The vegan diet has been gaining a lot of traction in recent years as more people become aware of the supposed environmental and health benefits of plant-based eating.
Dr. Martin says that plant-based eating being good for you is a myth. With his background in nutrition, Dr. Martin argues that a vegan diet does not provide the essential nutrients that the body needs.
In today's episode, Dr. Martin debunks the myth that veganism is a healthy choice and shares reasons why you’d be foolish to give up red meat!
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 another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. We enjoyed our company every morning. Thank you. Okay, now we're doing this week Myths, okay? Myths. And this morning, what I want to do is talk about the myth of a vegan or vegetarian diet. Okay? It's a myth. And the myth is that it is good for you, okay? And I know I'm going against the grain. I know that this doesn't make me popular. I know that almost all my colleagues disagree, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry, folks.
The Bible says, get the truth and never sell it. Get the truth and never sell. This is nutritional truth. I'm not a carnivore. People accuse me of that. I'm not a carnivore, by the way. Okay? I'm not. I'm a Nu Travo. I'm in Jew nutrition. Nutri, I'm into all your macros, okay? I'm into all your micros, which are your vitamins, your minerals, okay? I'm into complete nutrition, and here's an overarching statement that I'm going to make and then we'll break this down. Okay? Let me say this. If you eat a vegetarian or vegan, worse vegan diet, it's an incomplete diet. It's incomplete. It's not possible to be complete without supplementing your diet, okay? You need to supplement if one decides to be a vegan or a vegetarian.
It's just the fact. And so, you know, I think I told you the story, and more recently, I was listening to a podcast on hockey, and there was a hockey player there, former hockey player. And he said he was a vegan. And you know, the host asked him, well, what do you take any vitamins? He said, well, I have to take b12. He said, I have to. I'm a vegan. I have to take b12. Well, you know, that ought to rest your case. That ought to rest my case. I have to take a supplement of b12. And guys, I'm gonna tell you something about b12. If you are not getting b12, and most people don't get enough of it, by the way, for a couple of reasons, your body can't work properly. But I'll b12, it's not like you are gonna just croak.
It's not like when you get low in b12, you're just gonna drop dead, okay? And it's not like a light will flash on the top of your hand saying you're low in b12. But why is 80% of the population low in b12? 80%? Well, first of all, most people don't even know how to get b12. How do you get b12? Well, you have to eat red meat. It's not even found in chicken. It's only in the animal kingdom. Only if there's any B12 in the plants, that's for mice, not for you. That's just the fab guys. And, you know, even the basics of nutrition 1 0 1, the very basics of it would teach that, that you need to eat red meat. Four b12. B12 is an important vitamin. You don't even hear me talking much about a b complex. People ask me, should I take a B complex when I say eat your B vitamin, eat them.
Now, there's another reason almost every medication destroys your B12 in your body. Almost all of them, especially ones like metformin. Metformin is a very, very popular drug. And as a matter of fact, listen to this, okay? I just gotta go on a little, little side note here about Metformin. There's new research that's showing Metformin to be quite promising in Alzheimer's. Okay? Hello? Hello. Okay, one, you know, in 2005, okay, you know what was discovered? 2005. I remember it will, I remember because I had a radio show and I brought this up on my radio show, a big, big, big discovery that Alzheimer's was really a condition of insulin resistance that Alzheimer's was. And they called it this, I didn't call it this Type three diabetes. So type one diabetes is autoimmune. We talked about autoimmune a lot yesterday in the gut. It starts in the gut.
Type one diabetes. The pancreas is not functioning properly. The pancreas was attacked within its own body, and now it can't secrete insulin properly. And you have type one diabetes, type two. And, and you know it's funny, if you watch type two diabetes, which is used to be called, listen to what it used to be called, they're trying to change the name of this now. They just call it type two diabetes. You know what it used to be called? Adult onset diabetes, used to be called adult onset diabetes. Type two, meaning that only adults could get type two diabetes, okay? But now kids are getting, they're getting type two, they don't have autoimmune, they have type two diabetes because of the amount of sugar we're consuming. And then you've got type three diabetes, which is diabetes of the brain, especially in the memory center of the brain.
