The Healthiest Foods You Need in Your Diet – Dr. Berg's Expert Advice

Let's talk about the seven healthiest foods you can eat. Now the question is, what makes a food healthy? But to figure that out, we must also look at what foods make us sick. And of all the things that can make us sick, as you might know already, insulin is at the top of the list. So any foods that raise insulin, because your blood sugars are now raised, would not only inhibit your health, but it's going to make you ill. Also foods that deplete you of nutrients will make you ill as well. So we want nutrient-dense foods. We want foods that enhance nutrient absorption. It means low carb as one of the factors. Now the two foods that don't trigger insulin, don't create an insulin response, would be fiber and fat. And as far as protein goes, the leaner the protein, the higher the insulin response. In other words, on the insulin index, whey protein and very low fat lean protein really creates an insulin spike compared to fattier protein. So we really want a higher fat, lower protein ratio in foods if possible. And then nutrient-dense. Not only do we want vitamins and minerals and trace minerals and essential fatty acids like omega-3 fatty acids, but we also would like phytonutrients. Because the phytonutrients give us additional health benefits that go way beyond just the regular vitamins and minerals. So the first food on our list is sauerkraut. Okay, now what makes sauerkraut so darn healthy? Well, in one cup of sauerkraut, you have only six grams of carbs with 4.1 grams of fiber, giving you a net carb of 1.9 grams. So it's just under two grams of carbs for an entire cup. That's incredible. So that definitely fits the definition of low carb, high fiber and high nutrient. Because sauerkraut has the highest vitamin C of any food out there. In fact, in one cup of sauerkraut, there's over 700 milligrams of vitamin C. And the daily requirements that we need are only roughly around 75 milligrams. And one cup of sauerkraut gives us 700 milligrams. So vitamin C is very, very important in collagen, in building bone and protecting the heart against free radical damage. It's a very powerful antioxidant. And without vitamin C, you get tired, like in scurvy. Your joints fall apart. You can't build connective tissues. And so your skin becomes more wrinkled and you look older. And the thing about sauerkraut, it's a really good pre and probiotic. So it's great fiber to feed the microbes. And it's fermented, so it has a lot of friendly bacteria. The type of bacteria that can actually enhance your own bacteria. Because if we compare that to yogurt, which has probiotics, those friendly bacteria in yogurt get destroyed at the stomach level. Whereas the probiotic in sauerkraut survives and it gets into the large intestine. And the other cool thing about sauerkraut is the vegetable is cabbage. And that's one of the cruciferous vegetables. And cruciferous out of all the different vegetables have the highest, most potent and powerful phytonutrients of all the vegetables that you can possibly eat. The unique thing about sauerkraut and cabbage is that it's very easy to digest. And if you have digestive problems, cabbage is probably going to be the best vegetable to digest. It does not produce a lot of gas like other vegetables like broccoli. It will spike something called acetylcholine, which will help you have regular bowel movements and increase digestive juices and support your brain and cognitive function. Sauerkraut is very high in lactic acid, which is beneficial to your good bacteria and not very beneficial to the bad bacteria, pathogens. So pathogens cannot exist when there's too much lactic acid. Also, sauerkraut is a really good source of vitamin K2. K2 is made by bacteria and vitamin K2, which is also in certain fats, helps to keep the calcium out of the joint and out of the arteries and in the bone. And lastly, sauerkraut is very high in vitamin U. Now you're probably going like, what is vitamin U? I put a link down below for more information on vitamin U, but it actually is a vitamin and it has some really cool effects on things like colitis, inflammation of the colon, great effects on ulcers. It's really good on gastritis and acid reflux and GERD and even gut inflammation. All right, number two, arugula. Now, if you've been watching my videos, I recommend a good amount of salad every single day. And if you're going to eat salad, might as well use a green or a base of salad that has higher amounts of nutrients. And arugula fits that to a T. Arugula is one of the cruciferous vegetables. And so it has a lot of different phytonutrients. It's really good for your liver because it's really good for liver function. And if I have the option of getting arugula, I will always have a salad with arugula way more than other types of salad, especially spinach, because spinach is high in oxalates, which can lead to