#278: Dr. Michael Greger - Unpacking Ozempic: Miracle Weight Loss Drug or Just Another Fad?
Dr. Greger Explores The Pros and Cons of Ozempic in his latest book
Ozempic, Wegovy, and other weightloss drugs are all over the news these days promising quick and permanent weight loss but – like every other miracle weight-loss drug in the past- is this another “too good to be true” moment?
Our friend, Dr. Michael Greger, puts these new wonder drugs “to the test” in his new book, OZEMPIC: Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs.
Leave it to Dr. Michael Greger to cut right to the chase when it comes to the latest trends in diet and weight loss. In his latest book, Dr. Greger explores the research behind these new “miracle weight loss drugs” and answers the questions that so many of us have:
What are they?
How do they work and what is their role in suppressing your appetite?
What are the side effects?
Is the weight loss really permanent?
Does insurance cover these drugs?
And, is there another (less extreme and expensive) way to lose weight?
Dr. Michael Greger shares the real science behind the marketing fluff and answers our burning questions.
Episode Highlights
3:15 Understanding GLP-1
6:20 The Science Behind Weight Loss Drugs
11:55 Effectiveness of GLP-1 Drugs
17:40 Side Effects and Costs
19:20 Lean Mass Loss Concerns
22:30 Risks Before Surgery
23:15 Natural Ways to Boost GLP-1
24:25 Individual Decisions on GLP-1 Drugs
28:45 Spices That Help Weight Loss
30:15 The Importance of Fiber
32:05 Role of Vinegar in Weight Loss
32:50 Slow Carbohydrates for GLP-1
34:40 The Power of Leafy Greens
Order Dr. Greger’s latest book
Episode Resources
Purchase OZEMPIC: Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs
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Full Episode Transcription via Transcription Service
I'm Rip Esselstyn, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast.
Ozempic and Weight Loss Drugs
[0:05] Ozempic, Wegovy, all these other weight loss drugs, they are everywhere. You look these days promising quick and permanent weight loss, but like every other miracle weight loss drug in the past, is this another too-good-to-be-true moment? Our friend, Dr. Michael Greger, puts these new wonder drugs to the test in his new book, Ozempic, Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP Weight Loss Drugs. And we're going to have his thoughts right after this message from PLANTSTRONG. Cruciferous cousins i hope that everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving with family and loved ones this week i am thrilled to invite you to join us for the ultimate reset our 2025 PLANTSTRONG retreats in both Sedona, Arizona and Black Mountain, North Carolina, imagine a vacation where every bite that you take, every move that you make, and every moment you savior leaves you feeling healthier, stronger, and more energized than ever before.
[1:24] Picture this. Endless buffets of vibrant, whole, plant-based foods, daily opportunities to move your body in ways that feel amazing, educational and entertaining lectures to drive home the lifestyle of, and a supportive community that will inspire and uplift you. These retreats are more than a getaway.
[1:45] They're a powerful investment in you and your health. Registration is officially open, and here's the best part. Early bird pricing and payment plans are available, so there's never been a better time to secure your spot. Spaces are limited, and these retreats sell out fast. Don't miss your chance to transform your health while experiencing the vacation of a lifetime. Head to PLANTSTRONG.com to learn more and claim your spot today.
Dr. Michael Greger Joins the Podcast
[2:14] Let's make 2025 your healthiest, happiest year yet. Leave it to Dr. Michael Greger to cut right to the chase when it comes to the latest trends in diet and weight loss. In fact, in his book, How Not to Diet, that came out in 2019, he didn't have a section on these latest weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wagovi because they weren't a thing yet. In his latest book, Ozempic, Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs, Dr. Greger explores the research behind these new so-called miracle weight loss drugs and answers the questions that so many of us have, like, what exactly are they? How do they work? What are the side effects? Is the weight loss really permanent?
