The #1 Best Natural Foods to Clean Out Arteries

0:00 Hi friends. They say that >> the statin is not going to remove the plaque. >> Plaque in your arteries. It's permanent, just a part of aging. But what if it's completely wrong? What if your arteries aren't fixed clogged pipes, but dynamic living tissue that can heal, regenerate, and even clear plaque naturally? Now, you can't scrub your arteries like a drain pipe, but that doesn't mean you're helpless. Your body has its own repair mechanisms. And emerging science reveals they can be triggered by food. Not supplements, not surgeries, just real food. So why aren't we talking about this more? And instead, the loudest voices online are pushing diets that may actually accelerate plaque buildup, all while downplaying the real warning

0:45 signs. Now, imagine this. Your breakfast isn't just a boring box of processed cereal or greasy dough covered in sugar. It could be an arterial rehab. A bowl of deep purple blueberries rich in anthocyanins that boost your blood flow. A handful of raw walnuts whose omega-3s reduce inflammation like a gentle bomb on your arteries. A colorful chickpea salad with lemon and parsley for lunch. Not only bursting with fiber, but feeding the good bacteria that make anti-inflammatory molecules. Roasted sweet potatoes glazed with balsamic and sprinkled with some cinnamon that lowers

1:30 blood sugar after meals. And sauteed greens like kale, arugula, or bok choy. They're not just packed with calcium, but also deliver nitric oxide, the gas your blood vessels use to relax and dilate. This isn't bland, healthy foods. These are bold, vibrant, delicious medicines with fork and knife. And when eaten in its whole food form, close to nature, these foods don't just slow down disease. They can, in many cases, reverse it. Whole plant foods, especially leafy greens, fruits, beans, and whole grains, can all help lower LDL cholesterol, reduce inflammation, and activate the endothelium to produce nitric oxide, which then keeps arteries really flexible. And I'm not just making

2:16 this up. Clinical studies have shown it. Dr. Dane Ornish's landmark trial in the Lancet. It showed his patients with moderate to severe coronary artery disease saw regression of arterial blockages in just one year. He didn't do any stances. He didn't do any surgeries, just food and lifestyle. Dr. Esseline at the Cleveland Clinic reported similar outcomes over 12 years. Zero cardiac events in compliant patients. You have to be allin. These diets don't just stop plaque. They can help reverse it. But food isn't just about what you add. It's also about what you avoid. Highly ultrarocessed foods, animal fats, added sugars, don't just clog your arteries, they inflame them. Even antioxidant rich foods, they're not all created equal. And some, when eaten together, can

3:02 cancel each other out. For example, bananas can blunt the vascular benefits of blueberries. So, we're not just eating to feel full. We're eating to modulate biochemistry to heal. And we all need healing. How old are you? If you're over 11, you already have plaque in your arteries. I wouldn't be surprised if it starts even younger now. So, what's the big deal? Ever tried to unclog a toilet? Arteries work like toilets, except the consequences are far worse when there is no flow. Now, think about what your blood carries. Oxygen, nutrients, life. Without it, tissue dies within minutes. The brain only lasts 3 to 5 minutes. The heart, your liver, your kidneys, maybe 20. And so the damage can be fast and is often

3:47 permanent. And unlike your toilet, there is no plunger for your arteries. And even doctors, they are limited in what they can do once plaque builds up. And the standard advice to lower LDL cholesterol doesn't always work because cholesterol isn't the whole story. Arterial plaque is a mix of oxidized LDL cholesterol, white blood cells, calcium, and scar tissue that builds up over decades. Some people with low cholesterol still have dangerous levels of plaque. And that's because the real issue is inflammation. That's your immune system. Lots of things trigger your immune system, including high LDL counts, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and injuries to the vessel lining. The endothelium, the inner lining of your arteries, are like the

