#114 Dr. Kristi Funk - Arm Yourself with Plant Warfare Against Breast Cancer (A Plant-Stock Replay)
There are 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the US, women who have currently or have had in the past, breast cancer, which means there's a whole lot more living than dying going on, which is good news. However, this year alone, there still will be over 268,000 new invasive breast cancer diagnoses this year, and sadly, almost 42,000 deaths. So we do have work to do.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is why we’re showcasing a “Broc-Star Greatest Hits” presentation from our recent 2021 Plant-Stock Weekend, with board-certified breast cancer surgeon and physician, Dr. Kristi Funk.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and, yes, there are some risk factors that you can't change like age, gender, and family history. However, as Dr. Funk stresses, we have way more power and control than we think - and, this is good news!
One of the biggest factors in our control on a daily basis? The food we eat. Three to six times a day, we choose whether or not to arm ourselves with powerful plant warfare that is our biggest defender-in-battle against this disease.
There's so much research, motivation, and support in this uplifting talk that we simply had to share it and echo Dr. Funk's call-to-action: Eat Like You Mean It!
You'll hear and learn:
An explanation of the breast cancer statistics and your inherent risk factors
All of the risk factors we CAN control - especially what we eat
Why have the number of breast cancer cases increased in recent decades? What does the research show?
What is IGF-1 and what role does it play in the growth of cancer cells? What foods contain IGF-1 and why should I avoid it?
What is the only diet known to prevent and reverse heart disease, diabetes, cancers and dementia? You probably have a guess!
Dr. Funk's Top 12 Breast Super Foods and breast cancer food checklist
About Dr. Kristi Funk
Dr. Kristi Funk, a board-certified breast cancer surgeon and co-founder of the Pink Lotus Breast Center, is an expert in minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment methods for all types of breast disease. She has helped thousands of women through breast treatment, including well-known celebrities, like Angelina Jolie and Sheryl Crow, who have turned to her for her surgical expertise.
After graduating with distinction from Stanford University in 1991, Dr. Funk received her medical degree from UC Davis, School of Medicine. Following her surgical residency at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA, she completed a surgical breast fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she then excelled as a surgeon and breast center director for 7 years. In 2009, Dr. Funk alongside her entrepreneurial husband, Andy Funk, opened the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Beverly Hills. The Pink Lotus Breast Center fuses state-of-the art screening, genetic testing, diagnosis, and treatment with preventive strategies and holistic, compassionate care.
Dr. Funk is also the Founding Ambassador of the Pink Lotus Foundation, whose sole mission is to provide low-income, uninsured and underinsured women 100% free access to breast cancer screening and care.
Episode Resources
Pink Lotus Website and Resources
2021 Cancer-Kicking Virtual Summit - Details and Registration
Download a copy of all Plant-Stock presentations for just $49
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Of all these controllable changeable factors that are proven to elevate breast cancer risk: diet and nutrition, alcohol, exercise, obesity, hormone replacement therapy, environmental toxicities, emotional stress, there is one thing in my heavily researched opinion that is more important than any other. And you do it three to six times a day. You eat. Food is medicine.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm Rip Esselstyn and welcome to the PLANTSTRONG podcast. The mission at PLANTSTRONG is to further the advancement of all things within the plant-based movement. We advocate for the scientifically proven benefits of plant-based living and envision a world that universally understands, promotes, and prescribes plants as a solution to empowering your health, enhancing your performance, restoring the environment, and becoming better guardians to the animals we share this planet with. We welcome you, wherever you are on your PLANTSTRONG journey, and I hope that you enjoy the show.
Rip Esselstyn:
Hey, hey, my PLANTSTRONG cousins, this is Rip Esselstyn, and I want to welcome you to another episode of the PLANTSTRONG podcast. I am currently in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I am in Sedona, Arizona. I'm here for our week-long PLANTSTRONG retreat. We have about 80 participants that are joining us. And let me tell you, epic. I want to underscore that word, epic. Mind and body transformations are happening as I speak. It is so inspiring and so unbelievable what you can do for your health in just a few days with the proper support, encouragement, and environment.
