Dr. Gundry Reveals the Top 3 Healthiest Vegetables for Optimal Health and Longevity
Hey everybody, Dr Gundry here; here are the three healthiest vegetables you should eat. Vegetables are some of the most essential foods for health and longevity. But by now, you know that not all vegetables are created equal. So today, I’m going to share three of my favourites with you, and I encourage you to eat them as often as you like. Number one, the humble mushroom. First of all, mushrooms are increasingly easy to find. Different mushrooms are appearing in our grocery stores. Why? Mushrooms have incredible properties that you should know about to improve your health, brain health, and longevity. First of all, mushrooms contain many polysaccharides, which means multiple sugars. Now, the word sugar shouldn’t throw you off. Polysaccharides are sugar molecules bonded with tight chemical bonds that our digestive system does not have suitable digestive enzymes to break apart to absorb the sugar.
Gut-friendly Mushrooms: A Source of Prebiotics and Antioxidants for Optimal Health
But the good news is our gut buddies, the gut microbiome, have the enzymes to break these sugar molecules apart, and they eat them. So these are prebiotic fibres in mushrooms that the gut bacteria eat, and they, in turn, make postbiotics, and you’ve heard me talk about postbiotics before. Postbiotics are actually what helps your gut wall, your immune system, your blood vessels, and your brain, all by giving prebiotics, like those contained in mushrooms, to your good gut bacteria. As you learned in my new book, Unlocking The Keto Code, mushrooms are rich in melatonin. Now, melatonin is not the sleep hormone; melatonin is only one of two antioxidants in your mitochondria. As you know, mitochondria are the key to your short- and long-term health and energy. So give them some mushrooms to work with. Get the melatonin from the mushrooms. And no, eating mushrooms is not going to put you to sleep. Sorry about that.
Discover the Power of New Mushrooms for Optimal Gut and Brain Health
Try some of the newer ones for maximum impact. Shiitake mushrooms are easy to find now in most grocery stores. They’re packed with a polysaccharide called Beta Glucan, which is number one and great for gut health. Still, number two has reduced cholesterol levels in people who take beta-glucan. How about Lion’s Mane? It’s known as the brain-supporting mushroom. Lion’s Mane used to be incredibly rare, but now we’re beginning to see Lion’s Mane in many supermarkets. Why do you want Lion’s Mane? People who eat Lion’s Mane make BDNF, a brain-derived neurotrophic factor. What that means is that BDNF makes neurons grow and divide. So, can you imagine that you could improve your brain by eating a Lion’s Mane mushroom? It’s true, you can. Reishi Reishi Mushrooms are known as the mushrooms of longevity. They taste kind of like dark chocolate, in my opinion.
Mushrooms: Immune Boosters, Longevity Promoters, and Gut-Friendly Options
They’re a substantial immune booster and a longevity booster as well. Get the simple crimini mushrooms right next to the white button mushrooms. It turns out that the white button mushroom, most people do well with white mushrooms. But as you know, I see many leaky guts in autoimmune patients. And when we do food sensitivity testing on these people, a number of them test positive for reacting to white mushrooms. But they don’t respond to the other forms of mushrooms. So if you’re at all concerned or if you have issues with IBS or leaky gut, go for the mushrooms I’ve just mentioned. Get the brown mushrooms in every grocery store and leave the white button mushrooms alone. Finally, I’ve written and had YouTube videos about portabella mushrooms. They are like a steak in their texture. They make a great pizza crust using them alone.
Discover the Power of Mushrooms and Okra in Boosting Gut Health and Satisfying Hunger
In my first book, there’s a delicious portabella mushroom pizza that you’ll love, and my wife and I have enjoyed it many times. Get mushrooms into your life. Number two, now here’s one that everybody wrinkles up their noses about, but stay with me until you’ve had oven-roasted okra. Okra and other prebiotic-rich plant foods are phenomenal for you. Okra is loaded with soluble fibre. And soluble fibre is what your gut bugs like. And believe it or not, here is a fun fact: okra absorbs lectins. It blocks lectins from getting into you. So the more okra that I can get into you, the better. Now, why do you want these prebiotic fibres? It turns out that prebiotics are what gut buddies wish to eat. And as I wrote about in The Energy Paradox and in Unlocking The Keto Code, there’s a gut-centric theory of hunger.
Gut Bacteria and Prebiotic Fiber: The Key to Controlling Hunger and Cravings
What that means is that our gut bacteria control our hunger. And if we give the gut buddies what they want to eat, which is prebiotic fibre, they send text messages to the brain. And this has been confirmed in human studies that tell the brain, “Hey, our needs are met here. You don’t have to be hungry. You don’t have to look for other food because we’ve got everything we need.” So get yourself some okra. It’s now frozen in almost all stores. Thaw it out, cut it in half, put it on a baking sheet, and pour some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Could you put it in the oven at 400 degrees? Take it out after about 10 minutes, flip it, and put it back in for another 10 minutes. And I can tell you in our household, these fried baked okra never make it to the dinner table because the family consumes them off the baking sheet. They are so tasty.
Discover the Crispy and Nutritious Alternatives to Okra, and Embrace the Benefits of Bitter Greens
And if you think you don’t like the sliminess of okra, and that’s been a turn-off, these are not slimy. They’re crispy, and they taste better than any potato chip you’ll ever have in your life. And your gut buddies will love it, and you’ll block whatever lectins you eat. Finally, number three, dark bitter greens like arugula, swiss chard, bok choy, and radicchio, what some people call the Italian red lettuce. These are almost every grocery store now. And as you know, they’re among the healthiest foods on the planet. Many of you know one of my favourite sayings is, “More bitter, better”. Studies of long-lived people show that they love bitter foods and bitter greens.
The Powerful Benefits of Dark Greens: Fueling Gut Health and Enhancing Mitochondrial Function
The reason is that the dark green bitterness is the polyphenols in these foods. Polyphenols not only feed good gut bacteria, but as you’ve learned in Unlocking The Keto Code, polyphenols are the key to improving your mitochondrial health by uncoupling. It gives you long-lasting energy, improves digestion and metabolism, and keeps you healthy as you age. Even better, all these dark greens are floated with fibre to fill you up fast and keep your gut buddies happy. Again, one of my other favourite sayings is, “If you eat dark green, you will become lean”. And of course, these dark green, dark red vegetables are full of high amounts of Vitamin A, C, Vitamin K and K2, B and E, all of which are missing in most of our diets and will promote total health. Make sure to check out the next one here.
Beware of Misleading Products: Plant Collagen Jars Lack Genuine Collagen
One thing, right away, if you see a jar that says “Plant Collagen,” you can actually put it back because it does not contain collagen.
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