Kind: captions
Language: en
hey there i am dr will leave here with
five with dr lee and i am actually today
talking about a new book uh that i'm
super excited about um it is called
fiber fueled and it's actually a
cookbook
fiberfield cookbook
my good friend will balsawicz is the
author and i'm going to have him on as a
special guest
so let's see we can find him here he is
he's coming on board
anytime now
and i want to talk about all the things
that are all the great stuff
hey
hello how you doing i'm great it's good
to see you my man good to see you well
listen i was just introducing people my
audience to
uh the fiber field cookbook which i
received uh and have been reading it's
not that thick a book um and what i love
about it is that um you know i i love to
cook it's got super
uh super easy
recipes that are beautifully
photographed easily written anybody can
actually find them appealing so you know
when i look when i look for something in
a cookbook i'm looking for pictures i'm
looking for ease and i want it to be
super appealing um and uh
and i know that you and i have been
talking about
the the coming of this book uh out of
your fiber fueled uh book and so i
wanted you to come on today
so we could have a conversation about a
couple things number one i wanted to
talk about like okay how did you go from
your first book to the cookbook and
number two i want to kind of do a little
bit of a deep dive and talk about
histamine and histamine-based foods and
and you know and what what what can we
do that's really practical like what do
what what's the take-home message out of
it so you want to you want to kind of
give us all a little background of
of where you came from in terms of your
first book and
and which maybe a little bit about your
background too just sort of like how
does how does a doctor like you and me
get involved with writing a book and how
does that book lead us to the next book
yeah first of all this is a great book
if you guys haven't grabbed it
you probably have but if you haven't you
need to grab this book eat the beet
disease um
you know will i think uh
much like you
all right this was not some sort of
strategic plan to become an author
uh i certainly didn't view myself as
being a serial author
the sequence of events you know just to
kind of like quickly move through it so
we can jump to other big things that we
want to talk about
the sequence of events is that quite
simply
i come from a very academic background
georgetown for med school northwestern
for residency the university of north
carolina was on a grant from the nih
uh publishing papers but 10 years ago i
was sick
and being sick actually turned out to be
the most important part of my education
because
i needed a way to fix my own health
issues
and discovered that my education at
these wonderful institutions and with
like literally world-class
mentors
i still didn't know how to fix my own
problems by the way for those who are
wondering i was 50 pounds overweight
metabolically unbalanced high blood
pressure high cholesterol and from a
mood perspective in a horrible place
very anxious honestly depressed
and what ended up being the solution
was unexpected because if i knew it i
would have just done it
it was changing my diet
and discovering the power that exists by
like making small
simple
sustainable choices but then coming back
and doing it again tomorrow
and this transformed my life
and then i started asking questions why
was i not taught this
is there any literature
well much like you and the way that you
referenced e2b disease
my first book had 600 references
and my cookbook
has 400 references
that's
perhaps a new world record for a
cookbook
so
i um
i'm thumbing through it right now
because
uh you know i i think you know the one
thing that is so important for everyone
listening
is
we're all wondering who are the voices
that we can trust and what you've just
relayed i think to everyone is that you
have a
a in-depth background
and you were confronted with a personal
problem that your background couldn't
solve and that led you
using your education and using your
determination to try to figure out the
answer that you would then give to
everyone else
that's exactly right and so
so i you know i believe like
science is my compass
so i turned to the medical literature
and was shocked to discover will that
there are thousands of studies
showing us and explaining what actually
happened with my own body
and that healing through nutrition
is actually very possible
and so
this um created a voracious appetite
within me
to learn more on this topic because it
changed my life it saved me
so i started
uh studying at night
and then i would go into the clinic the
next day with my patients
and we would learn together
so i was i'm sure quite clumsy in the
very beginning and how i was doing this
but my patients stuck with me and we
figured it out and next thing you know
this is like a snowball gaining momentum
and patients are having transformations
and i'm watching this happen these
miracles in my clinic
and saying
it is not enough for me to be one-on-one
with these people who can afford to come
and see me
when the entire world deserves to hear
this
independent of like i don't care if you
have money
and i certainly don't have the time to
see all of you
but i do want to share this information
that's the really one of the best
reasons uh and i think you and i share
this to write a book is to really be
able to share that information if you're
going to take the time to explain it to
one person and see the benefit then it's
inevitable that you know the next step
is to say how do i impact more people
like one of my mentors you know called
it the ripple effect you know when you
throw a stone into a pond and you start
to see all the ripples forming and so i
think that's really what fiber fuel did
