Eat THIS to Lose Fat, Prevent Disease, & Feel Better Now With Dr. William Li

Dr. William Li (00:42:28):

Okay, so let's just dive right in. One of my favorite all time foods are tomatoes. And I think most people like tomatoes, not just in a garden salad, but think about your grandmother's tomato sauce. Or you go out to Italy and your eating some pasta or Italian restaurant who doesn't like some tomato sauce? Well, it turns out tomatoes contain a natural bioactive called lycopene. Lycopene is found in nature. It triggers your brown fat to burn down harmful extra body fat. And a study in Portugal showed this in a totally clear way. It took young healthy women who were grad students, normal body size,

(00:43:13):

And they told 'em, just go eat and exercise the way you normally do. Don't do anything special for this research study. The only thing they did is they gave them one ripe tomato to eat an hour before lunch every single day. That's it. Okay? And they measured their body composition. So they put 'em under a scanner to look at how much visceral fat they measured their waistline. They measured their blood cholesterol and their blood sugars and all the parameters, inflammatory markers. And they found after a month of eating just one tomato a day, this is the only thing they were able to lose one pound with just one tomato one hour before lunch. What? That's the power of the lycopene in the tomato. You don't have to do extra exercise. You don't have to limit your calories just to eat the way you want. That just shows you how powerful a food actually is. Now, lycopene is what's doing this. If you want the lycopene to really fire up now lycopene, pick a tomato off a vine and eat it like an apple. It's going to be good for you. It's going to do its thing. If you want the lycopene to be supercharged,

Mel Robbins (00:44:18):

I do.

 Dr. William Li (00:44:18):

What you want to do is you want to heat it up, saute it 190 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, we will amp up the power of that lycopene by 250% because the heat will change the chemistry of the lycopene into a form your body loves to absorb. So this is why Mediterranean food, whether you're talking about Spain, Greece, Italy, heating up, cooking up that tomato sauce, simmering it gently, right? Oh, by the way, lycopene likes to dissolve in body fat. In fact, this has been studied at Tufts University. You actually feed some young people a tomato with lycopene or foods that contain lycopene. They're able to track where that lycopene goes. You know where it goes? No, they found it goes right to your butt. Right to your thigh. It goes homes in.

Mel Robbins (00:45:11):

Dude, I'm having a tomato

 Dr. William Li (00:45:12):

Right after this, into the body fat where it triggers your brown fat to fight that fat.

Mel Robbins (00:45:18):

This is amazing.

 Dr. William Li (00:45:19):

Okay, well

Mel Robbins (00:45:20):

What's so cool about this is you're using the research and the science, which you're clearly so passionate about, to truly teach us about the extraordinary power of your metabolism and how it's designed to work correctly. And if you feed it what it needs, the proper fuel it like turns on for you. There's some other things that we have on the tray here. What else do these magical things do?

 Dr. William Li (00:45:51):

Pomegranates. Okay, pomegranates. You can have the pomegranate seeds on a salad. You could have pure pomegranate juice and pomegranates. They're pretty sweet. So you got to not eat too much of, or do not drink too much of the juice. Actually, you just need about eight fluid ounces. One cup. Alright? Contains a natural substance called EINs. Again, don't worry about trying to spell, check it out. It is a complicated word. EANs. Mother nature's pharmacy is found in the juice of a pomegranate. And what that does is it activates your gut to secrete mucus healthy mucus. How do you move stool? How do you get regular? You want to keep it all moving, right? So you need mucus, mucus slip slides the thing all the way down your other end mucus. That healthy mucus will grow a bacteria, a healthy gut bacteria called akkermansia eosinophilia. Mussino means it loves mucus akkermansia. This is the name of a gut bacteria that everyone who's listening to this and watching this should pay attention to A-K-K-E-R-M-A-N-S-I-A Akkermansia. Turns out Akkermansia is a guardian of our metabolism. Akkermansia activates our immune system, lowers inflammation, and this is smoking hot research, Mel. Alright, I'm just telling you,

Mel Robbins (00:47:16):

I love how you talk about this.

 Dr. William Li (00:47:17):

A piece of akkermansia. So think about akkermansia like an armadillo. It's got kind of a hard shell on the outside, little pieces on it, on the outside, one piece has just been discovered. It's called P nine P as in Peter nine, that fragment of akkermansia, whether the bacteria is alive or blown into a hundred pieces, that bacteria, that piece of that bacteria causes your body to produce its own GLP one, which is exactly what ozempic in these prescription drugs are trying to do. So pomegranates grow, akkermansia akkermansia will cause your body to create GLP one. And what has GLP one done? Lowers your blood sugar. It helps you lose body with fat.

Mel Robbins (00:48:00):

Wow.

 Dr. William Li (00:48:02):

That's actually these discoveries that are being made. Food is medicine. That's what I do. It's super cool. But if you're going to drink pomegranate juice, be very careful. Here's a practical tip. Go to the grocery store. Look for pomegranate juice. I tell people, make sure it's pure pomegranate juice. Always, always, always check the ingredient label to make sure it's not really apple juice. It's got a little squirt of pomegranate in it and red food coloring. Don't do that. Get the real deal. Or just buy the pomegranate. You know why? Because when you have the whole pomegranate, you're going to get the dietary fiber from the seeds. And those seeds, that dietary fiber feature gut microbiome, make the akkermansia even happier.

