Top 10 Best Vegetables To Unclog Arteries Naturally & Prevent Heart Attack
Hello, Health Champions. If you stay with me in this video, you will finally understand the real
reason you want to eat vegetables, besides, of course, that Mom and Grandma told you so.
We're going to jump right in, and category number one is leafy greens. This includes
things like spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and arugula, and all other forms of lettuce. So,
anything that's leafy green is pretty much the same; they're all very low in carbohydrate,
as you see the kale being a little bit higher, but it's going to be really difficult to eat
enough kale to get too many carbs. And we're going to talk about why low carbs is important.
Also, category number two is cruciferous vegetables. This includes things like broccoli,
cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and bok choy. Again,
they're very low in carbohydrates, and these are reported as net carbohydrates,
meaning you subtract the fiber because that's not available to you, you can't digest it,
but it still becomes important, and we're going to talk more about that.
And I'm a huge fan of vegetables, but we have to understand why they're good for us,
and there's so many confusing claims out there. I found a video that claimed things like this:
the green superheroes that can pave the way to clear and healthy arteries. They said
vegetables are packed with nutrients that can help keep our arteries squeaky clean. And then
they said that vegetables are well known for their ability to lower blood pressure. Well,
it doesn't work like this. There are no nutrients that can clean your arteries. Vegetables do not
have the ability to lower blood pressure. Because when they state it like this, people think, 'Oh,
it's just like a medication.' And over 50 times in 10 minutes, they used very colorful,
descriptive, leading phrases such as superhero veggies, Caped Crusader swooping in to defend,
vigilant guard, and they said that vegetables are infusing heart-loving nutrients. So,
these are just a few examples of what this whole video is about, and it's kind of cute,
it's kind of poetic, but it doesn't tell us anything about what they actually do.
And they actually take us away; they exaggerate and they confuse, and it can even be dangerous.
And why is that? Because even if veggies are great, if we do something for the wrong reason, it
keeps us from doing things for the right reason. And now, we have a superficial and incomplete
model. So, the whole problem is that we're stuck in a sick care system, in a viewpoint where the
only problem is symptoms, and then we treat the symptoms. And then some holistic people come, and
they say, 'Well, that's why you want to use food as medicine. You don't have to take medication,
but use the food.' Well, it's the same kind of thinking. And instead of using a medication
to treat a symptom, now you think that food is a treatment for disease and symptom, and you haven't
changed anything in the way you're thinking about it. You're still in the way of thinking,
the model that says, 'Take this for that,' whether it's a medication or whether it's an
herb or a vitamin or food. It doesn't change the thinking, and therefore, we will forever ignore
the root causes, and we won't really understand how the body works and how to get healthy.
So, if we want vegetables to clean arteries, now we first have to
understand what causes the artery to clog up, what causes cardiovascular disease and
heart disease. And, just to keep it simple, it's basically three things: it's genetics,
it is chronic low-grade inflammation, and it's oxidative stress. So then,
if vegetables are capable of cleaning arteries and helping cardiovascular disease, then there
should be something about these nutrients in vegetables that are related to that. So,
we need to ask, 'Do vegetables have nutrients that cause these issues here?' And the answer is no,
but we're going to put a little question mark on that and come back to it. 'Do nutrients
undo these issues?' And again, the answer is no, but we're going to put a little question mark.
So, what really causes heart disease, besides genetics, is processed foods and excess amounts
of sugar, carbs, and seed oils. And, of course, the processed foods mostly contain the sugar,
carbs, and seed oil, and these lead to insulin resistance. They lead to overeating,
they're nutrient-poor, they are triggering a lot of blood sugar, and a lot of insulin,
leading to a chronically high level of insulin, promoting type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome,
and obesity, and so forth. And that is the true cause of heart disease and cardiovascular disease.
But if that's the case, then why should we eat vegetables? How do they help us? Well,
first of all, if you eat fresh vegetables and healthy foods, then they will replace worse
food. They'll replace the processed foods. If you eat a ton of healthy vegetables,
you're much less likely to eat anything junky. And these vegetables that we're going to go over
are generally very low in carbohydrates, so you stimulate less blood sugar, less insulin,
and you can actually start reversing the mechanism behind heart disease.
Vegetables also have nutrients, and there are two kinds: the first is micronutrients,
and those are basically vitamins and minerals. And their vegetables are very often promoted
as being supercharged, but that's not really true. They do have a good amount,
but they're not unique in that way. Meat and fish and nuts and seeds have plenty of micronutrients,
so that's not why vegetables are unique in any way. The other type is macronutrients,
and I put a question mark there because that's the fat and the protein and the carbohydrate,
and vegetables generally have much, much less macronutrients than rich foods like
meat and eggs and cheese and nuts and seeds, so that's not also why they help.
