“Let Food Be Thy Medicine and Medicine Be Thy Food” – Hippocrates, Father of Medicine

 

Good ole Hippocrates was a wise fellow. He said those brilliant words virtually 2,500 years ago, long before doctors started prescribing a pill for every symptom that ails us. If I were to slightly amend this saying I would change it to say, “Let Food and Turkish Get Ups be Thy Medicine”, but who am to mess with Hippocrates?

In Michael Pollan’s tremendous book, In Defense of Food, the author attempts to cut through all the modern nutrition science to come up with the appropriate human diet. He states three important (and simple) rules:

1. Eat Food

2. Not too much

3. Mostly Plants

Unfortunately, we now have to spend time to define what “Food” actually is. Food does not come in a box or a bag. Nor does it contain ingredients a non-chemist couldn’t pronounce. And it certainly doesn’t contain High Fructose Corn Syrup or Hydrogenated Fats. Michael Pollan calls these inventions “Edible Food-like Substances”.

Instead, Food comes from nature. Any human of any generation would recognize an egg, fish, or head of broccoli as something that would be a good idea to eat. After all, us humans evolved over the millennia eating some combination, depending on where we lived, of meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, and seeds. These foods allowed us to develop these nice, big thinky brains and ultimately to develop our great civilizations.

This all brings me to a very nifty resource by the folks at Precision Nutrition – ”21 Superfoods Reference Guide”. If you ever felt like you had to ask, “What should I eat?” well this is your answer. The list is broken down into five categories: Proteins, Vegetables and Fruits, Other Carbohydrates, Good Fats, and Drinks/Other. If you simply stick to eating 90% of your meals using the foods on this list then you would be following Hippocrates sage advice from nearly 2,500 years ago and food would become your Medicine. Then, do a couple Turkish Get Ups and call me in the morning!

Below is the 21 Superfood checklist. You can also go here to download a pdf file of the same list. 

21 SUPERFOODS CHECKLIST 

1. Lean red meat (93% lean, top round, sirloin)  = Protein – Lean meat

2. Salmon  = Protein – Fish

3. Omega-3 eggs = Protein – Dairy

4. Low-fat plain yogurt (lactose-free if you can find it) = Protein – Dairy

5. Supplemental protein (milk protein isolates, whey protein isolates, or vegan protein sources)  = Protein – Powder

6. Spinach = Carb – Vegetable

7. Tomatoes = Carb – Fruit

8. Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower) = Carb – Vegetable

9. Mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.) = Carb - Fruit

10. Oranges = Carb – Fruit

11. Mixed beans (kidney, navy, white, etc.) = Carb – Legume

12. Quinoa = Carb – Grain

13. Whole oats (large flake) = Carb – Cereal

14. Mixed nuts (a variety of different types of nuts including pecans, walnuts, cashews, brazil nuts, etc.) = Fats – Seeds and Nuts

15. Avocados = Fat - Fruit

16. Olive oil (extra virgin) = Fat - Oils

17. Fish oil (salmon, anchovy, menhaden, krill) = Fat - Oils

18. Flax seeds (ground) = Fat – Seeds and Nuts

19. Green tea = Teas

20. Greens +® or comparable brand  = Vegetable concentrate supplement

21. Liquid exercise drinks (quickly digested carbohydrate and protein)  = Recovery Drinks

Note:

Do not select foods that you are allergic to or intolerant of.