This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast Chris Harrison Company from the home office in Austin, Texas with a great guest and a great episode today. I love talking about our health, things we can be doing, things we should be doing. And with social media it is so hard because we're inundated with so much, especially about our diet, what is best for us, what should we be eating? And then you see something, Oh my god,
I need to cut out eggs. I need to cut out this cheez I need to cut out So what's real? So joining us today is the foremost expert I could find on gut health. Doctor Joseph A. Selhabb, a gastro entrologist liz in Florida affiliated with multiple hospitals as an expert on treating colonoscopy, upper GI indoscopy among other conditions, and started following him on social media. And what I found is doctor Sahabb noticed that there was this push which is good for us to better understand and improve
our gut health. Because what we have found, I guess to put it in as a good analogy, the gut is think of an old telephone operator who's connecting all of the lines. Our gut is the central kind of communication system for the rest of our body, and when those lines get disconnected or get cross it's a mess and it can lead to a whole host of problems and even serious issues and cancers, and so gut health has become so important. But there's so much misinformation out there.
I wanted to talk to doctor Sahab and tell us what is real, what is not? What do we really need to pay attention to. So that is our guest today as we dive in to gut health. Joining me now is doctor Saalhabb. Doctor. First of all, are you coming to me from Florida?
I am, yes, Orlando, Florida.
At the time of this recording, the hurricane Debbie has just blown through. How you doing everything? Okay?
Yeah, everything is good. You know where I'm at right now. There's a lot of heavy rainfall, but really it's not super bad. I was able to make it to work on time today. That's always a good thing. Traffic wasn't too bad. You know, with Florida, we get so many tropical storms and hurricanes that at this moment, at this time, we're kind of used to it, you know. So typical Tuesday, typical Tuesday. Ulest things get really bad, We're all scheduled to go to work and we try to meet those plans.
It's kind of like snow across the Midwest. It's like when it hits the South, We're like, oh my god, it's debilitating across the Midwest, Like this isn't snow.
Are talking about? Like this is nothing.
Aside from your minor and meteorology. The reason I wanted to have you on today I am such a proponent and I am so interested in gut health. And when I saw you, and obviously being an expert, and I went through you know all that you have achieved in your career, congraduate relations because you look so damn young for being in this for two decades, but you are
equally obsessed with gut health. And I'm sure both of us saw this trend on all social media where people who you don't really know, you don't know what their medical background is, started talking about gut health. And while I think it is a good thing to start the conversation, it can be a dangerous thing and that I don't know if these people know what they're talking about. So I've come to the expert today to talk all about
gut health. What we need to know fact from fiction, What are the rumors, what are the things we need to pay attention to. So I appreciate you coming on today and not just talk about the weather, but talk about our gut health.
Thank you so much for having me, And yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent. In fact, that was actually one of the first It's actually the main reason that I actually created my social media profile is because you know, we all use it. We all see the videos of the show up on our feed, and I was, you know, seeing a lot of videos that were just either you know, mischaracterizing gut health or saying some of the wrong things, and I felt like I had to
kind of correct the record. And what better way than having a gast neurologist to someone who sees the stuff that treats it every day, to you know, make a video or response video and try to kind of you know,
make complicated matters simple for people. You know, there's there's no gut health can be can get complicated from a medicinal standpoint, but there's also things that we can do every single day that are just simple to improve our gut health, and that's what I try to focus or emphasize on on my videos.
And I want to talk about all of those things. And I hate to start with the negative, But what were the things that you were seeing on social media that made you go, man, I gotta I gotta get in because people need real information. What are some of the misconceptions and perceptions we have of gut health.
So I would say one of the first things is that vegetables and fruits are out to kill you and they're bad for you, you know, And that's something that we kind of see all the time. And you know, there's a lot of you know, science behind you know, what they try to say. You know, they try to talk about this article or that article, or try to
go over certain mechanisms. But we have human studies that show that fruits and vegetables are not only filled with fiber, which is essential for great gut health, but they lower your risk of chronic diseases such as you know, diabetes, heart disease, They lower your risk of colon cancer, stomach cancer.