Rip Esselstyn:
It is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is why this week I'm providing a special highlight from this year's Plant-Stock event with board certified breast cancer surgeon and physician, the amazing Dr. Kristi Funk. She'll let you know that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. And while there are some risk factors that you can't change, you hold way more sway than you ever imagined.
Rip Esselstyn:
In my books, The Engine 2 Diet, Plant-Strong, and the Seven-Day Rescue Diet, I write about many of the reasons that cancer is so prevalent in our society. And much of it comes down to our lifestyle choices, specifically overconsumption of dairy, overconsumption of meat, alcohol, lack of movement, and excessive stress. These all become a breeding ground for those nasty cancer cells to flourish.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now, I'll say it again, and echo what Dr. Funk says in this research-packed 30-minute presentation. If you want to decrease your risk factors for cancer, you need to show up armed with your PLANTSTRONG warfare and eat like you mean it. This was a fantastic kickoff to our Plant-Stock weekend, and I'm so proud to bring it to you today. Take it away, Dr. Kristi Funk.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Oh, Rip, you are so kind. Thank you so much for that introduction. It is my honor to be one of the speakers at PLANTSTRONG 2021. And I have a lot to share with you all, so let's jump right in. Shall we? All right.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Reducing the risk of breast cancer, it's up to... Genetics, fate. My mom? No. You. It is up to you. So let's start understanding why.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
A few little fast facts to get us started. There are 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the US, women who have currently or have had in the past, breast cancer, which means there's a whole lot more living than dying going on, which is good news. However, this year alone, there still will be over 268,000 new invasive breast cancer diagnoses this year, and sadly, almost 42,000 deaths. So we do have work to do.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Let's start by understanding the three biggest risk factors for getting breast cancer, about what you can do exactly nothing. This is not to frighten you, but to incentivize you to then fully embrace all those things that you can change.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Risk factor number one, being female. Oh, come on, who would really want to change that? But here's the deal. One in how many women gets breast cancer every year? I mean, in her lifetime. One in eight will get breast cancer in her lifetime, as opposed to 1.3 in 100,000 men. Wait, men get breast cancer? Yes, they do. About 2,600 will get breast cancer this year and 500 will die.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Next risk factor, age, specifically getting older. There's really nothing you can do about that. As we know the alternative to aging is well incompatible with life, but here's the thing. That one in eight stat that we just reviewed, that's not one in eight women will get breast cancer. Like that's their risk every morning when they wake up. We don't have it like by Thanksgiving, right? It's one in eight. Pulls out over a lifetime. So what does that look like? Well, if your current age is 20 something, then this decade, between 20 and 30, you have a one in 1,479 chance of getting breast cancer. The next decade, 30 to 40, one in 209. 40 to 51, one in 65. 50 to 60, one in 42. 60 to 70, one in 28. And 70 to 80, ding, ding, ding. This is the highest risk decade of life in which to get breast cancer, one in 25 women. And then 80 to 90, one in 33.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
My hope is that they'll have to expand this chart to be like 90 to 100, 100 to 110, as the whole food plant-based movement takes over the world and more centenarians exist.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
You can see that when you add up all the one ins, it's ultimately culminates in one in eight, but any given year of life is a far cry from one in eight. I'm so sorry about my throat. I do not have COVID, although I'm sure you're not worried about catching it from me.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Risk factors that you cannot change number three, family history. Why are doctors so interested in family history? Well, there's the possibility that there's an inherited genetic mutation such as BRCA or PALB2 or CHEK2. And when you inherit these genes, you have an extremely high probability of getting breasts and potentially other cancers associated with whichever gene it is. For example, BRCA. If you have this, you have up to an 87% chance of getting breast cancer by age 70, and up to 44% chance of getting ovarian cancer. So with these really high numbers, it's empowering... Frightening, of course, when you first find out, but then it's empowering because there are things you can do, both dietary and lifestyle and surgical with prophylactic things to mitigate that risk.