Mayo Clinic Cancer Doctor: 5 Foods That Heal the Body, Starve Cancer, & Prevent Disease

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:00:04):

You know where I'm going to start, right? Alter processed foods. Processed meat is a class one carcinogen. So this is pepperoni, this is sausage, this is bacon. This is even chicken nuggets. This is lunch meat.

 

Mel Robbins (00:00:16):

Today on the Mel Robbins podcast, we're talking about five cancer fighting foods that starve disease and heal the body with a Mayo Clinic doc, my jaw was on the floor. Yours will be too.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:00:28):

So I did a study at Mayo Clinic and my cancer center. Guess what I learned? 95% of our patients aren't getting the recommended vegetables and fruits. People who had two or less servings of vegetables and foods today versus people who had five, those people that had five had a 10% reduction in dying from cancer, a 12% reduction in dying from heart disease. There was a 35% reduction dying from respiratory disease. Food is medicine, food is medicine. We take antioxidants to fight cancer. We take all these expensive pills and powders, right? Just eat your kiwi. Now, why does a kiwi prevent cancer? It's super cool. So vis really gets on the cellular level, there's 150% more anthocyanins in these purple sweet potatoes than there are in those berries. What does anthocyanin and why does it matter? Power? This is like jewelry right here. These are like jewels for cancer.

 

Mel Robbins (00:01:20):

What are the top three things a cancer patient should be doing, Dr. Mussallem?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:01:24):

Well, I would start number one is

 

Mel Robbins (00:01:28):

Hey, it's friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast.

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:01:44):

Thank you, Mel. This is like a surreal experience. I have goosebumps from head to toe. I live with goosebumps, but I really have them right now, and I was so excited flying out here. I slept good last night, but I didn't even feel like I needed to sleep. I'm so energized,

 

Mel Robbins (00:01:57):

I can tell, and I'm energized too because you have so much to teach us today. I'd love to start by having you speak to the person who is here with us right now and tell them how their life might change for the better. If they really take everything to heart that you're about to teach us today and they apply it to their life,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:02:20):

I love that it can almost bring tears to my eyes actually. I want each of you to be truly awakened to your aliveness. Unapologetically. Life is so very, very precious, and I just want to take every single person listening and be able to move them from a place of hope to knowing that they too can flourish despite whatever adversity they have in their life. So let's do it.

 

Mel Robbins (00:02:46):

Let's do it. Well, we're going to cover so much. I mean, you've been practicing medicine for several decades. We're going to discuss food that can heal your body and starve disease. We are going to go through a specific list of foods one by one that you should be eating in order to avoid cancer. We're going to talk about specific foods that I want you to avoid because they cause cancer, but one of the reasons why we tracked you down and we wanted to sit down and learn from you is because you're not only a medical doctor and you're not only a researcher and you're not only in a clinical practice helping heal people that have a cancer diagnosis, but you also are a cancer survivor yourself. And when you were 26 years old in medical school, that's when you got the diagnosis. And so before we jump into everything you're about to teach us, I'd love to hear about that moment in your life and how that impacted how you practice medicine.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:03:48):

Yeah, thank you, Mel. I learned a lot in medical school, but I learned everything about how to be a doctor as a patient. And it was just a few months into medical school. I mean, I lived the perfect healthy lifestyle growing up, had a very loving family and we really participated in healthy living. And a few months into medical school, first time in my entire life, I wasn't feeling good big into athletics. I would climb Camelback Mountain, Arizona twice a day and all of a sudden it was hard, saw a doctor, he said, use an inhaler. It's adult asthma. I didn't ask any questions. He didn't even listen to me, didn't get better. Saw a second doctor. He said, use it more. He still didn't listen to me. The third doctor said, oh, it's in your head. This is something that happens to all medical students.

 

(00:04:27):

It's called psychosomatic, meaning it's in your head, and then the soma, the body, you manifest these symptoms. It was a few days after that doctor told me that it was in my head that I collapsed and I went to the hospital. I was in cardiogenic shock. My heart wasn't even beating properly. There was a 16 centimeter mass wrapped around my heart and the tumor was compressing all the great vessels in my neck. So they took me to urgent surgery, and the next day the doctors came in the room and they said, you have stage four cancer. They said, you have three months to live without treatment, 20 months to live with treatment. So many people would say, well, were you angry? What was the emotion? And I was just given this gift of grace. I just took that diagnosis and I knew that there was a deep lesson there for me, especially as a medical student, and I stayed the course. I stayed in medical school and I listened to what the doctors said I needed to do to survive, and I showed up for myself. I stayed busy with the healthy aspects of living that we're going to talk about today because I was able to attain my vitality during my entire cancer treatment and then flourish as you can see today thereafter. So I just learned so much about the human experience, both when, well, when I was younger as well as what it's like to be a patient when you're not. Well,

 

Mel Robbins (00:05:39):

There is so much to unpack in just that when you woke up from that surgery, that sounds like, well, first of all, I got to stop with you can go up Camelback two times. I mean, I dragged myself up there and was so out of breath and lightheaded that there was an army ranger veteran who was hiking down as I was stumbling down who had to lead me down the mountain. That right there is unbelievable, but I think a lot of people have had that experience where you're like, I know something's wrong. And then you are told by somebody, no, no, no, no, it's all in your head. You're going to be fine. But for you, that sounds enormous, that it was wrapped around your heart. It was compressing against you, held up your hand toward your throat. You then woke up from surgery, but it sounded like you just kind of went on with your life. So I want to just say, what did the doctors tell you to do? Because you said I followed the medical advice, but you also did a second thing, which is instead of focusing on the cancer, you focused and tripled down on the healthy aspects of your life. And so let's just first talk about what did the doctors say you should do that you did, and then let's talk about what are the healthy things that you focused on.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:07:02):

Yes. So the doctor said, you're going to do chemotherapy, and I didn't question it. I knew my body needed chemotherapy. Here I am in the specialty of integrative oncology where I really use evidence backed natural therapies to help to mitigate the toxicities of treatment, to improve the outcomes of treatment, and also reduce other chronic diseases. I knew that I needed the chemotherapy to get rid of this cancer. So were you studying cancer medicine? Is that why you went to medical school? I have a fascinating background. Before I went to traditional medical school, I actually went to naturopathic school and my undergraduate training was in exercise physiology and nutrition. So this has just been weaved into my spirit and soul since I was actually a little girl. As a young kid, people would ask, what do you want to be when you grow up? I had said I want to live to be a hundred years old. I just loved, well, I was actually obsessed with it. I thought it was the coolest thing.

 

Mel Robbins (00:07:49):

How old are you right now?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:07:50):

51.

 

Mel Robbins (00:07:51):

Well, that's fantastic. If I were betting on anybody living to a hundred, it would be you. I think so for sure. And there's a lot that I know that we can learn from you both in terms of the medical research and the way that you tripled down on healthy living and vitality and things that are accessible to all of us. So you started out as a naturopath, you had dreams and ambitions as a little kid of living to a hundred, you've always been obsessed with a healthy lifestyle. But then holy cow, 26, if you look at somebody that can just trott up camelback twice and that's already super healthy and has a very positive attitude, those two things that, and cancer diagnosis don't seem to go together.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:08:34):

Right. I mean, you just do this analysis immediately. You're like, what did I do wrong? That's the natural thing. Why me? Everyone sees me in this external vision as, oh my gosh, she's so positive I be, she never has a bad day. I cried. I sobbed. What did this mean? Very momentarily, I knew, Hey, I don't have time for this. I've got to kind of figure out what my strategy is going to be. And I hired the doctors I could trust once I was given the diagnosis. And I really don't care when doctors, I think it's not a good idea when doctors give a finite number of how long you're going to be on earth because I don't think we can really do an accurate prediction, especially nowadays, we have so many advancements for cancer treatment. We're seeing people being cured left and right. Who are we to predict how long someone's going to live?

 

(00:09:23):

So I tell my patients often they find it's very off-put. When an oncologist shares with them, you have X amount of time to live. And I tell my patients, when you go meet with an oncologist, say you don't want to have that number if you don't want that number and you deserve to have the number if you want it. But for me, I would've kind of rather not had that number, but I didn't let it get in my head. And so I had to do chemotherapy for almost six months, and then I had to do a bone marrow transplant because this was before the immunotherapies. There were rituximab or any of those treatments were available. So did the bone marrow transplant. And I remember every morning I set my alarm for 4:00 AM in the hospital. They brought all my medical studies to the hospital so I could study.

 

(00:10:00):

My oncologist had a bicycle in my room and a bicycle at the nurse's station. So at 4:00 AM I would sneak out of the room, sit on that bike and watch the sunrise in Arizona. It was gorgeous over the mountains. But this was remarkable and I feel it in my body tiptoeing sliding that glass door and spanning the room and seeing all these other people in their beds, and I'll describe it, they were so sick in an effort to be alive. But again, I attained my vitality without pause and it was how I lived and it's exactly what I really work with my patients in doing today. And you've got to remove that turbulence. You've got to come to this in a place of just joy and empowerment. I have autonomy over this diagnosis. This is my job right now to show up for myself. And it worked beautifully.

 

Mel Robbins (00:10:44):

Okay, I got to unpack this. Okay, let's do it. Dr. Mussallem, you're 26 years old and you painted such a vivid picture. And I can actually picture in my mind the 26-year-old you in a hospital bed popping up like a jack rabbit running down in your gown to the nurse's station, hopping on a bike, looking out the window. And I can also picture walking past all the other rooms and kind of peeking in and seeing people just near death, or at least with the defeated I'm dying, just down energy, which is certainly a very rational and expected response to a scary diagnosis, to very debilitating treatment. But you did the opposite. And I have two questions around this. When the doctor said you have three months to live, how did that change your aperture in your mind in terms of what a typical 26-year-old thinks about versus what you then thought about when somebody said, you have three months to live?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:12:05):

Yeah, so when I heard it, I kind of tucked it away. It was tucked deep into my soul. It was still with me, but it wasn't controlling my choices or my actions. I wasn't living in fear by any means. I was living through the lens of let's be fully alive. What I would say is hearing that elevated my existence to the degree that every single thing that I would experience was elevated. The grass wasn't just green, it was magnificently green. The clouds were just always more volumous than they probably ever were. The warmth of the sun just felt so warm and encompassing and just like it is today. But I just loved people. I remember one situation, I was at a McDonald's actually, which it doesn't sound very healthy. It's probably a really good example for people to hear. But I went to McDonald's and I got a coffee.

 

(00:12:57):

I love coffee. It's actually very good for you. We can talk about that. And there was a homeless gentleman sitting outside. I've actually never shared this story. And he was young and he was about 19 years old. And I sat down and I had my coffee, went and bought breakfast, and we just talked. And what I learned in my experience of being diagnosed with cancer, if I wasn't diagnosed with cancer, you know what I did when I got my coffee and rushed off to go study selfishly, but instead, I had this knowing like, Hey, pause. Let's spend time with this human being. And he just taught me so much about life, so much about being present. And he was so still. He had this beautiful energy. And that's something that I think describes my existence is this energized stillness where I'm like a live warrior, but inside there's this ultimate stillness and harmony that is just so important.

 

Mel Robbins (00:13:48):

So I just want to make sure that as you're listening or watching, you kind of get the magic of what Dr. Mussallem just shared, which is in getting that three month, how would you even say it in being told that you had three months to live? It brought what mattered into focus and made the things right in front of you about life that give you energy and that's beautiful and that are worth living for way more magnified.

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:14:29):

Exercise. Number one,

 

Mel Robbins (00:14:32):

Even during chemotherapy,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:14:34):

Oh my gosh, I started feeling so much better. The tumor started shrinking, so it was like, holy cow, I can breathe again. So yes, I still exercise the exercise. Research centered around cancer is incredibly exciting. We didn't really know it back then, but it's likely why I'm alive today because I really still continued that exercise. Not high intensity. I just did what I could do because the cancer treatments are dropping, your blood cell counts, you're oftentimes anemic and you are tired. So I listened to my body when I rode that bike, it was slow. I didn't worry. There was no ego attached. I was just moving my body. I share with my patients, I know you're exhausted, but I need you to go walk at least five or 10 minutes after each meal. I need you to push yourself.