But here's the key to understand that nobody really talks about, in a positive way,
that vegetables are unique compared to animal products in that they have non-nutrients. So
why on Earth would we want non-nutrients? We talk all the time about nutrients,
that we need more nutrients. Why would we need non-nutrients? Because they help modulate gut
bacteria. We have somewhere around 40 trillion bacteria living in our gut, and they're spread
out over a surface area that's about the same as your average house, it's about 3,000 square
ft or 300 square m, where these bacteria live and do their thing. They're interacting with us. So,
they have the ability, these non-nutrients, can inhibit the growth of the pathogens. So,
there's some bacteria that are beneficial and some that are potentially harmful and disease-causing,
and we need to inhibit the bad ones that can cause disease, and we need to promote the beneficial
ones, called symbion. And that's what these non-nutrients contribute to doing. And symbion and
symbiosis means that both sides benefit. So, these bugs, they benefit from living inside us, but we
benefit tremendously from having them inside us. And it's only in the last few years that we really
have started to understand how important this collection of bacteria is, so important, in fact,
that they now consider it a separate organ in its own right, just like you have organs like liver
and heart and lungs. This collection of microbes is no less important; it is a separate organ.
So, these non-nutrients, they include things like fiber, which is what we subtract from our
carbohydrates. So, there are carbohydrates that we can break down that have a certain configuration,
but then if that configuration, if a molecule just twists a little bit, then we don't have the
enzymes to break it down, and that's what fiber is. But some of these bacteria can break it down,
and now that becomes their food. So, the purpose of fiber is to provide a little bit of bulk to
move things forward in the gut, but also, and primarily, to feed the microbes. But it doesn't
stop there because, besides fiber, there's also something called phytochemicals, and these are
unique to plants. And there's over 10,000 of them that we have identified so far, and who knows how
many we'll find in the years to come. And these are actually a form of plant defenses. Just like
a cactus has thorns, and snakes have poison, every species has some way of defending themselves. So,
these phytochemicals are like a mild toxin that keeps away pests and mold and fungus and things
like that. And that's why we often talk about certain herbs and certain vegetables as being
antibacterial and antifungal; it's because they have these phytochemicals that keep unwanted
things away. And you may have heard of some of these names, but don't worry if you don't because
they're not important. I just want to give you some examples. One of the largest classes
is called polyphenols, including phenolic acid, which also includes stilbenes, and one of the ones
you may have heard is Resveratrol, which is one type of stilbene, and also, of course, curcumin.
Now, the thing to understand about these is that they're not nutrients. We often think of them as
nutrients. We go to the nutrition store to buy curcumin, but it's not a nutrient in the sense
that we absorb it. Because these are, generally, for the most part, very low bioavailability,
meaning they do not enter the body. We put them in the tube that is the GI tract, but they stay
there. And that's okay, because you're not supposed to absorb them. Even if a small,
small, small fraction gets through and actually has some benefits inside the body, which there's
some signs of, but we're not really sure, the vast majority of what these things do is they interact
and balance our microflora. But I also said that these plant chemicals are a form of defense, and
it's a form of a mild toxin to keep things away. So, in some people, this can cause reactions.
And if you have a reaction, that's called a hypersensitivity. You're sensitive to something,
and then that can cause inflammation. But here's where it gets interesting. Now,
some people are going to have a reaction, and others don't. What's the difference? And it
again has to do with the balance of bacteria. So, if you have something called dysbiosis,
which means an imbalance in the biology in your gut, then you're not able to tolerate the same
types of foods. You're going to have different reactions, and a lot of food allergies are going
to depend on if you have the right bacteria or not. And then, this kind of becomes a vicious
cycle, as the dysbiosis creates a reaction, and the reaction creates inflammation. And then the
inflammation contributes to an unhealthy gut and to more dysbiosis. And the solution to break
this cycle now is, first of all, to reduce the inflammation, however we do that. So,
we have to start avoiding certain foods and things that we're sensitive to. And for some people,
they start eliminating grain, and some people start eliminating sugar and certain things.
But then, if you're really, really sensitive, you eliminate more and more and more and more,
and you still have some issues. And that's where some people go to the carnivore diet because meat
is about the safest thing that you can eat. It's the thing that you're the least likely to have a
reaction to. And this is where a lot of people now are finding the carnivore diet finally makes them
feel better because they can reduce or eliminate that inflammation, they can stop the reactions.
But here is where I believe that there's a lack of understanding,
that these carnivore people feel like this is the diet that finally made them feel good; therefore,
that is the perfect food for the rest of their lives. And then maybe okay, but I don't think
it's optimal because I think we need a healthy gut flora. We need a gut flora with a wide
diversity to have optimal health. So, in addition to that, I think you could try carnivore for 30,
60, 90 days, but then I think we need to start trying to figure out how to restore that balance
and that thriving gut flora. So once we have that inflammation under control, probably what
we want to do is to start restoring the biome. So now you start putting in some good bacteria,
and this is going to be different for different people. And again, this science is in its infancy,
but they are developing good gut tests, some stool tests, and you want something where they
do a DNA analysis of all the strains in the gut. And then when you start working on this to restore
the biome, there are good probiotics, there is yogurt, you can make your own, you can cultivate
certain strains, and for some people, it's going to be a relatively straightforward process,
and for others, it might be a very long process of trial and error because we're all different.