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But are you at risk for having a gene mutation? Here is the shortlist. Basically it's people on either side of the family tree. Newsflash, you are half of your dad's DNA. So mom and dad's side of the family matters. And if there are a lot of cancers in young people, particularly breast prior to age 50, or multiple cancers on one side of the family, or rare cancers, the more infrequent ones like ovarian and pancreatic, then red flag, you'd probably want to talk to your doctor or a genetics expert or call me and you can test. Or even more simply, you could just go to Pink Lotus Elements, which has become a leading online women's health and breast cancer store, and you can purchase for $239... There's this kit keller that gets mailed to your house. You spit in a tube, mail it back, and less than couple weeks later, you're going to have a 30-gene analysis, including all of the ones that lead to breast cancer risk. And included in that is a board-certified genetics counselor.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
All right, we've got this gene stuff going on, but what percentage of breast cancer actually be attributed to an inherited gene mutation such as BRCA? Is it five to 10%, 30 to 40%, 60 to 70%? Or is it really almost all of the breast cancers, 80 to 90% of these people have a gene mutation?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Ding, ding, ding, ding. Let you think about it. Five to 10%. What? Wait a minute, only five to 10% of all breast cancer can be attributed to an inherited gene mutation? Wait a minute. Answer to this then, what percentage of women with breast cancer have no first-degree relatives with breast cancer? 16%, 45, 61 87. Well, if the stat we just reviewed is really accurate, yeah, 87% of people with breast cancer have no first-degree... About 80% have no second-degree relatives either. So if we can't blame genetics most of the time, then we can't normally blame fate.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Now, I will say that every everyone has heard of that person, like she's so young and she's fit and she's been vegan since birth. She zens out every morning and on and on. It's impossible to think how she got breast cancer. I do admit that on the bell curve of cancer, you've got genetics, inherited genetics like wreck on one end, small, five to 10%. And less than 5% on this end of like super healthy people getting breast cancer anyway. Maybe they have an inherited gene which we just haven't identified yet, but you've got this massive fat bell curve in the middle of literally 90 to 95% of all cancer coming from... From what? The environment?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Well, have a look at this. Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles and Hawaii after 1982, and then the Chinese in Hawaii after '92, started developing breast cancer at rates over 100% higher than Japanese and Chinese in the homeland. And still, if we go looking at the homeland, check this stat out. Between 1990 and 2000, the death rate from breast cancer in the US decreased by 15%, whereas in Japan during that same time, it skyrocketed 55%. What happened? Because DNA mutations, which is the heart of all cancer origin mutations, they don't happen overnight. It has to be a slow build. The cancer you diagnose today definitely started like five years ago, but maybe even more like eight, 10 plus years ago. So 1990 to 2000, let's back it up. We're talking late '70s, the '80s, what's going on there?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Well, beginning in the 1970s, the growing economics and increased affluence in Japan and Singapore and urban areas of China sparked westernized changes in their lifestyle. Asians started to chase our culture, and as a result, they caught our cancer. Let's have a good look now at that culture of ours, our style. Instead of laboring all day in the homes, starting in the '60s or so, instead of tending to children and preparing fresh meals, women around the world started entering the workforce in droves. They started leading sedentary and stressful lives that expanded their waistlines, delayed childbearing until later years, which is a risk factor, or not breastfeeding, eating leftover pizza for lunch. And then sending off that email stand, barking orders here, and then racing home just in time to pick out the tape, take out, throw it on the table, pour a glass of wine, plop down for their latest Netflix binge.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Of all these controllable changeable factors that are proven to elevate breast cancer risk: diet and nutrition, alcohol, exercise, obesity, hormone replacement therapy, environmental toxicities, emotional stress, there is one thing in my heavily researched opinion that is more important than any other. And you do it three to six times a day. You eat. Food is medicine. The key to understanding how to use food to protect yourself from breast cancer, is to get that every time you chew and swallow, you break down that food in your mouth into biochemical molecules that get absorbed into your bloodstream and go traversing all over your body, saturating every cell. And so you are unleashing weapons, weapons of protection or destruction, weapons that for better or for worse, hold the power to alter the following factors inside of you.