And when I was seeing those type of things, I wanted to just make sure that people didn't get the wrong information regarding that because those type we have enough of a problem in America where people don't get enough fiber, you know, they don't eat their vegetables and fruits, and
that was one of the things that scared me. I did not want people to be under the impression that those things were bad for you, and that was one of the things I wanted to correct because I know that, you know, with colon cancer on the rise, especially in younger people, a lot of it can be related to our our diet, and I wanted to make sure that
people knew the facts. People knew the food that you should eat that could lower your risk of things like colon cancer and stomach cancer, to make sure that, you know, we're not afraid of them. And it's hard enough being able to eat right, you know, nowadays with everybody throwing all these things at you. So you know, that's what I tried to do at least, and that was one of the first things that I wanted to try to correct.
So number one, everybody, fruits and vegetables are still good because you know, fruit. Talk about something that's gotten a real bad rap lately is fruit. Obviously there is sugar in it, but it's not processed sugar. It's not the sugar like that's in a Snicker's bar or what have you, that we need to stay away from. Natural sugars are Look, can they be overdone like everything? Yes, but this is okay, absolutely.
And the thing about fruits is that, you know, nature is really clever. I mean, when you have fruit, it comes packaged with fiber, prepackaged, you know, so to speak. And that fiber helps regulate, you know, the absorption of glucose, and it helps with the digestion process, helps you know, use the restroom, helps eliminate waste and toxins and things like that. And not only did they come pack packed
with phyto nutrients and all of those things together. When you put it all in one, they're super healthy for you. So you're not just taking the sugar you know, from the fruit and just ingesting that with nothing else, which is kind of what you get with juices sometimes, you know, they say, you know, don't if you're gonna, you know, do it, you know, blend it, don't juice it, because if you're juicing it, you're taking out some of the important parts that the fruit was made to come with.
And so this is what I tell people too. I said, look, if you want to make a smoothie, don't hesitate to blend it, you know, don't don't juice it, keep the fiber, keep the good stuff with it, because that's going to be good for you as well.
Eat the apple, not the apple juice, right exactly, there you go. So, but you just mentioned something, and again this was on social media and it was getting a big play for a while of if you blend your fruits. You know, allah are smoothies which a lot of us make every day that will diminish the good that comes in biting into an apple or eating a whole banana.
What have you?
Is is that fact or fiction?
Yeah? It doesn't. It Actually, blending it does not do anything to its absorption. It does not affect its nutrient quality. In fact, it's almost like you're predigesting it, right, I mean, you're you're going to chew it. It's going to by the time it makes it to your stomach, it's going to be mushy, it's going to get absorbed. So really, what that does is for a lot of people, actually gives them a practical way to meet the fruit and
vegetable intake. When you can blend it, put it in a smoothie, be on the go, go to work, go to school. It makes it a nice easy way to get the amount of fruits and vegetables that you need on a daily basis. And it really does not affect the nutrient quality. In fact, a lot of things that I tell a lot of ways I tell my patients to get the fruit and vegetable take is, even get
frozen stuff. If you get the frozen fruits, for example, they really have I mean, the nutrient quality that they've compared between frozen fruits and the fresh ones are they're almost practically the same but one. But frozen fruits last way longer, and they're so easy to put in a smoothie, and they're just so practical to use that. I also tell them that you could use that too. Yeah.
Another thing I saw on this is like last week was this battle about carrots going back and forth and like chopped carrots in this and it's they're they're full of you know, they cover them because everything's about the pesticides and what's on them right right, Like for example, they say strawberries are one of the dirtiest, most contaminated fruits because of the pockets and things that the pesticides
can settle into. But carrots was really on the forefront of getting a bad rap last week, and then I saw some doctor get on and say, well, if you wash them, all that stuff is going to come right off and it's you know, it's chlorine, and you know, they kind of explain that you don't need to stop eating carrots.
Right, yeah, absolutely, I think you know, I try to be careful when I talk to people about this stuff because you don't want to give them a reason not to eat the healthy foods, right yeah. And yeah, I mean we once you get the produce. And I'm a big fan of this, and I even talked about this on one of my episodes about washing your fruits and things, whether it's avocado, kiwi, whatever it is, when you get home, you wash it. Some people wash it in with just
soaked water. Some people just use water. Some people use baking soda and things like that. Either way, if you bring it home and you wash it and you stick it into a container, that will keep the shelf life a little bit longer. Most of those fruits, you'll you'll remove most, if not all, of the bad stuff.
For you, what do you suggest in the in the in the cleaning process, because again you just mentioned three different styles and it's like, how crazy do we need to be? What do you suggest?