But I believe that some of the toughest cases that just don't resolve anywhere else,
that we need to start looking this way. And then when you have, hopefully, restored the biome,
you have some better health and function. Now, of course, you need to maintain it, and you need
to keep feeding the biome. And now the goal is to create variety and diversity. So, the more variety
of fiber, the more variety of vegetables, the greater variety of phytochemicals, the greater the
chances that you're going to create diversity in your microbiome. And now that you understand that,
you understand it is rather foolish to try to make a list, to try to put some vegetables ahead of
others and call them superfoods, and others are just regular foods. Instead, we want to
get that variety, we want to get several cups of vegetables, and we want to eat as many different
kinds as possible. But there's some things you want to know and watch for, and that's why I do
the videos like this, so you start recognizing and creating some patterns and a bigger picture.
So, there's something called nightshades, that again is great for some people and not so great
for others, because they contain lectins, which can be irritating. It's one of these proteins,
one of these chemicals that create a problem. And tomatoes can have lectins in them. It's a
delicious, fantastic food for a lot of people, but others might react. Bell peppers, eggplant,
and white potatoes are also nightshades. And most of these would be great, they're very low carbs
for anybody who's not sensitive to lectin. But even if you're not sensitive to lectin,
if you are insulin resistance, or if you're overweight, or you're trying to reverse diabetes,
then you don't want to eat something with so many carbs. So anything that's double digits on carbs,
I would say to watch for. It doesn't mean it's a bad food, or you can't never have it;
it just means you got to watch the numbers if you're trying to keep your carbs low.
In category number four is alliums, which are things like onion and garlic and leek and
shallots, and onion is what you're probably going to eat the most of, like if you do a
stir fry. So the carb count, the net carbs are quite low, the others are considerably higher,
but you're probably not going to eat as much of those. And here we want to keep
in mind that these are generally quite high in something called FOS, fructooligosaccharide,
which is a very good, very potent prebiotic to feed gut bacteria. It's even sold as a
supplement because it's really beneficial. However, if you have something called SIBO,
small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, now FOS is something you trying to avoid,
because you have bacteria in the wrong place in the small intestine, and now you get super gassy
if you feed them. So then you're on a diet where you're trying to avoid these things.
So again, understand the difference. Number five is root vegetables, things that grow underground,
and of course, potato was one of those. But here are some others, and this includes carrots,
turnip, celery root, parsnip, rutabaga, and sweet potato. And as you see, some of these
are actually very low in carbohydrates, like the turnips and the rutabaga especially. But if you
are a diabetic, if you're trying to reverse insulin resistance, or if you're periodically
doing the ketogenic diet, then you definitely want to stay with the ones that are single
digits. If you get up to sweet potato, that's going to kick you out of ketosis pretty quick.
Then there is the squash group, and here we have things like zucchini and butternut squash,
acorn squash, and pumpkin. And again, some are quite low, like zucchini is very low in net carbs,
whereas some of these tend to go up a little bit. Number seven is legumes; these are things that
grow in pods, and sometimes you eat the whole pod, and sometimes you open up the pod and just
eat what's inside. And here we have things like peas and green beans, lentils, edamame,
and black beans, and of course, all the bean varieties as well, but I just picked black beans
because the others are going to be fairly similar. And a lot of these are going to be low in carb,
relatively low, especially the green beans, which would be a vegetable that is okay on a ketogenic
diet, because you eat the whole thing, so it's more like just a water-rich vegetable, whereas
lentils and black beans would be an occasional thing if you're trying to keep carbs down.
Number eight is mushrooms, which of course are fungi and not really a vegetable at all,
but we refer to them in that context, and we sort of eat them together. And here we have
white button mushrooms, portabella mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms, and there's many,
many others, and they're generally very low in carbohydrates. Number nine is stalk vegetables,
and here we have celery, asparagus, and rhubarb, all very, very low in carbohydrates,
so these be perfect even on a ketogenic diet. And number 10 are fruits and berries,
so these are things that we often refer to as a vegetable, but they are actually more of a fruit,
and these would also be totally okay. So, we have avocado, which is kind of medium in carbohydrate,
but it has so much fiber that it's very, very low in net carbs, which is what we're looking
for. Then we have olives, also a fruit. We have pumpkin, blackberries, and raspberries, which
are berries, and then strawberries, of course. Coconut is also a fruit; if you eat the meat,
you probably want to avoid the coconut water, especially separately. If you get it with the
coconut, then you could sip on it, but don't drink all at once. But this number refers to the coconut
meat. And then we have cucumbers, which are also technically a fruit, even though we think about
a lot of these as vegetables. And the thing to keep in mind, though, is that the cucumber has
lectin in it. So, if you're going on a carnivore diet, and then you want to try to reintroduce some
other foods, then the safest ones would generally be fruit because they don't have as much of these
protective chemicals in them as a lot of the other vegetables. CU fruits don't need to defend
themselves as much; they would prefer to be eaten and then have animals spread the seeds around.
So, remember that we want to eat a wide variety of both animal-based
and plant-based foods to make sure that you feed both yourself and your separate organ,
the microbiome. If you enjoyed this video, you're going to love that one. And if you truly want to
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