Good Food Choices Q&A

00:00 Well, welcome to tonight’s Ask Europe Doctor. My name is Andrew Murray. And my name’s Sarah Johanneson Murray. For those of you who perhaps never listen to the shows, they run every third Friday of the month from 7 to 8 p.m. We’re both licensed medical herbalists who graduated in England with a master’s degree in herbal medicine. We provide a wide range of medicinal herb extracts from our own CCF certified herb farm. And we consult with clients all over the states on wide ranging subjects, many of which we’ve discussed on the show even. So once again, very pleased to have Dr. Ray Pete with us to share his wisdom. Just got his latest newsletter. He does produce pretty prodigious amounts of written work. And I know some people sign up for his newsletters and I know there’s been a bit of a shortage with his newsletters in terms of reaching the production that’s necessary to fill people’s desires. So that’s good news, but bad news in some ways. So Dr. Pete, are you on the line with us? 01:01 Yes. Okay, great. What I think I want to do is just let people know that the show does run 8 to 8 o’clock. It’s a live program. And I just want to let people know that normally we open the lines from 7.30 to 8 o’clock. But just like to bring that point open now where if people want to call in, because I’ve got some questions here from previous shows that people haven’t been able to get on air to ask the questions and they’ve written them to me, emailed them to me. So I’ve compiled several of them and there are others I know that are out there that perhaps if they listen to the show now they might want to call in any time. So the number if you want to call in, if you live in the area, there’s a 7.07 number. That’s our area code 707-923-3911. And for those people, and I was written to by a gentleman in Australia earlier on today, said he’s had trouble getting through to the internet line. But there is an 800 number. It’s 1-800-568-3723. 02:05 Although international callers would want to use the 707-923-3911 number. That’s correct. Or if I’m not too sure what people do with internet-based calls to the show. I’m not too sure if that’s… What happened? People call in on Skype numbers? No. Okay. So there’s the 800 number, 800-568-3723 or a local number 707-923-3911. Okay. So for tonight’s show, we’re going to open up parts of previous shows based on inflammation and Dr. Pete’s current work looking at autoimmunity, linking that to estrogen, linking that to inflammation, and how the whole concept of cell energy is something that he’s constantly advocating with thyroid hormone as one of the pillars, not forgetting things like progesterone, pregnalone, vitamin D, obviously there’s plenty of other supplements and nutraceuticals 03:06 that we’re going to be mentioning as we go on. But Dr. Pete, would you just in case people that tune in, get them fairly consistently, they’ve heard the show for the first time, or they heard the podcast for the first time, they’ve heard a view for the first time, and I was speaking or rather was written to by a lady who first discovered your works in 1990 and has been following your advice ever since. So there’s a wide spectrum of people. Would you just outline your background, your professional and academic background? I’m a PhD study at the University of Oregon at 1968 to 72. Before that I had been a graduate student and teacher in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, English Lit, among other things. And I see one of your questions from last month, I think was about the trophoblast theory of cancer. 04:08 And just when I was starting in my biology study in 1968, I had known a famous old cancer genetics researcher, Leonel Strong. And he was studying the curability of cancer, memory cancer in the strains of my city developed by different types of liver extract. And in thinking about that I realized that there might be an overlap with the work he was doing with the old John Beard trophoblast theory of cancer, which was behind the late trial treatment. Oh, from almond seeds, OK. And the late trial activates a process that its proponents saw just as a poison 05:17 for the cancer cells. But since it involved activation by the enzyme beta glucuronidase, which happens to be an enzyme that activates estrogen, I saw a link with Leonel Strong’s work in which the cancer-prone animals inherited from their mother’s prenatal gestational conditions. They inherited a tendency to have high estrogen. And when he used a liver extract, the animals that he treated with a liver extract not only didn’t get cancer themselves, but their offspring for several generations didn’t get cancer. And was that because of the vitamin B6 in the liver helping their… He believed it was one of the nucleotide fractions 06:18 that has analogs in the mainline cancer chemotherapy, but he believed it was stabilizing the DNA. But my impression was that there were anti-estrogenic substances in the liver, and some of them were also the nucleotides that Leonel Strong was talking about. But anyway, the trophoblast theory, even though I think it’s wrong in its details, it’s extremely rich in its overlap with the actual facts of how cancer develops. So the estrogen factor that Leonel Strong was working on and the role of enzymes such as beta glucuronidase, the lateral theory was based on overlap with the trophoblast theory. 