EP201 Why Red Meat Is Good For Your Brain

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 Sr.: Hi, this is Dr. Martin Sr. on with you again today for episode number 201 of The Doctor Is In [00:00:30] podcast, and I think again today you're going to enjoy this little bit of a rant that I'm going to do on nutrition today. Let me just read to you the results of a large study that was done in Australia on mental health, and actually it was kind of interesting because the study was thought to vilify red meat. So really what it was was a study [00:01:00] with several thousand women, and looking to see if the consumption of red meat was affective or at least could be at the cause of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. It was shocking to the people that were doing this study that the exact opposite happened, that the women who consumed [00:01:30] more red meat were actually a lot less likely to get depressed or would suffer symptoms of anxiety. So this study, again, it just confirms the bias really of what you're seeing today, and that is don't eat red meat because it's going to give you cancer, and red meat isn't good for you. It increases your risk of bowel cancer, and [00:02:00] it's not good for you, and just the opposite is true.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So what I want to do today is sort of talk about not just red meat, but okay, I know that if you've listened to any of our podcast or watched any of our videos or whatever, we're very, very big on a low carb diet, a high protein, but I like, what I want to do today is sort of classify foods in terms of their nutritional value. Now listen, [00:02:30] again, anything that is whole foods, natural foods, the foods that are not made in a laboratory, and we talked I think not a while back about this new craze of meatless burgers and meatless food. I mean, those foods are made in a laboratory and they're literally are dog food in my opinion. I mean, it's just craziness. But anyway, let me go over. I did something [00:03:00] many, many years ago where I classified foods in two groups, and the first group was what I called lipolytic foods and the other one was glycolytic. So if you've ever come to the Martin Clinic, you would never leave there without me giving you that food chart where I divide food into two. One is lipolytic foods and the other is glycolytic.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So let me explain that. The way I classified foods many, [00:03:30] many, many years ago, I've been in practice 45 years. So you got to go back way back as to when I divided food by how much insulin you need. Okay. So this is one way to classify food, and I think for me it has been an effective tool and I've used it on hundreds of thousands of patients over the years, and that is classifying food by the insulin response that occurs when you eat foods. So at the top [00:04:00] of the food chart, for example, on one side of the food chart, and these are low insulin foods. Every time you eat, you need insulin, except if you eat straight fat, but you need insulin. So every time you eat, you need insulin, but the reason that I have always wanted to keep insulin down because insulin is a fat storied hormone and fat creates inflammation. [00:04:30] So not eating fat, but insulin creates because its job is to take sugar and store it, and it is stored as fat. It stores it in your liver, in your muscles, and fat cells. It will make as many fat cells as, you might be skinny and have a lot of visceral fat around your organs and that certainly doesn't make you healthy because what visceral fat does is [00:05:00] it creates inflammation in the body.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So I divided food by how much insulin you needed. So for example, if you look at one side, I called them lipolytic foods where you need very little insulin. It's meat including fish, eggs, cheese, cream, fruits and vegetables, legumes would be on one side. Then on the other side would be your bread. [00:05:30] These are glycolytic foods that create an enormous amount of insulin. So anytime you have a piece of bread, and I don't care what kind of bread it is, it doesn't matter really because it's going to be sugar in five seconds. So you've got bread, and pasta, rice, and cereals, and sugars, sweets, pastries, juice, milk, milk was on that side because unlike cream, milk is devoid of fat or very little fat left, and [00:06:00] what you see in your grocery store really is I call white Pepsi because it's full of sugar. So all of these, alcohol and whatever, were on the, what I called the glycolytic side, and the reason for that is, is because you need an enormous amount of insulin.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So I always based that diet on insulin, but what I want to do today, and I will stick to what I call the lipolytic side, meaning the side that needs very [00:06:30] little insulin, but I want to reinforce the results of this study that shows you how important it is when you come to nutrients. I will just pause in every time I mention a different type of food, I'll just tell you why it's good for you and give you a couple of Coles Notes version of every particular food. So let me just, I'm going to list seven [00:07:00] foods that are all good for you, but I want to rate them from the top to the bottom.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So at the top of the food chain of all foods is red meat. It's the number one food that you can eat. So people that avoid it. Now, I had a patient in this morning that told me, "Well, if I eat red meat, it bothers my gut." Well, I said, "Okay, then stop eating." [00:07:30] But for the vast majority of people, red meat is well digested and they actually like it. Ladies, I'll tell you something, the vast majority of women know this by how they feel, and oftentimes you would be shocked how many times I hear even in a day that women crave red meat and that is especially because they are often anemic, they're often low [00:08:00] in iron, they're often low in B12, and guess where you get heme iron or a heme iron? You get it in red meat and only in red meat.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So at the number one top of the food chain, and the study showed it for depression, but the reason is of course that you are much more likely to become depressed if you're low in vitamin B12. It's the depression vitamin that you're missing, [00:08:30] and somewhere between 60, 80% I assume are low in vitamin B12. They just don't absorb it. There's many reasons for it. They don't eat enough red meat, and some people even that eat red meat can be deficient in B12 because they don't have what they call the intrinsic factor. They are on antacids, they are on metformin, they are on almost any kind of medication that you would take, [00:09:00] would oftentimes negate the B12 that is in the red meat. This is why I, if I can talk to you about two vitamins that are almost universally missing today, one is red meat, which is B12, I mean, and the other one is vitamin D. So red meat is at the top of the food chain. Liver being probably the number one, beef liver would probably [00:09:30] be the number one food in the universe. Tremendous, right?