You know, I've seen a lot of people use things from baking soda to vinegar to all that stuff. What I usually do is I usually just wash it with water. I occasionally use baking soda, but that's pretty much all you need. Anything else that you're going to do really isn't going to make that much of a difference. It's usually the surface of the fruits and vegetables that you really need to clean thoroughly. I mean, think about it
this way. If you're getting an apple, right, I mean, how many people have touched that apple before it made it into your bag? Right? So it's it's it's dirty. It needs to be clean. So you just go back. You clean it thoroughly, You scrub it, you can use some baking soda, you can let it kind of sit in the water for a little bit. As long as the outside cover is clean than the you're good to go.
The strawberries in general again got another bad rap because AaB they're they're porous and all that. But I don't know if you follow Tom Brady and that kind of shade diet, and I mean the shade of the fruit. He is very he's never had a strawberry, won't eat them because he says it, I believe for inflammation purposes are there? Do you believe or subscribe to that shade theory on certain vegetables, fruits, et cetera.
I don't know. It's only because I don't feel like there is a whole ton of robust proof that those type of things really are make a difference or a detrimental to your health, at least in our human control trials. I mean, we know that for example, strawberries, you know they're packed with vitamin C. And those fruits, for example,
with different shades of colors like red and blue. In each one of those colors represents a phyto nutrient that those fruits contain, and we know that they're healthy for you. So I tell my patients, the more colorful actually your diet can be, the more varied it can be, the better overall from you, because each one gives you something a little bit different. And with strawberries, for example, I mean, they contain vitamin C, which we know help the good
gut bacteria grow in your gut. We know that the fiber within berries are beneficial. They lower your risk of colon cancer. They contain a bunch of phyto nutrients that can help with inflammation and not cause inflammation. So I don't subscribe to that theory. I don't know where it started, to be honest with you, but if you look at the literature and you look at the evidence that's out there, you pretty much won't, in my opinion, it won't be convinced that you need to avoid those type of things.
Gut health has really come to the forefront, and which is great. Many doctors are now saying, this is the engine that runs your entire body. Everything comes from what is in your gut. What are the things that we should know, What are the most important if you know a quick list of these are the things we should know about gut health and how to keep it healthy, even if we're just starting this process.
Absolutely so, the way I think of your gut is like a garden, right, So it's like an ecosystem. So for example, the plants in the garden are like the probiotics that live in your gut. There's trillions of probiotics that live in your gut, and they are beneficial for you because they not only help digest food, but they
produce beneficial compounds. So, just like any garden, you have to let the plants grow and thrive, right, So the way to do that is with So let's take the example of sunshine and rain to make the plants grow. The sunshine and rain for the gut is actually prebiotics. So what prebiotics are are These are carbohydrates that feed the good and gut bacteria and allow them to grow
and thrive. And often you get these prebiotics from vegetable sources, right, things like sweet potatoes, whole grains, spare I guess, broccoli, things like that. These are the type of thing that feed the good gut bacteria, allow them to grow and thrive, and then as a result, the probiotics make what we call post biotics. So think about the way the plants make oxygen right when they grow and they thrive to allow the environment for us to live. Pretty much same way,
the probiotics make something called post biotics. These post biotics are compounds that are what actually benefits us. So, for an example, one of them would be something called butyrate, and we know that when the probiotics in your gut make more butyrate, we tend we tend to have it better, healthier gut and even lowers your risk of things like colon cancer.
And where does butyrate come from? Where do we derive that from?
So we derive that from the gut bacteria. So when you have good, healthy gut bacteria, they use the prebiotics and they make things like butyrate.
So it's the pree So it's the eat of the vegetables and all that will create that. There's nothing more that will help that.
Yeah, there's nothing more that well, our gut, our gut bacteria. A lot of it starts with our diet. Yeah, a lot of it starts with the healthy stuff that we need to try to eat. And what I try to emphasize is one of the first things you want to do is make sure that your diet is rich in prebiotics.
And with prebiotics a lot of times comes fiber. Right, So, as we talked about before, you know, things that contain fiber, whether it's insoluble fiber or soluble fiber, those things allow the gut bacteria to thrive, and the gut bacteria are always kind of talking to your body. They are interacting with your body. There's a thin membrane between the gut bacteria and your immune system. They are constantly talking to your immune system, they're talking to your brain, they're talking
to everything else in your body. And in fact, we know that, for example, people that suffer from chronic diseases, they can have a depletion of certain good gut bacteria. There's almost like a signature for that. So we know that if we can get those gut back to those good ones to really grow and thrive, they produce these beneficial compounds such as the butrate, and that's what actually gives us our healthy gut.
