Thanks so much for joining us on the Fat-Burning Man Show, where we talk about real food and real results, and a whole lot of other things that will help you stay alive in the wacky world of the 21st century.
Like this for example, what’s the link between smartphone use and brain cancer?
The answer, unfortunately, is a very creepy one.
To help us figure it out, today we’re here with someone who’s been on the front lines of health for more than three decades.
Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman holds an M.S. in Nutrition Education from Columbia University, has the title of Certified Nutrition Specialist (C.N.S.) from the American College of Nutrition, as well as a Ph.D. in Holistic Nutrition.
And today, she’s here to share some astonishing things about your gut health, the hazards of EMF pollution, and how to boost your metabolism with just a few simple tweaks.
If you’ve had issues with your gallbladder or losing stubborn fat, then this show is definitely one to listen to.
On this show with Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman, you’re going to learn:
- Common reasons people fail on a keto or paleo diet
- The startling research behind smartphone use and cancer
- How the gallbladder is related to fat gain and sluggish thyroid
- And tons more…
Alright, let’s go hang out with Dr. Gittleman.
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Abel: Alright, folks, please welcome to the show, award-winning best-selling author of over 35 books, Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman.
As one of the world’s foremost experts in functional and integrative medicine, Dr. Gittleman holds an MS in Nutrition Education from Columbia University, has the title of Certified Nutrition Specialist from the American College of Nutrition, and a PhD in Holistic Nutrition.
Thank you so much for joining us.
It’s so much a pleasure to be with you, Abel James.
The Gallbladder: A Throwaway Organ?
Abel: There’s so much that we could talk about today. I’m really excited.
But I think we should just start it right off with the fact that a whole lot of people these days are familiar with, and following something related to, ketosis or keto in one way or another. Definitely just going hard on the fats and focusing on those.
Yet, we hear very little about the gallbladder, this little organ that’s supposed to be throwaway, if you listen to a lot of people.
So can you help fill us in on how that’s not true?
Well, that’s a terrific introduction for a book called Radical Metabolism, in which I talk about the importance of the “throwaway organ”, which of course it’s not, and that is the gallbladder.
The idea is that the gallbladder is the storage tank for bile, which is the digestive fluid that breaks down fat into its intricate components.
And it’s also a method of detoxification to flush out toxins.
And interestingly enough, it has a very intricate relationship with thyroid metabolism.
When you don’t have your gallbladder, you’re missing out on a digestive glitch that is so important for overall health—the breakdown of fats, your ability to lose weight and your overall thyroid health.
I’m a big believer that if you’re going to go keto, you must be able to digest all that fat, which is a very hard macro-nutrient in the first place to break down.
Which is where the gallbladder comes into play, or at least, some type of bile salt which your gallbladder should be producing. Or even a little bit of beetroot or any kind of bitters.
That is so important in producing the proper bile to get the most out of your fats.
Abel: And it’s not just that the liver is important and the gallbladder isn’t, or that any of these organs are more important than the others.
This is a system, and all of these things need to be working correctly with each other.
That’s one thing I think you describe so well in your book.
For those of the listeners who aren’t familiar with the mechanisms of the gallbladder—how it works, why it works and bile itself—can you explain a little bit what that does for our bodies?
Yes. We have to make bile, it’s as important as probiotics.
It needs to be the next probiotic, so to speak, in light of the higher fat diets—whether it’s keto, paleo, primal or a wild diet.
I really think what’s important for people to know is that the liver, your very best friend in terms of fat burning and fat metabolism, is the producer of bile.
Your body produces about a quart and a half of this greenish liquid, which is then stored in the tank, which is the gallbladder.
And when you eat a little bit of fat, the gallbladder secretes bile to digest the fat. It’s as simple as that.
When you do not have a gallbladder, there’s not the timed secretion of this digestive fluid, so your fats are not being broken down, and perhaps they’re being stored where they shouldn’t be.
It’s very simple. Without the ability to break down fats, whether it’s saturated fat or the essential fatty acids, you’re losing out on vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin D, and K. Which are all fat soluble vitamins.
So, your ability to fight off infection, the ability to circulate your blood properly, to put calcium where it belongs, is neutralized without the important biological impact with the fat soluble vitamins.
So, there’s a real domino effect. If you can save your gallbladder, I’m all for saving the gallbladder so that it doesn’t join the throwaway organ club, so to speak.
Abel: Well, it’s amazing to me how many organs and things on our bodies, medicine has just said, “Let’s lop these off, we don’t need them. Let’s take that out.”