Understanding GLP-1
[3:12] Is there another less extreme and less expensive way to lose the weight? Let's go straight to the man, Dr. Michael Greger, who shares the real science behind the marketing fluff and answers all of our burning questions. Michael Greger. Welcome to the podcast, my man. How are you doing? Yeah, doing well. You never fail to amaze me. I mean, if it's not how not to die, how not to diet, that are New York Times bestseller, How to Survive a Pandemic.
[4:04] You being the founder of nutritionfacts.org, but this latest book that you've come out with, should we call it a book? Is that fair? Well, you know, it's funny. It's our first attempt at self-publishing, right? So instead of this massive tome as usual, it's only like 100 pages, right? Uh one constipated bowel movement and you're done with the thing um uh it's uh you know we put out soft cover audiobook ebook and uh people have really responded well to it so i think we're going to do more of these um you know rather than waiting a year for a publisher to you know whatever they do i don't know why it takes so long for you know this is like look the work is done the research is done the writing is done let's just fucking put it out there we did that and uh And, yeah, it worked really well. Hopefully we'll do more of those. Oh, yeah. It's great. So the name of your book is Ozempic Risk Benefits and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs. I love the fact that you're putting these drugs to the test. Yeah.
[5:12] Indeed. Well, you know, I feel bad that it's been so long. I mean, you know, Ozemba was approved for weight loss 2021. It's been years, nothing on nutrition facts. I've been dying to finally put my thoughts together. But, you know, as you saw reading the thing, it's like a huge topic. I should have done an early. I should have done it early. There's hardly anything on it. Now there's just thousands of papers on it. But at least it gives us a chance to kind of take a step back and see what uh what the research has shown yeah did you did you when you wrote how not to diet did you i can't remember did you have any information on the glp1 well see i mean back then there weren't the drugs but there was but i talked about glp1 all the time okay i talked about this interesting appetite suppressing you know hormone digestive hormone and what we can do to activate it. And so, yeah, a lot of it was like, oh, I know all about this. Let's go back and revisit the groats and the greens and the vinegar and some of the spices and all the things. I'm like, I remember GLP-1, and now it's making a trillion dollars.
The Science Behind Weight Loss Drugs
[6:19] But back then it was just used as a second-rate diabetes drug. Right, right. And the Ozempic, I think, originally came out in 2017, if I'm not mistaken, something like that. But let's dive into, let's dive into so people can understand it. So let's start with, can you explain what is GLP-1?
[6:38] Yeah, no, no, that's kind of one of the ways I kind of start this book is being like, okay, what is this, what is GLP-1? Well, you know, people don't realize that the gastrointestinal tract is actually the largest hormone secreting gland in the body releases more than 20 different hormones. In fact, one out of every like 100 cells lining our digestive tract secrete some sort of hormones. And one of those hormones is GLP-1.
[7:16] And its main action of this digestive hormone is to signal satiety to our brain. And it's this kind of reduction in appetite. So preventing us from eating too much also slows down our digestive tract, helps us make, make us feel fuller for longer, And you say, well, wait a second. If we have cells in our digestive tract that sense nutrients, sense calories, and then suppress our appetite so we don't eat too much, why is there an obesity epidemic? What's going on? What is undermining our natural satiety circuits? And it turns out these cells, these nutrient sensing cells are all the way down concentrated at the end of our digestive tract, which of course would make sense, right? I mean, if we were way high up, then we wouldn't eat enough, right? It wants to wait until, okay, all the nutrition makes it all the way down to the end of our small intestine.
[8:12] And then these cells be like, oh, okay, there's food coming down. We're full from stem to stern. Let's shut down our appetite so we don't eat too much. The problem is the crap that we're eating the calorie rich and processed foods right the foods that aren't as nature intended wrapped in cell walls plant cell walls whole intact plant foods whether they're animal cells which don't have any cell walls at all or they're processed plant foods where for example in making flour we break open all those cell walls so this nutrition is digested the fat the carbs the the protein digestion way up in our small intestine and so these nutrient sensing cells all the way down aren't sensing anything and so they keep our appetite cranked up to the maximum because it thinks we're like in a famine it's like come on are you ever gonna eat anything we're just shoveling down donuts they all get digested early on no donuts make it all the way down right there's hardly there's no fiber there's no and so our body keeps like, come on, eat already, eat already. It's only when we eat the way nature intended, centering our doubts around these whole intact plant foods, can our body work the way it was intended and we can naturally, you know.
