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April 23, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:42
New Alzheimer’s Breakthroughs: Genius Foods & GSM Drugs | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 10 | Full Episode
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An all-new Alzheimer's alert.
We're giving you an insider's guide for the latest Alzheimer's breakthroughs that you've been seeing in the headlines.
Could your body type determine your risk?
We've not talked about this on the show before.
One body type is at a higher risk of getting the disease.
And it's going to surprise you which one.
Plus, is pasta now a health food?
The truth about the new protein pastas.
Coming up next.
Y'all ready for season 10?
Yeah! I love you, Dr. Lyle.
I love you, Dr. Lyle.
My team is in direct contact with the most respected researchers on the forefront of brain research and prevention in order to keep you one step ahead.
And today, we're giving you an insider's guide to the latest Alzheimer's breakthroughs that you've been seeing in the headlines with a power team of experts to give you practical steps you can use now to reduce your risk.
Dr. Rudy Tanzi is here to tell you what you need to know about the new Alzheimer's drug he co-developed that the whole world is watching right now.
Dr. Isha Sherzai.
Max, thank you as well for being here.
Thanks for having me.
Is that you interviewed hundreds of experts.
It's a lot of work.
Hundreds of experts thinking that food is medicine, right?
And it turned out that you literally could turn things upside down with this food pyramid.
What did you find?
Yeah, Dr. Oz, that's exactly what we should be doing.
You know, we've been given dietary advice over the past couple of decades that was upside down.
You know, so what I think that we should do is invert the food pyramid.
And, you know, we can make some modifications, too.
I think, you know, vegetables should really be the base for most people.
The central thing that I've learned amid all of the interviews that I've given is that the one question that every doctor should ask their patient is, what are you eating?
And this applies certainly to brain doctors.
New research is beginning to show.
Let's get into some detail.
So first of all, this overarching approach to eating is gaining a lot of traction among Alzheimer's researchers.
It's called intermittent fasting.
Now, we talked about fasting intermittently for people who want to lose weight.
But you say it's actually essential for brain health.
So walk me through this metaphor.
We got a car.
Yeah. So your brain, I like to say, is...
It's like the universe's most advanced hybrid.
And like a hybrid car, your brain can run off of two fuel sources.
So for one, we've got gasoline.
In the brain, the gasoline is like the sugar, the glucose that the brain uses.
And then the other fuel source that the brain can use is sort of like the brain's battery, the brain's electricity.
They're called ketones.
Now, I like to say that when the brain is running on electricity, it's sort of like a Tesla.
Okay, a very fast car.
On the other hand, when the brain is using sugar for fuel, it's sort of like a jalopy.
It's chugging along.
Sugar produces exhaust.
It produces toxic byproducts, essentially.
And ketones, on the other hand, can be thought of sort of as like a clean, burning fuel source.
So again, the metaphor's simple.
Your car can use gas and batteries.
Your body can use sugar or ketones.
One's a little better than the other.
As we realize that, we begin to appreciate the power we have as individuals.
So, to become more...
Ketone using.
Yeah. You suggest intermittent fasting.
And I just put a clock up here.
Walk us through an example of how this might work.
So when would you stop eating?
Yeah, so typically what I would do is I would stop eating by 6 p.m.
And then I wouldn't eat anything else.
I would drink water, of course, but I wouldn't eat any other calories until 8 a.m. the next day.
What that essentially does is it allows your body a chance to rev up that ketone production that, again, is like the electricity for your brain.
It's a very clean burning fuel source.
And the latest research suggests that's actually...
It's actually a really great thing for the brain.
Yeah, so guys, is it hard?
I don't know.
Yeah, I think it could be a little bit of a challenge, but getting Alzheimer's pretty difficult too.
I actually am doing a 12-hour intermittent fast.
So I'll stop eating at 8 in the evening, and I'll start my breakfast at around 8 in the morning.
And that's not that hard.
A really good way to think about it is that at a certain point in the evening, like when it gets really dark, a few hours before bed, the kitchen closes in the body, so to speak.
So at that point, you kind of want to, like, taper off your food consumption and then start it up again during the daytime.
Because humans are meant to eat during the day, not at night.
Especially not before bed.
Yeah, and then the food sits in your small intestine.
It begins to cause other problems.
But most importantly for the brain, it changes the fuel source that we have.
So now that you know...
When to eat.
Let's talk about what to eat.
Max has three foods that everyone at home ought to be eating today.
He calls them, well, they're special.
But let's clarify what these genius foods are.
You're not going to actually be smarter immediately, right?
You're not going to get rid of all dementia with this.
You might feel smarter.
You might feel smarter because you're being smart in what you're eating.
What does it mean to be a genius food?
Yeah, so these are foods that have a strong body of evidence to say that they're going to boost the way that your brain works today and also help give it a little bit of a sword and shield against aging tomorrow so that you can help fend off some of these conditions like Alzheimer's disease.
All right, the first genius food, everybody, for simple day in order to cut your risk of Alzheimer's is cacao.
