Five foods that you should
always have in your kitchen. I know life can get pretty busy and a busy
schedule can often lead to very poor food choices. That's why I always keep these five
essentials in stock and you should too. First of all, always have some dark bitter greens
and lectin free vegetables in your refrigerator. One of my favorite sayings is more
bitter, more better. Interestingly enough, almost all long lived societies have preferred
very bitter greens in their diet, whether they're dark green leaves like arugula
or swiss chard or bok choy or radicchio, which many people call that Italian red lettuce
but is actually part of the chicory family. There are some great varieties
of broccoli that are extremely bitter like broccoli rabe or broccoli rabe. And you can find it usually right next
to the broccoli in most grocery stores. Now, more bitter, more better. The bitterness is a sign that there are lots of polyphenols in these products and get
used to that bitterness, seek it out. The bitterness is what you're looking for. Also, one of my favorite sayings is if
you eat dark green, you will become lean.
Why? Because these polyphenols will
uncouple your mitochondria. And we now know that the polyphenols
in these dark bitter vegetables feed friendly bacteria that polyphenols are some
of the favorite prebiotics that bacteria need. And the bacteria in turn will turn
these polyphenols into absorbable compounds that will uncouple your mitochondria. So it's always a great idea to keep these
dark bitter vegetables in your refrigerator. And the great news is a number of
these, if you buy them whole and please buy them whole will keep for a
very long time at cool temperatures. In fact, one of the reasons that
traditional cultures eat cabbages, which are also quite bitter is the cabbages will
store literally forever through an entire winter.
So think of storagable leaves like
cabbages, like radicchio like bok choy, those are the ones that'll keep
in your refrigerator and they'll be ready at a moment's notice when you
come home and need something to eat. Second is certain nuts should always
be available to you in your pantry. Nuts are a great way to get healthy
fats and to help you feel full. Now, pistachios are one of my favorites. And pistachios are the highest source
of melatonin in a food that you can get. And melatonin is not the sleep hormone. People who have read Unlocking The Keto
Code know that melatonin is actually the essential antioxidant in your mitochondria
that protect your mitochondria from damage. Melatonin is an incredibly important
protector of your brain's mitochondria.
So have some pistachios. Macadamia nuts. Now, be careful with macadamia nuts. They're mostly monounsaturated fat. They also have a very cool omega seven fat that's really good for blood vessel health and omega five fat, that's good
for blood vessel health. But if you're trying to maintain or lose
weight, watch out for macadamia nuts. Walnuts, walnuts have a
great source of a short chain omega three fat called alpha linoleic acid. That is one of the best health promoters for
uncoupling mitochondria that I've ever found. Study after study, particularly the predemed study in
Spain showed that adding about a half a cup of walnuts to your diet, dramatically improved
memory in people 65 years of age or older.
So my mix at my offices that every
patient eats while they're waiting to see me is walnuts, macadamia nuts and pistachios. Those are the top three, but there are others. Hazelnuts are great. Pili nuts. Many people think it may be the
healthiest nut in the world. Check out episode 232 with Jason Thomas, the
pilli hunter and see what we're talking about. Now. They're great pre party appetizers. This is the season where we're always awash
in parties and there are so many temptations. The problem is you're gonna succumb
to those temptations if you arrive hungry and if there's a drink in your hand. So what I do to prepare and I
actually did this last night is I have a generous handful of my undry
nut mix before we head to the party. I'm satiated. The alcohol is not gonna be absorbed
very quickly because my stomach is full and then I'm not that interested
in what is on the appetizer platters.
There are some great nut butter alternatives. As many of you know, peanut butter
is not a nut. Peanut butter comes from a peanut which is a legume. They're loaded with lectins. The vast majority of us are sensitive to the
peanut lectin. Almond butter is an okay alternative but almonds have a lectin in their peel. There are several companies
that now make peeled almond butter and that's a go to for many of my patients. But there are other alibi more expensive butters. Pistachio nut butter is great. Hazelnut butter is great. Pili nut butter is great. Tahini, not from a nut from
sesame seeds is great too, if you're looking for kind of that
similar mouth feel as peanut butter.