07:24 And the main treatment that people used going by the beard trophoblast theory, the pancreatic enzyme or extract of the pancreas were the main part of that therapy. Okay, so I have a couple of questions that I wanted to ask you about. What you just said is your statement. You mentioned now the product lateral that some people listening might recognize as the seed kernel extract from almonds. Not apricots. Apricots, sorry. Apricots. Okay, so wasn’t the rationale for that that it would break down the sugar linkage and release cyanide? And that’s how it was kind of a… Yeah, that was the KREBS idea that it was poisoning. Right, right. His theory was very nice, except there was a theory for the lateral that he defined 08:29 as the glucuronide, the molecule that he published had the glucuronic acid on it, which would be specifically released by cancer cells, well, by any inflamed cell, but would be poisonous only to cancer cells because they lack the ability to detoxify cyanide. Right, right. Now isn’t beta-glucuronidase an enzyme that breaks down the beta-linkages, sugar-linkages? Yeah, and the glucuronic acid happens to be how toxic substances are detoxified for excretion by the liver through the kidneys. Estrogen glucuronide is the excreted, one of the main excreted forms. It can be sulfate or glucuronide, mainly. Okay. 09:30 And I have a great liver mushroom pate recipe. People want to make that for the holidays. And the mushrooms have anti-estrogen compounds in them, too, if you boil them down really well before you cook the liver with it. Yeah, we mentioned the, or you’ve mentioned in the past here, the button mushroom extract, which has been used as an aromatase inhibitor. So that’s another interesting point. We wanted to get in later on tying these things together because there are lots of different herbs that have compounds in them that show anti-aromatase activity. And that’s very interesting in the concept of treating cancers. There are plenty of literature out there from Native American cultures to cultures from other countries that use different herbs for carcinomas in situ, for skin cancers, for, you know, solid cancers, abdominal, et cetera, organ-based cancers. And it seems like quite a few of the instances that there is an aromatase inhibiting activity within that herb, 10:35 that’s probably, probably would best explain by your understanding and what you’ve written, and that would be a estrogen suppressing effect. I guess we’ll get into that a little bit later on, but I just want to run these questions by you from people who have tried to call in previous shows. And the number again, if you live in the area 707-923-3911, the 800 number is 800-568-3723. Dr. Ray Pete’s joining us once more. And if you want to email me for the liver pate recipe, it’s Sarah. S-A-R-A-H at westernbotanicalmedicine.com. All right. So I had a couple of questions based on sugars. And one of them was, does dextrinization and protein coagulation change complex carbs into simple sugars? Do you know much about this dextrinization? Yeah, it is a process that has been used for about 200 years. 11:40 The first form of it was basically what they used to make carousel syrup, corn syrup, boiling corn starch with sulfuric acid. It makes a pale, almost clear syrup, but the longer you cook it and the harsher the acidic or basic conditions are, the browner it gets. And the, written early, when you talk about a browning reaction, molasses, they know that the brown stuff in molasses is mutagenic. Just like any charred carbohydrate is, right, or charred starch or sugar? Yeah. And generally, when you sort out the corn starch from the germ, 12:43 you’re still getting enzymes and there are amino groups spread throughout the starch, part of the grain, and those amino groups participate in the classical browning reaction that makes these mutagenic carcinogens which have a brown color. So the dextrinization produces some dextrose, some simple sugars, but that’s a matter of how sweet and liquid it is or how viscous and gummy it is, depending on how far you carry the breakdown reaction. So on average, dextrons are considered to have mainly groups of glucose molecules that are around 10 molecules long, about 5 to 10 or 15. 13:52 All right. So this is a process in that could change complex carbs into relatively simple sugars, but not so simple because the simple sugars, obviously, are things like glucose, fructose, sucrose, et cetera, just single unit subunits or two. The gumminess of it corresponds to the amount of starch left in it, broken up starch, turns the solid starch into a semi-liquid gummy material. Got it. So like cane juice, if anyone has ever had cane sugar juice, fresh juice, it’s very thin, very, very thin. There’s basically zero starch in that, right? The refined cane sugar? Oh, no, just if you have like fresh cane juice. Sugar cane, yeah. Or you just, they juice the sugar cane and they give you a little… Yeah, the sugar… It’s very thin. It contains sucrose itself, so you don’t need to process that. 14:54 Right, but I’m just saying that’s why cane juice is so thin, whereas corn syrup is so thick because it still has a starch in it. Yeah. All right. And just to recap there, anything really to do with temperature and starches involving caramelization is, it can definitely be termed as carcinogenic in terms of the makeup of the caramelized products. Yeah, at least as far as the combination with amino groups and amino acids and proteins, those are the best known. The burnt toast? Yeah, acrylamide turns up and every time you heat a natural carbohydrate that contains traces of amino acids or proteins. And in the absence of the amino acids instead of acrylamide, you probably get small amounts of acrylion, 15:56 which is another very toxic carcinogenic material. And what about protein like meat and eggs when they brown? Is that also carcinogenic? There are traces of sugar in those, and so you do get some of the same compound. All right, well, another question was, do amylase or amylopsin help change complex carbs into sugars? I know amylase, but I’m not too familiar with amylopsin. Yeah, that’s just a pancreatic