5 High-Protein Snacks That Crush Cancer and Burn Fat Dr. William Li

...to them by their oncologist. Unfortunately, most oncologists don't give the patients a real and scientifically accurate answer. Some oncologists even say, eat whatever you want, doesn't really matter. Nothing can be further from the truth. If the cancer comes back, almost certainly it's because the stem cells of the cancer regenerated the cancer. So, good news. There's foods that can kill cancer stem cells. Like what? Like... Meet Dr. William Lee, a world-renowned Harvard-trained medical doctor, researcher, president, and founder of the Angiogenesis Foundation. His work has led to more than 40 FDA-approved therapeutics and devices for cancer, cardiovascular disease, wound healing and vision loss. He is also a New York Times best-selling author with Eat to Beat Disease – The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself. He also published another book, Eat to Beat Diet – Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism and Live Longer. In this video, we're going to show you five high-protein snacks that are backed by science and approved by Dr. William Lee for fighting cancer and burning fat. Each one is simple, affordable, and easy to add to your daily routine. Disclaimer. Apple. And apple cider vinegar has been touted to be good for weight loss, right? I used to hear this all the time, and I used to doubt it. But this has now been studied, and it actually works. Apple cider vinegar has been shown to reduce harmful body fat and help weight loss. Plus, it actually tastes pretty nice as well. You can put it into a salad dressing. You can make it into a sauce or a glaze, or you can add it to a stew. So, I want to tell you what changed my mind. When I first heard that apple cider vinegar could help weight loss, and I was watching people that I knew swig down a spoonful of it in the morning, I thought, that's got to be rubbish. Where's the science? There's no reason that would actually work. Well, as a scientist, I keep an open mind. And so, when I see data, new data, on apple cider vinegar that actually shows that there's an activity, I actually have to take a look more closely at what's going on. So, first of all, apple cider vinegar is made from fermented apples. It's got vinegar in it, okay? And vinegar is the chemical called acetic acid. Acetic acid. And this simple chemical, acetic acid, prevents fat cells from growing up and from building up, storing itself in adipose tissue. The other thing that acetic acid has been shown to do is it turns down the genes, the DNA, that are responsible for lipogenesis, for creating new fat cells. And so, acetic acid, which is found in apple cider vinegar, actually is like gene therapy. It turns down the genes that actually makes your fat grow as well. The other thing that acetic acid has been shown to do is it improves your body's response to insulin. So, it improves insulin sensitivity. And that means that when you eat something with carbs or sugar in it, it will actually help to lower your blood sugar into healthier levels. It's a process called euglycemia. Acetic acid from vinegar actually helps you get there. So, as it turns out, vinegar is really good for metabolic health. Okay. And this is all supported by clinical studies. I want to actually cite one of them. It was a study done in Aichi, Japan, that looked at the impact of apple cider vinegar on body weight in 155 people between the ages of 25 and 60. And these people were considered obese in Japan. Now, you know Japan has small, thin people. But these were people that in Western countries might not have been considered obese. But in Japan, they were. Otherwise healthy. All right. And what they did, they broke these people into a couple of different groups. One group got low dose of apple cider vinegar. That's only one tablespoon. That's the low dose. And another group got three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. That's the high dose. All right. Now, what they did is they had the people consume the apple cider vinegar dissolved in a little bit of a beverage, water, so it actually prevents teeth damage. And what they did is they had these people, the subjects, consume apple cider vinegar two times a day. Half of the glass of water in the morning and the other half at some point during the day. We've all heard the saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But what if that apple actually helps fight cancer and burn fat too? According to Dr. Lee, apples are one of the most powerful snacks you can eat. Not just because they're healthy, but because of how they work inside your body. Dr. Lee explains that apples help your body in three key ways. First, they're great for your metabolism. They contain something called chlorogenic acid, which helps break down harmful body fat. That means when you eat an apple, your body starts using more energy and storing less fat. He also talks about the skin of the apple. It holds a lagic acid, which helps protect your stem cells and supports fat burning even more. This only works well if you eat the peel. So it's best to wash your apples properly or buy organic if you can. Another compound in apples is procyanidins. These are powerful natural nutrients that activate brown fat. That's a type of fat in your body that burns calories instead of storing them. Apples are also full of flavonoids, quercetin, and vitamin C. All strong antioxidants. These fight off the damage that builds up in your body over time from stress, pollution, and unhealthy food. One of those antioxidants, quercetin, is especially helpful. It's been shown in lab studies to stop cancer cells from growing and