dr. Anna Patrick here today I'm going to
demonstrate and talk about my
micronutrients smoothie that I drink
every single morning the total volume is
around 64 fluid ounces and I drink half
of that and give the rest to my husband
Dan here's the ingredients eight kale
leaves
three cups of flax milk
for rainbow chard leaves
three cups of spinach
a tomato
two carats
an apple
and avocado
a cup of blueberries
one banana
you
one shot glass of flaxseed
one common factor to all the green leafy
vegetables in my smoothie is that
they're high in magnesium magnesium is
at the center of a chlorophyll molecule
chlorophyll gives plants their green
color so if you're eating a lot of green
plant you can be rest assured that
you're getting enough magnesium which is
a good thing because around 45% of the
u.s. population does not meet the
adequate intake for magnesium which is
currently set around 350 to 400
milligrams a day and athletes can
require up to 10 and 15 percent even
more than that over 300 different
enzymes in the body require magnesium to
function properly including those
enzymes that use and produce ATP
the energetic currency of the cell ATP
also must be bound to a magnesium ion in
order to be biologically active
producing energy and using energy is
needed to survive so any magnesium that
the body gets is going to be allocated
to make sure that these enzymes that are
you need magnesium to produce energy are
going to get the magnesium but there's
also other enzymes that require
magnesium to function DNA repair enzymes
DNA repair enzymes repair any DNA damage
that occurs DNA damage occurs from just
normal metabolism and also just normal
immune function and DNA repair enzymes
repaired that damage to make sure that a
mutation doesn't occur in addition
magnesium is required for DNA
polymerases and DNA ligase which also
makes sure that any sort of mutation
that possibly could occur during a cell
replication doesn't happen so magnesium
is very important to prevent cancer
initiating factors such as DNA damage
and also mutations from occurring and my
micronutrient smoothie delivers around
588 milligrams of magnesium which is
above the recommended daily allowance
among the green leafy vegetables that I
cram into my smoothie I probably put the
most kale in I put around 8 kale leaves
aside from being high in magnesium kale
is also a really good source of lutein
and zeaxanthin which are 2 carotenoids
that are highly concentrated in the
retina of the eye
these carotenoids serve two very
important functions in the eye one is
they filter out singlet oxygen which is
produced by blue light from the Sun and
is
very damaging to the rods and cones in
the eye the second is that lutein and
zeaxanthin also have antioxidant
activity this is how they've been shown
to protect against several different
types of age-related macular
degeneration lutein and zeaxanthin also
have been shown to slightly enhance
visual performance kale is very high in
lutein and zeaxanthin and my
micronutrient smoothie provides around
390 milligrams of both of them kale is a
cruciferous vegetable which means it's
also high in sulfur containing compounds
known as sulfur fans when Kayla's
chopped or chewed there's enzymes
present in the kale called Myra cenizas
which break the sulfur feints down into
something called isothiocyanates and
isothiocyanates are some really good
stuff it's one of the main reasons why I
like to get some raw kale in my diet
because the enzymes my resonances that
convert the sulfur fans into the Isis
thiocyanate are very are heat sensitive
so when you heat them they become
inactive and so you don't actually get
as many of the isothiocyanates when you
have cooked kale that doesn't mean
cooked kale isn't good you also can get
more of magnesium and calcium and things
like that when you cook the kale so it's
good to get both raw and cooked
vegetables in the diet but back to the
isothiocyanates isothiocyanates are able
to epigenetically turn genes on and turn
genes off they turn off bad genes beat
genes that are called phase one
biotransformation enzymes these enzymes
are responsible for taking a pro
carcinogen and converting it into a
full-blown carcinogen in the body so
isothiocyanates turn those off I've said
iodine it's also turn on good genes they
turn on genes that are called Phase two
detoxification enzymes these are a whole
host of enzymes that are antioxidant
enzymes and anti-inflammatory related
genes and so Isis iodine in turn these
on and this is one of the ways in which
isothiocyanates are also known to kill
cancer cells because they prevent DNA
damage and they also activate tumor
suppressor genes which kill cancer cells
kale is really high in isothiocyanates
next up is rainbow chard I put around
four rainbow chard leaves and stems into
my micronutrient smoothie chard is a
great source of vitamin k1 around 65
percent of the u.s. population does
meet the adequate intake for vitamin k1
which is set at around 90 to 120
micrograms a day there are two
biologically active forms of vitamin K
vitamin k1 and vitamin k2 I'll talk
about the similarities and differences
of these two different vitamin K forms
in another video
both vitamin k1 and vitamin k2 are
required as cofactors to activate
proteins in the body that serve three
important functions first function is
coagulation which is the clotting of
blood the second function is to remove
calcium out of the bloodstream to
prevent calcification of the blood
vessels and arteries and take it to the
bones which is the third function
maintaining bone homeostasis my
micronutrient smoothie has around 5,000
micrograms of vitamin k1 the third green