Mel Robbins (00:48:43):

That's incredible.

 Dr. William Li (00:48:44):

Okay,

Mel Robbins (00:48:44):

That's incredible. What does a kiwi do? Because I see kiwi

 Dr. William Li (00:48:47):

Kiwi's amazing because number one, Kiwi's a great source of vitamin C. C as in Charlie. Alright, what does that do? That lowers inflammation. Now if you're carrying around extra body fat, you're inflamed. No doubt about it. So just having a kiwi, one kiwi a day gives you a big dose of vitamin C to lower that inflammation and you will feel the difference. Alright? You feel just less razed up inside. Now the other thing is kiwi has a lot of dietary fiber and that dietary fiber can change your healthy gut bacteria. If it's not so healthy, it'll start to grow the healthy stuff in 24 hours a kiwi a day. And the next day you'll start seeing those beneficial effects.

Mel Robbins (00:49:32):

What? Wait the next day,

 Dr. William Li (00:49:34):

24 hours. So

Mel Robbins (00:49:34):

I eat one kiwi.

 Dr. William Li (00:49:36):

One kiwi will start seeing, you'll start feeling the beneficial effects. It'll take an unhealthy gut bacteria colony, start to make it a little healthier. Just in one day, after four days, you're going to get even more. Alright? So this is why it's so important to think about this. The kiwi, a day for breakfast is super easy. I love kiwi. It is really easy to, oh by the way, the skin of the Kiwi, amazing source of dietary fiber. You would eat that. Who would eat

Mel Robbins (00:50:05):

That? I don't know.

 Dr. William Li (00:50:06):

I'll tell you. Not me, I wouldn't do it either, but you know how you do it. No. Make a

Mel Robbins (00:50:09):

Smoothie, okay?

 Dr. William Li (00:50:11):

Eat the kiwi with a spoon. Toss the skin into a blender to make the smoothie. It'll disappear and you'll get a huge amount of dietary fiber.

Mel Robbins (00:50:20):

What a great tip. You should have a cooking show. I really think you should have a cooking show. Talk to me about matcha.

 Dr. William Li (00:50:27):

Matcha, alright, matcha is one of my favorite ways of having green tea. Now we know green tea. It looks like you're drinking some green tea in front of you right now. You have it in the tea bags. So the tea leaves are steeped in the hot water and the polyphenols, the catechins come dissolving out of that into the water and you sip it and you get the good stuff. The catechins, which by the way, turn on your brown fat to trigger down and burn harmful white fat all.

Mel Robbins (00:50:52):

Watch me drink my tea.

 Dr. William Li (00:50:54):

Now have a sip. Go have a sip. All right. Now, but I got to tell you, matcha, matcha is a heck of a lot more powerful than tea in a bag because matcha is the entire tea leaf ground into a powder. Now you get a hundred percent of the polyphenols, there's nothing left inside a teabag. The whole shebang is in there. And the dietary fiber good for your gut microbiome. So you want to dose of the polyphenols from tea, drink matcha. You get the fiber, you get a hundred percent of the polyphenols. It's super, super powerful. And that's been shown to burn down harmful body fat. How do we know it burns down harmful body fat is because it actually shrinks your waistline. You can actually lose an inch of a belt loop

Mel Robbins (00:51:39):

You drinking matcha

 Dr. William Li (00:51:40):

By drinking matcha. That's been studied by researchers in Japan in clinical research. All the foods we're talking about.

Mel Robbins (00:51:46):

Now I need to clarify though, because matcha tastes like dirty grass at times. So if I want to add in a little sugar or a little something, am I killing all the benefit?

 Dr. William Li (00:51:57):

I would Would listen, if you are struggling with the taste of matcha, which is, listen, the reason it tastes like grass is because it's an old damn leaf in there. Okay? Here's what you do. Make a smoothie or a shake with it and just pour it in there and it'll disappear right in the background. Alright,

Mel Robbins (00:52:14):

Dr. Li, you're a genius.

 Dr. William Li (00:52:16):

It's the simplest way. Okay, now, so matcha is really good. Alright?

Mel Robbins (00:52:21):

Dark chocolate.

(00:53:21):

You've heard about this 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, a hundred percent. So the higher the percent. And what you want to look for is 80% or higher. You're getting a ton of these polyphenols in your chocolate. And those polyphenols trigger brown fat to fire off and burn down your harmful white fat, dark chocolate does it. Now, the darker, the more bitter it's going to be. So what I like to do, what I tell people, just get a little square of it and have it with coffee. You've created mocha bite of chocolate, sip of coffee, you've created your own mocha. And guess what? Coffee has. Coffee also has polyphenols. Chlorogenic acid. Oh, didn't you hear me say this before with apples? That's right. Coffee has chlorogenic acid. So coffee, a cup of coffee will fire up your brown fat to burn down the harmful white fat every single morning.