It just seems so cavalier. But it does seem that’s also starting to change a little bit, for the better.
Well, I think so. And speak about throwaway organs, the appendix is also very important. It seems to be a storage tank for helpful probiotics.
So, whenever you can save those organs, unless of course you’re in a position where there’s a life-threatening situation.
But before you get there, there’s so much that you can do to get rid of gallstones, for example, get rid of the sludge that’s congesting up that poor overworked gallbladder.
The Effects of Toxins on our Organs
Abel: Well, let’s talk about that a little bit. Because we live in a toxic world these days, and I think a lot of folks aren’t even familiar with all the different directions that we’re being slowly but surely poisoned.
But why don’t we talk about why that’s a problem first. What do these toxins actually do to us?
Well, I think what’s happening is that you’re seeing a kind of estrogenetic impact for many of these fats, especially the xenotoxins, the xenoestrogen.
So, you have the estrogenetic impact, number one.
And number two, when you don’t break down your hormones you get hormone-dependent cancers, God forbid, or hormone-dependent issues that affect your menopause or perimenopausal experience, whether that’s estrogen dominance and progesterone deficiency.
So, we want to be able to break down those hormones as successfully as possible, which is something that bile definitely helps us do. Or bile salts or bitters, depending on what you’re going to be taking.
And we also want to make sure that we decongest the bile by having bile-thinning foods.
So, just the way you have prebiotics and probiotics, we need bile-thinning foods in the diet daily, once, twice, three times a day.
Like lemon and water, which is the easiest thing for people to do first thing in the morning.
You take the juice of half a lemon, put it in hot water and you’re bile thinning, and you’re toning your liver, your gallbladder, as well as your kidneys.
Dandelion root tea is another bile-thinning food, as is lecithin, whether that’s non-GMO soy lecithin or even your sunflower lecithin.
So these things are missing from many of our modern diets, as well as the bitter taste, which used to be part of our everyday repertoire.
So I say, bring back bitters. Bitters are better, especially in spring time, when the liver is the organ that needs more tender loving care, as well as its sister organ, the gallbladder.
Bring back bitters. Bitters are better! @ALGittleman #health #fatburning Click To Tweet
Abel: We’ve kind of lost the taste for bitters too, it seems.
We’ve lost the taste because we’re so programmed to eat something that’s sweet.
So, a bitter food might be some arugula in a salad, a tri-color salad with arugula and even escarole.
Or you could take a bitter fruit, which is so good for weight loss.
So there is something to this grapefruit diet, and I’m talking about pink grapefruit with its phytonutrients that help with fat-burning.
So, getting back bitters may be an effortless way to lose weight when you’re over 40, when you’re toxic, or when you’re a known slow loser.
And all of those are the focal points of this book, Radical Metabolism.
Abel: And so a lot of us are kind of dealing with this toxic sludge in our system, this bile that’s trying to get rid of all this junk that we’re exposed to.
But after a while, we start to break down because things kind of get clogged.
Obviously, this is an over-simplification, but can you explain that in more scientific terms for us?
Well, I would say that you have to decongest the bile, and that’s why the bile-thinning foods like bitters are important.
And for people that may be the vegans out there, we’re looking at gentian root or angelica root, which is considered a bitter, even spices and herbs like horseradish.
Including those in the diet will help you to break down the bile so that it can function as a bile-thinning agent to help detoxify your body.
What people don’t realize is that the liver has several detoxification methods.
There’s the phase one and phase two detox pathways that I know you’re familiar with, but the other is through the bile, which very much helps to flush out toxins.
And when bile becomes re-circulated you become re-detoxified. So, cleaning up the bile is important.
And if you feel that you have congested or congealed bile, we’ve got to get you on a program to get rid of those stones in the making, so to speak.
That’s where something like orthophosphoric acid comes into play, which is available from many companies in this day and time.
So, just taking a little bit of that or something called stone root, would be very helpful in breaking down those little pebbles that can get stuck in the bile that can be very, very painful, not to mention life-threatening.
Abel: And do we know how many people are having issues or will have issues in their lifetimes?
You know, I’m going to take an educated guesstimate, and I’m going to say at least two out of three.
And that’s because the high fat diet which may be paved with good intentions, they have some very disastrous side effects.
You’re already seeing pancreatitis, you are already seeing problems with the gallbladder, and you’re already seeing problems in terms of kidney stones.
So, I think precaution and prevention in doing some of these techniques would be very helpful.