All right, cacao is a great source of polyphenols.
We love chocolate anyway.
I personally, who likes chocolate here?
Thank you.
You're going to rush the stage to get these.
How does it actually help with brain health?
Yeah, so it's one of the top sources of magnesium, which is very important for brain health.
Keep talking.
We're just eating back here.
Yeah, it's full of what are called flavanols that research shows can actually boost the way that the memory works.
And so we've got this delicious cacao powder here.
The key when, you know, buying cacao is that most frequently it's processed into chocolate.
That's typically how we consume it in the United States and around the world.
Thank you.
You just want to make sure that the chocolate bar that you're getting is a high percentage, a high cacao percentage, so that it doesn't contain a lot of sugar.
Because the more sugar is in the bar, that sugar is going to negate the benefits of eating cacao.
So you want as little sugar as possible.
We didn't add sugar to this.
Thumbs up or down?
It's good.
It's good.
They're happy, happy people.
These are made simply with...
Yeah. I mean, frankly, it's smart just to eat them, period.
You might be smarter.
That's up to you.
Yeah. All right.
Next. This genius food...
Arguably will help with Alzheimer's, but it's one of my favorite foods of all, and I have never talked about it on the show.
It's herring.
Now, this fatty fish has landed on the top of Alzheimer's researchers' list of the best fish to have, which I didn't realize.
There's even more reason to eat it now.
I don't know how good it's going to go with the chocolate that I still have in my mouth, but...
There's always room for herring.
This summer, I was eating all kinds of fish.
I was posting on Instagram continually, but the herring was what got my attention.
I would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It's a top source of DHA fat, which is an incredible building block for healthy brain cells.
We now know that the adult brain, you can grow new brain cells up until your last day on Earth.
So it's incredible.
And the other bonus feature of herring that I think is super cool, herring is the top dietary source of a compound called creatine, which basically helps supplement brain energy.
It helps support brain energy metabolism.
Who has never had herring before?
Let me see.
Let me see your hands up again.
So many people.
All right, you got it.
Take it there.
Let's see his smile.
Here also, he finally admitted it.
Okay. Never had it before.
Watch their eyes.
Yes or no?
It's a thumbs up.
Not sure.
It tastes very fishy.
And they can pickle it.
Yes, I taste the pickling aspect of it.
If you like fish, this is what you want to have.
But herring is inexpensive.
Yeah, I'm hearing not bad.
All right, so the audience is lukewarm, but I understand you've never had herring either, Max.
Yeah, I've read about it.
I've read about the benefits, but, you know, I've never tried it.
So, your assessment?
My assessment is it's definitely good.
It's very pickled.
It's very tangy.
And with that slimy fish-like consistency, you know.
And with the chocolate that I had in my mouth.
No, Max, stop making excuses.
If you like fish, you guys see he actually liked it.
No, you're going to like it.
It was good.
And, you know, just give it one shot.
I don't have to get everyone in America to like herring, but I want it to be on our radar screen because you guys have forgotten about it, and it is, ooh, so good.
So good.
Take the herring challenge.
The herring challenge, yes!
We'll call it the Lugovere Herring Challenge.
The next genius food is portobello mushrooms.
I mean, I love mushrooms anyway, but why are they so good for the brain?
Mushrooms are a nutritional powerhouse, Dr. Oz.
They're a potent source of a powerful brain antioxidant called glutathione.
And, you know, mushrooms are just across the board.
They're full of vitamins.
They're a very low carbohydrate food.
You know, one thing that I like to do, so we've got portobello mushrooms here.
It's a really great healthy swap to use the cap of a portobello mushroom as the bun on a grass-fed burger.
Yes. Yeah.
Think about this.
Remember that?
Movement we had in the 90s.
We wanted people to replace their hamburgers with these caps of mushrooms.
Did anyone go for that?
Like two people in the back and they're being stoned.
Right? It didn't have impressive results.
People just didn't do it.
So we're flipping the script.
We're going to break the stem off.
Right? You can cook this too, by the way, separately.
This becomes your bun.
A non-carbohydrate bun.
And then put the burger on here.
Mayo, lettuce, mustard.
Another one, and it's fantastic.
In fact, the bun will be the burger, and we're going to prove it to you.
We've got a recipe video that you're going to love as we head into the break.
Plus, what your body type says about your Alzheimer's risk.
It is going to shock you.
that is next.
Thank you.
An all-new true crime investigation.
How could one surgeon harm so many?
I take the fifth.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Oh!
We're back with Dr. Ayesha Shirzai, author of The Alzheimer's Solution with another Alzheimer's Alert.
And pay attention because we're going to show you how your body type...
The way your body's proportion can actually determine your risk of getting the disease.
Now, take a look at this.
One of these women is more at risk or could be more at risk than the others for Alzheimer's.
Can you spot the one who's at risk for their brain health just by looking at their body?
It's confusing, isn't it?
Right? There's a new study that suggests one body type is at a higher risk of getting the disease, and it's going to surprise you which one.
