About this video

• Video Title: Help Your Body Heal Ep. 1 - Plants Meat And Carbs | My Momma Ma Momma Said Carbs Are The Devil!
• Channel: Goobie and Doobie
• Speakers: Gooby
• Duration: 01:32:24

Overview

This video, the first in a series called "Help Your Body Heal," explores the speaker's journey from being a neurosurgeon to understanding the profound impact of diet on health and healing. The speaker shares personal experiences, observations from patients, and research findings to discuss the role of plants, meat, and carbohydrates in our well-being, challenging the common notion that carbs are inherently bad.

Key takeaways

• Personal Journey and Observation: The speaker, a former neurosurgeon, began questioning conventional medical education's limited focus on nutrition after observing patients who healed at different rates, independent of surgical outcomes.
• The Power of Diet: Through patient interactions and personal experimentation, the speaker learned that diet significantly influences the body's ability to heal, even impacting recovery from spinal issues.
• Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods: The importance of consuming whole, unprocessed foods, particularly plant-based options, is emphasized for promoting healing, contrasting them with processed foods that can hinder recovery.
• Carbohydrates: Not the Enemy: Research, including a significant study from Brigham and Women's Hospital, suggests that a moderate intake of carbohydrates (around 50-55% of calories) is associated with the longest lifespan, challenging the "carbs are the devil" narrative.
• Dietary Choices and Longevity: The study also indicated that diets high in animal protein and fat, with low carbohydrate intake, are associated with an increased risk of mortality, while plant-based protein and fat intake are linked to longer life.
• Social and Personal Balance: While advocating for a predominantly plant-based, whole-food diet, the speaker acknowledges the social importance of food traditions and personal choices, suggesting a balanced approach that accommodates social gatherings.

Here are the key points discussed in the video:

• Introduction to the Series: The video marks the beginning of a series called "Help Your Body Heal," focusing on diet's role in health.
• Speaker's Background: The speaker was a neurosurgeon who transitioned to exploring health and well-being.
• Initial Diet and Lifestyle: The speaker grew up eating traditional Korean food, which centers around meat and white rice, and later adopted a typical "standard American diet" during medical training, leading to weight gain and pain.
• Medical Education's Gap: The speaker notes that medical school provided minimal education on nutrition (around 4 hours total) and focused more on the chemical breakdown of food rather than its impact on healing.
• Patient Observations: During surgical practice, the speaker noticed significant variations in patient healing rates, which seemed linked to their dietary habits. Some patients healed spontaneously, avoiding surgery, while others didn't heal well even after technically perfect procedures.
• Personal Health Issues: The speaker experienced neck and back pain due to the physically demanding nature of spine surgery, exacerbated by long hours and poor posture.
• Influence of Colleagues: Conversations with a pain medicine specialist colleague prompted the speaker to seriously consider the link between diet and healing.
• Experimentation with Diet: Inspired by patients who healed quickly on plant-based diets, the speaker experimented with a vegan, low-salt diet. This led to weight loss, reduced inflammation, and elimination of neck and back pain after about a month, though it also caused significant gas initially.
• Scar Tissue and Surgery: The speaker highlights that surgery, even when successful, creates scar tissue, which can lead to long-term problems. Healing through diet avoids this scar tissue.
• Doctors and Research: The speaker discusses the work of Dr. Colin Campbell (protein and cancer research), Dr. John McDougall (whole-food, plant-based diets and starch benefits), and Dr. Greger (nutritionfacts.org and "How Not to Die") as influential figures in understanding nutrition.
• The SPORT Trial: This neurosurgery study showed that for disc herniations, surgery provided faster relief for severe pain and weakness but long-term outcomes at two years were similar to conservative management for many patients.
• The Lancet Study: A major research paper published in The Lancet analyzed dietary carbohydrate intake and mortality.
  • It found that consuming approximately 50-55% of calories from carbohydrates was associated with the longest lifespan.
  • Very low carbohydrate intake (around 20% of calories) was linked to a significantly increased risk of mortality (hazard ratio of 1.6).
  • Diets with moderate carbohydrate intake and predominantly plant-based protein and fat were associated with a lower risk of dying (hazard ratio of 0.86) compared to diets with animal-based protein and fat (hazard ratio of 1.2).
• Critique of Low-Carb/Keto Diets: While acknowledging that low-carb diets can lead to weight loss and aesthetic improvements, the speaker expresses concern based on research and anecdotal observation that they may be linked to increased mortality and poorer spinal health due to potential arterial issues.
• Social Aspects of Food: The speaker discusses how food plays a crucial social role, citing chimpanzees using meat for social bonding and how traditional American gatherings often center around meat dishes. This led the speaker to adopt a more balanced approach, occasionally eating meat to maintain social connections.
• Personalized Choices: The speaker emphasizes that while providing information, individuals should have the autonomy to make their own dietary and lifestyle choices, acknowledging that "diversity is good" and different paths have different outcomes.
• Current Diet: The speaker largely eats plant-based at home but incorporates occasional animal products for social occasions.