Amla: An Antioxidant Rich Food You’ve Never Heard Of

Brian Strickland  00:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Nutrition Made Simple a video series that we created that takes a look at ideas surrounding natural health and then we break them down into easy to understand and actionable steps. I'm joined again today by Mr. Ed Jones. He's the founder owner of Nutrition World. And for the month of September, we're actually taking a look at four key herbs that we really, really like at nutrition world. Last week, we spoke about olive leaf extract, which is a powerful immune booster amongst other things. But this week, we're taking a look at one that is pretty, it's not really well known. It's not on a lot of people's radars, including our own for a long time. But the more research that we've done about this one particular nutrient, the more excited that we get about it. And that's something called Amla. Amla is typically used in Ayurvedic medicine. It's been around for a long time, it's sourced from something called indian gooseberry. But we'll talk about more, more about that in just a moment. So Ed, why Amla, why, what is it about this nutrient that gets you excited?

Ed Jones  01:14

Well, Brian, thank you very much. And I'm going to take a real turn here and ask you a question. I remember watching a movie in the 90s, with Sean Connery called the Medicine Man, old movie, but it was fantastic. This guy, he would like to think that I could be half of him what he was, was an explorer into the Amazon jungle, because he knew there was an urban there that could cure much of the suffering of people with their diseases. He spent his whole life searching for this. And it was just a fantastic movie. And I was always inspired by that, because I feel like I am on an adventure constantly to search out some of these these unknown gifts of the world in nature. They shouldn't be unknown. Why are they unknown is because of patents. Patents are what rule the investigation of all health remedies, whether they be pharmaceutical or they be anything. The reason you don't know about Amla, is because no one can do a big study on them. Because the big study costs 10s of millions of dollars. Why would we do that when you can't have a patent and then recover your your income. So it's saying all that's framing it for my total excitement and passion for this particular botanical. You know, herbal medicine is about a $10 billion industry last year, and it seems to be forgotten by a lot of people because it's used in 70% of the world, why? It's safe. It's effective, if used properly. And it's very inexpensive. Well, Amla came upon us. I don't know, Brian, maybe five years ago, maybe six or seven at most, and Indian gooseberry is the common name. Well, again, when we first started getting it, I wanted to be educated fully. So you know, the reps would come and they would talk to me about it. But my experience with this earth has been like earth shattering when I watch what happens to people's like good cholesterol numbers and, and many of the things like C reactive protein that we talk about constantly about inflammation. I will never go without taking Amla again. Yeah, it's actually known as as you know, Dr. Greger who I really like in some regards, he says the most important medicinal plant in this whole country of India in their whole medical system. This is the number one plant and I'm just going to go through real quickly this is what Dr. Greger on nutritionfacts.org which is very well referenced to his references. This is from the PubMed and other studies anti pain, anti cough, anti itch, common cold, heart protecting, diuretic,  lowers cholesterol or balances healthy cholesterol stomachache, anti inflammatory, aphrodisiac and even is a snake venom neutralizer in a couple studies, so it has multiple effects and I take about three a day and I will continue to do that the rest of my life no one have I talked to who's had any significant side effects anything from heartburn any reason to not take it I have not heard in the past seven years it's incredible.

Brian Strickland  04:23

So one of the biggest things about online is one its vitamin C content to its antioxidant properties. So I've actually read that it has two times the amount of antioxidants as turmeric and why that isn't more known is pretty baffling to me because at this point pretty much everyone is familiar with turmeric and curcumin. Now obviously those are different things. But omelet is extremely high in antioxidants. So I thought that was pretty incredible.