Mel Robbins (00:54:17):

Wait, so coffee with chocolate helps you burn fat.

 Dr. William Li (00:54:21):

Yep. That's a double barreled approach.

Mel Robbins (00:54:24):

Matcha kiwi pomegranates and tomatoes help you burn fat.

 Dr. William Li (00:54:29):

That's right. And so does Tama. You have a little thing of edamame on this plate here. Edamame, soybeans. It turns out that soybeans have been shown to trigger on the burning of harmful body fat by triggering your brown fat. And so this is actually, if you think about the foods that we talked about, these are not crazy things. You got to spend a lot of money ordering on the internet from some crazy supplement producer. You don't have to be a bodybuilder, you don't have to be a fitness champ. Alright? The foods that we love to eat can be really healthy for us. As long as you don't overeat, don't overfill the fuel tank as long as you're keeping on moving around so you're burning some of the fuel, alright? And when you're not actually overeating the bad stuff. Now we haven't spent time talking about the bad stuff.

 Dr. William Li (00:55:17):

Listen, my whole philosophy is that if you spend more time putting good things into your body, you're just not going to have as much room for the bad stuff. But let's talk about the bad stuff. Look, we all know that there are foods that are very common that we've all grown up eating that aren't so good for us. And one of the things that I got to say upfront is I don't do what a lot of social influencers do. I don't food bash brand, bash. I don't try to shame people for what they eat. Listen, I love some snacks every now and then as much as the next person. And it's totally fine because if you spend most of the time activating your body's healthy systems, the hard wiring, you can afford to take a hit every now and then. It's like just putting some of that crappy gas in your tank. Every now and then you're going to bounce right back. We're very, very resilient. That said, I do think it's important for people to understand that we're beginning to understand why certain foods that are not so good are really bad. You and a great one that I always pick up with is soda. Whether you get the blue can or the red can, or whether you have regular soda or diet soda, any soda is really not healthy for you in the long run.

Mel Robbins (00:56:32):

Even the zeros and the diets, and

 Dr. William Li (00:56:34):

Especially those,

Mel Robbins (00:56:35):

What do you mean? Especially those,

 Dr. William Li (00:56:36):

Especially the diets. The history of soda goes, I think back to France where they were serving fruit juices and somebody came up with this entrepreneurial idea. Let's bubble some things into the fruit juice and see if we can actually have a crowd pleaser. And I think that was the birth of soda, the soda fountain and everything else. You got to put the gas in there. Fast forward 20th century, now you've actually got mass production of these sodas. Turns out that regular soda, regardless of what brand it is, actually contains a kind of regular soda, contains seven to nine teaspoons of cane sugar. You come to my house and I offer you a glass and I put nine teaspoons of sugar in it and say, Hey, have this smell. You'd go, that's disgusting. I'm not going to do that. That's what's happening when you're actually drinking soda.

(00:57:35):

Now that amount of sugar overload, carb overload, we talked about carb overload earlier. Alright, now you're really flushing out that tank's filling up real fast now and spilling over. But on top of that, you're overloading your metabolism because remember those hormones that have to collaborate to be able to really bring in the blood sugar to make sure you got enough energy when you flood that system, alright, your system doesn't go so well, it doesn't function so well. It starts to derail a little bit. Listen, a single can, even two, every now and then you're going to be just fine. Alright? Your body's not going to love you for it,

(00:58:14):

But It'll get back to itself pretty quickly. But when I was in medical school, I remember distinctly, there was a classmate of mine, so future doctor at the time, who was bragging that he would have two, six packs of soda every single day

(00:58:28):

To get through the day. I mean, that's 12 cans of soda. Geez. Think about the amount of sugar that that person was actually putting into a system every day.

Mel Robbins (00:58:37):

It's like 108 teaspoons.

 Dr. William Li (00:58:39):

Yeah, right? I mean, just think about the big pile. Now, I will tell you that the reason that the zero version, the sugar-free version was developed is because, well, in the 1970s and eighties we started realizing that sugar causes you to gain weight. So let's come up with something else. Well, classic to the industrial food mindset. Let's go invent something. Let's go invent artificial sweeteners, right? Non caloric sweeteners, you can eat them. They taste sweet, but they don't actually add any calories. That must be better, right? Well, we thought so, except that research has shown that people who drink a lot of diet soda, they actually gain weight too. They also gain weight. Alright, even without

Mel Robbins (00:59:25):

Sugar. But hold on, because I thought that we talked earlier about the fact that calories are fuel and there's less calories.

 Dr. William Li (00:59:32):

Exactly. You're right about that. However, we also talked about the fact your gut microbiome helps you have good metabolism and burn fuel. And it turns out, and Mel, this is pretty new within just the last few years, the discovery that our gut bacteria is very sensitive to artificial sweeteners. And so artificial sweeteners actually kill off some of the good healthy gut bacteria. So something that's well-intentioned, non caloric sweetener goes right down. We don't absorb any of it because it's not a calorie goes down and feeds our gut microbiome, remember? And so what happens is the gut bacteria start to revolt. They don't do so well. Some of the gut die off and now guess what? Your metabolism isn't functioning normally or derailed from that hard wiring and now you start to gain weight. So food number one that I think that you should stay away from are sodas, regular or diet. That's one of the ones that you want to stay away from. Second food that I tell people to try to stay away from are these packaged health foods. Now you go to the airport and you go to, you see the bar and it looks like it's got granola and all that kind of stuff on it. It seems like it'd be a healthy bar.

Mel Robbins (01:00:49):

Yes.

 Dr. William Li (01:00:50):

Take a look at the ingredient label

(01:00:52):

And you will find that there are all these emulsifiers, the glue that holds the things together. Sometimes artificial flavorings that are actually in there because the healthy stuff doesn't have enough sweet hit for you. Sometimes artificial coloring so it doesn't look, it looks a little bit nicer. Or here's another one besides the bar. Tree nuts are healthy, right? So you like almonds, mac, pistachios, cashews, right? You go to the airport, you go to the convenience store part. Oh, let me go look for something in the health food section, there's nuts in a bag, right? And they're barbecued flavored. Well, there's no such thing as called barbecued flavored. Take a look at the ingredient label. Those are red food coloring, yellow food coloring. They've got artificial seasonings. It's not even real chili pepper. It's like artificial stuff designed to light it up. Anything that's manufactured like that to be healthy, please read the ingredient label. If it seems like it's Greek or Latin or you can't pronounce it quickly, it's probably an ultra processed ingredient that's going to harm your health. It's going to increase oxidative stress, it's going to stress out your body, it's going to cause inflammation, maybe damage your gut microbiome. So again, I think stay away from that ultra process stuff that's got, if it looks like it might be nuclear colored, all right, that's probably not good

Mel Robbins (01:02:18):

For you. It's gut

 Dr. William Li (01:02:19):

Nuclear for your gut. Don't nuke your gut.

Mel Robbins (01:02:22):

Don't nuke your gut. What else should we avoid?

 Dr. William Li (01:02:24):

Alright, another thing that you want to actually be really, really mindful of are processed meats. Now look, we all grew up with processed meats. I can remember one of my earliest memories is like going to school with a paper bag with a sandwich my mom made with processed meats. You go to the deli, by the way, do you know what, why they call 'em a delicatessen or a deli? No, it's short for delicious. And it was actually coming from the people that were trying to figure out how to actually sell leftover meat products in a way that would be delicious. So a lot of these salamis, bolognas, all the stuff that you would actually see in a deli are all put together from little scraps of meat that come as byproducts of the food industry. First. I'm going to come back to that, but first let's talk about why it's not so good for you.

Mel Robbins (01:03:19):

That's disgusting. That's what you're getting when you get sliced meat.

 Dr. William Li (01:03:23):

That's right.

Mel Robbins (01:03:24):

No,

 Dr. William Li (01:03:24):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (01:03:25):

Really?

 Dr. William Li (01:03:26):

Yeah. Do you think that a Turkey comes in a square?

Mel Robbins (01:03:29):

Well, it kind of looks like a breast. I don't know. And I see organic on the package. As you're saying, processed meat, you're talking about sliced meats.

 Dr. William Li (01:03:37):

Yeah, I'm talking about the kind that at the deli, they move them back and forth. They slice these

Mel Robbins (01:03:41):

Things. Yes. What's wrong with that?

 Dr. William Li (01:03:42):

Well, it turns out that the World Health Organization has identified that these processed meats, we're not talking about freshly butchered prepared at home or at a restaurant, but these processed meats contain all kinds of chemicals to be able to actually get them to where they are. And they have been classified as a class one carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Alright, we're talking about bologna, salami and pepperoni. And by the way, I remember I had a patient once who was a former USDA inspector and he was retired by then. And I would love to talk to my patients about their jobs, things that I didn't know, like the lobster guy would. What happens in a lobster boat? Well, this guy USDA inspector, I would say, tell me spare no details. Tell me everything about the inspection meat inspection. He's like, well, let me just tell you, I had to change my boots, my rubber boots every four months because the stuff on the floor, the liquid of the places that may process meats would dissolve my boots,

Mel Robbins (01:04:50):

My,

 Dr. William Li (01:04:52):

That kind of cud me in that there's probably stuff in the meats that are not so good for you. And it's not just the nitrates, I mean it's like the synthetic nitrates that they put in there, other preserves and coloring, but class one carcinogen, abundant evidence that it likely to increase a risk for cancer, especially colon cancer. Not surprisingly, right? You're eating a lot of this stuff and it goes down to your gut. But I learned something recently that when you go to the deli, and let's say you're ordering bologna or salami, it's a meat in a cylinder and animals don't come in cylinders like that. But again, this is the meat scraps. And I learned about this by the way, from a podcast called Science versus it's a really good podcast. And what I found out because I'm learning about this, is that it's originally the meat scraps are all put together and then the US military invented a meat glue that would take scraps, that you could pulverize and stick in the particle board that we actually have wood. You go to the big box stores, these deli meats are basically the particles are meat particles that are glued together and then mold it into a cylinder.