 

(00:15:17):

This is not easy, but we have a choice and sometimes we have to push yourself. And in doing that, we can get energized. And so that is what I recommend. Number one is move your body. It is critical. Very, very important. The other thing with exercise people don't realize is it uses up that stress, all that adrenaline. If you think back to the caveman and the saber tooth, tiger would jump out, the caveman would outrun it, right? And he'd sleep like a baby at night. Oh, and us, we don't have the saber tooth tiger, but we have all these stressors, whatever it may be. Maybe it's not cancer. It could just be the stress of life. And we're just wound up so tight with the anxiety. So that exercise helps the mood, it helps beat the cancer and actually augments the treatment response. We now know it's magic. We know that in breast cancer, that exercise can improve breast cancer outcomes. I mean, are you ready for this? Gives me chills. Almost 50%. I mean, this isn't a little number. This is like a magical number. There was just an amazing colorectal cancer study showing that exercise is looking as favorable as chemo. This doesn't mean it replaces chemo. It means we do it together so we can cure cancers.

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:16:29):

Oh, yes. Food is medicine. And this was really before the whole focus on food really became apparent, but it's always been something that's been very special to me. So I continued eating that healthy diet and even in the days when I didn't really feel up to it, the chemotherapy changes how things taste in your mouth. It's very metallic. Oftentimes you get sores and with the type of treatment I had, you have a bunch of mouth sores, so it hurts. Ouch. But this is the blessing in this is I know what that was like. So when I sit down with patients, I can be very mindful and think, okay, I know where she's at in this treatment. I see how she's talking to me. Her mouth obviously hurts. Let's touch on this and let's figure out some food swaps. Or maybe she's having scrambled eggs with cheese on a piece of white bread with butter and a piece of Turkey sausage.

 

(00:17:16):

That's not the end of the world probably, but there's a lot healthier way that I would like that woman to eat. So I'll do a swap. I try to flip what she's eating in a way that it's still something she's accustomed to, something that she looks for something more savory. She's not looking for something sweet in what she usually eats and will give her something a little bit healthier to eat. That would be maybe more in line with her cancer treatment to give her some of the phytonutrients that comes from plants that can help to make her feel better and maybe even improve those treatment outcomes.

 

Mel Robbins (00:17:43):

So you've talked about exercise. You've talked about tripling down on healthy because food is medicine as you just said. You also talked about your attitude like really lasering in on how beautiful the sunrise is instead of focusing on the cancer diagnosis, anything else that you leaned into when you were diagnosed with stage four cancer?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:18:04):

Yeah, acceptance. You can't fight it. You have to accept it. You have to work to accept it. It's really hard at first, but if you fight it, you're just going to be in that battle longer. And oftentimes I'll read that people say she battled with cancer. There was never a battle. It truly was just disgrace of acceptance and then moving in the direction I knew I had control over, and that was where I showed up for myself with healthy living and let the doctors do what they did best.

 

Mel Robbins (00:18:35):

There's this super famous quote from, I can never say this words, it's like hypocrites or How do you say this, right, Hippocrates. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Mark Twain said it takes a simple mind to spell a word one way I say it takes a simple mind to say a word one way. So Hippocrates, thank you. The ancient Greek physician said, let food be thy medicine. And I hear you say this all the time. Is there data to back up the assertion that food can prevent or heal diseases?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:19:14):

Absolutely. There's overwhelming evidence that food is a big problem in our country today with the levels of chronic disease we have. And in fact, in the journal of the American Medical Association in 2022, what they publish is that food is leading cause of death in our country.

 

Mel Robbins (00:19:31):

Wait a minute, food

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:19:32):

Food

 

Mel Robbins (00:19:33):

Is the leading cause of death in the United States?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:19:36):

Yes.

 

Mel Robbins (00:19:37):

What does that mean? Dr. Mussallem?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:19:39):

It's a massive driver with the consumption of ultra processed foods. 60% of our diet is ultra processed foods. 67% of our children's diet is ultra processed foods. And so what's happening with that? There's additives in those foods that just aren't good for our body. Those foods aren't good for our gut microbiome. And then when we eat that much food, that's fake. There's no room for the healthy stuff. So you're weeding out the opportunity to get the stuff that matters. Every time you put food in your mouth, you have an opportunity to be a healthier version of yourself or an unhealthier version of yourself. So you really want to pay attention to that. And it doesn't have to be perfect. This is never about perfection, but it's in an effort to be more consistent about doing better is what I would say. And have joy over that. Sometimes they have women come in and they are what some would consider eating the perfect diet, but they feel like they're hostage that diet and they're not loving it and they're not having joy over it. So it's really trying to find the healthy foods that you enjoy the taste of.

 

Mel Robbins (00:20:33):

I often wonder, I mean that's a startling statistic that the leading cause of death in the United States is food because it's ultra processed. There's all this obsession with labeling things organic. I've often wondered, wait a minute, we have this backward. Shouldn't we be labeling things chemical and everything else is just food?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:20:52):

I know.

 

Mel Robbins (00:20:53):

In fact, speaking of food, you have a list of foods that prevent cancer. You can explain why they prevent cancer. And so I want to bring them in and then we're going to walk step-by-step through each one and have you explain how a particular food that you eat will help you prevent cancer. Let's do it. Let's do it. All right. Let's bring that in. So the first thing I see is a bowl of berries. Let's talk about frozen berries. Why do frozen berries prevent cancer?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:21:23):

Berries are incredible, and it's such an easy way to start your day. And a lot of people worry because berries can be expensive, especially if they're fresh. And so what I tell patients is don't worry. Just buy 'em frozen. And the frozen wild berries, they don't need to be organic. They're wild. They're growing in nature. So get those frozen wild berries. This is a beautiful mix of berries here, which I love, and I really try to have my patients do a cup a day. These are loaded with anthocyanins.

 

Mel Robbins (00:21:48):

What is anthocyanin and why does it matter?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:21:50):

It's this powerful phytonutrient.

 

Mel Robbins (00:21:52):

What's a phytonutrient? What does that mean?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:21:54):

I know, it's crazy. These are great, right?

 

Mel Robbins (00:21:56):

Big Words Dr. Mussallem

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:21:58):

Phyto is the color, the color in these vegetables and fruits, and the nutrient is what's going to help feed our body everything that we want to help to. Again, anything we eat, we can try to turn on all these activations that can help to mitigate cancer from forming. And if you have it, we can help to turn off some of those genes as well. So there's research with berries that's so exciting, both for breast cancer prevention as well as breast cancer survivorship. You won't believe this. For every two servings a week, it can reduce the risk of breast cancer. And for breast cancer survivors for every two servings a week, it can reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by 25%,

 

Mel Robbins (00:22:36):

25%.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:22:37):

I know it's a huge number.