kidney stones. But arugula is low in oxalates. Oxalates bind with calcium and can form kidney stones. And arugula has a really great flavor. It's kind of like a peppery, sweet, spicy, hot flavor. And it doesn't need much to season it. So sometimes I'll just add the extra virgin olive oil and maybe a little sea salt and that's it. Arugula is really good for inflammation. It has very high anti-inflammatory properties. Arugula is also high in nitric oxide, which is good for libido and erectile dysfunction and for cardiovascular health because it supports the endothelial wall. That's the inner part of the arteries. And you can develop clots and plaquing. Arugula is also high in calcium, potassium, folate, magnesium, vitamin C, and K1. And lastly, arugula has some pretty potent anti-cancer effects. All right, the next food on the list is salmon. Now, of course, I would always recommend getting the wild-caught salmon and the type of salmon that is the fattiest type of salmon. I also like to keep the skin on it because there's some serious extra fat right beneath the skin. Now, if you're concerned about the mercury levels, the mercury levels in salmon are substantially less than other types of fish. And they're way below the danger threshold. And the other thing you need to know about salmon is it's high in selenium. Selenium counters mercury. If there's selenium present, you're not going to be able to absorb mercury. So if you're going to eat salmon, you don't have to worry about mercury. Now, out of all the fish, salmon is extremely high in omega-3 fatty acids. And omega-3 fatty acids are really good for the brain, the heart, your joints. Omega-3 has anti-cancer properties. Most people are consuming way too many omega-6 fats, as in soy oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil. And they're very, very low in omega-3 fatty acids. So they have this imbalance that generates a lot of inflammation in their bodies. So if you want to systemically keep inflammation very low, you want to consume food high in omega-3 fatty acids. And this is why I recommend salmon at least a few times a week. Now, as far as the fat-to-protein ratio, it'd be like a 1 to 2. Ideally, you want more fat to protein. But because salmon has these other health benefits, I included salmon on the list. It's easy to get. It also tastes good. So people will consume it on a regular basis. And you can always add some additional fats to salmon to spike it even more. You know, if we look at omega-3 fatty acids and compare salmon to something like codfish, if we look at just three ounces, salmon has over 2,000 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids. And cod has only 171 milligrams. Let's see. 2,000 to 171 milligrams. I think I'll go with the salmon. And salmon is high in potassium, zinc, and calcium. All right. The next one on the list is cod liver. Now, before you turn your nose up to cod liver, just hear me out. You know, organ meats in general are super, super nutrient-dense. The problem is the majority of the population do not like to consume them because they don't taste very good. And sometimes it's hard to find high-quality organ meats because of all the toxicity in the environment. You would never want to have conventional beef liver or organ meats. You want them organic. But wild-caught cod liver is not only easy to get, it's very, very delicious. It doesn't taste bad at all. It's not even fishy. As long as you eat it within one to two days, don't make the mistake of eating half of it and then putting it in the refrigerator and then forgetting about it and then coming back a week later, it'll be a little bit fishy. But if you eat it within one to two days, it tastes actually amazing. It's actually delicious. The texture is like pudding and it doesn't even, to me, taste fishy at all. Now, you might consume it and you might not even like the flavor, but I think you should at least try it once. Personally, I think consuming organ meats, even beef liver, is a very good thing to do. I just cannot seem to consume beef liver. I just don't like the taste. But I will consume cod liver all day long. Now, the unique thing about cod liver compared to beef liver is that cod liver is much, much higher in omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, we have some cod liver right here, if you can see this right here. Icelandic cod liver oil. I think it's a little blurry. But this is wild caught. And it comes within its own oil. So the oil that they put in this is cod liver oil. And it's quite delicious. Now, I do not recommend consuming the whole thing in one sitting. It's a lot of fat and you might not be able to digest it. But one half of these would be great. So maybe once a week, I'll do half of this on my first meal and then half in the second meal. Now, if you're on OMAD, just do half of this on one meal and the other half the next day. You can just keep it in the