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Estrogen levels; high is bad. 80% of all breast cancers are fed and fueled by estrogen. Growth factors, especially insulin like growth factor IGF-1. Blood vessel formation, angio blood vessel genesis, the birth of new blood flow. If you are a cancer, and if you want to grow beyond the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, you must create blood vessels. You must bring your own blood supply to you and birth it, angiogenesis, to bring you your nutrients. And then sinister as that cancer is, it just created its highway, straight out of here into the lung, liver, brain, or bone. Food can alter inflammation, free radical, formation immune system function. And all of this is a big cascade that lands at DNA mutation and the propagation of tumors. They're creating what's called the tumor micro environment. The cells sit like in a bathtub filled with fluids and other cells that are bathing and supporting and fueling cancer. It's either stoking it or choking it. You choose. Every time you lift fork to mouth, when you chew and swallow, you decide what you're unleashing inside your body.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
All right, I need you to understand for a second, this battleground we fight all day called oxidative stress. Free radicals, they're actually useful. For example, they help you breathe, they combat infection, which I hope they do for me, and they actually ironically kill the cancer that they help cause. It's useful. But if more bad hangs around than there is good to stop it, then whatever gets pummeled the most by these free radicals ends up as your illness. So if it's your blood vessels, hello, heart disease. If it's your muscles, you're chronically fatigued or have fibromyalgia. If it's your brain... I forgot... Oh, dementia. Or if it's your breast, breast cancer. You eliminate oxidative stress and you just might live forever.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
All right. I love this story... It's not a story. It's a study. It will change your life and eating forever. Or if you're already totally plant-based, it will just incentivize you to never stray from the good path. Standard American diet, sad food. They took 24 hyperlipidemic people, and every hour after they were given a meal, they measured their oxidated LDL cholesterol, a measure of the amount of oxidative stress that that particular meal just caused. So chow down some breakfast, little pancakes and bacon, a little steak and eggs. And up, up, up by noon, three hours later, we've got our LDL higher and our hamburger and fries waiting to chow down, which they do. And up, up, up, bam, dinnertime, next meal. By the time these people go to bed, they're going to sleep with fewer antioxidants. What coils oxidative stress filled with oxidants? Antioxidants. Where do you get antioxidants, by the way? There's only one place. Plants. And boom, it squelches the oxidative stress. But if you really don't have any plants and you're just eating that all day, you go to bed more inflamed with more stress than when you woke up.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Here's the key to the story. Same people, same sad meal. Very next day, one change. A cup of strawberries and pancakes and bacon strawberries. LDL goes down, down below baseline. Ready to chat on that burger? That's a bad boy. The burger, so cup of strawberries. We're not going down any more for the burger, but look, we only make it back to baseline. Look at that. Look at the power of just one cup of strawberries to successfully battle and neutralize all of the inflammatory response that you created by chowing down that animal protein and animal fat. What if the meal itself had been steel cut oats and blueberries and flax? What if it had been my amazing antioxidant drink found on page 69 of my book? What if it had been that? Then the second you swallowed, that oxidative stress battle will be over like that because it's all built out of antioxidants. And then those same phytonutrients plant-based chemicals could go flying around, creating the bathtub that is anti-estrogen, anti-IGF-1, anti-angiogenic. These foods really are. They squelch that blood flow that those cells are bringing to them. Anti-inflammatory, anti-free radical. It's powerful.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
These phytonutrients, this plant warfare that you can embark in just by choosing your food wisely and then eating it, it's real. I wish my doctor friends could see just this list because it's made up of chemistry from pre-med. It's real stuff that they do understand, but they don't know it in this context. I won't get into medical training, but here's the thing. Something like turmeric spice has curcumin. The epigallocatechin gallate, (are you impressed that I said that), the EGCG in green tea, the resveratrol in red grapes, the skin of red grapes in red wine, omega-3 fatty acids in flaxseeds and avocado, procyanidins in berries, genistein in soy, the lycopene in tomatoes, the anthocyanidins in apples. The limonene, you think it'd be in the lemon, in oranges. It's also in lemons, but it's more potent in oranges. All of these chemicals work for you and never against you. So if you really want to defeat cancer, then eat like you mean it.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