Is there a difference, in part of my ignorance, between prebiotic and probiotics.
Yes, so a probiotic is the actual living organism, So it's the actual bacteria that lives and thrives in your gut. What a prebiotic is, it's food. Prebiotic is food for those gut bacteria. Got it. And though that prebiotic feeds the gut bacteria allows them to grow, thrive, and populate.
Let's go over some a few things that again, we're trends that are kind of sexy, were and some that still are for apple cider or vinegar every morning, apple cider vinegar.
I don't see anything wrong with it. I am a fan of apple cider vinegar myself. I guess it's important to figure out what they're taking it for, right. So if people say that, for example, apple cider vinegar is going to cause you to burn fat and lose weight and do all those things, I think that's probably a little bit overblown. Is apple cider vinegar probably healthy in general? Does it contain compounds that are probably beneficial for your gut? Absolutely.
There are people who feel like they have and this is one of the things that I tried to correct on the record, where they have acid reflux and they take things like apple side or vinegar. But there's no real proof that apple side or vinegar can help with acid reflux in and of itself, because acid reflux is basically is just where acid is just pretty much going up the esophagus causing a burning sensation, and sometimes for
people vinegar can actually cause that. Yeah, But what I try to tell people is that look, that burning sensation that you have in your test may not be as reflux. There's a lot of reasons why you may have that, including something called bile reflux, and bial reflux is more alkaline than acid, and maybe when you mix a little bit of apple side or vinegar it helps kind of balance that out, and that's why some people feel good. So I think it's really important to figure out what
you taking the apple sid or vinegar for. If you feel good on it and it causes no problems and it helps you use the restroom and it helps you get on with your day, I think it's absolutely fine. I don't think there's any harmful effects to it.
A kombucha became such a cool trendy thing, especially in Hollywood. It started, you know, I noticed that things become cool when they're on the set, you know, at craft services, and all of a sudden, every cooler was filled with kombucha.
Yeah thoughts, Yeah, I think you know, if you're I think is a good healthy drink. I think there are certain ones that are very well populated with good gut bacteria. So the problem is with taking probiotics. You know, whether it's in a pill form or whether it's in a drink. For example, is you don't know how much of those probiotics actually make it into your gi track, because by the time it actually gets into your stomach, the acid mixes in with it. How much are killed off, how
much are there whatever's left. Does it really populate any any other part of your gas dur intestinal track for any benefit. That is what we don't know right now. I don't think we're there yet. So when people ask me about probiotics and specific I say, look, I think the best probiotics actually a pre biotic because you're feeding the good gut bacteria. But as far as putting bacteria in your gut, it's hard to say whether that works.
But I think as a as a and a healthy alternative to other drinks, I see there's I see nothing wrong with kimbucha. I think it can definitely be beneficial.
Greek yogurt has become very popular now.
Yes, good, I love Greek yogurt. Yeah, I know, Greek yogurt is great. Yeah, absolutely, I love Greek yogurt. Yogurt is such an underrated food for a few reasons. The first thing is that we have some studies that show that people who eat more yogurt tend to have a lower risk of colon cancer.
Oh, interesting, men and women, Men and women.
Yeah, And why we think that happens is because a good Greek yogurt usually is populated with probiotics, and again, everything goes back to the gut bacteria. So if you can, if you can get a diet that fills your gut with good probiotics and prebiotics, you generally have a lower risk of things such as colon cancer. And from my standpoint,
I love greek yogurt. I eat it every day. It's just a good alternative to you know, you know, it depends on what you want to eat sometimes, you know, sometimes I like cream, cheese and things like that a little bit higher in calories, But Greek y over for me, is something that I try to eat every day just because of the probiotics that are in it and because it helps populate the good go back here. So yeah, I'm a big fan.
Is cottage cheese right there as well?
Yeah, cottage cheese right there too. The nice thing about cottage cheese it also gives you a little bit of extra protein too, so, and greek yog is actually a decent source of protein as well. But yeah, I would say cottage cheese is there right at that level.
Too, And I know it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I know predominantly percentage wise, men worry more about the colon cancer. Obviously, I am of age. I've had my colonoscopy all clear.
That's how you do it. I mean, that's how you you know, people tell me what's the best thing you could do to prevent colon cancer, and I'm like, get your colonoscopy, you know, that's really the best thing that you can do.