 

Mel Robbins (00:22:39):

Two servings of frozen berries a day?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:22:41):

A week!

 

Mel Robbins (00:22:42):

A week?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:22:43):

A week.

 

Mel Robbins (00:22:44):

That's it?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:22:44):

That's it. But why do

 

Mel Robbins (00:22:46):

With a 25% Reduction,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:22:47):

25%, this was in the nurse's health study. Such cool data, right? And they're delicious. This is what's interesting about modern food though, is there are many people that will taste these berries and they will not taste how delicious they are because the food today is so adulterated with chemicals and they make the food so that it has extra flavor on the palate. And so it can take a little bit of time as people are transitioning to a healthy diet to adjust their palate so they can appreciate the taste of food. And what I see that's so unique to cancer patients is when you have that cancer diagnosis, your mortality is being threatened, you're ready for change. And it seems that switch flips immediately. It seems like they start tasting the beauty of their food so much more quickly than patients that I may happen to see that have no active cancer.

 

(00:23:35):

It takes them much longer to find the harmony and pleasure of how this wonderful food tastes. So I just want people to be patient. When you start tasting these foods, especially if you're used to the ultra processed foods, you may not notice how amazing these tastes. I have patients say, oh my gosh, I didn't know strawberries tasted so good. It's really cool. It takes 'em a while to let those fake foods kind of flush out of their system and they start to appreciate it. So berries, but guess what? These purple sweet tastes. Can we talk about those?

 

Mel Robbins (00:24:01):

Yes. So let's talk about the purple sweet potatoes, Dr. Mussallem. Why do purple sweet potatoes prevent cancer?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:24:09):

First of all, it's my favorite food. I'm just here to say, if tomorrow was my last day, Mel, and you said, Dawn, what can we serve for your last meal? I'd say, just bring me that purple sweet potato. Just heat it up a little bit though.

 

Mel Robbins (00:24:19):

That's it. You just cook it and you don't do anything fancy with it.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:24:22):

Yes, I eat 'em. I eat one every single day.

 

Mel Robbins (00:24:25):

Here let me shove this toward you.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:24:25):

I eat one every day. So look at this. I mean, it's so cool when you cook these, it gets more purple. So I love the berries, right?

 

Mel Robbins (00:24:31):

Yep.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:24:32):

There's 150% more anthocyanins in these purple sweet potatoes than there are in those berries. And I love the blue zones. I think the blue zones deliver such a beautiful message. These are the places in the world where people live to be a hundred years old. They thrive. They flourish with low levels of chronic disease. I don't think we need to get into the nuances of the research, but we see this pattern and trend. And in Okinawa, Japan, this is one of the areas of the world where women live the longest. So we got to love that, right? They love these purple sweet potatoes. So have a purple sweet potato.

 

Mel Robbins (00:25:02):

So tell me about the word anthocyanin. What does it do in your body that helps prevent cancer and cure disease and have you live a longer life? What is anthocyanin? I can't even say it, but what does it doing in your body?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:25:17):

You're saying it perfect. So anthocyanins, like many of these other phytonutrients we see in these vegetables and fruits that we have here, they have the opportunity to come into our body. And what we have is we have tumors, genes that will be turned on, and we have tumor genes that can be turned off. That's how they function with the cancer. And these different molecules can help to either make cancer turn off so that it's not likely to have this proliferation, or they can even turn on things called tumor suppressor genes. These tumor suppressor genes help to be the brakes on any cancer. So you have this really beautiful kind of symphony and orchestra going on in your body at a genetic level. It's very cool.

 

Mel Robbins (00:25:56):

And that purple potato can turn off the genes in your body

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:26:03):

That are causing a problem,

 

Mel Robbins (00:26:04):

That are causing cancer, and they can turn on the genes in your body that naturally

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:26:09):

The breaks

 

Mel Robbins (00:26:10):

Break the, that's crazy.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:26:11):

It's exactly right. So imagine if you're doing a diet that's 60% ultra processed food and you're not consuming any vegetables and fruits, guess what? So this sounds easy. We have this here, and I mean, it's making us hungry. It smells delicious. Would you believe that 90% of Americans aren't getting what they need in terms of vegetables and fruits?

 

Mel Robbins (00:26:30):

I believe that. I hate that, but I believe it.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:26:33):

I didn't believe it. So I did a study at Mayo Clinic and my cancer center. Guess what I learned? 95% of our patients aren't getting the recommended vegetables and fruits 95. Every day I come in, the majority of my patients at best are getting two to three servings of vegetables and fruits today. So the recommendation, there was a great study, and what the study did is it reviewed two prospective studies, meaning studies where people were moving forward and they measured how much vegetables and fruits they consumed. And then they reviewed additional studies in a meta-analysis. So this is a really high quality study of another 24 to 26 studies that they reviewed, which is really awesome. And what they showed us is that people who had two or less servings of vegetables and fruits a day versus people who had five,

 

(00:27:16):

Those people that had five, had a 10% reduction in dying from cancer, a 12% reduction in dying from heart disease. There was another really fun fact. There was a 35% reduction dying from respiratory disease. It made me scratch my head. I was like, what does that mean? That's what I said. I said, what does that mean? What does that mean? Well, let's think about COVID. There was some cool COVID research. There was a study last year that showed people on more of a plant-based diet of vegan diet, vegetarian diet, just got more plants that they had less COVID occurring. And during COVID, there were some healthcare studies and they showed that yes, indeed, people in more of these plant-based diets had less moderate severe COVID. And people who were on more animal predominant studies where they were missing out on some of this, they had a three and a half fold increased risk of more severe covid.

 

Mel Robbins (00:27:58):

I want to make sure I'm tracking because that was jaw dropping research. It is crazy. So you're saying that first of all, based on the research study that you did at Mayo, that cancer patients are not getting the recommended daily amount of vegetable servings that they need and 90% of cancer patients are not doing it. That's number one.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:28:23):

All of America, 90% are doing it in my own cancer center, 95%.