IGF-1. Insulin like growth factor 1 has one mission in life and that's to tell everybody to grow, grow, grow. This critical growth promoter works a miracle. Children become grown up, but we only get so tall and our hands only get so big. So what IGF-1 doing in your body for the rest of your life? Well, it turns out we turn over 50 billion cells a day, skin cells, stomach lining, et cetera. And thank you IGF-1 for replenishing those cells. Post-exercise muscles, they need repairing, your brain cells need protecting, but once these tasks of the day are complete, what would happen if there's excess IGF-1 screaming itself grow? Well, then grow they will. Grow atherosclerotic plaque, grow fat around your waist, grow cancer cells bigger, and then grow into the liver, into the lungs, into the brain. Wow, somebody better stop that IGF-1 down. Oh yeah, that's somebody, that's you.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
What is the only way you're going to get an excess of IGF-1 creating all that havoc in your body? It's by eating animal protein. That is what causes an unnecessary, unwelcome elevation in IGF-1. Check this study out to prove the point or support point.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
6,381 adults over age 50 were followed for 18 years. The length of this study is impressive. And those ages 50 to 65 who had higher animal protein levels. Now I love this. They're not comparing it to vegans. They're just saying high versus low animal protein consumption led to: a 430% increase in cancer death, and a 7,300%, that 74 times the likelihood of getting type 2 diabetes. In this study, IGF-1 emerged as an important moderator of the association between protein consumption and mortality, since wherever that animal protein went, IGF1 was sure to follow. Just like Mary and her little lamb, which would actually be even more true if Mary ate her little lamb. That was gross. Notably... It's not gross though. People eat their lamb every day. No, such elevations in risk happened with proteins derived from plants, only animals.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So speaking of IGF-1 and cancer and diabetes, what can you do to lower your IGF-1? This is one of my favorite studies to mention to women who are just diagnosed with breast cancer and they're sitting in front of me and I'm passionately telling them all about the power of plants and the detrimental effects of animal protein and fat. And they look at me like they want to believe me. And they do believe me actually, because I'm convincing, but then they're like, "But doc, come on, look at me. I'm 68. I'm overweight. I've been eaten this way my whole life. It's too late, even if I change tomorrow."
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Oh no sister, let me tell you a story about these wee little people in Ecuador, because they have something called Laron syndrome. What is that? You can't process IGF-1. There's no receptors for it. So without IGF-1, they all have medical dwarfism because they don't grow. But guess what else? People would Laron syndrome in the history of the world have never, ever, ever had breast cancer. Oh, wait, any cancer ever, except one lady in 2017, you had ovarian cancer, but it was early stage and she's still alive. That's astounding. Guess what else they've never, ever, ever had in the history of the world? Type 2 diabetes. Whoa, if that doesn't really point toward a ridiculous cause and effect between IGF-2 and two of our biggest killers, cancer and diabetes, I don't know what else does.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
By the way, that wasn't the study I tell people when they say it's too late for them. I just forgot to talk about the people with Laron Syndrome for a second. This is what I tell them when they're like, "Hey doc, it's too late for me." Oh, that's when I say, "It is not my friend." Because listen to this. Sorry about that.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
All right, this study took a number of obese women and they did two things. They took their blood and they measured the IGF-1 levels and IGF-1 binding protein, which is like a body snatcher that retires it from circulation. So they measure those levels and then they took their blood and they made a Petri dish filled with human breast cancer cells and they dripped their blood on it. And a few cells died because if you're alive, your immune system is doing a wee bit of something, something. Then these women went away and they were counseled to eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet, eat whole food plant-based and daily exercise classes that were all like 30 minutes and I'm talking sauntering.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
They go away for how long? 12 years, 12 months, 12 weeks... Oh no. It was 12 days. And they come back and they draw their blood. IGF-1 levels plummeted. IDF-1 binding protein body snatcher, skyrocketed. Get this, they took this blood now, put it on a brand new Petri dish filled with human breast cancer cells, dripped the blood on that Petri dish. And the vast majority up to 90% of the cells died on the spot. In just 12 days, in less than two weeks, these women transformed their blood into a cancer kicking machine and so can you. It is not too late.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
"Oh doc, I'm listening to you, but I just went keto and I've actually lost 15 pounds. What about that? What about paleo? What about Atkins? What about south beach? Because I love myself some meat."