And by the way, can I just go on record, it's not that big of a deal. It's not that big of a deal. Especially the actual colonoscopy is nothing because you're asleep. You know, that's really probably a bad day for the doctor. It's not a bad day for you. It's the pres you know, as everybody says, the prep sucks or you could even say it's very crappy. But other than that, it's a good cleanse. Think of it as a good gut cleanse. And it's a day you get some rest.
Yeah. Absolutely, a lot of people say it's the bestleap of your life. You know, you go to sleep, you wake up and you're already done. And you know, when I try to talk about preventing colon cancer, I'm very careful when you know, obviously there's a lot of dietary and lifestyle habits we can do to lower our risk for colon cancer, but there's nothing perfect because there's a
lot of colon cancer can also be genetic. Right, So no matter what healthy lifestyle you do, no matter the healthiest foods you can eat, no matter how fit you are, if you're genetically predisposed to forming colon cancer, it's probably going to happen. And so what we do in our colonoscopies is that we think that every colon cancer starts off as just a little anybody pollen. And when we do the colonoscopy, we remove those polyps. And when we remove them, they never have a chance to become cancer.
And that's why the kolonosky is important for not only detect and diagnosing colon cancer, but it's also the best thing we have at preventing cancer.
And the polyps aren't bad necessarily, you don't know, That's that's why, but you take them out because they may grow, they may not grow.
Right.
One thing I also noticed when I went in for my colonoscopy because I think I think I maybe I did it when I was fifty, which was three years ago, But now they're saying forty five forty like to get it to start earlier for men. Why is that what has brought that on? Is it just science or is it just our environment that's changing.
It's both. You know, we have been seeing and I certainly have been seeing colon cancer at younger ages. Not only have we been seeing colon cancer at younger ages, but we're seeing pre cancers at younger ages as well. So it took a little bit of time, but we finally got it lowered to forty five, which the science is showing is definitely going to be is going to benefit more people because we're going to not only be catching more colon cancers, but we're going to be preventing
more of them as well. The problem that we're going to see now is is at some point it going to get even lower, and that's going to be I guess that's going to remain to be seen. They're going to run the numbers they're going to you know, obviously, when it comes to healthcare, at least in America, there's always like a cost benefit ratio a risk benefit ratio, So we have to make sure that if we're screening
people that there's a benefit to it, right. But part of the reason why we had to lower it to forty five is just we're just seeing younger and younger patients with it. I know that I've had people in the hospital twenty five year olds, thirty year olds that come in with rectal bleeding and I do a colonoscopy and I find in early colon cancer. And had they waited, had they waited in another year or two before coming into the hospital. But you know, we sometimes we do.
Sometimes we tend to ignore things like that it could have spread, could have gotten bigger, and instead of it being stage one, could have been stage four.
Yeah, and that's probably the biggest bit of advice for everybody. If you notice something, if something's irregular, like, don't be the typical guy. Just go it's not that big of a deal. What's a bigger deal is dying from something you didn't need to die from.
Colon cancer is probably one of the most preventable cancers that we have because we have the ability to normally detect and treat it when it's you know it's when they're small, but we check for it often and there's signs and symptoms of it. I tell people, like, look, pay attention to your to your stool, you know, I know, you know, some people think it's a little bit gross, but it really isn't that. It really tells you a lot about your stool, tells you a lot about your health.
If you're going, if you all of a sudden have a change in about habits, if you're not going as much as you used to, or the opposite way, if you're having more diarrhea than you you normally have, if you notice blood on the toilet paper or in there, if you notice that you have aches and pains in your belly that just don't go away, Like, don't ignore
those things. Talk to your doctor about them, tell them what your bowel habits are, because you never know what could be a symptom that seems insignificant to you but may actually be a warning sign of colon cancer.
Yeah, and that's again so so avoidable. And for guys, I know, there's obviously colon and then the prostate, Yes, tell me that obviously, the differences of what we're looking for when you get the prostate check, which is kind of changed too. They're saying they don't really have to you know. That's by the way, the for those that
don't know, the finger up the butt they're checking the prostate. Yeah, they don't really have to do that as much if they check your blood because the PSA levels that they can kind of determine if you need it correct.