it actually you know took you from a uh
well
uh a a physician a clinician with a
great reputation in your own practice
into really a national and international
force i know you've started to do work
with zoe which is um really focused on
the microbiome
and health and uh you also
are
like a rock star when it comes to your
tribe and social media and i want to
introduce the people who follow me to
the work you're doing because i think
it's so important so why don't we dive
into the fiber-fueled cookbook because
you know i love cookbooks i'm like a i
mean i'm a collector of cookbooks if you
took a look around where i am right now
it's filled with cookbooks and yours
happens to be on top of the pile not
because it actually just came in
so everyone should actually buy it but
actually it's something that i i'm
geeking out on the reason i'm geeking
out on it is because i'm a scientist and
i love when you're explaining
not only to the general public but to
someone like me you're not talking down
to people you're actually bringing
everybody up and so even for me you know
i'm a scientist to read through it i'm
reviewing things that i know
i'm
asking new questions uh based on my own
background and the way it's written is
just like perfect for everyone so you
know i thought maybe you want to kind of
talk about what's in your book and then
i'd love to jump into the histamine
chapter because
everyone knows histamine from
antihistamine which you take during
allergy season at this time of the year
but i want to you know it's something
i've always wondered myself about
because i met somebody in college who
actually had a terrible allergy allergic
reaction to tomatoes and strawberries
and so i thought maybe we can use that
as a jumping point but
let everyone know what is in this baby
here
okay
so the the story goes like this
um i i did not have a plan for a second
book
you know that you and i were on the
phone by the way for those of you who
don't know when i found out that i was a
new york times best-selling author
the first person to call me was this guy
right here
all right and we had a nice conversation
he's been he's been uh an important and
valued uh part of my life
fiber fuels was a passion project
i want to shine a light on this
revolutionary science that's occurring
right now
that is transforming how we think about
the human body
and the most important part is not even
human
and the way that we make that work so
well
is through dietary fiber
which 95 of us are not consuming right
so that was the story but
people came out of the woodwork and they
said to me you know i loved your book
you inspired me i'm i'm like i'm i'm on
board
but i don't feel well when i eat this
way
okay
there's reasons for this and this is
what i spend you know my job as a
gastroenterologist has been is to help
people with these types of issues
so let me stop being an author
and let me be a doctor
and let me use this opportunity that i
have
because of the success of my first book
to write a book designed for healing
this is basically they call it a
cookbook but what if we called it the
fiberfields
protocol because you easily could
and you know basically it's 11 chapters
there's recipes in
four of the chapters
the rest of them are me
providing empowerment and education
and
if you follow the book chapter by
chapter i'm actually guiding you on a
healing journey
that like i'm taking you inside my head
and i'm showing you how i would approach
digestive health issues
step by step
and
it's got some gorgeous pictures too
you know it's really
it's really important i think for a
guide
not to be
just boring texts but to really have
some wonderful pictures and that's what
you've actually put in here well you
know what's gonna happen will this is
what happens man someone grabs this book
day one you take it home okay
this is your new uh issue of us weekly
like
turn your brain off
take your shoes off and just flip
through and look at the beautiful photos
and maybe fold over the pages with the
recipes that you want to cook okay now
your job for the rest of this week is
let's cook some food and let's have some
fun enjoy some delicious meals
but then the third part is you get to
sit down with me
and i wrote 11 chapters
and i want to empower you with knowledge
that i believe could transform your life
and that to me is the special part of
this book is yes it is a cookbook but
it's actually a cookbook that is
completely designed for healing that's
what it's about
i love that i mean and and you know the
the
fundamentals is really about fiber isn't
it because i mean that's really one of
the areas that you focus on but it's not
just fiber i mean as doctors we know
that there's very rarely a black and
white simple thing that if you removed
it everything is all fixed there's that
the body works in really complex ways
when you're talking about the the gut
microbiome uh you know which is the
recipient of the food that we put in our
mouth right what we put upstairs goes
trickles all the way down and if it's
good for our
uh our bacteria they thank us for it and
if it's bad for our bacteria we pay we
pay the price right
right so so
you know i i i was so excited to see
there was a whole section
on histamine now i remember from medical
school you know histamine is made from
an amino acid histidine that actually um
is present in all of our bodies we we
need it and in fact histamine is
something that most people think about
for allergies right you like oh um you
don't have to be a scientist to actually
have hay fever ragweed or pollen or
whatever sleep with the windows open you
got runny nose stuffy nose and you want
to take what do you where do you reach
for uh you know is into their medicine
cabinet you take your antihistamine
so do you want to kind of like help
everybody explain like what does that
