It’s becoming evident how out of touch oncology departments are when it comes to giving nutrition advice to cancer patients. Most doctors know very little about nutrition, and many still don’t see the correlation between food and disease.
In Northern Ontario, the major cancer centre is located in Sudbury. Nurses working in the oncology department used to give Dr. Martin’s Perfect Smoothie recipe to patients who had no appetite. The hospital got wind of this and put a stop to it. They in turn created their own info sheet to be given to patients when they left the hospital.
Dr. Martin discusses the 12 nutrition myths they came up with in today’s episode. From consuming sugar to low-carb diets, to juicing and probiotics, it’s unfortunate how many misconceptions are still prevalent today!
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: Good morning everyone, and once again, welcome to another Live. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Now, I want to show you a piece of paper. Those who are listening on a podcast, you're not going to see it, but I'm going to go through this. This was a sheet of paper that they would give out at the oncology... There's a big oncology department here in our hometown, Sudbury. Big cancer center. At one time, they used to give out the recipe to Dr. Martin's Perfect Smoothie, because I used to consult with several nurses that worked in the oncology department. And they said, "Doc, can we take your recipe, because people are always looking... Oncology patients are looking for a recipe because they have no appetite." I said, "Well, this is the best thing they can have. Dr. Martin's Perfect Smoothie." They actually would hand out for a year or so. They handed out the smoothie recipe in Sudbury.
Well, someone got a whiff of that and was not too happy, even though it was very good for them, certainly better than Boost or Ensure. You want to ensure that your cancer is going to grow, drink Ensure. You want to boost your cancer, make cancer grow, grow, grow, then drink Boost. I mean, that's the craziest stuff that you would ever give to a cancer patient. But I want to go through because... Wait a minute now, there's six on one side and six on the other side, so 12 points. They actually gave this sheet out to cancer patients because of guys like me. The oncology department was sort of pushing back against Dr. Martin. This thing, actually the headline is nutrition myths. It was aimed directly at me, I'm telling you. One of the nurses brought it to me. I mean, I just had to have a good chuckle about it, but I want to go over this just to show you where mainstream thinking is. I want to just go over the 12 points that they mentioned to come after me. It was specifically for me.
Here's the nutrition myths according to them. Let's go through them and we'll have a little bit of entertainment this morning. Sugar feeds cancer, false, they said, and they have a little explanation. “There is no direct link between sugar intake and cancer risk. Every cell in your body needs glucose to function.” Guys, I don't know if you can see it, but I'm getting a splitting headache, right? I don't even find this funny, the first one. Every cell in your body needs glucose. Yeah, but if you have steak, your body will make glucose. If sugar doesn't feed cancer, well, how does the imaging work? How does the PET scan work? It's funny, because I quote in my book, The Reset, I actually quote a Sudbury oncologist who said the reason the PET scan works is because glucose and cancer cells go together. Cancer cells are starving for glucose. I mean, guys, that's nutrition 101 and I've always said it to you. If you do nothing else, please stop consuming sugar, especially high-fructose corn syrup, which is the sugar of the day. Man-made sugar. It is sugar on steroids. It is so bad for you. They said sugar feeds cancer, false.
Here's point number two, I need to follow a low carb diet, false, they said. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Guys, I'm telling you, unbelievable how this stuff... I don't know why it shocks me, but it's almost like, are you not doing any reading at all? I mean, today it's so easy to get information. I know there's a lot of nonsense out there, but for heaven sakes! I tell my doctor friends, "What? You still believe that? There's so much information on a low carb diet. There's so much written, so many studies have been done. Are you kidding me? Have you read none of it?" Avoiding carbohydrates... Here's their little blurb that they put inside this bracket... avoiding carbohydrates, grains, fruits, legumes, could lead to severe nutrition, deficiencies and inadequate… I knew it was coming, inadequate fiber intake.