So, Dr. Sezai, what would the research say about which body type is most dangerous?
Can you tell by looking?
I can't, but it could be any one of them.
It actually depends on how the body stores fat.
So the term skinny fat, it actually is a legitimate medical problem where your percentage of body fat is higher than your muscle, and that actually puts you at a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease.
So any of these women?
Exactly. Alright, so being skinny isn't the goal?
No, no.
It doesn't mean anything.
It all depends on how your body's fat is stored and what is the difference between the amount of fat and muscle in your body.
All right, so you call that body fat composition.
Exactly. And just to elucidate this, your body is made up of muscle and fat.
Yes, there's some water, but we're going to focus on the muscle and the fat right now.
And the best way to measure your Alzheimer's risk is actually to look at this body fat composition.
And here's why.
This is a cross-section, for example, of the thigh, right?
And so you can see that someone can be the same weight, Right?
Same width of thigh, but this person has a lot of muscle and not much fat.
It's lean.
This person has got no muscle, but a lot of fat.
But they weigh the same, right?
Muscle weighs more than fat, by the way.
That's why fat floats.
So you can have a little bit of ADB muscle in there with a lot of fat around it, and you won't weigh very much.
So the traditional ways that we look at how much you weigh and whether you're thin or not, your body mass, they don't seem to work.
Absolutely. And for Alzheimer's.
So what is?
What should we be doing?
So, the most important thing for us to understand is that muscle building is very important.
A lot of us may look at a person and, you know, he or she may be skinny, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're healthy.
The content of fat is very important.
If they have more muscle, they actually are metabolically more active, and they're very strong.
They actually have bigger brains, better brains, and they lower their risk for Alzheimer's disease.
Alright, so if you can't jump on a scale and figure this out, if you can't look at a picture and figure it out...
You're left with a whole other way.
This is really important.
We've not talked about this on the show before.
There's a very effective way of measuring your body's fat percentage.
And it has to do with this.
Come on over here.
Show everyone what this is.
This is a caliper.
This is a wonderful little thing that you can buy for five or ten bucks off of the internet or anywhere.
But it actually is quite accurate to tell you the amount of fat that you have.
And there's a particular way.
There are several ways to measure your body fat composition.
But the easiest way, as far as I'm concerned, is you check the body fat in your arm.
Actually, we're going to do it together with Leanne, who's backstage right now.
She volunteered to have her body fat.
Composition measured.
So we're going to do it.
I'll do it here.
She'll do it there.
We're going to be here in one second.
Excellent. Okay.
For those of you who are at home, you don't have a way of making measurements yet.
We've got a simple checklist.
But pay attention to this because these calipers are going to be part of what you...
They're great for parties.
Get them.
You can measure your friend's fat.
They're going to love you.
Okay. So you measure it in three places, right?
Yes. So you're going to measure it so it relaxes your arm.
So you basically find a midpoint between your shoulder and your elbow.
And you pinch your fat.
Gosh, it's kind of difficult to pinch you.
You don't have any fat.
She's patronizing me.
No, no, it's true.
Okay. Let's just go ahead and give an example.
Give the one that everyone's embarrassed about.
This is the fat.
And then you do it in the belly.
So, you know, about two inches over your hip bone.
So somewhere here, you take a diagonal pinch, and then you basically pinch it like that, and then you hear a little click.
And that kind of tells you to stop.
And then you measure it.
See, for example, for you, it's...
About a centimeter.
Less than a centimeter.
A little bit, yeah.
And then you do it in the thigh again.
And you do it in the thigh.
You know, a point between your knee and your hip.
And there's a chart when you get these things.
And they are about five bucks.
They're not much.
These calipers.
They will tell you where to put numbers.
And you can calculate your body fat percentage.
So, Leanne from our audience is here now.
Now, before the show, she was measured.
I saw you backstage.
I heard you.
How are you?
Hi, how are you?
Good to meet you.
I have the calipers, but I'm not going to use them on you.
Okay. What did they find?
Do you know?
I don't know what the final number is, but I know that I am this skinny, fat person you're talking about.
Yes, I heard that.
So what are you going to do differently with these results?
Now that you know that you're skinny, fat, and you're not alone, a lot of folks are.
Well, I'm going to get a lot more active.
I do.
I actually have a gym membership, and I go, you know, occasionally say hi.
But I tend to...
I tend to go straight for the treadmill with the intention of getting to the weights and doing all that kind of stuff.
But then I start looking at the time where I spend more time on the treadmill than I thought and I just kind of ignore them as I walk out the door.
But it's also true for people who go walking.
There are folks who go, do something, that's the benefit.
Please do that.
But in addition, we're asking women especially to do something that actually allows them to lift their own body weight.
There are many reasons to do that.
We know more and more that frailty is a major killer.
But that's not what we're talking about today.
The frailty that's going to hurt you is the frailty that causes your brain to atrophy and not be as strong.
And the best news of all was big thighs, big brain.
Yes, absolutely.
Hallelujah to that.
All right, everybody.
