Lower Your LDL Naturally With Food: Dr. Michael Greger Tells You How

This week, we're diving deep into one of the most important health metrics for longevity: LDL cholesterol. Dr. Michael Greger joins us to discuss his latest book and shares practical, evidence-based strategies for lowering cholesterol naturally through dietary changes. If you've been wondering whether you really need that statin prescription or how food can be your medicine, this conversation is for you.

Understanding Cholesterol: Dr. Greger explains why LDL cholesterol matters so much for heart health and clarifies what our numbers really mean. He explains the relationship between cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease risk in terms we can actually understand and use.

The Food as Medicine Approach We explore how a whole food plant-based diet can dramatically impact cholesterol levels. Dr. Greger shares which specific foods have been scientifically proven to lower LDL cholesterol and explains the mechanisms behind why they work.

The Statin Question When are statins necessary? Dr. Greger offers nuanced guidance on evaluating your individual risk factors and making informed decisions about medication versus dietary intervention. This isn't about all-or-nothing thinking; it's about understanding your unique situation.

Practical Implementation From specific supplements that can help to realistic strategies for making sustainable changes, Dr. Greger provides actionable advice you can start using today. He emphasizes that incremental changes can lead to significant health benefits over time.

Empowerment Through Knowledge A central theme of our conversation is that understanding your personal health metrics puts you in the driver's seat. Dr. Greger encourages listeners to take control of their health through informed choices rather than feeling powerless or confused.

After the interview, stay tuned as Lauren delves into her results and discusses why she still has high LDL even though she has proven heart disease reversal. 

https://nutritionfacts.org/

https://nutritionfacts.org/book/portfolio/

https://wellelephant.com/
https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/
https://discover.wellelephant.com/ace-plant-based-eating-course-reg/

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Transcript

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Hi friends. My guest today is Doctor Greger from Nutrition facts.org. I have been doing his protocol for lowering your LDL cholesterol naturally with food. I've been doing it for a while. You are not going to believe what I did, and you're not going to believe the results, so stay tuned for that and don't leave. After Doctor Greger leaves, I come back on and I have a commentary about what just went down during the show. So it's important that you stay. Stay for that. I want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. Age like a badass mother is now in the top 5% of all podcasts in the world, and it's because of all of you. So thank you. Thank you. I just appreciate each and every one of you. And don't forget to stop by age like a badass mother.com and look at our new merch and get something for yourself. Show the world that you are aging like a badass mother. All right, here we go with Doctor Gregor and don't forget to stay tuned after he leaves. Hi friend, are you looking to age healthfully, confidently and vibrantly? Then this podcast is for you. Smart, slightly salty, irreverent, and thought provoking. I'm Lauren Bernick and this is age. Like a badass mother. My guest today is Doctor Michael Greger. He is the force behind the instant New York Times bestselling books, How Not to Die, How Not to Diet, and How Not to Age, that have empowered millions to take control of their health with evidence based strategies delivered with weight and heart. What makes him even more remarkable? Every dollar he earns from his books and speaking engagements goes to charity. He's also the founder of Nutrition facts.org, a free resource that cuts through the noise and delivers science backed information you can trust. Today, we're focusing on his latest book, lower LDL Cholesterol Naturally with Food Simple Ways to Add Proven LDL reducers to Your Everyday Routine, which I've been implementing for the past five weeks. I'll share my results later. Ooh ooh. Yes! Please welcome doctor Michael Greger. Hi. Hello. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. You're back. I, I'm holding up your book for anybody who's watching on YouTube. Yeah, it's a short little read, and it's, it's pretty fascinating. Okay, so before I know we're we don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to ask you some questions I normally ask at the end because they're very important. I don't want to miss it. What's your favorite concert you've ever been to? Favorite concert I've ever been to? Well, this includes the concerts I was performing in. Oh. Shut up. No way. Yes, I. Was, Yeah, I was in, Baroque Quartet. You were? Yeah. So that was just my favorite, because I got to play. What do you play? I'm a tenor saxophone. I, I did not know that. Okay, we are in covering some big stuff today. I, I played for about 15 years. I really had no idea what time. It took too much time. So I eventually had to stop it. I think it's in my mom's attic, sadly, but I loved it, I loved it. Oh, is there anything on YouTube or anything like that? You know, I think. There is actually, Yeah, I whipped it out for some, like, Christmas celebration or something. And so I'm like, playing some Christmas Carol or something. Oh my god. Amazing, amazing. Okay, do you have a favorite concert that you've ever been to, like? Oh, but, ever been to. Well, I am a closet metalhead. Okay. So, it would probably be Maiden's, seventh sun tour way back when Iron maiden. Okay, if all the things you were going to say that I didn't think that was going to be it, but. Okay. Oh, I. Saw the priest Painkiller tour. I mean, I was, I was, I was in it. Oh my God, Judas Priest. All right. Okay. All right. Well, that's something I didn't expect. Do you have a favorite health or beauty product however. Beauty products. Well, I mean, I make a bunch, you know, and how not to age. Yeah. I have all those recipes for, like, the youth serums and stuff like that. So, I mean, I use all the stuff that I, that I make, but, Yeah. Okay. All right. So we'll have to go check out again How not to Age. That was a fantastic book. What what charities do you support with all your good work? I, you know what? We do it. Nutrition facts. That is really just put out the information. Right? And I would love to live in a world where if people just knew the truth, they would change. And I think we all go through this, this phase where it's like, oh, my God, I found out this amazing thing. It changed my life. So my tell when they're going to change their lives to and then they don't actually change your lives. You're like, wait a second, did you not hear what I just said? I know, I know, And so, realizing that the having good information, which is increasingly important in this day and age, but that's not enough. We really need to be able to, you know, have people on the ground putting it into practice. And so the money goes to groups that are actually taking this information and actually, you know, doing dietary change work. So we started a whole new organization called balanced, which works in, yeah, mostly, elementary schools to improve, cafeteria meals. But there's other wonderful organizations like greener by default. They're the ones that helped New York City make all their public good. They have 11 public hospitals every single one has default plant based meals for lunch and dinner. Healthy food in the hospital. What a concept. I saw. That organization. And they work now with 700 hospitals to get healthier foods. You know, just kind of role model, healthy behavior. I think that's so important. And, you know, there's other wonderful organizations, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, such as lifestyle Medicine Institute. Doctor Klapper is doing some great work reaching medical students, coalition for Healthy Schools in New York City. So, I mean, these are, you know, I, you know, I do I'd like, the information to be enough, but if not, at least we can make the, you know, healthier choice, the default choice, and make it easier, more convenient for people, to, to, make healthier choices. Well, thank you for that, because I saw I saw all that stuff about the hospitals in New York, and I didn't know you were involved with that. So I thank you. You're doing amazing, Greg. I only involved in giving money to the groups that actually did the work. Okay, well, that's important too, so thank you. Okay, well, let's get going with the lower LDL. So let's say you go to your doctor, your cholesterol high. He's going to of course, he or she is going to try and put you on a statin as a default. How do you decide whether or not to take the statin? Oh, there's very clear guidelines, and it's based on a ten year risk of cardiovascular event, which is doctor speak for having a heart attack or stroke or dying from cardiovascular disease. And then based on that risk, if it's high enough, then the benefits of taking drugs outweigh the risks. The reason we don't just put everybody understands since the lower the better when it comes to LDL cholesterol. Bad cholesterol. Reason? Only 100 million Americans are on statins. And more is because there are risks like increases the risk of diabetes, for example. But diabetes only are six leading killer, whereas heart disease number one killer of men and women. So okay, even if there is an increased risk of diabetes, it's still worth the lowering of heartache risk. Once our heart attack risk gets high enough. And, so I, so there's a bunch of calculators online I talk about the ones that I like the best, because it gives a lifelong risk, not just a ten year risk. And you get to tweak things like, if I lose my step count, if I do this, what happens to how long I get to live? And of them, it predicts when you're going to have your next heart attack or your first heart attack. Based on let's start a stat. Let's not