How many servings of fruits and vegetables have you had today? 00:00:16.91\00:00:19.91 How about water? Have you been drinking enough water? 00:00:19.95\00:00:22.42 These are important things to ask yourself as we discuss 00:00:22.45\00:00:25.12 food as medicine on today's program. 00:00:25.15\00:00:27.46 The Ultimate Prescription starts now. 00:00:27.49\00:00:29.82 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:00:31.53\00:00:33.19 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:00:33.23\00:00:36.43 Do you want solutions to your health care problem? 00:00:36.46\00:00:39.80 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:00:39.83\00:00:42.17 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:00:42.20\00:00:46.04 Welcome, and thank you for joining us today on the 00:00:48.41\00:00:50.25 Ultimate Prescription. 00:00:50.28\00:00:51.61 I'm your host, Nick Evenson, joined by Dr. James Marcum. 00:00:51.65\00:00:54.48 And we're out doing a series based on food as medicine. 00:00:54.52\00:00:58.12 And we're looking at different ways we can use nutrition to 00:00:58.15\00:01:01.49 have better health. 00:01:01.52\00:01:02.86 And, Dr. Marcum, welcome to the program. 00:01:02.89\00:01:04.23 My pleasure to be here, Nick. 00:01:04.26\00:01:06.39 And we've learned a lot about different things. 00:01:06.43\00:01:08.26 And today we're going to talk about this kiwi fruit. 00:01:08.30\00:01:11.17 That's right. But there's many different fruits and vegetables, 00:01:11.20\00:01:14.30 and nuts and grains that not only help our health in general, 00:01:14.34\00:01:17.84 to keep us from getting disease, but can slow down aging. 00:01:17.87\00:01:21.58 And we're now having studies where it shows specific fruits, 00:01:21.61\00:01:25.11 vegetables, nuts, and grains can treat specific conditions. 00:01:25.15\00:01:28.72 You know, there's a common theme that I hear you talk about a lot 00:01:28.75\00:01:32.22 of times, which is inflammation. 00:01:32.25\00:01:34.02 Why is inflammation such a hot topic when we talk 00:01:34.06\00:01:36.69 about medical conditions? 00:01:36.73\00:01:38.06 Well, that's great, and I'm hoping I can explain this 00:01:38.09\00:01:40.26 in terms that we can all understand. 00:01:40.30\00:01:42.86 You know, sometimes medical terms, they use big words, 00:01:42.90\00:01:46.17 and they scare people, and lots of fancy diagrams, 00:01:46.20\00:01:50.07 but really inflammation is just your immune system turning on. 00:01:50.11\00:01:55.41 Okay. And the doctors and scientists that do this 00:01:55.44\00:01:58.61 are called immunologists. 00:01:58.65\00:02:00.12 They study the immune system. 00:02:00.15\00:02:01.55 So the body, when it sees something it doesn't like, 00:02:01.58\00:02:05.32 it has an immune reaction. 00:02:05.35\00:02:07.39 For instance, if I punch you in the arm, you're going to have 00:02:07.42\00:02:12.86 some type of reaction to that where your immune cells... 00:02:12.89\00:02:15.63 Say if you take a foreign allergy in you can have an 00:02:15.66\00:02:18.43 immune reaction. Okay. 00:02:18.47\00:02:19.90 If you eat certain foods you have immune reactions. 00:02:19.93\00:02:23.51 Something your body doesn't like? Yeah. 00:02:23.54\00:02:24.87 Sometimes the reactions are built in genetically, 00:02:24.91\00:02:28.81 sometimes they're caused by a foreign invader. 00:02:28.84\00:02:31.78 Now the immune system is very complicated. 00:02:31.81\00:02:34.98 And we have different cells that are like my hero cells, 00:02:35.02\00:02:39.15 called natural killer cells. 00:02:39.19\00:02:40.69 You know, they come on the scene and just engulf a bacteria. 00:02:40.72\00:02:43.69 They see a cancer cell they don't like they just eat it up 00:02:43.73\00:02:46.80 like a big Pacman: it's gone. 00:02:46.83\00:02:48.40 Then there are the antibodies that they're like smart bombers. 