fridge. But like I said before, if you leave it in the fridge for too many days, it might taste a little fishy. Now, the unique thing about cod liver oil compared to fish oil in general is that cod liver and cod liver oil has omega-3 fatty acids. They have EPA and DHA. But fish oil does not have the vitamin A and vitamin D that cod liver and cod liver oil has. So cod liver and cod liver oil have this additional extra benefit. And vitamin A, and I'm talking about the active form of vitamin A, retinol, is essential for your eye. It's essential for the immune system. It's essential for the inner lining of your skin. I'm talking about the sinuses, the esophagus, the trachea, your lungs, and it's really good for your kidney as well. And of course, vitamin D, as most people know, is awesome for blood pressure, pain, depression, your immune system. There's not many foods that are high in vitamin D. Now, cod liver also has vitamin K2, it has iodine, and it's loaded with B vitamins. And the cool thing about cod liver is its fat-to-protein ratio. It's a five-to-one ratio. So it has five times as much fat to protein. So on the insulin index, it's extremely low. It will not trigger insulin. But the more fat to protein as far as a ratio, the more ketosis you're going to be in. And if you don't actually like the cod liver, at least do the cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is one of the best things that children should consume as well as pregnant females because of the huge benefits on the nutrients as well as the essential fatty acids, omega-3. And one last thing, where are you going to find this? You're probably not going to find it in the grocery stores. Just do a search online. Go to Amazon, do a search, and you'll find a lot of different companies. All right, the next one, and some people will disagree on this. Hamburger, okay? Hamburger. Just hear me out. I'm not talking about a hamburger with a bun. I'm not talking about conventional beef. I'm talking about grass-fed organic hamburger, okay? Not lean hamburger with like 90%. That's too lean. I don't recommend that. But why would hamburger be on the list as a healthy food? I'm also looking at the practical aspects of food too. It's easy to get. It's easy to digest. You can put in a lot of different foods. And it has some pretty good health benefits. Now, some people are going to say, well, red meat is unhealthy and blah, blah, blah. Well, that is completely false. I put a link down below if you haven't seen my video on red meat. Because if you're eating high-quality red meat, it doesn't cause cancer. It's not going to cause a heart problem. Grass-fed organic red meat is not like the processed meat or like you would eat a hamburger at some fast food restaurant. It's completely different. And some people have a problem digesting red meat. But they usually don't have a problem digesting hamburger. And that is usually because if you compare most steak with hamburger, hamburger has more fat. In fact, hamburger compared to steak is a two-to-one ratio. It's twice as fatty as its protein. And that helps keep the protein in your small intestine. So the digestive juices and bile can act on it. And you'll get better digestion. If you're consuming leaner protein, it goes through the body faster. And you don't have as much time to fully break it down. Not to mention, as we age, we lose our stomach acids. And so the older you are, the less stomach acid you have to digest red meat. So a simple solution is just to start taking betaine hydrochloride for your stomach. So you can increase the acid and digest red meat. Because a lot of elderly people are low in iron. They're anemic. And that's also because they don't have enough acid in the stomach. You need an acidic stomach to absorb minerals, especially iron and calcium and break down protein and kill pathogens. So typically, hamburger is easy to digest. I consume a lot of hamburger on a regular basis on the ketogenic plan. Hamburger is a really good source of amino acids. It's a really good source of available iron compared to like the iron in spinach. The type of iron you would get in red meat as well as hamburger is so much higher. Also, hamburger is rich in B12, phosphorus, zinc. It's an excellent source of selenium, B6, B2, B3, and B5. It's also high in something called carnosine. In fact, beef is one of the highest sources of carnosine. And carnosine reduces something called glycation. Glycation occurs naturally on our bodies and promotes aging. Glycation is when you have a sugar that attaches to a protein or sugar that attaches to a fat and it binds it up and it makes it unavailable. So it kind of clogs up the body. And if you're consuming carbs with sugar or carbs with fat, you're going to have a lot of glycation. So carnosine inhibits glycation, decreases inflammation, and carnosine also helps your immune system. Now, hamburger also has a lot of