Yeah. So you know, when it comes to prostate issues, usually you'll have urinary issues. So for example, with with like an enlarged prostate or even a prostate cancer, you'll notice that you're not urinating as much, or it's hard to your innate or painful to your innate or you'll see blood in your urine. And that's kind of where you know, going to the bathroom is really important because
you have to really pay attention to those things. And if you notice that there's a sudden change in either or if you're if you're if your urination is changing or your bowel habits are changing. It's just something that you don't have to feel embarrassed to when you talk to your doctor, you mentioned it to them and then they can figure out what other tests you need from there. Nowadays, you know the prostate exams I think probably maybe are
being done less, but certainly they order. There's more blood tests, and there's better images that we have, ultrasounds, MRIs, even things like CT scans can can better take a look at your prostate for the colon. Though interestingly enough the images are not there yet, Like we can't. It's really hard to see like a small colon cancer on a CT scan. And that's actually a question that I get
quite a lot. A smaller developing colon cancer may may just look absolutely normal on the CT scan, and really the only way to diagnose that is with a colonoscopy.
Okay, that's good to know. We haven't found a way around it yet. Just go get it done, Just get it done.
Yeah, Yeah, it's the best way to prevent, best way to detect. That's that's all you need to know, you know.
And what about women in that regard, Yeah.
With women, absolutely the same. Now, women are more actually likely to get cancers in a certain part of their colon, specifically on the right side of their colon. And this is why I tell people, like, when you do your colonoscopy, make sure you take all the preparation, make sure you
do it you can't cheap coalon prep. You know, make sure you take everything, make sure you have a nice, squeaky clean colon, because what the doctor does is they start from the bottom and work all the way up to the beginning of your colon, and you have to survey every single part of your colon because a colon cancer could actually form anywhere, and that's where we're seeing more colon cancers in women. And when it comes to
the symptoms, the symptoms are essentially the same. There tends to be I think a little bit of discrepancy and dismissiveness by you know, for women's symptoms when it comes to abdominal pain, because you know, there could be a whole lot of reasons for abdominal pain, right you have your gynecological organs that are there, you have other things
that could be causing abdominal pain. But when female patient comes to me gives me symptoms abdominal pain, one of the first things I tell them is, look, we need to check your colon because I need to rule that out as a cause of your pain before we proceed into any other examinations here.
And it's something most women probably don't think about it because typically it's a guy disease, it's a guy problem. You know. They always talk about guys getting the colonoscopy and all that. So it's probably something that most women it's just kind of out of sight, out of mind, thinking it's a guy thing, but it can be a woman thing.
Absolutely. Absolutely, we're certainly seeing it in both men and women. And it's just something when it comes to abdominal pains or changes in your bowel habits, constipation for example, it's just something you just don't want to ignore and chalk it up to, oh, well, you know, my body's changing now. There might actually be a serious reason behind that, and that's something you should always talk to your doctor about.
Do you see a dramatic change as we head into you know, perimenopause, menopause for women as far as gut health goes, And are there things that women heading into those phases of life as you're starting to get there, that you can change or do to help mitigate some of the effects.
Yeah. Absolutely, I find that as we tend to get to that age, one of the most common things that I see is actually more constipation. And what I try to tell my patients is, look, as we get older, you know, our colon does not work as well sometimes as it used to. We tend to get more things such as diverticulosis. I'm not sure if you've heard of that before, but diverticulosis can cause something called diverticulitis, which diparticulosis are little pouches that form on the surface of
the colon. And we think, at least in the US, part of the reason is genetics and a lack of dietary fiber in your diet. And when you're constipated, you tend to form these pouches on the surface of your colon. They can be painful, they can get infected, and they can bleed. So I try to tell people that as we age, it's just the golden rule. Let's try to get as much fiber as we can and theether. Let's try to have Let's try to regulate our about movements. Let's try to you know, that goal is to have
at least one valut movement per day. Increase your fruits and vegetables, try to eat things, try to eat less red meat. You know, I know that everyone wants to have fun every now and then, talking about drinking alcohol and things like that, and you just those are the types of things that you just want to lower or at least you know lesson, and then just try to get your dietary habits and check. You know, as we get.
Older, does the carnivore diet trend keep you up at night?