I would encourage anybody on a ketogenic diet to also pick up Radical Metabolism and to hedge your bets a little bit down the road.
Dangerous Diet Trends
Abel: Well, it’s so easy for people to hop on whatever the latest diet train is, as you know.
What are some things that you’ve seen over the years that might surprise people, like for instance, keto is not new.
No, you know, I’ll tell you something. I was the director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center in the 1980s, which was the harbinger of the “no” to low fat, high complex carbohydrate diet.
Fat was a dirty word. Fat was a four-letter word in those days.
Of course, being the nutritional heretic that I was and still am, I wrote a book called Beyond Critical, and where I brought back the right fats in the diet to the tune of 40% of total calories, which was considered heresy, even way back then.
But I think from there, of the high complex carbohydrate diet, we then went into the high-protein diet, which was very much the Atkins MO, and from there we’ve gone into paleo, we’ve gone into keto, primal, vegan here and there, raw foods.
I think all of them have their place.
You just need to know what’s biologically good for you, your genes, your ancestral inheritance.
And for those of us with different blood types, that’s another little element to put in the mix.
So I have it all mixed up and put in my newest book Radical Metabolism, and it’s part of my whole philosophy.
There’s not one program that works for everybody every time in every season of our lives. @ALGittleman Click To Tweet
The Best Strategy for Lifelong Health
Abel: Well, I wanted to ask you about that, because so many people, any of us, can get locked into doing the same thing over and over again, not because it’s still working, but because it used to work or we thought that it used to work.
So, what’s the best strategy to take for a lifetime of health?
I think as we get older and wiser, and get into our prime sage years, and I talk about this a lot with many of my clients who are females that have gone through PMS, and then peri-menopause, and then menopause.
You have to make an adjustment.
The thyroid seems to do a slowing down, halting act as we get older.
Why is that?
It’s really becoming toxic with all the fluoride, the bromides, the elements that are out there that are really sitting on the thyroid hormones and preventing the transference of T4 to T3.
So, I guess what I would say is that what’s important as you’re getting older is to reduce your carbohydrates, perhaps take a break from so many grains and get into carbohydrates that are really the most friendly for the body.
But don’t give them up entirely or your gut’s going to have problems in terms of its metabolism, and its ability to produce healthy probiotics.
I’m a big believer in making a case for carbohydrates. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s important.
I think we need a limited amount of fruits, maybe they’re low sugar, low fructose fruits, apples, and pears and berries of all different types.
I’m not a big believer in a lot of juices, which I think is coming and going.
And limiting your grains, certainly, the gluten-rich grains and the lectin-rich grains would be important. Which is why I say bring back a little basmati rice, a little millet, which is so under-appreciated, and even a little sorghum.
Abel: Unfortunately, it’s been good and bad as people found these higher fat ways of living.
One of the things that concerns me is how many people completely give up vegetables, or plants in general, fruits and vegetables.
Because they’re like, “I’m keto now and it’s working.”
I know.
Abel: So what’s your response to that?
It’s insane, I mean, it’s insane.
I think being moderate is not what we do as Americans. If a little is good, a lot is better, and so on and so forth. It works the other way around, as well.
So I guess what I would say is that you need a certain amount of vegetables and a certain amount of fruits.
You need the enzymes, fresh enzymes, you need the minerals, you need the fiber that all of those foods provide. So you need a little bit everyday.
You may not have to go over 50 to 60 grams of carbohydrates, but a little bit goes a long way.
Abel: And you need some diversity in your diet, I think I’m hearing you say, too.
You need diversity, because what starts to happen on any of these programs, and what I’ve seen over the 40 years of being in the business, is that when you are so deprived, then you go overboard the other way.
Abel: Yeah, and it’s easier to do that now than ever.
And you see people ping ponging back and forth between vegan and paleo and keto.
When I optimistically look at these diets, they should be quite similar.
If it were a Venn diagram, they should hopefully be overlapping with plants.
But maybe people just want to kick them out because it’s easy. Because they never wanted to eat their vegetables anyway.
What’s easy now is going to be really tough later.
You need your leafy greens. You need a little bit of starch. You need a healthy carbohydrate diet, you need a little bit of fruit for detoxification, you need your minerals, you need your macro minerals, you need your trace minerals, your micro nutrients.
So, I think that’s very important. And of course, the lack of fiber is something that, of course, concerns me.
We’re seeing difficulties in terms of elimination.
I think that keto, which attempts to put the body into fat-burning mode rather than sugar-burning, I think it’s going in the right direction.