leafy vegetable I add to my smoothie is
spinach I add around 3 cups or 1.5 2
chopped spinach is high in folate Fowley
is an essential for the incorporation of
thymine a DNA nucleotide into DNA when
folate levels are low DNA miss
incorporates uracil which is part of RNA
into the DNA and this causes a type of
DNA damage that is similar to being
irradiated so not having enough folate
is like being irradiated also full it's
very important in regulating epigenetics
folate is an important precursor to
methyl groups and methyl groups are a
very essential part of epigenetic
regulation and this is why folate is
important for regulating epigenetics my
micronutrient smoothie has around 480
micrograms of folate I put around 2
medium sized carrots in my
micronutrients smoothie carrots are a
great source of beta carotene which is
another carotenoid that in addition to
having antioxidant activity is also a
pro vitamin A because it can be
converted into retinol which is vitamin
A approximately 34% of the US population
does not have adequate intake for
vitamin A vitamin A is very important
for normal immune system function as
well as vision the body can take beta
carotene and converted into vitamin A
and when the body has enough vitamin A
the beta-carotene is no longer converted
into vitamin A but instead is used as an
antioxidant my micronutrient smoothie
has around 54 milligrams of beta
carotene I used varying sizes of
tomatoes from small medium or large
depending on what's available tomatoes
are great source of lycopene lycopene is
another type of carotenoid that has
antioxidant activity it accumulates in
most tissues in the body and is very
potent at inhibiting angiogenesis which
is the growth of new blood vessels and
is a mechanism by which cancer cells
metastasize to other tissues my smoothie
has around 2,500 micrograms of lycopene
I also add one large avocado avocados
are a great source of potassium one
large one has around a thousand
milligrams the adequate intake for
potassium is set at around four thousand
seven hundred milligrams a day which is
really hard to get and is why 97% of
Americans don't meet that requirement
the requirement is set on the amount of
potassium that is needed to maintain
normal blood pressure and also decrease
the risk of kidney stones the smoothie
has around five thousand eight hundred
milligrams of potassium which meets the
adequate intake requirement in addition
avocados are a great source of the
vitamin E family both a mix to confer
all's alpha and gamma and the others as
well as the mix tocotrienols vitamin E
is very important antioxidant that is
especially for lipoproteins in the
vascular system it prevents them from
being oxidized which is a major
contributing factor to atherosclerosis
around 60% of the u.s. population
doesn't get enough vitamin E avocados
are also a great source of
monounsaturated fat which just so
happens that fat increases the dietary
absorption of all the carotenoids
including lutein zeaxanthin
beta-carotene and lycopene onto the
fruit I add a whole apple with apple
peel and about a cup of frozen or fresh
blueberries depending on the season to
the smoothie the apple peel and the
blueberries are high in flavonoids which
are compounds that are produced by most
plants the apple peel has quercetin and
epicatechin and blueberries are very
high in and
sign-ins these flavonoids are very
potent at sequestering reactive oxygen
species that are produced in the cell
protecting the cell from DNA damage
damage to lipids and damage to proteins
all of these leads lead to diseases of
Aging in addition these flavonoids also
activate Phase two detoxification
enzymes the same enzymes at the
isothiocyanates activated that's I took
that I talked about previously also they
lower inflammation by inhibiting genes
that activate inflammation these are the
general mechanisms by which these
flavonoids are good at lowering
oxidation and lowering inflammation in
the body lastly I had a banana which is
also a good source of potassium and also
makes the smoothie have a good
consistency along with the avocado it
helps it from separating out into
different fractions and it also makes it
taste better I also add about one tall
shot glass full of flaxseed which is a
great source of soluble fiber once it
grinds up and also is a good source of
alpha linoleic acid the plant omega-3
fatty acid and lastly I add around 3
cups of unsweetened flaxseed milk
recently I've been using a Blendtec
blender to blend my smoothie for four
years I used to buy tomates blender but
really any blender with the powerful
motor will work the entirety of this
smoothie which is around 64 fluid ounces
provides RDA for the following
micronutrients vitamin A vitamin b5
vitamin b6 vitamin C folate calcium
magnesium iron manganese copper alpha
linoleic acid and fiber the vitamins and
minerals that are in my smoothie are
really the nones but nutrition is a big
wide world and what it's not stated are
the unknowns science is yet to map all
the different compounds that are present
in plants and how they may interact with
human metabolism that may take many more
years to come I like to get a broad
spectrum of fruits and vegetables in my
smoothie not only to get the vitamins
and minerals that I discussed but also
for the unknowns for the compounds that
may be present in these plants that are
possibly benefiting human metabolism I
like to encourage you to make this movie
up and try it exciting new things
diversify it think about
in the same way that your financial
adviser would tell you to diversify your
stock portfolio
I'm dr. Rhonda Patrick and I'll catch
you next time
you