The damage that our diets are doing to the brain. It's crazy. Now listen to this on this article, okay, on brain shrinkage, vegans are six times, listen to the research. Six times more likely to suffer from brain shrinkage. When someone calls you fathead, take it as a compliment, okay? And you guys have been saying this about yourself, my audience, I love you guys. Hey meathead, because you've been calling yourself meatheads. And I like that too. Fathead meathead. But what happens in vegans especially is, first of all, they don't get enough saturated fat. I always change my voice talking about saturated, because people think saturated fat is bad fat. Like if they see a piece of steak and they see saturated fat on the steak, they'll run. I seen it the other day in the grocery store. And you know what? I should almost quit looking at people in the grocery store, okay? They're giving me a headache. I watched their choices. And I know just by looking at their grocery basket there, I know how they think and how they've been duped. And so I was standing, beside a lady the other day in the meat section. I mean, anything with fat, she was avoidant. She wants lean meet. Ooh, I felt like having a little seminar right there.
Rosie's gotta pull me away cuz I'm gonna have a little chat about fat and saturated fat, okay? Okay. And the article that I'm referencing this morning when we're talking about myths of veganism, vegetarianism, they're myths. They're not what you should be eating. I'm sorry if that offends people, but I gotta tell you the truth, if you just look orally in your mouth and see your teeth, okay, you'll find out you were meant to eat meat. If you look at your digestive track, let's start with the stomach. You have an acidity, you're a human being.
And I always use this proof, use it or lose it. Your stomach was meant to eat meat. That's why you have such an acidic stomach. Your stomach is far more acidic than a cows. A cow is meant to eat grass. You're meant to eat meat. The pH in your stomach is highly acidic. And that's a big problem today. That's a huge problem today. I can tell you something, for a man who has been in practice for a long, long time, digestive issues always have been around. The apostle Paul told Timothy to have a little bit of wine for his stomach. Okay? So there was digestive problems, okay? Always been around. But now digestive problems are huge. 80% of the population have some form of digestive issues. And one of the big factors is people are not eating enough red meat. You see, you need high acidity to digest steak and you have that acidity in your stomach unless you don't use it. Now your PHS starts to climb and then you get acid reflux because your body, your body's smart guys, your body says, oh, we don't have enough acidity in the stomach, so let's make more. So your proton pumps within your stomach make more acidity.
The problem with that is that acidity doesn't just stay in the stomach, it crawls its way up the esophagus. And now you have acid reflux. And if you don't believe me, why is the one of the number one in terms of not revenues, because that's Lipitor or statin drugs, but the other one is acid reducing drugs like PPIs and over the counter ones, even like roll aids and tongues. Well eat anything you want and just take a roll aid for your acid reflux. You ever seen commercials like that are the purple pill that will coat your stomach? Why is that? Well, first of all, we eat way too much sugar. But secondly, we don't eat enough red meat facts as dragnet. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts. boy, I'm dating myself this morning. Veganism, vegetarianism is a myth, my friend. Now I haven't even talked to you about iron.
Now there's two problems with iron one, you can get too much and that's called hemochromatosis and that is on the rise today. But it's not cuz we're eating more red meat. We're eating less red meat people. You know that the consumption of red meat is down 35% in the last 20 years because people are being indoctrinated. Me meats no good for you. And you can go on Netflix and you can go anywhere, you can Google it, Google cancer. And if you Google a diet, it will tell you to stay away from red meat on Google. Dr. Google. Well, Dr. Google is wrong. Cancer hates steak. Okay? It hates steak. And we'll come back to this in a second.
But iron, my friend, the right iron, the iron that you'll never, ever, ever, ever get too much of is called heme iron. H e m e heme or hemi, remember the Dodge Hemi engine whenever the, the commercial came on, I thought of heme iron. Heme iron. The iron that your body never gets toxic on, never, never gives you hemochromatosis. You see, you get hemochromatosis by the way, when you're a carbaholic and your liver is gummed up full of fat, carbs turn to sugar, sugar turns to fat in the liver, the Costco parking lot gets full. Your liver iron builds up in your system. That's hemachromatosis. So that's one area. But most people, they don't realize this is they get anemic. Boy, a lot of people are walking around and they have anemia. What? How come my doctor didn't tell me that? That they don't measure things properly.