Because you see, one of the buzzword for gurus is fiber. Nobody ever talked about fiber until the cereal companies made it famous. You must poo several times a day. Eat our fiber. Uh, it's so overrated, I can't tell you how overrated it is. I'm not telling you not to eat any fiber at all. Of course, you know me, I talk about the vegetable kingdom. You can have vegetables, but limit your fruits. Okay? Because you do not get a prize for going to the bathroom. There's no prize. Okay? And I know, I don't want you to be constipated or whatever. I don't want that, but I'm just telling you it's overrated. I think it was last week I talked to you about one of the things that if you've got any kind of irritable bowel at all, will you lay off the fiber for heaven's sake? As soon as I get patients off of fiber, "Oh, doc." Well, I said, "You're not a rabbit. Why are you eating so much fiber? You don't have those big buck teeth to eat fiber and four stomachs like a cow." Anyway, so that was number two.
Number three, gluten-free the way to be. To some extent, I agree with them here, okay? They said only people with celiac disease are unable to digest gluten. This is the only group known to be at increased risk from eating gluten is if you have celiac. But you know what? Again, they're missing the point. I agree with them. I'm a sort of gluten schmooting guy. Okay? They can't blame me for the gluten one, because I've never been huge on gluten. Not that I don't understand it if you do have celiac, but a lot of people don't realize they don't break down the grains, because grains are not like they used to be a hundred years ago. I told you what happened to grains. Grains have no nutrition anymore. They're not full of B vitamins and protein or whatever.
The first fast food that was created was bread. Sliced bread. We got to go back to the 1890s. It's not gluten. It's the way they process grains today. “Oh, Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat.” Who cares? It ain't good for you. It's going to be sugar in five seconds, plus, it's going to irritate your gut. It's a fast food. Bread is fast food. It's not the old fashioned grain that we used to get, because they went from pounding and stone ground to the rollers, the ceramic rollers. And that just took all the nutrition out of grains. There's no nutrition and grains anymore. It's all processed. The first fast food was sliced bread, and in the 1930s, they came out with enriched bread. They had to. There was no more B vitamins. There was no more protein. So you know what they did? They enriched them with non digestible, non absorbable vitamins. Oh, we enriched the bread. So what? It's a fast food. Cereals are fast foods. They're absolutely no good for you. There, I said it. Cheerios, terrible. Why are you eating that stuff? Terrible stuff. Cereals and bread, fast foods. You might as well go to McDonald's and have a muffin, have a bagel. What's the difference?
I'm only at number three. Number four, artificial sweeteners are dangerous, false, they said. There's no link between artificial sweeteners and increase of cancers in humans. Maybe not directly, but indirectly. I'm not big on artificial sweeteners. You know me with that. One of the things that we know for sure, the jury is not out anymore. Here's what we know. People used to ask me in the 70s what I thought of aspartame and all that. I said, "Well, it can't be good. I can't tell you exactly what's happening in your body. We're not sure." But look, your body's smart. Okay? First of all, just understand this, your body's very intelligent. When you give it something artificial, it doesn't know what it is. I've always said that about margarine, right? Artificial butter. Man-made. It gets into your gut and your gut goes, "What is that? I don't like that. I don't know what it is." And specifically, now they know, now we know that artificial sweeteners disrupt your microbiome. So, when you're drinking that Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke or whatever you're drinking and it's got artificial sweeteners in it, I'd be very careful about that, because it disrupts your microbiome. It's almost like taking an antibiotic. It changes your gut. Not good. So yeah, maybe it doesn't have a direct link to cancer, according to the cancer center here, but I would avoid like the plague, in my opinion.
Should I follow a fad diet? Here's where I agree with them. They said false. Fad diets... Eat right for your blood type. I talked to you about last week. The alkaline diet are not recommended for cancer reduction. And to some extent, I agree with them here, because you know me and about eat for your blood type. I told you it's not real science. It isn't. It was a theory at best. It wasn't even a theory. It was a hypothesis brought out by one doctor. And again, he made a lot of money. Give him a high five. He's not a dummy. I'm not saying that, but he had this hypothesis. Because if you were type O, good, you got to eat red meat. But what if you weren't type O? No, don't eat red meat. Eat chicken, he said. Yeah, but that can't be true. God didn't pack B12 into red meat, vitamin S, steak, with B12. Do I have to name you the list? L-carnitine and L-arginine and L-taurine and heme iron and vitamin A. It's all in red meat and very little in chicken and none in salad.