have to do with the diet and how do you
know if you have a problem with it and
before you would want to fix it
yeah so uh you know as you as you've
already alluded to histamine is actually
a normal part of the human body
and when we are our most healthy version
of ourselves we we have histamine
in our blood
but
um
it's a signaling molecule and there are
these histamine receptors and like
anything else if it falls out of balance
and you over stimulate those histamine
receptors you will manifest symptoms
that you don't want and this is where
like you know these antihistamines like
claritin and zyrtec come in
um because those people that have
seasonal allergies they are over
stimulating those histamine receptors
and suffering consequences so that's
what the pollen is doing we're breathing
it in we're getting into our eyes and
it's making us swell
uh
we weep fluid uh stuffy nose congestion
and and that's the over stimulation by
something in nature and that's an alert
yeah and that's an allergic phenomenon
so those seasonal allergies are
basically histamine is being released by
your immune system
in response to this external thing in
the in this case pollen or it could be
pet dander or whatever it may be
this external thing
stimulates your immune system it
releases histamine and then you get this
excessive histamine reaction okay but
here's the thing
you made a very important point in the
beginning that most people probably
didn't catch
histamine is produced by microbes
histamine is produced by microbes from
the amino acid histidine
all foods contain histidine
all life which basically makes up our
food contains microbes
so all foods contain histamine because
microbes will create histamine
the classic foods that are high in
histamine
are fermented foods
because the microbes are producing it
another example would be fish
so if you caught a fish if you were like
out there in the boat and you eat that
fish
you would be perfectly fine there's no
way you would have a histamine reaction
but the problem is that's not how it
works in the real world the fish is
caught and then it's like three weeks
later you buy it at whole foods and you
take it home and then you cook it
and it's enriched with histamine at this
point
so
you can get histamine in your diet
let me point out the plants that are
relevant because there's four main
plants that people need to know about
uh
spinach tomatoes
eggplants
and you're gonna be a little bit mad at
this one will but avocados
all right so
these four plants tend to be our high
histamine foods
and
if you
consume a diet
with a large burden of histamine in it
without you even knowing it
then you can actually through dietary
means
over stimulate these histamine receptors
in the body
so this leads to the manifestation of
symptoms now
i'm going to actually miss the whole
bunch of symptoms
and the exercise here because we have
quite a few people here with us right
now
uh the exercise here is
for you guys as you hear me say this
ask the question
do you have at least two of these
symptoms all right so hang on a second
before you go into the list let's frame
it up
basically you're eating foods they're
going to go down into your gut some of
those foods may have histamine just
because because they're food and then
you've got gut bacteria that can
actually generate even more histamine
now histamine doesn't necessarily cause
you a problem
many people maybe even most people can
actually everyone can tolerate a little
bit of histamine
the question of whether it matters to
you whether or not you need
to actually pay attention to your
symptoms based on basis is based on well
whether or not you have the symptoms at
all right
that's exactly right now you need to
know you need to ask that question do i
have a problem so all right let's let's
have that framed up now and let's go
ahead and what are the symptoms people
need to think about all right so if you
have two of these symptoms i'm going to
tell you what to do next after we're
done so just pay attention do you have
two
so the number one symptom of histamine
intolerance is gas and bloating how
common is that
so in addition other digestive symptoms
could include
discomfort cramping abdominal pain acid
reflux nausea
diarrhea constipation
but let's go outside of the gut i'm
going to start at the top i'm going to
work my way down
headaches
migraines
brain fog
runny nose
congestion
sinusitis
sore throat
i'm going to do the skin
so rash
eczema
hives
flushing
cardiac
rapid heartbeat
palpitations
high blood pressure
uh lightheadedness
and then uh some a couple miscellaneous
fatigue
um
irregular menstrual cycle
pain with menstrual cycle like excessive
pain
okay
now
here's the so hang on so so here's hang
on
you just actually went through
essentially whole body symptoms some of
which are very generalized and i think
the reason
is because histamine receptors
the the kind of the proteins on top of
our cells that actually respond to that
signal the the histamine signal are
present everywhere and so whether or not
you're how sensitive you are to it is
one factor and then how much of the
signal you have is the other factor
right yes exactly and then the fact that
you have a couple of these symptoms
does not mean you necessarily have
histamine intolerance
but it opens up the possibility that
maybe you do what if you do
now here's the issue the health care
system is not designed to give you an
answer to this question
for a couple reasons number one we don't
have good testing meaning where there's
no blood test
there's no poop test there's no cat scan
all right the second problem is that you
go to in healthcare and you come see me
i'm your gastroenterologist
and you say dr b i'm having bloating and
a runny nose and migraines and i go cool
i'll help you with the bloating