spreading. Quercetin is found mostly in the peel, which is another reason not to throw that part away. Apples even help your immune system stay alert. Vitamin C, found in the flesh and skin, helps white blood cells do their job. These cells are your body's first defense against illness, including cancer. In the Journal of Food and Drug Analysis, researchers reviewed many studies about apples and cancer. One large human study showed that people who ate one apple per day had a 35% lower risk of colorectal cancer. But even more impressive, people who ate more than one apple a day had up to a 50% lower risk. In the same paper, scientists explained how compounds in apple skin, like fluoretin, can block cancer cell growth. One lab study showed that fluoretin stopped colon cancer cells from multiplying. It also helped them break down and die. Now let's talk about how to actually eat them. Aim for at least one apple a day, or a few across the week. You don't need to overthink it. Just make them a regular part of your snacks. Dr. Lee says soy is one of the most misunderstood yet powerful foods when it comes to fighting cancer and burning fat. Soy can help your body heal and protect itself in amazing ways, if you eat it the right way. Let's start with fat burning. Dr. Lee explains that soy is packed with protein, which already helps your body stay full and boosts metabolism. But soy goes even further. It contains natural plant compounds called isoflavones, including one called genistein. These compounds don't just act like weak estrogen, they also support your body's ability to block fat storage and boost energy use. The plant estrogens in soy are much weaker than human estrogen. They actually block the body's stronger estrogen from connecting to cancer cells. So instead of fueling the fire, soy steps in, and turns the flame down. In the journal Reviews in Urology, researchers from the U.S. and Japan looked at soy and prostate cancer. They compared men from Asian countries like Japan, with those in the U.S. Even though both groups had the same hidden cancer rates at autopsy, men in Asia died far less often from prostate cancer. One reason? Soy intake. Asian men were eating over 50 mg of soy isoflavones every day, while the average American ate just 1 to 3 mg. That difference changed the way their bodies aged. In fact, Japanese men didn't have the same increase in prostate size as they got older. That's a sign of lower inflammation and hormone balance. Now how can you eat soy in a simple, everyday way? Start with edamame, which are steamed or boiled soybeans. You can sprinkle them with sea salt and eat them as a snack. They're tasty and easy to find in the frozen section of most stores. You can also enjoy roasted soybeans, also called soy nuts. They're crunchy and full of protein. Try seasoning them with garlic salt or chili powder for extra flavor. Aim for 1 to 2 servings of soy per day, and keep it as part of your weekly meal rotation. Tomato. Some of you might think that tomato is a vegetable, right? But it's actually a fruit. Tomatoes are pretty wonderful because not only do they taste good, but they've actually been shown to lower the risk of prostate cancer and breast cancer. So how does it do this? Tomatoes contain bioactives, and the secret to health in foods is often the bioactive. One of the bioactives in tomato is vitamin C. Vitamin C is a powerful anti-inflammatory substance. Another bioactive in tomato is called lycopene, which is a carotenoid. Lycopene does a lot of different things that are beneficial for the body. One of them is that lycopene protects our DNA against damage from oxidative stress, including ultraviolet radiation, like sun damage. That's right. Eating tomatoes with the lycopene can protect us against damage from the sun. That means kind of like sunscreen, but from the inside out. So sun exposure can damage your DNA. Lycopene protects your DNA against the sun damage. And you can actually eat tomatoes in order to be able to protect yourself and protect you from the inside out from sun damage coming from the outside. Now, how do I like to eat tomatoes? I like to eat tomatoes raw, sliced into a salad. Absolutely great way to get great flavor, great hydration, and the vitamin C is really good. But if you want to get the most out of lycopene, okay, that is that antioxidant. That's the one that helps to protect your DNA. You want to actually make sure you get as much lycopene as possible. How do you get the most lycopene out of a tomato? Well, you want to actually heat it, like cook it, saute it in a pan. And so you're actually cooking tomatoes like a tomato sauce, all right, like a sugo, and add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. So here's what happens. The heat from cooking converts the chemical structure of lycopene, okay, which is natural, into a slightly different chemical structure, also natural, that your body loves to absorb. So when you cook tomatoes, you actually get more lycopene that's easier for your body to absorb. Add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. You know why? Because lycopene is what's known as fat-soluble, which means that lycopene likes to dissolve in oil. So when you actually cook tomato sauce, the lycopene converts into the part your body likes to, and you mix it with the olive oil, and now it really gets absorbed into your body very, very easily. And that's why, by the way, the Mediterranean diet is so healthy, and it's got so many tomato recipes in it. Usually the tomato is cooked, all right? Now, there are many varietals of tomatoes out there. If you go to your grocery store in the summertime or you go to the farmer's market, it's almost