

Trauma & Addiction

• Liana’s binge eating was linked to unaddressed childhood trauma.
• Importance of healing emotional wounds:
  • Quote:
    "You have this tumor in your throat because of the abuse and the trauma from your childhood that you haven't healed." (57: [29:39])

Faith, Prayer, Confession, and Repentance

• First prayed authentically at age 21 during the crisis; later, deepened her relationship with God through prayer, repenting for past behaviors.

• Dr. Axe:
  "When you're able to go and confess and repent, it is maybe the single most freeing thing a person could do." (68: [28:28, 34:23, 35:03])

• Liana:
  "I've had two years of being completely set free and have so much peace and bliss and just God is just so, so good. So I fully yielded my life to Jesus two years ago." (70: [32:23])

• Spiritual healing was as critical as physical; emotional burdens (shame, guilt, trauma) must be released for true health.

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The Seed Oil Controversy & Healing Fats

Industrial Seed Oils: History, Process & Risks

• Outlines how oils like canola, soy, corn, and cottonseed are industrial products not designed for human food.

  • Quote:
    "Canola oil was created in a lab in Canada. That's how it's got its name, Canola. And, and it's completely genetically modified…God never created it." (83: [40:21])
  • The extraction process uses solvents, high heat, and results in oxidized, inflammatory end products.
  • Historical context: Created as war machine lubricants (World War I & II), later introduced into food via marketing and misinformation.
    • Quote:
      "They were using cottonseed oil, safflower oil. And then after the war's finished, they said, okay, what do we do with all this oil? ...Let's put it in the food industry." (90: [44:45])

• Seed oils linked in studies to issues from dementia to infertility; the $500B industry has economic interest in maintaining status quo.

Safer Alternatives

• Recommended Oils:
  • #1 Extra-virgin olive oil
  • #2 Avocado oil
  • #3 Coconut oil
    • Used for cooking, salad dressings, and as primary fats in a healing diet.

Fats, Plants, and Bio-Individuality

• While "majority plant-rich" diets offer most people the best outcomes for healing, individual needs vary; animal proteins can be restorative for some, but high-saturated fat diets may slow detoxification.
  • Quote:
    "If somebody is frail, if somebody needs regeneration in a way and strength, well, they do need meat. They need more of what we call those yang foods in Chinese medicine...God made everybody incredibly unique." (95: [47:06])

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Practical Steps for Cancer Healing (and Maintenance)

[48:05–52:45]

Removals:

• #1 Refined sugar (white sugar, corn syrup): "proven to be more addictive than cocaine," crashes immune function for 8 hours.
• #2 Seed oils
• #3 Conventional gluten and dairy
• #4 GMO and microwave foods

Additions:

• Daily green juice/chlorophyll
• Apricot seeds (B17)
• Sulforaphane (broccoli sprouts)
• Focused, nutrient-dense whole foods

Replacement Therapy:

• “Swap” method—always find a healthy substitute instead of going without.
  • Quote:
    "Nowadays we live in the easiest time to be healthy. You can go to a health food store and you can buy all these healthy alternatives..." (101: [50:42])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Liana on cancer:
  "Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I needed to create a relationship with God and to create the Earth Diet, which helped heal me and thousands of other people to this day." (59: [29:39])

• Dr. Axe on confession:
  "It's the greatest form of detoxification ever. You are releasing and letting go of these spirits and these things that are actually causing cancer." (77: [33:33])

• On spiritual practices:
  "If you really want to heal and move forward the best way...You need to have both...Knowing and understanding how amazing it is what Jesus did for us and this humility with it. But also there should be this massive confidence...God set me free." (80: [36:38])

• Liana on replacement and staying healthy:
  "That's how I've maintained health for 17 years. And I don't miss out or feel deprived at all...I've got recipes for everything—cookie dough ice creams, chocolate, avocado mousse." (105: [52:36])

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Important Timestamps

• [03:56–05:39] Liana’s complete healing story
• [07:18–07:44] Juicing, Gerson protocol, colonics, and natural tumor resolution
• [08:56–09:46] Bentonite clay and parasite cleansing
• [13:10–14:14] Healing herbs (lemon myrtle, biblical reference)
• [16:12–18:01] Apricot seeds, B17 and “God’s chemo”
• [22:02–23:13] Sulforaphane, broccoli sprouts, anti-cancer foods
• [27:21–32:23] Spiritual roots of disease, faith journey, repentance, and transformation
• [40:21–46:05] The history, science, and controversy of seed oils
• [48:05–52:45] Removal and replacement strategy for healing foods

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Episode Takeaways

• Healing cancer (and chronic disease) is never just physical—true healing is rooted in nutrition, removing toxins, emotional honesty, and spiritual reconnection.
• God’s original design in nature remains the template for optimal health; processed foods and industrial oils profoundly undermine wellness.
• Faith, confession, and repentance are as crucial as green juice and supplements, especially when addressing trauma-induced illness.
• Bio-individuality matters—while plants predominate for healing, listen to your body, optimize for your needs, and consider professional guidance.
• Practical swaps and accessible recipes can make healthy eating sustainable and satisfying, not depriving.
• Lifestyle over protocol: Deep rest, sunlight, spiritual practice, and joy are non-negotiable elements in sustained health.

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For more detailed practices, resources, and recipes, see Liana Werner-Gray’s books “The Earth Diet,” “Cancer Free with Food,” and “The Truth About Seed Oils.”

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Transcript

[Leanna Warner Gray]

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[Dr. Josh Axe]

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[Leanna Warner Gray]

$45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees Extra initial plan term only greater than 50gb me slow when network is busy see terms at 16 I started to binge eat on junk food. Every single meal was a high and after five years of that, I ended up with a golf ball sized tumor right here in my throat, which was the biggest wake up call that I needed. Cancer was never part of my life plan.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Our entire healthcare system is built around taking a synthetic drug and not ever fixing the symptoms, not getting to the root cause.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

They were saying surgery. If you just get something cut out of your body and don't address the root, that will most likely pop up somewhere else.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

They're making so much money with chemotherapy and radiation and it really is a business. Cancer is a big business today.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Refined sugar is proven to be more addictive than cocaine. When I was sitting in the hospital the first thing I wanted to do was go and eat a McFlurry and I'm like, why would I want to eat this? It's poisoning me. So the Earth diet helped me to create a natural McFlurry and after three months of doing this, the tumor was completely dissolved.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

My dream is that the future of cancer therapy looks like this.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Seed oils were never created originally for human consumption. They were created for World War I and World War II to be lubricants for war machinery. It's a $500 billion industry, and so they're protecting it at all cost.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Bible has an answer to everything. And when you're able to go and confess and repent, it is maybe the single most freeing thing a person could do.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

It completely freed me. This was the first time I actually prayed in my life. And I got on my knees and I'm like, God, if you're there, I need you to break this addiction. And I've had two years of peace and bliss. Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

All right, so my guest today healed herself of cancer when she was 21 years old, not with a protocol that was handed her by a doctor, but with her food and faith and natural treatment protocols. Today I have on the podcast Leanna Warner Gray, and she is a best selling author of the Earth Diet Cancer Free with Food, and her newest book, the Truth About Seed Oils. And today, she's going to share everything she learned about fighting cancer naturally and and helping heal your body using food as medicine. Leanna, welcome to the show.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Thank you so much for having me. Josh, you are so awesome. Thank you.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, you know, your story's inspired so many people. And I know my mom being a breast cancer survivor and you being a cancer survivor, I always feel like one of the most powerful ways people can heal and be inspired is reading and hearing about the story of others. And that's really where I'd love to start today, share a little bit about your story, your diagnosis, and how you fought and beat cancer naturally.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. Wow. Well, cancer was never part of my life plan, but I grew up very natural and Outback Australia. And then at 16, I started to binge eat on junk food. So every day, I ate refined sugar. I ate fast food, fried foods, burgers, fries, like every single meal. And I did that for five years. And after five years, I ended up with a golf ball sized tumor right here in my throat. 3.7 cm. Carcinoma. Institute early stages of cancer, which was the biggest wake up call that I needed. And because of my upbringing with growing up so natural in Australia, I left the hospital after we did the biopsy, and I found a functional doctor and a naturopath. And they told me that we need to clean out your gut. They said your gut Is so overloaded with toxins that if we clean out your gut and detox your gut, it'll drain the tumor. And so, being naturally inclined, I was like, okay, that makes sense. And this was 17 years ago.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Now, were your doctors recommending something else? I mean, you know, obviously they did the biopsy. What were they saying?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

They were saying surgery. And that terrified me, to be honest, because where I grew up in the outback with. With the indigenous people, I went to an aboriginal school. They said if you just get something cut out of your body and don't address the root, that it will most likely pop up somewhere else. So I was terrified of not addressing the root because I did not want to deal with this again. And so I said no to surgery. I was like, all right, I'm going to get to the root of this and figure out why I'm eating so much junk food, why I'm addicted to it. And I knew it was wrong. I knew how to be healthy, you know, eat from nature, But I had such a addiction. So when the. When the functional doctor and the naturopath said that, I was like, that's a good plan. Let's do that.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So what did your diet look like? What were you doing and eating on a daily basis in order to drain and eliminate the tumor naturally?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Well, this is when I created the Earth diet. So this was the first time I actually prayed in my Life. I was 21 at the time. I wasn't raised with faith. And I got on my knees, and I'm like, God, if you're there, I need you. I need something bigger than myself to break this addiction. And God showed up for me and led me to create the earth diet, which was all about going back to nature and eating the foods that God created for us. And so I started it online as a blog, called it the Earth diet. The challenge was to eat only foods that came from the Earth for 365 days. And so every time I had a craving for something, like junk food, fried food, chocolate, all of that, because when I was sitting in the hospital after the biopsy, I remember sitting there, the first thing I wanted to do was go and eat a mcflurry.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And I'm like, why would I want to eat this? It's poisoning me. So the earth diet helped me to create a natural McFlurry ice cream made with almonds or cashews. And so I made all these recipes that were nourishing, tasted so good, were healing my body at the same time. So I did the Earth diet, which was very plant rich. I did have some animal proteins as well here and there. It was very intuitive. The naturopath at first told me to fast. She's like, okay, you should fast. After three days of just having broths and soups. I was worse, actually, from fasting. She's like, all right, we got to pivot. You need nourishment. I was so deprived nutritionally for five years, so the approach was just nourishment. And that's when I discovered juicing. Because they suggested me to get the vitamin C IVs, which I could not afford at the time. They're very expensive. And so I learned that the fastest way to put minerals and vitamins straight into my system, straight into my bloodstream and cells, was through drinking vegetable juice.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Now, did you read anything about, like, the Gershon protocol at the time?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

I did, yes. Yeah. And they were all about juicing, colonics, coffee enemas. And that's what my naturopath was also following. So she had me do a colonic and a coffee enema every single day for two months.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Which is really extreme. And obviously each plant is their own thing, but my gut really needed it and really responded well to it. And after three months of doing this, the tumor was completely dissolved.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

After just three months.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's incredible.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. Praise God.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's incredible. Yeah, it's a matt. It's amaz. What happens when you do all the right things together. I think there's a combination of getting your, you know, getting your microbiome and your body right. In terms of the food we're eating, spending time in that prayer and praise and sort of getting in that proper mental and spiritual state as well, and then just staying free of all the stress of oftentimes, you know, the hospitals and the doctors. Oftentimes there's such this fear placed on people. Not to say that integrative treatments can't sometimes be great or the best option for certain people, especially if they feel led that direction. But I love that you were able to do this in three months and follow a diet that was. Sounds like very, very plant based. A lot of vegetables, a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetable juices. It's powerful.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. Yeah. Very similar to the biblio diet, going back to the foods that God designed for us to eat. And yeah, I just gave my body the fuel that it needed. Finally boosted my immune system. I was also diagnosed with Epstein Barr virus, chronic fatigue. So I had no energy. Some days I was only awake six hours a Day I was sleeping a lot. And so, yeah, I just gave my body the fuel that it needed. And when we do that, it responds,

[Dr. Josh Axe]

wow, well, praise God.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

When I was diagnosed with the tumor, I also did a live blood test that revealed that I was riddled with parasites in my blood. They had invaded my blood, and when I saw it on the screen, I was horrified. And the doctor said, start drinking bentonite clay because it will help to absorb them and clean out your blood and clean out your gut. So I was all on board for it. Found out that it was volcanic ash, and that wherever there are volcanoes around the world where it's erupted and there's been lava and there's ash that the natives have been drinking that and also using it topically, too, for the skin and the hair. It's high in silica, but they would drink it to purify their bodies, to keep their microbiome, to keep their gut good and balanced. And so I went down the rabbit hole, started researching it, started drinking it. I've been drinking it now for 17 years.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And I just think God is such a good sense of humor that literally, we can drink lava.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, you know, I remember my first book I wrote is called Eat Dirt.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