I love that.
We'll be right back.
Thank you.
An up-close look at Alzheimer's in the brain like we have never seen before and how these new insights help develop a new drug that you're going to want to know about.
Stay with us.
Stay with us.
He's been called a rock star of science, credited with co-discovering the first three Alzheimer's genes, and several more since.
And now he has co-developed the new Alzheimer's drug that the whole world is watching.
Please welcome Harvard Neurogenesis and my friend, Dr. Rudy Tangier.
Thank you for being here.
I got to tell you, Dr. Tangier recently told him, he said, we'll have a solid plan for eradicating, the word was eradicating, Alzheimer's disease by 2025.
I really trust you.
I do.
So when someone like you says that, it means a lot to me.
What makes you so confident?
Well, I think, you know, on one hand, we have to cure patients with Alzheimer's, but we have to also stop the next generations from getting this disease.
I think there's a true chance to end this disease over the next decade because there have been several major discoveries just over the last few years where now we know what's going wrong in the brain 10 or 20 years before the symptoms occur.
So we eradicate it early.
Early detection, early intervention would be the mantra.
Alright, so Dr. Tansey developed a new promising drug using a brand new technique that you're going to want to see.
Now, until now, Alzheimer's has only been studied in animals, right?
You get an animal, you create a model for Alzheimer's, you try to do your best.
But Dr. Tansey actually created a mini-human brain with the disease.
He calls it Alzheimer's in a dish.
Now, this has never been shown before on television.
We're going to show it to you for the first time here.
I want Tina to be here.
How are you, Tina?
Because I think Tina, like so many of you, has concerns about Alzheimer's, and I think this will help shine a big bright light on the problem.
So what is your story?
What makes you so worried about Alzheimer's, except that you're like the average American?
My grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's last year, so I'm very concerned about it.
I watched her deteriorate over the years and took care of her, and I'm very concerned, of course, if I'm going to get it, my mother, my daughter one day, so a preventative would be great.
You really aren't alone.
It's the single most common concern that Americans are telling me about.
And so when I see that many folks worried about it, and I see someone like that, Katanzi, who's got some answers, and real opportunities to change the course of human history, I want to bring it together.
But I've never thought I'd see anything like what I'm going to show you.
So if you don't mind, walk us through what we're seeing, this brain in a Petri dish, and explain why it's so important.
Well, you know, for a long time, we were just stuck with studying this disease in mice.
And most of us argued, mice are not people.
So now we can take human nerve cells made from stem cells.
That's these.
And we're growing them in a gel that mimics the brain because the brain's like jello.
And these nerve cells are interacting the way they should and forming networks.
And then we can put into them the Alzheimer's genes we discovered and have them create Alzheimer's pathology in a petri dish in a mini human brain organoid.
That orange blob is a plaque.
That's amyloid plaque?
That's amyloid plaque forming in the dish around the green blobs that are nerve cells.
And then we know that these amyloid plaques form in the brain 20 years, up to 20 years before the symptoms occur.
So this is the enemy number one we have to hit first.
So 20 years, it's sort of close to home, doesn't it?
Is your mom still okay?
My mom's still okay.
But you start to worry, with 20 years, that's the head start that you need.
Alright, so I'm going to show you something now that really caught my attention.
So, these little green things are brain cells.
Notice there's a brain cell here with little...
Green line going out into the distance where it talks to other brain cells, right?
Now, this is the part that's sort of cool.
These are all those amyloid plaques you showed.
Oh, these are the little, what are they called, microglial cells.
They're the sentinels and housekeepers in the brain that normally keep the brain clean.
Got it.
Like during deep sleep.
All right, so you have a green, good brain cell, good guy, and you have these garbage men or sentinels.
Yes. Okay.
And normally they're cleaning the brain, but when they sense something's wrong, like the plaques...
And the plaques in the dish cause what's called tangles inside the nerve cells.
They say,"We've got to wipe this area out.
We've got to take these damaged nerve cells and remove them." Even if the nerve cells are helping, even if it's your best connection to what your grandmother's name is.
But that's the issue.
Collateral damage.
So watch this video.
Watch this green line.
Watch what happens to this cell.
So these guardians now, they start to attack it.
See them eating away at it?
And as they do, they chew it up, and all of a sudden you begin to invade the space of the brain cell, and so now you understand what's going on.
Right. So these cells that normally are protecting the brain, when they sense something's wrong, take it out.
They're taking out the bad nerve cells, but by friendly fire, they take out the good ones too, and now this is when you go downhill.
Now, this has significant implications for how you...
Dr. Tanji has a new drug that he developed that's designed to stop this from happening.
So the tangles that confuse the guardians don't ever form.
The neurons never die.
Right, and the whole idea here is to do it early enough before the symptoms occur, just like we do with other diseases.
Alzheimer's has to catch up to that.
I hope that's helpful.
I hope so.
Thank you so much.
Dr. Tanji, come on over here.
And I want you all to understand this mindset because it gives you great confidence.