[9:32] Let our body do its thing and, and, and keep our body weighed down their normal range yeah so i found it fascinating where they actually get um this the source of the uh i guess would you call it the uh what what is what is what is it that they get from this lizard lizard spit yeah lizard spit chapter it's so freaking fascinating right so the gila monster you know i grew up in arizona for for part of my life and there's this venomous Very cool looking venomous lizard.
[10:11] Called the Gila monster. You do not want to get bitten by the Gila monster. It doesn't actually have fangs, but it has a poisonous saliva and, of course, teeth. And so it chomps on you and makes little holes and then holds on and basically pumps saliva into the wound to try to poison its prey. And so it turns out that's actually the first long-lasting GLP-1 agonist who's actually discovered in Gila monster venom. See, the hormone in our body naturally only lasts about two minutes two and a half minutes yeah um uh it's a very short acting drug just kind of pinging the brain to be like okay we've had enough um uh stop eating um uh but for the first time there was actually this uh this uh this uh this uh particular compound in heal amongst the saliva um last a few hours not uh not just a few minutes and so that gave That gave the big pharma an idea. Oh, wait a second. We make these long-acting drugs. And now we have drugs that last days long, so you can inject it once a week, maintain this artificially high level of GLP-1 signaling. So it's kind of like how the pill works for pregnancy, the contraceptive pill. Basic contraceptive pill kind of tricks your body into thinking you're pregnant all the time, right? And so doesn't, you know, normally, you know, so thanks. Oh, we're already pregnant. We're not getting pregnant again.
[11:37] And similarly, these GLP-1 agonists, they trick your body thinking you're eating all the time because, oh, my God, we have this massive levels of this satiety hormone in our brain. And so it dials down our appetite and people lose weight. So speaking of losing weight, at face value, it appears like,
Effectiveness of GLP-1 Drugs
[11:56] hey, these drugs seem to work pretty well. So how well do they work?
[12:03] Especially in the beginning. Yeah. I mean, and pretty well is an understatement compared to every other drug that's ever been tested. Now, of course, that is a seriously low bar. So basically every single weight loss drug, we've had a half century of various weight loss drugs. And the best that weight loss drugs can do on average is about 5%, 5% weight loss. And so if you think, if you're like 300 pounds and you're losing 5%, that's like 15 pounds. So you end up 285 pounds, right? So you're taking this drug, risking all the side effects. In fact, most weight loss drugs have been pulled from the market because we found out later, often decades later, that it was a public health threat. And so it was actually pulled from the market because it was too hazardous.
[12:49] All that risk just for that 5% drop in body weight. However, so what made these game-changing drugs is that they basically have, on average, tripled the weight loss of every other weight loss drug in history. So we're talking about more like a 15% drop in body weight. Now, that's not enough to take most people who are obese and actually taking them to normal weight or even down to overweight status. In all the major trials, people started out obese. they take these drugs and they end up obese at the end because the drug only works for about a year and then your weight plateaus off. So, you know, they have these four-year drug trials, lose weight the first year. And then the subsequent three years, even though you're injecting drug every single week, not a single other pound comes off. So you stay on these drugs for the rest of your life just to maintain that initial weight loss, yet you don't lose any more way. You start out obese and up obese, and you're just trying to keep taking the drug at perhaps a thousand dollars a month just to maintain that lesser level of obesity. Now, being less obese has lots of benefits. And so then it's a question of, do the benefits outweigh the risks?
[14:08] What I found really fascinating is how, yeah, the first year the body is kind of like, kind of tricked into believing that, wow, I, you know, I'm, I'm good. I'm, I'm, I don't need as many calories. I'm, I feel satiated. And then after a year, it's like, you can't, you can't fool the body. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So when you start out, when you, after a few months, when you've ramped up to the actual working dose of the drug, you have to start slow because the side effects can be really devastating for people, but you start slow and you move up. And once after three or four months when you're at the actual clinical dose you're eating a thousand fewer calories a day so for many people that's like almost cutting their calorie consumption in half or cutting their calorie consumption a third and you're doing that because your body is getting this massive signaling that you're that uh you know to reduce your appetite um this massive signaling saying you're eating you're eating you're eating stop eating so much and so your Your digestive tract slows down. Your appetite goes down. Your cravings go down and you start losing weight, but the body isn't stupid.
[15:19] And there's this remarkable capacity of your body to be like, wait a second. Even though I'm getting this one signal, the GLP one, very strong, very clear, right to the brain saying we got too much going on. The body is also getting other signals from the brain. There's other hormones. There's other measures. Your body actually knows whether you're losing weight, gaining weight. And this is very important for the body to understand, have multiple fail-safe mechanisms because we evolved in the context of scarcity, right? We evolved where, you know, we were just hoping to live long enough to get enough calories to pass along our genes. That's why we have an extraordinary ability to fast. People can literally go a month even longer just on water because our body has these remarkable capacities to go for a long time without eating because that's how our body evolved.
[16:15] Constantly not being able to find enough food, going for days at a time without food. This whole eat three times a day thing is a totally evolutionarily novel behavior. So our body is really good at trying to motivate us to eat enough calories. That's why we have this desperate craving for calorie dense foods, for fatty foods, for sugary foods. Why? Because that's where the calories are. And so we're really, and so of course the processed food industry takes advantage of it. The animal industry takes advantage of it by, you know, by genetically selecting for fattier cuts of meat, et cetera, et cetera. I'm trying to pack as many calories into as small space as possible to really light up those reward pathways in our brain. So our body is really does not want us to lose too much weight. And so it has multiple kind of backup mechanisms to be like, oh, wait a second, losing too much weight. And even though I'm getting this ping, this GLP-1 ping.
[17:13] Um and consistently gets that glp1 pink such that you are still eating less than you were before that's why you maintain that weight loss but you don't lose weight more even though you're obese don't lose a pound more because your body's like wait a second i'm on to you um and is able to figure out some other way to find out that uh something's wrong with this glp1 thing because
Side Effects and Costs
[17:38] is just matching other signals that I'm getting.
[17:41] So you talked about the expense. What I've heard is it's upwards of $1,500 a month. You in the book mentioned about $16,000 a year. That seems absolutely exorbitant. And my question is, do you know if most healthcare insurance policies cover that? Oh, no, they don't. But even if they do cover it, most people actually don't stay on these drugs more than a couple of months. In fact, most about a half don't even make it up to the ramping up to the regular dose um so they don't even get a clinical dose before stopping these drugs 80 are off these drugs within six months even when they have the drug paid for even when they're not paid out of pocket and it's because of these side effects um uh which are the side effects oh so yeah so the side effects mostly gastrointestinal um so vomiting nausea slows your stomach track your digestive tract down and people feel really queasy really nauseous on average of vomiting. And the problem is you take this drug, you know, normally drugs only last for a few hours. That's why you got to take them every single day or multiple times a day. These drugs last all week. Now that's good that you only have to inject yourself once a week.
[18:43] But if the drug causes your problem, oh, you got six more days, right? While this drug is still in your system. And so it can really make people feel sick.
[18:53] And there's, you know, other kind of more serious side effects that are less common. But that tends to be what gets people off these drugs. They're like, they can't take it even when they're being paid. And of course, these are forever drugs. You have to stay on these drugs forever. And so I think even if you're like, well, I could stay on it for a few more days, but wait a second. I've got to stay on these drugs every single day for the rest of my life, even when I'm not losing any more weight and just facing the side effects without the benefits.
