Top 10 Healthiest Foods You Must Eat!

Hello Health Champions today we're going to talk  about the top 10 healthiest foods by the end  

of this video you're going to have a brand new  perspective on what healthy food is plus we're  

going to debunk one of the big nutrition myths  on the internet today food number 10 is romaine  

lettuce and these are in no particular order so  romaine lettuce has a bunch of different minerals  

like calcium magnesium potassium Etc it has some  zinc manganese selenium has a bunch of B vitamins  

and it has a good bit of vitamin C and vitamin  K so when we look at the percentages we see that  

the minerals are going to range in the one two  three percent range and the vitamins are going  

to be between two and seven vitamin C is about  10 percent Vitamin K is about 70 percent of the  

recommended daily allowance so you're getting  a little bit of a lot of different things and  

there's more things than that in there but we want  to stay away from picking one food necessarily  

and say that this is the best food or these are  the top 10 foods because then we think that if  

it didn't make the list then it must not be so  great and here's the thing that you still have  

to eat a lot of these different servings so if  you eat seven or eight servings of leafy greens  

you're gonna get a substantial contribution to  the nutrients that you need but we don't want  

to exclude everything else and that's what happens  when we play favorites so we want to keep in mind  

that arugula and leafy greens and kale Swiss chard  spring mix all of these have similar nutrients all  

right some might be one percent higher in this  or one percent lower in that but overall they're  

very very similar so we don't want to really play  favorites now a lot of people love love spinach  

and it's a part of a lot of different mixes so  this is okay for most people but a lot of people  

are also sensitive to oxalates so I put a question  mark on spinach because it's one of those you want  

to be a little bit careful with another thing  we want to try to get away from is to focus too  

much on the numbers because what is the RDA the  recommended daily allowance well it's someone's  

opinion or conclusion about how much nutrients we  need but here are some of the limitations so first  

of all there's a difference between a deficiency  amount and the optimal amount so if they check a  

nutrient and they say below this level you get  a deficiency symptom then what amount is the  

optimal we don't really know the second thing  is that they don't test these on humans because  

it's costly it's complicated and it's unethical  so most of the Studies have been done on mice  

that they assume work the same way as humans and  then they just extrapolate the results the third  

thing and maybe the biggest is that they always  test these on synthetic nutrients on isolated  

synthetic nutrients and when we get the nutrients  from food it might be a completely different  

story number four is gut Flora so everyone has a  different gut flora and how healthy yours is it's  

going to determine how much of those nutrients you  actually absorb and how effectively you use them  

we can also have different foods interact with  each other and affect how things are absorbed  

we can have anti-nutrients some foods contain  chemical compounds that prevent the body from  

absorbing and using nutrients different climates  can affect how much you need if you live in a  

very hot climate you might sweat and lose a lot of  minerals if you live in a cold climate you might  

need more of certain things also if you're very  Physically Active you might need more nutrients  

or if you're emotionally stressed you might  need more nutrients requirements can change  

dramatically if you have a chronic disease or a  metabolic problem and if you're on some kind of  

medication that can also affect what you need  and how much you absorb so basically what I'm  

saying is that yes it's important we don't want to  ignore the RNA but we can't look at that number as  

a truth either we have to understand that there  are very very broad ranges and we don't know to  

what extent they apply to us so we want to think  about it a little differently which is what we're  

going to talk about in this video number nine  again in no particular order is extra virgin  

olive oil and if you read up a little bit on  it they're going to tell you that it can reduce  

inflammation that it can protect you from heart  disease cardiovascular disease they'll tell you  

it can protect the endothelium the inside of blood  vessels you'll hear that it can reduce the bad LDL  

the oxidized damaged LDL that it can reduce blood  clotting and that it can reduce blood pressure and  

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with  those claims but the question is compared to what  

and extra virgin olive oil became super popular  when they figured out that people around the  

