Now, everybody wants to know if you can actually find compliant items at Big-box store, and the answer is yes. In fact, time goes by that people find me in Costco and grab me and say, “Is this okay? Is that okay?” And, “Oh, my gosh, Dr. Gundry, you are in Costco. You know, what are you doing here?” And the answer is, you can actually find a lot of safe items, but also a lot of really good items for you in a big-box store like Costco. So today, I want to talk about the protein choices and the oil choices that you can find in Costco and what you should look for. So first of all, Costco has wild salmon. They’ll have it fresh in season. And it will say wild Alaskan salmon. And one of the tip-offs, is it’s usually a lot darker red color than farm raised salmon, and it will usually say wild. Ignore the organic that is farmed by definition, they didn’t follow the fish around to see if they were eating organically. And they were fed organic grains, corn and soybeans primarily.
Number two. Most of the time Costco has frozen, handy pieces of wild salmon. You have to kind of sort around and look because they’d be much happier selling you frozen Atlantic salmon but stay away from that. Look for Alaskan salmon. Alaskan salmon by law has to be caught wild. That’s not true of Canadian salmon, Norwegian salmon, Scottish salmon, look for Alaskan salmon. And buy the frozen pieces, it’s really handy. Also, they have canned salmon. And look again for canned wild salmon. So lots of options for salmon. What my wife and I do is, we tend to wait for salmon season and then we buy several pieces of whole salmon and take it home, cut it up into pieces. We put it in Ziploc bags because as you’ve read in the new book, “Gut Check,” Ziploc doesn’t have any phthalates in the plastic. And then we have it, you know, the rest of the year.
Next up, canned sardines. Costco often has really good canned sardines. Now, canned sardines are full, like salmon, of Omega-3 fats, long chain Omega-3 fats. And they’re a great source of protein. But you’re really looking for the Omega-3 fats. And interestingly enough, you’re looking for them for the little bones in the fish, which are a great source of natural calcium, not the calcium pills you’re swallowing. Try to find them in water. They’re better for you in a lot of ways. But if all you can find is olive oil, make sure it says olive oil not packed in oil.
Usually, the ones that are packed in oil have soybean oil or cotton seed oil, and these are nasty, short chain Omega-6 fats that you really don’t want. So water, preferably, second choice olive oil. And these brands appear and disappear in Costco. But in general, most of my patients are very pleased with the sardines that you can buy at Costco.
Canned tuna. Now, canned tuna just for the record, usually comes from small tuna, not from sashimi grade tuna. They would not be that dumb. Small tuna are much lower, if you will, on the food chain. And they have not been acquiring heavy metals like mercury for a much longer period of time than sashimi grade tuna. So you’re really quite safe with canned tuna at Costco. In fact, some of the brands will say mercury free or low mercury, and you can trust that because again, most of these canned tuna at Costco are small and grab yourself some cans of it. They often go on sale. You often have to buy, you know, six or 10, but that’s when you wanna buy ’em.
Okay, over in the cheese area. Costco frequently has a number of goat cheeses. If cheeses are fermented, then you’re much safer in lowering the amount of a mischievous sugar molecule called Neu5Gc. So you really wanna go past the fresh goat cheese logs, which are not fermented, and instead look for goat cheeses, feta cheeses, that actually say the ingredient is goat. Read the label. Unfortunately, in America, many feta cheeses, which should be goat or sheep, are actually made from cow’s milk. So just look for the words goat or sheep. Lastly, there are a number of sheep cheeses that are great for you. You can find Pecorino from Italy. You can find Manchego from Spain. And often there’s a sampler of sheep cheeses from Spain cut into small wedges. And it’s a great way to experience some of these fantastic fermented cheese from sheep and from goats. The prosciutto from Italy is a fermented food, and all the Neu5Gc from Italian prosciutto is gone. And but in almost every Costco, it’s already pre-sliced. It’s really easy to use. And it’s a perfectly acceptable addition to your diet. The same way, Italian Parmesan cheese, Parmesan Reggiano cheese is by far the cheapest you will find at Costco. And I actually buy our Italian Reggiano cheese, Parmesan Reggiano at Costco. And it’s gotta say that it’s gotta say from Italy. Beware of cheeses that have Italian sounding names, but are from Italy. Same way with the Italian meats or the Italian salamis. Make sure it came from Italy.
Costco started carrying sliced Italian charcuterie with salamis and prosciutto in a very convenient package that are actually from Italy. And what’s exciting about that is these are traditionally fermented sausages. And the exciting news from “Gut Check” is that these sausages don’t contain Neu5Gc and they are loaded with post biotic fermentation products like polyamines, like spermidine. So they’re actually pretty doggone good for you and they’re at Costco.