But my friend go in the mirror and look, you're pale. Now look, the only time I'm pale as if I'm sick in bed. Okay? But a lot of people, especially women, but a lot of men too, they're walking around and they look like Casper, the ghosts, they're pale and they don't have enough iron. And by the way, here's me on anemia, here's me on anemia. Two things, iron deficiency anemia. But I'm much bigger on iron and B12 deficiency anemia. And that's hard to measure. I'll tell you why. Because the B12 tests are a hundred years old and the ranges in B12 are almost eternal, if you know what I mean by that. If the doctor tells you you're low in b12, holy moly, you are running on fumes because you know what? Low and b12 is for me, when you're under 800, what? That's high doc. Well, not according to your body. It according to the blood test, it's fine, but that's not even high at all.
I like it. Even closer to 1200, 1300, you do better when you have optimized levels of b12. You see? So to get the actual diagnosis, you're low in b12. Holy moly. Now you have enough for a mouse and you're in trouble. Because when you're in the low levels of b12, your burning don't work. Your nervous system don't work properly. I'm not saying it doesn't work, it doesn't work properly. Your whole nervous system depends on your B12 status, your blood supply, your oxygen. It's not just hemoglobin, it's vitamin B12 and iron, iron helps to make red blood. So, and you know people iron, that must be, man, it's iron and you know, you're thinking of a heavy metal. It's not a heavy metal, okay? You need it. And if you eat red meat, you'll never overdose on iron ever because you get the right one. You see you are meant to eat steak.
I know liver, liver too, but I don't like liver. I don't like the taste of it. I'm sorry. That's why I don't talk about it. Guys, you know what's gonna happen. Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get ahead of this already. Here's what's gonna happen. I'm so confused. I'm so confused because my doctor, my dietician, my friends, Google, Netflix, I'm so confused. I'm so confused. Don't be confused. I know it's gonna happen. I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it. Dr. Martin, I'm confused. Cause my doctor, my therapist, my dietician, my blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Told me I'm confused. What if you eat animal food, you're gonna get your cholesterols gonna go off. Goody goody gum drops. Goody goody gumdrops. I want your cholesterol to go up. Dr. Martin, I'm so confused.
I know why you're confused. But you listen to my audience, people have been following me and can I ask a question to my audience? Have I been consistent? Have I told you, I know I told you lately that I love you, but did I tell you lately the truth? I've been consistent. And like I said, I'm not a carnivore, I'm not, I'm a Nero. I want you to have a complete diet. I don't believe in moderation. I believe in elimination. I'm not in moderation. I don't believe in that moderation. Look where we are at today in moderation. Look where we're at. Look at the society that we live in. Use your eyeballs. Have a look. All the tea in China is not gonna save our healthcare system cuz we don't have a healthcare system. We have a disease care system one and two. Eating and moderation is disaster, you know, and it comes up all the time on our feed. I get it. You know. Oh doc, just moderation. Nah, elimination. If you wanna be a superstar in health, you got to eliminate my friend.
You gotta eliminate. Now, am I against, let me just say this, okay? In the myths, okay? And let me, let me just finish here because this article that was looking at all the research on veganism, it's never, it's not good guys. If you look at this long-term studies, it says, okay, six times more likely to have brains shrinkage, poor wound healing, 200% increase in depression, 40% increase in fractures. Your bones, your bones need meat because of the profile of the amino acids. I'm telling you, protein, animal protein is the best protein. And it ain't close for my friend. It ain't close. Bring me the best super food in the plant kingdom. And usually, okay, I'm just gonna tell you what it usually is. It's usually broccoli, okay? It's usually broccoli. Bring a piece of broccoli, we'll put it in this hand and I'll put a piece of red meat in this hand.
Guys, there's no comparison in the nutritional profile of the two. There's no comparison whatsoever. Proteins, fat, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals. There's no comparison. Am I saying that Broccoli's no good? Nope. I'm not saying that broccoli's good, but steak is much better. That's what I'm saying. You see the myth? The myth of veganism and vegetarianism. I'm gonna call it out every time. I'll call it out every time. Can you eat it from the plant kingdom? Absolutely. You can. Not during the reset 30 days to change your body. 30 days. We're looking at a dynamic change, okay? Proven. Proven. Not always popular here, okay? Not always the most popular, but it's the truth my friend. It's the truth. Okay. I love you. We talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another doctor is in podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Jr. And Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening.