This $1 Food Mimics Ozempic (Here’s Exactly How to Use It) | Doctor Explains

0:00 Your body already makes the hormone that Ozempic is designed to mimic. And this $1 food can make your body release more of it. But here's what I didn't realize until I started digging through the research. GLP1 is really just one part of a much bigger system that your body uses to control your hunger and your satiety and your food noise. And the right foods can tap into that system at several different points. And one of these works in a completely different way.

0:24 So instead of making more of that GLP1 hormone, it may help the hormone that you've already made stick around longer, which is part of what drugs like Ozempic are designed to do. Now, just to be clear, none of this means that a certain food will give you the same effect as Ozempic. It won't. And I'm certainly not telling anyone to stop a GLP1 medication that's working for them. But there are real and scientifically studied ways that a group of foods can tap into this broader system.

0:49 So in this video, I want to give you five tactics with which you can use natural foods to not only activate, but reinforce the GLP1 system. And more importantly, I want to show you how to put it all together to make this work, because they all work on completely different timelines, and that changes how you want to use them. And at the end, I'll show you how to put it all together on one plate, starting with the food that costs about $1.

1:11 And if you're new here, I'm Dr. Lee Nit Kim. I'm a double board certified physician. And on this channel, my mission is to give you the science and the practical tools to not only live longer, but to feel better today. And as always, even though I'm a physician, I'm not your physician. I. So please talk to your doctor before making any changes to your health regimen, as this video is educational only and not medical advice. So let's start with one of the more surprising ways to tap into your own GLP1 system.

1:37 And it starts with something that most people don't associate with the stomach or the intestine at all, and that's taste. Because your intestine can actually taste what's coming through it. And a lot of those taste receptors are bitter receptors. And bitterness isn't just a flavor, it's a signal. When bitter plant compounds reach your gut, they activate these receptors and. And that can trigger the release of gut hormones, including GLP1 and GLP1, or glucagon, like peptide 1, is just a hormone that your gut naturally releases when you eat.

2:05 It helps control your blood sugar, and it slows down how quickly your food leaves your stomach. And one underappreciated fact, it sends a signal to your brain that you've eaten enough, and it dials down your food noise. And researchers have actually tested this. When they activated those bitter receptors, they saw a corresponding increase in the signaling of gut hormones, including GLP1 hormone. So these receptors are just detecting bitterness. They're actually part of a bigger system of how your gut responds to the food coming through it.

2:34 So in practical terms, how do you actually get these compounds? Think of bitter greens and cruciferous vegetables. So that would be things like arugula and broccoli or Brussels sprouts. And you can also get them from things that you may already have every day, things like coffee or dark chocolate. But there is something that we have to be aware of, and it has to do with our environment. Over time, we've actually bred a lot of the bitterness out of our food, because bitter isn't a flavor that most people go looking for.

2:59 The demand is for sweeter fruits and milder greens and vegetables. They just tasted better, and that's what we grew. So some of the bitter compounds that activate these receptors aren't as abundant in our modern food supply as they once were. And focusing on these foods is one way to turn up that GLP1 signal. But it's only one part of the whole system. Your gut actually has many other ways of sending the same I've had enough message to your brain.

3:25 And one of them has to do with a specific type of fat. And this one is incredibly simple. And it can change how much you eat naturally, naturally in just a matter of hours. And it's called oleic acid. The oleic acid mechanism works a little differently because GLP1 isn't working alone. It's part of a larger gut to brain signal system that controls things like hunger and satiety. And one signal I want to highlight here is called oea.

3:47 So the way it works is when oleic acid reaches the upper part of your small intestine, your own tissue takes it and builds oea and oleoethanolamide. I actually don't know how to pronounce that, but I gave him the best shot. And this oea sends a satiety signal to your brain that tells that you've eaten enough. And it also helps stretch out the gap before you get hungry again. But you don't actually eat oea. What you do is you eat the raw material and your gut builds it.

4:13 And there's a randomized crossover trial in humans that showed this. So researchers gave people meals containing different types of oil, including oils that were much higher in oleic acid. The higher oleic acid meals produce significantly more oea. And then three hours later, those people ate about 250 fewer calories at their next meal compared to the control group. So having said that, how do you actually get more oleic acid into a meal? Well, one of the easiest ways to target extra virgin olive oil.

4:41 And then avocados are also rich in oleic acid, and so are almonds and macadamia nuts. And that's what makes this super practical. You're not relying on one specific food. You're giving your gut the same raw materials, but through several different options, and your body does the rest. And the next food gets us back to GLP1 itself. But what matters here is not the food itself, but what your gut bacteria turned into. And that food is resistant starch.

5:06 So most starches get broken down pretty quickly in your stomach and your small intestine, and they eventually end up as glucose in your bloodstream. But resistant starch doesn't do that. It actually survives your stomach, and it survives most of the journey through your small intestine. And when it arrives in your colon, it gets there pretty much intact. And this is where your gut bacteria get to eat it. And they ferment the resistant starch and they turn it into short chain fatty acids, including the important ones.