Now, what about non-meat proteins? Well, there’s actually plenty there for vegetarians and vegans. Hemp Hearts. You can get big bags of Hemp Hearts at Costco. Hemp Hearts have the benefit of being high in protein, but also high in soluble fiber so it’s a win-win. And you can use Hemp Hearts in so many ways. I find the easiest way is to just sprinkle them on salads, sprinkle them on vegetables. If you wanna throw it in a smoothie, that’s fine with me. But Hemp Hearts, and they’re really reasonable. Pistachios. There are a number of pistachios that are available at Costco, whether you want them peeled, dry roasted, salted in the shell, unsalted in the shell, they’re readily available. Here’s a word to the wise, try to buy them in the shell. Cracking open that shell and picking it out slows you down. And it’s true with any nut. N
uts are really good for you. They contain a lot of protein, but you’ll eat a lot more if the work’s been done for you. So just a word to the wise with pistachios and also with macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts, it’s difficult to safely find raw macadamia nuts. And if you do find them, if they’re in half, they’ve probably gone rancid already. That’s why you see most macadamia nuts have been already roasted, and that’s to stop them from going rancid. It’s easy to find macadamia nuts at Costco. Word to the wise, it’s easy to gain weight, eating macadamia nuts. In fact, if I have a skinny patient and I believe it or not, see skinny patients who want to gain weight, my go-to snack is macadamia nuts. And you can put on the weight with macadamia nuts. Walnuts. Costco has both organic and regular walnuts. Should you spend the extra money, well just remember that with most nuts, the nut is never exposed to herbicides or insecticides because it’s a contained in a nut. And once you break open that nut, the flesh will not have those herbicides and insecticides. However, in the interest of good agriculture, if you can afford the organic, please buy the organic. But don’t be afraid of non-organic nuts for the most part. And I did mention macadamia nuts. Be careful.
Okay, now how about oils? Well, Costco is a pretty doggone good place to find really good cold, pressed, organic olive oil. But word to the wise, you don’t want to buy your organic cold, pressed olive oil in those big plastic jugs. Two reasons. Number one, it’s in plastic. But number two, although it sounds like a good idea to buy your olive oil in bulk, the minute you open the top on olive oil, it starts going rancid. And you won’t use it up fast enough before it goes rancid. So the alternative is almost every Costco has an organic, usually Italian olive oil that’s in a long, tall, cylindrical bottle. And it usually has a label of authenticity called Toscana. I’ve actually been to the plant where it’s made in Tuscany, and it’s true it has to come from the Tuscan region.
Now, sometimes they don’t have that, but there’s a very similar one that comes from Spain and it’s in a very similar bottle, and it’s also quite safe in a very high quality. But just stay away from the big plastic bottles and you’ll do yourself a favor. Sesame oil. You can usually find untoasted sesame oil, but it’s not in all Costcos.
Preferably, once again, look for sesame oil in a glass bottle. I hope you enjoyed this episode of “The Dr. Gundry Podcast.” Make sure to check out the next one here. There is an entire microbiome that’s dedicated to the manipulation of sex hormones. And it could just be that rosemary is the aphrodisiac that maybe all of us should be munching a little bit more.
All right, it’s time to head back to Costco to get our produce, snacks, and all sorts of other things. First of all, Costco is a great source for dried herbs and spices. And the more you can get herbs and spices into your life, the better off you are. Because herbs are one of the best easy-to-use sources of polyphenols. And polyphenols, as you know, feed your good gut buddies and also are really important for protecting your mitochondria who make energy for you. You can also find a great selection of olives at Costco. Costco, believe it or not, has organic rice cauliflower in the frozen food section. They’ve got sesame seeds. They’ve got Sanpellegrino. But buy the ones in the glass bottles, not the plastic bottles right next door. If you like the flavored Sanpellegrino in the can, that’s perfectly safe as well, but please, resist the urge to pick up Sanpellegrino in the plastic bottles.
Avocados. There’s always avocados in Costco. Preferably, look for the organic variety, but Costco is a great place to pick up avocados. Costco is a great place to buy guacamole. Thankfully, they have guacamole in individual serving containers that doesn’t have any tomatoes. And guess what? Tomatoes are not part of guacamole. That’s somehow missed by most people. But they have tomato-free guacamole, and it’s great.
Their pesto over in the refrigerator section, usually next to the cheeses, is some of the best pesto you can buy. I’ll tell you why. Number one, it uses a type of basil from the Liguria region of Italy. By far, Ligurian basil is the most flavorful, the best source of polyphenols of any basil in the world, and it’s in the Costco pesto. It also has pine nuts. It also has Parmesan cheese. And the wonderful thing about it is you can buy it fresh, and then you can put it in your freezer and just thaw off what you’re going to need. Personally, it’s phenomenal. On Gundry MD, sorghum spaghetti, and that’s how we use it most of the time.
In the produce area, you can find organic shiitake mushrooms, you can find cremini mushrooms. Often, particularly this time of year, you can find some really exotic mushrooms, like chanterelles. They’re vastly cheaper at Costco and well worth including in your really daily routine. More and more, we’re seeing organic whole lettuce heads that have still got their roots attached. They’re fantastic as a salad.
Kiwis are easy to obtain at Costco, and Costco often has the golden kiwis. And fun fact, the golden kiwi has been shown to be the source of one of the best prebiotic fibers to feed your good probiotics there is. And there’s some really cool golden kiwi studies in humans showing it promotes gut microbiome diversity. So if you see them and they’re in season, buy them.