amylase. All right, so this is that amylase would be like a salivary amylase. Yeah. Okay, all right, so that was those two questions. I had some other questions from another person based on diet and recommendations for diet. They’ve been a long-time listener, and they were also quite aware of your favourites in terms of foods 16:59 from basic orange juice to your constant advocation of carrots, grated carrots, and coffee for B vitamins. In terms of general nutrition, I just wanted to recap for those people that maybe haven’t listened too much before, but in terms of calories for a female, what would you rate as being generally acceptable calories for relatively sedentary type work just so we can understand those people that perhaps they look at their food, caloric intake, they’ll probably recognise they’re getting far too many calories and what is actually realistic to burn in somebody’s healthy metabolism versus the calories they’re getting from food. So what do you think is caloric intake for a female? Oh, 2,000 is a ballpark. Okay. You can be very sedentary and still burn close to 3,000, and some people can be moderately active and get along on 1,700, 18:03 and lots of people now are hypothyroid enough that they can move around with extraordinary daily activity and still gain weight on 700 or 800 calories. So you really have to look at your metabolic rate. And also if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, I know when I was full-time breastfeeding, I think I probably ate 3,000 a day. And didn’t gain weight? No, maintained weight. Okay, how about proteins in terms of someone’s intake for a female, for example? The military did a big study on people mostly of military age in their 20s. Both men and women of all the different sizes that are in the military and found that to do just ordinary work, office work or whatever, 19:05 both men and women needed at least 100 grams of good protein every day. But you see lots of people getting by on 25 or 30 grams. I’ve known people always with pretty serious symptoms who were getting only 20 or even less grams per day. Right. Now, do you expect things like tissue repair to be poor, muscle mass, obviously not to be in evidence, and difficulty maintaining skin, nails, hair, that kind of thing with low protein intake? Yeah. And it’s hard if you’re a meat eater, you could say, oh, it’s easy, but then you don’t want to eat that much meat. You don’t want to be eating meat three times a day. It’s too much meat intake. So then you really have to rely on eggs, which you can’t eat any more than two eggs a day because they contain some poofa. And so then you’re left with dairy. So really, I think dairy is the primary source of protein that’s healthy for people to be getting. 20:08 Yeah. Well, I know you advocate gelatin a lot in terms of protein content and broths. But that’s not going to make up to 100 grams of protein when one 8-ounce glass of milk has 8 grams. Okay. And then what do you recommend for sugars? It really depends on your digestion, your intestinal health. When I was in Mexico, I saw a lot of nutritionists trying to justify a bean and rice-based diet. And there are lots of reasons that you can’t get along very well even though the amino acids seem to be equivalent to protein. It turns out that potatoes are infinitely better than beans as a source of protein. But that requires, either of those, require that your intestine be in fairly good health 21:10 because the complex carbohydrates of either of those can support bacterial growth if you have a sluggish digestion. Now, hang on. Are we talking about juicing potatoes and cooking it? No. Yeah, if people were going to eat potatoes as a source of protein, they better have a pretty strong intestinal wall. Otherwise, all that starch will irritate them. Yeah, because I know you advocate potato juice and use that in a double boiler to make it kind of scramble. That’s actually starch-free, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s for people who have a digestive problem but still need a very high-quality protein. Okay, so just to recap, in terms of the amount of grams of sugar for somebody in a day to be… These studies that I’ve written about in the late 1800s, they found that diabetics were putting out about 12 ounces of sugar in extreme terminal diabetics. 22:13 They had about 12 ounces of sugar in their urine every day as glucose. And so they reasoned that they would die less quickly if they replaced that amount of sugar that they were losing. And so they gave them a regular diet plus 10 or 12 ounces of plain white sugar and found that instead of dying more slowly, they got well. And so it depends on what stress your system is under. Huge amounts of sugar like that can be curative if you’re under stress and need something to compensate for the stress. But if your digestive system is very healthy, you can get along just with starch instead of sugar. But you still need a few hundred grams of carbohydrate 23:14 either at starch or sugar every day. Yeah. So like I… We had a client who had broken his knee and ankle and had very extensive surgery. And he was needing, I think, up to 400… I think a pound of sugar a day in various forms. Marshmallows and homemade marshmallows. Sugar in the milk in order to sleep to lower the amount of stress as he was recovering when he got out of the hospital. That was what he needed to sleep. And of course he weaned himself off of that when he got better. But initially that was very curative for his sleep and his healing. I’ve seen similar things in people with cancer or just extreme old age insomnia when they drank a little syrup-like concentrate of sugar in milk or ate a bowl of ice cream during the middle of the night, they could get back to sleep. Yeah. He