3 Foods That Increase Autophagy Without Fasting

Dr. Mindy dives into autophagy, that amazing natural way our cells clean house. While fasting is a top way to kickstart it, this episode shares three delicious foods that can actually give autophagy a boost even when you're not fasting: pineapple (thanks to bromelain), turmeric (with its powerful curcumin), and green tea (packed with EGCG). These goodies can help with things like keeping your arteries clear, making your skin glow, and maybe even fighting off certain cancers. Embrace the magic of autophagy with 3 game-changing foods! To view full show notes, more information on our guests, resources mentioned in the episode, discount codes, transcripts, and more, visit https://drmindypelz.com/ep290 Check out our fasting membership at resetacademy.drmindypelz.com https://resetacademy.drmindypelz.com/. Please note our medical disclaimer https://drmindypelz.com/medical-disclaimer/.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, let's talk about autophagy, which for those of you that are new to my channel, autophagy is like one of the favorite subjects that people keep coming back to over and over again here on the channel. And the first thing I have to just say is that I love that people even know the word autophagy, that they're even searching the word autophagy, because not everybody geeks out on autophagy like I do. So I really want to talk about three foods that can increase autophagy. And this is important because a lot of you don't want to fast, although I'm not sure why you would have come to my channel if you didn't want to fast. I am definitely a fan of fasting, but there's a lot, a lot of other great pieces of information here.

• 0:47Mindy Pelz?

  So if you don't want to fast, you're going to want to pay attention to these three foods. And then I know that there's a group of you that are like, but I love autophagy. I love how I feel like I can see that I'm like the fountain of youth. I've dipped myself in the fountain of youth because I've been stimulating autophagy. How do I keep autophagy going when I'm eating and not fasting? So here we go. We're going to dive into the three foods that are going to increase autophagy without fasting. So let's go. Welcome to the Resetter Podcast. This podcast is all about empowering you

• 1:30Mindy Pelz?

  to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for learning, if you're looking to be in control of your health and take your power back, this is the podcast for you.

• 1:48Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, first thing, for those of you that are like, what the heck is autophagy? Let me just explain that autophagy is exactly as you kind of break it down, if you break the word down, auto and phagy means self-eating.

• 2:05Mindy Pelz?

  So it is what happens to our miraculous body when there are minimal nutrients coming in, and I'll talk about those nutrients in a moment. When we don't have as many nutrients coming into the system, the body, and even a little bit with glucose too, what the body will do is it goes, wait a second, we need to clean up this cell. We need to make sure that this cell is a better cell because we're not getting nutrients in. Now, what's really interesting, so for those of you that have been like autophagy geeks for a while, I really want you to think about this, that the main nutrient

• 2:47Mindy Pelz?

  that kicks you out of autophagy are amino acids. Because whenever we have any kind of protein coming into the system, we move to the opposite of autophagy, which is a pathway called mTOR. mTOR is a growth pathway, and autophagy is a destruction pathway. It's getting, think of autophagy as getting rid of the old. It's like spring cleaning for your cells. So when we want to activate autophagy, we need to keep the amino acid load down, which means we need to keep protein down.

• 3:25Mindy Pelz?

  So for a lot of us, we stimulate autophagy by metabolically switching over into these fasted states, and we bring glucose down, we bring nutrients down, and autophagy kicks in. I can tell you in the decades of researching autophagy that what we see as fasting is absolutely the best way to stimulate autophagy. And it's because you're bringing nutrients down and glucose down. But when you go back into that sugar burner place, when you're back into that place where you're eating again, as long as you keep amino acids down, you can keep yourself in this spring cleaning state. And here are three foods based off science.

• 4:09Mindy Pelz?

  I'll give you the links, I'll report the science. Here are the three foods that will help accelerate this spring cleaning within your cells. Ready? Again, first one's actually my favorite fruit. And it may surprise you because it's not very ketogenic. And it's pineapple. And the reason that pineapple can stimulate autophagy is because of its main nutrient, bromelain. So bromelain is an enzyme. And enzymes create cellular reactions. So nutrients, they come in and they help with cellular reactions. But enzymes actually are like a catalyst for a cellular reaction.

• 4:54Mindy Pelz?