Ed Jones  04:54

It is and I will have to say 90% of every person who comes in to Nutrition World or talks to me about amla or indian gooseberry. They're doing it for mainly one reason even though I had a whole list of potentials and that is to keep the good cholesterol HDL up, keep the LDL in a safer range. And then also at times to keep triglycerides are in a more optimal range. I, you know we can, anyone can change the numbers of lipids with drugs or even red yeast rice and other things. But it's sometimes tough to to get lowering total numbers without lowering the good stuff along with it. And I have seen amla keep those, those good things way up as the totals come way down. Again, always checking with your doctor before you do any things if you're being treated. But amla is a perfect combination for anything and everything you're doing to maintain cardiovascular health. And then one of the big things on Dr. gregers site, which is nutritionfacts.org is a huge study that was so impressive about preventing the spread of of, and I can't say the C word. And it's not the virus, but on the the cells that are unhealthy in us and we all have those at times you live long enough, we're going to have some of these unhealthy cells. What this does is keep it in check it keeps it where it was. And it is probably better than any other natural or even chemical compound to date. And then lastly, the study that was done comparing Zocor and Lipitor using one of them was only using 500 milligrams of amla while the other was using about 1000. The reports on PubMed were almost identical using Amla compared to the drug that has potential side effects of loss and muscle pain. Now, again, there's a time in place for pharmaceuticals, check with your health care professional, but I encourage you to find people who have a toolbox of both traditional and the holistic more options.

Brian Strickland  06:58

Yeah, absolutely. Now we talked about C reactive protein and that is what?

Ed Jones  07:05

C reactive protein is a very important blood test, I believe everyone should get every Middle East every year. And it has to do with inside of us chronic inflammation. That doesn't always mean pain. And when I describe chronic inflammation, if your arteries are inflamed, you don't feel that. But what happens is the body goes in and tries to patch anything in flame. Like my big calluses from when I work out. I've always got these because they're inflamed, but they don't hurt me. Well, if this is inside your artery, the body's wisdom will go in and find two things calcium and cholesterol to patch this inflammation Exactly. Like my calluses on my skin, that's fine for a month may be fine for a year, you do this for 10 years, guess what's happening, less blood flow, more plaque more arteries. So the bad guy isn't always cholesterol, that's just the bandaid, let's get lowered levels of C reactive protein. And then the body doesn't have to patch it. So that plays into memory, it plays into aches and pains. It plays into artery health, you name it, the chronic diseases of this age are based in chronic inflammation of 10 years or more. And yet, it's been ignored by a lot of people who talk about health.

Brian Strickland  08:18

Yeah, and then another big thing we want to talk about is sourcing because predominantly, this nutrient is coming from India, where standards may not be as stringent as they are here. So finding a product that has the the testing to make sure that it's clean of heavy metals and pesticides and herbicides, is an organic non GMO product that becomes even more important with this one in particular, right?

Ed Jones  08:43

Sure does. Now we'll give India a lot of credit. They, they have a lot of standards that some other countries don't, but it's not perfect yet. And we here at Nutrition World we demand transparency, we demand the test for heavy metals in the chemicals to make sure before we put it on the shelf. And and again I have to put in the word for for mail order if you're male ordering these things, you really don't know because sometimes the labels are counterfeit one two is the heat of the summer is destroying the active ingredient in most of these. That's why on our mail order service, we put an option for cold packs, you're going to order something this summer gets you a couple dollars for the cold packs and that way you know it's going to be preserved if it's going to be shipped within the next 24 hours.

Brian Strickland  09:25

Let me throw you a curveball here and let's talk about whole food versus extract because I'm pretty sure that that comes into play with this product as well. Right?

Ed Jones  09:33

It does. You know tumeric and curcumin, everybody likes to do all kinds of things with it including eat the food. In that case, you have to combine fat with that herb in order to get results you don't have to with omelets. If you find a good source of powdered omelet or indian gooseberry, perfectly fine to use it. It does not have to be processed in any special way unlike your cumin. So I encourage you if you go to Indian style And you feel confident with it. Just consume it in any form you can each and every day. And I, you know, I love the fact you get me to research these things. Because I mean, I feel like I'm very well read, but when I start looking into it, I'm going to actually up my dose of Amla, Brian, I'm telling you, I'm excited.

Brian Strickland  10:18

Yeah, it really is one of the most unique herbs that we have here. In all honesty, the research is out there, you can go look on your own and find it. It's pretty easy to find on PubMed and other sources as well. And the more you look at it, honestly, the more impressive that it gets. So cholesterol, inflammation, a number of other things that this can be hopeful for. And like I said, of course, if you have any questions, please talk to your doctor before taking it. This is not a substitute for medications that you're already taking. And of course, we'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have as well. Thank you so much for watching this week, everyone. We really hope this was helpful. This is such a cool nutrient, and we'll see you next time on Nutrition Made Simple. Take care. Thank you. 

Ed Jones  11:06

Stay strong.