4:34 train tracks that are constantly used but never gets any maintenance and literally could be damaged by everything it transports and then some. You know, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sodium, smoking, even chronic stress. And unlike a stubbed toe that reminds you how inflammation works when your arteries are inflamed, you feel nothing. And that's why high blood pressure or hypertension is a silent getter. It wounds without warning. Blood vessels stiffen, pressure rises, and then small LDL particles sneak beneath the lining and there they get oxidized and provoke the immune system driven by macrofasages

5:19 which come in and clean up the mess. But the problem is they can't clear the cholesterol. They often try to their own detriment. They become foamy cells piling into fatty streaks. That's a birth of a plaque. This is inflammation. And in response, your body starts laying down scar tissue, mainly collagen, to stabilize that injury so it doesn't get worse. So this is where you get a fibrous cap over the plaque. But before it gets stabilized, the cap is weak and vulnerable to rupture because of the high pressure in your arteries. And this is when you're most vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes. But it's not inevitable. The entire process can be slowed, stopped, and even reversed. And

6:05 the way to do this is to treat the cause, inflammation. And that means changing how you live and eat. Now, in life, we all need examples. We need examples to see how to do this, how to live long. And there are cultures that live long on this earth. And notice how they have some things in common. They eat whole plant foods and they move naturally. They have community and they use their food as their medicine. Our culture has normalized pills. We're isolated. And we basically think pills are health. Pills don't give us health. They mitigate illness. If you're on medications, you are ill. And of course, you're going to have people who genetically can't get off their medications. They need those pills. But most of us, we are dependent on the

6:50 pills because we refuse to do the lifestyle. If you don't change your lifestyle, your body will eventually build defenses against your pills. And that's why they eventually don't work. It's like trying to fix your flooring when your house is flooded. No amount of flooring helps until you fix the leak. The leak is inflammation and food is either turning it off or turning it on. That's why of all the things that enter your body, the air you breathe, what you touch, what you wear, and what you eat, all of them are important. However, the most modifiable bulk of what drives our inflammation is what we eat. And that we can all change. And it isn't just about adding things. It's also about removing things. You know, we have added

7:37 thousands of chemicals in our processed foods. We've also removed and stripped away the most beneficial parts of a plant and destroying that fiber richch matrix to do what? To concentrate sugar, starch, salt, and fat. These products are designed for addiction, not nourishment. We often only think about addiction to drugs like marijuana. Now it's normalized, but it still has health consequences. Especially for adolescents, pregnant women, and those with mental health vulnerabilities. But when we eat these chemical concoctions called ultrarocessed foods, we activate the same parts of the brain that addictive drugs activate. Ultrarocessed foods, they light up reward pathways. They cause withdrawal symptoms and they provoke chronic inflammation. So, every

8:23 time you eat that chip or cracker, donut or cake, you're dosing your body with inflammation. And the food industry, they know this. They're not there to reduce your inflammation. They've engineer foods to last for months for their own pockets. They engineered your food to taste better than real food because they want to trick your brain. Shelf stable, delicious foods doesn't mean it's heart safe. When you eat a diet rich in leafy greens, fresh fruit, whole grains, legumes, and nuts without excessively adding oils, refined sugars, or animal products, you're not just filling your stomach. You're flipping the biological switches that repair your arteries. These foods, they lower your LDL cholesterol. They reduce inflammation. They stabilize your blood sugars, make you more insulin sensitive.

9:10 They help improve your blood pressure because they all improve endothelial function and they lower TMAO, a toxic compound made when gut bacteria digest animal proteins. Now, I'll explain more about TMAO in a bit, but let's start with one of the biggest breakthroughs, nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is your body's natural vasil dilator. It keeps your arteries relaxed so that blood will flow. It's so powerful that doctors literally prescribe nitric oxide drugs when you have chest pain. But the same molecule is built into your food. Especially leafy greens like arugula, kale, spinach, and beets. Beets, they aren't just good for smoothies. They're one of your best friends, your richest sources of dietary nitrates. Your body

