Here's a hypothetical for you all. Let's pretend we are all on a gameshow. The point of the show is at the end of one year to have the best overall "health" and no weird deficiencies...I know this would be impossible to gauge, but stay with me. Anyway, the catch is you have to chose only five whole foods (ie, chicken, spinach, yada yada) that you can eat every single day. You can take any supplement in pill form that you want. If you were trying to be as "healthy" (I put the quotes because in this case I don't even know what healthy means) as you can be by the end of the year, with only 5 whole foods (LC, obviously) you can eat per day, what would they be, and why?

The cruciferous vegetables beat everything else by miles and miles. They are a source of protein, essential fatty acids, the electrolytes (Ca, Mg, K, Na), vitamin K, vitamin C, glucosinolates, carotenoids, folate. The latter three are linked to decreased incidence cancer in several tissues, but only if consumed in whole foods, not in supplements. There is evidence that compounds in some cruciferous vegetables facilitate the clearance of some forms of estrogen, which may assist with weight loss and cancer prevention.

They are low calorie and low carb, therefore suitable for many eating plans.

1000 kcal of bok choy contains 15 g net carbs and 7750 mg of calcium. For comparison 1000 kcal of whole milk contains 75 g net carbs and 1940 mg of calcium. So with bok choy, you get 517 mg Ca / gram of carbs vs 26 mg Ca / gram of carbs with milk. Or you could say that is 7.75 mg/kcal vs 1.94 mg/kcal. And besides that it is likely that the calcium in bok choy is more readily absorbed.

FAT would definitely be on my list: animal fat, coconut oil and olive oil would be among my top choices for one of the five foods. Not sure which one specifically, though.

I'd pick chicken because it is very flexible. Avocados, for potassium and wonderful fat (ok, and because I adore them). Eggs, another great protein source. A nice light olive oil. Lemon juice or vinegar so I can make some mayonaisse.

Wait... must get one more food. Spinach! Then I could have a nice salad with avo and chicken on it.

My choices are driven by taste, flexibility and probably lastly, nutrients.

Wild Salmon - omega 3's
Spinach - folate, potassium, vitamins etc.
Tomatoes - lycopene, vitamins - flavour
Avocado - 'good' fat, creamy texture, potassium, flavour
Chicken - very high in protein relative to portion size, versatility

If I could have just two more, I'd want walnuts (highest in omega 3's relative to omega 6 fats) and some wild blueberries.

Yeah, that'd make me happy:

Wild Alaska Salmon
Spinach
Tomatoes
Avocadoes
Chicken
Walnuts
Blueberries.

I could definitely live off of salads made with spinach, chicken, tomatoes, and a dressing of ACV and olive oil. I don't much care for blueberries, but from what I have been reading they are a "superfood". I don't usually take too much stock in what nutritionists say, but that's one they recommend across the board. I also pretty much despise avocados, but I have learned to like food before. I hated onions and now I put them on everything.
I'm loving this thread already, keep the opinions based on scientific fact (OBSF, as I'm dubbing it) coming! There is a wealth of knowledge on this forum.

Wild Salmon, chicken, eggs, olive oil, baby greens.

I keep reading about the benefits of walnuts and walnut oil but I am allergic to walnuts, pecans and filberts. If I could add another, it would be almonds.

Fish
Cheese
Cocoa Powder (I'd like some hot water and a drop of sweetener in that, but if necessary I will have it neat)
Cream (it is my new must have)
Broccoli

eggs
beef
fish
broccoli
spinach

Eggs-supreme food
Red Meat- do I really have to say why? Grass fed
Salmon..oily fishes-coconut oil- Omega 3's in the form of EPA/DHA and the EVCO for its antimicrobial properties and it is the only oil you should cook with
Raw Butter
If I had to clump 5 together it would be berries and non-starchy veggies..

chicken
beef
eggs
cabbage
spinach

can render the fat out of the beef to cook everything else in, make stock from the chicken to make soups, eggs to thicken the soups...

would have loved to put garlic or chiles's in there some how though...

Don't mean to interupt your thread, but I found this information very fascinating.... I didn't know that cruciferous vegetables help to eliminate estrogen from the body.... Wow good information....even found an article about it on the internet...


Thanks for the info...

Regarding your question....

Salmon
Tuna
Eggs
Broccoli
Yogurt
Apple Cider Vinegar

TJ

The stuff I read was about experiments in vitro, not on living organisms. So afaik they have shown some biochemical mechanisms, but I was unable to find trials. Controlled trials on humans, with varying intake of cruciferous veggies, looking at cancer outcomes... Somehow it seems difficult and unlikely that we will get a good real life look at this. We may have to stick to petri dishes and small creatures. Still, I find the idea of it fascinating.

The compounds you are referring to found in cruciferous veggies which supposedly help remove estrogens from the body are called indole carbinols. They had some excitement surrounding them years ago in the bodybuilding community due to this supposed property..stuff was flying off the shelf.

Unfortunately like a lot of promising compounds, like Chrysin, it never fullfilled that hype..people who shopped at our store who had high estrogen levels never saw a drop in their bloodwork and overtime, the health magazines started blasting it.

Interesting, I did do some more research on the internet about it and decided to add them more often anyway...it couldn't hurt... I try almost anything when it comes to trying to balance out my crazy hormones...at least once ...

TJ