Dr. Martin Sr.: So number one nutrient, and B12 is not found in the plant kingdom. Don't fool yourself, if you're a vegan or you're a vegetarian, you are not getting enough B12. What's in the plant kingdom for B12 is enough for a mouse and not for you. So I don't care who you are, don't fool yourself. There's no [00:10:00] L-arginine, there's not enough choline, there's amino acids that are not found in the plant kingdom. They're found in the animal kingdom and especially in red meat. So you need that number one on the food chain.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Number two is white meat, okay? So it's second in the list and your poultry, your turkey, your fish is [00:10:30] very, very good for you, and slash what is the best? Well, again it has zinc, so does red meat by the way, it has all your, a complete list of amino acids, your essential amino acids that your body doesn't make. Your body makes amino acids but you got essential amino acids that need to be found in your diet, and when you eat [00:11:00] red meat, and white meat, and your fish. Well there you go, and you all know about the importance of just to, before I leave red and white meat, let me remind you that when you are eating red meat, you're getting DHA. Now, what is DHA? DHA is the omega-3 fatty acid that is found in red meat. [00:11:30] It's not found in the plant kingdom. So you're going to miss DHA, and one third of your brain is made up of DHA. Another reason that people, it wasn't just B12, but it's another reason that this study, large study, showed in Australia that women that eat red meat were much less likely to have depression. So one of them was B12, the other one [00:12:00] was DHA, because DHA is not found in the plant kingdom. It's just not there.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Now, you can get omega-3 in the plant kingdom, they're there. You get hemp seed or flax seeds for example that have omega-3, and they're good for you, very much for these things, but just remember one thing, they do not contain DHA or EPA, and DHA, your brain needs DHA. [00:12:30] Don't fool yourself. If you are a vegan, a vegetarian, you need to substitute that. You need to take a supplement of a high DHA omega-3 long chain fatty acid, it's very important for the function of your brain and never mind what it does for your heart and what it does to lower inflammation.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So at the top of the food chain is red meat. Second is white meat and even white meat would I consider fish, would have the [00:13:00] DHA. So eat your red and white meat. Now, third on the hit parade is eggs. Eggs are a tremendous source of protein, healthy fat, and a very, very good source of choline. Now, I talk about choline a lot because your brain doesn't work without choline, and think of your acetylcholines, and [00:13:30] these are precursors to your feel-good hormones. When you look at dopamine and serotonin, you need to produce these things in your body, you need choline. So choline is a precursor to these things, to these feel-good hormones, and again, when you come to depression, think of that. That's why eggs are so significant. So vegetarians would eat eggs usually, vegans [00:14:00] won't, but vegetarians will, and I highly recommend eggs because eggs have lutein, they have choline, they have a very high source of B vitamins, but you must eat the yolk. If you only eat the egg whites, the egg whites are good because they're full of protein and this is bioavailable protein, absolutely, but we at the Martin Clinic remind you to eat your eggs.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Now listen, cholesterol [00:14:30] is found in only the animal kingdom, and again, I want to emphasize because of this study, I have to emphasize the importance of cholesterol for your brain. So if someone calls you fat head, you take it as a compliment because you need that healthy fat, and a healthy fat is cholesterol, and cholesterol is only found in the animal kingdom. It's found in meat, it's found in [00:15:00] eggs, it's found in cheese. So when doctors, years ago, I called this fella by the name of, because if you ever study nutrition, you're going to study Ancel Keys. He was the, I call him a mass murderer, only because he was the one that first came out with the hypothesis that cholesterol was at the root of heart disease.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Now again, [00:15:30] I don't want to go into a long dissertation on why that's crazy, but you can't live without cholesterol, and Ancel Keys who came out in the 1950s, and then got sponsored by the cereal companies, and the food companies sponsored this guy to perpetuate this lie, and that lie was that cholesterol was at the root of heart disease. The reason is because when he did autopsies, he [00:16:00] was a researcher, he wasn't a dummy, is that he saw cholesterol in blood vessels. Well, of course cholesterol is in blood vessels. It's FedEx trucks on the highway. They're delivering Amazon packages of your hormones. Okay. Think about it for a minute. You see UPS on the highways, does that make them the bad guy? No. They might even be at the scene of a crash, but [00:16:30] that doesn't make them the bad guy. They're just there. They're doing their job, they're delivering. Cholesterol delivers your hormones. Cholesterol, your cells are made up of cholesterol, your brain is made up of cholesterol, and we've made cholesterol a bogeyman, and that started with Ancel Keys.