That's right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And so anyways, but I talk about. I talk about clay in there. I typically recommend it for people with loose stool. So anyone with diarrhea tends to be fairly effective. But also for parasites, I do think it's one of the best things for binding to parasites. Mold. And it's more gentle on the body than something like a charcoal as well. Now, you need to make sure for most people, it can back you up. And so taking it with magnesium is great for people that need cancer support. I like doing sometimes a little bit of clay. Sometimes I like better modified citrus pectin. That's a really powerful supplement as well. But clay? Yeah. I mean, obviously, God has put so many amazing things here on Earth, not just food, but even the dirt and the clay and there are to help us heal.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Because it's like 15 bucks for a tub. It's not thousands of dollars. It's not a crazy biohack. It's so affordable. God has given so many things that are affordable and really accessible to people. So, yeah, just had to share that part, too. And also Redmond, in the Redmond farms in Utah, all their cows, they feed the clay every single day. And actually, the animals, if they eat something that's poisonous, they will naturally go and eat the clay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, I've seen that animals Will do that. Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And they said because they feed their cows the bentonite clay every single day, that it extends their life by up to 50% and they have the perfect microbiome.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

So amazing. I know that we. You also have eaten their beef from the restaurants as well. So.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

If you ever.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

In Salt Lake City, one of the best restaurants in the country is Redmond's Farm Kitchen. They're in Salt Lake.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

No seed oils. And grass fed beef we love.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Anytime our family's there, that's our go

[Leanna Warner Gray]

to spot bed tonight. Clay, grass fed beef is so good. Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, I know you also wrote a book on fighting cancer naturally. Right. So you have your book, the Earth Diet. You have another one you talked about there. Is there anything else you discovered? So we talked about food a little bit. Are there any herbs that you were taking at that time or mushrooms or supplements or anything else that you thought was helpful in your body healing?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah, well, that's when I discovered the leaves, the chlorophyll from the green juice. And then I started to learn more about that and how it's so biblical, how the Bible talks about the leaves twice.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

In Ezekiel 47:12 says the leaves will be from medicine. And I was already consuming chlorophyll and green juice every single day. And. And after I healed, after the three months, I said, okay, I'm going to drink chlorophyll every day for the rest of my life. A green juice or if I'm traveling, liquid chlorophyll like I have this morning, since I'm traveling, because why wouldn't I not just get that into my body? And. And that's the thing too, is like healing cancer. But then we want to stay cancer free. That's the next goal. First goal being cancer free. Second goal, staying cancer free. So I was drinking chlorophyll green juice. And then I started reading the Bible and I was like, wait a minute. Ezekiel 47:12 says the leaves are from medicine. And then get to Revelations 22:2 says the leaves will heal the nations. So that just drove it home for me. Totally. And so I drink leaves every single day. And that was a big part of my healing. I attest chlorophyll to be one of the main, main things. And then also my naturopath had a lemon myrtle tree which is native to Australia. And so she said, go out, pick the leaves and make a tea. So I would do that almost every other day. And that helped to boost my immune system. She said it would help with The Epstein Barr virus.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And yeah, it has a lot of antiviral properties.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And it was just a lovely tasting, refreshing tea as well. So I was.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It does have a nice lemon taste. Yeah, we actually grow some at our farm, Jordan Rubin and I, it's, you know, tastes. It tastes wonderful, actually. No, what? No, we. We grow lemon balm.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Oh, lemon balm.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. But lemon balm has that very similar. Similar taste to the leaf. Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

When you guys go to Australia, you'll have to try the lemon myrtle tea. Yeah. The leaves are thick and rubbery like eucalyptus and. Yeah. So the leaves are massive for healing and for maintenance. And it's biblical.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, you know what's interesting too, like, if we go all the way back and we think about what medicine was, like, if somebody went to an ancient apothecary or ancient pharmacy up to 150 years ago or so, there was no pharmaceuticals. Somebody went in there, the number one form of medicine would have been herbal tea. You know, if you can look at Chinese medicine and Ayurveda and even what people have done in other cultures for, you know, especially South America, for thousands of years, they were drinking herbal tea. That was their supplement. That was. That was medicine, right?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah, exactly. They didn't go to a pharmacy. That was. Their pharmacy was going straight to nature. To the leaves or the herbs or the spices. Absolutely.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. I love that. Well, what an incredible and powerful story. Of course, one of the things that I absolutely love about the Bible is the Bible has an answer to everything. If you look deep enough, if you meditate enough, if you ask God, hey, would you show me something in here? It will show you. I mean, especially when it comes to health. I mean, there's so many verses about health and healing. And, you know, I've had a lot of just amazing Christian people on. I had Barbara o' Neill on Amazing here this last year. And you would love her. Have you met Barbara?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