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Well, I'm not even getting into the fact that eating meat and dairy leads to horrific animal cruelty, water pollution, water scarcity. I mean, it takes up to 5,000 gallons to make one pound of a beef patty. Pesticide and antibiotic overuse. You know that the emergence of super bugs is because 80% of all the antibiotics on earth are fed to animals because their conditions are so skunk that if they didn't have antibiotics, you'd be eating a plate of pus. I'm not going to talk about that or about how big Aggie accounts for 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than all transportation sources combined, and 90% of deforestation, releasing 50 billion tons of carbon into the sky, leading to climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean dead zones, planet destruction, exacerbation of world hunger. How does that happen? Well, 82% of starving children live where livestock consume the food and then Westerners consume the livestock.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I'm not going to talk about catastrophic natural disasters, such as heat waves, floods, wildfires, melting ice caps and irony upon irony the end of life on this planet. Despite the fact that animal agriculture is the number one contributor to all of the stated atrocities, I'm not even going to say that any of that is a reason to avoid low-carb meat-centric diets like keto. I'm just going to give you one reason, your own life. The LAD, the left anterior descending artery, AKA the widow-maker. While it's true that high-protein, low-carb diets generally result in weight loss in the short term and can improve diabetes in the short term, the goal here is not to take up less room in the mock.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
In a randomized control trial published in 1990, and I highlight that year to tell you that I went to medical school in 1992, and only found out about this revelatory game-changer in 2017 when I was doing research for my book, Breasts The Owner's Manual. Every single fact I say in there is backed by research because I don't want to spread falsehood because I have a need to be right, which makes me delightful to be married too. Dr. Dean Ornish and the Lifestyle Heart Trial conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial, the granddaddy gold standard for hanging your hat on results to determine whether diet and healthy lifestyle changes could affect clogged heart arteries. Half of these people are spending one year eating a low-fat vegetarian diet and some other healthy councils to stop smoking and reduce stress.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And the other usual care, all right... Oh, wait, before you go. I just want to take a little picture of something, something. So they do a coronary angiography, quantitative coronary angiography. They inject some dye and they take a picture of how the arteries are looking and you can see right there it's like barely getting by. So they go away, they do their thing for a year and then they come back a year later. In the control group, there was an average progression of plaque, and in the experimental group, 82% of all artery lesions, regress. Regress like this picture here, this guy... artery wide open from plants, not from medications, not from procedures, not from a bypass, from kale and broccoli. All right.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I got another guy to tell you about. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. Was on the opposite side of the country to Dr. Ornish at this time, that is late '80s, '90s. So this is pre-internet. They had no idea that they were both doing the exact same thing. And Dr. Essy, I call him Essy because his family does. One day, I just popped right into his kitchen and pretended to be one of the family. Anyway, Dr. Essy published this book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease in 2007, and it details the astounding results of his 20-year plus nutritional study on 200 cardiac cripples. The longest study of its kind ever conducted over 20 years on 200 people.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Hey, Rip, if you're still listening to me talk, I can introduce you to him. Maybe he can be part of this whole amazing summit. He, Dr. Esselstyn, signed, sealed and delivered yet more angiographic picture, perfect proof of the power of plants to go from... to... arteries wide open.