start. Then let's eat healthier. Let's now, so anyway, you can tweak around and if you're still too high, well then, based on your numbers, based on your, you know, you know, both your, cholesterol, your age, gender, your blood pressure. Then, then you marry. Well, may want to start a stat and keep increasing the the standard dose or add multiple classes of, of cholesterol lowering drugs if necessary. But in addition to drugs, if any, there are foods that actually lower cholesterol. And there's foods, that you can avoid that raise cholesterol. And so regardless of what you and your doctor decide to do in terms of medication, we all should try to eat to lower our cholesterol as much as possible. And so that's really what the book came about. So there was a famous, a diet proposed in 2003 by Doctor Dave Jenkins at the University of Toronto, called the portfolio. That was a portfolio of four different foods that lower cholesterol. But I realized that was, you know, 20 years ago, what has been published since? And I kind of made it my, my, my mission to find every food, you know, herbs by supplement, safe supplement, that could lower LDL because, again, the lower the better. Yeah. And, you prevent it's the letter you hyphen prevent is the one that I went online and we used and, yeah, my risk after 11 years eating a whole food plant based diet is still pretty high. I have to say. I have, so you say if your risk is over ten, your risk is over. What, 7%? You would you would take a step up. Do you think you would? Oh, absolutely. So, yeah. The, and you'll note you dash prevent you have to click something that says that your health care professional, they won't let you do it if you're just a, regular person. So if you're not comfortable, clicking that box, then you can use then there's other calculators. The American Heart Association has one, and there's others that you can use, but, you prevents my favorite. Okay. Yeah. Because you could click like you said. You could click around and but it looks like even with a statin, you know, you barely gain any life. I mean, I could be taking 40, 40mg of a statin, and I think I get, like, one year, but I guess one year, one year. One year, a long time. It doesn't sound like long now, but when you're a day before the end, you're like, oh, do I want another year? You're right. I, you know, I guess I need to start really thinking about that. Okay. So let's start talking about the foods that lower cholesterol. Oh yeah. What's, give us give us the low down of what you think we should be adding. Yeah. So the first thing, is to reduce the foods that raise your cholesterol. I mean, sure. And so that, anything with, saturated fat, trans fat or dietary cholesterol. So that's predominantly, meat, dairy, eggs and junk. And so by, you know, adopting a whole food plant based diet, you should be able to get your LDL cholesterol down, to what used to be the target for primary prevention, which was 70. So the average is about 68, but it's a bit of bell curve. And so some people end up higher. So then you start adding foods to dad's lower your LDL cholesterol. Since then we've really gotten rid of targets altogether because we realize, oh, the lower the better when it comes to LDL. And so well, if that's the case, then everybody should be, you know, eliminating at least on a day to day basis, foods to increase your cholesterol and going out of their way to add foods to the diet that decrease their cholesterol. And so I go through, a whole bunch of them. So, some that were noted in the portfolio diet, was, a type of fiber, viscous, fiber. Which is found in certain kind of slimy foods like okra, oatmeal, eggplant, flax seeds. And so the target is 20g a day. If you don't reach that, you can take psyllium, which is, just kind of a generic Metamucil with none of the additives. So I actually so I recommend so if you go on my daily dozen, which is daily, doesn't I, which is the healthiest of healthy foods, I encourage people to finish their daily routine. Vegetables free app iPhone, Android. You download it if you follow that she got about 14g. So you're still, I mean, that's if you don't go out of your way to pick soluble fiber, viscous fiber rich foods. If you do, you can hit 20, no problem. But if you don't and you just follow a healthy diet, probably not going to hit 20. And so then adding, a teaspoon of psyllium to each meal would bring you six more grams of fiber and bring you up to 20. You just want to make sure you take with a glass of water, and not take it straight. Other things that decrease your cluster. Oh, I found a bunch of herbs and spices. So sumac, which is just a little red berry that's ground into powder. I forget the. You have to. You have to do a half a teaspoon of the sumac. Have a teaspoon of sumac a day, and it's, I mean, it's tasty. It's fine sour, fruity taste, you know. Good for me. I know Mediterranean dishes, all sorts of dishes. Okay. Some are savory. Hopefully you have all the soup. You have all the the. Yes, the the the amounts here. So that's a half a teaspoon. Half teaspoons. Oh no. That's only a third. A third of