Power Foods

Power Foods
The Magic 13

I’ve had the dubious pleasure of eating lunch or dinner
with hundreds — maybe thousands — of bodybuilders, weight
lifters, athletes, and figure competitors and the undeniable truth
is that almost all of them eat like crap.

Despite what they might think, a chicken breast and some steamed
rice is not a healthy meal, and that’s what they eat most of
the time, occasionally substituting a potato for the rice.
Sure, it’s a lot better than what most Americans cram down
their gullet, but it sure doesn’t feed the
machine.

These assorted athletes and wanna-be athletes are able to
function adequately on their fowl dinner, but that’s because
the body can take a lot of abuse. I remember reading an article
about a Japanese man who had survived for 15 months on nothing
but popcorn. Think his nutrition was adequate? Well chances are
yours ain’t much better, bubba.

My diet has rarely been beyond reproach, but doggone it,
I’m getting better about it; a lot better. I’ve
consulted the writings of our own resident nutritionists — Berardi,
Lowery, and Barr — in addition to books like SuperFoods by Steven Pratt, M.D., and I’ve come up with my own list of 13
“Power Foods.” However, I didn’t look at foods as a
nutritionist; rather, I looked at them from the perspective of my
training as a microbiologist.

Each food was chosen because it appears to have incredible,
almost drug-like effects on human physiology. While I make no
guarantees (there isn’t a nutritionist alive who can), eating
these foods often will quite likely change your health and change
your life.

These are foods I buy each week, usually on Sunday. I buy
specific quantities and my goal is modest: to finish off the amount
I bought by the next Sunday. Maybe it’s a little sloppy or
haphazard, but who the hell has the time to plan and prepare each
meal?

My way is simple. And it works.

Here are my choices in no particular order, along with the
reasons why I’ve included them and the amount you should try
to eat each week:

Broccoli

In 1992, a study conduced at Johns Hopkins found that broccoli
consumption prevented the development of tumors by 60% and it
reduced the size of tumors that did develop by 75%.

Clearly, broccoli, like Stacy’s mom, has got it going
on.

Broccoli contains more polyphenols than any other common
vegetable. It also contains large amounts of indoles, which are
potent estrogen blockers.

Other super powers possessed by broccoli include an ability to
boost the immune system, build bones, fight birth defects, and to
ward of degenerative eye diseases.

Ways to eat them: You might want to consider buying
broccoli sprouts when they’re available as they’re 10 to
100 times more powerful than mature broccoli spears.

To eat them, use them in stir-fry dishes or puree them and mix
them in soup. Of course, there’s always my way, which is to
steam them and serve drowned in olive oil and blanketed with red
chili flakes.

How much to eat: 1/2 to 1 cup daily

Wild Salmon

Ordinary salmon wear pocket protectors and study to be
engineers. Wild salmon, on the other hand, go to raves and listen
to that crazy salmon music.

Nahh, I’m talking about eating salmon that were raised in
the wild, like Alaska. Farm-raised salmon are fed corn and grain
and they develop fatty acid profiles that aren’t much
different than most of our animal food sources.

In other words, the farm-raised variety is woefully deficient in
Omega-3 fatty acids, which is pretty much the whole reason
you’d want to eat them in the first place!

Sadly, most of the time when you order salmon in a restaurant,
you’re getting the farm-raised variety. It’s best
to ask before you order.

Most of you are well aware of the beneficial effects of salmon
oil, but here’s a mercifully brief refresher course in case
you’re not.

Salmon oil reduces the risk of coronary artery disease; controls
hypertension; controls inflammation; prevents cancer; prevents
degenerative eye diseases, and it may well boost your metabolism,
making it easier for you to lose fat.

Keep in mind that the Omega-3 fatty acids in fish are,
obviously, marine based, and that the Omega-3 fatty acids found in
walnuts and flaxseed are plant based. As such, it’s best to
include both kinds in your diet.

Ways to eat it: Bake it, broil it, steam it. Or just buy
Biotest’s Flameout capsules.

How much to eat: 24 ounces (3 8-ounce
servings)

Grass-Fed Beef

Most of you probably know that the vast majority of beef in the
US is corn-fed. Hell, they advertise it like it’s a good
thing: “We have corn-fed beef at $9.99 a
pound!”

