If you’ve spent any amount of time on this blog, you’ll know that I’m am a huge fan of The Plant Paradox and The Longevity Paradox by Dr. Steven R Gundry, M.D. My first go around with The Plant & Longevity Paradox books in 2018 resulted in my losing 45 pounds in five months and seeing a number of my maladies resolve. These included arthritis in my wrists and fingers, lower back pain, adult acne, constipation, and male pattern baldness. I mention the last one because some of my friends commented that “you have more hair than you used to.”
But when Covid upended our society, like many people, I found solace in comfort foods and alcohol. Over the ensuing 2+ years, I lost my dad to cancer, became more dependent on alcohol and marijuana, and slowly gained back 35 of the 45 pounds I had lost. Eventually, the arthritis and acne made a comeback, too. And my hair got thinner.
In June of 2022, feeling mentally exhausted and physically compromised, I knew I needed to revisit The Plant Paradox. I reread it and ordered a new copy of The Longevity Paradox since I had given my mom my copy in 2019 just before my dad passed. This blog focuses on The Longevity Paradox, but I’d recommend reading both. Of course, even if you read just one and implemented it in your life, I think you’d be surprised at the positive changes that may result. I know I was then and am again as I revisit this lifestyle.
As Hippocrates famously and wisely said, “All disease begins in the gut.” The good news is that all disease can be stopped there as well.
– Dr. Steven R Gundry, M.D. The Longevity Paradox
The Plant & Longevity Paradox, Paradox
The craziest part of my Plant Paradox journey, the paradox if you will, was that I was never seeking out Dr. Gundry’s book or advice. I had never heard of him. I was a vegetarian bordering on vegan, thinking this approach might help me finally resolve my lifelong weight issues.
But as it happened, Amazon accidentally sent my buddy two copies of The Plant Paradox. I was over his house watching a baseball game, and he said, “Hey, you’re a vegetarian right? Here, you should read this. You might find it interesting.”
Whenever my buddy, who was a rocket scientist at JPL (legitimately) and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, hands me something to read, I read it. In the case of the Plant Paradox, I’ve read it five times and have recommended it to dozens of people. This will mark my third time reading The Longevity Paradox, and yes, I also own all of the cookbooks. These books have now changed my life – TWICE.
Plant Paradox – The Sequel
Having re-adopted Doctor Gundy’s lifestyle recommendations and changed my relationship with alcohol, I’ve lost 30 of the 35 pounds I regained during covid. I have once again experienced the cessation of back pain, adult acne, and arthritis. No one one has commented this round about my hair growing back, but if that happens, I’ll happily come back here and update this blog!
I’m glad I had the good fortune to experience success with The Longevity Paradox in the past. Having these methods to come back to when I needed to regain my mental and physical health was empowering. I intend for things to stick this time around. More on that later.
Without further ado, here are seven major learnings from Dr. Gundry that I apply almost every day of my life. You you read my blog and see a Zero+, you know I had a perfect Gundry eating day.
1. What You Don’t Eat
Like so many people, I’ve watched my weight ping pong up and down. It’s swung between extremes of sixty pounds or more at times. This has gone on for the majority of my life. As a kid, my mom told me I was ‘big boned’ and she bought me ‘husky’ clothes. Kids at school just called me ‘fat’. It wasn’t until High School football that my size was good for anything other than getting teased. I went into freshman year a chunky 240 and by sophomore year, I was starting Varsity at lean lean and muscular 215.
But I never changed my diet. I just exercised constantly and lifted lots of weights. If anything, I ate MORE. Back then, I subscribed to the ever popular calories in, calories out school of thought.
And with 80% of the population gaining an average of 23 pounds or more since the 1980s and putting themselves at higher risk of all the diseases we mentioned so far (sic – inflammation, diabetes, & cancer to name a few), weight is much more than simply a cosmetic issue.
– Dr Steven R Gundry, M.D., The Longevity Paradox
In the years after high school and college, I slowly gained back all my childhood weight and more, until by age 33 I was back up to an unhealthy 250. That’s when I discovered The Zone Diet and lost 45 pounds. In a few years, I was back up to 250 and was introduced to Lindora. I again lost 45 pounds only to gain it all back, once again, over a couple years time.
In hindsight, one thing these diets, and many others I’ve considered, have in common is that they are more focused on telling you what to eat. Of course they tell you to steer clear of sugar and junk food, but other than that, they say – eat this and eat that, eat our expensive private label food, eat low glycemic foods, eat less than ‘X’ many calories a day, only eat protein, only eat fat, only eat what cavemen ate.
But again, their focus is on what to eat and how much. But what NOT TO EAT is way more important. Dr. Gundry calls it The ‘No’ List (once you click, you’ll need to scroll down a bit to find it).
The foods listed here are relatively new to the human diet. And we (and our gut buddies) aren’t adapted to digest them. Worse, the lectins (plant proteins) contained in these food wreak all kinds of havoc in our bodies causing us to gain weight, feel sick, suffer autoimmune dysfunction, and degenerate our bodies and brains.
There’s way too much about lectins to cover here, you’ll just have to read Gundry’s books or listen to the Audibles. All I can say is when I eliminate these foods, I lose weight and feel incredible. When my son does the same, he lose weight and his IBS resolves. These are our personal experiences and your mileage may vary, but just about everyone I’ve recommended these books to has said similar things.
2. What You Do Eat In Longevity Paradox
Just like the ‘No’ list, there is a ‘Yes’ List. This is a list of healing and nourishing foods. These foods nourish not only you, but your gut buddies as well (more on them in a moment). The ‘Yes’ foods are all the things you’d expect (greens, nuts, fish, etc), but may be missing a lot of what you might expect.
You’ll notice a lot of ‘vegetables’ and other plants missing from the Longevity Paradox’s ‘Yes’ list. Things like cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, peas, green beans, sprouts, corn, oats, quinoa, whole wheat everything, wheat grass, brown rice, and a whole lot more. But if they’re not on the ‘Yes’ list, then where are they? You guessed it, they are on Dr. Gundry’s ‘Naughty” list.
Plants such as eggplant and cucumber are actually fruit. And Dr. Gundry warns that fruit is no better than candy. Worse, the fructose in fruit sends a signal to your body to fatten up for winter. Worse still, cancer absolutely loves fructose, and in sufficient quantities, it may harm your kidney function. According to Gundry, fruit is only meant to be eaten in season and then, only in small quantities. The problem is today, unlike our ancestors, we eat fruit (and fruits we think are vegetables) year round. This puts are poor bodies in a perpetual growth (gaining weight) cycle.
Instead, Dr. Gundry wants us to eat leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables (thoroughly cooked if you have IBS or Crohn’s), avocados, green bananas, pastured eggs and grass-fed meat (sparingly), wild caught fish (check his list of approved fish), dairy from goats and sheep, tortillas and pastas made from cassava flour, etc.
The good news is that the list of Yes foods is quite a bit longer than the list of No foods. The bad news is, a lot of your favorite foods will be on the No list.
The ‘Yes’ list helps your body and gut buddies to heal. The ‘No’ list makes and keeps you sick. Dr. Gundry goes into the science of ‘Why’ and ‘How’ in his books and puts everything in layman’s terms. He even covers how certain foods on the ‘No’ list are okay if they are prepared a certain way. Again, it’s way too much to cover in my humble blog, so I’ll encourage you to read his books.
3. You Are What Your Gut Buddies Eat
It’s fascinating to learn that the vast majority of the DNA the make up ‘me’ is not me. It’s the bacteria, viruses, and worms that live in and on me. For some people, especially germaphobes, this sounds pretty disgusting, but it’s a fact of life and a critical part of the Longevity Paradox. You need them and they need you. And the better you take care of these little guys, your holobiome, the better they’ll take care of you.
Think of it this way: you are not what you eat, you are what your gut buddies digest.
– Steven R Gundry, M.D.
None of the other diets I tried over the years ever discussed gut bacteria or my holobiome. It was always eat this, eat that – calories in, calories out. But it turns out that this little guys can either be happy and respectful tenants of your body or rock stars trashing the place. How that turns out, all depends on what you feed them.