go see an allergist and a neurologist
and they'll take care of those issues
right
what happened to integrating the whole
person
what if there was one diagnosis that
pulled it all together we we learned in
medical school as you know will about
occam's razor which basically means that
usually there's one diagnosis instead of
three diagnoses
right simple complex things are often
simple if you actually think about what
actually unites everything
exactly
so
anyway how how can you then know whether
or not you have histamine intolerance
here's the answer
you eat a low histamine diet
and if these symptoms
radically transform
then we have just identified that you
have histamine intolerance and we have
potentially changed your life
so what it what you actually wrote in
your book
is a methodology kind of a protocol
to first avoid the histamine rich foods
right that essentially it's sort of um
it's not a cleanse that's the wrong term
what you're trying to do is to sort of
filter out those foods that might be bad
actors um you still have a ton of foods
that you can actually eat so you're not
starving yourself
and then you're you're inviting people
as part of this protocol in your
fiberfield cookbook to then pay
attention to the body listen to the body
and then start to add things back
and it is not a permanent elimination we
are moving we are always striving to add
these foods back sometimes we will take
two steps backwards so that we can take
10 steps forwards
that's part of the process
um but what we do is we give you so
if i said to you as a doctor eat low
histamine well what does that even mean
but instead what i could do is i could
hand you 26 recipes
and you can choose which ones you want
to eat do you want to have the mango
blueberry smoothie or the sweet potato
waffles for breakfast what would you
rather have how about for lunch we do a
soup and a salad you could have the
summer sunburst salad or the rainbow
faro salad with tahini dressing and for
soup i got the roasted cauliflower soup
and the sweet the sweet corn and pepper
gazpacho
and then for dinner
there's the gado-gado quinoa bowl
there's the sweet potato shawarma bowl
there's the mango burrito bowl what do
you want so it's like i'm i'm i'm a
foodie
and i haven't heard anything that you
just described that smacks of
deprivation
so that's the other thing that i think
that when people think about health
healthy food cookbooks is all about
elimination and kind of knuckling down
to that like hardcore
unpleasant diet that you know you sort
of to be a slave to what you're saying
is in fact this sets you free
because it allows your body to actually
[Music]
rest and rejuvenate regenerate from any
histamine abuse that might have been
occurring so then you can actually
figure out what it is that you're able
to tolerate
the first step to healing is always
first understanding the nature of the
problem that you're trying to fix
right so if you were never diagnosed
with histamine and tolerance how could
you possibly create a plan to fix your
histamine intolerance we first have to
diagnose it
but then once we diagnose it i teach you
in the book some of the strategies that
you can use to ultimately overcome this
right so that's that's the key is that
this is not about long-term restriction
into a low histamine diet permanently
this is about
finding the problem
and now that we found it cool
let's line it up
let's line it up and fix it because we
can make a targeted approach now that we
know that you actually have this issue
i think that's great you know listen one
of the things i want to do um we could
we could talk about this book more i'd
love to have you back and we can talk
about specific
um cooking techniques or specific
ingredients uh that you're talking about
but i i want everyone to go out and buy
the fiberfield cookbook uh you know this
this book actually is going to be
something that you're going to
keep
nearby in your kitchen that you can
refer to and what i always tell people
to do when you find a cookbook you like
um you can here's a simple thing this is
what i do
i see a recipe i like or i see a section
of the cookie i take a photograph with
my cell phone all right if i can type a
note into the notes section that's great
but a lot of times i can't i'm too busy
or i've got some a lot of other things
going take a picture of it that way the
next time you're out shopping at the
supermarket you can just flip it open
and you can go to the picture section
and look at what you liked and you can
just enlarge it and then buy what you
need to buy that's that's kind of like
my shorthand of taking of how do i work
with cookbooks back in the old days you
had a xerox set or you had to write a
scroll it down yourself now you just
take a picture of it it's it's super
simple but if you know so what are what
are like in this whole cookbook i want
people to buy it but
like what are what are some take-home
messages you want people to know i mean
like even beyond the histamine chapter
there are some things you want people to
know
you delivered such a powerful message
with the book fiber field now this is
kind of the execution this is the
practice of
fiberfield what are some take-home
messages you want people to know i think
i think that there's two types of people
and everyone fits into one of these two
by the way there's only one group of
people who really should definitely not
buy my book and that's if you're
carnivore if you're carnivore i have
zero ingredients for you in my book do
not buy my book please i like i would
rather you not buy my book save the
money and keep eating whatever you're
gonna eat
all right
there are two types of people if you
have gut health issues there literally
has never been a book exactly like this
right this is a book actually designed
as a protocol chapter by chapter to walk