 

Mel Robbins (00:28:28):

95?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:28:28):

95. And this was a group I also looked at the food insecurity. It wasn't part of this population. So it wasn't driven by food insecurity. It's driven by busy lifestyles and the fact that we just don't make time

 

Mel Robbins (00:28:40):

Or you don't know. You don't realize the power of food to heal and prevent. And I just want to make sure that as you were listening, I know you're going to be sharing this with people in your life who need to hear this research and who need to understand how what you eat is medicine. And there's research. The fact that there was a 10% decrease for people who had five servings of these kinds of vegetables a day in dying

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:29:07):

Of dying from cancer. It's major. And this is so easy. So this is a cool story. So a lot of folks, food is expensive right now

 

Mel Robbins (00:29:16):

And getting worse.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:29:17):

And especially when you go to the grocery store to buy it. So I had a woman that actually did have food insecurity, and she's doing amazing. And she had a lot of chronic diseases, gets diagnosed with breast cancer and said, Hey, you need to help me. I want to change. She did her garden. You know what she does now? She goes online and she teaches people how to garden. It gives me chills. She transformed her cancer diagnosis and this deep meaning and purpose of helping others realize, Hey, food doesn't have to be expensive. You can grow it in your own backyard.

 

Mel Robbins (00:29:47):

Dr. Mussallem, why do vegetables like cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli? Why do these prevent or cure cancer?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:29:56):

These are some of the most powerful vegetables when it comes to breast cancer. And there's so many fun facts with it. So some vegetables are a little bit better raw than cooked. And this is actually one of 'em, the cruciferous vegetables. And a lot of people are like, ah, but it's so gross.

 

Mel Robbins (00:30:11):

Okay, so cru to tea plate. Let's see. Go ahead and pick up the cauliflower and the broccoli.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:30:16):

So if we look at this cauliflower and broccoli, these are beautiful cruciferous vegetables. And maybe when I'm ready to cook these, I'll chomp on a few of these before I cook it. And you know why? Because when they're raw, there's an enzyme in them called Miro, okay? Okay. And that enzyme is really magical for trying to absorb the phytonutrients that are in the broccoli, the cauliflower, the Brussels sprouts, the arugula better and more effectively. Now, if you forget about it or you're at a restaurant and they bring your steamed broccoli, no sweat, but it's kind of fun to think, how can I get the most out of this vegetable that possible? Eat it raw. Or if you want to eat it cooked, just nibble on a little bit raw before you cook it.

 

Mel Robbins (00:30:55):

Now, lemme ask you a question though, because I have heard somewhere I don't know where, that you got to avoid the broccoli and cauliflower on accrued hay plate because it's very hard for your gut to digest it. But you're saying in the case of preventing cancer, curing diseases, living a more vital life, it's okay. Or you just chew it a hundred times versus 10 times or what are your thoughts on that?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:31:19):

That's so interesting, and a lot of people may struggle with this in the beginning because their gut microbiome is a mess. So the more we introduce these foods into our dietary pattern, the better you do with it. But listen, everyone is an individual, and some people may struggle with eating these raw. Some people may not tolerate broccoli. You should listen to your body and the harmony of your body. There's a lot of internal wisdom in the body. So if a woman comes in and says, oh, I can't stand broccoli, I said, let's not consume it. Let's look through the other cruciferous vegetables that you can enjoy. Brussels sprouts, arugula, cauliflower, cabbage, cabbage. Everyone loves cabbage. It's one that seems to be very frequently appealing to patients when I visit with them, but there's many to choose from. And the easy thing chat, GPT is free. Go in and say what cruciferous vegetables are out there and it'll give you a long list of cruciferous vegetables and pick one. Try to eat 'em raw.

 

Mel Robbins (00:32:10):

So when you cook it, you don't lose the power it has to help prevent or cure cancer.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:32:16):

You're still going to get benefit, but you're going to get a little bit more if you have a little bit of raw before you do it because you're going to get that enzyme. Now, there's a little hack you can do dry mustard seed, the seasoning, okay? If you decide you just want to cook these and you don't want to nibble on any raw, put some dry mustard seed, just sprinkle it on pop. Once it's cooked, it actually tastes delicious, and that dry mustard seed will help you absorb it.

 

Mel Robbins (00:32:37):

Fantastic. I'm going to do when I get home.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:32:39):

It's so cool. Another thing that I'll often do is I'll already have the broccoli steamed, but I do a salad with some arugula in it. And arugula, it doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't have to be exactly the broccoli. If you just want to have any cruciferous vegetable at the same setting, just try to do some of your cruciferous raw. That's the message. And if not, put some dried mustard seed on it. Let's get all the bang for a buck if we can from these amazing ingredients. And it's really cool what they do. So when it comes to breast cancer, it helps to make estrogen into a less proliferative form

 

Mel Robbins (00:33:08):

Into a more what's proliferative mean?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:33:10):

When we think of the breast tissue, we think of the fact that the breast tissue itself can be in a proliferative state where cells can grow more.

 

Mel Robbins (00:33:18):

Got it.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:33:18):

And what the broccoli can do is it can transition the estrogen actually in our body to a form of estrogen that doesn't cause that proliferation. Proliferation is growth. So you can imagine if something's upregulating growth, that's not a good thing.

 

(00:33:32):

We want things that try to turn off that growth and it keeps that in check. There's many other things that the cruciferous vegetables do. It's like a master at detoxification. So often I have patients say, I'm going to go do a detox, but what do you recommend? I say, just eat healthy food. Get some broccoli. It's your natural detoxification. You don't have to go spend a bunch of money on a fancy detox. And I would actually rather people do it a more natural, safe way than go and put themselves through a major detox. So I just do it with the natural foods.

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:34:08):

So beans are really awesome. So there are so much benefit. This is an amazing plant protein. But when you think about plant protein, you're not just getting protein, you're getting fiber.

 

(00:34:19):

And fiber is obviously in all of these plants. So you only get fiber from plants. And fiber is magic. I mean, oh my gosh, we could talk for two hours on fiber. It's so important. And you hear a lot right now. Get protein, get protein, get protein. So yes, you need protein. There's no doubt you need protein. But the problem is, is the majority of Americans, just like the vegetables and fruits, they're fiber deficient. 95% of men are fiber deficient, and about 91% of women are fiber deficient. This is a massive problem. There was just something called we call an umbrella review. I mean, they did this very exciting review of all of the data to date. This was just published this year, 17 million person years in this study. And what it showed us is that there's class one evidence. This is like the highest quality evidence we have in medicine. That fiber can help to reduce dying from any cause, dying from heart disease. It can also reduce the risk of dying from pancreas cancer. In this class one evidence, what it's really exciting, there was another study, another review of the data that was just published that showed that fiber can help to reduce the risk of cancer by 22%.