Speaking of in season, pomegranates are a great buy at Costco in season. Often you’ll see the pomegranate seeds in season. You can find in-season organic raspberries and blackberries and even cherries. But word of warning: Look for where these produce came from. There is nothing seasonal about a raspberry in February. You’ll see it at Costco, but you’ll see it came from Chile or Argentina or Uruguay. That’s not a seasonal produce. Oh, it looks good, and you go, “Oh, it’s organic,” but please, we are not supposed to encounter fruit 365 days a year. And sadly, I see it in my patients’ blood work, when they’re eating these wonderful fruits non-seasonally. But it’s a great place to pick them up on a seasonal basis.
Costco has artichoke hearts, and they also have whole artichokes. They have pine nuts. They have hemp hearts. They have pistachios in multiple varieties, whether you want them peeled or in the shell. My advice is please buy them in the shell. And you can get them salted or unsalted, but the key is if you buy them in the shell, it will slow down your eating considerably. It is far too easy and fun to eat handful after handful of peeled salted pistachios and not think about what you’re eating. On the other hand, it’s far more entertaining to pour yourself out a bowl of in-the-shell pistachios and pop them open slowly and enjoy. It really slows you down, and you’ll get the benefits of the pistachios.
Costco has a great choice of walnuts, both organic and non-organic. Why buy walnuts in a big bag from Costco rather than somewhere else? Well, whenever you’re looking to buy nuts, particularly shelled nuts, you really want to go to a place that has a high turnover. Because these nuts will go rancid. And, good news, Costco has a very high turnover, if you’ve ever noticed. And that’s good for nuts, ’cause you are going to get literally very fresh walnuts or pecans or pine nuts, and you’re not gonna have to worry about the rancidity of these nuts. And that’s another really good reason to buy them at Costco. Now, you can also find almonds at
Costco, but word to the wise, almonds have a pretty nasty lectin, in the peel of almonds. So even if it says organic almonds, just put them back. Luckily, most Costco stores have Marcona almonds. Marcona almonds, as you may know, are peeled. And in traditional cultures, particularly in Spain and Portugal, mothers teach their daughters how to soak and peel the skin off of the almond, ’cause they’ve learned through generations that the peel is the problem. So that’s the safest of the almonds in Costco, the Marcona almonds.
But word to the wise, if you’ve read “Gut Check” and you have an autoimmune disease, or think you have an autoimmune disease, almonds are way up there on the nut that so many of my patients with autoimmune disease unfortunately react to. And there’s so many other better nuts. Speaking of which, macadamia nuts are a really great choice at Costco.
Macadamia nuts are expensive. If you want to gain weight, macadamia nuts are the way to go. But macadamia nuts have a really fantastic oil profile within them. They’re mostly monounsaturated fat, but they also have an omega-7 fat that’s almost impossible to find in any other nut. So they should be included in your repertoire. Next, vinegars. Costco has an amazing selection of vinegars. And if you’ve read “Gut Check,” you know that you want to get vinegars into your life. Whether it’s balsamic vinegar, whether it’s apple cider vinegar, whether it’s red wine vinegar, you name it. Vinegars are great for you.
Make yourself the famous Dr. Gundry fake Coke. Buy some Sanpellegrino at Costco, buy some balsamic vinegar at Costco, pour some balsamic vinegar in your Sanpellegrino, and make yourself a fake Coke. Balsamic vinegar, any vinegar, is a great source of acetic acid, which is a short-chain fatty acid that is actually needed for your gut microbiome to make this all-important short-chain fatty acid called butyrate. And you gotta get vinegar to kind of supercharge the process. Next up, most Costcos have a pretty decent selection of greater than 72% chocolate, either in bars or in other forms. Now, it comes and goes, you gotta look for it. But if it’s there, get it there.
Finally, Primal Kitchen Caesar dressing is a pretty doggone good choice. It’s made by my friend Mark Sisson. Primal Kitchen in general are safe products. Their avocado mayonnaise is a safe product. But try their Caesar dressing.
Now, there are a few snacks that could be used in moderation, and I specify moderation for a reason. So you’ll see really buys on Siete chips. You’ll see really good buys on TERRA root vegetable chips. And yes, they’re pretty safe, except people overeat them. And I see this over and over again, that I saw Dr. Gundry say that TERRA root chips are safe. That means I can have the entire bag I bought at Costco this afternoon. No, you can’t. You gotta be really careful because these are concentrated sources of carbohydrates. And yes, they don’t have any lectins, but they still have lots of easily digestible carbohydrates. So the word is moderation. And use these chips not to munch on, but as a delivery device to get avocado into your mouth. Buy the guacamole in individual serving containers at Costco and use that chip only as a delivery device. It’ll slow you down, and you’ll get all the benefits of the guacamole as well.
More amazing episodes just like this one. Watch now. Since pistachios have the highest concentration of melatonin of any food, let’s do an experiment and have yourself a handful of raw or roasted pistachios before you go to bed. And let’s see what happens.
