Join Dr. Martin in today's episode of The Doctor Is In Podcast.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well good morning everyone. Once again, welcome to their live this morning and nice to have you come on with us here on Facebook Live. The Doctor Is In and soon to be a podcast. The Doctor Is In Podcast on your favorite smart device wherever you listen to podcasts, and we appreciate you guys coming on big time. Okay, let me talk about a myth this morning. Okay? Lots of myths in health, and one of the myths in health is fiber. Okay? I got to give you a little bit of background. I've been around the sun a long time, right? You guys know that. My grandchildren say, grandpa, you were born in the days of Noah. Okay? Because that's what they think, long time ago. When I was their age, anybody that was my age, I thought they were ancient too, right? Just the way it is.
But guys, the myth of fiber has been around since the 1950s, maybe a little earlier. I'm telling you All Bran, when I was a kid, even my grandmother bought it, the All Bran and Raisin Bran. But guys, it's a myth, okay? And I want to tell you why, because I don't want to just say, well, fiber is overrated because you know, on this program, I've said that, and guys, the reason I say it is because I was in practice and every second person, it seems to me, came to my office with digestive problems. Okay? Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it was a major factor that I saw in my office. Digestive problems from acid reflux to IBS, IBD, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's, diverticulosis, diverticulitis. And one of the big things that has really increased over the last several years is colorectal cancer in young people.
Colorectal cancer used to be an old man's disease. No longer young people colorectal cancer. So I saw a lot of issues with digestive issues, and here's me in my office, okay? I'm an illustrator, okay? That's the way my brain works. So you came, or someone came to my office and they had major digestive issues. Their gut was very sore, very bloated, very irritated, okay? I used to use this illustration. You've got a sunburn. Oh, let's just rub it. It'll feel better if you rub it. No, it won't. It will aggravate it. So one of the biggest myths, and that was to sell cereal guys. I'm telling you, I was around when they were doing it, selling cereal. You need fiber, says who? Well, it's amazing how Dr. Kellogg's, okay, he was a doctor. How they sold cereal, to tell everyone without cereal, you're not going to get your fiber, and if you don't get fiber, you can't be healthy.
Now, the newest thing on the block about fiber, okay? The newest thing is that it feeds your bacteria. To some extent it does, but so does steak. Steak feeds you, your good guys. And here's a myth. The bigger your stool, the better it is. That's a myth. You don't get a prize if you've got a big stool, there's no winners. Think of your bowel, okay? Think of your bowel. There's already a traffic jam, constipation. It's a myth to think, well, if I just add more fiber, that's a great thing. I don't know if you haven't. Look, I used to live in Toronto, okay? Toronto, okay? I lived there, went to school there, even back in the seventies, the early seventies, there was a highway there called the Don Valley Expressway. You know what I used to call it the Don Valley parking lot because even back in the seventies it was always packed. It drove me crazy.
I tried to everything I could to avoid the Don Valley parking lot. Okay? That's an irritated bowel. It's packed up. For example, diverticulosis. Okay? Do you know what that is? Well, it's little pouches in the bowel, and it's a place where in those pouches it can accumulate feces. Well, if you get a colonoscopy, I could have a whole show on that too, but I won't do it right now.
You get a colonoscopy done and they say, well, you know what? You got diverticulosis. Upon leaving they're going to tell you you need more fiber to clean that out. No, you don't. As a matter of fact, in a practice setting, how I help patients with diverticulosis was, you know what? You're going to get off fiber. You know what gets caught in there? Fiber. You know what gets caught in your teeth? Spinach, quit eating it. You don't need more fiber, you need less. You need more water. You need to flush that out. Fiber is so overrated. You know, another, I tell you, this goes back to the sixties and the seventies, and even today, if you go to the grocery store, I don't know about in the USA. Yes, I think so too. There's a lot of cereal boxes that have heart healthy. They put a heart on the box. Now, what I used to say on my radio show was, yeah, the reason they put a heart on the box is because if you eat it, you're going to have a heart attack.
But the real reason they put that on there is because the cereal companies, they're big sponsors of the American Heart Association or the Canadian Heart Association or whatever, and they sponsor and they get this heart healthy. How stupid. But I'll tell you why they do it. Because fiber, listen to this, fiber lowers your cholesterol. Now, what have I been teaching you for years and years and years and years? Why do you want to lower your cholesterol? Who says that lowering your cholesterol is good for you, your cardiologist? Yeah, but the cardiologists know they've been wrong on a lot of things. I mean, because they don't know anything about nutrition. God love them, but they don't. Well, butter, you better watch your butter because that's why we put the heart on margarine. Yikes. They were wrong about salt. Salt doesn't elevate your blood pressure. Sugar does, right?