Dr. Martin Sr.: What Ancel Keys did was actually get people to cut back on cholesterol by not eating butter, and substituting butter with [00:17:00] margarine, and quit eating bacon and eggs, and eat our cereal, and don't eat red meat, and eat our foods that are in the middle aisles of the grocery stores. That all started with one person and who had a faulty hypothesis. It was faulty, but until the day he died, Ancel Keys kept it up because he eventually was sponsored and paid for by the [00:17:30] food industry, especially the cereal companies, and think of the job they did, the medical community and the food. So the pharmaceutical industry loved this guy. Think about it, because they could come out with a drug that would lower your cholesterol. Now, why would you want to lower your cholesterol? But they made cholesterol the bogeyman says, "Let's get your cholesterol down." The thing is now and finally, finally, [00:18:00] now not all of medicine is waking up, but some people within the medical groups are starting to question whether it ever worked. Well, it never did work because we have more heart disease today than ever.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So when you look at red meat, and you look at white meat, and you look at eggs, and the significance of eggs, of cholesterol that's in an egg, your body needs cholesterol to function. God does not trust you enough to eat [00:18:30] enough cholesterol. 85% of your cholesterol will be made in your liver, not from your diet. This is why your body doesn't trust you to make it so the liver makes it, and it doesn't trust you to make it from your food because ... People buy this stuff, they buy the lie, and look at the experiment that we've been on for 50 years. The worst failed social [00:19:00] nutritional experiment in the last 50 years, it's killed more people, and that's why I call Ancel Keys the biggest serial killer that ever lived on this planet, was a fellow by the name of Ancel Keys, and he was a researcher who vilified cholesterol. So remember that, you can not live without cholesterol. If you don't eat 15% from your diet, guess [00:19:30] what? Your liver will just make more of it. That's all, because your body can't live without it. So your cells can't, your cells are made up of cholesterol, and your hormones are made up of cholesterol. So just understand the importance of getting that in red meat, white meat, eggs, okay?

Dr. Martin Sr.: So I didn't want to stop there because I wanted to go to number four, and that's cheese and cream, so dairy. Now, if you know me, I'm not big on milk, but I am big on dairy. [00:20:00] Look, if you can't digest eggs or whatever I just talked about, or cheese, well then okay. It's not for you, okay? So some people, they don't do well with eggs, okay, but the vast majority of the population do, and the vast majority of the population do well with cheese and cream and not yogurt and milk. A big difference there, okay? They can have the cheese but they can't have milk. [00:20:30] If you are one to tell me, well if you can't drink milk and you can't have yogurt because you get a lot of phlegm, you've got an intolerance to the lactose. Lactose is the milk sugar. Remember, milk today, the reason we see so much lactose, and some are 60, 70% of the population have trouble with lactose, and that is because you shouldn't be drinking milk, drink cream, heavy cream, and eat cheese, and [00:21:00] again, if you're the exception, you don't do well with that, well then stop, but I'm telling you that cheese, cream, and butter are number four on the hit parade in terms of nutrients.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Remember, in the vegetable kingdom that I'll talk to you about in one minute, is the vitamin K1 and K2. People get this mixed up. K1 will thin your blood, that's found in the vegetable kingdom, especially [00:21:30] in your green leafy vegetables, and your broccoli, and your kale, and spinach, and whatever, you get K1, but K2 which is essential, because what does K2 do, okay? And it's found in cheese, and butter, and especially number one source of K2 which will keep you from heart disease. Yes, imagine cheese and butter keeping you from heart disease, not because it's full of cholesterol, although that's good for you, secondly, because it's the [00:22:00] vitamin K2. The vitamin K2 takes calcium out of your blood vessels. Think of when people you hear of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis comes when you have damaged blood vessels, the endothelial wall. If you get a chance, we did a teaching, Tony Jr. and I did a teaching on heart disease, everything heart [00:22:30] and we talked about low levels of nitric oxide, low ... Endothelial dysfunction, and inflammation damaging the blood vessel wall. When the blood vessel's walls get damaged, endothelial function. Calcium has a tendency to stay inside the bloodstream, and with the absence of vitamin K2 that you get when you eat cheese, and [00:23:00] when you consume butter, and when you consume cheese curds, especially high source of the K2.