It’s how we’re coloring in the spaces that’s really off.
Abel: Yeah, just a little tweaking, really. And a little common sense.
Yes, which isn’t so common these days.
Abel: It does seem like common sense has kind of gone away here, or gone down hill.
What is that about? And when did that start? Why is that happening, or has it been like that since the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s?
It’s always been that way. And I’ve been around long enough to tell you that the diet trends come and go, people want the magic bullet.
We don’t necessarily want to work for our results when it comes to diet at least. There are easy ways to lose weight, and keto promises and delivers for many people with type two diabetes, problems with seizures, inability to lose weight.
There’s something to be said for it, but what’s good short term may not be good for people long term.
The diet that heals may not be the diet that keeps and gets you well.
Abel: That is such a great point.
So if someone has great results with going hardcore keto, dialing down pre-diabetes or whatever it is, maybe losing a bit of weight, but they accidentally kicked out the plants and some of the good stuff, too.
How do you make that a balanced diet again without people being freaked out about regaining the weight, or going back to the condition they had before?
We add some leafy greens, maybe sauteed in bone broth or olive oil or coconut oil, some sort of collards or spinach, or maybe a little bit of kale, organic of course, that’s what we do.
It’s really the greens that I’m most concerned about, and then of course a half a cup of fruit could be very helpful in putting you over the edge when it comes to the importance of the polyphenols, the bio-flavonoids and the potassium and fiber that berries will provide.
Abel: Yeah, I find that the longer I kind of eat that way, trying to go for all those different… I don’t know if you call them food groups, but they kind of are, you start to look forward to the diversity in your diet.
If you’re just eating the same stuff over and over again…
It’ll get boring very quickly.
Abel: It feels like work.
It feels like work, and there’s not a whole lot that you can really vary your diet with.
And I’m not certain that a 70% to 75% fat macro proportion of your diet really is helpful for many people, and some of us, genetically, cannot metabolize that fat in terms of our DNA and the kind of genes that we’ve inherited.
So I would say, proceed with caution.
Limiting your carbohydrates we all know is a good thing.
Limiting the grains may be the next step, but don’t give up your greens and don’t give up your berries.
Is Intermittent Fasting a Useful Tool?
Abel: Another thing you mentioned in your book that I’d love to talk about is the benefit of taking a break from time to time, giving your system a break from digesting, or from digesting certain things.
Fasting is another buzz word these days, and I’d love to hear your take on it.
Well, not everybody can intermittent fast.
Although it’s been helpful for so many people I know first hand, second hand and third hand.
I’m a person with low blood sugar. It would be disastrous for me. I have to eat after an hour of getting up.
So having said that, I think it’s important seasonally at this day and time to take a break from food to give your gallbladder rest, your liver a rest, your stomach a rest.
And so in the program I developed a four-day cleanse, which is a little different from other cleanses you may have seen out there.
Number one, jicama is one of the juice blends that we have made AM and PM, because it’s a very important prebiotic, so it feeds the good bacteria.
I also include some celery juice, which is a big buzzword these days, in my juice, as well as a little bit of apple.
I don’t go overboard on any of the fruits, but the real signature element of the four-day cleanse is the watercress soup. And that’s because watercress, over all of the bitter vegetables out there will help you lose weight. And it’s a really tasty soup, by the way, so don’t be put off by the name.
And it’s very cancer protective, it has at least 10 different phytonutrients in this one little veggie that will protect against cancer and other degenerative diseases, and is very diuretic.
My women that want an instant fix, so to speak, and we all do once in a while to get into that dress or those pants for some sort of reunion or celebration, will be losing 10 pounds of inflammation after the four-day cleanse. I call it inflammation loaded water retention.
And that’s something that I really get behind.
Abel: It’s so noticeable when it happens, too. I noticed it in my own face, when I stopped following my doctor’s advice about 10 years ago, at the beginning, before I started all this. It was one of those things where I thought it was just the way that I was aging, but my face was growing sideways, out horizontally.
But that came off so fast as soon as I got away from eating mostly the processed carbs and the grains. Kicking that out, letting my system rest for a little bit.
That water weight came off and it was so obvious, not just to me, but pretty much everyone around me. And that was even before I really started to lose the weight, it seemed like.
People want to see fast results, we’re a society of instant gratification.
So one of the best ways to do that is, of course, what you did, little by little, and then doing the four-day cleanse, like the four-day intensive and radical, we’ll get outstanding results.