went from not sleeping at all like waking every hour 24:15 and just completely restless and in pain to sleeping all through the night just from increasing his sugar. Okay. So in terms of a daily diet, and I get this question pretty often in terms of it’s new to people and so they think initially the diet is pretty restrictive. We’ve kind of produced a three-page what they’re about breakdown of foods that we know from you and what you’ve researched that is healthy, thyroid supportive, anti-inflammatory foods and those kind of foods that are definitely to be avoided. Obviously, the polyunsaturates which really kicked off this entire thing with you with us seven years ago. In terms of, I even ask you personally, what kind of foods that you would typically eat just to throw that out there and then we’ll break down some of the foods here that may be not obvious that people probably don’t eat too much of that. 25:19 They don’t know they can because it probably sounds like it’s either fattening or sugary or too problematic from another perspective. But what kind of foods do you typically gravitate towards that keep you going? Two or three quarts of milk up to a gallon of milk per day, usually one percent. And usually one big egg fried in butter typically and orange juice as much as is available if it’s good. At least a pint, preferably more good sweet orange juice. And typically about once a week, some oysters or some liver, almost every day some kind of gelatinous soup, 26:21 pale soup or sometimes chicken soup with all the fat skimmed off. Okay, all right. That’s kind of key ingredients. So Sarah, I mean, because the person asked, they said they were very aware from listening to you and having, they came across you in the early 90s, they said, and they’ve been paying attention to you ever since in terms of your books and newsletters. But what they were asking for, which was kind of, in some ways it was a little strange because they thought by now they would have recognized all the kind of foods that you do gravitate towards. But we’ve produced a pretty extensive list of those foods that are thyroid suppressive that people don’t always recognize, whether it’s beans, nuts, seeds, you know, and kind of typical polyunsaturated rich foods that would have a thyroid suppressing effect. But I know Sarah’s a very good cook and you do make some excellent food and so I’m very, very lucky to have that. 27:22 So I don’t ever find there’s any shortage of variation. I mean, every now and again, obviously, we eat lots of different cheeses. We drink a lot of milk and ice juice. We eat milk powder pancakes every morning that I make ahead of time, so I don’t have to make them every day. And that’s a pretty easy recipe if you can find some good, organic, non-fat milk powder. How often do you eat the milk powder pancakes, Dr. Pete? Oh, every day when we have the powder supply then we run out of it and don’t eat them for a few months. Now I know what to get you for Christmas, Dr. Pete. So, yeah, we usually have one meal. I try to tell my clients that if you split your meals up into proteins, you’re going to have your liver or your oysters or your meat or your broth because it doesn’t have to be heavy on the protein side. Then you want to have that with one meal. You want to have your dairy, like whether it’s cottage cheese or homemade ricotta cheese, 28:24 which is really easy to make, or your milk powder pancakes, and you can make them savory too and grill them with melted cheese on top. Also, you can do Greek yogurts. There’s some good, organic Greek yogurts that are very, very high protein and not sour. And then you have your egg meal. And I tend to like eggs for lunch rather than breakfast because of the blood sugar-lowering effect of the eggs. I feel it’s nicer to have something sweeter like a pancake for breakfast with coffee rather than having eggs with coffee because both of those things lower your blood sugar. And then all the bone broths and the types of meats that are certainly good for you in terms of not being purely muscle meats like brisket has an excellent saturated fat layer on it. And then lamb shanks are nice to roast. Oxtail, like Dr. Pete talked about, that’s very gelatinous. Otherwise, if you have ground meat, I just sprinkle a little extra gelatin in there 29:26 and maybe some leftover drippings from a roast I made to moisten it up and to give a little extra gelatin. Okay, anyway, but that was one of the questions asked by somebody. And incidentally, if people want to contact us any time Monday through Friday, you can either write, best thing to do actually is probably write an email to either Andrew or Sarah at westernmetanicalmedicine.com and we do have a pretty extensive sheet that we’ve produced, about three pages or so. And it’s pretty much based around thyroid supporting and thyroid suppressive food, so it gives a pretty good overview. And for sugars, I mentioned the proteins for sugars. I like to use honey. We have our own bees and that’s great to get a good raw honey. Otherwise, there’s lots of honey available. And sugar and milk or orange juice, honey or sugar and milk, orange juice, ice cream, fruit when it’s in season. Right now, we’re getting some really good little tangerines and satsumas. We have a bunch of apples from our tree 30:28 that are really ripe. It’s just important when you eat fruit that it’s from an organic source and it’s a ripe source. I know, Dr. Pete, you talk about how a ripe apple can be okay, but an unripe apple that was picked unripe can be very disturbing to the intestines. Lots of the fruit in supermarkets aren’t properly ripened. Even plums are sometimes hard to digest and allergenic. And things like dried prunes, so you have to experiment with them because a lot of them will give you gas. Dried fruit will give you gas and it’s just something’s wrong. I don’t know what goes on with dried fruit. What do they do wrong? They use unripe fruit before they dry it, Dr. Pete? I think so. When the polymers haven’t broken down, they will feed bacteria rather than the person. So you’ll know whether it’s easy to digest because if it isn’t and it’s not good for you, you’ll be getting gas. Isn’t that a pretty good rule of thumb, Dr. Pete? Yep. Okay, we’re getting on to another question. 