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So can you imagine? Ancel Keys had it wrong. He said, "Don't eat that stuff because it gives you cholesterol. It's not good for you." But what he didn't realize in the 1950s was the importance of vitamin K2, and K1 is very good for you, keeps your blood thin. That's in the green leafy vegetables, [00:23:30] but vitamin K2, which we add to our vitamin D is very, very, very, very important to take calcium. So if you got hardening of the arteries, people often ask me, "What do I do? I have hardening of the arteries, my carotid arteries are hardened, or my blood vessels around my heart. I have a blockage." Well, if you have a blockage, you better be getting K2, and one of the ways to do it is to eat your K2 [00:24:00] through cheese, and butter, and heavy cream. That's how you get vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 is not found in the plant kingdom, It's found in the animal kingdom.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So I've touched on four things in the animal kingdom, red meat, white meat, eggs, and cheese. Okay, now let's talk about three others and then we'll get to seven, right? So number five on the [00:24:30] hit parade are vegetables, okay? So vegetables are very good for you. Now, you can divide vegetables into two. Vegetables that grow in the ground like potatoes are more starchy. So if it's inside the soil, they're starchy, they hold on to water, you need more insulin to break them down. So potatoes, sweet potatoes are a little bit better, but they're still a potato, and they have a little [00:25:00] bit more nutrition, a little bit less of insulin that you need to break them down, but just generally you're better off with vegetables that are above ground, okay? So for example, kale, and spinach, and broccoli, and green peppers, and things like that are better than what is grown inside the soil because those are more starchy, but they're still all right. I mean look, it is better to have a potato than it is [00:25:30] to have a chocolate bar, but you still, you need a fair amount of insulin for both. So I'm always, I know there's fibres in vegetables, but again, vegetables are very good, it has vitamin K1, has a lot of nutrients and very, very good on the hit parade, it's number five. Okay.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So number six are fruits, and fruits are very, very good for you. They're surrounded in fibre, and never [00:26:00] drink fruit. So don't drink fruit. Now, you can put a few berries in a smoothie. If you want to look at Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie, it is four ounces of heavy cream. I like bone broth protein because it's a complete protein. It's one that's a 100% bioavailable. It has 84 trace minerals, it has 22 amino acids, it has L-glutamine and L-arginine, [00:26:30] and L-leucine, and L-lysine, and that's why I like bone broth. Bone broth is tremendous. So in my perfect smoothie, I recommend bone broth, for some people whey protein isolate, a very good one, is good too, but a lot of people don't, they can't have whey, it bothers their stomach, so I'm a bone broth guy. So I love bone broth. I like it in a smoothie and you can put a few berries in. That's the only time you ever want to drink any fruit.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Don't drink fruit. God [00:27:00] meant you to eat fruit, and when you eat fruit like an orange, or citrus, or an Apple, or grapes, bananas, whatever, if you have that fruit. Now, if you know me, I limit fruit for people that have elevated insulin, okay? It doesn't mean that I eliminate it, but I limit it. If you make uric acid, you must limit fruit because fructose, the sugar in fruit, and the sugar that [00:27:30] they add, high fructose corn syrup is a curse today, and I talked about this on previous podcasts. So limit your fruit, but fruit berries I certainly like, and they're powerful antioxidants, and there was a study out today on blueberries, and we live in the North here, and our wild blueberries are just fabulous. They are so powerful. So strawberries, and raspberries, and blueberries are tremendous antioxidants. [00:28:00] So I like berries, but if you have trouble with uric acid, then you must limit your bananas, limit your apples, and limit your grapes. If you've got any kind of arthritis, I'm very, very careful because they usually form a lot of uric acid.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So that was number six and number seven, let me close with this, are legumes. So your lentils, your beans, your quinoa, these are legumes, okay? Now, legumes, again, they're very [00:28:30] acceptable. There are doctors that don't want you to eat legumes at all because of lectin, and lectin, they talk about that, but I find that if you can digest, listen to your body, if you can digest beans, and lentils, and whatever, kidney beans and whatever, and they don't bother you, then I got no problem with that, okay, and they're full of fibres and that's all right, but for some people that extra fibre or whatever, that roughage actually bothers them. [00:29:00] Well, you've got to listen to that if your gut bothers you, but if you go down in terms of the top nutrients, okay, that help your brain, the four main ones are your red meat, your white meat, your eggs and cheese. These are very, very nutrient-dense food, and that's my seven top foods on the hit parade, okay? So thanks for [00:29:30] listening today, and if you have any feedback, please send it to us at info@martinclinic.com.

Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Jr. and Sr. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening.

Back to blog