A Scientist Tells You The Best Vegetables To Eat, with Dr. Parris Kidd
A recent survey found that 93% of the population doesn’t consume the minimum suggested amount of fruits and vegetables needed to stay healthy. What if there was a way to conveniently knock out all your daily veggies in one shot? Fortunately, this is exactly what Neurogreens can accomplish. In the first episode of a series on the latest in nutritional supplements with BrainMD Chief Science Officer Dr. Parris Kidd, he and Dr. Daniel Amen discuss an easy new way to get your daily intake of healthy veggies.
For more information on Neurogreens from BrainMD, visit https://brainmd.com/neuro-greens-superfood
Daniel Amen, MD:
Welcome to the Brain Warrior’s Way podcast. I’m Dr. Daniel Amen.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
And I’m Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body.
Daniel Amen, MD:
The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain SPECT imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com.
Daniel Amen, MD: Welcome to Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast. I’m Dr. Daniel Amen, and instead of my partner, Tana Amen, this week, I have Dr. Parris Kidd, who is our chief science officer at BrainMD. He’s got a PhD from UC Berkeley in cell biology. He’s been in the supplement industry for more than 35 years. He’s really considered one of the chief scientists in the world when it comes to using natural supplements for your brain and your body.
So, Parris, it is just such a joy to have you on the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: And it’s such a pleasure to be working with you, Daniel, all these years now.
Daniel Amen, MD: I know. It’s crazy. I stalked you for a number of years, trying to get you to work with us and formulate brain-healthy products, but you were at Doctor’s Best and doing wonderful things there, so you know how fond I am of you.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: [inaudible [00:02:04].
Daniel Amen, MD: And we’re always searching for new ways to optimize and balance the brain, and so over this week, we’re going to talk about four of our new products. Actually, they’re behind me. And we have a couple of other new products that we’ve talked about, Happy Saffron, which I take every day. During a pandemic, you need something to boost your mood and happiness. What we have in that product is just so special. We also have Put Me To Sleep, which has just gotten great reviews, to help people get healthy, natural sleep at night.
But this week, we’re going to talk about Neuro Greens, Smart Mushrooms, which is actually going to be released in a couple of weeks, Neuro-C, never more important time to optimize your vitamin C level, and Omega-3 Power Squeeze, which just tastes like dessert but is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, the kind that are really good for your brain.
So let’s talk about Neuro Greens, which is something I put in my shake every morning. I’m just thrilled for you to talk about this new product.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: Right. Well, Neuro Greens is actually a rainbow of colors, of diversity of vegetables, fruits, algae, mushrooms, and prebiotic fibers. And I want to thank Jim Springer, our general manager, for bringing this up with us. And then as you and I talked about it early, just to do greens was not going to be sufficient. We needed to do a total spectrum of all the beneficial substances that are available in foods. And so we literally have thousands of substances in these 24 concentrates, and they’re beneficial not only for the brain but also for the circulation, for energy, and for immunity. Very strong on immunity because we developed this product as we were going into this terrible pandemic. And the overall profile of these 24 ingredients supplies a huge variety of literally thousands of beneficial substances.
Daniel Amen, MD: Well, I just love this. And people often don’t know. It’s like, “Well, why would I need a green product if I eat reasonably well?” And 93% of the population does not have five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, the minimum required to get the nutrition that you need. Plus, as you said, even though it’s called Neuro Greens, because that’s what people will relate to, it’s not just greens. There’s a whole rainbow of colors in here. You talked about algae, and there’s kale and broccoli, moringa, green tea leaf extract but also carrot root and strawberry, pomegranate, which has so many benefits, raspberries, blueberries, beet root, blackberries, black currant. And then we’re going to talk about mushrooms in a little bit, but this also has lion’s mane and maitake and reishi mushrooms, along with shiitake, plus kelp and goji berry, which is so critical for your health.