But watercress is very underappreciated, overlooked, and ignored. It is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. So, I say get rid of the kale, bring in watercress.
Abel: It’s fun to try different things, to eat seasonally. It keeps you from being bored. It’s great for your body. It’s great for your mind.
And great for your taste buds.
Cell Phones and Your Health
Abel: Yeah, keeps things interesting.
Now, let’s switch gears a little bit because I don’t want to say I had fun reading your book, Zapped, but I was just totally stunned. It came out in 2011.
Here we are almost 10 years later. It seems like things have gotten so much worse, but the problems that you brought up in the book itself seemed obvious back then.
So, I’d love to hear your take on why are we here. And also you have a personal experience with what happened using a cell phone too much.
I lived with my cell phone. It was adjusted to my ear, quite frankly, it was kind of an appendage in my ear.
And I didn’t think I was using it that much, but I was traveling. I had a best-selling book in those days that was out, and I was going from airplane to studio to TV, so I had to be on the phone talking to everybody and coordinating everything.
So having said that, I woke up one day with a little growth on the side of my neck, and I didn’t think anything of it, until it didn’t go away.
I finally had it checked, I thought it was a lymph node. We got it removed and lo and behold, Abel, it turned out to be a what they called a benign parotid gland tumor.
And now, who the heck had ever heard of the parotid gland to begin with, but a parotid gland tumor? Where did I get such a such a development?
Research then showed me that it was connected to cell phone use. And they’re showing that people that use their cell phones on one side of their head more so than the other, and of course I’m kind of a righty, we’re more susceptible to parotid gland tumor growth.
And this was in a peer reviewed journal.
So, I then decided it was time to write a book, and being the renegade that I am, I wrote a book that came out in 2010.
It was not met with a lot of enthusiasm by the telecom industry, to say the least, or people that didn’t want to give up their gadgets.
But as time has gone on, everything that I’ve talked about in that book is as relevant today as it was back then.
So, you’ve got to unplug, the same way you have to give your digestive system a rest.
You have to give your bio-magnetic field a rest so that it’s not being assaulted by all of these strange emissions that are man-made and so not normal to our physiology.
Abel: Some people may have heard about the supposed link between electronics and cancer, but what really surprised me was how much research you had, even in this book from about 10 years ago.
What’s crazy now, though, is it seems like everyone forgot. It seems like everyone’s on their devices more than ever, raising their children on these devices.
And we really have this illusion that because it’s in our hands, or because it’s sold to us, that it’s somehow safe.
Can you shatter that for us?
It’s a big industry. It’s a trillion dollar industry at this point, so that’s the illusion.
We’ve got big pharma, big tobacco, biggest, bestest. Now we have big telecom and big tech.
So, the reality is that this is very much a part of our life and it’s an inconvenient truth to tell somebody that it’s not healthy for you.
The least that you can do is what I talk about in the book is, number one, unplug at night by disabling your Wi-Fi router.
Number two, if you can shut off the electricity at night with kind of a kill switch that is easily implemented in your home, you do that.
Just to make sure that there’s no electricity coming in your room, and staying away, of course, from blue lights that are emanating from any electrical device.
That we all know, but you’ve got to make some room in your house, a healing haven, to give your body time to discharge.
And if you use a lot of cold water throughout the day, it’s very helpful in cooling down the heating effect that all these devices have on the system.
Abel: Another thing that kind of came and went many years ago, is grounding.
Oh, but you know something? I wish it was still in vogue as I think it is in some areas of the world.
I sleep with a grounding wrist band every night, so that I’ve got the infusion of those electrons that can neutralize all the free radicals. That’s important, too.
When you can walk on sand, when you can, please do that.
Walk on the earth with bare feet, because you can discharge this electricity, this kind of electrical charge that’s not normal to the body.
All of those things are what we were physiological designed to do, and I think it’s important to bring that back.
I get very concerned when I see children, especially little children, that are fooling around with their parents’ iphones. Because all of that is much more impactful for a little person whose brain has not yet developed.
The radiation can go in 50% more, so it’s more invasive. You have to be so careful, it’s a real fine line, and you have to be conscious almost every waking moment.
Abel: And people forget that we are, and to your point in this book, electrical beings. Our systems work much more electrically than most people realize.
It’s not just all biochemical, there’s a lot going on.
There is a lot going on, which is why we take tests that can assess the electricity, so to speak, of our bodies. Whether that’s a cardiogram, or whether that’s some sort of brain scan. Very, very important.
And we’re very sensitive on the most elemental level.