a teaspoon of summer savory. There's a black human dose. There's, black sesame powder, black sesame seeds, those. Wait, I should just say what I've been doing because I have it right here. Yes, because I've been to. Okay, so you make, like, a bulk powder and, you go through, like, neutral, nasty and fine or tasty. I think you can. Yeah. And I haven't done that. But what I've been doing, and I think this may be, like, hindered my LDL coming down more than it should have. And I'll tell you, I'll start by telling you. Well, I have like, nasty, nasty cholesterol and LP little and all this. I mean, I've been doing a whole food plant based diet for 11 years. I'm not fooling around. I mean, no oil really sticking to it. My. I started out, this is 11 years ago. My total cholesterol was 283, my LDL was 174. My triglycerides were 100. Okay. So but when I started this five weeks ago, my, my total cholesterol was 217, my LDL was 118. My, my triglycerides were 98, my HDL was 79. So after five weeks, I, my cholesterol did come down seven points to 210 and my LDL came down two points. No, my LDL, what did I say? My cholesterol came down seven points to 210. My LDL came down two points to 116 from 118. My triglycerides. Yeah. You know what I mean? 174 I mean that alone I know. And your risk one 170 or more you're automatically gets done without even like don't pass go, don't get two. Right right right. Okay okay. Yeah. No no okay. 116 terrible. Right. Yeah. I don't like 116 at all. We got two more I know. Okay. What are you. What are you doing? This is what I think did not help me is that I was trying to get a lot of these things into oatmeal, and it was like a like a hairball. And I didn't even swallow it. So I started putting it in, like a coconut yogurt, which is high in fat and not something I would normally eat. What I what I was talking about the saturated fat, coconut oil. Coconut, coconuts. Yo God, look at the saturated fat level on your coconut yogurt. It's okay. Okay. That's what I said. You just went out of your way to increase your LDL cholesterol. Damn it. Okay, I somehow skip that part. Okay, I'm going to try and get this better in my oatmeal. Figure it out. But this is what I've been eating. And that's why I said I had a feeling that I was shooting myself in the foot, I really did. I was like, this can't be right. I know you're I'm so glad we talked. I am too, I am too, and I'm okay, so I'm getting rid of that yogurt. Never. I'm throwing it in the garbage. But I knew it like, no, no. I have it here. Give it to your enemies. Okay, but this is what I was putting in it. A tablespoon of wheat germ. This is why it's so hard to swallow a tablespoon of psyllium husk. Well, a tablespoon. So I know that's why. Because you're going. To be able to spin up throughout the day. I mean, a tablespoon in one meal. Whew. I know, and then a bunch of water, half a teaspoon of amla a quarter teaspoon of turmeric, half a teaspoon of sumac. I know a quarter teaspoon of the black cumin, third teaspoon of ground savory, which I think is my least favorite. Dressing. Tablespoon of it all. I mean, must not only be impossible to eat, but taste disgusting. Okay, I guess this is where I'm going off track. I mean, you got it. I mean, anyone can white knuckle some kind of dietary change for. But you got to have something that you enjoy for the rest of your life. So this is. Yeah. This is why we need to divide it up. Is that what you're saying? Oh, yeah. Right. And not put. Really? I mean, like something like amla. I wouldn't add that any food. That's why that goes in the nasty powder. Less than fun. Completely. Other ways. I would not want that in my meal. It's nasty. So yes it is. Is that where you get the the paper talk about that. Is that maybe. Well I mean there's other ways to do it, but. Okay, I got to redo this and revisit it. I'm going to report. But I, I, I recommend this little potato starch this that you can put in and swallow without tasting it. But you don't have to do that. I mean, there's other ways to do it. I go through a couple, you know, but yeah. Okay. Well I can appreciate the effort for every. No. That's awesome. No, no. And it's and it's really important for you to do this. But yeah I think. It's important that to talk this. Is what I mean. I mean, not that you should keep this up because that's just crazy. And you got to enjoy your food. You got to drink. Oh, but but, but it would be interesting doing what you're doing if without that coconut yogurt, what would happen? Okay. I'm gonna. I like I said, I just got my cholesterol retested. Now I'm going to do it again. For another, I'm going to try three months and then try and do it the right way. With that long a couple of weeks. Where you think. Oh, yeah, two weeks. Okay. One of the things that I didn't do, which I know would be easy, I just couldn't find them. And I didn't. I forgot to order them black soybeans. You said that those adding just like a tablespoon were easy. Super, super easy thing to do. They don't really taste like anything you put them on anything. They I mean yeah. Oh, that's super easy. Artichokes