Well it’s not a good thing.

Here’s what I wrote about the subject in a previous
article:

I hope one part of that sunk in, the part about grass-fed cattle
having a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 of 3 or 4 to 1.

That makes grass-fed beef about as good a food as wild salmon.
And we weight lifting people shouldn’t forget that grass-fed
beef contains relatively large amounts of creatine. Maybe
that’s why we feel stronger when we eat it.

Lastly, grass-fed beef has a lot less saturated fat than
corn-fed, and that in itself is noteworthy.

Ways to eat it: What, I gotta’ tell you how to make
a steak?

How much to buy: 24 ounces (3 8-ounce
servings)

Walnuts

People who eat walnuts have fewer heart attacks. One study
actually found an inverse relationship between walnut consumption
and all deaths.

I don’t know how a walnut could keep you from being hit by
a runaway streetcar, but I do believe it’s one healthful
little nut. Walnuts are one of the few rich sources of
plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha linolenic acid), thus
complimenting the animal-derived Omega-3 fatty acids we get from
another Power Food, salmon.

They’re also high in plant sterols, which reduce
cholesterol. Combine that with their arginine-powered ability to
keep the insides of blood vessels smooth and you can understand
their effect on heart health.

In addition to all that, they’re the nut with the highest
anti-oxidant activity, and they contain rich amounts of magnesium
and copper, two minerals that are typically deficient in the
American diet.

Ways to eat them: By the handful, on top of a pudding
made out of Metabolic Drive, or on top of a salad.

How much to eat: 8 ounces (1-ounce or one small handful a
day)

Olive Oil

Hell, if it were socially acceptable, I’d go to the bar and
order a whisky with an olive oil chaser. That’s how much I
like this Power Oil.

A health study in 2005 compared the effects of different types
of olive oil. The first type, “extra virgin” contains the
highest amount of polyphenols, while the other olive oil was a
lesser blend containing one-fifth the polyphenols in the first
type.

Those using the extra virgin olive oil on their bread exhibited
a marked increase in arterial wall elasticity, while those that ate
the lesser stuff exhibited no change.

Lesson learned: use extra virgin olive
oil.

Aside from making arterial walls more elastic, olive oil has
many of the same benefits that walnuts do.

As far as bodybuilders and figure competitors are concerned,
adding olive oil to your meals is a necessity in that most of us,
in an attempt to balance out our fat intake, have increased
saturated fatty acid intake and Omega-3 intake while neglecting
monosaturated fats like olive oil.

While other oils contain their fair share of monounsaturated
fats, olive oil is the king with 72% of its fatty acid compliment
being monounsaturated.

Want to control your food intake and lose fat? Steam some
vegetables and drown them in olive oil and red chili flakes and
serve with your favorite cut of meat. This simple act, done 5 to 6
times a week, will melt the pounds off.

Ways to eat it: By the tablespoon, on a salad, in a
Metabolic Drive shake, or poured over your steamed
vegetables.

How much to eat: 3 Tablespoons a day

Blueberries

If for some reason, you stubborn person you, were to only eat
one food from my list, this is the one I’d
recommend.

This humble little berry contains a greater number of
antioxidants than any other known fruit or vegetable. Just one
serving contains more antioxidants as five servings of carrots,
apples, broccoli, or squash.

Just a couple of years ago, the Journal of Clinical
Nutrition found that people who ate one cup per day had a
perpetual increase in the amount of antioxidants in their blood.
Maintaining this physiologic state, they guessed, probably plays a
big role in the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and
degenerative eye diseases.

There’s also a study that’s probably of particular
interest to readers of this site: people who ate large amounts of
blueberries every day performed 5 to 6 percent better on tests of motor skills than a control group.

Ways to eat them: Buy them dried, fresh, or frozen
(they’re not a crop that’s heavily treated with
pesticides, which is often of concern when buying dried
fruits).

Turn them into a jam and spread them on toast. Throw them into
the blender with your Metabolic Drive. Mix frozen ones into your
oatmeal.