31:29 One more thing I just want to mention is milk. It’s a very good source of high quality sugar lactose. So, you know, one glass of milk has 12 grams of sugar. One glass of orange juice has 25. So you can add extra sugar to your milk to make up your quota. And I basically say 150 grams a day is like a diet level. Wouldn’t you say so, Dr. Pete? Yeah. Well, for an active person, for someone sedentary, maybe that’s the right amount to maintain. Yeah, and the lactose in milk is famous for helping to absorb the calcium, but some studies indicate that fructose or sucrose can serve the same purpose. And spare the calcium in your diet so you can be deficient slightly in calcium and make it up by having enough sugar to keep the stress down so you don’t waste your calcium. And also, Dr. Pete, you said that people who think that their lactose intolerant, because when they drink milk, 32:30 they get terrible gas. And in digestion, you can re… not re… almost retrain your digestion, but basically remanufactured lactase so you can break down the lactose. It’s just if you’re not drinking milk, your body will stop producing the enzyme to break it down. It’s as simple as that, just science. And especially if a person is hypothyroid in the intestine, it has trouble producing enough enzymes. And also has trouble producing enough stomach acid and all sorts of digestive problems you’ll develop with hypothyroidism. So if you just take a tablespoon a day and if you’re really sensitive, you can start with, like, a half a teaspoon or a teaspoon. And every day increase it. Within a month, you’ll have a full spectrum of enzymes because that’s what it takes. If you’ve studied pharmacology, you’ll learn that it takes a month to fully manufacture the amount of enzymes. But, Dr. Pete, you were saying that it might only take two weeks. Yeah, especially if your thyroid is good, you can change your enzymes more quickly. 33:32 And then the more you drink, the more enzyme you’ll make and you’ll be able to adjust to it. So it’s not like you can’t ever eat dairy or eat cheese or drink milk again. I just had another question here I wanted to get by. It’s pretty quick. It won’t take too long. I’m not too sure where they were going with it. But red LEDs, I know we’ve done shows on red light. They wanted to know if red LEDs would be sufficient for red lights as opposed to the 250-watt heat lamps that normally we’re recommending. Probably. At least some of the wavelengths are enough to reactivate the respiratory enzyme. And that’s one of the best-known but crucial effects of sunlight, incandescent light, and some of the LEDs. The respiratory enzyme copper atom in the darkness, 34:36 it tends to be displaced from the enzyme, causing failure of the respiratory system. And the red light has just the right amount of energy to move the copper back into its proper oxidizing position. Okay, cool. So red LEDs will work. And then if people have them, that’s all well and good. Otherwise, red light from a good source 250-watt heat lamp. Okay, we have our first caller here. So let’s take this next call and see where you’re from calling. What’s the question? Hello, you’re on the air. We can hear your TV, so we know you’re there. Hello? Yeah, hi, you’re on the air. Hi. Okay, I want to know what you think about being a vegan. Vegan eating? Go ahead, yeah. I’ll let Dr. Pete answer the question. You know, it’s very popular now. 35:37 Being a vegan means you don’t eat anything from an animal. Is there any way you can eat that way and be healthy and get enough protein and vitamin B and all that? Yeah, let’s let Dr. Pete answer it. I’ve got personal experience with this, but I know Dr. Pete’s got a lot more. The closest you can come to it would be eating potatoes and mushrooms. Mushrooms are very similar to animal protein, and your intestine can make vitamin B12, which is sometimes deficient in a vegan diet. And so with the trace minerals of mushrooms and the high-quality proteins and vitamins of potatoes, you can do pretty well, but most vegans don’t do very well. What do you think they’re really deficient in, Dr. Pete, in terms of… Oh, calcium. Yeah, there you go. 36:39 They break bones too easily once they get to be 60 or 70. Well, what is the advantage to being a vegan? I think it’s usually an ethical thing. They don’t like to bother their animal neighbors by eating them. There you go. It’s mainly an ethical consideration. Oh, yeah, they don’t want to eat killed animals from big agribusiness and that sort of thing, but living in a country, you can have your own goats and chickens and that sort of thing. And raise everything you want. Other than that, from a health point of view, it doesn’t seem very healthy at all. And I want to say that there was no natural, indigenous cultures, let’s say, that were vegan. There were some that are vegetarian in very hot countries where I guess it’s hard to preserve meat and there’s lots of fruit available and there’d be a different balance if it’s really a hot country. 