 

Mel Robbins (00:35:19):

Okay, hold on. Fiber can help reduce the risk of cancer by 22%,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:35:23):

22%, but we have 90% over 90% of people that aren't getting enough. So let's talk further. So I always think about food swaps with people. How can we maybe just swap one thing out? You don't have to do beans at every meal. And a lot of people say, oh my gosh, you're going to make me gassy. We'll just start slow. You don't need to do too much and cook 'em really good. So let's talk about this a little more. There's an enzyme in beans. This is so fun. It's like food is medicine, right?

 

Mel Robbins (00:35:47):

I love this.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:35:48):

It's like fun facts. So there's this enzyme, it's called raffinose, and that's the gassy one.

 

Mel Robbins (00:35:52):

Raffinose is the gassy.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:35:54):

It sounds like it's such an ugly word, why? You want to soak beans? So if you buy 'em dry, it's such an inexpensive, so much less expensive.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:01):

Cheap too.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:36:02):

So cheap.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:02):

Buy the beans dry, Put 'em in the crockpot overnight. Yep,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:36:05):

Soak 'em. You got it. You want to soak 'em and then rinse 'em really good. And then cook.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:09):

Why do we need to rinse 'em? Really good.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:36:10):

You're rinsing off that raffinose.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:12):

So we're getting rid of the gas.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:36:13):

Getting rid of the gas. Got it.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:14):

Okay.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:36:15):

So if you get gas, you kind of ask yourself, did I soak 'em long enough and rinse? Now I'm really busy. I know a lot of people listening are busy. I oftentimes just do canned beans. And so you want to rinse all that stuff off that it was soaking in. Rinse 'em, rinse 'em, rinse, and then heat 'em up. That's why people get gas.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:31):

I always keep the juice. I don't want the juice because I don't want the juice in my body. You know what I'm saying? Don't.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:36:36):

Okay. Okay. I have to share another study. Can I keep going please. Okay, so this one is super cool. So when we think about red meat, a lot of times people talk about how a carnivore diet can improve things like diabetes. This is very interesting. So there was recently a study published, and what it showed is that red meat and processed meat drives the risk of diabetes by about 60%.

 

Mel Robbins (00:36:59):

Wait, processed meat and red meat drives your risk to diabetes to 60%.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:37:05):

Yes.

 

Mel Robbins (00:37:05):

What?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:37:06):

Yes. And so this is the people that had the most versus the people that had the least. So any of these studies, when you hear people talking, you always want to scratch your head and say, I wonder what they're comparing it to. And oftentimes it's the most versus the least. So if you have a little bit of red meat, say 1, 2, 3 servings a week, that's not going to cause you to have diabetes. But if you're having red meat three times a day every day, that's a big problem. So what this study showed us, so it was really cool, we're talking about these food flips. If you flip out one serving of red meat or processed meat a day for beans or nuts, you reduce that risk of diabetes by about 30%. I mean, how easy is this? Think about if you're doing a Mexican meal where you have some meat that you put, skip the meat, do the beans, but the same seasoning in it. It's delicious. If you're doing soup, you could put maybe a few pieces of meat if you really like that meat stock flavor, right? It's not going to hurt you. Load it up with beans.

 

Mel Robbins (00:37:54):

Are all beans created equal? Are there beans that you like better?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:37:56):

No. Do what you like. Do what you like. Do what's unique to you. I find in my patients, they seem to tolerate lentils and split peas initially. Best.

 

Mel Robbins (00:38:05):

Do those have just as much benefit lentils and split peas?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:38:08):

Sure. Do what is you do, which one you enjoy the most? And I know for myself personally, I don't tolerate kidney beans. They make me feel icky. I will never have a kidney bean in my house. Black beans I love and lentils, they're so yummy. So it's really exciting. And sometimes I'll work with patients and I'll have them. I just had a woman this week who I gave her this suggestion. She's still doing it. She does steel cut oats with some lentils in it, and then she adds some cherries when she cooks it. She loves it. It's how she gets her protein. She's very committed to a whole food plant, predominant diet, and she loves getting some of those lentils as their protein source in the morning. So you can get really creative with these things. They take on the flavor of whatever you're cooking.

 

Mel Robbins (00:38:49):

Dr. Mussallem, why does edamame prevent cancer?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:38:54):

Really exciting data. So this is the biggest myth that's out there.

 

Mel Robbins (00:38:58):

Biggest myth that's out there.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:39:00):

Biggest myth that's out there that edamame causes cancer. So the majority of your listeners are going to be like, I think Mel said that wrong. Mel just said, why does edamame prevent cancer? Mel is right. 100% edamame are amazing. But several decades ago there was research done in rodents and we're not rodents, right? So this is how lab data can get very dangerous. You hear these studies in the lab or in this preclinical meaning pre before the clinic in this lab data that these lab studies are preventing X, Y, and Z disease. These studies need to be replicated in the human being. So in these lab studies with rodents, they showed that yes, consuming too much soy actually caused mammary tumors. I remember this. Remember this, don't eat soy. It's going to cause tumors in your breast tissue. That was the worst science ever because humans do not metabolize soy the way that rodents do.

 

(00:39:48):

We could use our common sense with this. We could look to Asia. We see in Asia, people have very low levels of cancer in their breast, very, very low levels. And so if we really apply to the human data, the research is beyond exciting. There are very few things we can consume that God forbid you ever got breast cancer would reduce your risk of dying. And OMI one of those. And one of the most influential times you have that edmo is you're a young girl. And if you're a man, it's not going to make you grow boobs. And if you're a young boy, it's going to be very protective for his prostate too. So we know that soy is also good to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. There's even some research that says it reduces the risk of lung cancer and it's amazing for the gut microbiome.