  So bromelain is an enzyme that instantly turns on autophagy. And it starts that process. And so what research is showing is that bromelain in pineapple, pineapple is the best food on the planet for bromelain massively speeds up autophagy. And it starts to activate autophagy throughout the whole body. Okay, this is really important because a lot of times we don't think of these cellular healing processes as being organ dependent or system dependent. But you'll see as I go into the other two foods that yes, some foods specifically stimulate autophagy in organ systems. But bromelain stimulates autophagy throughout the whole body.

• 5:39Mindy Pelz?

  And there was a 2022 study in a journal called antioxidants that found that bromelain turned on autophagy within your arteries and it started to clear away plaque, reducing the risk of heart disease. So this is really important because a lot of you think, oh, I really want you to think this through. A lot of you are coming to my channel because you want to bring your hemoglobin A1C down. You want to bring your cardio metabolic system back into balance. But maybe for years and years and years, you've been way focused on, on eating the wrong foods that have been creating plating.

• 6:20Mindy Pelz?

  So now you stop eating those foods, you start fasting, your hemoglobin A1C comes down, but you still have the plating. So when we add something like pineapple into our eating windows, now all of a sudden we've got a tool to be able to start to go after that, that, that plating on the sidewall. Now here's another really cool study that I found. It's a 2024 review. Now, keep in mind, if you're not familiar with science, there are reviews are when they look at a bunch of different studies together and they come up with a conclusion. And in this 2024 review from Nutrients Journal, it's a big journal within the peer-reviewed

• 7:04Mindy Pelz?

  world, notes that bromelain also activates, you'll love this, autophagy in the skin cells. So, you know, I've seen this a lot with fasting, where people will come to fasting and they're like, within a couple of days, like a three-day water fast, they're like, "Oh, my gosh, my skin is glowing and it has a whole new color." And I've noticed that in my own self. And that's because autophagy is cleaning up the good. It's like a facial, an interfacial for you. Well, again, when we go back into the eating window, if we start to introduce pineapple or maybe even do a little bit of pineapple juice, not too much, make sure it's organic,

• 7:43Mindy Pelz?

  make sure it's fresh, it's not concentrated, you are going to now amplify the autophagy within your skin cells. And specifically, this review noted that it not only replaced the old and damaged cells within the skin, but that it also improves skin texture, which is interesting. Put in the comments, because I think a lot of you notice this as you fast, that your skin gets softer. Something I've noticed, like especially in the longer fast, I just kind of go, "Yeah, wow, my skin feels really soft." That's because autophagy, think of them like little pockmen. They're like cleaning up the skin and so you're going to notice a different level of softness. And then the last one that I'm going to tell

• 8:28Mindy Pelz?

  you on bromelain is that there was a 2010 study in BioFactors that found that bromelain may even kill breast cancer cells. So it turned on autophagy to such a high degree, this is what the study is saying, in cancer cells that they completely self-destructed.

• 8:47Mindy Pelz?

  Now, remember, your body's intelligent, so it's not going to do this to healthy cells. The body's always going to try to get rid of the old and bring in the new. So again, bringing this bromelain factor in, bringing the pineapple back in, we start to amplify atophagy outside of the fasting window, helping cardiovascular placking, helping skin. And now we have a study here showing that it can actually kill breast cancer cells. So really cool, but all three of those studies are impressive to me. And I will tell you as somebody who does like to go more keto, that I'll splash some pineapple juice.

• 9:28Mindy Pelz?

  If I'm on a beach in Hawaii, I'm going to be eating tons of pineapple, fresh pineapple, always getting fresh, always getting organic and not doing it every day. That's sort of the general rule I have for pineapple, as much as I love it. Okay, the second food for atophagy is turmeric and specifically curcumin, which is really this high antioxidant that can do a lot of miraculous things. I think most people know turmeric and curcumin as anti-inflammatory, but it actually can help with atophagy. Turmeric and curcumin have been known for cognitive function. They've been known for inflammation. But there's a 2016 study in the biotechnology advances

• 10:13Mindy Pelz?

  that found curcumin is specifically good at increasing mitophagy. Okay, not to get too complicated, but every single aspect of your body, specifically down to your cells, has its own unique version of atophagy.

• 10:36Mindy Pelz?

  And so mito, those of you who've been following me for a while, what is mito? What do you think that's going to mean? Mitophagy is where we are seeing the self-healing of the mitochondria.

• 10:49Mindy Pelz?