Lean Mass Loss Concerns
[19:20] Maybe these aren't the drugs for me. Another another thing that i found super fascinating was that most of the weight loss that people have also comes from lean um lean muscle mass crazy so i mean i assume look you lose weight through any mechanism and you'll lose some lean mass um but normally it's only about 25 so you do bariatric surgery you do calorie restriction you eat less food portion control and you know you lose four pounds on the scale, actually only three of those pounds are fat. One of those pounds was lean mass, which includes your skeletal muscles. But with these GLP-1 drugs, It's 40%, 40% of the, it's almost half, 40% of the weight you lose is not fat. It's actually your lean mass. And that is part of this phenomenon like ozempic face. This changes, this altered in facial appearance. It's not just you're losing fat for your face, which can make you look more gone. Understandably, you're losing excess fat for your face. But it's also you're losing muscles, losing musculature. Now you can, if you engage in a rigorous strength resistance training program, you should be able to ameliorate some of that loss of lean mass when you're losing weight, but it's not like you can do like face exercises. I don't even know. Right.
[20:43] So there is this accelerated lean mass loss. But so that's why, you know, you know, you look in the medical literature like critically important. Anyone going on these drugs must enact a rigorous, resistance training exercise to maintain as much muscle mass as possible because we don't want to get, particularly when you're cycling, particularly, you know, you go on these drugs and all of a sudden you can't get these drugs anymore. There's a shortage on these drugs or you can't afford to pay these drugs. All of a sudden the weight comes back and then you get on these drugs again, you lose more pounds. Every time you do that weight cycle, the fat may come back, but all the muscle that you lost may not come back so every time you cycle wait a second you're kind of fat to lean ratio gets worse and worse and you don't want to end up kind of both we're the worst of both worlds where you have uh not enough muscle mass um and uh excess body fat another thing that was i'm going to keep using this word fascinating is you have you have some little boxes in the book and one of them was about how if you have to go in for elective surgery you have to stop you know the drugs like.
[21:48] Three weeks beforehand because it empties the contents of your stomach so slowly and they don't want you to aspirate fascinating yeah no and i mean and and it can get so bad and actually paralyze your digestive tract and you get something called a bowel obstruction where things just stop entirely and kind of form concrete and it can be a surgical emergency now this is rare like less than one percent like some of these serious side effects like pancreatitis yeah um and and bowel obstruction. These are less than 1% risk every year. Um, but I mean, these can be, um, very kind of serious side effects, but again, yeah, if you're, if you're going under elective surgery,
Risks Before Surgery
[22:26] unfortunately, sometimes you go into surgery, you don't have a choice. It's an emergency surgery. You have to go under regardless, but if you know you're going to have surgery, yeah, you want to stop these drugs many weeks in advance because you know how they say, don't eat, you know, the night before you go in for surgery, don't eat that breakfast because they want to clear your stomach contents because they don't want you to aspirate while you're under, while you're anesthetized and have food contents go into your lungs.
[22:50] But these drugs slow your digestive tract so much that even if you stop eating during the regular time, there's still food in your stomach the next day, 24 hours later, because this slows your digestive tract so much, which is good in terms of weight loss because it makes you feel fuller longer.
Natural Ways to Boost GLP-1
[23:09] But yeah, it can be risky if you're going under anesthesia. So I want to, I want to talk, I want to, I want to use the remaining time we have to talk about how we can boost GLP one with diet and lifestyle. But before I go there, In your final assessment, do you feel like the benefits outweigh the harms when it comes to taking these GLP drugs? You know, that is a decision that has to be made on an individual basis. It's your body, your choice, right? Just like anything in medicine, right? It's not up to the doctor to decide for you. It's up for you to decide with your doctor's kind of advice and what are the pros and cons on. So that's what really was the, what the book was meant for. You know, obesity so dramatically decreases your lifespan.