Mediterranean had less heart disease than  a lot of other places so now they said that  

well it's all the things that they eat there  the fish and the olive oil and the so forth  

but a lot of those countries around there like  Crete for example they get 30 to 40 percent of  

all their calories from extra virgin olive oil  which means they don't eat any seed oil at all  

they don't eat hardly any processed foods and  that's the whole point of this extra virgin olive  

oil is great simply because it's not bad it's good  because it's not garbage so when we're comparing  

extra virgin olive oil to a diet like the Western  American diet where 60 to 70 percent of calories  

come from processed sugar processed white flour  and processed seed oils things that are toxic  

inflammatory and completely devoid of nutrition  than anything else is going to be better so I'm  

not trying to downplay Extra Virgin Olive Oil I'm  just trying to get you to Don don't think of it as  

some kind of Miracle just think of it as good food  if it comes from planet Earth and we don't destroy  

it then it's a good food an extra virgin olive  oil is one of those eat it put it on everything  

drink it as much as you want because it's a  whole good food number eight is salmon in a six  

ounce serving of wild caught salmon you're getting  almost three times the daily allowance of vitamin  

B12 you're getting about three quarters of the  niacin and the vitamin D and then we get to the  

Omega-3s they don't have an exact RDA on those but  you're getting 730 milligrams of EPA and you're  

getting 1100 milligrams of DHA so they're very  concentrated sources of those absolutely vital  

omega-3s EPA is for inflammation control and DHA  is a building block for your brain that influences  

how well the brain can signal and function some  of the great benefits is that it has zero carbs  

because a lot of people are carb intolerant  they can't handle a lot of carbs and it's a  

great source of protein you're going to get 30  grams of protein and this kind of protein just  

like in meat it's very well absorbed and utilized  but as much as I love salmon and I like to put it  

on a top 10 list we don't want to play favorites  because now we get the wrong idea about food now  

we think that other foods are not as good while  there's a wide variety of great Foods so if we  

compare it to sardines for example and we compare  these numbers we're going to see that some of them  

are a little bit higher and some of them are a  little bit lower but overall they're very very  

similar so just like leafy green genes are pretty  similar to each other then fatty fish are also  

pretty similar to each other and that's how we  need to start thinking about food another example  

of a fatty fish is mackerel which I also love  and again you can see these numbers being very  

very similar some are a little better some are a  little bit lower but overall quite similar number  

seven is macadamia nuts one of my favorites  if you put it in a smoothie it just turns  

it super super creamy and yummy it is very low in  carbohydrate it's high in protein and high in fat  

plus it has quite a bit of vitamins and minerals  and one of the main things I want to emphasize is  

that it is very low on the allergy scale very  very few people I've never really found anyone  

who's sensitive to macadamias whereas millions of  people are sensitive to Brazil nuts and peanuts  

and so forth but let's compare some similar  knots so if we start with the macadamia nut  

and we compare it to pecans and walnuts they're  quite similar and if we look at the total amount  

of carbs we see that they all have a total carb  count of 14 grams per 100 or 14 percent but then  

we can subtract the fiber and the Macadamia has 9  grams of fiber the pecan has 10 and walnuts have  

seven so we can subtract the fiber and now we're  left with the net carbs the carb impact on blood  

sugar and so forth so now we see Macadamia has  five pecans have four and walnuts have seven so  

they're very low carb they're very concentrated  very satisfying dense foods so these carbs are  

not going to have much of an impact regardless  we can nitpate can say that four is a lot better  

than five but it's not a huge difference all of  these are totally okay but something we want to  

be aware of when it comes to nuts and seeds is  something called omega-6s because Omega-3s are  

generally anti-inflammatory but we want to get  them primarily from fish because once they're  

in seeds they tend to get oxidized and rancid  pretty quick but nuts and seeds have a lot of  

omega-6s which are generally pro-inflammatory and  when we look at that the Macadamia has one percent  

one gram per hundred of the omega-6 the pecan has  20 times more and the Walnut has 38 times more  

so again we don't want to nitpick but we want  to understand the different seeds different  

nuts can be widely different in that aspect so  we can still eat all of these but we want to  

get a variety of foods we don't want to think  oh this is the superfood let me just eat that  

but we want to understand what they have in  common and start seeing some patterns and then  

we don't have to memorize all these things and  all these lists that we're getting number six  

is cauliflower totally awesome food and it is  low carb it has tons of vitamins and minerals  

in it it's pretty high in vitamin C and I like  how it is inexpensive and it's available widely  

available and it's versatile you can use it so  many different ways and it has quickly become  

one of the absolute top favorites of the  low carb Community the keto community and  

they're using it for everything there's riced  cauliflowers there's cauliflower pizza crust  

but that's another thing you have to be aware  of when something becomes popular then there's  

going to be a lot of people try to mislead you and  take advantage of you and trick you so now because  

somebody figured out how to make a cauliflower  pizza crust and I never really succeeded because  

