Speaker 1:
Welcome to The Dr. Gundry Podcast, where Dr. Steven Gundry shares his groundbreaking research from over 25 years of treating patients with diet and lifestyle changes alone.
Dr. Gundry and other wellness experts offer inspiring stories, the latest scientific advancements, and practical tips to empower you to take control of your health and live a long, happy life.
Dr. Steven Gundry:
Hey, it’s time to talk about the best and worst exotic fruits out there. Now, do you ever wonder why fruit tastes so good? Well, you can actually thank a genetic mutation and evolution.
Now, great apes, about 10 million years ago, suffered a genetic mutation and they stopped making an enzyme called uricase that broke down a product of fructose metabolism called uric acid. Uric acid and triglycerides both are products of fructose metabolism.
Please understand, fructose is a mitochondrial toxin. I’m sorry, it is. Fructose is so dangerous that rather than being absorbed directly into our bloodstream, like glucose, fructose, most of fructose is taken directly to the liver, do not pass go, do not collect $200, where it’s detoxified into triglycerides, a fat, and uric acid.
Why would that be so interesting? Well, it turns out that great apes who suffered this mutation, during a time of climate change when forests were receding, great apes could take the fructose in ripe fruit and convert it into fat, number one, triglycerides, and number two, produce uric acid that produced insulin resistance.
And if you listen to me enough, and we know that insulin resistance increases the storage of fat, prevents fat breakdown, and is one of the biggest drivers of our dismal outcome right now.
So what? So great apes could out-compete other monkeys to store fat for the lean times, whereas other monkeys couldn’t. That made them the great apes, and they actually populated much of the world because they could travel on their fat.
We, when we diverged from great apes about 6 to 8 million years ago, share that mutation. Now, for years it was called the thrifty gene, because we thought that somehow, presto chango, because we went long time without food and we could walk long distances without food, and we were deprived of food that we developed, presto chango, this magical thrifty gene.
It’s only been in recent years that we now realize that that thrifty gene is in fact the genetic mutation that allowed great apes to store fat from fruit and allows us to store fat from fructose.
So what was of huge benefit to great apes and early humans, being able to eat fruit in season, take advantage of that fructose and convert it into fat and keep it stored as fat because of uric acid levels became a major disadvantage to most of us now because we now have 365 days of endless summer. And that mutation allows us now to constantly store fructose from fruit or from high fructose corn syrup as fat. And what was once what made us and great apes great has become one of our major limiting factors.
Okay. Now, what kind of fruit were these apes eating? What kind of fruit did modern humans eat before all this? It was wild, it was small, it was very fibrous, and most importantly, it was seasonal. Fruit does not ripen in the jungle year-round. That’s not how it happens. It is a seasonal thing.
Just because we can grow strawberries down the road in Oxnard, California in January because of hybridization doesn’t make that an in-season fruit. And just because a 747 can bring blueberries to Costco in February from Chile or Argentina doesn’t make that a seasonal fruit. So it’s this access to continuous fructose that’s one of the big drivers of our insulin resistance, of our fat.
Okay, feast, fast, feast, fast, we have a storage system that was designed because of this modern mutation. So fruit in season in moderation is a good idea. That’s how we were designed to take advantage of it. But fruit out of season is part of what drives this, and of course using high fructose corn syrup in so many of our foods also drives this as well.
So is there a smart way to eat fruit? So all fruit is not bad. The key is timing and type. Now, if we eat fruit the way nature intended, seasonally, in moderation, and it’s in most natural form, we can actually support our health.
Remember, the vibrant colors of fruit were there for a major reason, and that is fruit predators, and I got news for you, you and I are fruit predators, are looking for the maximum sugar content of that food we’re eating. Plants on the other hand want you to eat their fruit because it contains their babies that are impossible for us to digest. And you will eat the fruit, take the baby in in the form of seeds, and you’ll walk away and poop it someplace else with a generous dollop of fertilizer. Perfect.