You actually described amyloid fighting, you know, pushing those plaques away, similar to the way we think about cholesterol.
So you're actually calling it a statin for the brain if you can make a medication to do it.
Yes, my colleague, Dr. Stephen Wagner at UCSD, San Diego, and I developed a drug that will bring the amyloid levels down in the brain.
But it has to be very safe because this is a drug like a statin you might have to take for 10, 20, 30, 40 years.
And that drug was developed with the help of this dish.
And now we're going to be heading into clinical trials, hopefully by the end of this year or next year.
This year?
If things go really well, but definitely we think by next year, yes.
Can I just show you what Dr. Tange is talking about when it comes to these cells?
So I've got a regular old match here, okay?
And I'll light this match.
And this match, as it gets lit up, right?
Imagine it as the formation of amyloid, right?
That's the equivalent.
Now, it's a precursor to what will become full-blown Alzheimer's, which in the case of this match is like a forest fire erupting behind me, right?
So this big fire is up there, and drugs in the market now essentially are blowing out this match in an attempt to extinguish the forest fire.
Does that make any sense?
Right? It's not going to work.
You need to do something a lot earlier to make a difference before the symptoms have gone so far.
We need to stop the amyloid plaques 10 to 20 years before the person shows symptoms.
And that's what this drug is calling, GSM?
GSM, yes.
That's the idea.
So we would use the GSM in someone who has high plaque in their brain but no symptoms with early screening.
Right now it's brain imaging.
But blood tests are on the way.
So just like you test for cholesterol, you test for your amyloid, bring it down if you have to.
That's going to be the future of ending this disease.
Oh my goodness.
So it raises one of the major questions.
When we come back, should you get the Alzheimer's DNA test right now, since we have something you might do about it?
Stay with us.
Thank you.
Dental scams.
Six cavities when I was told I had none.
You just don't know who to trust.
All new Oz undercover.
We were shocked at people being overcharged or being overdiagnosed.
That's coming up Friday on Dr. Oz.
Should you get the Alzheimer's DNA test right now?
The FDA has approved direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but is it right for you?
How many people in the audience would be interested in their genetic test for Alzheimer's?
It's a lot of folks, but not everybody.
How are you?
Hi, how are you?
What are your thoughts about this test?
I'm very interested in taking the test to see if I'm at risk.
Any concerns, for example, where we come back positive?
Well, yeah, I see people, how they deteriorate when they are diagnosed, and I just want to know if there's something I can do ahead of time to prepare myself and my family.
You're a very thoughtful woman.
It's the exact way to think about it.
But I want to take Dr. Tanzi through this so you all understand exactly what these tests are and what we can do about it.
Is that good?
Yes. All right.
So Dr. Tanzi is going to walk us through three things everyone needs to know before taking the Alzheimer's DNA test.
The first is your DNA is not protected by HIPAA, right?
So it's not confidential, really, as much as you might want it to be.
Well, yeah.
I mean, the problem is with life insurance or long-term disability, theoretically, an insurance company can ask for your genetic data, even if it's from a direct-to-consumer test.
And, you know, that could, in the future, we don't know, that could lead to denial or increased premiums.
So, you know, once that information's out there, it might go anywhere.
Personally, I'd rather know.
I get all the theoretical issues that's been told to me in the past, but I want to know because it's my life I'm talking about, and if someone else finds out about it, I'll deal with it then.
All right.
Second big issue is that your genes are a measure of risk, but this is important.
They're not a diagnosis.
Right. So there are very rare genes we discovered that can cause Alzheimer's for sure at a very early age, but that's only 1% of cases.
In most cases, it's genes that have common variations in them that increase your risk, like APOE4.
That gene variant increases risk two to three-fold if just one parent gave it to you.
If both parents gave you one, then your increased risk is ten to fourteen-fold.
But here's the thing.
Not everyone is the same.
Other genes can offset the risk.
Your lifestyle can offset the risk.
Yeah, so just, again, if the APOE4, that's the thing you were just saying about, if it's positive, which is the test that is being looked at right now, that's what you'll get back when you spit into the tube, is that a diagnosis?
No, it just says...
You have increased risk.
And in some people, it can create a lot of panic, as you might imagine.
But Jeff, remember, there are about three dozen other genes that can offset that risk.
And your lifestyle can offset that risk.
So ApoE4 positive is not a death sentence.
It doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get the disease.
People need to know that.
It means you have to be more diligent.
Early detection, early intervention, keep track of what's going on so you can take care of yourself.
But let's address the not what.
Because whether you have it or not, you ought to be doing these things.
But especially if you have the APOE4, you ought to pay attention.
So Irene is joining us.
You did one of these mail-away DNA tests.
Yes, I did.
Are you okay sharing your results?
Oh, absolutely.
No, it's fine.
It shows that I have a propensity to get the disease.
So I'm concerned because it's in the family.
My father passed his...
Three of his siblings passed on the male line.
I have two brothers still living and my son.
So I'm concerned for them and myself.