The DNA is exquisitely sensitive to all of these unnatural vibratory emissions that are coming from our gadgets and the cell phone towers, the ipads, and now the 5G that’s being rolled out all over the country.
So, you have to take it upon yourself to protect yourself. Use the right kind of oils in your diet, use the right kind of foods that are protective against electromagnetic radiation, and make yourself as invincible as possible, because I don’t think we’re going to stop this onslaught of technology.
Abel: Yeah. And I was just reading an article yesterday about humans having a geomagnetic sense.
You mention magnetite in your book, and how certain animals are able to navigate the globe using a geomagnetic sense.
And what this study showed is that when they spun the field counterclockwise, alpha waves didn’t light up in the human brain, but when they spun it clockwise they did.
Whether people realized it or not, their subconscious was recognizing these changes in the fields.
And obviously it’s not the only study, it’s just another one. This research has been going on this whole time and there’s a lot of it. And it just doesn’t get out there usually.
No, it doesn’t get out there. And these poor scientists that are these independent trail blazers become very harassed.
We didn’t develop in this kind of environment with all the electromagnetic assaults.
When your body’s exposed to cell phone radiation, you are theoretically emitting over 20 different heat shock proteins. So your adrenal glands and your cortisol is going up and down and up and down like a yo-yo.
That’s one of the reasons that people are so devitalized, they’re so burnt out.
When I go into airports, and I still have to do a lot of flying these days, people are huddled over their phones. And I don’t see a lot of vitality.
I see a zapping, so to speak, of all of their vital energies.
And I think that’s because the energy is kind of being neutralized and sucked up, especially the adrenal hormones, thyroid hormones, by the exposure of these electromagnetic fields.
So, it’s not to make people afraid, it’s just to make them more aware that they have to take precautions to discharge, to unplug, and to eat certain nutrients that’ll help their bodies become more invincible.
And that is where oil comes into play.
And one of those oils is hemp seed oil, which is very protective against electromagnetic radiation.
And, of course, I mention it in Radical Metabolism, it’s an omega-6, which has also been maligned and misunderstood, but it’s part of the cell membrane.
So there’s tons of things you can do.
Even coffee is protective—organic, mold-free coffee would be another drink. Protein powder from a2 milk. Lots of easy things you can do.
And if you’re going to season your foods, use a lot of fresh rosemary, which is very good for protection of the brain and protection against the penetration of these EMF fields.
Abel: And delicious.
To say the least.
Abel: When we lived in Texas, we had rosemary growing right outside house. I love it.
But one other thing you mentioned in your book was microwaves, and how they’re related to EMFs in a lot of ways.
When you look at the spectrum of cell phone radiation and these other things, it’s all on there. If it’s invisible, it doesn’t mean it’s not doing something to you.
Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. So true.
And I tell people that when you have a cell phone glued to your head, it’s almost like having a microwave oven glued to your head, as well. It’s like your face is in a microwave oven, it’s similar.
So the reality is, you’re bombarded on all of these levels, so you’ve got to take precautions as much as you can and be aware.
Put your phone on speaker whenever you can, on airplane mode whenever you can, and don’t rely on it 24/7.
So there’s a lot to be said.
I’m glad you brought it up. It’s a toxin that we’re fighting on a daily basis.
Abel: A couple of things that I’ve been able to do is, number one, just limit your time with devices, take those breaks that you mentioned.
Because one thing that concerns me is just how normalized all this abnormal behavior has become, especially our relationship with technology in extreme close proximity to our bodies and our children’s bodies.
And what people have to understand about that, and I so agree, is that whenever you are even texting, wherever you’re touching the body part with that device, is where you’re being irradiated.
So, I have a feeling that all of the hip surgery that we’re going through has a lot to do with people using a kind of belt or pocket to hook on their cell phones.
And there’s issues, so many issues, with the prostate. I think it’s all connected.
Abel: Well, it is by proximity, and when you look at the sperm count and health, that’s not looking good either. All these things are going straight downhill.
It’s a downward cycle, I know, but the good news is you can eat a lot of rosemary, you can take that hemp seed oil.
We want to keep people on a positive note because I don’t think it’s going away, Abel, quite honestly.
Abel: Yeah. But I don’t think you’re going to be getting a brain implant any time soon, are you?
God willing, no.
Omega-6 for Rebuilding a Leaky Gut
Abel: Let’s hope not. So let’s talk about omega-6 a little bit, because that’s something I haven’t seen that much either.