So get yourself some new spreads. Ditch the peanut butter and please, if you're
gonna use almond butter, get the peeled almond butter that you can find in stores or on Amazon.
Avocados, you gotta have avocados in your house because if there's avocados in your
house, there'll be an avocado in your mouth. You should have an avocado every day. Studies have shown that people
who eat avocado every day, lose weight compared to people who don't eat avocados. Studies have shown that avocados in a salad or
mixed in with vegetables make you absorb more of the vitamins and nutrients and polyphenols in
those food than if you didn't have the avocado.
It's loaded with monounsaturated healthy fats like oleic acid, which is the major fat
in olive oil loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin K, and the B vitamins. There's
more potassium in an avocado than in a banana. So if your doctor told you to get
potassium from bananas, ditch the bananas and eat the avocado instead. Should
you use avocado oil and ditch the avocados? Well, while avocado oil is a good high smoke cooking oil, it doesn't have near
the polyphenol content of olive oil. So eat your avocados because it'll also get you all
that wonderful fiber that your gut bacteria need. Guacamole, have some
guacamole in the refrigerator. There are a number of companies that
now make guacamole without tomatoes, which is not supposed to be in guacamole. Or, use those avocados when they're starting to get really ripe
and make your own guacamole and use like belgian endive as your dipping chip
for guacamole and you'll get a win-win.
All right, MCT oil. It ought to be in all of our pantries. MCT oil as you know, is
medium chain triglyceride oil. You're gonna get all the benefits of a
ketogenic diet by using MCT oil without the hassle because MCT oil is rapidly
absorbed through the wall of your gut, goes directly to your liver and makes ketones
regardless of what else you're eating. So you don't have to go through the trouble
of eating a very high fat diet or a low carbohydrate diet or even doing long term
fasting to get the benefits of MCT oil.
You should also have extra virgin
organic olive oil and please buy it in small glass containers
because once you open olive oil, it will start to go bad and you should
look to use up this olive oil very quickly. That's why as you know, my Gudry MD polyphenol-rich olive oil is sold in small bottles so that you
will use it up and it won't go ransom. Sesame seed oil, get yourself some un smoked, uncooked sesame seed oil,
non roasted sesame seed oil. We now have it available at Gundry MD. It's sourced from our same providers
in Morocco that our olive oil is. It's another great addition to your diet and put
it in salad dressings, pour it on vegetables. It'll add a great taste and it's loaded with fighters against these LPSs that get into
your bloodstream and cause high blood pressure. Finally, dark chocolate. Have a collection of
greater than 72% dark chocolate in your cabinet. Chocolate is loaded with polyphenols. Again, the higher the Cacao content, the better
it is for you. Have yourself one square a day.
It's perfect for dessert,
whether you want it or not. Look for Stevia-sweetened chocolate
like Lily's. Costco now carries a big bag of Stevia sweetened chocolate
chips by a company called Bake Believe. There are on the
market allulose sweetened chocolate. I'll mention one I have no relationship with, Gatsby chocolate is
sweetened with allulose and you can find it on Amazon. Check out my most recent episode all about the
amazing benefits of chocolate to learn more. Now, recently, there's a new study making
the rounds and this comes around every few years that there are levels of lead
and levels of cadmium in chocolate. And somehow this is exciting new news.
Folks we've known that there is lead and Cadmium in chocolate ever since
these levels have been measured. Do not let this fear mongering dissuade you
from the benefits that you will derive by eating dark chocolate. Study after study after
study of people who have dark chocolate cacao in their diets show improved brain health,
improved heart health, improve vessel health. So please don't, don't see this latest
news about lead and cadmium and chocolate dissuade you from having chocolate in
your kitchen and enjoying it every night.
The next episode of the Doctor
Gundry podcast is waiting for you now. Incredibly life-changing
stressful events can have the effect of causing leaky gut in and of itself..