And there’s this great study from Australia that said there is a linear correlation between the number of fruits and vegetables you eat a day and your level of happiness, up to eight. And it’s just hard to think about consuming that many fruits and vegetables, so to just take a scoop of this and put it in your shake, which is what I do. I use BrainMD chocolate, protein powder. We have chocolate and vanilla. I like the chocolate. It’s just such a simple way to begin to get the nutrients you need.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: Yeah. And you can also do more than one scoop, and it’s great for kids, great for people of all ages. And as I was designing this, it came to my mind that what we’re really looking at is the effects of these literally thousands of substances in multiplying the benefits of each other. So, for example, the substances that give the main colors to the blue and red and purple and even black foods that we have in here are called anthocyanins, and they are known to be fantastic for the circulation. The blue ones that come from blueberry are known to work really well in supporting brain function, cognitive function. And the anthocyanins have a great variety of benefits, and yet the average American only gets about 11 milligrams a day, which is a fraction of what would probably be beneficial for them. And one third of all Americans estimated do not get any anthocyanins in their diet.
So this is one example of a number of classes of substances that we have in the Neuro Greens. And as I was designing it, of course, I always learn by doing these products, and I realize what a great variety of beneficial substances there are in our foodstuffs and how we really need to have a diversity, a really maximal diversity of all these different substances. So the anthocyanins are antioxidants, but we also have other classes of antioxidants. We have catechins, we have tannins, alagic tannins. We have all the flavonoids, all sorts of polyphenols. Just a great variety. And then the mushrooms contribute these unique substances called glucans, which are just fantastic for immunity, but which I also learned help to feed the beneficial bacteria in the gut. So the glucans from mushrooms are great not only for toning up, sharpening up our immunity, but also for helping to sustain and maintain and optimize our probiotic status.
Daniel Amen, MD: It’s also a great thing, because Neuro Greens actually tastes really good. I was shocked. I remember when Tana started putting greens in shakes that she would feed me. And I would watch her scoop a powder of someone else’s greens. And I’m like, “I’m not drinking that. I’m not a cow.” And I always found them bitter.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: Right. Right.
Daniel Amen, MD: She often calls me her next child, because I just don’t like suffering. It’s not on the top of my list. And she would actually sneak greens into shakes she would make. In the Brain Warrior’s Way Cookbook, she’s got, I don’t know, a dozen shake recipes that are just awesome. But when I tasted this originally, I’m like, “This doesn’t taste bad. It’s actually very pleasant.” I know one of the hardest things that parents have to deal with are getting fruits and vegetables into children’s bodies, and this is just such a simple way that you can put it in a shake and really hide, if you will, the flavor, but this flavor is actually not bad.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: Yeah. We got away from that grassy taste that a lot of green products have.
Daniel Amen, MD: Yeah.
Parris Kidd, Ph…: We really were able to optimize these ingredients. And I’m very proud of the fibers, too. So these fibers, like inulin, for example, has had more than 10,000 studies. And inulin from Jerusalem artichoke is known to be very, very good for the bifidobacteria, which are the major probiotic players in our large intestine and colon. And then we have apple pectin, which also feeds the bifidobacteria but which has another function, too. It allows the bifidobacteria to make substances that the body can actually use for energy. So when you have really optimized fibers, as we do in this product, including also defatted flaxseed, the probiotics can be producing up to 7% to 8% of all the energy of the body, so we’re actually feeding the probiotics with the glucans and with the other fibers and allowing them to make beneficial substances that not only benefit the intestinal lining but benefit the energy level of the entire body.
So this is also a fantastic product for energy and for digestive function and for overall wellness, not to mention the immune benefits of many of these. The acerola cherry, the West Indian cherry, which used to grow outside of my family home in Jamaica, contains 50 to 100 times the amount of vitamin C in an orange or lemon, and so we put that in there as well.
So when you look at the synergies between all of these different substances, you’re looking at a really highly concentrated brain and immune and whole body boosting supplement.
Daniel Amen, MD: So Neuro Greens, you can learn more about it. I put the link in the show notes, or in the description. You’re listening to the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast on new ways to boost your brain. I’m here with Dr. Parris Kidd. In the next episode, we are going to talk about Smart Mushrooms. I wanted to call it Happy Mushrooms, but my team would not let me call it Happy Mushrooms because it has a very different use than to just make you happy. So stay with us. You’re listening to the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast.
Tana Amen: If you’re enjoying the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, please don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll always know when there’s a new episode. And while you’re at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating, as that helps others find the podcast.
Dr Daniel Amen:
If you’re considering coming to Amen Clinics or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code podcast 10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.