There is this tendency to completely over-simplify. Omega-3s are great, omega-6s always toxic, and it’s not like that at all. You really want a spectrum, 3, 6, 9, and more.
You do. The ideal ratio has been very much misunderstood and has not been promoted or people made aware of, is that you need a ratio of four-to-one in favor of omega-6.
Now, what is true is that in the general commercial diet, we’ve got a lot of omega-6 type oils that have been commercialized and altered and heated and loaded with chemicals.
That is true. But it’s not the fault of omega-6 inherently, it’s the fault of any polyunsaturated oil. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s omega-6 or omega-3.
The point is that any kind of polyunsaturated essential oil should not be heated or altered or any other way chemicalized.
Omega-6 in its non-altered, non-heated, non-chemicalized state is exceedingly helpful, which is where hemp seed oil comes into play, as we have mentioned.
One of your prime sources of omega-6 with the four to one ratio, with six-two-three, as well as sesame seed oil.
And another one which is the secret sauce to my program, and that is pine nut oil, which is very healing for the entire digestive tract, from tip top to bottom.
And that is because Siberian pine nut oil is very high in linoleic acid, but it’s also high in gamma linoleic acid, which is a GLA essential fatty acid omega-6, which can heal the mucous membranes of your esophagus, of your stomach, of your small intestine, your large intestine.
So, the people that have H-pylori or GERD or any other kind of ulcerated condition find amazing healing and lack of pain with this particular essential fatty acid. It’s also very good also for constipation, digestion, it’s an anti-inflammatory.
And it’s something that’s very much overlooked in terms of rebuilding a leaky gut.
So, I’m all for the good omega-6s. I think it has been a story that needs to be redefined, and we’ve got to really rewrite the omega-6, the essential fatty acid paradigm.
Abel: And one thing that I think you illustrated very well in your book is how…
Everyone’s heard you are what you eat, but I don’t think we’ve really visualized what happens to the membranes of our cells when we take in these, basically substances that our bodies should not be including, or building our bodies out of.
So, could you help explain a little bit of what happens when we eat a GMO restaurant oil, for example?
Well, as the membrane becomes very stiffened, it becomes very sticky and not fluid.
That means that you’re not getting the ability for nutrients to come in and toxins to come out, so it kind of stiffens and goes on high alert, that this is an assault, it’s almost like a heavy metal attack on your body.
So, the only essential oils that you really want in your body as much as possible are the good omega-6s, even if it’s one tablespoon of hemp seed oil in your smoothie a day. I say throw out the coconut and get into hemp seed oil.
Coconut oil is not indigenous, it’s not natural to most of our ancestral history. Many of us are northern European.
And coconut oil is not an essential oil, it does not contain high amounts of any essential fatty acid. But hemp seed oil does, fish oil does, flax seed oil does, walnut oil does, sesame oil does.
Those are the oils that you should be using in deference to coconut oil.
Abel: But you just need to keep them a little bit differently and be careful.
Yeah, you keep them in no heat recipes, salad dressings, little drizzles.
And even a small amount, one to two tablespoons, goes a long way.
And then if you want to use something for high heat, I’d say use a little bit of ghee, which is another source of omega-6. It’s got a very high smoking point.
Another omega is the macadamia nut oil, which is an omega-7, which is good for the collagen.
But, you see, we’re so extreme. We’ve overdone too much of a good thing.
MCT oil is not digested well by the majority of Americans. It provides a lot of stomach issues, and coconut oil is just not part of our DNA history.
So let’s get real, everybody, an let’s not overdo too much of a good thing.
Abel: That is such a great point, because it’s not like you find one fat and then that’s yours and it’s going to be yours forever..
As soon as you try to double down on something it seems to fight back against that.
It is. And going full circle to what you said in the beginning, diversity and variety are the spice of life.
Oh that we can make that palatable for most Americans.
Abel: Well, these oils you’re talking about I think are quite palatable. But let me ask you, is it as simple as smelling it? It smells off like milk and you toss it out? Or can these oils go bad without you really noticing?
What’s the best way to tell?
There’s a bitter taste and sometimes it’s a little bit of an acrid smell, as well. They just need to be refrigerated.
Abel: Yeah, cool. So we’re actually coming up on time. I can’t believe it, but what are some other things that you’re seeing right now?
Maybe like air quality is one that I’m certainly thinking about a lot as wildfire season approaches. And its effect on our health. But what are some things that are on your radar looking forward?
What’s on my radar? Autoimmune illness is on my radar.
When I came into this industry, which was many moons ago, I learned about the signs of energy medicine.