I haven't met her yet.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You'd love her. You guys are kind of like spirit. So you would. You would really enjoy her. But, you know, when she's practicing helping, you know, natural. Natural medicine and healthcare, you know, she's pulling all of her wisdom from the Bible, you know, and so are you and Jordan Rubin and a lot of the people I really admire and respect that have helped a lot of people heal or that have healed themselves. Do you have hormone imbalance, weight loss resistance, low energy and sleep problems, and you're tired of being told your labs are normal when you know something isn't right? This New test completely changes things and my team knows exactly what to look for. I'm currently offering a simple at home blood test that actually tests for the right things. Targeted biomarkers including hormones, thyroid and metabolism. Plus a full hour with one of my senior health advisors to review your results and discover ways that you can work with the health institute to finally find last. If you want to check it out and grab one before they're gone, just go to mybloodwork.com today. One of the things we were talking about right before the show started was vitamin B17 and apricot seeds. Of course there's other even apple seeds. There's a number of plants that have this. But talk to me a little bit about your experience with vitamin B17.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. So apricot seeds, this is something I discovered after I healed my cancer. I would have 100% had it part of my protocol. But I didn't know about it then. For a few years after I had healed, my mom got stage four breast cancer in both breasts. And I had research more than so I told him, mom, you've got to eat the apricot seeds. And in my research, I found that the all the native tribes around the world eat the seeds, but the apricot seeds specifically have higher amygdalin. So they have 20 milligrams of amygdalin versus one in an apple seed, one milligram. And so what it does is the way I understood it as soon as I was researching was like, oh, this is God's chemo. God created chemo for us. Of course he did. He's the best father ever. And he knew what we'd be going through during this time and how contaminated we are. And so just like chemo, it kills the cancer cell, but it spares the healthy cell, unlike conventional chemo. So the apricot seed has B17, amygdalin and leotrel. When it finds a cancer cell, it will explode cyanide, which sounds kind of scary, but it kills the cancer cell and cyan spares the healthy cell so it doesn't destroy all the healthy cells too, like conventional chemo. And this was known as the cancer cure. Seventy years ago, you know, I had to do some digging because it's hard to find online. Now, apricot seeds are the number one most demonized food on AI and on Google. The number one, they take first place because 70 years ago, doctors were using this for their patients. They were giving them IVs of B17 and people were healing cancer left, right and center. They were also changing their diet to be natural and more plant rich, going back to, you know, earth diet. And so the establishments came in and they shut down medical practitioners, they took away the licenses and it's because they cannot pattern apricot seeds because they come from nature.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, I mean it is kind of, kind of crazy when you look back at the history of really John Rockefeller and sort of what he did in terms of trying to completely eliminate natural medicine because they were going to make so much money, had such a plan with mainstream medicine today. It is crazy if you think about just common sense wise. Today our entire healthcare system is built around taking a synthetic drug and not ever fixing the symptom, not getting to the root cause versus a lot of these practitioners even in the 1900s. We've talked about Max Gershon, of course, Joanna Budwig, Otto Warburg, a lot of these and some scientists, some more practitioners. But really focusing on how do we to the root of the issue, what are the things that God put in nature that we can use as natural forms of medicine? And let's use those because they tend to be less toxic to the body. They tend to, to your point, not damage your good healthy cells. I mean that's one of the things, and I can share this, that my mom, the first time she had cancer, went through chemotherapy. The second time she didn't. However, she struggled with after chemotherapy constipation for a very, very long period of time. I don't even know that today that you know that there isn't some small lasting effect of the chemotherapy. I mean she is very healthy now, in her mid-70s and is doing wonderful. But overall, I mean that's something that oftentimes there is a level of permanent damage with chemotherapy when you do that versus again there are other ways of doing this where you're doing, you know, and this is my dream and I know it's probably yours as well. My dream is that the future of cancer therapy looks like this. The first thing somebody does is they come in and they focus on is spiritual healing. You know, it's prayer, it's confession, it's praise and worship. It's meditating on Bible verses day and night. It's getting free of emotional trauma or childhood trauma. It's focusing on that. It's eating perfectly every day. It's fruits, it's vegetables, it's you know, raw wild salmon. It's, it's, you know, it's taking all the right supplements. It's getting the right, you know, IVs, high dose vitamin C. It's doing some of the things you talked about with B17, also getting in things like hyperbaric chambers, but doing these sort of therapies all together simultaneously. That's really what cancer therapy should look like. The problem is, is that they're making so much money doing with chemotherapy and radiation, and it takes very little time, and it's very cheap for them. And so they have really high margins. And it really is a business. Cancer is a big business today that is not obviously in the best, you know, the best for the patient.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

It's true. It's unfortunate. They're making a lot of money from it and they do not want to change their business model. So that's what we're up against.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Ye. And, you know, I personally have people coming to me, multiple people weekly with cancer and doing everything I can to support them in terms of the diet and all the things we talked about. And people are seeing really incredible results now. And here's the thing. Even if somebody decides to do an element of going with some of the traditional oncology, right, Whether it be just doing the surgery part or just surgery and radiation, or even doing some level of chemo, and sometimes they can do less, you know, if their oncologist is open and more naturally minded, but they're still going to have a better. Of course. Right. Better survival rate, better health if they're eating properly, supplementing properly, you know, leading with faith. I mean, all of those things, even if you are going conventional, you've got a better chance of healing.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Absolutely. I say the exact same thing. Yeah. People have to do a nutrition plan. Even if they're doing chemo, radiation. It's more important to do a nutrition plan to nourish your body and support your immune system and your brain going through those treatments.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, I absolutely agree. You know, when my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I remember spending thousands of hours reading what are the best foods, what are the best herbs, what are the best holistic treatments? Like, what are the biggest things that make a big difference? And you mentioned one. And my mom didn't do the B17, but she did do a supplement for sulforaphane. And we did. I remember doing broccoli sprouts as well. But tell me, talk to me a little bit about those.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. So. Well, when I was doing my book too, and with my mom and with me, I went down the rabbit hole and I was like, I want to know the top 10 foods on Earth that are destroying cancer cells. And so sulforaphane just came up over and over and over and over again as number one, because it's also not controversial. It studied with John Hopkins and Dr. Talalay has been an advocate for over 25 years. And so they've done all these studies with the broccoli sprout. And the broccoli sprout is 100 times more sulforaphane, say than broccoli. And so it's so potent on the fourth day that it's a sprout, it's very bitter, it's potent. And so every study that they've done, and there's over 2,000 studies that I've seen with PubMed and with hospitals and John Hopkins have amazing ones. So when they inject sulforaphane or consume sulforaphane with tumors that none of the tumors can hold form, it's impossible for a tumor to hold form with sulforaphane presentation. So when I studied that and I saw that, and that's for every cancer, prostate, breast cancer, every single cancer, I was like, every single, every single person with cancer needs to be having sulforaphane every day and multiple times a day too. So it's always in the system.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, it's got powerful properties for anti cancer. It's powerful properties just for general detoxification. It really is incredible.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

One of the best things for the gut, the nervous system, the brain as well. And so now I put fresh organic broccoli sprouts in my green juice that I drink every day. I drink one green juice every day which has celery, cucumber, ginger, lemon and broccoli sprout. Yeah, it's so refreshing. And I feel like putting, I'm putting premium fuel into my body and I have so much energy all the time. I have more energy now at 39 than when I was 21.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's powerful. I love.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