they get kind of soggy and watery but now they're  selling all these different Pizza crusts with  

cauliflower but if you look at the label the first  ingredient is not cauliflower it's wheat flour and  

if you check the total carb content you'll  find that it's exactly as high as a regular  

pizza crust so they're basically making a regular  pizza crust they are sprinkling some cauliflower  

on it and calling it a cauliflower pizza crust  just because it's trendy right now so don't fall  

for those things understand what good food and  Whole Food is and stay away from those scammers  

and as much as I love cauliflower I'm also very  fond of things like broccoli asparagus brussels  

sprouts bell pepper and eggplants they're all  very similar they're all non-starchy vegetables  

they're full of nutrition and fiber so don't pick  one don't raise one to a superfood status at the  

expense of others which is what so many people  tend to do number five is sauerkraut and I love  

sauerkraut but I had to clarify something here so  they say that cabbage on its own has a good amount  

of vitamin C about 30 milligrams per cup but then  they say that something miraculous happen that the  

amount of vitamin C Skyrocket when you ferment  it and turn it into sauerkraut now it increases  

almost 20 fold that we get enormous amounts of  vitamin C and antioxidants and then they claim  

to refer to an article and they say that levels of  antioxidants and vitamin C could reach as high as  

695 milligrams with raw fermented cabbage having  the highest levels of vitamin C hitting almost  

700 milligrams per cup and I'm always looking for  mechanisms I'm curious how does that happen how do  

you make vitamin C by fermenting something and  they gave gave you the reference so they refer  

to this article here and said that this is where  they found the information so I went and looked  

at that article and I'm not too surprised  unfortunately to find that this article had  

nothing to do with what they were talking about  the article was not talking about vitamin C it  

was talking about antioxidant properties expressed  as an equivalent of vitamin C so they assume that  

vitamin C has a certain antioxidant capacity  and then they examine all the other compounds  

in cabbage that has antioxidant capacity and then  they express those as Vitamin C equivalents which  

is something completely different and then if you  read the heading here it doesn't say fermented and  

it doesn't say sauerkraut it says processed so  what they did was something different but sure  

enough they mentioned the the 695 milligram but  they're very specific to say that it was vitamin  

C equivalents not the vitamin C and then they say  that it wasn't the fermented but the processing  

they're talking about is actually pickled cabbage  which means you typically add vinegar and salt and  

then they say there's a good linear relationship  between the phenolics and the antioxidant capacity  

meaning basically the antioxidant capacity came  from phenolics and then they translated that into  

how much vitamin C or ascorbic acid would it take  to get that antioxidant effect and then at the  

end they say that the relationship between the  vitamin C or ascorbic acid and the antioxidant  

was very low so it had basically nothing to do  with the vitamin C one more thing we want to  

understand is that when they measure these things  they're not talking about the vitamin C complex  

that you get in real food and that's what the  body needs they're talking about the antioxidant  

ascorbic acid which is basically a preservative  and it's there to protect the plant not to protect  

you because when it comes to antioxidants you  have your own intracellular production called  

glutathione but there's so many different myths  there and here in this example they managed to get  

every single one of them wrong unfortunately as a  result of their misinterpretation or their willful  

neglect we now have a new truth so now there's  all these different articles we have in fact 1790  

results if we do a search and we put the 695 in  quotation marks so only results show up that has  

that exact phrase we have thousands of results  and they're saying things like sauerkraut and  

fermented and this much 695 milligrams of vitamin  C and the next article says the exact same so this  

thousands of these and even a Channel of video  YouTube channel with a name very similar to my  

own managed to find this information and quote  it as a truth and now thousands of articles are  

published with a new truth that a lot of people  believe when the article that it came from didn't  

even mention fermented or sauerkraut instead they  were talking about antioxidants and fresh and  

pickled cabbage so this is what happens when we  try to sensationalize when we don't understand the  

bigger picture about food that the biggest part is  if it came from planet Earth and we don't process  

it if we don't destroy it then it's going to be a  good good food but now we nitpick and we find out  

these little molecules and the more we dig into  the molecules the more we lose the big picture  

and we get confused and they publish list after  list after list and they're comparing numbers and  

nothing makes sense anymore so just try to focus  on the big picture and understand what food is but  

don't get me wrong sauerkraut is still one of my  favorites just for different reasons it's still  

low carb it has vitamins minerals it provides  really good probiotics which are bacteria that  

can populate and keep your gut healthy but it's  not the only thing that can do that either you can  

ferment lots of different vegetables and you'll  still get those probiotics it is very inexpensive  

it's widely available it's very versatile just  like cauliflower it has a good amount of vitamin  