So plants use the color of fruit to actually tell you and me when that fruit has its highest sugar content. And it’s also, you didn’t know, telling you that that seed is now impervious to digestion. You have color vision because you are a fruit predator.
And only animals that predate fruit or flowers have color vision. Your dog doesn’t have color vision because he doesn’t care what color a squirrel is. If it’s moving, he wants to eat it. On the other hand, you want the signal from the plant about when it’s ripe.
I get a kick out of my garden, I have fig trees, and lo and behold, the birds are usually one or two days ahead of me in figuring out when the fig is at its ripest. So that’s why we have color vision. And those intense colors are actually the polyphenols that are of huge benefit to us. So there’s nothing wrong with fruit in season, but season is the key word.
Now, exotic fruits are hitting the marketplace and they are becoming commonplace. So what are the best exotic fruits in season? Well, first of all, papaya. Papaya does have a lot of sugar content, and I prefer you eating papayas when they’re unripe or early in the ripening process before they get the maximum sugar content. The less ripe the papaya, the far more soluble fiber for your gut, buddies.
One of my personal favorites is passion fruit. I actually grow it in my own yard. Now, that jelly-like substance is packed with polyphenols and soluble fiber and it’s incredibly low in fructose. In places like Italy and France, it is considered a gourmet seasonal delicacy and whenever it’s around, it appears on menus.
Dragon fruit. Now, dragon fruit is low in sugar, it’s high in antioxidants, it’s high in polyphenols, and it’s a great source of prebiotic fiber. Its flashy color isn’t just for show. That’s a potent sign of polyphenols.
And let me be clear about this, because I get this all the time. People say that I tell you to avoid seeds, and that’s absolutely not true. Plants that bear fruits in general want to induce you to eat their fruit and their seeds so that you will take them away and deposit them elsewhere.
The plant really doesn’t want to drop its seeds directly below the fruit tree because it would be shaded and it would compete for resources from the mother plant. They want you, the predator, to go over there.
On the other hand, grasses and other annual plants have found a great place to grow and they’re going to die off every year, so they want their seeds to drop directly below because they’ve already found a great place. And the last thing they want you to do is take those seeds away.
So they don’t have a fruit to attract you, but they know that you’ll probably eat them anyhow, so they protect those seeds with these anti-nutrient compounds, some of which are lectins, some of which are oxalates, and there’s other compounds, to try to convince you that this is a bad idea to eat their seeds.
Now, it is interesting, immature fruit does have lectins to convince you that now is not the time to eat their babies, because their babies are not protected. And when I was growing up, we ate green apples, when apples were actually green before they were mature, and every kid can tell you that we suffered the green apple two-step. We got some pretty impressive cramps and diarrhea. Yeah, we still did it anyway, but that was the plant defense system against being eaten before its babies were ready. Pretty clever plants. So no, seeds are not the issue, it’s how you acquire them.
How about cacao? Yes, cacao, chocolate, is a fruit, but only if you eat it like one. So raw or fermented cacao, not Dutch-
Speaker 2:
So raw or fermented cacao, not Dutch processed cocoa powder in candy bars, is rich in polyphenols and brain-supporting compounds. Now, I add it to my coffee every morning. Loquat, I have a couple of loquat trees in my yard. It’s originally from China. These are very fiber-rich fruits that really help satiety. They’re becoming more common at farmers’ markets, especially here in California, and if you see them, try them, they actually are very tasty.
Acai, now sometimes you see it whole, mostly you see it frozen. The berry itself is a powerhouse of anthocyanins and other polyphenols. But please, skip the acai bowls, they’re usually sugar bombs disguised as a health food. Mangosteens, particularly in Northern California, farmers’ markets are full of mangosteens in season, and mangosteen polyphenols are really great for you. Starfruit, we’re beginning to see those. You can eat them sliced, whole, you can eat the skin. And of course, there’s breadfruit. Now, breadfruit has been a staple for particularly South American cultures, and breadfruit is another great source of prebiotic fiber.