So powerful.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, one of the things I learned over the years, I just want to mention for anyone listening is, is that, you know, when it comes to cancer, there are some similar principles that apply for everybody, but also different cancers and different in different physiology sometimes need a little bit of a difference in even the diet. You know, I have a really, really dear friend of mine, a family member who's diagnosed with brain tumor glioblastoma. And so for him, he's fully on keto diet versus my mom with breast cancer that was more estrogen based. You know, our focus was really on high large amounts of steamed cruciferous vegetables. We did a lot of sulforaphane things to really cleanse her body of and bring those estrogen levels into balance. And then of course, to your point, there's, you know, prostate cancer, you know, doing high zinc and pumpkin. See seeds and things there really make a difference. So even within cancer, there's really a nuance of what are the foods that make the biggest difference for these individuals. But I do think, generally speaking, I mean, when I think about cancer, you want to eliminate toxins and you want to flood your body with nutrients. That's really what Max Gershon said. Address those two things. There's a third one that is sometimes talked about, not necessarily directly, but it's boost cellular energy, you know, and that's oxygen. You know, that's, that's just mitochondrial health. It's energy. Because if your body doesn't have energy, it can't detox well, it can't utilize the nutrients. So I think that's important as well. And that's why sleep, when you look at a lot of these studies, even supplementing with certain cases with melatonin, but things to prioritize sleep is a really big deal. I mean, you mentioned you were. How many hours did you say you were sleeping for a little while?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Up to 18 hours a day. I was sleeping. I was so tired. Yeah. With Epstein Barr and chronic fatigue and the tumor. And I was also riddled with parasites, which can take a toll.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And the sleep was so restorative, I really needed it and I, I quit. You know, I wasn't working during that time. For three months, I did nothing else but focus on, on healing. I didn't realize how much my body needed to sleep. Yeah, yeah. And I acknowledge that to this day as well. Like sometimes I do need to have long sleep cycles, like 12 hours. Actually. I usually sleep once a week for 12 hours. One day a week. Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's powerful.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Usually on Friday. Friday to Saturday.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's amazing. I was looking, I did something similar to you where I spent some time looking at what the most nutrient dense foods are and some of the most powerful anti cancer foods. I remember coming across, I want to say. Yeah, broccoli sprouts was up there near number one. I think liver was the second one on there was very high. And then there were some green leaves like watercress. So some of these micro greens were very high.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And then the leafy greens again.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

They always make it to the top list.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

They do, yeah. Super powerful. And now these aren't as nutrient dense, but they're really powerful, of course, as mushrooms, you know, reishi and turkey tail and Maitake.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Also bio individual, like you were saying, because for some people like myself, mushrooms don't go well. And that's in my book. I talk about that too. There is a bio individual approach. And we actually do share Mama Axe's story in the breast cancer chapter in my book, Cancer Free with Food. And you share your different tips in there. And you do say that it's different for each person, but there are some universal things. And you were mentioning the zinc and the mushrooms and things like that.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. So powerful.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, you've said several things that really struck me, and one, of course, was related to the diet. We've talked about that. Some of these really unique plant based compounds that are so incredible. I also know you're a person of faith. And you mentioned when you were diagnosed with cancer, it was one of the first times in your entire life where you really got down your hands and knees and prayed and asked God for assistance. What did that look like in your cancer journey? And what do you recommend for. For people now who are fighting cancer in terms of that journey of faith and it being a spiritual battle? And how do you win that spiritual battle?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah, Well, I mean, we win it by giving our life to Jesus that it's won, it's already done, because then we are saved and get eternal life, which is the ultimate goal and gift. And I learned all of this way later in life because I was not raised with faith at all. And I didn't go to church until I was in my 20s. But. But when I was 16, I went into foster care. And a pastor told me, now that you don't have a mom or a dad, God will become your mom and your dad.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. And she said, has anyone ever explained the Bible or Jesus to you before? And I was like, no. So she sat me down for about an hour and explained it to me. And I felt something in my spirit, which I didn't really know what it was, but it made logical sense to me and I could feel it. And she said, we can baptize you if you want to give your life to Jesus. And I was like, yeah, I would love that.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

How old were you?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Sixteen. Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. So I was baptized. Praise the Lord. And I felt the Holy Spirit come in that night after the baptism. It was like a wave of peace and bliss that I had never felt before in my entire life. And I remember thinking, remember this feeling, this. This peace. And then I fell back into the world and I wasn't ministered to. Didn't wasn't told to pray or I was given a Bible, and I remember opening it, and I was like, it looked like a different language to me. Like, it did not. So I didn't know. Yeah, I didn't pray, didn't read the Bible, didn't go to church, and I fell back into the world. And then that's when I started binge eating on junk food. I did not know to go to God for peace and for healing, even though I was baptized and felt the Holy Spirit. And that's the thing today, too, when I. You know, when people get led to Jesus, I'm like, you got to be ministered to. You got to be planted. You got to pray. And, you know, you're a baby Christian. You need all the spiritual milk. Like, I wasn't getting that. So I went to food as my drug of choice, and I would get, like, a high from refined sugar and seed oil, and I would eat gummy bears for breakfast. I would eat McDonald's for lunch. I would eat, like, every single meal was a high. I was chasing this high. And after five years of that, I ended up with cancer. And after the diagnosis, and then when I went and found the naturopath, and thank God I grew up naturally inclined to know, to go to a naturopath. She said, you have this tumor in your throat because of the abuse and the trauma from your childhood that you haven't healed.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And I was like, I don't think that's true, actually. I still didn't think I had an issue. Even though I was addicted to junk food and I knew it was wrong, I tried to stop. Every Monday, I'd be like, all right, come Monday, I'm going to start fresh. I'm never going to eat junk food again. I'll never eat cookies or gummy bears again come Monday. It was this vicious cycle I was in, and so I was not in control of it. And she told me, like, you need to heal and address this. And I said, no, I'm going to. I'm going to focus on my career and my future. I want to make money and be successful, and I don't need to go back and, like, look at my past or even, you know, go through all that trauma again. And now knowing, like, having a relationship with God, it's not as. It's not traumatic to go back and to heal that stuff. It's just letting God into those dark, broken, hurt places, and he comes in and completely heals and restores. So when I had the cancer, wake up Call was the first time I prayed and God showed up and led me to the Earth diet, which was the best thing that ever happened to me. Getting cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I needed to create a relationship with God and to create the Earth Diet, which helped heal me and thousands of other people to this day. And then so God gave me the Earth Diet. But then I still didn't know to have a relationship with Him. So I just did the Earth diet and I followed the principles and I obeyed. Okay, eat only foods that God created from nature and my body healed with that. But I still did not have a relationship with the Lord. And then it wasn't until. But I still believe Jesus was my Lord and Savior, but I had him out there and just was like living my life. And I was going to church, a very popular church, and they never talked about sin or repentance as. And it wasn't until two years ago that I heard my first sermon on sin and repentance and was like, wait, I can repent? Like what? So I started repenting for all this stuff and you know, I smoked a lot of pot. I was also on recreational drugs for, for depression and anxiety and ptsd. I was on a mood stabilizer, antidepressant. So I was dependent on pharmaceuticals. I was dependent on pharmakia, which behind that is witchcraft and sorcery. Yeah, I don't know if we can say that on here, but sure. So I was dependent on all the of the drugs, but I had healed, my body was still cancer free. And then so two years ago when I discovered that I got on my knees, repented and was completely healed and delivered on set free of depression, anxiety and PTSD that I still had from my childhood, my childhood trauma. And I've had two years of being completely set free and have so much peace and bliss and just God is just so, so good. So I fully yielded my life to Jesus two years ago.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Praise God. Wow, that's so good. I had BD Carmichael on the show and he was fantastic. It was one of the best shows that I've. It was one of the most interesting interviews I've done. And he just went through the Bible and said, listen, the key to healing is prayer and confession. And he went through and he said, listen, whenever the Bible talks about, hey, you need to heal and be made well people, they were told, hey, go and repent. And I'm like, really? You're telling me almost everywhere. He's like, literally everywhere. Go like almost everywhere. And you'll see an Old Testament New hey, go and repent and your sins are forgiven. And this word repent is really interesting too, because I think in the Bible, it means change direction. Like, you're going this way now. You need to go this way.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