C it does not have the 700 milligrams that they're  talking about but even 30 milligrams is a pretty  

good source so if you eat a couple of 300 grams  of sauerkraut you're getting most of the vitamin C  

that you need and now it's going to be the complex  vitamin C your body is looking for number four is  

hamburger and interestingly the hamburger has no  ham in it but on the other hand hot dogs also have  

no dogs in it for which I'm very grateful what  we're talking about instead is ground beef and  

we're not talking about the fast food hamburgers  with all their chemicals and their sugary buns  

and their synthetic additives and dressings we're  just talking about the ground beef and while most  

ground beef is going to be better than a lot of  other food if you really kind of want a healthy  

meal you want to look for the grass fed because  if the animal lived the way it was supposed to  

live and ate the things they're supposed to eat  then the animal was healthy and the meat from it  

is also healthy and if you eat that healthy the  grass-fed and ideally organic meat even though  

I think grass-fed is even more important than  organic then you want to actually eat high fat  

because the fat is not a problem and this is a  little shocking to some people because we heard  

so much about eating lean meat lean chicken lean  ground beef and they're even labeling the ground  

beef they don't say 10 fat they say 90 percent  lean which is just crazy to me and it's again  

backwards but what we need to understand is  fat is okay it's a great fuel source and yes  

we do need protein but excess protein turns  into glucose protein can only do two things  

it can be incorporated into tissue and hormones  and molecules into structural things or it can  

and the excess will be burned for fuel it will be  converted into glucose raise blood sugar and be  

burned for fuel so yes protein is super important  but more isn't necessarily better so if you eat a  

good amount of meat which I recommend because it's  very satisfying not at the expense of everything  

else but I think meat is a good foundation  then look for the high fat meat and here is  

if you compare the calories from fat and protein  respectively in different types of meat so we'll  

just stick to ground beef for right now if you buy  the seven percent fat then the fat percentage the  

calories from fat is actually 43 percent whereas  the protein is 57. so a little more protein but  

close to to 50 50. but already when we get to 15  percent fat 85 percent lean meat now 64 percent  

is from fat and 36 from protein so it's almost  a two to one ratio now the other way if we get  

up to 20 percent now we have 73 from fat and  27 so almost a three to one ratio and once we  

get up to 30 percent fat which you can't find  now with the wagyu and high fat products now  

83 percent of the calories come from fat and only  17 from protein so with this you can eat a lot of  

meat a lot of ground beef without getting excess  protein and again you don't have to be terribly  

afraid of protein but typically the fattier cuts  the fattier grinds actually taste better they're  

more satisfying they're more juicy and a lot of  people have avoided them because they heard that  

the lean is better but that's not really the case  now one thing that you're going to find is that  

if you do the 7 or the 15 and you grind it up like  I often just grind it up in in pieces in a frying  

pan and I spice it a little bit and I put it on  a salad then with a 7 or 15 you're not really  

going to let get any left over fat but when you  get up to 20 25 30 now there's going to be quite  

a bit of melted fat in the bottom of the pan  especially with 30 you're going to have a huge  

amount of fat in the bottom of the pan and  don't think of that as something bad because  

we've been taught to throw that away that is top  quality Tallow this is great fat you can save it  

for later you could just kind of strain it off or  filter it and save it for later you can use it for  

cooking it's very heat stable it's great source  of energy it doesn't go rancid or bad for a long  

long time or what I do is if I put this on a salad  then I'm going to use part of this as a dressing  

I'll pour this over this they're leftover fat over  the salad and then I'll put a little bit of extra  

olive oil and some vinegar and that's part of the  dressing and while this example is about ground  

beef we don't want to exclude other kinds of meat  so other meat like steak and bison and lamb and  

poultry as long as they're raised under quality  conditions then they're going to be very very  

similar nutritionally number three is cod liver  and this is an interesting one the one I find and  

you can get this online because it's hard to find  in stores is cod liver in its own cod liver oil so  

it's the same stuff that you buy as an expensive  supplement as cod liver oil liquid this actually  

packed the cod liver in this in the can so can is  about four ounces 115 grams and with this you're  