Well, how about exotic fruits to avoid? Unfortunately, a ripe mango is one of the highest sugar-containing foods there is, that’s why we love them so much. And I see some of my patients go on mango kicks and I can see it in their blood work, their triglycerides go up, their insulin resistance goes up, they become pre-diabetic, because they’ve got a mango tree in their yard and we certainly don’t want to waste it. Instead, pick mangoes green, they are fabulous as a prebiotic fiber. Most Thai restaurants have a green mango or a green papaya salad, and they’re using it for the real reason it was created, to feed gut bacteria.
Now, goji berries, I’m sorry, despite their health food reputation, goji berries are part of the nightshade family. They were the wolfberry of Americas, and they were taken to China in trade during Colombian trade and they grew great in China. But do not be confused, they are a nightshade family, and so just avoid them, there’s better substitutes. Golden berries, they’re another nightshade. Now, yes, they do have some nutrients, but for most people, the risk really exceeds the benefit, especially if you have gut issues. Guava, now, some of the smaller varieties are rich in polyphenols, but most guava and guava nectar is loaded with sugar. It’s not worth it, unless you really know the source or have one growing in your backyard.
Okay, so those are the good exotic fruits, the bad exotic fruits. But the bottom line is fruit was supposed to exist seasonally. You and great apes became the conquerors of the world because of this genetic mutation that allows you to turn fructose into fat and store it effectively, and as long as you keep that in the back of your mind, you’ll do fine with eating fruit in moderation seasonally, when it was available not too many years ago.
The other day, I stopped into a local Whole Foods to pick up a snack. Yes, I snack like everybody else. And as I was walking through the store, I noticed something, the line at the juice bar was huge, even longer than the checkout lines. It seems like everyone’s jumping on the juicing craze these days, including a lot of my subscribers. So today, I want to talk about juicing and set the record straight once and for all. But first, I’ve got a question for you. Are there any diet crazes you want to know more about, or anything health-related, for that matter? I want to hear from you, so leave a comment below and share anything you’d like to know. We make sure to read every single comment, and if enough people are interested in something, I’ll make sure to answer. So drop me a line, I can’t wait to hear from you. But for now, let’s get back to juicing.
It seems like over the last decade, juice bars have been popping up everywhere, and it’s easy to get sucked into the juicing hype. Juice fans claim they get more nutrients from juicing than they would from simply eating fruits and veggies, and that’s just the start. They also claim juicing can improve digestive health and even flush out toxins from the body, which is why so many people swear by juice cleanses to lose weight. But the truth about juicing and juice cleanses is they’re a waste of your time and money. Plus, they’re terrible for your health. I’m serious. Now, let me explain why.
For the most part, when people juice or cleanse, the stuff they’re drinking is primarily fruit juice, and fruit juice is loaded in sugar, even if it’s green. Now, if you’re one of those people who drinks celery juice, I’ll get to you in a moment. But if you’re heading to the juice bar and getting something that’s a blend of fruit and veggies, or straight up fruit, your’e drinking your dessert, and then some. In fact, one of the most popular green juices on the market has a whopping 53 grams of sugar per serving.
For reference, that’s more sugar than a can of soda, and even more sugar than a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Even worse, when you juice something, the machine chews up your fruit and veggies then spits out the juice, and most people just throw the pulp in the trash. The bad news, that pulp is where the fiber is, and fiber is what you need to keep your gut bugs happy. Plus, fiber-rich foods keep you full, keep your digestion moving, and help you feel your best. So you should be eating more of them, not throwing the fiber in the trash.
And yes, celery juicers, that goes for you as well. It’s true, if you juice celery, you won’t end up with a sugary juice, but you’re still throwing out the fiber, and when it comes to fiber, celery is actually one of the best foods you can eat. So don’t juice it, make guacamole and dip it instead. That way, you’re getting all the nutrients from celery and adding in a dose of healthy fats. In fact, celery in guacamole is one of my all-time favorite on-the-go snacks.