It does? Yeah, it does, only because you know, we know that, we know that foods that are high and saturated fat is a risk factor for cancer, risk factor for many cancers, in fact, especially colon cancer. And not only that, when you're completely eliminating all the sources of
dietary fiber, that just makes things much worse. Now, I don't want to go and say that, look, eating meat is bad for you and it's going to cause cancer, because some of the studies we have show that you can still eat red meat, but if you pile on the veggies with it, in fact, there are times there you could actually lessen that risk or at least equalize that risk. So as long as you if you're eating meat, but you're eating your veggies and get your fiber with it,
then you probably don't have to worry about much. But if you're going to completely just saturated fat and just completely take out all of the fruits and vegetables that we know are beneficial for you. Then, yeah, that sounds like a recipe.
For trouble eating a good salad asparagus, broccoli, something to kind of go in and clean the pipe along with it.
Yeah. Absolutely, that's what I try to do. I mean, you know, I'm not a vegan or vegetarian. You know, I eat my fair share of meat and chicken and things like that. But what I just try to do is try to bounce it out with veggies. And I'm still here.
Well, and do you do you treat those the same or do you think of them as the same as like so steak you know, or chicken fish?
You know?
Do you do you categorize all them all the same as far as red meat and meat goes, or do you treat the red meat a little different?
I treat the red meat a little bit different. I try to follow what we call a Mediterranean diet, right, which is what everyone talks about. And you know, there is a lot of data behind the Mediterranean diet. We know it's been extensively studied in for example, fatty liver disease, which is going to be the number one cause of liver problems in the US. If not, it's already the number on one cause it's going to be the number one cause of liver transplants, of liver failure when it taught.
When we talk about acid reflux, when we talk about constipation, we talk about everything. It all kind of They studied a whole bunch of diets with regards to this, and the Mediterranean diet still remains king. And part of it is because the Mediterranean diet is a lot of fruits and vegetables, which we talked about. They do eat their fair share of chicken and fish and then a little
bit of red meat, like not a whole ton. So it's all about you know, eating you know, if you want to eat like that type of thing, I would say, try to increase your fish intake and then eat more fruits and vegetables. Chicken is good, and then just lessen your red meat to maybe once or twice a week, and then you know, you should be okay with that. And that's what the Mediterranean diet.
Everything in moderation. It's anytime I hear a diet where I'm just doing this, I'm just eating this, or just it's like you're just you're taking so much out of play that your body needs.
Yeah. Absolutely, And I think that that leads to you know, can lead to malnourishment, can lead to not getting the vitamins and nutrients that you lead and also can lead to some eating disorders because then people start getting afraid of certain foods that are actually really beneficial for them. They were just taught that it was back for them. And I'm not talking about the foods that when people know that they eat, they makes them feel bad, right,
I mean, there are foods that people like. For example, if I eat something that's super tomatoe, you know, tomato soup, I'll get acid reflux. Right. But I'm not going to completely stay away from tomatoes, you know, I'm just going to moderate my intake maybe lessons. They probably not eat
it as a soup or something like that. But yeah, we're talking about people who just you know, they see something that's been demonized, they take it out, they never want to eat it again, but then later realize, hey, this was actually probably beneficial for me. Yeah.
It's that feeling, It's that regret when you lay down and you have that you're like, yeah, I did that's myself tonight. Yeah, exactly one thing that may mitigate that. And apparently taking a walk has gotten a pr makeover because I see you're shaking your head. They're calling it the fark walk. This is the post dinner fart walk, and sorry for that. That is the term that's being used. There was the hot girl walk, Now there's the flart walk.
You've heard this, I have, yeah, And it was so a good friend of mine, Marilyn Smith, she is somebody who is very famous in Canada. Actually she came up with the term at least, or at least popularized it, and she was she made a video about going on a fart walk, and she was saying that it lessens
her risk of diabetes. And I had commented and I had made kind of a response video to it, and part of what I was talking about there is not only is it good for you know, lowering your blood sugar after you eat and helping with the digestion process, but it's also good for everything else in the gut. Because when we know that when you do physical exercise, food moves through the gut, you tend to have less
acid reflux. Because of that, you tend to have better absorption less bloating whenever you're exercising and moving around all of the gas and all the stuff that's moving throughout your intestine and out the other end. So that's why they call it the part walk, because you know, you to, you tend to part whether it's silent or not, you know, and but that is healthy. That helps you digest, helps you know, relieve a lot of the pressure within the abdomen.
Makes you feel good, and it's one of those things that I think a lot of people could really benefit from, especially if you suffer from those things already, like if you suffer from constipation, or you suffer from acid or reflicks, and you suffer from bloating. Try going for a walk, you know, just thirty minutes after you eat, and you'll notice right away that you'll feel much better.