It literally means that.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So there's this level of confessing your sins unto the Lord and then repenting and changing what you're doing. And so it's interesting. Cause it's like, well, change what it's almost change everything. You're going in a totally different direction. Change your thoughts, change what you're eating, changing. Go this way. And so I just. I think it's really, really powerful. I think one of the biggest things Christians are missing today when it comes to healing is not confessing and repenting.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And, you know, I think that there's something to where if you are dealing with worry and anxiousness because you're trying to do things that are God's or shame or guilt or all these things we're supp. Be set free of, but you're still holding onto those. But then if you can confess, it's the greatest form of detoxification ever. You are releasing and letting go of these spirits and these things that are actually causing cancer.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And it's free and it's right there in the moment. And it completely. It's like you lose 10 pounds in an instant. And I knew of the things I had to repent for that were so obvious, the big sins in my life. But then there are other things. I'm like, okay, Lord, show me what else I need to repent for that I'm not aware of. And. And the Lord would show me as I'd go about my day, and I'd get a flash and be like, oh, wow, okay, I did this twice in my life.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I did this when I was 21 years old, and I did it again when I was about 28, 29. I went and did this retreat. And what's sort of crazy is when you start listing everything you've done wrong. I mean, you can go for hours. I mean, I started going and I'm like, wow, I, you know, I've been mean to this person. I've done this person. I had to, you know, apologize to my mom a thousand times, you know, so going through all of those things, but it is such a freeing experience. I mean, it's almost like, I think there's a lot of people that have this heavy weight on them and they don't know it's there, but it's there all the time, this burden on them. And when you're able to go and confess and repent and do that sort of practice, it is maybe the single most freeing thing a person could do.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

It completely freed me. It totally set me free. Yeah. And I was in the church for 12 years, going to mainstream church. I was a good churchgoer, but I was still. I had never heard that about sin and repentance. So I think the church needs to step it up and be preaching about this stuff.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I agree. I think what's happened often in the church today, it's kind of moved in this thing of only focus on the positive. And there's an element of that on a daily basis where generally you should.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

We do need that. That's a huge part of it.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Absolutely. But there doesn't need to be this focus on again, listening to the Bible and repenting. It's sort of like all feasting and no fasting. Right. I mean, there's this sort of balance of recognizing. Like, here's another thing too. I think sometimes churches, you know, when you look at more of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches, there's a greater focus on depravity and repentance and some of those things. And somewhat in the Catholic Church you have more of that. And then a lot of the more evangelical Christian churches today. But maybe there's not enough stuff positive over there and then over here it's all positive and none of that. Versus, there should be this weight in our hands of saying, you know what? I'm a sinner, I owe such a great debt. And there should be this sense of knowing and understanding how amazing it is of what Jesus did for us and this humility with it. But also there should be this massive confidence with. In the other hand, with humility of, wow, God set me free. I'm a saint now. I'm created in his image. So if you really want to heal and move forward the best way, you kind of. You need to have both of those things.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. And that's what the Bible is too. Like, I read the Bible for the first time two years ago and start to finish, I read it in a year and it completely changed my life. And God spoke to me so much and that's what I got at the end of it. I was like, wow, God is both loving and severe. Yeah, it's both. And it's just equal. And when we're in that equals place right there, that that feels the most perfect and whole.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. We were talking about Lisa Bevere before And you know, John Bevere wrote a great book that I think did a good job of this. It's called the Awe of God. And talking about some of this too, of this reverence and awe that I think people need in their life right now, that something that they're missing, people

[Leanna Warner Gray]

are craving it, the love and the supernatural. And that's what I was also craving. That's why I was also in the new age. For so long. I believed Jesus is my Lord and Savior, going to church, but I was still doing a lot of new age things which the Holy Spirit revealed to me. I had to repent and let go of all of those too.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. So when it comes to faith based healing, a few things we're picking up here. Number one is pray. You know, I heard this from you, I heard this from Jordan Rubin. It was the same thing with my mom had cancer. When we had the diagnosis, the first thing we did is literally got on our knees and we prayed and asked for guidance and we asked for healing. So I think prayer heals. The other thing is confessing your sins unto the Lord. And I think the third thing is just worship and praise and then meditating on Scripture. And I think if you can do that and letting go of the past childhood trauma. So there's several things there, but I think those things are so important for healing of any condition. Not just cancer, but anything you're dealing with.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah, especially depression. A lot of people are struggling with depression, PTSD, anxiety. And for someone who had 12 years of depression and I was on pharmaceutical drugs and addicted to drugs and having that heaviness every single day to where I am now, completely drug free and just, you know, the Holy Spirit is my drug now. It's such a difference being set free. So I just want, like, I just, ever since I got healed and delivered, I cannot stop talking about it and letting people know that, you know, Jesus can completely set you free and be. Praise and worship is also the gratitude too. So even now, like, if I'm, you know, getting stressed out or focusing on earthly things and things feel heavy, I'll just flip it and I'll say, God, thank you so much, Hallelujah for this. Which is crazy because my situation seems stressful and I'm like, you know what? Thank you. I just thank you so much. And after five minutes of that, it completely shifts my spirit and my energy and my strength.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I love that. That's so, so powerful. So you wrote a recent book here on seed oils. I want to talk about this because there are Two really big sides on this. I see kind of arguing about seed oils. One side is saying, and this is the side you're on, of saying seed oils are bad. Especially when we're talking about, and we're not talking about cold pressed flax oil and black cumin seed oil and black cumin oil. We're not talking about those. We are talking about these industrial seed oils. And they're not actually all seeds, but we put them in this category of things like soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, rapeseed oil. Yep, rapeseed oil. So a lot of these different seed based oils that are highly processed. Right. So we have those. And then there's a whole group that's in conventional medicine saying, no, you should be consuming those. And that's better than things like butter and beef tallow. And that's the sort of thing. First off, I never came along with, just from my point of view, I never came along and said that doing a bunch of beef tallow and butter, every meal is healthy. But they've kind of brought it in and tried to say, well do seed oils and, and skip the butter and the tallow or make that swap. Now I have a completely different perspective, I know you probably do too, on some of this. But share with me a little bit about why seed oil is why you believe they're a problem.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Well, first of all, I mean, follow the money. It's a $500 billion industry and so they're protecting it at all costs. And so a few different reasons, like one, God didn't create most of the seed oils. Canola oil was created in a lab in Canada. That's how it's got its name, Canola. And, and it's completely genetically modified. So even to this day you'll see organic non GMO canola oil on the label, which is not even possible. You can't put an organic label on canola oil that was created in a lab. God never created it. And then the process of it is very toxic. So whenever people come to the Earth diet, I teach them. Whenever you eat something, whenever you hold something in your hands, ask what process did this go through to get from nature into my hands? And most people aren't thinking about the process. Obviously if you go pick some blueberries, you eat them. It didn't go through any process.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, right.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