00:02:48.43\00:02:52.13 They see something they don't like they tag it. 00:02:52.17\00:02:54.64 They tag the cell they don't like, and then someone else 00:02:54.67\00:02:58.01 comes and does it in. 00:02:58.04\00:02:59.51 You know, they tag it. 00:02:59.54\00:03:00.88 Then we have immune sponsors that are in general; you know, 00:03:00.91\00:03:04.15 these cells that cause inflammation. 00:03:04.18\00:03:06.51 You hear some names like cytokines and different types, 00:03:06.55\00:03:09.35 and, for instance, you have an allergy, a certain type of 00:03:09.38\00:03:11.95 immune systems turn on, sometimes you eat the wrong 00:03:11.99\00:03:15.22 food, you have some immune reaction going on in your body. 00:03:15.26\00:03:18.83 So inflammation; in the joints you have inflammation that 00:03:18.86\00:03:22.73 happens in the joints when its stressed. 00:03:22.76\00:03:24.27 Even in your brain. 00:03:24.30\00:03:25.77 If your brain's under lots of stress, it can have what we call 00:03:25.80\00:03:29.90 more inflammation in the cells. 00:03:29.94\00:03:31.87 Well, inflammation, long term, tends to damage our bodies. 00:03:31.91\00:03:36.18 It's not a good thing to have. 00:03:36.21\00:03:37.85 And we know that there's certain foods that promote 00:03:37.88\00:03:42.25 the body to attack itself. 00:03:42.28\00:03:43.85 You know, it makes cells that we don't norm. 00:03:43.89\00:03:46.39 Because remember, a lot of this stuff that we put in our bodies 00:03:46.42\00:03:48.96 really wasn't made to be there. 00:03:48.99\00:03:50.53 And the body doesn't know what to do with it, so it attacks. 00:03:50.56\00:03:53.19 It has an inflammatory reaction. 00:03:53.23\00:03:54.96 That can happen in our bowels. 00:03:55.00\00:03:56.83 It actually happens in our blood vessels, and it can trigger 00:03:56.87\00:03:59.67 heart attacks, inflammation in the blood vessels. 00:03:59.70\00:04:02.10 It can happen in the brain and trigger all sorts of bad things. 00:04:02.14\00:04:05.44 It can happen in the bowels. 00:04:05.47\00:04:06.81 So inflammation can happen all over the body. 00:04:06.84\00:04:09.08 We know that people that eat plant based diets 00:04:09.11\00:04:12.81 have less inflammation. 00:04:12.85\00:04:14.52 There's all of these antioxidants and good cells 00:04:14.55\00:04:17.82 that our bodies are made to see, and knows what to do with. 00:04:17.85\00:04:21.49 This lowers inflammation. 00:04:21.52\00:04:23.39 So if a person is going to have a problem, like in the bowels, 00:04:23.43\00:04:27.93 I would say a plant based diet should help. 00:04:27.96\00:04:30.20 If people are having brain stress, you know, 00:04:30.23\00:04:32.70 mental health problems, a plant based diet should help that. 00:04:32.73\00:04:35.87 If people are having joint pains, a plant based diet will 00:04:35.90\00:04:38.71 help to some degree with that. 00:04:38.74\00:04:40.41 If people are having inflammation in the blood 00:04:40.44\00:04:42.48 vessels, a plant based diet will help with that to some degree. 00:04:42.51\00:04:45.98 Same with allergies. 00:04:46.11\00:04:47.45 And you're talking about a whole food plant based, 00:04:47.48\00:04:49.48 not just a vegetarian diet. No. 00:04:49.52\00:04:51.12 We're talking whole food. 00:04:51.15\00:04:52.49 So we're not, not packaged foods, and things that come out 00:04:52.52\00:04:54.92 containers for the most part. 00:04:54.96\00:04:56.29 That's a good point, because sometimes people that are 00:04:56.32\00:04:58.86 vegetarians still eat lots of processed foods. Right. 