you through the process of healing that
even gives you the recipes
the protocols that you need to emerge on
the other side healthier
but on the flip side there's going to be
people who are like but i have no health
i have no gut health issue dr b why
would i care if this is only for people
with those issues
it's not
we have discovered that the gut
microbiome is connected to your
digestion metabolism immune system
hormones mood brain health and energy
levels
this is a precious commodity
it needs to be protected it needs to be
nurtured
if you're neglecting it and not paying
attention to it you're potentially
putting your health at risk
the point is that we should be paying
attention to this and eating in a way
that lifts our gut microbes up so that
we can enjoy the benefits that we get
from that
this is more than just 125 recipes this
is more than just plant-based these are
recipes that were designed strategically
to lift your gut microbiome up and make
it healthier so embedded in the recipes
is plant diversity
embedded in the book is a big section of
fermentation and sprouting
because those are some of the other
techniques and strategies that we use
for gut health
you know what i what i think you said is
so powerful which is our gut bacteria
you know it's it's not simply a concept
that people are talking about but
they're literally organisms that are
inside our body i tell people that you
know we're not even really known as
humans anymore we're known as holobionts
uh holobiont is an organism that's a
combination of different organisms and
that's actually who we are and you know
and we have this great responsibility um
with our gut bacteria there our gut
bacteria are kind of like
we have to feed them we have to you know
we give them room and board the room is
in our gut the board is the food that we
feed them and
we pay them well they pay us back
so
you know if you how to think about your
gut bacteria it's like if you i mean you
know how to take care of it because if
you have a cat you have a dog you have a
goldfish you have a parakeet you think
about feeding it every day right you
feed your pets because that's the right
thing to do and and you don't just enjoy
the the pet and you don't take care of
it like it's it's a disaster it gets
sick and then it will and you'll be
disappointed and that's the same thing
that happens in our gut bacteria we have
to take care of our our gut
basically like our kids we take care of
our kids so you know like you're talking
about a guide to raising a good gut
essentially uh is what you're talking
about
so real quick uh i saw someone comment
that research says that they they said
that research
says that fermented foods are more
important than plant diversity first of
all that's that's definitely not true
there's no study that says that if
you're referring to the stanford study
looking at fermented foods that was not
a comparison between fermented foods and
plant diversity that was not what they
did so you have to reread the study the
the second thing is those are not
mutually exclusive choices where you
have to do one versus the other you
should do both which is why i included
both in the book they both are good for
your gut microbiome this is how we
empower the gut microbes so last thing
real quick will because i gotta run um
you can buy my book anywhere
i appreciate anyone who wants to support
my work and grab my book no matter where
you get it from
but at the same time there you could buy
it from the place where the guy who owns
it is worth 50 billion dollars
or alternatively you can hop in your car
and roll down to that local
small bookstore in your community
where it is owned by your neighbor
and they probably have been struggling
because of the pandemic
and you
you slide a 20 bill across the table to
them
and they slide a copy of the fiberfields
cookbook to you and you go home and you
feel great because you got a great book
but you also supported a local business
that needs your help right now i am i am
so i'm so behind that message tell
everyone where they can actually find
more information about you
all right so if you come to my website
it's the plantfedgut.com
that's my website and um if you do the
plantfedgut.com
cookbook
not only will you find all of the
available places to buy my book but you
could also if you really want to if
you're excited about my work you can buy
a science copy
and it's actually a partnership i'm
doing with my local bookstore i'm not
making any money i'm just signing books
and um and then also
there's bonus assets so
in those bonus assets you got a food
diary you got worksheets for high
histamine foods high fodmap foods
substitutions basically trying to
empower you with as much information as
i can that is fantastic i'm telling you
i'm gonna go up after this and i'm going
to sign up and download that information
myself as a follow-up to this
conversation and just so everyone knows
i've also created some new material for
people who want to learn how to eat to
be diseased come to my website it's dr
william
drwilliamli.com you can see find me on
social it's on the link of my bio um i
want to have new information for people
to actually learn how what kind of
ingredients are good and what's great
news is that if you were to kind of
compare our notes will both with dr b we
actually are our ideas are very very
synchrous which is that our gut
microbiome is one of the way that our
body defends itself defends its health
and when we feed our gut well it pays us
back with good health so thank you very
much for joining me today and i'm
looking forward to having you back
it's my pleasure thank you will thank
you everyone for hanging out with us
today and uh this was awesome man there
people were super into it so we'll
definitely have to do it again sometime
cool
all right see you guys