37:43 But there’s no place where you’re going to find a vegan diet among indigenous people, is that true? Some people have studied the Fulani people of Africa and found that they were pretty close to vegan, but very sick, lots of heart disease. So you mean from the atheroma, from some kind of polyunsaturated damage? Probably because of the calcium deficiency. Calcium is good for your heart? Very, very important for your heart. How much calcium do you need a day? 2000 milligrams a day, which is basically two quarts of milk, so you can break that down if you wanted to do yogurt, cottage cheese. I take additional eggshell powder from my own eggs, ground up in a coffee grinder as fine as you can get them. One quarter teaspoon is about 600 milligrams. Coffee has calcium? No, sorry, I grind the eggshell in a coffee grinder to make powder. 38:47 But coffee has some minerals in it. Yeah, you say that coffee is good. I drink a cup of coffee every morning. Good, I think three or four would be better, but not in the morning. But anyway, thanks for your call. Thank you. Okay, we have another call on the air. Let’s take this call away from and watch the question. Spiroch, I was wondering about the correlation of a high dairy allergy, and I’m also a vegan. So what will I do for calcium and protein besides the potato every day? What about eggshells? Oh. I was just talking, would you do eggshells or not because that’s from an animal? Yeah. Oyster shell wise, another animal I guess. Hard to swallow, isn’t it? But you can put it in capsules. I just swallow it down with a little water. It kind of forms a little bolus and it’s easy to swallow it once. You can’t get it from vegetables. Well, you can boil greens. Leafy greens, if you cook them thoroughly and save the water, are a good source of calcium and magnesium. 39:48 How much do you think you would have to eat? If you’re strictly vegan and this is how you’re going to get your calcium. About a pound, I think. Okay. You’d have to boil a pound down a day and then drink all that water? I think so. And another way to help get the minerals out of the greens, especially those with oxalic acid, but even with kale, is put baking soda in it. Okay. And that helps neutralize oxalic acid because oxalic acid that’s in spinach and charred blocks your absorption of the calcium. Okay. And you’ll notice they cook much quicker. The liquid goes very dark colored because of the minerals that are leaching out of the cellulose leaf into the… What about the protein intake? The protein, I mean, the fruit does have some protein, the potatoes. How many pounds of potatoes would you have to eat a day, Dr. Pete, to get? Would you say five pounds? Five pounds. Yeah, there you go. So you could eat five pounds of potatoes or you could juice those potatoes better still if you didn’t want to physically eat the bulk of five pounds of potatoes. 40:50 And are a lot of nuts bad for you? Say that again? Nuts. Nuts bad for you? No. Well, yeah, nuts have a lot of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are very estrogenic. So a lot of nuts is not good. That’s correct. And better to have more seeds. Seeds and nuts are both very high in polyunsaturated fatty acid. They’re not a great source of protein. I mean, what do you think about the protein and nuts compared to the protein and beans and legumes, Dr. Pete? Well, some of them are slightly better. But the only nuts that I know of that are fairly safe for the fats would be the macadamias. They’re pretty saturated fat. Macadamias are the better ones? Yes. I don’t know what the protein content of macadamia nuts are, though. Yeah, it isn’t very high. Okay. Well, thank you for your call, Paula. Thank you. 41:51 Okay. And just a side note about that potato juice. I have made it. Have you made it, Dr. Pete, too? Were you scrambled the potato juice? What was that? Were you juice the potatoes and then you separate it from the starch and you scramble it? Yeah. It’s pretty tasty. Oh, yeah. It tastes pretty much like mashed potatoes when you put butter on it. Right. And if you let the potato juice, I noticed I had to let it settle. So all the starch went to the bottom and you can tell. Like, you know, if you put cornstarch with water, the starch falls to the bottom and you can feel it. It’s starchy. So with potato juice, it’s the same way. The starch falls to the bottom and you have this juice on top and you just pour that juice that’s on the top. But you have to let it settle. Don’t use it right away. And it’s almost, it’s all protein, isn’t it, pretty much? Well, once the water’s gone. Yeah, yeah. But the slimy part of the juice is it should be sort of like egg white depending on the type of potato. Some of it is very gelatinous and cooks easily. 42:53 The others are kind of watery and you get a mushy mashed potato effect. So it’s probably the waxy versus the flowery potato. Okay. We have another caller here. Let’s take this next caller. A caller where are you from? And what’s your question? Bob and Willis. Willis. Hi. What’s your question? Yeah. We got, we got involved with fermented vegetables, cabbage and all kinds of fermented vegetables. We’re doing it ourselves and it’s just terrific. And it, it really strings up the floor in your, in your gut and throws your whole digestive tract. Yeah. What do you think about fermented vegetables? And I’ll take the answer off the air. Okay. Thanks for your call. Dr. Pete, did you hear that caller’s question? Not most of it. Fermented what? Vegetables. He said he’s been getting into making his own fermented vegetables. And what do you think about that? Oh, some of them taste very nice like sauerkraut. But I don’t think there is a much nutritional value in them. 43:58 And there’s a risk of getting bad fungus contamination in them. In, in Asia where fermented vegetables are very popular, they’ve seen a lot of stomach and throat cancer that they think comes from the fungal contamination of fermented vegetables. And what about the lactic acid content? Lactic acid puts a