00:04:58.89\00:05:01.76 Lots of canned foods, lots of things that 00:05:01.80\00:05:03.83 damage our bodies, too. 00:05:03.87\00:05:05.20 So vegetarians can be healthy, but a lot of vegetarians still 00:05:05.23\00:05:09.94 eat dairy and cheese, which can trigger inflammation 00:05:09.97\00:05:13.44 in the body as well. 00:05:13.48\00:05:14.81 So that's why inflammation is such a big ticket item. 00:05:14.84\00:05:17.85 It causes aging, it causes disease states, it causes a lot 00:05:17.88\00:05:22.12 of people not to feel well. 00:05:22.15\00:05:23.49 So a lot of people will come to the doctor. 00:05:23.52\00:05:25.89 Let's say you have inflammation some place, and we give them 00:05:25.92\00:05:28.82 anti-inflammatories. Sure. 00:05:28.86\00:05:31.26 We don't really address the cause, 00:05:31.29\00:05:33.53 but let's give them a medicine. 00:05:33.56\00:05:35.00 If you have inflammation in the bowel, sometimes we give 00:05:35.03\00:05:37.60 medicines for that. 00:05:37.63\00:05:38.97 You know, inflammation of the bowel, they have certain 00:05:39.00\00:05:40.34 diseases which cause inflammation, and we treat 00:05:40.37\00:05:43.71 them with anti-inflammatories. 00:05:43.74\00:05:45.57 Let's say your brain's inflamed, and you're under 00:05:45.61\00:05:48.08 stress, and bad things are happening. 00:05:48.11\00:05:49.61 Well, we might give you an anti-anxiety medicine. 00:05:49.64\00:05:52.28 So we treat inflammation because it causes 00:05:52.31\00:05:55.28 symptoms in different ways. 00:05:55.32\00:05:56.65 But sometimes if we address the cause, 00:05:56.69\00:05:59.32 that would solve a lot of problems. 00:05:59.35\00:06:01.19 And that's why I wanted to talk about the different foods, 00:06:01.22\00:06:04.13 and how it treats different conditions. 00:06:04.16\00:06:06.19 Yeah. But we've got a kiwi fruit here today. 00:06:06.23\00:06:08.60 And it's nice and brown and fuzzy on the outside. 00:06:08.63\00:06:12.27 Cut it open and it's quite green, and... 00:06:12.30\00:06:15.17 There's seeds inside, too. 00:06:15.20\00:06:16.54 Pretty nice looking. 00:06:16.57\00:06:17.91 Yeah, little seeds; kind of like a watermelon it almost looks 00:06:17.94\00:06:19.91 like, except that its green rather than red. 00:06:19.94\00:06:21.54 Well, tell me about the goji berry, or whatever it is. 00:06:21.74\00:06:25.31 This kiwi fruit; the interesting fact about it... 00:06:25.35\00:06:27.58 It's not a goji berry is it? 00:06:27.62\00:06:29.42 Well, the original name... 00:06:29.45\00:06:30.79 And it comes originally from China, and it was called the 00:06:30.82\00:06:33.25 yang tau, which means strawberry peach. 00:06:33.29\00:06:35.92 That's what they called it. 00:06:35.96\00:06:37.29 Peach, I guess, because its fuzzy on the outside maybe. 00:06:37.33\00:06:38.66 And later it was replaced by the name, the Chinese gooseberry. 00:06:38.69\00:06:43.30 Okay. The Europeans, that's what they called it. 00:06:43.33\00:06:45.83 And then it was introduced to New Zealand in the 20th Century, 00:06:45.87\00:06:48.94 and later cultivated there. 00:06:48.97\00:06:50.31 And the people in New Zealand, there was a tax on berries, 00:06:50.34\00:06:52.74 and they didn't want to pay the tax to export these kiwi fruits, 00:06:52.77\00:06:54.11 so they changed the name to the kiwi, which is named after the 00:06:55.31\00:06:58.25 kiwi bird, which was also small and brown. 00:06:58.28\00:07:00.12 So that's why we call it the kiwi fruit today. 00:07:00.15\00:07:02.12 And it looks like you could pet it, too. 00:07:02.15\00:07:04.45 It looks like its got little sparkly things on it. 00:07:04.49\00:07:06.79 I don't think it's going to purr or anything 00:07:06.82\00:07:08.16 like that, but you could. 00:07:08.19\00:07:09.52 Wow! Well, you know, New Zealand has put a lot of money into 00:07:09.56\00:07:13.80 studying this fruit. Really? 00:07:13.83\00:07:16.23 Yeah. They put a lot of money. 