They're telling you to cut down on meat. Were they right about that? No, they're not right. They told you to limit your eggs. Were they right about that? No. Almost any public statement they've ever made, they've been wrong about, and one of them is fiber because, oh, it lowers your cholesterol. Why do you want to do that? Cholesterol is not the root of heart disease. If it was, we would've fixed it already. Statin drugs are the number one selling medication of all time. You know what they've done to heart disease? It's going up. Why? Well, we'll do a whole program on that. What we've done in the past. We'll do more. Why? You're looking for love in all the wrong places.
Cholesterol is not the boogeyman. I brought to you yesterday. The sun, according to dermatologists, is the boogeyman. You can't even get into a plane. You see the sun might come in in the window when you get above the clouds and you need to put sunscreen on. Says who? The dermatologist. Because they'd never see the benefits of the sun. They haven't been taught that. The only thing they've been taught is skin cancer. Isn't it amazing that melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer happens to people and happens in areas. Like melanoma doesn't happen on the face. That's very rare. It happens where the sun don't shine. Fiber overrated. I kind of laughed and everybody did, right? We laughed about during COVID, remember toilet paper, it became the number one commodity. People were worried about toilet paper more than eating. Well, fiber will keep the toilet paper industry, believe you me, thriving as if that's a good thing.
I'm not telling you that you don't need toilet paper, okay? Don't come back on me. I'm just saying it's so overrated. Not the toilet paper. Fiber. This whole thing about feeding bacteria. You can't feed your bacteria without fiber. I mean, that has gotten into the DNA of society. It's craziness. You can't feed your friendly bacteria unless you feed it the fertilizer of fiber. That is silliness. You know what the best feeder of your friendly bacteria is? Coffee. Coffee. Drink water and drink coffee. That's what's good for your gut. And like I said, whenever I had patients with IBS, I said, what's the word mean? IBS. And they go, irritable. Yeah, your bowel is irritated. It's got a sunburn. And don't fill it with fiber. Water. Water that'll soothe it. Don't bulk up your stool. Why do you want to do that if you have IBS? If you got IBD? Why would you want to do it if you have diverticulosis? I know they tell you that. That's how you got it in the first place.
I'm telling you, 90% of patients that came in and had SIFO, small intestine fungal infection, because that's what it is. It's not a bacteria. Bacteria is present, but that's not the key. The key is fungus. How do you feed fungus? How do you feed yeast? Sugar. Cut it out. You can add all the fiber in the world that ain't fixing SIFO. As a matter of fact, like I said, 90% of women that came into my office that had digestive trouble, I said, you know what? Let me give you a lesson in all due respect, and I mean, I loved my patients. You put your trust in me. You waited months to see me. I took that seriously. I really did, but I was abrupt. You're not a rabbit. I used to tell women, you're not a rabbit. What? Well, you're not. You're eating like a rabbit. Yeah, but Dr. Martin, I was told I need my fiber. I was told I need vegetables and I need salad. I can't live without salad. There's no fat in salad, Dr. Martin. I said, yeah, that's the problem.
And you're bulking up your stool. You don't have the enzyme that a rabbit has. You don't even make it cellulase. You don't make that enzyme. No, because you weren't designed to eat salad. You want to have a little salad, okay. In my office, I said, but your bowel right. Your bowel is irritated. Oh yeah. I don't know what it is, doc, man I'm telling you, I got real problems. I'm constipated. I'm bloated. I got pain. I got indigestion. I said, because you ain't a rabbit. That's why. Yeah. I said, yeah, you'll see. We're going to take you off your salad for 30 days. No salad. You're not a rabbit. You're not a cow. You don't have four stomach. Cows eat grass so you don't have to. I used to tell my patients that, you can imagine the shock, the horror on their faces. I said, well, you're not a cow. What do you mean Dr. Martin I'm not a cow? Of course. I'm not a cow. No, no. But what I meant to say is you don't have four stomachs. Cows have four stomachs. That's how many stomachs they need to break down fiber. You need four stomachs. You don't have four stomachs.
You were designed to eat steak, not grass. I used to say that salad, that's just glorified grass. And I'm not saying you can't ever have it, but I used to tell 'em, your gut is irritated and we're going to take away the fiber. That's going to make it worse. We're going to make your stool smaller. You're not going to have near as much waste that's going to really help your valve. Can you imagine, guys? Well, I know you do. How much that went against the grain of thinking. I remember a physician sending me a patient, okay? And I gave them the whole spiel. They had IBS really bad for years. Almost everything they ate irritated them. I said, well, we're going to settle that down. And I put them on my protocol. I put them on the reset for 30 days. And of course they went back to their doctors and it was a GI doctor. Go see Dr. Martin. I hear he is pretty good.