creatine. And creatine improves exercise performance, exercise endurance, and can promote muscle growth and muscle mass. Now, there are other meats that are higher in fat like duck and lamb, but even pork. But I picked hamburger as something on the list that's very practical, easy to get, tastes good, and has a lot of health benefits. All right, the next one on the list is pecans. Now, I wanted to pick foods in different categories since a lot of people consume nuts. I wanted to talk about the healthiest nut of all the nuts and the reason why. Now, out of all the nuts, pecans have the lowest net carbs. And as you can see, the pecans right here. And I love to just take like a handful of pecans right after a meal. And it gives me a good amount of fat. And it's very satisfying after a meal. Now, the carbs in pecans per cup is 14 grams. And it has a good amount of fiber, like 10 grams. So that gives us a net carb of only 4 grams for an entire cup. Now, remember, you're allowed up to 50 grams of carbs if you're on keto. So 4 grams are insignificant. And the fat content is pretty high. It's like 71 grams. Now, there are other nuts that have higher amounts of fat, like macadamia nuts and pistachios. But pecans have the lowest net carbs. And pecans have a very good ratio of fat to protein. It's like 7 fat to 1 protein. So that's going to be very low on the insulin index. Pecans are very rich in zinc and copper. Zinc and copper always balance each other out. So anytime you have a food that has both zinc and copper, that's a good thing. But pecans are also loaded in vitamin B1. So if you have stress, you want to definitely have pecans as part of your diet. Now, pecans, out of all the nuts, are very low in oxalates. Again, oxalates combine with calcium to form kidney stones. And pecans are really good for the heart. They're good for your blood sugars. And out of all the nuts, pecans have the highest amounts of antioxidants, which can decrease the complications from chronic disease, like diabetes, heart disease, and inflammatory conditions. And consuming pecans are very easy to digest. They're easier to digest than walnuts, peanuts, Brazil nuts, and even macadamia nuts. And I like pecans because of the taste as well, because you can add them in different recipes for keto desserts. And I put some down below if you want to check them out. All right, the last one on the list is extra virgin olive oil. You want to make sure you have the real stuff. As you can see, I use the real stuff right through here. There's a lot of different types that you can use. You can read that. But you can see I use this olive oil. I use a lot of it on a regular basis. Olive oil is interesting because if you buy the cheap stuff at different grocery stores, you'll be lucky if you get the real stuff, because there's so many types of fake olive oil out there that they blend other oils. And it's just not the same. The real stuff has a little bite to it. It has a great aroma, like fresh cut grass. It's peppery, and it gives you a little tiny irritation in the back part of your throat. That's one indication to know that it's the real stuff. But I put it on my salad on a daily basis. So what's so healthy about this extra virgin olive oil? Well, it does have vitamins. It has vitamin E. It has vitamin A. It has minerals like magnesium and potassium. Now, it is a fat. So it's going to have zero effect on your insulin, which is really good. But it has significant phytonutrients. It has phytonutrients that can extend your aging. You can live longer. It supports things like telomeres, which if you have shorter telomeres, you're not going to live as long. It supports and repairs mitochondria. And if you don't already know this, cancer is a disease of the mitochondria. And anything you can do to protect, support, and repair mitochondria will give you anti-cancer benefits. Now, olive oil, as far as an anti-inflammatory and something to help relieve pain, is equivalent, if not comparable, to the effects of ibuprofen. I'll put a study down below so you can check that out. And compounds in extra virgin olive oil can reduce beta amyloids. That's that stuff that develops as plaquing in your brain when you have Alzheimer's. So it's really good for the brain and good for memory and focus and concentration. It also has some really cool effects as an anti-clotting, anti-microbial, and retinoprotective. So in other words, it supports the retina of the eye, especially if someone has diabetes or high sugars or high insulin. There are certain phytonutrients in extra virgin olive oil that are 20 times more powerful than green tea. So don't use it sparingly. Dump it on your salad. And the fat in the olive oil will help you extract a lot of the phytonutrients in the salad. All right. There you have it. The seven healthiest foods. Now that you know what to eat, let's talk about what to avoid with this video right here. Check it out.