How much to eat: 1 cup a day

Flaxseeds

Flax seeds are, bar none, the best source of plant-derived
Omega-3 fatty acids. Including them in a diet that contains
reasonable amounts of saturated fats (about 30% of fat intake),
reasonable amounts of olive oil and walnuts (about 30 to 40% of fat
intake), and a combination of plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids and
animal or marine based Omega-3 fatty acids (grass-fed beef and
salmon) along with a modest amount of Omega-6 fatty acids is
probably the perfect prescription.

In addition to being a rich source of plant-derived Omega-3
fatty acids, flaxseeds also contain fiber, protein, and magnesium.

Ways to eat them: Make sure you grind your
flaxseeds — the nutrients are difficult to absorb from the
whole seed. Once they’re ground, store them in small airtight
jars and sprinkle them on your oatmeal, your salad, or into your
Grow! shake.

How much to eat: About two tablespoons a day. That means
you can grind up about a half-cup at a time.

Pumpkin

I don’t expect you to go out every October and hoard
pumpkins. Canned pumpkin is available all year round and the canned
version is actually more nutritious than the raw
version.

What makes pumpkin so cool is its synergistic blend of
phytonutrients. In fact, pumpkin contains the richest supply of
carotenoids known to man.

These carotenoids are suspected to modulate immune responses,
enhance cell-to-cell communication, and protect against various
cancers. One carotene in particular — alpha carotene — is
even suspected by some to slow aging.

While you might assume that pumpkin is glycemically incorrect,
you’re probably thinking about the pumpkin puree that Granny
uses to make her pies. Pure canned pumpkin, on the other hand, has
only 42 calories a half-cup, along with 5 grams of fiber, which is
more fiber than most breakfast cereals.

Ways to eat it: Mix a little in with Metabolic Drive and
some Jell-O Instant Sugar-Free Fat-Free Pudding Mix and blend in
skim milk until you get the desired consistency.

How much to eat: 1/2 cup 3-4 times a week

Spinach

The next time you order a salad, screw the typical Romaine salad
or worse yet, the iceberg lettuce salad; spinach is where it’s
at.

Spinach is another one of those vegetables whose nutrients and
phytonutrients display a wonderful synergy.

Consider that spinach contains carotenoids like zeaxanthin and
beta-carotene, along with antioxidants like CoQ10 and glutathione,
and the insulin modulator alpha lipoic acid. Not only that, but
spinach is fairly rich in plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids,
too.

All of this equates to a vegetable that lowers homocysteine
levels, risk of degenerative eye disease, and many types of cancer.
In fact, there are epidemiological studies that show that the more
spinach eaten, the lower the risk of almost every type of
cancer.

Ways to eat it: Spinach is a vegetable that should be
eaten both raw and cooked. Cooking it makes the carotenoids more
bioavailable, but it degrades Vitamin C and folate, so eating a
combo of cooked and raw seems to be the best bet. Cook spinach in
an omelet, or steam it and add olive oil and salt. Or make a raw
salad and top it with walnuts and olive oil.

How much to eat: 18 ounces (raw) per week

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are on my list for one main reason, or rather, one main
nutrient: lycopene. This member of the carotenoid family could be
the silver bullet in preventing prostate cancer. Obviously,
prostate cancer isn’t much of a concern to women, but that
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t partake of this
nutrient.

It’s quite possibly as potent an anti-oxidant as
beta-carotene in general, and lycopene is also thought to raise the
skin’s natural SPF (sun protection factor).

Unfortunately, this chemical is rare in foods so the next time
you see a ripe, juicy tomato, give it a hug.

Unbeknownst to most, though, is that the coveted lycopene is
bound up in the cell walls and fiber. That means that you pretty
much have to eat cooked or processed tomatoes to get at the
lycopene. That also means that tomato paste, barbecue sauce, and
ketchup are valid sources of lycopene. Yipee!

Ways to eat it: Since lyopene needs fat to get it into the
bloodstream, it’s best to eat your tomatoes or tomato products
with a bit of olive oil. You can also use sun-dried tomatoes in
sandwiches, in addition to using salsa to top your meat dishes. And
of course, there’s always pizza.