So again, you got dealt a bad card, but you're allowed to shuffle the deck again.
Yeah. That's really what we're doing today.
So you want to walk us through?
Sure, sure.
So we like to call this SHIELD, and each letter stands for something.
S is sleep.
Sleep eight hours.
During your deep sleep after you're dreaming, this is like mental floss for the brain.
It's when the brain cleans itself out, like scrub your bubbles.
So you have to try to get eight hours of sleep, even if it's not all at once.
Even naps are good.
Handle stress.
Meditation practice.
Stress is bad for the body.
It's bad for the brain.
So dealing with your expectations of others or meditation practice is great.
I, interact with others.
You have to interact.
Friends, family, don't stay home.
You have to get out there and talk to people.
Your brain loves that.
It's good for the brain.
And your loved ones who had Alzheimer's probably became isolated.
Yes, they did.
During the course of their illness.
And that just accelerates.
They fall off the cliff then.
And the E stands for exercise.
We just had a big paper in the Journal of Science showing exercise induces the birth of new nerve cells in the brain where Alzheimer's strikes and the mice can reverse the cognitive problems and it also gets rid of the inflammation.
So exercise has never been more important.
Learning new things, like we are right now, that means you make new connections in the brain.
In Alzheimer's, dementia comes from losing those connections.
So the more you make in advance, it's like money in the bank.
So you want to learn as many new things as you can.
And finally, diet.
Nothing's better than the Mediterranean diet.
And that's not just because I'm Italian.
But seriously, a Mediterranean diet that's more fiber-based, plant-based, nut-based, less red meat, more fish, or even a vegetarian source of protein, it's great for you because that fiber is what feeds your bacteria in your gut, your gut microbiome.
And believe me, there may be probiotics people take.
But there's nothing better for your gut microbiome than feeding the ones you have and keeping them happy with fiber.
When you give them fiber, those bacteria make chemicals that reduce inflammation in the brain.
You're worried about your dad, I understand.
Yes, I am, because when I first realized there was something wrong, he was watching the same movie over and over and denying he saw it.
And it shocked me to the core, and I cried.
First of all.
I know what it's like.
We all have relatives like that.
But when I see something like this up there, stuff that you can begin to incorporate into his life right now, that can give a little extra time to Dr. Tanzi, that's the power that you have.
That's why this show exists.
That's why all the folks watching right now make a difference.
We're going to put a one sheet with a full SHIELD plan.
SHIELD, remember that acronym on DrRoz.com.
Dr. Tanzi, thank you very much.
He's got a fantastic book.
His latest one's called The Healing Self.
He's a wonderful writer.
He actually plays a musician.
Right? Are you going to brag or should I brag for you?
Oh, you can do it.
Aerosmith. Now you think about that.
A true rock star.
We'll be right back.
Up next, the food investigation.
You've been craving the truth about new protein pastas at your supermarket.
Is pasta really now a health food?
Mmm.
Protein-packed, high-fiber, low-carb.
What am I talking about?
Vegetables, right?
No, not now.
I'm talking about the latest claims surrounding pasta.
New protein pastas out there make it sound like everyone's favorite carb could be a health food.
But are they really?
Today, a new food investigation.
The truth about the protein pasta trend showing up in your supermarket.
They're all around the place.
Here to help break it down, food journalist Mark Shasker.
Everybody knows that pasta's been old.
Forever. Public enemy number one for dieters.
Mark says pastas everywhere again with these new noodles.
So are they really the answer to everyone's pasta prayers?
I think they are an answer.
Now, first thing I'll say is I think regular pasta can be part of a healthy diet.
Some people really struggle with carbs.
They get carb cravings.
They don't like the way carbs make them feel.
A lot of people have been trying to reduce the amount of carbs in their diet.
Well, the pasta industry has responded.
We've got these pastas.
I would also say, though, you've got to use your...
You've got to use your head a little bit.
Eating these pastas is not permission to have two or three bowls.
It's also not permission to have a double cheeseburger with extra cheese for lunch the next day.
Be smart.
Yeah. They feel like regular pasta.
They look like regular pasta.
We're going to find out about them.
I've got some carb-loving pasta fiends over here.
They say they are boiling with questions.
Pardon the pun.
Are you ready?
Pasta lovers.
What do you want to know?
We're going to start off with Nicole.
What's in them?
What's actually in those pastas I was just holding?
All right, Maddie, your question.
Is it actually healthy and low carbon?
Is it worth it to switch?
Which is my key question to you.
Sergene? Ooh, how's it taste?
That's the big one for me.
How does it taste?
All right, so we're going to ask you all, but let's start our investigation.
We're going to start with Nicole's question, because it's important.
What's actually in these protein pastas?
So you researched this, and how do you take beans and turn them into bean pasta?
How does that magic happen, actually?
Well, and it depends.
They're not all the same.
So sometimes it's just one ingredient.
These beans with water become these.
Other manufacturers start adding things.
They'll add things like xanthan gum, tapioca.
They're trying to get the texture to be more like regular pasta.
We found one brand that had 15 ingredients.
15. That's always my hang-up, because when you make something synthetically, resemble what it comes with in nature, that's the problem with gluten-free foods for me.
Exactly. Is this just another example that I think a lot of consumers are getting a little edgy?
You start to get a lot of alchemy.
But what I would say people need to do, read the label.
The shorter the ingredient list, the better.
But the number one thing is, if you're buying a black bean pasta, then black beans should be the number one ingredient.
What I get worried about is somebody's just going to start adding a little black bean powder to a regular pasta and say, hey, it's black bean pasta.
So here you have bean, bean flour, and water.
That's like the ultimate.
And the shorter, the better.
And there are brands that just have those?
There are brands, yeah.
They're that simple.
Well, that makes it easy.
You can pronounce all those ingredients.
Okay, next question we heard is, are they really that much healthier?
Let's start off with the protein element, right?
So, regular old pasta comes in two main forms.
Yeah. Right?
We look at a lot of major brands out there to figure it out.
So, what do we find out with regard to protein just between regular pasta and whole wheat, which is today the standard for being healthy?
Okay, so, yeah.
Good old regular pasta is six grams of protein per cup.
Six. Now, things improve a little bit with whole wheat pasta.
You get up to 8 grams of protein per cup.
Well, that's a big difference.
Yeah. Sort of.
We'll see.
It gets more interesting.
All right.
Quick question.
Which pasta that we're going to talk about today had the most protein per serving?
So, the brands vary, but consistently the one that came out on top was red lentil pasta.
Red lentil?
14 grams.
And you like cooking with red lentils?
Absolutely. Why so?
Okay, the first thing I like about red lentil pasta is that it's made from something real.
What I'm not into are these things where they add like a protein extract and everyone's pretending it's all the same.
The second thing I like about this is the way it tastes.
Now, this issue about taste is critical.
A lot of folks say, well, does this compare to my friendly neighborhood semolina pasta, the traditional one I grew up with?
That's the wrong question.
The question is, is this good enough by itself?
And we need to start asking the question that way.
That way we stop having these false decisions about whether it's good enough.
Exactly. And don't pretend it's something that it isn't.
Embrace it for what it is.
Alright, next up.
A lot of these pastas argue that they're high in fiber.
Some are better than others.
What is the best in terms of fiber?
Best across the board is black bean pasta.
If you're looking for fiber, that is the choice.
Alright. And for years, the folks who were pastaphobic argued that the carbs were a problem.
Which of these new protein pastas is the lowest in actual carbs?
Yeah, the lowest in carbs is a relative new player.
Pasta made from green peas has 27 grams of carbs per cup.
That's like half of what you get in regular pasta.
So that is a significant difference.
Yeah, I would have thought the beans would be lower, but peas we go.
All right, pasta livers are here.
They're trying this.
Now, pasta livers, before you taste, you've heard the whole presentation.
We've answered all three of your questions.
High-level thoughts.
Have you changed your first instincts about protein pastas?
Yes, I'm curious to try them.
Curious enough to try?
That's a step forward.
These people are skeptical.
The collar makes me really nervous.
That it's bright green.
Yeah, it is a weird color.
But you do see that in Italy.
They make pasta with spinach.
Yeah. All right.
Mark, thank you very much.
Last word in his book, The Dorito Effect.
Check it out.
It's very well done.
Check out the full guide to healthy pasta at dros.com.
Up next, the taste test results are revealed.
Plus, Chef Roble is here with the protein pasta cooking hack.
It is so darn good, it tastes like he's eating the real thing.
There he is, working hard.
Chef Roble.
Woo!
I love getting to talk with you on my show every single day.
But when the cameras stop rolling, the conversation is not over.
I still have a lot that I want to talk about.
So download the Dr. Oz podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you.
If you love your pasta but you stay away from it because of all the carbs and calories, well get ready because we have the skinny on the latest protein pastas taking over your supermarket.
We've been investigating the truth about these new noodles.
And now, the tasty tricks to making these new pastas taste like the real thing.
And who better than Chef Roble to teach us about this.
There are so many folks complaining, whining.
We heard our taste testers at the White Club earlier speaking about the fact they don't like the color, they don't like the texture, this or that.
What's the key to making these new protein-rich pastas taste like the real thing?
Well, I personally don't mind them at all.
You know, I like peas.
I like, what was it, lentils and black beans, all these things.
So it doesn't bother me at all.
What I like to do is just pair it with a simple sauce.
So, you know, it's fall, so I'm thinking, you know, butternut squash, right?
Oh, it's the best.
So what I did was I made a butternut squash pasta sauce.
You know, this is the star of the show.
So I take butternut squash, a little bit of celery, carrots, onion, and garlic.
Toss it in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, pepper, pop it in the oven.
So this is basically your tomato equivalent because it's the fall.
Well, yeah.
I mean, tomato's good all year round, but I want it to be, you know, everybody expects a tomato sauce, so, you know, get funky with it, right?
Get funky with it.
Yeah. Okay.
So I'll roast it all up.
Okay. You put it in a blender with some veggie stock, a little tomato paste, a little either raw honey, which is my favorite, or maple syrup, natural sweetener, right?
And some goat cheese.
In a blender.
Blend it up.
Pop it in a pot.
It's warm.
You're done at that point.
I'll give you some numbers here.
I love the taste of the pasta sauce.
I love these pastas anyway.
But here's what I really love.
The health benefits.
211 calories and 40 grams normally for your regular old flour noodles.
For these pea pasta, various 191 calories, 27 grams of carbs.
And you're cutting it by 30-40%.
It's a big, big deal.
Absolutely. But I've learned after 10 years of making this show, they don't actually taste my taste buds as much as they taste their taste buds.
Right. So I brought three of our harshest critics here who have been chowing down.
My pasta lovers are back for a taste test.
All right, who wants to go first?
Nicole, you up first?
It's really good.
It's a good way to get my daughter to eat her vegetables.
You can't even tell.
You can't even tell?
No. Oh, my goodness.
That's a real tribute.
Maddie? It's really hearty and filling.
I feel like, because that was the one thing I was concerned about, if I would feel as full, but I feel like with this, you wouldn't feel as bloated and things like that after sometimes you eat pasta.
It's really great.
And Sergene, you get the ultimate vote here.
Thumbs up or thumbs down for Chef Robles' creation?
He might be up to something here.
Is that 3-3?
That's 3-3!
3-3!
And if you want to get really funky with it, you know, when I did it at home, I put a little bit of corn in there, I sauteed some mushrooms, and I took some smoked salmon and just, like, cut it up and folded it in there, and I made a lot of people happy.
Yeah, the guests are still there.
Yeah. I'll make it four for four.
This is really, really great.
But you've got to admit, the underlying pasta is a superstar.
Right? I toast Chef Robbert.
It's good stuff.
Yeah. All right.
Thank you.
Thanks to all that pasta lovers.
You can get the recipe for this butternut squash, this pea pasta at DrRoz.com.
I'll be right back.
Eat these protein pastas.
An all-new true crime investigation.
How could one surgeon harm so many?
I take the fifth.
that's coming up tomorrow.
Today, breaking nut news.
I've always celebrated the health benefits of walnuts and pistachios.
Almonds, but now there's even more reason to indulge.
Brand new research has found that nuts like these may have fewer calories than we thought.
Here with this group, food journalist Mark Shaskier.
How do we finally discover the truth about these nuts?
I have been bragging about them.
I personally eat them.
They're probably my most common source of calories.
And now I get a discount.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
So here's what happened.
Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service looked at almonds, walnuts, and pistachios.
They asked an interesting question.
How many calories are in them?
But also, how many calories are getting in our bodies?
What they found, there's actually a lot of daylight between these two.
That a lot of those calories that we eat nuts are going right through us.
And that's good news, because a lot of us are trying to cut back.
All right, take us through this.
Let's find out how many calories our favorite nuts have.
We'll start off with almonds.
Almonds. But 23 almonds in an ounce, that's a quick warm-up for me.
We thought that was 160 calories.
Turns out, it's 129.
Way less.
Huge! Yeah, big, big difference.
30 calories less.
Almost 20%.
Absolutely. And it gets even more interesting.
Walnuts. Now, walnuts have always been good because they're high in omega-3s.
But 11 walnuts, one ounce, has 185 calories.
So there's always this, oh my god, they're so high in calories.
Turns out, wrong.
146 calories.
40 calories up almost.
Yeah, it's a significant difference.
And then over here with pistachios, not as big of a difference.
We thought one ounce had 162.
Turns out, 154, it's about 5%, not insignificant, 5% is still something, you know, worth...
And it's about 40 pistachios in an ounce, is that right?
Yes, exactly.
So you get, you know, you get to give a rough idea of how much is normal.
So why does it matter that you're showing...
Somewhere between 10-20% difference in most of these nuts.
Yeah, well, you know, nuts have always been confusing because on paper, they were high in calories.
So a lot of people are running around saying, don't eat nuts, don't eat nuts.
Nuts are terrible.
A lot of people got frightened of nuts.
They were considered junk food.
But then other realms of science were giving us these interesting signals.
People who would eat a lot of nuts.
They would lose weight.
It seemed to be part of a healthy lifestyle.
So what's going on?
Well, now it seems we have our answer, that there's actually, we're not getting all the calories from the nuts that we eat.
So does this mean we can eat as many nuts as we want?
So here's what I would say.
If you hear a piece of nutritional news and your first reaction is, so you're saying I can eat more?
Maybe not the best strategy, but what I would say is find a way to incorporate nuts into your diet.
If you like to snack on potato chips in front of the football game, have nuts instead.
If you're a little peckish an hour and a half after dinner, just grab a little handful of nuts.
They're satisfying, they're delicious, and they're way better than we thought.
It brings so much more clarity to my mind.
Mark, thank you as always.
Everybody remember, change is happening.
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