or artichoke powder right. Yeah. Yeah I, I prefer the artichoke hearts. But again only if you like I. Love. To. Oh see I yeah. And so now it's just like an excuse to buy them. Yeah. They're a little pricey. And so I was like I'd get them for like some special dish I was making. But now it's like, oh well gotta help my cholesterol. And so I've got, I've got like five bags in the freezer right now. Oh my gosh. And I just, you know, take out a bag and defrost it and find ways to put in stuff. How much do you need of that. Oh. Would you say like a quarter. That's half a cup. Okay. Yeah. And then I didn't do the plant sterols. You said that you need two grams of, probably plant sterols a day. That's a supplement. Yep. And I, I was like, I, I wanted to do those separately. I'm going to start them now. I just ordered them because I was like, I don't know. You said some people have a reaction, Or I mean, yeah. Okay. Yeah. No. You want to make sure it actually works. Okay. So I shouldn't say I've been doing it because clearly I've been doing this wrong. And I'm really glad we talked because. You know. Everybody needs to. Wait to hear on some podcast. Call me, email me, text me. Come on. We gotta you get you healthy. I know it's crazy, but you know, the thing that that you prevent doesn't take into account. It only asks you do you do a mediterranean diet doesn't really doesn't. No, no. But the I mean but there's the benefit of eating whole food plant based is that your LDL gets lower. If your LDL is not low enough, then obviously whatever you're doing in your diet is not helping sufficiently. And so it's true, there are other things about a healthy diet that also affect the rest. I read a lot of greens every day that nitrates help open your arteries. But but primary driver is LDL okay. So I mean, if you are eating a bacon and butter, low carb ketogenic carnivore died and your LDL is five, then I'd be like, do whatever you're doing. I mean, like it's amazing. Okay, well, that doesn't make me feel better because I've been eating seriously. Whole food. Plant based diet. The Doctor Gregor's Daily dozen, i.e. tons of berries. I eat tons of greens. I eat tons of fiber. Cruciferous beans. Amazing. Well, this is all going. Look, I mean, heart disease is the only thing. So you're also reducing your risk of cancer, also reducing risk of metabolic syndrome and also reducing risk of high blood pressure. And I also was I mean, I've inflammatory bowel disease. And on down the list. So I mean you are going to be healthier. You're going to live longer and all sorts of other wonderful things. But we need to get your LDL down. I need to get my LDL down okay. I'm going to keep keep trying. What about the, a stand for Alzheimer's? Does that help with that prevention? I thought I read something in the book about that as well. Yes, but this is not a randomized controlled trial, so. Okay. You know, people. Yes. People taking statins, tend to have lower risk of dementia, but they're just maybe something about people that take statins rather than the statins itself that may be causing that. Okay. Population studies, and so, you know, if you're on stones, you probably have health care. If you have health care, maybe you're higher socioeconomic status or you have a job and maybe that lowers your dementia risk, whatever. You know, there's confounding factors you can try to control for. Unfortunately, they, they're yeah. We don't have good signal from randomized control trials. Okay. And then, for people who are out there listening who this will air like, you know, right at the beginning of the new year, do you have any kind of, words of wisdom for like, a jump start if they, you know, just want to try to get healthier. Maybe they're not doing a whole food plant based diet yet. Do you have any advice for that? Happy New year. Well, I would say. Just jump on. In good news that we have tremendous power over our health, destiny and longevity and the vast majority of premature deaths and disabilities preventable and the holding of plant based diet and lifestyle. And so where do you start? Oh my God. Well, inspire yourself with books or documentaries or, you know, online resources, whatever. You know, you can download the daily doesn't app and start trying to work through that. Yeah. I mean, there's all sorts of things we can do to, to, to make even incremental changes, even small things like not smoking, not being obese, more fruits and vegetables, you know, daily, you know, 20 minutes. Modern intensity exercise can literally add a decade to your life now. I mean, that's like 80% of the way there. Now, if you want to get the rest of that 20%, oh, there's all sorts of things you can do, but don't get intimidated. It's not all or nothing. Even little things can make a huge difference. We have the power. Yes. Okay, well. Thank you. I've got to run. Yes. I am going to, report back to you and we'll continue our, conversation. Thank you. Series. Okay. We come back. Down and we are going to get you to inspire others. Yes. Thank you. Doctor Gregor, take care. Bye bye. Okay. Thanks for sticking around