[23:59] Reducing life expectancy as much as six or seven years, that like bariatric surgery, these drugs should be considered as a last resort for those unwilling or unable to treat the cause of their obesity, right? I mean, the problem is people to eat too much crap. So anything to get people to eat less crap can be beneficial. But, you know, we don't need a thousand dollar drug or, you know, surgical manipulation of digestive tract to decrap our diet, basically.
Individual Decisions on GLP-1 Drugs
[24:26] Um and you know it's it's kind of taking a step back it's kind of perverse that you know big food addicts people to junk food on purpose for profit so and then we fatten the coffers of big pharma to treat at cost at high cost and some risk the array of health problems that really need never to have occurred in the first place but you know it's like you can look at any lifestyle disease right be like uh you know statin drugs blood pressure drugs blood sugar lowering drugs if you are unwilling to reverse the course of your type 2 diabetes or reverse your high cholesterol or reverse your high blood pressure with diet and lifestyle changes then these drugs can be life-saving now they only reduce your absolute risk by you know one or two percent but on a so for you maybe it's not going to help you but on a population scale can save thousands of lives and these glp1 drugs can do the same thing for those who have cardiovascular disease and who are OBs.
[25:24] You get about a, you know, one and a half percent decrease, absolute risk reduction of heart attack, stroke, dying from cardiovascular disease within a few years of taking these drugs. Why? Because yes, you're still obese, but you're less obese. The consequences of obesity are so devastating. You could have a drug that like takes years off your life and it still might be worthwhile. Now, but the question really is, wait a second, is there any way to get the benefits without the risk by choosing natural approaches. And so that's really what the second half of the book comes in. Yeah. So let's talk about some of these natural approaches. Should we start where you want to start with exercise? Is exercise? Exercise! Yeah. So most studies show that exercise actually boosts GLP-1. It turns out there may be some publication bias, meaning there may be some studies that did not find beneficial effects and they were quietly shelved.
[26:14] There's ways you can kind of look at studies and say, it looks like there's something missing from the literature but the nice thing about exercise is all benefit so uh so whether or not that helps with glp1 critically important to move more uh i want to get into a you know whole food plant-based diet before i do though you talk about you have a little section called chew on this oh isn't that neat yeah regardless what you eat right in fact the study was done on ice cream, If you slow the rate at which you eat ice cream, you randomize people eat the same amount of ice cream, but you eat, but slow or fast. I think with the slow group, like every five minutes, they got to take a few, take a few bites such that you'd send out ice cream over half an hour versus over five minutes. And you get a significant boost in GLP-1 eating slower, even if you're eating, regardless of what kind of food you're eating.
[27:08] And and same thing with chewing. So you can have people, randomized people to eat the study that most famous study was done with cabbage, regular cabbage, which is things a lot. You got to chew cabbage versus pureed cabbage. It sounds kind of gross, but like, you know, cabbage in a blender, same amount of cabbage, but the one that they actually had to chew led to a significantly higher GLP one level. So regardless of what you eat, Eating slower, chewing more may indeed help with appetite suppression and help control your body weight. So, yeah, that was an interesting piece that I didn't know going into it.
[27:44] What about which spices when put to the test? Yeah, and so there's a bunch of stuff that is just totally, total scams. These things like, you know, like berberine, you know, nature's ozempic. So much stuff that's sold to the public as being kind of nature's ozempic just totally flops. And you know they they hold up animal studies when you actually test in humans either you don't have any results or actually the opposite results um so it's actually worse for glp1 it works for rise but doesn't work for people but there are a few standouts that do actually work and the three are turmeric uh cinnamon and cayenne pepper all of which not only boost glp1 all of which not only d um improve satiety decrease appetite decrease the amount of calories you eat but have been shown in meta-analyses to significantly decreased body weight versus placebo. You can hide spices in capsules. They're so potent. You can put them in capsules versus placebo.