But seed oils or oils go through a crazy process of extraction, usually chemical extraction, solvents, and then high, high heat, which oxidizes it. That's why sunflower oil, because sunflower Seeds are great, they have a lot of health benefits. Healthy, omega 3 balance, omega 6 balance. But as soon as it's created into oil, it becomes toxic, it's oxidized and the ratio is imbalanced. And so the process is what makes them unhealthy. And then also that they, most of them are genetically engineered and God never created them for our bodies.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, yeah. I think when you think about the process of creating a seed oil versus let's say, let's think about extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil, you just press it, you press the oil out of olives, that's all. And it goes into a glass jar. And so it's a very, very different process. You know, here's the way that I see this with seed oils because I think there, I think there is a level of nuance because I've really dug in and looked at these studies and looked at a lot of the meta analysis and the larger scale studies that are more recent. And one thing that you will notice is if you are, if you're not looking deeper into it, it, you will see that oftentimes when you're looking at cardiovascular events is the biggest thing in some of them, mortality rates, you're going to see more, more health problems in the saturated fat group than the seed oil group. However, if that's all you're looking at, you're really not understanding the study. Because one thing when they're talking about saturated fat, you know what they're talking about is it's the saturated fat in fast foods. Oftentimes it's also not grass fed butter, it's not organic butter. And so there's definitely a skew there that's being thrown off. Here's the other thing I found and most of these studies on seed oils, olive oil is being lumped in with all of the seed oils and a lot of these studies. And so when you are looking at these larger scale studies, there are some things that if you just look at first glance you'd say, oh well, seed oils might be better for you than butter or tallow. But the reality is, because we're not talking about the natural, raw, organic things like butter and olive oils be throwing in the group, it's really throwing off a lot of these studies. I do want to say though, I do think for certain body types and many body types, doing a lot of as much butter and animal fat as you want is not a good idea. Even within Chinese medicine, it's known to back up your liver, back up your gallbladder, slow Things down can cause dampness or, or cause things like candida growth. So overall, I actually don't think that's the best thing as well, but it's an interesting discussion. Again, I'm not a fan of seed oils. I think we should ban them. Well, I mean, I do want people to have freedom, though, at the same time. But I do think, like, cigarettes, there should be a penalty there for those, because obviously it's hurting people and making

[Leanna Warner Gray]

them ill and they don't realize it too. It's also in my book I talk about, and I wrote it with Sherry Calbaum, the juice lady, who you know as well. But in we, we pull every single study that we could find, how it's linked to everything from dementia, Alzheimer's, even adhd, infertility cancers, hormonal issues. Like, it's connected to so many problems that people do not realize. And I think everyone needs to understand the history of seed oils, because once they understand the history that seed oils were never created originally for human consumption. They were created for World War I and World War II to be lubricants for war machinery.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. They were using cottonseed oil, safflower oil. And then after the war's finished, they said, okay, what do we do with all this oil? Because we already have all these crops in America. Oh, let's, let's put it in the food industry. And at the time, everyone was like, using lard and butter. And they were like, we don't want to use these oils. They didn't know what to do. So they hired them. The influencers at the time made cookbooks. They educated America on how to put it into their foods. And then Crisco, and then all this became a household name. And then Ansel Keys came along, this researcher who's famously known for all the saturated fat studies, they showed that at that time a lot of middle aged men were dying of heart attacks. And so they said, oh, it must be from all of the saturated fat. They weren't considering this was also the time when cigarettes were booming. And so they pinned it all on saying that butter has to go, beef tallow has to go. Seed oils are much healthier. But I believe Ancel Keys, at the end of his life, came to say that it wasn't a comprehensive review and study of the seed oils. So, yeah, it's all out there for people to study. But once people know the history, it makes sense of like, okay, we were never really consumed to. We were never made to consume seed oils in that way. But I'm with you on the beef tallow and all of that. It's like very bio. Individual.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. And well, like just for instance, that, you know, when you had, when you had cancer or my mom had cancer, I would not put a person, have them consume a lot of butter and tallow. That's because it slows the level. Different organ systems have to deal with different macro and micronutrients. So the liver gallbladder deal with fat. Right. Your stomach deals with a lot of protein. Your kidneys have to deal with some protein as well. Carbohydrates. Right. Pancreas is sort of the, the, the dominant organ there. So if we're trying to free up the liver gallbladder.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You don't want to do a lot of seed oils. You don't want to do a lot of saturated fats either. You really want to focus on consuming more plants and kind of be moderate to lower fat in certain instances.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. Well, 17 years being cancer free and I'm a cancer coach and nutritionist and helping thousands of people at this point, I've seen that the majority people heal from eating. Majority plant rich diet. Yeah, majority people and studies and Garrison therapy. I mean we just. There's thousands upon thousands of people who have healed using a very plant rich focus. Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And my focus has been on this. So when you look at plants, they tend to be more catabolic, which means they're more cleansing, they're more detoxifying. So if somebody needs that, that's where plants come in. If somebody is frail, if somebody needs regeneration in a way and strength and strength, well, they do need meat. They need more of what we call those yang foods in Chinese medicine versus the yin. So they need some of those foods. So so much of it comes down to God made everybody incredibly unique. And that's why having, whether it's a nutritionist or a coach or a functional medicine doctor or somebody dial in what diet's best for them is so important for everybody. You know, as we've talked today about healing, there's sort of been this combination of, you know, you should remove things and you should add some things. Which one of those do you think is more important, what we remove or what we add in terms of healing?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Oh, I mean, for me, for my cancer journey, it was removing first and then adding, but it was happening at the same time.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