Mel Robbins (01:06:13):

Well, it's true. It does come in a tube wrapped in plastic. I just assumed that was a part of an animal's body that's been

 Dr. William Li (01:06:19):

Totally not.

Mel Robbins (01:06:20):

Wow. So if I buy though sliced meats and it says organic still,

 Dr. William Li (01:06:26):

I would just say, okay, look, youre killing me, doctor. Listen, by the way, I'm a reasonable list. So if your favorite thing is a bologna sandwich, knock yourself out. Enjoy it. But just take the time to really savor and don't do it. Very often, you know that it's not good. Listen, we are not to speed on the highway, but we all do it every now and then. But don't speed all the time because that's what's going to lead to the car crash. So I'm not endorsing people to go out to eat deli meat. What I'm saying is that just like the soda, just like the nuclear snack foods, processed meats ain't good for you. Alright? It tastes good. We grew up with it, but it's not good for you.

Mel Robbins (01:07:12):

What else should we avoid?

 Dr. William Li (01:07:13):

Alright, I'm going to tell you something you're going to be surprised by. And this is new research and that's bottled water.

Mel Robbins (01:07:20):

Why do we avoid bottled water?

 Dr. William Li (01:07:22):

The water isn't the problem, it's the bottle. And we're beginning to realize that these bottled waters, I mean, come on. I used to carry around bottled water all the time with me. Alright, you're supposed to stay hydrated, right?

Mel Robbins (01:07:36):

Right.

 Dr. William Li (01:07:36):

Okay. Any vacation you go to, you're getting a bottle of water in your hotel room. Turns out that now we realize that the bottled water, the bottles of plastic bottles are shedding microplastics into the water. So while we don't taste it, we're actually pouring plastic into our bodies. Alright? Little tiny particles, plastic particles. And you know how much plastic we are ingesting on average every week?

Mel Robbins (01:08:05):

No.

 Dr. William Li (01:08:06):

A credit card's worth of plastic.

Mel Robbins (01:08:08):

Really?

 Dr. William Li (01:08:09):

Every week we're ingesting it. Now listen, we've known this for some years and I used to be asked this all the time, what's the consequence of the plastic? I used to, I mean just only a few years ago, say, we don't really know. It seems like it's probably okay. Our body must get rid of it somehow. Now we know just in the last 24 months, this is new. Alright? I'm telling you a bunch of new stuff that microplastics are detectable in the human body and they're associated with badness. 

Mel Robbins (01:09:32):

Whoa,

 Dr. William Li (01:09:32):

Okay, that's serious stuff. Subsequently, we've actually discovered you can actually find plastic in the brain. In fact, you can take a kitchen scale and measure two human brains and which one's got more plastic in it's heavier. You can measure it like you're measuring flour for making cookies or whatever. You can actually measure the amount of plastic in the human brain. And we found plastic in the blood circulation. We never looked at it before, but in a vial blood in a doctor's office, if you looked for it, you can actually find plastic circulating in it. And we've actually found plastic in human testicles. We found it in human semen. Don't ask me how it gets down there. It's also found by urologists who are actually doing surgery. They've actually found it in the flesh of the penis embedded in there probably from years and years and years of being exposed to plastic.

Mel Robbins (01:10:27):

Now, I don't mean to, it sounds terrifying, but what should you be drinking your water out of

 Dr. William Li (01:10:36):

Class? Okay, so number one, let me just give you some real practical stuff. Alright? Water, if you want water drink, put it in a glass container,

(01:10:47):

Not a plastic container. And for those of you who are bringing your bottles to the water bottles to the gym, get a metal one or get one that's lined with glass on the inside. Take the plastics ones, toss 'em out immediately. And when you go back to the kitchen, go root around your drawers and your cabinets and anything that you might've once used to store leftovers. The plastic stuff, plastic containers, the plastic top out it goes. Alright, replace it with ceramic or glass cups in your cupboard. You've got the ceramic mugs, you've got the glasses for your guests. You might some plastic ones that are out there. You got it? A ball game or whatever out, throw it out.

Mel Robbins (01:11:32):

Now I feel like an idiot because I've handed you a silicone glass so it doesn't make, don't drink out of it. Dr. Li.

 Dr. William Li (01:11:38):

Don't listen. I mean, I'm telling you, microplastics are a big deal. Now, I'll tell you, it's almost impossible to get away from microplastics. They're everywhere in their environment. They're in new carpets, they're in the HVAC systems of our

Mel Robbins (01:11:55):

House. Yeah, that's different than actually ingesting it in your food.

 Dr. William Li (01:11:58):

We breathe it in and it gets into our body as well. But you're right. What I'm trying to say is that for foods that you want to avoid you, you want to stay away from plastics whenever you can. That means don't microwave something with a plastic top or with a saran wrap on top. That means don't buy food that's packed, pre-packed in plastic. Those kinds of quick eat meals that you could actually have. It's got a big plastic thing that you nuke in the microwave and you put a fork to let the steam out. All that stuff is just coating it with plastic

Mel Robbins (01:12:32):

And obviously impacting our metabolism.