If you feed them food on the ‘Yes’ list, you’ll develop a lush gut biome that takes great care of you, their landlord. If, instead, you feed them stuff off the ‘No’ list, they’ll eventually burn the building down and take you with them.
In the first part of the Longevity Paradox, there is a 3-day cleanse where you starve out all of the bad bacteria, then a several month process of repopulating your gut and body with beneficial bacteria. This cleanse and reset are a crucial part of the program.
Even though I gained back 35 pounds during covid, my gastrointestinal issues never resurfaced. I can’t prove it, but I credit the healthy gut biome I developed as a result of strictly following The Plant Paradox for over two years. That may have given me a jump start on round two, as well, since even though I gained weight during covid, I still avoided the majority of the foods on the ‘No’ list. My problem boiled down to three things: beer, ice cream, and candy.
But now that I’m following The Longevity Paradox (other than Halloween, Thanksgiving, and a cheat day here and there), my long snake sized poo coils requiring minimal toilet paper are back. Just like Dr. Gundry promises in his books. Gross, maybe, but a sign of robust health gut!
4. The Power of Fasting
Before reading The Longevity Paradox, fasting was something I never understood. I figured only monks, religious observers, and protestors on a hunger strike fasted. What was the point, really?
Turns out that calorie restriction and longevity are positively correlated. In other words, while not a guarantee of longer life, people and animals that consume fewer calories tend to live longer (and healthier) lives on average than those who don’t.
On the Longevity Paradox program, you, too, will plan periods of calorie restriction, but you’ll do it intermittently and without suffering.
– Steven R Gundry, M.D.
I’ve been following Dr. Gundry’s fasting recommendations on page 216 of The Longevity Paradox. Most days I practice 16/8 intermittent fasting. 16/8 means that I consume all of my calories during an eight hour window. This is usually from 9am to 5pm. Then I fast for sixteen – 5pm to 9am.
I skip dinner 1-2 nights a week for my ‘Brain-Wash’ days. These are necessary to purge all the toxic gunk your brain produces while you’re away – aka plaques! My ‘Brain-Wash’ days often double as my ‘Calorie Restriction’ days. Five consecutive days a month l limit my calories and eat no animal protein at all. Frankly, I eat very little as it is. When I do, I mainly eat pastured eggs and chicken, sardines, and grass fed beef sparingly.
I notice I experience significantly better sleep quality and wake well rested the mornings after my ‘Brain Wash’ days. Intermittent fasting helps me bounce back from ‘cheat days’ like Halloween and other holidays or special occasions.
5. The Importance Of Supplementing
…supplements enhance the results of the Longevity Paradox program – but they are not shortcuts.
– Steven R Gundry, M.D.
Let me start this section by stating plainly that supplements are not a magic bullet. They alone will do nothing to advance the causes of your health and physical wellbeing. In fact, if your body is in bad enough shape, it won’t be able to process or absorb any of the expensive supplements you buy. So, you’ll just be throwing good money after bad.
For me, I never supplemented much before reading The Plant Paradox. I maybe took a multivitamin here or there. I figured I was getting most of what I needed from the food I ate. But I had no idea how degraded our food supply had become in terms of nutrient loads until I read Gundry’s books. In other words, most of what we eat is either devoid of nutrition altogether or grown in soil that is nowhere near as fertile and healthy as it once was. Worse, it contains lectins that make us sick!
After reading Dr. Gundry’s books, I adopted many of the supplements he recommends (though the brands I use may differ from his). I will cover each of these in a subsequent blog. But here’s the short list of what I take. As always, please consult your doctor or nutritionist before taking any supplements, especially if you are taking medications!!
- Vitamin D3 – I take 10,000 IU daily
- B12 Vitamins – I take 2,000 mcg daily
- Resveratrol & Grape Seed Extract – I take 2 capsules daily
- Psyllium Husk – I take 2 capsules daily as a prebiotic (feeds my gut bugs)
- Curcumin – I take 1 tablet per day
- Vegan Omega 3 DHA – I take 1 tablet per day
- Ginseng + Ginkgo Biloba – I take 2 capsules per day
- Quercetin – I take 1 capsule a day
- Vitamin C – I take 1 per day
- Potassium-Magnesium-aspartate – I take 2 per day
- 24 Strain Probiotic – 1 per day
- Flaxseed Oil – 1 per day
Now, I get it if you’re thinking “Wow, that’s a lot!”. And it is, but it’s nothing compared to Dr. Gundry’s personal list (what he takes) on pages 269 and 270 of The Longevity Paradox. I will work in some of the others on his list from time to time. I also cheat a little and use some of Gundry’s products which incorporate much of what he recommends. One of my favorites is Vital Reds. I add it to my green smoothie every morning. I’ll also work Primal Plants into the rotation. I usually keep one or the other in the cabinet with my Hemp Protein Powder for smoothies.
6. Fruit is Candy
That’s all you need to know. According to Dr. Gundry fruit is no better than candy. Its primary purpose is to fatten you up for winter. It’s really only healthy to eat fruit (other than avocados, green bananas, green mangos, and green papayas) in season – summer, when we are in our natural growth cycle.
Consuming any sugar or simple starch will raise triglycerides, and yes, that certainly includes fruit! Fructose, the main sugar in fruit, is actually a toxin that can directly injure your cells and disrupt mitochondrial function… …eating fruit year-round is terribly aging!
– Dr. Steven R Gundry, M.D. The Longevity Paradox
During the winter, our bodies have naturally ended their summer growth cycle since traditionally food was scarce at this time of year. Why do you think bears hibernate? Yet, there we go, eating fruit grown year round, shipped from halfway across the planet, and often full of lectins because is was picked for shipping long before it was ready.
As a result, we consume fructose constantly and often in concentrated forms like high fructose corn syrup. This nasty stuff has replaced cane sugar in many candies and soft drinks and is making us and our children sick and obese. I avoid high fructose corn syrup like the plague! And other than the approved ‘Yes’ list fruits, I hardly ever eat fruit anymore and instead opt for Vital Reds (above) to get the good stuff without the fructose. I’m just too freaked out. Pages 109 – 113 contain lots of info concerning the health impacts of fructose.
7. Lifestyle and The Longevity Paradox
What we eat and more importantly what we DON’T eat, how we treat our holobiome, and the supplements we take are incredibly important. But lifestyle can also have a huge impact on whether you get the full benefit of The Plant Paradox / Longevity Paradox program.
First, it’s crucial to conquer stress. Dr. Gundry recommends an exercise plan you can do every morning starting on page 242. For me, relieving stress as made a huge difference in my life. My morning routine consists of:
- 20 – 30 minutes of mindfulness meditation
- Journaling
- 20 minutes of Yoga including squats, planks, crunches, and push-ups
- A four to five mile hike with my dog
It’s worth noting that I wake up everyday at 5am to knock all of this out before ‘life’ and work kick in. I won’t lie, it’s a commitment, but one I find pays extraordinary dividends!
Next, I focus on rejuvenating myself. Drastically reducing my alcohol intake and quitting marijuana have certainly helped there! And for obvious reasons, but most importantly – much improved sleep. In fact, I’ve made sleep a huge priority. I use the ‘Brain Wash’ fasting technique a couple times a week and on those nights, I experience my highest quality sleep. I also make sure to stay away from tv and phone screens within an hour of going to bed, and I go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day.
As a result, I’m no longer chronically exhausted and dragging myself through life fueled by coffee and energy drinks.
By reducing stress and sleeping better, I find that I have much improved focus and self control. I’m hopeful that my daily meditation, morning routine, and strict sleep schedule will be the things that make the difference this time and stop the yo-yo dieting once and for all.
I feel this mindfulness component is what was missing when we entered covid and I lost my dad. The lockdowns and stress caused me to fall off the wagon so to speak. I was too overtired, too distracted, and too undisciplined to stay the course. It goes without saying that drinking and smoking added insult to injury. Now I feel I am on a more sustainable trajectory.
That’s all for this post. I encourage you to check out Dr. Gundry’s books, blog, and other resources as you embark on your own health journey.