[28:39] Randomized control trials showing those three spices actually lead to weight
Spices That Help Weight Loss
[28:44] loss compared to not eating those spices. What about plant-based versus meat-based diets? Oh, you know, one thing that's interesting. So here I am talking about whole intact foods, but even the processed plant-based meat alternatives. So they tested a couple, they tested, um, burgers and they tested, uh, uh, ground, uh, ground, ground plant-based meat. And they also tested a chicken substitute made out of microprotein. Um, and in every single case, more GLP one, more satiety, less calorie consumption, um, with the plant-based alternatives. Now it might be from the fiber, right? Um, so even though they tried to kind of macronutrient match it. Um uh and cow they certainly try calorie matched it it's possible i mean there's nothing you can do about the fiber right animals don't animal foods don't have any fiber and even these ultra processed meat alternatives still got a um a few grams of fiber in them um and so that may help explain why you have the satiety you have the weight loss when you randomize people like in the stanford swap meat trial they took people randomizing these beyond meat products versus grass-fed organic meat.
[29:54] The best meat they could find, and swapping two and a half servings out a day for a few weeks, significant loss in body weight, even though apparently the same amount of calories, it wasn't really a weight loss study, but they just tended to lose weight.
The Importance of Fiber
[30:09] And part of it may be the satiating quality of even the ultra-processed plant-based meat alternatives. Right. How important is that five-letter word fiber?
[30:18] Oh my God. Well, it's really all important when it comes to feeding our good gut bugs, our microbiome. I talked about how these GLP-1 nutrient-sensing cells are in the end of our small intestine. They're even more concentrated in our large intestine, in our colon, and are activated by signals from our microbiome.
[30:38] These goods, so-called postbiotics like acetate, propionate, butyrate that are produced when we eat fiber. But fiber is kind of a catch-all term for actually a thousand different kinds of compounds, completely different compounds, but they're all kind of fit under this umbrella term of fiber. So that's why you cannot just take, you know, isolated fiber like Metamucil or something, fiber supplements and get the benefits you get from the hundreds of different fibers in whole plant foods. That's one of the reasons for this interest in getting people to diversify their diet, eat many different types of foods a day because we're feeding different populations of good gut bugs, you can't replace whole foods with fiber supplements.
[31:19] What about vinegar to boost GLP? Oh my God, so cool. Yeah, it's kind of cheating. It's kind of cheating because normally you eat fiber and your good fiber feeds your gut actually produce acetate. Um, actually acidify your colon, which is a good thing, reduces colon cancer risk. And some of that acetate gets absorbed into your system, circulates throughout your body. Ah, but you can cheat the system by just taking some vinegar. You never want to take it straight. You can burn your esophagus, but dilute it in some water, sprinkle it on a salad. Um, and, um, the acetic acid, which is what vinegar is just acetic acid and water gets turned into acetate in your body and has that same GOP one boosting effect, appetite suppressing effect and weight loss reduction, um, uh, effect. So, I mean, for hundreds of years, vinegar has been used as an obesity treatment.
Role of Vinegar in Weight Loss
[32:05] And now we know one of the reasons why. And my, and my father loves patients to put balsamic vinegar for the, for the, uh, well, the acetic acid and the, uh, to bump up the production of nitric oxide. Oh, absolutely. Oh yeah. What a great season. There's a couple of seasonings that, you know, you know, sodium terrible in terms of, you know, hurting our artery function. there's some seasons that are actually really beneficial.
[32:29] So, you know, salt-free mustard, for example, actually good for you. What is mustard? Mustard is actually a cruciferous vegetable, right? Mustard greens come out of mustard seeds. You're just grinding up mustard seeds, mixing it with vinegar. And so that's one great way to make meals healthier and tastier at the same time.