9:55 takes those nitrates and converts them into nitric oxide. A single serving of raw arugula can spike your nitric oxide production and help keep your arteries open and elastic for hours. This is vascular medicine grown in the ground and you have to eat them on repeat because they don't last forever. Contrast that with what happens after a highfat meal. Even from a so-called clean sources like eggs, coconut oil, or grass-fed butter. Nitric oxide production crashes and your arteries can stiffen for hours. How many of you have had abdominal pain after eating? That's not a normal feeling. The effect is immediate and it's measurable. And what's worse, these same meals, they often increase LDL particle number, which promotes oxidation, especially

10:42 when combined with inflammation. And this is where popular advice online gets it dangerously wrong. Many influencers claim that a high-fat, low carb diet reverses plaque by lowering blood sugar. Yes, I agree. Lowering blood sugar can help to reverse plaque. But I had mentioned plaque is caused by more than one thing. So if your LDL particle number or your apo and other inflammatory markers are going up, you're trading one fire for another. And we should stop seeing blood sugar and cholesterol as if they are in isolation. They're fine when they're normal in amounts. It's the excess that turns them into fuel for inflammation. And think of it like oxygen and fire. You need oxygen to live, but when you pump it in too much, you get combustion and destruction. And the same happens with

11:29 LDL and glucose. So what is left to eat? Well, look at longevity cultures. Okanowans, sardinians, 7day avenice. They eat cheap beans, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts. They eat some foods raw like berries and leafy greens and some cooked like tomatoes which releases more lycopine when you add heat. Hi friends. I am so thrilled that you want to take charge of your health and take charge of your food. Now, I know nutrition can be complex, but it doesn't have to be. And I'm here to support you in this lifelong journey. So, if you point your camera app to this QR code, it'll take you to a link for a free handout that I created just for you. And if you like it, if you want to see other handouts, please go to the

12:14 link in my show notes and then you can leave me your feedback on what I could do to help you in your journey. Okay, back to the video. Now, plants in their original matrix, not in powders or extracts, deliver thousands of nutrients, compounds that we don't exactly know and haven't named yet, but they're all working together to heal us. And among fruits, berries are vascular superstars, especially blueberries and blackberries and black raspberries. But even these can lose their benefits when combined with the wrong foods. Foods that have enzymes to destroy those beneficial polyphenols like bananas. So it's not just about eating plants, it's about how and when to eat them. Now before we dive deeper into food, let's

13:00 touch on how people try to detect plaque early. One popular tool is a coronary artery calcium score. A score of zero means no calcified plaque, but that doesn't necessarily mean no plaque because some plaques aren't calcified yet. But also, the Pisa study found that 60% of people with a coronary artery score of zero still had significant plaque in other vessels. That's because plaque starts soft, like a vulnerable pimple under the skin, and it takes years to calcify. Not all blood vessels undergo the same trauma. Generally, your leg vessels calcify way before your coronary arteries. So, don't assume zero means zero risk. And that's especially true if you're under 65. You may just be too early in the process to see

13:46 calcification in your coronary arteries. However, if your coronary artery score is high, it's time for you to talk to your cardiologist. Medications might be appropriate in the short term to kind of be a bridge until you get your lifestyle ready. You don't want to keep building plaque, but you don't want to get so comfortable with medications that you don't change your lifestyle. Your medications are like a little life raft. It's not a yacht you can live on forever. But if you do the hard work, which is every day, you can get out of that danger zone and get off of that life raft. And online, you're going to hear all kinds of shortcuts. Eat more butter. Go zero carb. Take this supplement. that supplement. These extremes don't work. In fact, studies have shown that saturated fat can increase LDL oxidation and impair endothelial function within hours of

14:33 eating it. And if your ketogenic diet is primarily based on animal or animal fats, then you will have more inflammation even if you lose weight. So if the goal is to reverse aththeroscerosis, then the advice to just cut carbs may be steering you into a trap because it's talking about the wrong carbs. Processed carbs, I agree, in excess are inflammatory. But you still need calcium for plaque. Coronary calcium is a marker of existing plaque. And while dietary calcium from whole plants is actually beneficial and protective, calcium supplements, they tell a different story. Studies have shown that calcium supplements actually increase vascular calcification and can raise your risk of heart attacks. But