I’m beginning to explore, looking under the hood, so to speak, getting at the root cause of so much of this autoimmune illness.
And I’m seeing a lot of mycoplasma in my clients with fibromyalgia, with IBS, with issues in terms of Hashimoto’s.
I’m seeing herpes 6. I’m seeing as much as ever lots of different parasites, from blastocystis hominis to more toxo, it gets into the brain.
I’m seeing the issues with roundworms, threadworms, hookworms.
I’m seeing a lot of infectious agents that need to be cleaned up before we can be truly healthy. @ALGittleman Click To Tweet
And when our defenses are lowered because of all the EMFs and lack of the proper oils over the years, then we’re more susceptible to some of these hidden invaders.
So, it’s autoimmune illness that’s really on my radar. And of course longevity.
I’m at the age where you want to live longer, live better, and not extend the period necessarily of dying, you want to extend the period of living.
Abel: Yes. Any quick tips on how you’re doing that?
Writing a book.
Abel: Writing a book doesn’t help you, though.
Well, what I can tell you is that what I’ve seen dramatically is this, and I’ll give your readers and listeners some quick tips.
Collagen is important, but I’d say 10 grams of glycine every day. You don’t need these fancy collagens.
Glycine is the major component of collagen. If you take 10 grams of glycine, which you can do.
It’s three grams before bed and then seven grams in two tablespoons of Great Lakes Collagen or Great Lakes Gelatin, you got it covered.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on some of this nonsense that’s out there. That’s number one.
Number two, the omega-6 for the skin is very important.
And then number three, get rid of your iron.
I’m telling everybody to get rid of their iron pots and pans because when we start testing ferritin, they’re all becoming iron toxic.
So, the number you look for on a blood test when you get your next blood test is you want to be way below 100.
It’s something like 50 to 70 with men and women, because iron overload is now considered a secret invader, a secret cause of Alzheimer’s, of aging, with brown spots on your hands as well as problems with arthritis, heart disease, and joint dysfunction.
Abel: I never stop learning.
You can’t stop learning, and then you integrate it into your own lifestyle.
And that’s why I now cook with clay. I’m very big on clay cookers, like VitaClay.
Where to Find Dr. Gittleman
Abel: Very cool. Well, before we go, Dr. Gittleman, can you please tell folks where they can find your newest book as well as what you’re working on next?
The best place to go would be radicalmetabolism.com.
They can visit me on Facebook. I’d love to see them as part of our community.
I appear every week in Women’s World magazine with a radical tip. And I’m working on my new book Radical Longevity, which should be out in a year or two.
Abel: Wonderful. Well, Dr. Gittleman, thank you so much for taking the time with us.
It’s such a pleasure to be with you.
Before You Go…
Here’s a review that just came in from Drew. He says…
“I started this two days ago, and I’ve already lost my first five pounds. I’m looking forward to getting back to my high school weight. I love the podcast, and enjoy the solid advice, and non-preachy format. Keep it up.”
Drew, right on. Thank you for the kind words.
Man, 2 days, 5 pounds. Not bad. Keep in mind though, sometimes the rewards are the biggest when you’re at the beginning of the process. That’s definitely the case when you’re looking at body composition.
So remember that the biggest battle isn’t just losing weight or losing fat at the beginning, it’s getting to your ideal body composition and remaining there for the rest of your life.
Which is always going to be a moving target.
So keep in touch. Just drop a line. The best way to do that is to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll send some free goodies to your inbox, and you can just shoot me an email reply.
I read every single one of them, I reply to as many as I can, and your questions and feedback helps to inform what I do on this show. It really does.
I couldn’t do any of this without you. So don’t be shy.
It’s incredible the people who have reached out in just the past week or two.
A musician who lost over a hundred pounds, who we’re actually going to be having on the show coming up. It seems like half the people who have been getting in touch recently are musicians, which is very heartening.
So, I’m very interested to hear who you are and why you listen.
Because contrary to popular belief, when you have a podcast like this one, the major platforms don’t really share much information about who is listening on the other end. And I’d be very interested to know.
So, always feel free to drop me a line, and tell me how you’re doing.
You also may have heard in the past year and change, Alyson and I have got into another passion, which is 360° videography and virtual reality.
As long time listeners may know, I used to be an outdoor guide and adventure trip leader. So, I’m doing these virtual adventure tours so you can check out some truly incredible places in stunning 360-degree video.
You can find all of that for free in 360 VR over at abeljames.com.
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