It is funny when whatever I, you know, was traveling in Europe or even in New York, when you you know, you don't take a cab home, if you walk the ten or fifteen blocks or in Europe, you're just walking a lot, and you get that half mile walk in after dinner, even if you had a few cocktails, you
feel so much better. And that's also I think to make it applicable for the everyday person, and if you don't necessarily want to go for a walk or whatever, eating at a certain time, eating a little earlier and not eating at nine thirty at night and going straight to bed and laying down, that's that's the most basic version of that.
Right absolutely. So we know that the closer you eat, you know, towards you go to sleep, you're at Morris for acid reflux. I try to tell people try to eat about three or four hours before bedtime because it takes about four hours for your stomach to empty, you know completely, So if you're going in and you're laying down, it's physics, right. You know, the food's going to come pile right back up into your esophagus. It's going to give you that heartburn, it's going to make it tough
to sleep. And they've also had studies where the more you separate your food from your bedtime, the better you will sleep. You know, your body's not focused on the digestion component. You'll you'll sleep for longer periods, you'll feel a better quality of sleep. And then when you win and when you eat earlier too, you have a chance to kind of use it right, you have a chance
to burn it off. So like, for example, if you do want to have an early dinner and you want to go for that thirty minute post dinner walk, it's a nice way to kind of, you know, burn off a little bit of the calories you just ate, as opposed to you know, eating and then just going and hibernating where you're just kind of sitting still doing nothing. You wake up feel bloated, you feel constipated, and you know, so that's what that's another great benefit I think of eating earlier.
As you said, our takeaways today are vegetables good. Fart walks also good. If you learned anything today.
If you learn if there's two things that you need to try to make a change today, it's those two things. Yes.
I like how they rebranded taking a walk. It reminded me like during the pandemic. I you know, one of these millennials or somebody gen z 's or wherever they are, the young ones. They were like, okay, so I have this new drink. You got to follow me here. You take vodka, you put soda in it and then you squeeze lime. I said, did you just invent a vodka? Soda. That's what's happened here. Like we just invented going walking, well.
Exactly, just called it something trendy and cool. You know.
It's like, well I saw this thing on TikTok. Apparently you put on shoes and you walk. It's amazing. But hey, as long as it's cool and it's good for you, that's fine.
Absolutely. And it's one of those things that sometimes you may not realize, right, I mean, you don't realize that how something simple like going for just a simple leisurely walk can really benefit you in so many different ways. And that's one of the things that I try to
get across, you know, my social media. I try to find little things, simple things that we can do that are free, they won't cost you anything, but things that you may not realize that over the long run, it can make you feel a whole lot better.
And where as we wrap this conversation up, where can we find you? Because your social media has been great, your tips are great, your expertise is obviously there, and you will continue on this journey for us. So where can we find you?
So on Instagram you can find me as the Stomach Doc and same thing on TikTok and on Facebook. I have a whole ton of videos on there. I talk a lot about acid reflux, you know, constipation, diarrhea, things that simple things that you can do to improve your gut bacteria, things that you can do to improve your gut health. I don't even talk a whole lot about about medicines. I talk about the lifestyle changes you can make.
I try to talk about things that are practical, things you can implement today, things that won't cost you much, but things that can really go a long way if you implement them regularly.
So go check out and follow the stomach doc. And you're right.
I mean.
The great thing about this if you start this path and you don't have to be psychotic about it, but when you start this path, you may find, you know what, I don't need to take these medications for heartburn or for you know, stop taking the privo sect, stop taking Tom's, like all these things you can kind of eliminate because you realize I just needed better gut health.
Absolutely. And it's one of those things that we don't realize how much of the symptoms we mask with the medications, right, and then when we don't make the lifestyle change. We continue to use the medication you know forever, but these medic I try to tell my patients these medications were not meant to be used forever. They're meant to be kind of a bridge towards getting you to feeling better quicker, but then allowing you to make the lifestyle changes that
you need to solve it permanently. Great.
That is an awesome positive note to end on.
Doctor.
Thank you so much, man, I really really appreciate your time. You guys follow a doctor Sahab and continue this great work. And as we come up with new trends like the fart walk, I'll check back in with you and you can keep us up to date on what's good, what's fact, what's fiction.
Thank you so much, Chris, I really appreciate it.
Doctor Salhab, take care. Thank you so much, you too, byebye, Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.