15:18 when you eat foods naturally high in calcium like bok choy, sesame, tahini, almonds, and tofu, you don't have the same risk. And why? It's because you're not flooding your system with calcium. These foods, they come with a network of other nutrients. Fiber, magnesium, potassium polyphenols proteins sugars, and nitric oxide precursor. The synergy matters. The rate at which you absorb your nutrition matters. You're not just eating calcium. You are eating real food. All of it. Real food doesn't come in a pill. And when we refer to diabetes and insulin resistance, we are measuring the wrong marker. People are just chasing blood sugar spikes. But it's really chronically high blood sugars that lead to a process called glycation where your sugar molecules

16:04 bind to proteins to form advanced glycation end products. AES. AES. They damage blood vessels. They accelerate plaque formation. But here's a catch. You can't live without glucose. Your body will literally make it if you don't get it in your diet. And glucose powers your DNA. It literally makes ribos, the sugar that you need to make your own genes. Your brain runs on glucose. It's a fuel that your brain prefers. Glucose isn't the problem by itself. It's prolonged high glucose caused by other things that can overwhelm your system. And this surge will then lead to an insulin surge to compensate. Excess insulin by itself is also pro-inflammatory and pro-athogenic.

16:49 And this is why people on insulin therapy can still have worsening plaque even if their blood sugar looks perfectly normal. You're so fixed on a number, but it's not your true biology. And that's the trap that we're going into. Organs can still get damaged. your kidneys, your nerves, your toes can still get gang green on high insulin and normal glucose numbers. Because it's not just the insulin, it's how you lower your insulin and how you don't have prolonged blood sugars. And that is the key. How do you eat glucose without doing all those bad things? It's not by removing all carbs, but it's removing the bad carbs, the bad fat that blocks your insulin receptors. Saturated fat, especially from animal sources, causes intramiocellular lipid accumulation or

17:36 fat deposition in your muscle cells that gums them up, interferes with your insulin's action. And this is why a low-fat whole food plant-based diet also results in low blood sugars and insulin sensitivity. It clears out the saturated fat and dramatically lowers your inflammation. And if you did eat whole food plant-based and kept your fats low, you can reverse type 2 diabetes. This has been shown in many patients. You can lower hemoglobin A1C levels, lower your fasting insulin, lower your LDL cholesterol, lower your blood pressure and inflammation. Most diets don't do this for you. And this isn't a gimmick. There's no powders for you to take. You just eat lentil soup, quinoa bowls, sweet potatoes with cinnamon, crunchy red cabbage, dark green salads drizzled

18:23 in basalamic vinegar. There's like 250,000 options. It's not a deprivation diet. You're not going to be starving. It's an activation diet. You activate your body's healing pathways one bite at a time. And it's important to lower your blood pressure. Your systolic blood pressure number, if that's above 118, you have elevated blood pressure. High blood pressure doesn't just strain your heart. It physically injures the arteries, the inner lining to damage other organs. And over time that damage accumulates and become plaque. And that plaque can happen in your kidneys, in your liver, in your toes, not just your heart. But if you eat whole food plant-based diets, you also help lower your blood pressure through multiple mechanisms. That diet generally reduces

19:09 sodium unless you're adding it. It increases potassium because of dark leafy greens and beans. It improves vessel elasticity. It supplies antioxidants that protect the endothelium. And studies have shown that vegetarian and vegan diets lowered systolic blood pressure by almost 5 millm of mercury on the average, which is a significant drop considering that they're not doing anything else. But if you lowered your salt, started exercising, lessened your added sugar, all those things, they stack up to help lower your blood pressure. Not all plaques are equal. Soft plaques are risky. They rupture. Stable plaques, they usually don't. And what stabilizes them? Anti-inflammatory food, antioxidant- richch foods. Autopsies show people all pass with plaques. They

19:56 don't necessarily pass from it if it's stable. So, if you want to learn more about foods that reverse plaque before it ruptures, watch the next