 Dr. William Li (01:12:34):

And we believe that those, by the way, people have been talking about this for years, maybe these microplastics are endocrine disruptors and that's why we're actually having problems with our hormones. I don't know. I haven't seen enough data on that. I mean, listen, I'm a scientist. So here's the thing about scientists like a real scientist, and I know you've talked to a bunch of 'em. A real scientist will tell you what they know, but they'll also tell you when they don't know something. And I don't know enough information about hormone disruptors and microplastics, but I do know because I'm a vascular guy, I study blood vessels. I do know that the little particle bits that are stuck in your blood vessels are linked to real serious health outcomes and badness. And so for me, one of the things besides processed meats and nuclear foods and sodas, I would say stay away from water in a bottle or water in a container that's plastic because you have a choice. You can get one out of glass.

Mel Robbins (01:13:35):

You have very strong opinions about what we do on airplanes

 Dr. William Li (01:13:40):

On an airplane.

Mel Robbins (01:13:41):

Yes. What not to drink or eat.

 Dr. William Li (01:13:42):

Okay, well listen to do my research and to work with my colleagues, I do travel quite a bit, so I know a lot as I'm sure you do about sitting on a plane. And one of the things about planes that's kind of crazy is that we're instinctively served beverages and foods. And if you're like me, I'm working on my laptop and somebody comes by and hands me something, my instincts is they take it and it's free kind of thing as you paid for it. But it seems like it's something that I should eat. Well, there's a couple of things that I don't do. I don't drink coffee or tea on an airplane. And the reason I don't is because a lot of people don't know this, but the water from your coffee or tea comes from a tank in the airplane and they don't clean that tank, but once or twice a year.

(01:14:36):

And so you know what happens when you actually have a container you don't clean very often. It's pretty disgusting. And I don't even want to go into the chassis of an airplane to take a look at the rusty old Tank with all the crud that's in the bottom that they are actually using and pouring out. Now listen, the place where the flight attendants are actually making the coffee looks pretty clean, the coffee looks okay, I can't taste anything, but I am somebody that I know enough that I care about what I put into my body and I would rather get a glass container of water or coffee or 

Mel Robbins (01:15:55):

Well, Dr. Li, I think one of the things that's really confusing is that there's just so much information. 

 Dr. William Li (01:16:23):

Yeah, that's a big question. I'm a pragmatic person. Practical person. So I say if you're going to buy food, buy the best quality food you can within the most convenient place that you can as well. Whatever you're able to get access to. Again, I try to be very careful not to make people feel bad that they can't go shop at a fancy organic farmer's market. A lot of people can't.

Mel Robbins (01:16:52):

Let's say you can't. You're listening to this, you can't. How do you, Dr. Li, go into a grocery store? What have you discovered based on your research? If you're going into a grocery store, how do you shop?

 Dr. William Li (01:17:06):

Okay, so when I go to the grocery store, go to the produce section first, it's usually in front of the store and I'm looking at the stuff that they put closer to the entrance, which happens to be, if you read this, little signs that they put near the foods, if it's grown locally, like local apples or local strawberries, whatever, it's seasonal. That's the seasonal stuff that hasn't taken an airplane ride from South America had been sitting in the back in a box for a couple of days. That's the stuff that's a little fresher coming in and local. When food doesn't have to travel, it's going to be fresher. I mean, think about when you get on a plane and you fly someplace far away, you're not fresh that same day. You got to take a shower, get a good night's sleep. Same thing with the food.

(01:17:49):

So local, you're fresher. So I look for that. And even in a regular grocery store, usually the stuff they put closer to you if you read the signs, is going to be closer. But that doesn't mean that the other foods that they have aren't so good for you. A lot of greens are grown in places where you can get produce groaned and farmed and picked all year round. That's fine. I go to the middle aisle, by the way, and you're supposed to stay out of the middle aisle. That's also a myth. I will tell you, the middle aisle has some really, really amazing healthy foods.

Mel Robbins (01:18:21):

Like what?

 Dr. William Li (01:18:22):

Okay, you got to actually put your filter on so you're not looking at the chips and the candy and all the ultra processed stuff that snacks you might get there, but you think about it, you get extra virgin olive oil is there, lentils and legumes are there, cans of beans are on there. One of my favorite beans are actually simple can of White Navy beans. Alright, I love them. I don't know why. When I was a kid, I must've had a nice super stew with them.

Mel Robbins (01:18:52):

Are they going to help me burn fat?

 Dr. William Li (01:18:53):

They are.

(01:18:55):

So studies have been done by the University of Toronto looking at people that have metabolic syndrome. So they already had a little too much body fat. And it turns out that by giving people the equivalent of one can of beans to eat five times a week, so not every day, five times out of the week, they could actually shrink the waistline of people by shrinking body fat in the tube of the body, visceral fat by an inch over the course of a month. Now how does that work? Well, it turns out that there's fiber, dietary fiber in beans and now how you cook them matters, obviously how you serve it matters and use a traditional recipe and you get beans stew with the rosemary and olive oil and chopped shallots or onions in there. I mean it's going to taste really good. Alright, trust me on this. I can make that myself. And what it does is that that dietary fiber feed your gut microbiome, your healthy gut bacteria, thank you for doing it. And they release the substances that help to streamline your metabolism so you use your energy more efficiently. Alright, so middle aisle, oh, another group of foods in the middle aisle that get bypassed. Obviously dried fruits, you can actually get cranberries, blueberries, apricots, you can get in the middle aisle. But here's something that a lot of people don't pay any attention to, and that is tinned seafood. What? Tinned seafood.