overwhelming how many different types of tomatoes there are. You'll see so many options. So I always ask, which one should I buy, right? So if you're sort of looking from the culinary side, I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one tastes the best. But I'll tell you when it comes to health, the best tomatoes are called San Marzano tomatoes, which is a kind of plum tomato originally from the town of San Marzano, which is on the slope of a volcano called Vesuvius near Naples, Italy. And you can often find San Marzano tomatoes grown outside of Italy. And you'll find these in the farmer's market or even the grocery store. But you can't find fresh San Marzano. You can easily find canned San Marzano tomatoes in the middle aisle of the grocery store. And it turns out that canned San Marzano tomatoes, whole or pureed tomatoes, still have the good stuff, the lycopene. And San Marzano tomatoes just have higher amounts. It's one of the most potent when it comes to lycopene. Another potent tomato that you can actually definitely find in your grocery store are these little tiny cherry tomatoes. They're like lycopene bombs. They're really packed with the lycopene. All right. So they're small, but they're really, really powerful. If you actually want to cook with cherry tomatoes, what I like to do, I like to sear them. So you heat some olive oil, a little bit of garlic. All right. And when the oil is hot, inflate it with the garlic. Just throw some cherry tomatoes in there, and you'll see them blister, pop, and they'll start to cook down. It makes for a really wonderful. Dr. Lee often talks about tomatoes as one of the most protective foods for your body. They're not just a colorful ingredient in your salad. They actually do a lot of work inside your system. From helping your body burn fat to lowering cancer risk, tomatoes bring more to the table than most people realize. Tomatoes are high in lycopene, a natural compound that gives them their red color. Lycopene also acts as an antioxidant, which means it protects your cells from damage. But more than that, lycopene improves blood circulation, which helps your body use energy better. This improved blood flow supports metabolism and makes it easier to burn stored fat, especially the kind around your belly. Lycopene also activates brown fat, the type of fat that actually burns calories. Dr. Lee points out that lycopene also protects against cancer, especially prostate and breast cancer. It does this by blocking blood vessels that feed tumors. Cancer cells need blood supply to grow. If you cut off that supply, it becomes harder for the cancer to survive or spread. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers wanted to see what would happen if women at risk for breast cancer ate more tomatoes. They had 70 postmenopausal women eat tomato-rich foods for 10 weeks. Each day, the women got at least 25 mg of lycopene. The women's levels of adiponectin, a hormone that helps control fat and blood sugar, went up by 9%. This hormone plays a big role in fat metabolism. When adiponectin goes up, your body gets better at handling insulin and burning fat. The study showed that the effect was even stronger in women with a lower body weight. This means that tomatoes may be especially helpful if you're already working toward A. So how can you actually use tomatoes in your meals? Dr. Lee also says that cooking tomatoes makes lycopene easier to absorb. Just sautéing tomatoes for 2 minutes can boost lycopene levels by 50%. And if you cook them with a little olive oil, the amount your body absorbs can double. So, tomato sauce, soups, and stews aren't just tasty, they're more powerful too. Green tea. Now, green tea contains catechins that have been shown to lower the risk of colon cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer. Cancers of the gut, actually, because you're sipping the green tea and it's flowing down and touching your entire GI tract. Now, what's in green tea? Something called catechins. Edward George, Charlie George. And this is actually something that I've studied. I'm a researcher. I have actually studied food as medicine in the lab, specifically green tea. And I can tell you that this is a natural chemical found in tea leaves that when you brew a cup of tea, the EGCG comes out into the liquid. So, whether you actually have tea bags, you have loose tea leaves, or you have some powdered tea, which is another form of getting it. And whether it is green tea, whether it's matcha, you're all getting this catechin into your system. So, what does EGCG do in the body? Well, something quite amazing. Drinking tea has been shown by cancer researchers to lower inflammation, which is, of course, one of the drivers for cancer. Green tea also boosts the immune system. Now, we all have cancers growing inside our body. It's a natural part of being alive. When our cells divide, they make mistakes. And each of those tiny little mistakes is a microscopic cancer. But our immune system wings by, finds that microscopic cancer, and takes it out like a sniper. And so, good, strong immunity is actually cancer-fighting. And green tea actually does that as well. But the thing that I think is most remarkable is that the catechins found in green tea cut off the blood supply to tumors. Now, all tumors are harmless until they actually get a blood supply. And this is a process called tumor angiogenesis. Now, our normal cells, our normal tissues have angiogenesis. We need them in order to be able to heal our wounds. But tumors hijack this process, okay? And they actually feed themselves to get oxygen and nutrients. And when a cancer actually does that, that is actually what allows tumors to