burden on your liver to turn back into glucose. It takes more energy than you, you get out of the glucose. So you think it’s more nutritious to boil the vegetables rather than ferment them? Yeah. And what about the pro, the caller also mentioned about the gut bacteria, the probiotics. The small intestine I think is best when it’s cleanest. A very vigorous people with, with good digestion and high thyroid function have almost a sterile 45:02 small intestine from the, from their mouth to their appendix. Basically, there’s nothing growing. So they get a chance to absorb all of the nutrients without competing with bacteria. Then in the healthy person, the bacteria grow just in the colon. So you don’t want to support bacterial growth higher up in your intestine. The H. pylori, pylori is an example of much too high in the digestive system for bacteria to live. I just had a throat swab done and it was a, they couldn’t find anything in my throat swab. So the doctor said there’s something wrong because your mouth is sterile. Anyway, we have another caller. I just wanted to put out the number again for those people that listen to the show. It’s seven to eight o’clock here. Dr. Ray Pete’s very kindly joining us again. 46:03 Okay. Number is 707-923-3911 or 800 number for those folks in different parts of the states. 1-800-568-3723. So we have another caller on the air caller. What’s your question away from? Yes. Colorado. Colorado. Welcome. How would I find out if my methylation is interfering with my vitamin D absorption? I tried a therapeutic dose, a higher therapeutic dose of 12,000 I use for a couple of months and I did bring the level up to 73, but my symptoms persisted that I’m trying to figure out what to, what to do. I went from 30 to 73. Okay. Trouble. So Dr. Pete, did you hear that? The line’s not that great. I’m sorry. That’s okay. Methylation. Yeah. 47:04 How would I know my methylation is working? Dr. Pete. Methylation in general? I think she’s in relation to B, B vitamin. No, D. I’m sorry. D is in dog. Oh, D. Yes. Thank you. Pardon. Okay. What B vitamin? Yeah. Okay. It’s D. D, vitamin D. Have you had your vitamin D blood level checked? Yes, I did. It’s 73. Yeah. Oh, that sounds plenty enough. That’s pretty good. So what, in terms of methylation, you were saying, because I thought we were dealing with methylating vitamin B12 and being an issue. Right. The receptor sites of vitamin D may recede if your methylation is not correct. Dr. Pete. I would guess that any symptoms you have that are related to vitamin D might be from not having enough calcium and magnesium or maybe having too much phosphate in your diet. 48:10 Okay. It’s important to have more, on a molar basis, more calcium than phosphate in the diet. And Americans often have five or six times too much phosphate relative to calcium. Because of the high meat intake. Right. And the high starch intake and the high bean and grain intake. I drink about nine months without any, one meal of some meat a day. And what about calcium? I drink about two or three quarts of milk a day. Well, that should be adequate for calcium. Yeah. What are the symptoms you associate with the vitamin D? I get a headache in the middle of the night. What about sugars? How much sugars are you getting a day? I get lots of sugar. I drink milk all night long with sugar and honey. What? 49:11 And I eat marshmallows. It used to be coffee that would take the headache away, but now I’ve found marshmallows help better. A gelatin? Do you eat any antiseptic fibrous food like raw carrots? Yes. Every day. Every day. What about your thyroid function? Have you tested your temperatures and pulses? Yes. I can only keep it up to about 98. I can’t get higher than that. Well, that could be a big problem because if you’re below 98, your immune system is at like half power. It’s only 50%!f(MISSING)unction. Exactly. And so I think I have some kind of mycoplasma. I’ve been taking the tetracycline low dose for about six months now. And it has not changed it. And so I was thinking I was going to have to… Did they identify what mycoplasma it was? Not yet. I think I’ll do a nasal swab and try to find out because it seems to be connected to my trigeminal nerve, neuralgia. 50:18 What about your liver function? Liver function has come back to a normal function because I’ve been on this diet. Yeah, that’s definitely diets in a month. Have you tried aspirin? I do. I’m up to three aspirin three times a day. I take every six hours. You taking vitamin K? With vitamin K, yes. What do you think about the thyroid function helping the… How much thyroid do I take a day now? I’m up to… 1.75, yeah. I’m up to one grain, 1.75. Can I take the G3 also with meals and between meals? How it works with thyroid is some people need like two micrograms. Some people need 200. It depends on your body. And the best way to tell is with your ankle reflex and also with your temperatures and pulses. 51:22 If you can’t get your temperature up above 98, then you don’t have enough thyroid, basically. Unless I have a bad stress day and then it’ll go up. Yeah. Well, then that’s just adrenaline raising it, but you’ll notice it will fall after meals. Exactly. Sometimes a mysterious headache can be traced to a single supplement or a single food that you might have only once a week causing an allergic irritation. Yes. I think I found that the microbial enzymes in cheeses and I try to find the very best I can find. I’m going to eliminate that and see if that doesn’t make a big difference. Because you can definitely find cheeses. It’s not so much a plug, but it’s just a fact that Costco do actually sell some very good European cheeses made with animal rennet and not microbial enzymes. Thank you very much for that. And the two cheeses that we know are made with animal rennet are the Parmigiano Reggiano. 