Now, if you’re a juice fan, you probably also need to know, can juicing really detox your body? Well, yes and no. Drinking enough of anything will make you pee, so if that’s what you mean by detoxing, sure. But the truth is you’ve already got a built-in detox system, your liver, and if your liver is functioning well, you don’t need to worry about trend detoxes or any of that, especially if you’re eating healthy foods that help your body rather than hurt it, and avoiding things like sugar and lectins, which destroy your health.
In fact, the most important part of any detox is knowing what not to put into your body. After that, your body knows what to do, because it has a built-in waste management system, your digestive system. If you’re eating right, you truly don’t need a detox. But if you do need a kickstart, try the three-day cleanse in my book. You’ll get to eat plenty of delicious food and improve your health too. Now, if you did spend the money and buy that fancy juicer, don’t worry, you don’t have to get rid of it. Instead, try reverse juicing, and if you’ve got that bunch of fruit in the house, it’s a great solution.
So what’s reverse juicing? Well, if you’ve ever used a juicer, you know juicer chews up your fruit, spits out the juice, and makes a bunch of pulp that you throw away. Well, with reverse juicing, you throw out the juice and keep the pulp. See, when you’re throwing out the juice, you’re getting rid of most of the sugar from the fruit and keeping the healthy fiber and nutrients. But what can you do with all that pulp? Well, it’s got a nice fruity flavor that’s great in coconut yogurt, blended into a smoothie, or even baked into an almond flour muffin. And yes, I said smoothies. I’m fine with smoothies, provided they’re Plant Paradox-compliant, because unlike juicing, when you make a smoothie, you keep the fiber, and fiber is incredibly important to your health. So skip juice, even celery juice, or try reverse juicing. Reverse juicing is a process that inspired me when I created my top-selling formula, actually, to help people enjoy the benefits of fruit without all that sugar, because I know fruit is delicious and tempting, and I don’t want you to feel deprived, I just want you to feel great.
All right, here’s the exciting news. Kiwis have the lowest glycemic index of any of the fruits. Okay, so what is a glycemic index? Well, it basically means how fast your blood sugar is going to rise after you eat something. Now, how is that different than how much sugar does something contain? Well, it turns out that how slowly something like a kiwi is digested and then the sugar enters your bloodstream is what makes the difference in glycemic index. So does this actually matter? Well, for those of you who like to track your blood sugar with a continuous glucose monitor, it’s a fun experiment to play around with, and you might be shocked with something that might have a potentially low sugar content actually has a very high glycemic index.
So the glycemic index goes from zero to 100. Now, a typical kiwi has a glycemic index GI of around 39. Now, that doesn’t mean anything. But compare that to a ripe banana, which has a glycemic index of 62, or a watermelon, which has a glycemic index of 76, whoa. And watermelon, for instance, has a very low sugar content, and yet, it’s basically pure… It’s like drinking sugar water.
Speaker 2:
… pure, it’s like drinking sugar water. I see the damage watermelons do in my patients’ blood work. A number of my patients, particularly in season, go on a watermelon kick. Why? Tastes great, and they’ve been assured that there’s very little sugar in watermelon. And yet every one of them, I see much higher insulin levels, much higher glucose levels, and much more disordered cholesterol numbers and insulin resistance because they went on that low-sugar watermelon kick.
So why kiwi? And why does it have a low glycemic index? Well, it’s loaded with fiber, prebiotic fiber. So eating a whole kiwi with the skin on actually increases its fiber content by a whopping 50% more if you eat it without its skin. Now, the good news is that eating a whole kiwi, this is a green kiwi, with the skin on increases its fiber content by a whopping 50% more than if you eat it without its skin.