 

(00:40:27):

But let me talk about breast cancer because a lot of women with breast cancer avoid soy, even though that we know this data that it looks protective, they avoid soy. Well, the American Cancer Society's 2022 data on nutrition and exercise update dedicated three paragraphs to the safety of soy and breast cancer survivors. And it didn't just show safety In this beautiful meta-analysis, it showed that there was a 25% reduction in breast cancer coming back. And this was most pronounced in women with the most aggressive type of breast cancer when that's estrogen receptor negative. But even if women had estrogen receptor positive, breast cancer was still benefit. So it's really amazing. And how this works is there's two receptors in the breast. The estrogen receptor beta is where that soy likes to bind. And remember we talked about proliferation. That's where we turn off the proliferation is estrogen receptor beta.

 

Mel Robbins (00:41:16):

So when the soy binds with the beta, it turns off the proliferation of estrogen, which increases the spread of cancer. And by turning it off, you're preventing it from coming back and you're also fighting it if you have it.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:41:30):

That's exactly right. And then our natural body's estrogen binds that estro receptor alpha preferentially. And that's one that turns on this proliferation.

 

Mel Robbins (00:41:38):

So beta turns it down. Alpha turns it on.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:41:40):

You got it?

 

Mel Robbins (00:41:41):

Got it.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:41:41):

So cool.

 

Mel Robbins (00:41:42):

Okay, so explain that part again about the alpha. What does it do?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:41:45):

That's where the body's natural estrogen when bind that turns on this proliferation. So the soy does this really favorable thing at the level of the breast where we get protection, and that's exactly what we see in these studies, and it's a plant protein, so it's super cool. So how many women, I mean hot flashes, right?

 

Mel Robbins (00:42:02):

Yes.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:42:03):

What do we do with those?

 

Mel Robbins (00:42:05):

I had one last night. I literally was sleeping at the hotel with my leg outside the comforter in order to try to regulate my temperature. Yes. What am I eating? You? What do I need to eat? Dr. Mussallem for hot flashes.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:42:17):

Would you start eating these right now?

 

Mel Robbins (00:42:19):

I already eat. I need to eat more edamame. Clearly I order it when I'm out and occasionally I'll make it home, but I need to eat. I am about ready to take that cup of it and just throw it back right now.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:42:30):

I love it. So this is amazing. When patients come in to see me and they have their hot flashes, which I'm working with women, 75% of breast cancers are estrogen receptor positive. So these women are on anti-estrogen medications from the age of 20 all the way to late eighties, I see women. And so they have massive hot flashes. Oftentimes the number one thing I start with is soy. There's great research done by Neil Barnard. He's repeated the study twice to show that edamame a half a cup a day, in addition to eating a healthy plant-based diet reduced, wait, you're ready for this? It reduced moderates severe hot flashes. You're on the edge of your seat by 88%.

 

Mel Robbins (00:43:05):

Wait, what's

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:43:05):

It's crazy?

 

Mel Robbins (00:43:06):

Wait, all I have to do is have a half a cup of edamame a day and I could experience an 80% decrease in hot flashes?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:43:13):

88% reduction in moderate to severe hot flashes. He repeated this study and there was another one that showed as high as 92% reduction. Dr. Mussallem, you know what I say? Let's eat some omo. Yeah. Pass me the damn madama right now. Gets better. Okay, you ready? It gets better. It's even better. So in this study, you know what else they showed us? Tell me their moods felt better, but it's even better. This, their libido picked up. Oh my gosh. They felt sexy again.

 

Mel Robbins (00:43:35):

Chris is going to be shoving this at me. Eat some edamame Mel.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:43:38):

Yeah, I have a funny story. I actually did talk for this Super Bowl last year, right around Valentine's Day, and I presented this data and they said, I'm buying Tama on my way home. Every man there. So it's pretty cute. But yeah, so eat your Tama. It's a great source of plant protein. It's delicious. You could do Tama, you could do tofu, you could do Tempe, you could do soy milk. Super easy.

 

Mel Robbins (00:43:54):

I like the edamame.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:43:55):

I do too,

 

Mel Robbins (00:43:56):

I do too. So now I'm getting my fiber. I am getting my amino acid leucine profile protein count.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:44:02):

It's a complete.

 

Mel Robbins (00:44:03):

I'm also getting my hot flashes decreased by 80%. I'm binding to my beta, whatever they were called in my breast. So it's turning down the cancer and estrogen stuff. I can't explain it quite like you did it, but I kind of understand it and my mood's going to be better. I think you just saved my marriage. I hope so. Beautiful. And it's already hot flashes and my, well, we're celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary this weekend.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:44:28):

Oh, that's beautiful. Happy anniversary.

 

Mel Robbins (00:44:30):

I think edamame can always make it a little better. I'll be eating that every day.

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:44:38):

Oh my gosh,

 

Mel Robbins (00:44:39):

Why does Kiwi prevent cancer? And I see you smiling. You love kiwi. Tell me why you love kiwi so much. Dr. Mussallem,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:44:45):

These little things, they're so cute, but they help with regularity, meaning poop. So I would say 90% of women coming in to see me, they're not having any bowel movements. And they feel bloated. They feel fulled. I mean it's, I can't imagine how people feel. Some people say they don't have a bowel movement for 10 days.

 

Mel Robbins (00:45:03):

Oh, that sounds horrible.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:45:05):

It's really bad because when that poop sits inside you, you're auto toing, you're reabsorbing all those chemicals into your body. It's just sitting up.

 

Mel Robbins (00:45:10):

Wait, what? Hold on a second. So when you're constipated the waste, which is poop, it's just sitting there in your system, you're reabsorbing the waste. It's trying to get out.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:45:19):

Yeah, it reabsorbs what? Yes, you want to get rid of that waste. Ideally, people are supposed to have a bowel movement after each meal.

 

Mel Robbins (00:45:28):

You're supposed to have a bowel movement after each meal?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:45:30):

No one does that because in America, we're in this fast pace of we kind of as kids learn that no, you go maybe after breakfast when you're home and maybe after dinner if you're lucky. No one typically is going after each meal, but ideally that's best. Oftentimes patients transition this more plant predominant diet, and they'll call my nurse and say, I think something's wrong. She put me on this diet and I'm pooping. I'm having a bowel after each meal. And the nurse's like, oh, no, no, no. She loves that. So this is cool though. So let's say someone is just struggling. They are constipated for whatever reason. Maybe it's their treatment. We give Zofran for nausea, for cancer patients. It causes a lot of constipation. Kiwi two kiwi a day after about a week or two can help you with that constipation.

