"Dr. Steven Gundry reveals the shocking truth about pumpkin seeds, exposing their hidden health risks and surprising reasons to eliminate them from your diet immediately."
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00This Halloween, when you're carving the pumpkins, I want you to skip the tradition of eating
00:08the pumpkin seeds.
00:10Now while this may seem like an innocent, delicious snack, pumpkin seeds are actually
00:15doing you more harm than good.
00:18Now there are a lot of claims about the benefits of eating pumpkin seeds.
00:23They're great for prostate health.
00:25They're great for regulating hormones.
00:28They're full of antioxidants.
00:30They strengthen your hair and nails.
00:33They're great for heart health, and they're rich in zinc.
00:37Well, some of this actually may be true, but there's a bigger problem with pumpkin seeds,
00:43and I bet you know what it is.
00:46Yep, they have lectins.
00:49Now what the heck are lectins?
00:52Lectins, as most of you watching this channel know, are part of the plant defense system
01:00against being eaten.
01:03And plants are eaten by animals.
01:07We're their predators.
01:09Plants do not want to be eaten, and they certainly don't want their babies, their seeds eaten.
01:16So plants use biologic warfare to convince animals that eating them or their babies is
01:27going to make them feel bad, is going to make them not live as long, is going to make them
01:34not as fertile.
01:36And so these are incorporated into the vast majority of seeds that you have the potential
01:44to eat.
01:45A similar favorite snack, very much in the same way, are sunflower seeds.
01:50So when you see all those baseball players munching on their sunflower seeds and spitting
01:56out the shell, just realize that they're eating a lectin-loaded food.
02:03Sunflower oil is bad for you because it's an omega-6 fat, and it's loaded with lectins
02:11as well.
02:12It also goes for peanuts, which are not a nut at all, it's a legume, cashews, and chia
02:20seeds.
02:21Now, wait a minute, chia seeds?
02:24Chia seeds are great for you because they have omega-3 fats, which they do.
02:29But years ago, I was exposed to studies from Lauren Cordain, the father of the paleo diet,
02:38who's a professor at Colorado State University, of humans who were given chia seeds to show
02:46that they had anti-inflammatory properties because of the omega-3 fats.
02:51And lo and behold, they did have omega-3 fats in their blood, but their inflammatory markers,
02:59like C-reactive protein, CRP, actually went up when they were eating chia seeds.
03:05So what can you do?
03:07Well, since we're on the subject of chia seeds, you may have seen my interview right here
03:12on my YouTube channel with basil seeds and the founder of Zen Basil.
03:19Basil seeds have all the benefits without the lectins, and they act exactly like chia
03:27seeds.
03:28So use basil seeds instead.
03:30Now, there are seeds that don't have any lectins.
03:35Plants have a strategy.
03:37Plants would like you to distribute some of their seeds for them by eating them.
03:45And these plants make the coating of the seed indigestible so that you cannot digest it
03:54with your digestive enzymes or even your microbiome.
03:58And so you will poop their babies intact somewhere with a generous dollop of fertilizer.
04:06So flax seeds could fall into that category.
04:08Now, as you know, flax seeds are loaded with a really cool protein, but they're also loaded
04:16with the short-chain omega-3 fat linoleic acid.
04:21Flax seeds have been shown, particularly linoleic acid, to dramatically reduce inflammation
04:28and actually prevent lipopolysaccharides, those LPSs that I talk about, from getting
04:35into your bloodstream.
04:36Now, here's the deal with flax seeds.
04:39They resist digestion.
04:40So you could eat all the flax seed crackers in the world, and they're useless.
04:46You could sprinkle flax seeds on your salad.
04:51They're useless.
04:52You have to grind them.
04:55And please, if you're going to buy them ground, buy them refrigerated, keep them in the refrigerator.
05:02I personally like to buy them whole, get a coffee grinder, grind your flax seeds when
05:09you use them, and then mix them in with whatever you're going to eat.
05:13It's a great source of omega-3 fats, fiber, and protein.
05:20Second, hemp seeds.
05:22Hemp seeds have no lectins.
05:24They're also a good source of omega-3 fats.
05:29They're a great source of protein.
05:32And they have been shown to improve heart health, brain health, and eye health.
05:39Particularly hemp hearts are really easy to use, and there's no more processing needed.
05:45Sprinkle them on your salads.
05:46Put them in your goat yogurt.
05:48Put it in your goat or sheep kefir, and they add a really great texture.
05:54Sesame seeds.
05:55Sesame oil and sesame seeds have been shown to block the effect of LPSs, those inflammatory
06:03bacterial cell walls.
06:05So get yourself some sesame seeds.
06:08In fact, studies in humans show that having people consume two tablespoons of sesame oil,
06:16not the toasted, but the regular, a day, dramatically lowers blood pressure in people who are hyper
06:24intensive.
06:25And when they stopped using the sesame oil, their blood pressure went back up.
06:31Are there safe nuts?
06:32Well, yes, there are.
06:34First of all, you want to get zinc, have some Brazil nuts.
06:38They're also rich in selenium.
06:42About three Brazil nuts will give you your daily dose of selenium that you need for thyroid
06:49health, for prostate health.
06:51But don't overdo it because too much selenium can backfire.
06:56Walnuts.
06:57Walnuts are a rich source of tannins, a type of phytosterol, polyphenol that has been correlated
07:08with improved brain health.
07:10Macadamia nuts.
07:11Macadamia nuts are mostly monounsaturated fats like olive oil, but they contain an additional
07:18fat that's been shown to directly affect the health of blood vessels and the brain.
07:25And there's several studies that suggest that this particular fat in macadamia nuts can
07:31suppress appetite.
07:33Pistachios.
07:34They're one of my go-to nuts.
07:36They are rich in melatonin.
07:38In fact, they're the highest melatonin-containing food there is.
07:42No, they're not going to make you sleepy.
07:45It turns out that melatonin, as you know, is only one of two antioxidants that are used
07:53in our mitochondria.
07:55The other one is glutathione.
07:57So melatonin is not the sleep hormone.
08:01It is the antioxidant of your mitochondria.
08:04Finally, pine nuts.
08:07Pine nuts, of course, are an essential ingredient in pesto, along with basil and Parmesan cheese.
08:15And olive oil.
08:17But pine nuts are absolutely delicious, particularly if you toast them lightly and then sprinkle
08:24them on your salad, throw them on your vegetables, and you'll have a great way to get another
08:30beneficial nut in a fun way to change around your vegetables and your salads.
08:36Okay, that's it.
08:39Throw away the pumpkin seeds.
08:42Don't roast them for Halloween.
08:44That way, you will not get a spooky surprise.