00:07:16.26\00:07:17.60 There's quite a few studies, scientific studies. 00:07:17.63\00:07:19.50 And that's what I've tried to do is go back to the studies 00:07:19.53\00:07:21.74 and find some evidence base that we can talk about 00:07:21.77\00:07:24.44 the things that this fruit can do to help you. 00:07:24.47\00:07:27.04 Yeah. So what are some of the things that its good for? 00:07:27.08\00:07:29.11 One of the big things in the literature, if you take this 00:07:29.14\00:07:32.81 fruit about two hours before bedtime, 00:07:32.85\00:07:35.75 this will help you go to sleep. 00:07:35.78\00:07:38.02 And that comes from the Aging Pacific Journal of Clinical 00:07:38.05\00:07:41.19 Nutrition back in 2011. 00:07:41.22\00:07:42.89 They did this study, and it helped people sleep better 00:07:42.92\00:07:46.03 if they ate this kiwi fruit about two hours before bedtime. 00:07:46.06\00:07:49.83 I did not know that. 00:07:49.86\00:07:51.20 Yeah. It's also showed to help inflammation. 00:07:51.23\00:07:53.67 So it helps immune function in the body. 00:07:53.70\00:07:56.00 Because of the potassium in it, you know, when you have the 00:07:56.04\00:07:59.87 little potassium it helps lower blood pressure, so it 00:07:59.91\00:08:03.28 counteracts some of the sodium that we might get. 00:08:03.31\00:08:05.11 Again, it's an antioxidant, and antioxidants prevent oxidation, 00:08:05.15\00:08:11.39 which damages our DNA, so it can protect our DNA some. 00:08:11.42\00:08:15.12 It lowers the ability of the body to clot. 00:08:15.16\00:08:19.63 So if you're a clotter, kiwi fruit might help 00:08:19.66\00:08:21.96 you not clot as much. 00:08:22.00\00:08:23.33 It also lowers triglycerides. Right. 00:08:23.37\00:08:26.00 One of the studies, there's a condition in the eye called 00:08:26.03\00:08:29.27 macular degeneration, and people that eat kiwis have higher 00:08:29.30\00:08:34.48 levels of a substance called lutein. 00:08:34.51\00:08:36.48 And lutein helps prevent macular degeneration. 00:08:36.51\00:08:40.05 And again, what seems to help is a pigment... 00:08:40.08\00:08:43.18 You know, we've talked about pigments before. 00:08:43.22\00:08:45.35 There's a pigment that has a chemical in it called 00:08:45.39\00:08:47.92 zeaxanthin, that helps increase lutein, so you lower the risk of 00:08:47.96\00:08:52.26 you having eye problems from macular degeneration. 00:08:52.29\00:08:54.43 So it also has vitamin E in it, good source of vitamin E. 00:08:54.46\00:08:58.90 And vitamin E is an important vitamin that helps our skin 00:08:58.93\00:09:02.70 integrity, which helps protect us from the 00:09:02.74\00:09:04.61 environment that we live in. 00:09:04.64\00:09:05.97 Those are just a few of the things that 00:09:06.01\00:09:09.08 kiwi's do to help us. 00:09:09.11\00:09:10.65 So I don't know if you like kiwi's, but I think it could 00:09:10.68\00:09:14.55 help a lot of different people bringing this into their diets. 00:09:14.58\00:09:18.19 Kiwis are one my favorite foods that we've talked about. 00:09:18.22\00:09:20.92 Things like beets, they're not maybe quite as easy to eat 00:09:20.96\00:09:24.49 sometimes, but kiwi fruit is so sweet, and it's delicious. 00:09:24.53\00:09:27.23 I love it. Yeah. But remember, kiwi's aren't the only fruit 00:09:27.26\00:09:31.73 that has health benefits. 00:09:31.77\00:09:33.10 You know, we've talked about different berries. Uh huh. 00:09:33.13\00:09:35.34 You know, one of the things that in looking at the different 00:09:35.37\00:09:38.34 fruits and the research... 00:09:38.37\00:09:40.04 Do you like watermelon? Yeah, you bet. 00:09:40.08\00:09:42.78 Yeah, well watermelon is another fruit that they've 00:09:42.81\00:09:45.38 studied, and it makes a chemical called citrulline. 