← The Neuro Experience
Loading summary
Transcript18 lines
- [00:00]
A
I'm Louise Nicola and this is the Neuro Experience. I really want to talk about fiber.
- [00:06]
B
Yeah.
- [00:07]
A
Because I know from my understanding fiber is a great way to, I guess, lower cholesterol and help push it down. But I don't know too much about fiber as an intervention of lowering ldl.
- [00:23]
B
So fiber is like this magical nutrient. There's a trend right now on TikTok called fiber vaccine. I don't know if you've seen it, but really, I think people taking it to the extreme where they're just like consuming way too much fiber really, really quickly. And I don't recommend that because you experience bloating. You need to train your microbes to be able to tolerate good amounts of fiber as well. And a lot of people are going from a low pro, low fiber diet to a high fiber diet. So you want to make sure that that transition is nice and nice smooth, because you'll feel it and everyone else around you will notice it as well. So very, very important to go slow when it comes to fiber. But fiber is this incredible ingredient for a number of different reasons, one of which is from the reduction in cholesterol. So the first thing it does it. Well, it's not the first thing, but when you consume it, you're essentially creating absorption for bile acids that contain cholesterol and excretion around the other end. So you're naturally removing cholesterol out of circulation.
- [01:22]
A
So when you eat fiber, you're. So the, the molecules are actually binding.
- [01:27]
B
The soluble fiber is actually binding some of these bile acids for excretion.
- [01:31]
A
Wonderful.
- [01:31]
B
Yeah. So you're actually getting this, this effect of removing cholesterol of circulation where it doesn't really need to be. The other thing is when you consume fiber, you're not consuming fiber for yourself, you're actually consuming a large part for your gut microbes. So your microbiota is the collection of all the different microbes that you have in your body, on your skin, in our mouths. But it's largely concentrated in large intestine. And we have bacteria. Yes, but we also have things like nematodes, fungi, viruses. The virome, which is the genetic combination of all the viruses that we have in our body, is in some way bigger than the bacterium as well. So there's so much that we don't even know or understand yet. And there's so many ways in which we could potentially modulate a micro microbiome. But, you know, this is all still relatively early science. And what happens is when you consume fiber, these microbes will Eat up this fiber and they will create metabolites. And some of the metabolites that we're really interested in in are called short chain fatty acids, butyrate, acetate and propionate. And these have multiple different roles. They will nourish your colonic cells, they'll provide energy, they'll create this mucin layer inside your gut, which protects your gut layer. So you're less likely to have intestinal hyper permeability. You're less likely to have inflammation, which we know is cardioprotective as well. And it can also reduce the synthesis of cholesterol as well. So we're super, super interesting all these different mechanisms by which just having more fiber in your diet can reduce your cholesterol. The other thing is, in a similar way to monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids, it actually increases the LDL receptor activity on the liver. So on the liver you have these receptors that are like constantly pulling out cholesterol from circulation, putting it back into the, repackaging it and sending right out. And what you're doing is if you increase the efficiency and the number of these receptors in your liver, you're just pulling more of this cholesterol out of the plasma, out the plasma circulation, which is reflected in your blood results as well. So we start consuming fiber and you do it for 60 days. You're having a good amount, you're getting it from nuts and seeds, you're getting it from, let's say, psyllium husk. We can talk about some of the ingredients that I'm a really big fan of in a bit. And then in 60 days time you'll see that your APO lipoprotein B mark comes down. It's great.
- [03:58]
A
So you can lower your apob and l deal by eating plant rich foods the same way that you can by taking a statin.
- [04:08]
B
Absolutely. In fact, we know this from some really elegant studies that were done a number of years ago by a researcher called Jenkins, I'm blanking on his first name. But they created what's called the portfolio diet. So they looked at, yeah, so they looked at all these different types of fibers that you can get from whole ingredients. And there were, there were four main categories. Category number one were what we call soluble fiber sources. So things like oats, barley, you get it in citrus and other polyphenol rich foods as well. These different soluble fibers and fibers, not just one thing, there are multiple different subtypes, but generally you get a good mix from that Plant sterols. So you can get this from fortified spreads or supplements, but you can also get it quite naturally, which is where I prefer to get it from, from things like nuts and seeds. And you can get it from soy based. They actually did give extra soy protein which you can get from tofu or tempeh or my favorite edamame, but you can also get it from soy milk as well. And soy protein appears to have a unique effect on cholesterol lowering as well. And nuts and seeds, particularly almonds, not only are you getting the added benefit of cardiovascular protection that we know from things like the predimed study where they gave them extra virgin olive oil and they gave them a handful of nuts. The nuts, particularly almonds, have got extra solid soluble fiber in as well. And there appears to be improved clearance of LDL cholesterol particles with, with getting more monounsaturated fatty acids in the diet as well.