So I was removing things daily and then adding things daily. And anyone who comes to the earth diet, that's the first thing we do is, okay, I give them A list. Remove all of these things from your diet. And number one is refined sugars. Refined sugar, white sugar, corn syrup's gotta go. You know, one tablespoon of white sugar has been researched, suggests that can weaken our immune system for eight hours.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

What's funny is nobody thinks they're eating white sugar because they're not sitting there like laughing at spoonfuls into their mouth. But it's, it's, it, it's in everything.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Right?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

All these packaged foods.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Even cane sugar?

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Even cane sugar, yeah. If, you know, if you have cane sugar every now and then. Okay. But definitely not on a daily basis or a weekly basis or for that matter. So get them to remove refined sugar. Seed oils. Number two. Some people think seed oils are worse than refined sugar. I think refined sugar is worse than seed oils because at least the brain can comprehend that some kind of fat, fats. Refined sugar is proven to be more addictive than cocaine. So literally I put it in the category of it's a drug. The body and brain response to refined sugar as a drug. So I tell them remove those things. Remove conventional gluten, conventional dairy, GMO foods and microwave foods. So I have them go through that list, remove all of that. If people have to have gluten or dairy, make sure it's good quality, organic, the way that God intended it, just not genetically modified. When they remove those things, it removes so many toxins from the body, so much inflammation. It removes a massive chemical burden on the body. And then I have them add in, first thing is the green juice or chlorophyll. Apricot seeds. Sulforaphane.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, yeah. Those are powerful. You know, one of the things I found in practice, and I learned this very early on, and it's been 20 years, which is crazy to me. I've been practice 20 years, but that's amazing. Yeah, But I found this, I mean literally very early. And I found this even before full time practice with my mom. And that is if you just take things away from people without immediately giving them a replacement. It's very hard because I think there's this level of something's being taken away versus what I would always try and do is say, let's swap. And one of the things I would give every patient is here's the swap list. Don't use white flour, use coconut, almond and this whole grain flour. Rather than using this seed oil, use this, you know, use extra virgin olive oil. And here's the brand. So I think the more that people can think about, to your point, this you said you were doing it simultaneously. You were swapping of eat this. Not that. That's why. I mean, that was such. I remember that it was probably the late 90s, early 2000s, that was such a massive book series came out. And it was so effective because that's what people were looking for, is, okay, well, you're telling me not to eat a Snickers. What should I do instead? 70% dark chocolate bar. There you go.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

I always tell people, I, there's a recipe for everything. And nowadays we live in the easiest time to be healthy. You can go to a health food store.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And you can buy all these healthy alternatives. There's, you know, organic Snickers bars. There's organic everything. And I've got recipes in. Every single one of my book is loaded with recipes, because that's what I did. And now they call it replacement therapy, which. And I read a study that 96% of people, they will be able to get rid of an addiction with replacement therapy. So that's what worked for me. And every time I crave chocolate, because that was my biggest thing I would eat on a regular day, a block of Cadbury chocolate and a packet of Tim Tams in one day. And so when I first started the Earth diet, I would get in the kitchen, I would get almond flour, cacao powder, and then mix some maple syrup or some honey. And then I would add almond butter or peanut butter and make chocolate balls. And I would eat those instead.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

And then I. Then I didn't crave the. The bad chocolate or the chocolate that was full of the crazy ingredients that were poisoning my body.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. I mean, this is a great piece of wisdom. If you are looking to improve your health in some way, don't deprive yourself. Swap. Find what is the healthiest replacement. And listen, you may not like it the exact same. I'll give you an example. Like when I started learning about peanut butter and reading that almond butter was healthier, this was back, I don't know, 25, forever ago. And I remember thinking, I don't like almond butter as much as peanut butter. But here's what's crazy. After one year of eating it, I'm like, oh, I actually like almond butter better now. And so over time, your taste buds will actually change. You'll start to crave these foods. And so find that swap that you still like. If you're. If you like ice cream, find a healthier version. Or like, I make it, I'll do, like, for my girls, I do a banana with chocolate you know, collagen powder, chocolate protein powder, and coconut milk, you know, and that's very healthy. So delicious. So there are ways to do that. There are so many ways finding these swaps.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Yeah. People need it, too, to be successful and just be able to maintain.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

That's how I've maintained health for 17 years. And I don't miss out or feel deprived at all.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Right.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

You know, I've got recipes for, for everything. Cookie dough ice creams, chocolate, avocado mousse.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So good.

[Leanna Warner Gray]

Everything you could imagine. Chicken tenders. So good with almond flour and turmeric. And fries cooked in coconut oil or avocado oil.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I love that. Yeah, that's so good. Well, and then as we're talking about seed oils, here's what to replace those with. Number one, extra virgin olive oil. That should be the go to for almost everything. You can cook with it on low and medium heat. So your eggs in there. So do olive oil number one for almost everything. Number two, avocado oil. And then my third go to is typically coconut oil. I like that as well. But those are the three, I would say, that are the safest, the most effective for you to use on a regular basis. And I know Leanna covers this in her book on seed oils, and the book is called the Truth About Seed Oils. So you can check out that book. And she's got several great books. And so you can go on Amazon.com and just look up Leanna Warner Gray and you'll find out more information there in the show notes. We're going to link to all of her books there as well. And I just want to say thank you, everybody for tuning in here to the Dr. Axe Show. Every week we're diving deep into how to heal physically, mentally, spiritually and take your health and your life to the next level. And I hope that Leanna's story resonated with you. I love hearing stories about people who were brave and wise and, you know, using the Bible and all these natural foods God created in order to heal the body. And she was able to do just that. So make sure to follow her on Instagram, make sure to check out all the great content she's putting out. And hey, if this episode resonated with you, think about one person who could benefit from hearing the show. Please share this with them. Also subscribe. It's the number one thing you can do to support the show and allow me to bring in more amazing guests here like Liana. So thanks for sharing. Thanks for subscribing. Make sure to follow Liana. And thanks so much for listening. We'll see you on the next episode.