  Now, this is really important because the mitochondria are the battery of your cells. They're what give you energy, energy to heal, energy to function. They also are up-regulating glutathione within the cell, so they're helping your cells detox. So when we're doing daily bouts of curcumin or turmeric, this would be one that I would recommend you do daily, you could also even do this in your fasting window to amplify it, you are actually encouraging these mitochondria, these little powerhouses, to clean themselves up. And that's exactly what this study found, that during mitophagy, your cells destroy dysfunctional mitochondria. Oh, this is an important one.

• 11:31Mindy Pelz?

  I have to tell you this because this is one that doesn't get spoken of enough. When a cell decides to become a cancer cell, what happens is the toxins and the inner workings of the cells hijack the mitochondria. And when they hijack the mitochondria, the mitochondria go rogue, and instead of making ATP, they make lactic acid, which is what causes a lot of the soreness. So when we're doing daily turmeric or curcumin, what's happening is you're getting rid of the dysfunctional mitochondria. You're cleaning up these dysfunctional mitochondria so that they don't turn on you and become cancer cells.

• 12:16Mindy Pelz?

  And not only are you getting more energy, more healing energy, but you're getting these mitochondria to work for you when you start to stimulate this mitophagy. We have another study, a 2023 study in signal transduction and targeted therapy that noted that mitophagy specifically is especially important for healthy aging and preventing fatigue. Think of it like this, your mitochondria are bombarded with toxins, with stress, with emotional traumas, and they start to power down. And as they power down, now certain body parts don't work right. You don't have energy, your brain doesn't have energy. And so when

• 12:58Mindy Pelz?

  we can stimulate mitophagy, we can bring all of that back. Curcumin specifically turns on mitochondrial biogenesis, which is a way of saying that it will stimulate the new growth of new mitochondria and start to strengthen the existing ones. I hope you all know that turmeric is bulletproof. I've been studying this stuff for decades and I cannot find anything wrong with turmeric. I think the most important thing about turmeric is that we always have it with black pepper because it increases the curcumin's bioavailability

• 13:36Mindy Pelz?

  by 2,000%. So please make sure that you are having curcumin or turmeric, whether it's supplements or whether it's in food, make sure there's black pepper in there because it's like activates it. Okay, the third one and last one is also an amazing herb, or it's actually a tea, which is green tea. And green tea has a lot of polyphenols, and they are really good at not only helping with inflammation and brain function and with gut health, but one of the main ingredients of green tea, I'm going to try to pronounce this, but from this point forward, we're

• 14:17Mindy Pelz?

  only going to use the initials, it's called epi-gallo-cachiquins, epi-gallo-cachiquins, E-G-C-G. And that is the main active ingredient of green tea, and it's especially good for autophagy. There are two studies I'll bring to your attention. A 2019 in Nutrients found that green tea turned on widespread autophagy. So throughout the whole body, reducing inflammation throughout your whole body and regenerating and healing cells. Every single cell in the body, the study found, when it was exposed to green tea, the cell activated autophagy.

• 15:00Mindy Pelz?

  And then there was another great study in the, in 2019, anti-cancer research found that EGCG really specifically helps with colorectal cancer cells. I'm trying to talk today, and it destroys them. So think about this for a moment. You could definitely look at green tea and turmeric and curcumin. You could look at those in your fasting window to accelerate this autophagy process. You could also put them in your eating window and you're still, if you kept that protein down, you kept those amino acids down, you would still be stimulating autophagy. So just those of you that are experienced fasters, hopefully this helps.

• 15:41Mindy Pelz?

  What I love, when I look at studies like this and I look into research like this is we're not out of answers. We're never out of answers. The body is always doing the right thing at the right time. And if you're building dis-ease or you have a chronic condition and you feel like your body's turned on you, it's just because your lifestyle has not been in congruence with how the body wants to be treated. It's literally that simple. So what you can do is when you listen to videos like this is come back to some simplicity, which is nature's provided us a lot of incredible resources so that we can not only heal our self, but we can stimulate these natural processes that are going through our system.

• 16:26Mindy Pelz?