Anyway, then I had a chat with the physician. You gave them, they can't have fiber. I said, doc, listen, that just irritates their bowel. What? We were taught that's what the bowel needed. No, that came from Dr. Kellogg's. Dr. Kellogg's was a marketing genius. He was a kook. I know you think I'm a kook. He was a real kook. Dr. Kellogg. Now he made a lot of money, but that didn't make him right. So guys, I know there'll be pushback. I know this goes against the grain. I know that every day just about, you're going to be told that you need fiber. Even in all due respect to my colleagues that have similar education in nutrition that I have. My guru friends on podcasts, whatever. I have a lot of respect for doctors. I do. But I respectfully disagree. Like I said, I was in practice for years and years and years. I had to get results.
If people came to me with major digestive issues, I said, well, here's my protocol. Give me 30 days of your life. Trust me for 30 days. Do what I tell you to do. Eat the way I tell you to eat. You got to eat anyways. So just listen to what I'm going to say and let's find out what happens. And you know what I said? What do you got to lose? You tried everything else. Give me a little time. And here's another myth about fiber. It's a detoxification. Fiber detoxes. What? Why would it detox? Well, Dr. Martin, it's going to scrub that bowel. Well, that's not detoxing you. Scrubbing your bowels is not detox because what you're thinking, oh, if it ends up in the toilet, okay, you look behind you and you see your stool. Well, I just got rid of all sorts of toxins. Yeah, but that's not how your body detoxes. Your liver is your detox organ, not your bowel.
Yeah, there's waste that goes out. But if your liver is all gummed up because you love your sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, your liver is what cleans your blood. That's what detoxes you. You can clean your bowel till the cows come home. I did some consulting one time for a company. I'm a speaker, so they hired me to speak at conferences. I was happy to do it. I didn't talk about their product. I just talked about health. But they were selling a cleanse. A cleanse. I'm glad they never asked me what I thought of it. I didn't tell them, well, you can't clean your body if your liver's gummed up. Liver and kidneys are your detox organs, especially your liver, because all of your blood from your bowel goes through your liver. You got to fix your liver. You want to detox, you need to fix your liver.
You want to detox your brain? You better sleep because you have a self-cleaning oven that only works when you sleep and not sedation. You sedate, you don't sleep. You're sedated. You have to understand the basics of a detoxification. Fiber what has that got to do with it? Fiber ain't cleaning your liver. Fiber's not degumming the Costco parking lot. That won't do it. And a lot of fiber too, by the way, are sort of antinutrients. They sort of chelate a lot of your minerals out of your body as if you want that ending up in the toilet. Those are essential. Okay? And by the way, you can look this up. I know what you have. You have a fiber deficiency. You can look that up in your text if you got any medical textbooks and look up fiber deficiency. What disease is that? You ain't going to find it. Now, there's vitamin deficiencies and mineral deficiencies and protein deficiencies and yada, yada, yada. But there's no fiber deficiency. It just isn't.
Okay, I got on a rant, but I just got to tell you what I see and it's a myth. Anyway, okay? You know what Friday is? It's q and a. Send your questions in for Friday Q and A. Okay? I really do try and answer every question. And we often go into Q and A Monday. Why? We have to, because I didn't answer 'em all on Friday. And you know me, I go off on tangents. It's who I am. Focus, doc, focus. Well, I got something in my head and it's going to come out, okay? Now guys, we appreciate you guys. And I know this is a controversial subject this morning. I know that, like I said, I'm used to pushback. I really am. Okay, but that's all right. I want you thinking, okay, I'm just going to give you my experiences, my studies, and how I operate, okay? That's the way it is. I want you to be healthy. My goal for you is you get educated and you take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else, okay?
It's like that oxygen mask. Go on a plane. They'll tell you in the event that we lose cabin pressure or whatever, and you need oxygen, it says the mask will come down automatically. Okay? And then what do they tell you? You put it on first before you help anyone else. That's not being selfish. They don't want you to pass out. So you put it on first and then you can help someone beside you if you need to. And that's what studying nutrition is. Do it for yourself. Do it. Get yourself as healthy as possible. And then if anyone listens to you, share it. Guys, we got millions of downloads on our podcast. Millions. How did that happen? Word of mouth. Okay. How do we got 25,000 people on our private Facebook group? Mostly word of mouth. You tell someone. They tell someone. It multiplies, right?
I think on Facebook, we're just about at. I think you can't even like it anymore, so it's not moving fast. But we're almost at 90,000 followers on Facebook. Word of mouth. So we appreciate it, guys. We appreciate it. Thank you for letting others know about The Doctor Is In Podcast. We appreciate that. Okay? Couldn't do it without you. And I mean it. Who would I be speaking to? I get tired of listening to myself. Okay guys, we love you dearly and sincerely. Talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!