00:09:45.41\00:09:48.82 And that's the enzyme that's responsible for helping 00:09:48.85\00:09:53.36 the blood vessels regulate better. 00:09:53.39\00:09:54.99 So lots of different fruits help different 00:09:55.02\00:09:58.43 mechanisms in different ways. 00:09:58.46\00:10:00.10 So I would say for people to add fruit to 00:10:00.13\00:10:04.27 their dietary regimen. 00:10:04.30\00:10:05.63 Now one of the fruits we have to be a little bit careful with, 00:10:05.67\00:10:08.64 if you're on medication, is grapefruit. 00:10:08.67\00:10:11.94 Really? Why's that? 00:10:11.97\00:10:13.31 Yeah, grapefruit suppresses enzymes, which are important 00:10:13.34\00:10:17.71 for breaking down medications in the body. Okay. 00:10:17.75\00:10:20.12 So there's certain medications that grapefruit 00:10:20.15\00:10:24.69 will interfere with. 00:10:24.72\00:10:26.05 So you've got to be a little bit careful if you're... 00:10:26.09\00:10:28.12 Let your doctor know if you're going to eat 00:10:28.16\00:10:29.49 a lot of grapefruit. 00:10:29.52\00:10:30.86 Let him know whether you're on the medicines 00:10:30.89\00:10:32.23 that would effect that. 00:10:32.26\00:10:33.60 Is it to keep them from being absorbed, or...? 00:10:33.63\00:10:35.16 Well, it keeps it, sometimes it increases the level of the 00:10:35.20\00:10:38.63 medicines, and sometimes it effects... 00:10:38.67\00:10:40.50 If your blood sugar medicines, it makes them more potent. 00:10:40.54\00:10:42.87 It can effect different calcium channel blockers. 00:10:42.90\00:10:45.51 It effects different things through the liver. Uh huh. 00:10:45.54\00:10:48.54 Another important... 00:10:48.58\00:10:50.25 You know, I had goji on the mind, because when you started 00:10:50.28\00:10:53.01 talking about sleep, goji's have helped the body with melatonin. 00:10:53.05\00:10:57.45 And melatonin is, again, another thing that helps people sleep 00:10:57.49\00:11:01.82 better, and it helps the body do a lot better. 00:11:01.86\00:11:04.59 So kiwi fruit is something that I think people should think 00:11:04.63\00:11:08.46 about adding, but a lot of other fruits, we're finding, 00:11:08.50\00:11:11.33 have valuable pigments, and the pigments, and things that 00:11:11.37\00:11:14.77 are in, that all the chemicals, they do things to our body that 00:11:14.80\00:11:17.87 we're just now discovering, that helps us treat disease 00:11:17.91\00:11:20.84 as well as permit some of these disease conditions. 00:11:20.88\00:11:23.75 Yeah. You know, there's some folks out there watching who may 00:11:23.78\00:11:26.25 take a lot of supplements. 00:11:26.28\00:11:27.62 Let's talk about that for a second. 00:11:27.65\00:11:28.98 The kiwis have a lot of great things in them, 00:11:29.02\00:11:30.69 but the kiwi's don't come with a label that says 00:11:30.72\00:11:33.02 that they're going to do this for you, 00:11:33.05\00:11:34.39 they're going to do that for you, they're going to take 00:11:34.42\00:11:35.76 care of this and that. 00:11:35.79\00:11:37.13 Supplements on the bottle a lot of times will advertise certain 00:11:37.16\00:11:38.83 conditions that they're good for. 00:11:38.86\00:11:40.20 So what should we do? 00:11:40.23\00:11:41.56 Yeah, well for supplements if you eat a whole food plant based 00:11:41.60\00:11:45.50 diet, 3 to 5 fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts a day, 00:11:45.53\00:11:48.80 you do not usually need many supplements. 00:11:48.84\00:11:51.37 We've talked earlier; you might need some vitamin D. Uh huh. 00:11:51.41\00:11:56.08 If you're truly plant based, and don't take a lot of packaged 00:11:56.11\00:12:00.72 foods, you might need a little bit of B12 in your diet. 00:12:00.75\00:12:04.19 We're talked about that. 00:12:04.22\00:12:05.55 That's a supplement you might need. But those two. 00:12:05.59\00:12:08.82 And of course, you can measure your vitamin D, the B12. 