actually grow wildly. In fact, studies in the lab have shown that without a blood supply, tumors can't grow beyond about 2 millimeters in diameter. That's the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. But the moment blood vessels can actually grow up and touch that tumor and feed it, that tumor can grow 16,000 times in just 2 weeks' time. So angiogenesis, which is normal for healing, good for our body. When tumors hijack it, the oxygen and nutrients allow the cancer to explode in growth. So tea containing the catechins cuts off the blood supply, prevents tumor angiogenesis. And that is one of the most powerful and important ways that green tea can actually be beneficial. Now, I like to drink green tea every day. In fact, I have a cup of it right here. Walk the walk. And I find it really relaxing. I drink green tea all throughout the day, especially in the evening. But green tea actually is something that goes back tens of thousands of years. If you look at Asia, tea bushes, tea plants naturally grew there. And they are handpicked. They are dried under the sun. They are lightly roasted over fire. And then the process takes off in order to be able to convert them into different types of tea. You mix them with jasmine flowers for jasmine tea. You grind it into a powder to make matcha. You roast it deeper in order to be able to create black teas, which are also beneficial for your health, by the way. Not just green, but black is also good. Somewhere in between is oolong tea, which is kind of a medium tea. And then you can ferment tea. It's called pu'er, beautiful tea. But let's start with, let's stick with green tea for a second. Green tea has these anti-cancer benefits. So one of the questions is how much, how do you actually make the green tea? And how much should you drink? Well, listen, I like using loose leaf tea. You can actually brew it in a pot with hot water. Don't ever drink a tea with boiling water you just put in there. That actually does, that scalding liquid has been shown to increase the risk of cancer because you're injuring the esophagus. So do not do that. Let the tea cool down. And actually, it takes that time of cooling down to also steep out the catechins. That's a little tip for you. And if you're using a tea bag, you want to dunk the tea bag, all right, in order to be able to shake out those catechins into the liquid. When it actually is cool enough to be able to sip comfortably, then sip it. Two to three cups of tea a day actually has been shown to be beneficial for many different types of conditions. But the most important thing that I like is that it tastes great and it's actually relaxing. Dr. Lee calls green tea one of the most powerful natural tools we have for protecting our health, and for good reason. Green tea works inside your body in ways that can support fat loss, improve gut health, and even fight cancer. According to Dr. Lee, green tea contains special nutrients called catechins, especially one called epigallocatechin gallate. This is a type of antioxidant which helps your metabolism work better. It can activate brown fat, which burns calories to make heat. That means your body starts using stored fat just to stay warm. Over time, this helps reduce harmful belly fat. Green tea also improves digestion and gives your body a natural energy boost, thanks to a small amount of caffeine, but without the jittery feeling you sometimes get from coffee. Dr. Lee says green tea can support your gut bacteria. It has prebiotic fiber, which helps feed the good microbes in your digestive system. These microbes play a big role in fighting off disease, lowering inflammation, and improving your overall health. A strong gut also helps your body respond better to infections, and even lowers your risk of getting sick from chronic conditions like cancer. A study published by the Journal of Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews looked at over 140 studies involving more than 1.1 million people. These studies compared people who drank green tea regularly to those who drank very little or none at all. Here's what they found. People who drank the most green tea had a 17% lower risk of colorectal cancer compared to people who drank the least. In total, 16 studies looked at this specific cancer type and included over 600,000 participants. That's a large group, and the effect was still clear. The review also found that prostate cancer risk dropped by 27% in people who drank the most green tea. For oral cancers, the risk was 29% lower. These results were most noticeable in case control studies, which looked back at people's tea drinking habits over time. So how should you drink it? You can enjoy green tea the classic way, just brew it and sip. But there are also other ways to include it in your daily routine. You can also freeze it into popsicles for a healthy snack on a hot day. Some people even marinate their food in green tea, like chicken or tofu, for a light, antioxidant-rich flavor. Another tip from Dr. Lee. If you want to boost the benefits, drink green tea daily, not just once in a while. Aim for two to four cups per day, if possible. 