5:32 They always talk about things like acetate and butyrate. And butyrate is the one worth knowing here, and I talk about it a lot in my other videos. Short chain fatty acids like butyrate tell your gut to release GLP1, and it's also the primary fuel for the cells lining your colon. They actually prefer that ahead of glucose. So unlike the bitter compounds that we talked about earlier, you're not directly triggering the signal here. What you're doing is you're feeding your gut bacteria and they make the compounds to help trigger it.

6:00 And this is where the $1 food comes in as beans. Beans are one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get resistant starch, especially lima beans. But you can also get it from lentils and chickpeas. Also, oats and green bananas are a very good source of resistant starch. And another simple way to get this is to use the foods that you may already be eating, things like rice or potatoes, and you cool them overnight in your fridge, and then you reheat them the next day.

6:26 The cooling process forces some of that starch to reorgan into resistant starch. And reheating them doesn't completely undo it. There was a randomized crossover trial where researchers had participants consume either resistant starch or regular corn starch for four weeks. And then they measured their response to a meal. And the resistant starch group had a significantly higher active GLP1 after eating. But this is where timing is very important. It actually takes several weeks for your gut bacteria to reorganize and be able to efficiently ferment resistant starch into those beneficial short chain fatty acids like butyrate and acetate.

7:01 So this isn't something I judge after eating beans for a week. It's almost like growing a garden. But instead of plants, you're cultivating the right bacteria to turn your food into the right signals. Now, the next concept also has to do with short chain fatty acids, but this one lets you skip that whole process. Instead of waiting for your gut bacteria to make it, you can get it directly from something you eat. And I'm talking about acetic acid, which is the main acid in vinegar.

7:26 So acetic acid itself is a short chain fatty acid, the same family of compounds that your gut bacteria were just making from resistant starch. Except this time, you don't have to wait for your gut bacteria to make it. You can get it directly from vinegar. And what's interesting about vinegar is that it seems to work through a different part of this entire system. In randomized controlled trials, when people consumed vinegar with a carbohydrate containing meal, their blood sugar and their insulin response afterwards was lower.

7:52 So this is not the same and not the same magnitude, but. But it parallels what we see with GLP1 drugs, and it's incredibly easy to use. You can add vinegar to a salad dressing or vegetables, or you can just incorporate into a meal that you're already eating. And a lot of people like to use apple cider vinegar as a drink before a carb heavy meal. I actually made a separate video on this whole topic, and I'm going to post a link in the description below.

8:13 And this comes up every time I talk about this topic. It doesn't have to be apple cider vinegar. Most vinegars contain acetic acid. All right, so now we're starting to complete our entire system, but there's still one big piece that's missing. Your natural GLP1 has a half life of only about two minutes. There's an enzyme in your blood called DPP4, whose entire job is to find that hormone and take it apart, which is a big problem if you're trying to raise it with food.

8:39 And this is exactly the problem that these medications solved. Semaglutide is engineered to specifically survive that enzyme. And that's one part of why that drug can produce a much stronger and longer lasting effect. But there's another natural way to approach the same problem. And this is where dairy protein gets really interesting. When your body digests protein from dairy, it breaks them down into smaller pieces called peptides. And some of those peptides have been shown to inhibit that DPP4 enzyme, not shut it down completely, but slow it down.

9:09 So instead of helping your body make more GLP1, this works from the other side. You're potentially slowing down the enzyme that's breaking it apart, which could help some of the GLP one stick around longer. And you don't need anything exotic here. Some of my favorites would be things like Greek yogurt or cottage cheese or kefir. And just to be clear, a serving of dairy is not going to get you the same effect of a drug. But these foods are also full of proteins and probiotics, which reinforces the whole system that we built.

9:37 And now that we have all five pieces, here's what this could actually look like on a plate. So the way I build it is you take a simple meat to start, something like grass fed beef or chicken or fatty fish, and then you can add beans like black beans, which you can get a can for a dollar, or edamame or whatever your favorite bean is. And then you just pair it with something bitter like arugula salad with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar based dressing, and then maybe some Greek yogurt on the side.

10:05 And that's it. You now have a meal that's hitting this entire system from several different directions. And you don't have to make this exact same meal. You can use lentils or chickpeas instead of beans and avocado instead of olive oil, or you can use different bitter vegetables or kefir instead of yogurt. And none of these foods are going to produce the same effect of a drug like Ozempic or Wegovy, but they don't have to. This is just a simple way to create a system where your body releases more of its own GLP1 and a system that helps it stick around longer while also strengthening many other signals that control satin tidy and appetite and food noise.

10:41 Once you zoom out, GLP1 is just one signal in a much bigger network. All right. I hope this was helpful. Stay healthy, and I'll see you in the next one.