00:12:08.86\00:12:11.59 Those are some of the main supplements. 00:12:11.63\00:12:13.56 And remember, supplements are for people 00:12:13.60\00:12:14.96 that have a deficiency. Uh huh. 00:12:15.00\00:12:16.83 If you don't have a deficiency, you don't need it. 00:12:16.87\00:12:18.80 And the problem with supplements is they give you large amounts. 00:12:18.83\00:12:21.97 Now most of them that you urinate right out. 00:12:22.00\00:12:24.31 But the body, the delivery system that God has given us, 00:12:24.37\00:12:28.28 and the flora in the bowel does better if you eat it in the 00:12:28.31\00:12:32.21 packaging that God gave us for ourselves to utilize. 00:12:32.25\00:12:35.82 And it's much more complicated than people even realize. 00:12:35.85\00:12:39.35 So you can have too much of any good thing. 00:12:39.39\00:12:42.49 And sometimes the supplements, you know, they say, 00:12:42.52\00:12:44.53 Oh, if you eat so much of this and this... 00:12:44.56\00:12:46.36 Now if you're using it to treat a condition, for instance 00:12:46.39\00:12:49.40 let's say you're low, you want to sleep better at night. Right. 00:12:49.43\00:12:52.03 So you say, I want more melatonin. Uh huh. 00:12:52.07\00:12:54.37 Let's say you eat some things that increase the melatonin, 00:12:54.40\00:12:56.84 and you don't really feel a lot better. 00:12:56.87\00:12:58.34 Well, you might take a melatonin supplement to help 00:12:58.37\00:13:02.01 a specific problem. 00:13:02.04\00:13:03.38 So you might take a, let's say you take a statin. 00:13:03.41\00:13:06.31 And sometimes statin's make the muscles weak, 00:13:06.35\00:13:09.38 and you need a coenzyme Q10. 00:13:09.42\00:13:11.32 So you might take a substance that would increase coenzyme Q10 00:13:11.35\00:13:15.06 because of something you're doing. Right. 00:13:15.12\00:13:17.13 But for some otherwise pretty healthy, you usually don't need 00:13:17.16\00:13:20.83 a lot of extra supplements. 00:13:20.86\00:13:22.80 But I see people... 00:13:22.86\00:13:24.20 I had one person, Nick, that came to me the other day with 00:13:24.23\00:13:26.63 like twenty-two different supplements. 00:13:26.67\00:13:28.17 Everything that they read on the internet they would buy. Uh huh. 00:13:28.20\00:13:31.91 And unfortunately, the supplements; 00:13:31.94\00:13:33.68 they're not regulated. 00:13:33.71\00:13:35.04 Sometimes the active supplements cannot even be in it. Right. 00:13:35.08\00:13:38.95 So it's sort of scary. 00:13:38.98\00:13:40.32 And everything is so good, but you know... 00:13:40.35\00:13:42.25 It could be a scam. 00:13:42.28\00:13:43.62 Yes, it could be a scam, especially with memory. 00:13:43.65\00:13:45.25 You know, people say, Oh, this is going to make your memory 00:13:45.29\00:13:48.12 better, or this can cure cancer. 00:13:48.16\00:13:49.92 You know, those type of things. 00:13:49.96\00:13:51.69 And those things might be... 00:13:51.73\00:13:53.40 You know, you have to look at those very carefully. 00:13:53.43\00:13:55.36 Yep. Well, we're going to take a break here in just a minute. 00:13:55.40\00:13:58.13 But I want to tell people about a good resource. 00:13:58.20\00:14:00.10 That's our website. 00:14:00.14\00:14:01.47 If you like this kind of content about your health, 00:14:02.97\00:14:05.34 and following God's design for your life, visit our website: 00:14:05.37\00:14:08.21 There's health articles, radio programs, video clips you can 00:14:09.94\00:14:13.25 watch, and you can also ask the doctor, or you can submit 00:14:13.28\00:14:16.55 your health prayer requests there 00:14:16.58\00:14:18.59 and pray for other people. 00:14:18.62\00:14:19.95 So take a look at that, and we'll will be 00:14:19.99\00:14:21.32 back in just a moment. 00:14:21.36\00:14:22.69