  And I'm always going to hold this line that the sugar burner system's great, the fat burner system's great, and our job is to metabolically switch. Typically, what I've taught you all is when we switch over into the fat burner state, that we are now stimulating autophagy. But what I'm hoping you're gathering from a video like this is we also, when we switch back to the sugar burner system, that we can keep that stimulation of autophagy going. Make sense? Okay, three questions that got sent in. So if you have a question, put it in the comments. I'm answering them now on these videos. Also, many of these questions came from my Reset Academy, which is a membership group where

• 17:09Mindy Pelz?

  me and my team of coaches and master experts are teaching women specifically, how to heal themselves and how to build a lifestyle that works for them. So if you're interested in that, we'll leave links for that. But here we go, three different questions. I'm gonna go through these really fast. The first is, what herbs naturally boost a tafaji? So, we did just talk about green tea, I kinda consider that, and curcumin, those are herbaceous. But I do wanna point out that there are a lot of really other interesting herbs. So berberine is one, you'll see a lot of those in supplements. The other one that I've leaned into a lot is bergamot.

• 17:51Mindy Pelz?

  Here's a funny little thing, many of you know that Beam Minerals is one of my favorite companies. I just love the heart of the people, I love the products. And they have this thing that's called a Happy Light Spray. I'm just telling you this because I love it. And it's bergamot in it, and so I keep it by my desk and I spray it on myself. It smells really good, I wish you could smell it. But bergamot in any way into the body is always gonna have this self-cleaning effect. We also know herb-wise, we can look at ginger, we can look at garlic, cinnamon. Cinnamon's gonna boost your metabolism. So you're not out of herbs, the list is long.

• 18:32Mindy Pelz?

  And, don't, don't, you know, I think there's a tendency when something comes from the earth and it's so simple, we dismiss its potency. And I'm gonna ask you to not do that when you hear these things, because we've over-complicated health and it's really important that we come back to what the earth and nature has provided for us. The last herb and the most famous one for tafaji is resveratrol. You can get resveratrol in, I know what many of you are thinking, in wine, but that would be a little counterbalance, not like you can drink wine every night and the fountain of youth kicks in. So we can look at grapes and berries as being a really good source of resveratrol. So those are just some notes to think about.

• 19:16Mindy Pelz?

  The second question was, are there other ways to get the benefits of autophagy? Yeah, I've done some videos on that. I will leave the links to those videos here. HIIT training, we've talked a lot about HIIT training. My new book's gonna have some fun things on HIIT training. But that HIIT training where you're like sucking air, you're like, like that will stimulate autophagy. That's one of, one of my favorite ways that I'll throw out here. Is the way in which you exercise matters. And then the third question that was asked was, how does autophagy help with aging and longevity? So this is really important, and if you've made it this far through the video, thank you.

• 19:57Mindy Pelz?

  And what I want you to know is that we are in a real health crisis, doesn't matter where you live in the world. But there are so many things that are speeding up aging, speeding up disease, and shortening longevity. So if you're doing nothing, you are actually on a collision course with chronic disease. The statistics are, are working against you. So we've got to turn to things like autophagy. And we have to find ways to naturally stimulate them throughout the day. So it helps with aging because it takes these cells that are aging very quickly, and it cleans them up, and it slows that aging process down.

• 20:42Mindy Pelz?

  So for example, let's use like, well, let's use the liver. The liver's a great one. Your liver will actually recirculate about, I think the last statistic I saw is that's like every year, your liver cells will regenerate themselves. So what that means is if you have an old cell in the liver and it goes to regenerate itself, it will regenerate old cells.

• 21:07Mindy Pelz?

  Whereas if you stimulate that cell, you clean it up, when it goes to regenerate, it will regenerate a more youthful cell. So by doing autophagy on a regular basis, what you're doing is you're literally creating an internal fountain of youth. You don't need to be spending thousands of dollars on all these products when you have it within your own body. So, and that's, I mean, I could go on and on about autophagy, but it is one, this is why my whole YouTube channel was built off of this term and people wanting to understand it. So hopefully that was helpful. And because so many of you are so educated on everything that I teach here, but specifically

• 21:48Mindy Pelz?

  autophagy, put in the comments if, what your favorite way to stimulate autophagy is. I want people to understand as much information about this powerful internal healing response. So if you have other great ways to stimulate autophagy, please put it in the comments. But please know, autophagy isn't necessarily about finding the perfect supplement. Autophagy is about doing the right lifestyle choices so that you can stimulate it from within. Make sense? Okay. Hope that helped. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions

• 22:29Mindy Pelz?

  about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.