Slow Carbohydrates for GLP-1
[32:46] Balsamic vinegar is another one. You talk about slow carbohydrates to boost GLP-1. What are you referring to when you say that? Yeah, these lente carbohydrates. So you're talking about beans we're talking about sprouted grains and we're talking about groats we're talking about the whole intact groats so not just steel cut oatmeal which is certainly better than rolled oats certainly better than powdered instant oats but actually the whole oat groat before it's chopped up um and you can do rye groats you can do a barley groats and no matter how well we chew we're going to have bits of food make it all the way down to the end of our small intestine into our colon providing a plethora of nutrient for our good gut bugs that produce these um components that boost GLP-1.
[33:26] And indeed, 14 hours later, you eat barley groats for supper, 14 hours later, the next day, significantly less calorie consumption. You feel just as full eating 100 fewer calories because your appetite was suppressed by all the GLP-1 boosted because your good gut bugs are eating the barley groats you had the night before.
[33:46] What about green leafies and chlorophyll? Oh my God, green leafies. So phyloquois, the chlorophyll rich membranes in greens actually slow the absorption of fat such that you get a GLP-1 boosting effect, a cravings reducing effect. You eat the equivalent of a, have a cup of cooked spinach in the morning and hours later, significantly reduced craving for chocolate. I mean, you can randomize people today so they don't even know who got the spinach, who didn't. You put people in a brain scanner and you have less reward pathway to light up when you show them a picture of a donut all because you just ate some greens so eating greens doesn't just isn't just good for your arteries actually actually acts as a glp1 boosting appetite suppressant to help prevent those cravings yes we all know the good foods deed most of us know good foods deed the problem is how do we walk past the donut shop how do
The Power of Leafy Greens
[34:38] we not dip into the bowl of candy in the coworker next to us. And that's with these cravings controlling foods like thylakoids, which means dark green leafy vegetables. And it's because it's the chlorophyll rich membranes, the darker green, the better. So go for that like lacinato dinosaur kale, that really, really dark green.
[34:55] That's where most of the thylakoids are concentrated. And what I found fascinating is you mentioned how you don't want to overcook those. You want it to be so it kind of glows, right? As opposed to getting- We all have over accidentally overcooked our collards. And it turns that that drab kind of olive brown. Now it still has the nitrates. I mean, this is a healthy food, but you can see the some of the thylakoid degradation because that's where the green is. When the green goes down, we're losing some of that thylakoid blocking activity.
[35:26] Any last thoughts you want to share with the audience on GLP drugs before I let you go? Oh, just the good news. We have tremendous power over our health,
Final Thoughts on Health and Nutrition
[35:37] destiny, and longevity. The vast majority of premature death and disability is preventable with a healthy enough plant-based diet and lifestyle. I'm so excited with all the wonderful things you're doing in this world. And I'm honored to be your brother in this journey to get out some evidence-based knowledge about nutrition. My PLANTSTRONG brother. They're always putting it to the test like the else nutrition facts.org. Again, the book is called Ozempic Risk Benefits and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight Loss Dr. Michael Greger. Thank you so much. Hey, did I hear did you have a birthday recently? I had a birthday. Yeah. Okay. Well, fantastic. You're now 40.
[36:19] God, I wish. Hey, hit me with a PLANTSTRONG virtual fist bump on the way out. Boom! PLANTSTRONG. Thank you. As you just heard, the long-term effects of Ozempic and these types of drugs is still very much unknown. And the long-term outcomes remain mixed at best.
[36:43] Are there safer, cheaper, natural alternatives to boost GLP-1 with diet and lifestyle? Well, you bet there are. And it starts with, you guessed it, plants. Let's start there by eating strong, natural weight loss foods. Thanks so much for listening. And as always, please share this episode with friends or loved ones who may benefit. And until next week, always, always keep it PLANTSTRONG. The PLANTSTRONG podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, and Ami Mackey. if you like what you hear do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones you can always leave a five-star rating and review on apple podcasts or spotify and while you're there make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode as always this and every episode is dedicated to my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. And Anne Crile Esselstyn. Thanks so much for listening.