 

Mel Robbins (00:46:07):

Why?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:46:08):

It just helps with the different sorts of soluble fibers and mucinous fibers and proteins and whatnot that are in this. It helps with it, but it is better than that at the level of DNA. These are rich in vitamin C, but at the level of our DNA, it can help to reduce oxidative stress. Think about an antioxidant. We take antioxidants to fight cancer. We take all these expensive pills and powders, right? Just eat your kiwi. But I love this with the skin, right? The skin is so great because it's more fiber for you. So this is a wonderful food to add in. It helps that overall diversity of what you're consuming.

 

Mel Robbins (00:46:41):

Now, why does a kiwi prevent cancer?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:46:44):

It's super cool. So this really gets on the cellular level, which can you imagine? That's how hypo, that's so cool.

 

Mel Robbins (00:46:50):

Food is medicine.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:46:51):

It's so cool. So at the level of DNA, it can reduce oxidative stress. So we go, when we buy antioxidants, we spend all this money on pills.

 

Mel Robbins (00:46:59):

Wait, hold on. What is oxidated stress? I see it on packaging, but what actually is it?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:47:06):

So oxidative stress is what comes from us from everything as simple as breathing oxygen from the environment to having any stressors in life to just really living. We get this oxidative damage that builds up certain foods can even kind of cause this trigger as well. But what these little magical fruits do is they go in and they help to turn off that oxidative stress. They come to the rescue basically.

 

Mel Robbins (00:47:27):

So life basically has turned on the oxidated stress in your body at a cellular level, and you eat a kiwi. And not only is it helping you with constipation, but it's flipping the switch off on stress at a, I can't say the word molecular level

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:47:46):

Exactly. It's the level of our DNA, like our genetic makeup. It's super cool and it helps to repair that DNA. So it's really a magical fruit, but it's like this, with all these vegetables and fruits, these all have these magical powers within these phytonutrients and molecules that just help the body and rescue it. The body has such wisdom to heal itself, but we just have to give it the tools to do this.

 

Mel Robbins (00:48:07):

And is it better if these are raw? Do you get more benefit if you're eating these raw, I mean, clearly just eat 'em, but if you can just pop fresh kiwi in your mouth, if you can do it that way, it's better.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:48:19):

Exactly. So there's two vegetables that are better cooked, and that's carrots and tomatoes. And both of those are actually better. With a little fat, you get more of that lycopene. You absorb it in the tomato and the betacarotene in the carrot. So those are two vegetables that would be better to cook them than raw in terms of extracting all those phytonutrients. I mean, I love raw carrots, so I ate 'em all the time. It doesn't mean don't eat raw carrots. It just means if you really wanted to go and reap all the benefits and how you would extract those phytonutrients best, cook them in a little bit of olive oil, nice, extra virgin olive oil.

 

Mel Robbins (00:48:50):

Amazing. Amazing. And is it true that even if you have a patient that comes in with a cancer diagnosis to your practice and they've really just let themselves go? I mean, I think for women in particular, as we're taking care of everybody else and we have a really busy life and it's easy to get the stuff grab and go and not find time to exercise. Even if you've made, now that you're realizing, oh my God, I got to put the boxes down and the cans away and I got to get back to a really more sensible whole food diet. Can you really reverse the stuff that you've done? Can your body really flip the switch even if you've let yourself go for while? Is this available to all of us at any age?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:49:29):

Oh, I love this. You ready?

 

Mel Robbins (00:49:31):

Yes.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:49:31):

Get on the edge of your seat because you're going to for this one. So if we're young in the age of 20 and we start eating better, yeah, you can imagine for women, we can add 11 extra years to her life for men 13 years.

 

Mel Robbins (00:49:41):

Wait, hold on a second. Say that again.

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:49:44):

Yeah, so if you're 20 and you say, Hey, I'm listening to this show and we're going to start eating all these vegetables and fruits and more whole grains, plant proteins, just a little bit better. Doesn't mean you need to be vegan, that you can add 11 years if you're a woman onto your life expectancy of healthy years. If you're a man 13 years, but it gets better. You ready? Keep ready? Yes. If you're in your sixties, so you really beat yourself up, you're 60, you get your breast cancer diagnosis.

 

Mel Robbins (00:50:12):

Uh oh,

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:50:12):

You can add eight years life expectancy. Wait, what? Wait, it gets better. Okay, here's the goal. Ready to drum roll. You ready? Yes. If you're 80, I have concepts and they're 80. They're like, why am I seeing you? I'm 80. Granted she's outlived the life expectancy of most women in our country. Can you really help me? I say I absolutely can. And here's a study that proves it. You can add 3.4 years of life expectancy. It's so cool.

 

Mel Robbins (00:50:38):

Just through the changes in food?

 

Dr. Dawn Mussallem (00:50:40):

Yes. By eating healthier. It's truly amazing. So healthy living really comes with its own benefits and we see in this science, this is longevity central. Now everywhere on social media, every big city you go to, it's anti-aging clinics everywhere you go, and these programs must be built on healthy living because there's no magic bullet that's going to help you age healthy and feel wonderful in that time, like healthy living will. And we know that about 75% of that healthy aging equation is modifiable. It comes from our lifestyle.

 

(00:51:17):

So it's so important to really lean in, show up for ourselves. It's never too late. Even if you have this cancer diagnosis and we know if you are diagnosed with cancer, that can be a hard time for some people. They're busy with their treatment, they don't feel good, and they're processing a lot. And the cancer research really says it really kind of starts in these studies about a year after the diagnosis. I want my gals to get as busy as they can at the time of diagnosis because we know that if we can get as busy as we can during treatment, that they just feel better. They have improved quality of life. There were two recent studies that explored this and they were very fascinating, small studies, but they give us a snapshot of how cancer patients do during treatment, and one actually did a whole food plant only diet, like a vegan diet. They supplemented them with some protein powder and what they showed is, yes, these patients during chemo had less fatigue. That's what I see in my patients.

 

Mel Robbins (00:52:10):

I as you're listening, want you to think of every 20-year-old in your life. I want you to think of anybody in your life that has gotten a cancer diagnosis. I want you to think of anybody in your life, in your sixties and your eighties that may or may not have taken good care of themselves. And I want you to share this episode with them because it's an act of love. It is a generous gift to give the gift of Dr. Mussallem to the people that you care about. So we've talked so much about the foods that you can eat that activate the natural intelligence in your body to prevent or cure cancer.