with me. Well, okay, I f that all up to hell. But I'm glad I did. Because that's when we learn, right? Okay. So you can learn from my mistakes. I can learn from my mistakes. I think what I was trying to do. What? Well, I mean, look, let's be honest. There's a reason this man wrote this book. Doctor Gregor did all the research. I. I was trying to white knuckle it like he said, because my way of thinking was okay. It's easier for me to just throw all this stuff in a bowl and eat it in the morning, rather then he makes this powder, and we'll go through this in a minute, because I'm going to do it the right way. Now, now that I've had my experiment, he makes this powder and he puts it over his food three times a day, two tablespoons. I'm like, that's too much. Let me just get through that in the morning. Well, that's not right. Okay. But before we get into all of that, I want to go through something that may be going through your mind at this point. I want to address it because a lot of times I say I reverse my heart disease, but I still have really high familial LDL cholesterol and high LP little egg. So you may be thinking to yourself, wow, how can you have reverse your disease if you still have these problems? So I want to go through what this means. Okay, so I had some very extensive testing done. I've talked about this before. I have very 100% clear carotid arteries. My echo stress cardiogram is perfect. There were other hard tests that I had done where, like, you know, the size, the shape, everything. My heart muscles. Oh, my heart is working beautifully. My arteries are what were a little gunked up. Okay, so part of all this testing was the Cleveland Heart Lab panel. And, this is what the cardiologist said for anybody who's watching on YouTube, I'm showing a little chart right now. My cardiologist said, this is where my plaque started. And really what I have now. So I'm I'm showing a pretty good gunked up artery. I don't know the exact percentage. It was gunked up, but, you know, there's a little plaque buildup. I've gotten rid of some of the gunk. Okay, but here's the kicker. So there's three measures. There's risk for disease, presence of disease and disease activity. And mine is low in all of them. Very low to undetectable. So the risk for disease it really measures oxidized LDL. And mine is very low. It says your result is in the desirable range showing that you have low levels of oxidized LDL. Oxidized LDL is, you know, high levels trigger inflammation, increasing your risk of developing metabolic syndrome and your future risk of plaque buildup. Okay. So mine's low now. Presence of disease, low to undetectable. So that mostly measures two things, admire, which it says, that's your endothelial function. The endothelial is the lining of your arteries. And, you know, you've probably heard of hardening of the arteries. Mine are nice and simple. That's what the Adam Adama measures. It says your atma is in the desirable range, suggesting optimal levels of nitric oxide and low risk of endothelial dysfunction. Okay, so we all know that that's really, really important. Doctor Esselstyn talks about it all the time eating your greens to get your levels of nitric oxide up. His CRP in the desirable range, suggesting that you have very low amounts of general inflammation in your body. And so that's a measurement of presence of disease, disease activity, low to undetectable. So my this measures LP play two activity, which is different than LP little AA, which is always going to be high probably. Unless I start taking one of these new drugs that's in clinical trials now. Okay. LP play two activity measures vascular specific inflammation when cholesterol enters and gets trapped in the vessel wall, inflammation occurs. LP play two activity may identify active cholesterol buildup inside the vessel wall and the progression of cardiovascular disease. So mine is low to undetectable. So I don't have gunked up arteries anymore. And then something that I have trouble pronouncing. It also measures mild Milo per oxidase MPO. Your result is in the desirable range, suggesting that you may have low probability of plaque rupture if cardiovascular disease is present. Okay, so what this means and again, I am no doctor, but what this means is that, through eating a whole food plant based diet, I have reversed all, like the gunky buildup. Now, I still have a lot of LDL cholesterol running through my body. And why this is not good is because LDL low density lipoprotein cholesterol, often called the bad cholesterol, is the primary substance that builds up fatty deposits or plaques in your artery walls. Okay. And that could lead to the hardening in the narrowing and it can give you, a heart attack or stroke. So what I have left are hard plaques. Those are not the ones that give you a heart attack. Those are already hardened. They're, you know, they're they're set, let's say. But this LDL buildup, these new soft, fatty plaques are the ones that can break off and, form a clot and that blocks the blood flow and that leads to a heart attack or stroke. Okay. So I still have lots of LDL