This is the one I can get along with them on, the alkaline diet. I've gone over this with you. I got to do a teaching here. I got to do a teaching. Your body. Your blood will keep your pH, guys, in a very, very narrow range. When they say, "Oh, something is acidic," yeah, but your body's got a buffering system. Okay? It's got a buffering system, and your body knows how to keep you tightly regulated in your blood. There's nothing that will help you and help your pH more, not food, but water. Kidneys, Niagara Falls, water helps more than anything else. I love minerals. I love mineral water. There's a reason I love mineral water, because it's full of minerals and hell helps your pH. But your blood pH isn't going to go out of whack unless you're dying or you're acidic because your blood sugar is out of control. See what blood sugar does? That'll put you into ketoacidosis. You're in deep trouble. If you get there. A lot of people are on the edge of that because they are such bad eaters full of crappy sugars and crappy carbohydrates.
Juicing. There's no research to support the juicing cures or prevents cancers. I agree with them on this. They should have called me before they filled this out and handed it out to all their cancer patients, because I agreed with them. I don't want you to juice. I'm not big on juice. I'm not big on it. Now, you want to do a green with no sugar? But you see, this is me, guys. I've been very consistent about this. When you're going to eat fruit, eat it. Don't drink it. You're going to eat vegetables, eat them. Don't drink them. “Oh, I got a juicer.” Ehhh... It's going to make me alkaline. You see? Eh, no, it doesn't. I'm sorry. It don't work that way. It don't work that way, guys. So look, you want to get some celery I guess and put it through a juicer and drink it? Okay. I'd rather you eat it, but they're right there in that sense. Okay?
I always tell the story of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. He was a juicer. He was a vegan, and when he found out he had pancreatic cancer, you know what he did? He made even more juicing. He juiced all his vegetables. He juiced fruit like nobody's business. Why didn't he call me? The worst thing you can do? Pancreatic cancer, are you kidding me? There was an actor, I don't have his name, it's up in here somewhere, that played his part in the movie, Jobs' part. He did what Steve Jobs did. He started juicing to play the part. And you know what he got? He got an acute pancreatitis. He almost died just by playing Steve Jobs' part, because he was juicing. His pancreas just about exploded. There's nothing worse for your pancreas when you're drinking sugar. Drinking sugar is the worst, worst, worst thing for your pancreas. Why? Because you need a lot of insulin when you drink. That's why orange juice is so bad for you. Guys, if you got orange juice in your fridge, throw it out. Please. Don't give it to your kids or grandchildren. “Oh, Dr. Martin, it's Tropicana.” I don't care. It's garbage. You have no idea how much insulin you need to drink that stuff when you drink that stuff. I'm getting a headache again. I just go crazy. They did say a few things right.
Detox diets clear cancer causing toxins. Now, I told you... Because they're thinking something else. Okay? If they would have called me before they put this sheet out, I know it was all about me, but they got some things wrong because I actually agree with them. I am not big on detox diets from gurus because they're all full of vegetables and fruit. Nevermind just juicing. “Oh, we're going to clean out your liver.” No, you're not. No, you're or not. Detoxing diet is The Reset because it will empty your liver in literally six days. Just cut out the carbs and cut out the sugars. So I agree with them. The fad of the detox diet. “Oh, I'm doing the detox diet.” Is it The Reset? No. Well, it's not a detox diet. You're actually filling your liver. If you insist on eating carbs, you're going to fill your liver. You're not cleaning it out. You're filling it, because those sugars, carbs are going to turn to sugars in a nanosecond, and they're going to be stored as fat in the liver.
I need to take probiotics, false, they said. I'm holding myself back. Everybody needs probiotics, anybody with cancer especially. My word! I'd start with probiotics and high levels of vitamin D and The Reset. But they said it's false. They don't like probiotics. I can't get over that. You know, it was interesting because I had a few patients, actually people that sent me patients, referred me patients, and they were GI doctors. I'd have little chats with them, and one thing they said, "Doc, I think the evidence is overwhelming that probiotics are really, really good." These are GI doctors. I said yeah. Not only the research, it's hard to question the results that I get. They actually started referring patients to me to fix their guts when they didn't have cancer or whatever. But my word, probiotics. I mean, that's 101, guys. That's 101. You need probiotics. You're not going to get enough. You're not going to get enough in this day and age of the world that we live in, the chemicals.