5. Pomegranate seeds Pomegranates, speaking about purplish, reddish foods. The pomegranate, also a tropical fruit, although you can find them in most grocery stores now. They are kind of like a big apple with a thick skin and a little bit of a crown at the very top. They're heavy. You know why they're heavy? Because they're filled with seeds that around every seed is a little bit of liquid. And that's pomegranate juice. Now, these seeds, pomegranate juice, are packed with bioactives. These are naturally occurring chemicals that give foods their biological punch. This is what you eat to beat disease, are these foods with these bioactives. And in pomegranate, they're called elagitannins. Now, elagitannins also help to give the bites the kind of acidity and also contribute to the color of the pomegranate. You want to be careful when you actually eat and work with pomegranate, because that dye around the seeds will stain your clothes if you're not careful. All right? But absolutely delicious. You know, by the way, each seed looks like a little ruby, beautiful red color. You ever see pomegranate in a salad? I had a Syrian salad the other day called fattoush, and it had little pomegranate seeds in it. So as you're eating the salad, you bite into it, these little ruby, fruity rubies, and an explosion of sweet flavor and juice. Absolutely delicious. Okay, so what do elagitannins do? Well, they do a couple of things. Pomegranate elagitannins have been shown to cut off the blood supply to tumors, starve cancer, anti-angiogenic. And in fact, clinical studies have even been done in men with prostate cancer, showing that pomegranate juice can actually slow down the rise of PSA. Now, you don't know, PSA is a blood marker that goes up when you have prostate cancer. And for men who are actually having their PSA go up, up, up, up, up, having pomegranate juice pretty much kept them at a cruising altitude so they wouldn't actually keep rising. Pretty amazing, right? So what do we think actually is going on? Well, it turns out elagitannins are anti-angiogenic. They cut off the blood supply to cancer. And in the case of prostate cancer, would make the prostate cancer harder, make it harder for them to actually grow and become more aggressive. Hence, we think this is actually why the PSA actually is able to be leveled off. Now, the other thing that pomegranate juice does, which is really amazing, is that the elagitannins, which you eat, trickles down your gut, goes down to your lower gut, your colon. And it stimulates your colon to produce natural mucus, right? We think about mucus normally in the upper throat, back of the mouth, right? If you want to actually have spit, right? But mucus is all throughout our GI tract, all throughout our intestines. And in the colon, when your colon secretes mucus, mucin, it helps a natural, healthy gut bacteria called Acromancea muciniphila. Some people say muciniphilia, wrong. Acromancea muciniphila, this is one of your best friends of gut bacteria because Acromancea, when it comes to cancer, talks to your immune system, makes your immune system a lot beefier and stronger in the battle against cancer. So here's pomegranate with pomegranate juice with elagitannins that actually lower inflammation. They starve cancer by cutting up the blood supply. They help nurture your gut microbiome, including an organism, Acromancea muciniphila, that actually talks to your immune system and helps your immune system pounce and get rid of cancer. Dr. Lee often points to pomegranate seeds, also called arils, as a small but powerful food that helps your body in many ways. They're sweet, easy to eat, and packed with natural compounds that help fight cancer, burn fat, and support a healthy gut. According to Dr. Lee, these seeds contain a compound called elagitannins. This is a type of polyphenol, a natural nutrient found in plants. Elagitannins are known for helping the body grow more of a special type of gut bacteria called Acromancea muciniphila. It helps your body burn fat more efficiently and strengthens your immune system. Pomegranate seeds also have antioxidants that protect your cells. These antioxidants reduce inflammation, which is linked to fat storage, illness, and a higher risk of chronic diseases like cancer. Now let's talk about cancer protection. One reason pomegranate seeds are so special is because of how they help prevent prostate cancer. Elagitannins can block blood supply to tumors. This process, called antiangiogenesis, stops cancer cells from getting the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow. In a study published in Pharmacognosy Reviews, researchers looked at dozens of studies on pomegranates, including the seeds, juice, and peel. They found strong evidence that compounds in pomegranates slow down the growth of cancer cells, especially in the prostate, breast, and colon. The researchers explained how elagitannins and other compounds in the seeds boost the body's natural defense systems. For example, they increase proteins that cause apoptosis, which is when unhealthy or abnormal cells are told to shut down and die off. This is one of the ways your body stops cancer from forming or spreading. One of the studies mentioned in the review looked at how prostate cancer cells responded to pomegranate extract. The results showed that the cells grew slower, had fewer blood vessels forming around them, and showed clear signs of cell death. So how do you use them? You can eat pomegranate seeds on their own as a snack. They're juicy, slightly tart, and easy to carry in a small container. You can also sprinkle them on top of yogurt, oatmeal, or smoothies to add a pop of flavor and a boost of antioxidants. Dr. Lee recommends eating pomegranate seeds regularly, not just once in a while. Even a few servings a week can help your body maintain its defenses and support long-term wellness. And that were 5 high-protein snacks that do more than just fill you up. They help your body fight back, they support your immune system, and they can play a role in cancer prevention and fat burning when used consistently. If you found this video helpful, subscribe to the channel for more such science-based health content. Thanks for watching. See you in the next video.