52:25 Right. The very hard Italian Parmesan. And then also the sheep and that’s cow’s milk and then they have a sheep’s milk Pecorino Romano. Those are both very traditionally made cheeses and people that have sensitivity to cheese don’t find any problems with those two. Very good. Thank you for that suggestion. I’ll keep on going, but I appreciate all the help you’ve given me. You’re welcome. I really appreciate it. You’re welcome. Thank you for your call. Okay. Well, it looks like we do actually have another caller who’s calling in now. So I didn’t get a chance to really ask you any questions, Dr. Pete, about this month’s subject. But that’s not a problem. I’m glad people have got their answers to their questions. And there’s one more person here who their call is being fielded to see if they actually want to pose a question or they just have comments. Yeah, it does. Okay. This next caller. Call away from, what’s your question? Hi, it’s Scott from Ontario, Canada. Ontario, Canada. My question I’d have to just click one, hopefully. When raising calcium and getting heartburn, it will be the cause and secondly, what to do for oily skin. 53:29 Okay. Wait a minute. You said when you increase your calcium intake, you get heartburn? Yeah. Yeah. So if I’m drinking two quarts of milk a day and having lots of cottage cheese and then trying to use extra eggshell or calcium carbonate and then getting like a heartburn reaction. Do you know if you get it specifically just to the eggshell when you take that in isolation or without food though? Are you aware of that or do you? Or the cottage cheese if it’s very acidic. Yeah. I think that the only one I add in like the extra like the supplement of calcium carbonate or eggshell. How much eggshell are you taking? About half a teaspoon. Half a teaspoon. At a time or during the day? At a time. That might be too much. I take like an eighth of a teaspoon at a time, but then I drink a lot of milk. So if people don’t drink milk, then you’d need to take like a quarter teaspoon at each meal with the food, after the food. And yeah, you definitely want to take it with food. I have, yeah, I’ve noticed people. Quite a lot of people talk about upsets. But it’s usually more loose. 54:30 It causes their stools to be loose or hard. But Dr. Pete, what would you think is contributing to this gentleman’s heartburn? Oh, lots of people get stomach irritation from calcium supplements and magnesium supplements. Anything manufactured or in an excessively pure form of the eggshell is almost a pure calcium carbonate. And your stomach and intestine have trouble with pure chemistry. The more mixed substance is like milk is extremely complex. And so it’s very soothing to the digestive membranes. But any pure chemical, it sounds like a good rationale against pharmaceuticals. Okay, so the question about the heartburn, what do you think of that? And then oily skin, I think, was the other part of the question. In general, oily skin is very good. 55:34 It ages very slowly. If you have oily skin when you’re 25 or 30, you’ll probably have young looking skin when you’re 60. Just because it’s metabolically so active in general. So it signifies a good thyroid function in terms of the turnover? Usually, yeah. Okay, so did you have any other comments about the heartburn, though, from that caller regarding the calcium? Is the collar still on the air? I’m still here. Did you take that egg shell on an empty stomach or after food? No, I take it with food. Okay, well, maybe it’s just too much at once. What do you think, Dr. Pete? Half a teaspoon at a time is maybe a little intense? Yeah, I would just skip it for a week and see what happens. I mean, if you’re getting two quarts of milk plus some cottage cheese, you’re probably good. Yeah, I think I am good at just trying to really push that calcium phosphate ratio. Well, how much meat are you eating a day? I’m not doing any meat right now at all. 56:35 I’m doing basically all dairy and cooked fruit. Well, that’s of diet very low in phosphate. Dairy is not high in phosphates. He’s trying to increase the calcium to phosphate ratio by bringing his phosphate consumption down. How much are you taking vitamin D at all? Yeah, I do take vitamin D, vitamin A, E and K. Yeah, especially up there in Canada. Don’t take too much A. Sometimes vitamin A can be irritating to the intestine. I had to stop using it orally several years ago and use it only on my skin. There you go, because it’s fat soluble. And it’s thyroid suppressive. How much A were you using a day? Are you using a day? It depends. I try to do it orally or transdermally. So usually maybe 5 to 10 every couple of days, about 10K. That might be a little bit too much for your thyroid function, because if you ate four ounces of beef liver, it typically has on average about 10,000 units. And you would want to eat four ounces of beef liver once a week. So that might be a little bit too much A. 57:37 Okay. Okay, well thank you for your call anyway. We’re right to the top of the hour now, so it’s kind of coming to the close of the show. Appreciate your time. You’re welcome. Dr. Pete. Are you still there, Dr. Pete? Yep. Thank you very much for joining us again. The last show of 2016. We’ll look and see. Gee, I think by the third Friday of next month, we might have a new president and we might have got through the ups and downs of the contentious, ongoing electoral results with the college. Yes, to cast their final vote on the 19th year. And it has been eight years. Dr. Pete, first join us on the show in 2008. I thought it was seven, but yeah, okay. You said it has only been seven years. Yeah, it was more than that. It was 2008. Dr. Pete, thank you very much for your time.