Oh, I watched yesterday, they squirted their hands, cleaning seats with chemicals, and then they take all those antibacterial cleansers and whatever and put that stuff on their skin. It's going directly into their bloodstream, and I want to scream. Here they are worried about a virus and they're squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt the tables, the chairs, the counters. It's almost like a religious thing. They're doing a ceremonial hand washing. I want to scream. Hello? Stop! Stop doing that. You're putting cancer right into your bloodstream. Don't worry so much about the virus. Worry about cancer. You're elevating your estrogen, which is going to elevate your risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer and prostate cancer. And stop! I know they think I'm a kook, but my word! It elevates my blood pressure when I see it.
I mean, you know how many of those hand sanitizers, by the way, have been taken off the market in the last 18 months? Hundreds of them. You know why? Because even the FDA admitted something. It must have been painful for them to do it, but they admitted that, you know what, these things, they have carcinogenics in them. Folks, if you insist, maybe the place you work at, try and fake it. When I go into a store and if they want me to do it, I fake it. Is that all right? Can I tell you that? Is anybody going to squeal on me? I fake it. I pretend. I'm not putting that stuff on my hands. I don't want that fake stuff that causes cancer. Wait until the cancer. Wait, guys. I'm telling you, I'm not a prophet nor son of one, but I'm going to tell you what's going to happen on our society.
There's going to be so many young women. I'm telling you, there are going to be so many young women that work in stores and work in restaurants and work in public and they are using these sprays and hand sanitizers. They're disinfecting everything. I'm telling you. I'm just going to tell you what's going to happen. We're going to see cancer rates, breast cancer rates go through the roof. They're already high. It's going to go through the roof and so is ovarian cancer and so is uterine cancer. And in men, we're going to see a pandemic, a pandemic of cancer. It drives me mental. I told people. I try and even be nice about it because it's not their fault. They don't know. They don't know any better. Can I tell you something, young lady? Can I tell you as a friend? They look at me like, who the heck are you? Can I tell you? Don't use that stuff like you do. Pretend you're using it. Okay. Just pretend. Nobody will know. Now, I'm a Christian. I don't want you to lie. Okay? But you can pretend. Oh boy! Oh boy!
Here's one. It has to do with this in a way. It says I can't eat soy, I've had breast cancer, and they go false. Soy. Would you stay away from soy? This is one of the pet peeves that I have with this whole meatless craze. You get a vegetarian and you get a vegan. And you know where most of their protein comes from? Soy. They're elevating their estrogen through the roof. That's where most of their protein is coming from, soy. Those meatless burgers. I feel like crying. Coming to a theater near you. The world has gone insane. They want us to get rid of meat, and they're going to give us soy. I can't get over it. It doesn't surprise me, but I can't get over it. I've been screaming against soy for 40 years. Why are you eating that stuff? Guess what they make almost all fast foods out of? Soy oil. Ugh! That's cancer in an oil. I'm calming down, I promise.
Here's the last one I'm done with it, coconut oil, a miracle food, false. But it's what they say in the little paragraph, okay? “Fats and oils are high in calories. Coconut oil has saturated fat, which is... don't worry about cancer, they said, but it will cause heart disease.” Why did I bring this out this morning just to get myself uptight again? Coconut oil, it's good for you. It's good for you. There's nothing wrong with coconut oil. You can cook with it. It's got a high smoke point. I like butter better, to be honest. Can I tell you? I like butter better, but coconut oil is good for you.
Guys, I have to stop. I love you, guys, for putting up with me. Okay? I do. You guys are so patient with me. I just took a deep breath and I'm ready to calm down. Okay, guys. Again, we got some great news behind the news coming up the rest of the week. Send in your questions for Question and Answer Friday. Did you get the newsletter we sent out this morning? You're going to like it. If you don't get it, sign up for it. Sign up for it. MartinClinic.com. You want the newsletters in writing, via your email. Do that. Sign up for that. If you haven't got the book, The Reset, what a great... It's October this week sometime. I think Friday is October 1st. Good time to plan for Christmas gifts. I think of a better gift to give than a gift of health. We love you guys and we'll 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!