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So today there's only one diet in the history of the world that's been scientifically proven to slow, stop, and even beep, beep, beep, beep reverse in some cases, the number one killer of you and everyone you love, heart disease. It's also been proven to slow, stop, and beep, beep, beep, reverse in some cases, stroke, Alzheimer's, obesity, diabetes and cancer. So bacon and Bulletproof coffee lovers, when your diets can do all of that, then you'll have my attention.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Okay, wait, I'm sorry, but where do I get my 50 grams protein?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Let me just tell you this. The elephant, rhino, hippo, and all the means that people eat for protein like pigs, cows, chicken, deer, and elk are... oh, and lamb, are herbivores. So you'll have no problem getting your protein from awesome sources like seitan, soy, lentils, beans, peas, nuts, nut butters, quinoa, wild rice, steel-cut outs. I'm going to leave you with my top 12 breast super foods. And the top three on this list, I get into my body come hell or high water, every single day, soy. If you have questions about that, ask me in the Q&A. Soy is a breast super food, always GMO, preferably organic. Cruciferous veggies, the superstar of all superstars is going to be broccoli and even a hundred times better than that in terms of sulforaphane content are broccoli sprouts. Flaxseeds. One to two tablespoons of brown flaxseeds every single day is a must, must, must. Eat lots of fiber, berries, beans and greens. Apples, tomatoes, mushrooms. The whole allium family with garlic onions, leeks, shallots, chives, and scallions. turmeric and spices, seaweed, and 70% or greater cacao solid dark chocolate.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So my Dr. Funk's beat it, breast cancer food checklist is to eat whole food, plant-based and to prioritize vegetables, fruits, 100% whole grains, and legumes like beans, peas, lentils, whole foods, soy ground flaxseed; eliminate all meat, poultry, fish, dairy, and eggs. Minimize, because it can also be found in all of our vegan junk food, saturated fat, simple sugars, processed foods, and refined cereals.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
If you liked the things I'm talking about and want to do a deeper dive with me, please join the Terranea Resort Cancer-Kicking! Summit, which is in October, or the virtual which is available online right now. Or you can read one of my two books, which is the same book. This is a paperback with a different cover. I really invite everybody out there who's interested in women's health to explore our entirely free online community called Pink Lotus Power Up. Is just bursting with ways to connect with others, to educate yourself, to fundraise, and more.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And finally, Pink Lotus Elements has become a leading online women's health and breast cancer store. It's got all these intelligently, uniquely formulated supplements and other items that address real issues of women before, during, or after a cancer diagnosis. And of course, everything is always vegan.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Okay, thank you everybody for listening. And Rip, it is the honor and privilege of my entire September to join you here today. Thank you for having me.
Rip Esselstyn:
As Dr. Funk mentions at the very end, she's hosting her own Pink Lotus virtual and in-person summit on October 16th to the 17th, if you want to ask questions or take a deeper dive into the research. We'll be sure to include all those links in the show notes of today's episode. Also, if you want access to all of the presentations from our 2021 Plant-Stock event. You can access those at the link at plantstrongpodcast.com. It's $49 for viewing access to Brock stars like Dr. Kristi Funk, Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, Dr. Gemma Newman, Dr. Saray Stancic, Dr. Klaper, Dr. Greger, and of course so many more. Thanks for listening and learning. We'll see you next week.
Rip Esselstyn:
The PLANTSTRONG podcast team includes: Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, Ami Mackey, Patrick Gavin, and Wade Clark. This season is dedicated to all of those courageous true seekers who weren't afraid to look through the lens with clear vision and hold firm to a higher truth. Most notably my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. and Ann Crile Esselstyn. Thanks for listening.
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