getting some very very packed nutrition now a lot  of people they're going to hear the word liver and  

they're going to be hugely turned off and then  I'm going to or cod liver and they're going to  

associate it with something rancid that they  might be forced to take when they were kids but  

understand that if you buy the right kind and just  look at some of the reviews online this is almost  

completely neutral in flavor you can't really  taste any fishiness at all and it's going to be  

super packed with nutrients so when we're talking  about these epas the Omega-3s the EPA and the DHA  

we're not there's so much in there that we don't  even measure it in milligrams we measure grams now  

so 5.8 grams of EPA and 9.2 grams of DHA these are  enormous amounts and you're going to get several  

days worth in one can and the same thing holds  true for vitamin A and vitamin D you're getting 73  

000 IUS and 8400 IUS this is basically a week's  worth of vitamin A and vitamin D and therefore you  

want to be a little careful with this because you  can eat too much you don't want to eat this every  

day another thing to keep in mind is that one can  of only 115 grams is going to have 84 grams of fat  

in it which again it's not a bad thing because  of the fat because it's super nutritious however  

if you have trouble digesting fat if you have a  weak gallbladder then that might be a little too  

much in one sitting so it is delicate and flavor  neutral enough that you can eat it straight out of  

the can but what I would recommend is put it on a  salad and use the oil as a dressing and then just  

spice it up you salt pepper vinegar whatever  you like and it's going to be just like salad  

dressing basically you probably won't even notice  the cod liver on there but you're going to get a  

massive amount of Omega-3s and vitamin A and D  but because there's so much vitamin A and D you  

probably just want to eat one of these cans a week  if you ate more than one a week you could develop  

a toxicity in vitamin A and D it takes a while to  get there so it wouldn't happen if you just ate  

it a few weeks in a row but if you kept eating it  month after month more than one a week then that'd  

be something to be concerned with another thing  to keep in mind is that unless you just really  

love that fishy smell you don't want to save this  once you open the can then you eat it the same day  

or maybe the next because already two days later  even if you keep it in the fridge it's going to  

be very fishy and the reason for that is that it  is so high it's so super concentrated in these EPA  

and DHA and those are extremely highly reactive  they oxidize they go rancid so easy and that is  

why they're so beneficial they have so certain  properties where they're very reactive they're  

very highly unsaturated so that's good for your  nervous system and brain but they can't be stored  

number two is eggs and while I said that we don't  want to count percentages and get too focused in  

on it this is one example where one single food  item so this is for a single egg if you ate three  

four five eggs you're gonna get a significant  amount or all of these nutrients that you're going  

to need in a day and that's very very rare to get  that wider variety so it's a very complete food  

and if you use this as a base for your food then  you're going to get a lot of nutrients in just one  

food product but again you need a variety so don't  think that you're just going to eat one thing and  

that's the best but if you eat eggs then realize  that quality matters it matters with everything  

that you get but especially eggs because some  chicken some hens are mistreated and misfed  

so badly they're fed hormones they're kept in  terrible conditions and a healthy chicken is going  

to lay a healthy eggs they're going to have much  higher nutrients plus of course you don't want to  

contribute to the mistreatment of chicken so what  you're looking for my preference is pasture raised  

that means the chickens actually had a certain  area per chicken and they actually went outside  

to find some natural things to eat like bugs and  grass and things the chicken would look for on its  

own so most of the other classifications like  cage-free they don't really mean anything they  

don't mean that the chicken ever really saw the  outside and also realize that pasture raised is  

not the same thing as pasteurized pasteurized  simply means they immerse them in a hot water  

bath very quickly to kill off some bacteria but  if you get the healthy eggs from pasture raised  

chicken then that is not really going to be an  issue number one is avocado it's a huge favorite  

with so many people it doesn't matter if you're  omnivore or vegan or vegetarian or low carb they  

tend to all love avocado it's rich and creamy and  satisfying it is however pretty low in protein  

only two grams per 100 so if you're vegan you need  to look for your protein elsewhere but like I said  

low carb people love it because the net carbs  are only two grams per hundred even though it  

does have some total carbs the fiber is subtracted  and the fiber is substantial seven grams per 100  

and only two grams of net carbs so the fiber can  also help to feed the gut bacteria and contribute  

to to a healthy flora and the high fat is one of  the reasons it's so popular at 15 grams of fat per  

hundred quite unusual for a plant if you enjoyed  this video you're going to love that one and if  

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