(01:20:23):

Okay,

Mel Robbins (01:20:24):

What am I doing with seafood? Dr. Li?

 Dr. William Li (01:20:26):

Now follow me on this, right when I was a kid and if I saw a round can of tuna fish, now I've been to my friend's house often enough when I was a kid, one of those things get opened up, it smells fishy and it smelled just like wet cat food.

Mel Robbins (01:20:43):

Yes.

 Dr. William Li (01:20:44):

So I'd stay away from that stuff like my whole life. Then when I was doing my research, I realized that I was wrong. And that tin seafood is a delicacy in the Mediterranean with really healthy diets. And they call them conserv, like they're conserving it, they're preserving it. They catch fish on a boat. It could be squid, it could be mackerel, it could be sardines, it could be tuna, it could be a whole bunch of different kinds of fish. They cook it right away, they steam it and then they pack it in extra virgin olive oil. So now the fish has got omega healthy. Omega threes good for your metabolism, helps you burn harmful body fat. Now they're packing in olive oil. Now it's nice and moist and olive oil's got the hydroxy rosol and all canol that helps activate your brown fat. Then they chop up little herbs and flavoring seasoning and they put it into a tin. And the reason they did that in the Mediterranean is because in the months they couldn't go out fishing,

(01:21:48):

They would actually want to have omega threes. Now, they didn't call them omega threes, they just call them protein and they call them delicious local foods. But if you go to Spain, Portugal, south of France, Italy, Greece, and you go look at some of their little food stores by the water, by the shore, they will actually, you'll have stores packed with these conservatives and they are delicious. Fastest lunch I've ever had is you get a hunk of sourdough bread sourdough because it's a fermented probiotic food. The sourness of sourdough bread comes from a bacteria called lactobacillus, makes lactic acid, which gives you the tangy sour of sourdough bread. It's great for you hunk of sourdough bread. Reach into my pantry, pull out a tin of conserv, pop it open with a fork. And I've got myself really deliciously when I open some pickles or something. Now you get some more fermentative foods. That's a way of getting a really tasty mouth watering lunch. And what I do, by the way, at night, if I am so busy, I don't have time to cook dinner, but I'm hungry and I'm like, oh, I got to eat something, but I didn't plan dinner or I miss dinner, what do I do?

(01:23:09):

I'll take a pot, boil some water, I'll look for some good pasta, ideally organic pasta. I'll boil it up. Okay, I'll take a stainless steel pan. And you know what I do? I heat it up with a little extra virgin olive oil and I will crack open a tin seafood thing. It might be macro sardines, could be anything. Okay, clams, squid. And I will just cut those up real briefly and I'll slop throw them right into the cooked pasta, heat it up, take a little tube of double concentrated tomato paste, a little squirt in there, flip it around a couple of times. And man, my whole house smells great. And now I've gotten like a gourmet meal. I just made myself with conserv you find in the middle aisle of the grocery store.

Mel Robbins (01:23:56):

And more importantly, all of those things help me lose weight.

Dr. William Li (01:24:00):

And they're not expensive.

Mel Robbins (01:24:01):

Yes.

Dr. William Li (01:24:01):

Okay, so this is

Mel Robbins (01:24:02):

Dr. Li. That's the trifecta.

Dr. William Li (01:24:05):

That's right. So again, middle aisle, it's got lots of good stuff. You got to filter out all the bad stuff. But go for the good stuff that you can actually find. That to me is really the important thing is that my message is that you should really try to align the foods that you love to eat, that research has discovered, can help you burn body fat, improve your metabolism, help you stay healthier, get to that next level of health and eat reasonable amounts of it. Prepare it with the other ingredients that are actually going to light up your health and just enjoy.

Mel Robbins (01:24:38):

I love that. Dr. Li, you have been so generous and so passionate, and I feel unbelievably empowered by everything that you've shared with us. And I know that the person that's listening is like, okay, what do I do? What do I do? This is a lot. What do I do? So for the person listening who wants to lose weight, who would like to really focus on simple steps to take to unlocking the power of your metabolism and losing some weight this year and just generally being healthier, what are the top three things that you would recommend the person listening do immediately starting today in order to achieve those goals? Using your research?

Dr. William Li (01:25:24):

It's going to be a lot easier than you think. Great.