cholesterol. This is all cholesterol, by the way, that my body's making, because cholesterol only comes from animal products. And I'm not eating any dairy, chicken, meat, anything like that. When I screwed up and I was eating a lot of saturated fat by trying to white knuckle all that hairball gunk down from Doctor Gregor's book in my yogurt, it had like, it was cashew coconut yogurt. Probably had about two grams of saturated fat, which I know I'm not supposed to have. I don't know what I was thinking, except for white knuckling it. Okay, so let's go back to LDL cholesterol. So how it causes plaque buildup. So LDL cholesterol, LDL carries the cholesterol particles through your body and delivers them to your cells. High levels of LDL can damage the inner lining, the endothelial of your blood vessels, especially if the LDL particles become oxidized. Now, remember my, test result? I don't have oxidized LDL. I don't have, hardening of the arteries. I don't have a lot of inflammation. And then let's get to inflammation. Inflammation is the body sends white blood cells to clean up the damaged fatty LDL. But these cells become foamy and contribute to the inflammation and plaque formation. And this process creates the fatty deposits, the plaque in the artery wall making it hard and narrow. Okay, so that's the the situation. So we know that I have a lot of LDL buildup. And this is what you guys if you're struggling with your LDL. That's why I always suggest the Cleveland heart Lab panel. It's very good at helping you figure out what's going on. Okay, so that is the whole picture. Obviously, I still want to get my LDL cholesterol down as low as possible, even though I know mine's not oxidized. I know that my nitric oxide levels are good. I know that the lining of my endothelial, walls are supple and they're not hard, and they're not all, you know, gunked up. And I know that I don't think the LDL cholesterol is building up. And this is what other doctors have said to me that have a different train of thought than Doctor Greger. Doctor Furman, Doctor Clapper, they've all said your body's making, you know, a ton of cholesterol, but it's your HDL is also high. And that helps transport the cholesterol back to your liver. And, you know, whatever it helps escort all the cholesterol out. So I think my body is doing a good job. Of course, for the first time in my life, I'm really thinking about maybe a statin, a low level, I don't know, I don't know, I'm still really out on that. And I'm not discouraging anybody from taking a stand. That's Doctor Greger, you know, that's the standard operating procedure when your cholesterol is like mine, that's what you do. But again, every thing, if it has an effect, it has a side effect. And so I just I'm not sure that I'm ready to start jacking around with that, to be honest. I might have to try to have some more testing done. Okay, let's get back to the protocol that I just effed up so royally and try to go through this the right way. Now, by the way, I've ordered all these things even more things than I was already taking. Because I am going to go through and make this powder, and really commit to it. Now all in, I mean, to tell you, it was probably like 100 bucks to get everything that I needed. Okay. So the first thing, I was really only doing this part. So this is, Doctor Gregor's recommendations for food. Obviously you want to have three servings of Bu beans, including one teaspoon of black soybeans. I was already doing that. Berries, including two tablespoons of dry bar berries. I was doing that. Other fruits, including two apples or 12 dried apple rings, was not doing that. Cruciferous vegetables, greens, other vegetables, three tablespoons of flax seeds. I don't always get that. And that's a lot. Nuts and seeds like I have. What does that say? Half a cup, a third, a cup, a third cup of nuts and seeds. I don't probably I don't know if I'm getting that or not. I usually make a nut seed or nut or seed salad dressing. You know, because I eat a giant salad every day. Maybe I'm getting that. I'm not sure. Spices, quarter teaspoon of turmeric. It says a third teaspoon of amla, but I'm doing a half teaspoon of amla. Half teaspoon of sumac, quarter teaspoon of black cumin, a 10th of a teaspoon of garlic powder, no problem. Or a clove of garlic. Teaspoon of lemon balm powder. I haven't been able to find that. And, third teaspoon of ground savory, which tell you the truth, I do not enjoy. Okay, so this is the powder that you're supposed to make. And it's a month's worth. You're making a giant out of this powder. And the idea is that you put two tablespoons at each meal, assuming you eat three times a day, you're supposed six tablespoons a day. This is what turned me off. Even though this powder is bland because he Doctor Greger, does a good job of separating it into neutral. So this is the neutral powder, but still two tablespoons of neutral powder. No matter what you're eating on everything three times a day kind of sounds like a turn off. And to be honest, I haven't, tried this yet because I'm still waiting on some of the ingredients, including, wheat germ, which is one of, you know, the main ingredients for this. Okay. So that should be coming in the mail any day now, and I'll get that. I couldn't find it at my grocery store. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Okay, so you're going to put this neutral powder on your food two tablespoons three times a day. Here we go. This is called Doctor Gregor's portfolio plus powder. It's going to be 90 tablespoons of ground brown flax meal. So 90 tablespoons of ground brown flax meal 45 tablespoons of wheat germ. Raw 30 tablespoons of psyllium husk powder. Finely ground ten tablespoons of black sesame seed powder raw and five tablespoons of sumac okay. Now if you want to kick that up a notch, you can make Doctor Gregor's portfolio plus plus powder, which is going to be 90 tablespoons of ground brown flax meal, 30 tablespoons of psyllium husk powder, ten tablespoons of black sesame seed powder, raw five tablespoons of sumac four tablespoons of taurine. To you are I need taurine four tablespoons of plant sterols. I got mine in a pill form. So I'm taking that five teaspoons of artichoke extract powder, 15g of bergamot extract. I'm also taking that as a supplement. Two teaspoons of kelp powder, 500 micrograms of vitamin B12. I already take that separately. And then wheat germ to fill the balance, which is 180 tablespoons or 11, and a quarter cups of, of the wheat germ. Okay. So that's your neutral powder. Next he breaks it up into nasty tasting things. And in the nasty what I did to his advice. Finally I bought these things called baked papes. Bati. I think that's what they're called. And you could look it up. It's Japanese edible film and it's a little cone shaped film. You fill it with all the nasty powder. So in that, there's a quarter teaspoon of black cumin, he says again, a third teaspoon of amla, but I put in a half teaspoon, a quarter teaspoon of turmeric. He doesn't have black powder on here. But I've always heard that you're supposed to drink black pepper. I always heard you're supposed to do black pepper with the tumeric to, increase absorption. So I put a little black pepper in there, and, I added the savory third teaspoon of this ground savory because it's just disgusting. I don't know where else to put it. It tastes like Thanksgiving at every meal, and it looks okay. I actually did this this morning. I did the papers for the first time, so it's a little cone shaped paper. You put all the powder in there, you seal it up. Like if you've ever done a rice paper and rolled up a spring roll, it's like that. Not like rolling a joint. It's all. It's cone shaped. So if you have any experience with that, not going to help you, but, so you put the powder in the thing, you seal it, the little cone shaped up with a little water, you dip it in water, and then you just like, put it in your throat and you get some water in your mouth and swallow it down, kind of like you would with a pill. How you swallow a pill. I was worried that it was like big and bulky and I was going to choke, and it was totally fine 100%. When I burped later, I did taste that ground, savory. And I was not happy about that. Okay, last is tasty. So these are really all the things that I listed earlier. Other than the turmeric, amla and black human. So, I guess he's counting, like the berries. This is what you would put in your oatmeal like a normal person. Berries. Your bar berries. Your. If you want to use cacao. I don't like a cow in my oatmeal. But he does that. Anything else? Let's see. Like, I guess the lemon balm powder. I have to still try to locate that. So that's really what you would put in there? You could also do, like, some pumpkin seeds or cranberries or strawberries. You know, all those things. You can even do your wheat germ in there. Okay, so that's really it. I'm going to try not to f it all up. This time. I'm really going to give it a whirl. I'm going to, report back to you. I'm getting my cholesterol retested probably in about a month. And let's see. So there's a lot to consider here. Message me on Instagram, Facebook. Let me know if you have questions on my YouTube channel. You can message me there. Let me know if you have questions. If you're trying to do this too, obviously you can get his book. You can go to Nutrition facts.org order his book. I think it was like ten, $12. It's it's like a booklet. It's a very thin book. You could read it in one sitting. It's lower LDL cholesterol naturally with food. Simple ways to add proven LDL reducers to your everyday routine. Okay, guys, wish me luck. I wish you luck and love you. Happy New Year! I know it's the beginning of the year and and this has nothing to do. By the way, I think you guys know that I don't love New Year's resolutions, because every day I'm like, let's just try to do a little better. You don't have to wait for New Year's. You don't have to wait for the beginning of the month. You can just go to the next meal and try to do better. Okay. Thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Take care. Thanks for listening, friend. From my heart to yours. Be well. Until we meet again.