- [05:49]
A
Well, that was my next question, which is what types of fiber rich foods should everyone start eating right away to see immediate improvements in cholesterol and heart health?
- [05:57]
B
I would definitely do those four categories. So getting lots of different soluble fiber sources, you can get it from flax chia, you can supplement with oat bran or just get it from whole. On the subject of oats and oats gets a lot of attention.
- [06:11]
A
You say the word glyphosate.
- [06:13]
B
Yeah, I know. Yeah, you got to, I would say you want to try and look for glyphosate free products. I'm becoming a lot more aware of the impact of glyphosate just in health in general. It's quite scary. But when you, when you're looking at oats, oats comes in a spectrum. You can get quite refined oat based products that have a lot of the bran taken out of them, which is where you're getting all the benefits because that's where you get a lot of the fiber itself. And, and then on the other end you've got steel cut or pinhead oats that are like really hardy and you have to cook them for like 35 minutes or so. You can cook them and keep them in your fridge and a Tupperware, whatever. But that, that's the, that's the good stuff. That's where you want to get your. Yeah, those are, those are like the, the hardy oats. And the thing about whenever you're eating any ingredient, you don't want to just eat it on its own. You want to get a really good mix. So my overnight oats for example, I Use jumbo oats. But within that I've got a tablespoon of flax, a tablespoon of chia. I might add a protein powder to this as well. I'll add some form of natural sweetener. Whether that's like some chopped up dried figs or dried dates or whatever. Add some fruit to that as well and some frozen berries. You know, that's how we should be consuming oats or any ingredient rather than just on its own. Because on its own it doesn't have that much protein, it doesn't have that much in the way of sort of variety of different fiber subtypes. So you want to be getting variety rather than just like oats on its own. And I think this is where oats gets a bit of a bad like label because it is quite starchy on its own. But the, the pinhead stuff that's actually like really robust from a food matrix point of view. Just to close the loop. Sorry. On the portfolio diet, I just want to mention that the results are pretty stark for this as well. So they demonstrated that you could lower LDL C by as much as 30% which is equivalent to a statin like lovastatin, a 20 milligram dose. So this is really, really impactful and this is one of the reasons why, you know, in general practice I'm always a food first guy. I'm, I always want to take a food first approach because even within that really impressive result that's going head to head with a pharmaceutical product, it doesn't encapsulate all the extra benefits that you're going to have from, for your brain, for your digestive system, for reducing inflammation levels that it's not going to be captured captured in just an LDLC lowering effect. There's going to be a magnitude of other impacts and this is what I want people to understand about the power of food and why I'm such a staunch supporter of food is medicine. Not to say we can't use pharmaceuticals in addition, but these are really impressive and in some cases just as impressive as drugs.
- [09:05]
A
If you could change just one thing today in somebody's diet who is listening to significantly reduce their risk of having a heart attack or a stroke, what would that be?
- [09:15]
B
I would be increasing fiber. I'd be getting fiber every meal time. I'd be getting, I may have this little thing called BBGs. I don't know if you heard me talk about it, but it's beans, berries, greens, seeds and nuts every single day. Just tick that off. Every single day.
- [09:30]
A
Beans Every day.
- [09:31]
B
Yeah, I have beans every day. So it's like adzuki beans, black beans, could be chickpeas, could be lentils, green pure lentils, whatever. Like just a handful. You don't need to have it all in one sitting. It could be just like, you know, on your toast or whatever, wherever you like it. Just getting a cup of that every single day. Cooked berries, fantastic ingredient. Soluble fiber as well. They have all the anti inflammatory properties. They're very good for your brain. You can get them fresh or frozen if they're out of season. Again, I have that as a snack or just as a side of a meal from having a diversity bowl, which is just like a salad with some other random ingredients. Greens, every single meal is what I go for. But at least getting one cup cooked of Swiss, chard, kale, spinach, whatever greens you like. And then seeds and nuts. A handful of each could be anything. Hemp seeds are one of my favorite. Sunflower seeds. You can use flax, walnut, almonds, any nuts you like. And you get BBGS every single day. You're adding a ton of fiber, you're adding variety. Your microbes are. Thank you. It will be beneficial for your cholesterol levels and it will keep your protein levels relatively high as well because you're adding a little bits of protein there as well. And then seeds are nuts. So I'm a big fan of getting BBGs in every single day and it's very simple and we have it on our fridge at home.