(01:25:27):

First thing is for your beverages, don't drink anything except for or coffee, tea, or water. Okay, now I drink coffee all day long. Don't put dairy milk in it. You can use nut milk, okay is fine. Dairy contains saturated fats, but more importantly, those saturated fats bind to the good bioactives in coffee and tea. And then you don't actually absorb them, they just kind of get flushed down your system. So for beverages, alright, eliminate all the beverages for water, coffee, and tea. That's one thing that you can do immediately. The second thing that I would actually say is cut down or cut out on ultra processed foods. Now, ultra processed foods, basically foods made by a factory containing 20 or more ingredients, most of which you can't pronounce. And you don't know why they're in there. It's that old saying that your grandmother wouldn't recognize 'em as food and they don't look like the original food that they were.

(01:26:31):

It sounds like it's not punitive, it's just that if it comes in a box or it can, and it's got to read the ingredient label, if it seems like it's not the kind of food that you'd recognize, you couldn't make it yourself. You can't make animal crackers yourself at home. Most people can't. That's an ultra processed food. Cut down or cut out those. Alright? And instead swap 'em in with what I would say plant-based foods. I'm not telling you to be a vegan, I'm saying just start adding some things that are more in the veggie side of things. And it doesn't have to be even green green's good. Definitely eat green, but it could be colorful red, eat the rainbow as they say. That's good. That's a swap in that is actually in with the good stuff. And then cut down or cut out the other stuff.

(01:27:21):

That's the second thing. And the third thing I would actually say is don't eat too much. Alright? Eat slowly so you can actually pay attention to your body signals. Eat what you eat, what tastes good to you, like your preferences. But don't eat too fast. Let your body signal to you when you're satisfied. But before you're full, I'm good. We've had that right? I mean, you're eating with friends and they want you to keep on eating and you're like, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. That's what you want to aim for. Not that I'm full, I'm full. I'm good. Thanks. I'm good. Aim for that. Alright? Because that actually limiting the volume that you eat is going to be a big start for helping your own hard wiring start to burn down that extra body fat along with the plant-based foods along with the coffee and a tea.

(01:28:15):

And by the way, even water, cold water can actually help you burn down body fat by increasing your metabolism. You know why? Because cold water in the core of your stomach, the core temperature, guess what triggers your brown fat? Oh, it's cold. That must be hibernating. Let's go ahead and fire up that brown fat. So you'll start to burn down some extra body fat just by drinking cold water. So those are good food related things. And then I would say, and this is the topic for a whole other conversation, is like get in motion. I'm not telling you don't have to hire a trainer. You don't have to go to an expensive gym. You don't have to buy workout equipment for your basement when you've got other things to do with your money. But stay in motion. Go for a walk. You got a bike, go for a ride. You got a friend. Go out and gossip with your friend and go for a walk outdoors. That's the thing you want to do. Those things burn down energy. They take energy, they consume your fuel. Food by alone is very, very helpful. Food plus movement, exercise, really good. Those are two things, a double barreled approach that anybody can do very, very easily.

Mel Robbins (01:29:28):

How can following your advice about the food to add into your diet this year, improve the quality of your life?

 Dr. William Li (01:29:36):

Oh, listen, if you felt that some of the foods I was talking about, major mouth water, then that following this kind of advice is going to make you appreciate your food. Okay? And by the way, by when you appreciate your food, your quality of life automatically increases, right? So this is what I always tell people like, oh man, I don't know if I could eat healthy food. And what I tell people is, go to your local Mediterranean or Asian restaurant and just get the menu. Come back home with a magic marker, probably don't steal the menu. Ask if you could borrow one at home and just circle the foods that you actually like. And then I will tell you, it's very easy to find the ingredients in those foods that light up your metabolism, that can help you burn down body fat. And don't eat too much of it. Just savor it.

 Dr. William Li (01:30:33):

The same words I started with? Love your food. To love your health. That's my big belief. I think that everyone can have joyful eating if you follow your preferences and just be mindful that you should just really enjoy and savor the healthy food that you already love.

Mel Robbins (01:30:54):

I am going to tell you what I love. I love you Dr. Li. I know the audience is just going to go crazy over everything you just taught us. And so I absolutely have to have you come back and talk about metabolism. And if you love spending time with Dr. Li, I'm going to tell you something I want you to send your questions in. Just go to mel robbins.com or put 'em in the comments below. But mel robbins.com is the best place to put 'em because I know that you are going to want more from him. So Dr. Li, we are going to have you back. I'll make sure that we bring the audience questions, but I just cannot thank you enough for spending some time with us here in our Boston studios and really truly empowering us with everything that you just shared.

 Dr. William Li (01:31:37):

Thanks for having me,

Mel Robbins (01:31:39):

Dr. Li. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I also want to thank you. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to something that is going to improve your health. And I wanted to be sure to tell you in case nobody else does today, that I love you and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And there is zero doubt in my mind that if you take everything to heart that Dr. Li shared with both you and me and you try it, you're not only going to feel better, you're going to get healthier. And that is going to help you live a better life. Alrighty, I'll be waiting for you in the very next episode. And I want to thank you for being here and listening and watching all the way to the end here on YouTube. And didn't you just love him? I loved him so much. And you know what else I would love? I would love it if you would hit subscribe because it really supports me and I know you're the kind of person that loves supporting the people that support you. And it tells us that you love these videos. And if you want another one, I'll be waiting for you in this one as soon as you hit play.