How much to eat: 1 serving per day of processed tomato
and 3-4 servings per week of fresh tomato

Turkey Breast

Hey, it’s practically the leanest piece of meat on the
planet…well, except for that Sanjaya kid on American Idol.
It’s inexpensive and has a nice array of nutrients including
the exotic selenium, but everybody in the business just loves chicken.

Chicken must have a helluva’ good PR man because turkey is
clearly superior in so many ways.

Want to know how lean turkey is? Three ounces of flank
steak — the leanest beef available — has 4.5 grams of
saturated fat. An identical amount of turkey has only 0.2 grams of
saturated fat.

We called chicken to provide us with its stats, but nooooo. At
the risk of sounding cliché, chicken was
chicken.

Ways to eat it: The same way you’d eat
chicken.

How much to eat: As much as your ever-lovin’ heart
desires or your wallet can afford.

Yogurt

A microscopic view of the beasties in yogurt.

My grandma Olga, a famous Finnish Powerlifter, once told me,
“Little one, take care of your gastrointestinal tract and
it’ll take care of you.”

Then she struck me with some salted herring.

The lesson stuck with me.

Gastrointestinal problems are likely at the root of a lot of
health problems. After all, if you can’t digest food,
assimilate its nutrients, and dispose of waste, what good are Power Foods?

Enter yogurt. And I’m talking about plain non-fat yogurt,
not frozen yogurt or any of those sugary concoctions that are
faintly disguised desserts.

Yogurt that contains live active cultures of bacteria encourages
the growth of “good” bacteria and hampers the growth of
the “bad”.

Once you do that, you might help your body fight cancer,
allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowl syndrome,
ulcers, and diarrhea.

You might even increase nitrogen retention, so that you’ll
build more muscle from the proteins that you eat.

While live-culture yogurt is considered a “probiotic”
in that it contains living beasties, you also need to ingest
“prebiotics,” which are nondigestible food stuffs that
the beasties live on.

Luckily, a lot of the Power Foods I’ve listed contain
prebiotics (broccoli, spinach, flax seeds, etc.).

Ways to eat it: Mix a tablespoon or two into your Grow!
shakes, or add to oatmeal.

How much to eat: 1 cup per day

Shiitake Mushrooms

Mushrooms contain zinc, essential amino acids, and a host of
vitamins, but I’m not really interested in all that.

The reason I’ve labeled Shiitake mushrooms as a power food
is because they appear to possess some pretty interesting
anti-viral properties, including some much-desired anti-cancer
powers.

In fact, the Japanese have licensed a Shittake extract called Lentinan as an anti-cancer drug. It’s shown promising
effects on bowel, liver, stomach, lung, and ovarian
cancers.

Apparently, Lentinan stimulates the production of T lymphocytes
and natural killer cells.

Proponents of mushrooms like the shittake and others
collectively call these fairly mysterious anti-viral and
immuno-enhancing compounds Host Defense Potentiators (HDP).

While the proof of their powers isn’t conclusive yet,
I’m willing to make a small leap of faith and continue to
include these ’shrooms in my diet.

Ways to eat them: Chopped up and thrown into spinach
salads or an omellete.

How much to eat: 3 ounces per week

Off to the Grocery Store

You might think some of my recommendations as to quantity are
unrealistic or just plain hard to achieve. That’s okay. Do the
best you can. It’s like when complete newbies ask me how often
they have to train to get into a reasonable semblance of shape.

I tell them once a week is better than zero times a week; twice
a week is better than once a week; three times a week is better
than twice a week….

The same goes for my dietary recommendations. Eat the foods on
the list as often as you can. Once a week is better than zero times
a week; twice a week is better than once a week….

Of course, the better you adhere to the training program or the
nutritional program, the greater are the rewards, be they in
physique, athletic ability, or iron-clad health.

References:

1. Luoma, TC, Luoma’s Big Damn Book of Knowledge,
Penguin Books, 30th edition, 2005.

2. Pratt, Stephen, M.D., and Matthews, Kathy, SuperFoods,
Harper, 2004.

© 1998 — 2007 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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~ by jackzepplin on April 23, 2007.

Posted in health, well-being

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