So one skin on green kiwi has 3.5 grams of fiber while with skin on gold kiwi, which is actually much smaller, has about three grams of fiber. Now, to compare, you’d have to eat a whole cup of cut up strawberries for the same amount of fiber. And I hope everyone knows now that strawberries are the number one on the dirty dozen list of herbicide and pesticide ridden fruit, number one.
Now, many studies have looked at giving people kiwis to eat, and it shows that they get improved gut microbiome diversity. Everyday consumption of kiwi fruits, especially with the whole fruit with peel, was shown to improve lipid homeostasis and gut microbiota diversity. Why? It turns out that the fiber in Kiwis seem to be really loved by our gut bacteria, particularly the good ones. And in fact, the polyphenols in kiwi also selectively increases the better bacteria in our gut.
Another study in humans show that kiwi fruit is a prebiotic that selectively enhances the growth of intestinal lactic acid bacteria. Now, people have heard of lactic acid bacteria. It turns out that, as you’ll read in The Gut-Brain Paradox, we have hopefully a very good balance between good and bad bacteria, and they’re supposed to be there, bad ones as well as good ones. But it’s when that balance gets out of whack that the problems occur.
And we can actually measure that balance in my patients. And interestingly enough, lactobacilli are a bunch of the really good guys in your gut. So many of my patients, they don’t have very many lactobacilli. So eating kiwis are a great way to increase those lactobacilli. In fact, the gold kiwi is so good at this, there are even companies that sell gold kiwi supplements.
Now, here’s a fun fact. According to one study, eating kiwi can actually help you fall asleep quicker and stay asleep longer. They actually contain vitamin B-6, which can help tired muscles relax, and they’re a great source of magnesium, a mineral that’s crucial for getting good sleep.
Now, there’s a study involving volunteers, 25 people who self-reported sleep disturbances. This study demonstrated that consumption of two kiwi fruit one hour before bedtime for a month significantly improved actigraphy measured total sleep drive, that’s a fancy way of doing a sleep study in a sleep lab, by 17% and sleep efficiency by 2.5%. Now, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but it was actually very statistically significant.
So survey says one of the best fruits you can eat is a kiwi fruit. How do you eat it with a peel? Here’s the easiest way to do it. Chop the ends off with a knife. And when you start, cut it in quarters and then eat it as a sliver. Eventually, cut the ends off and eat it like an apple.
Now, just because it’s probably the best fruit you can eat, doesn’t mean to go hog wild and eat them all day. But from now on, I want you to replace that saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away with a kiwi a day keeps the doctor away. Just remember, don’t peel them, eat the fuzzy part. And some of the best polyphenols are in the skin as well as those gut buddy boosting prebiotics.
Avocados, you got to have avocados in your house because if there’s avocados in your house, there’ll be an avocado in your mouth. You should have an avocado every day. Studies have shown that people who eat an avocado every day lose weight compared to people who don’t eat avocados. Studies have shown that avocados in a salad or mixed in with vegetables make you absorb more of the vitamins and nutrients and polyphenols in those food than if you didn’t have the avocado.
It’s loaded with monounsaturated healthy fats, licoleic acid, which is the major fat in olive oil, loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin K, and the B vitamins. There’s more potassium in an avocado than a banana. So if your doctor told you to get potassium from bananas, ditch the bananas and eat the avocado instead.
Should you use avocado oil and ditch the avocados? Well, while avocado oil is a good high smoke cooking oil, it doesn’t have near the polyphenol content of olive oil. So eat your avocado because it’ll also get you all that wonderful fiber that your gut bacteria need.
Guacamole. Have some guacamole in the refrigerator. There are a number of companies that now make guacamole without tomatoes, which is not supposed to be in guacamole. Or use those avocados when they’re starting to get really ripe and make your own guacamole. And use Belgian Endive as your dipping chip for guacamole and you’ll get a win-win.
My favorite ways to eat avocados. All right, many of you know I love avocados. I have them almost every day. Interestingly enough, there’s actually more potassium in an avocado than there is in a banana, for all you potassium freaks out there.
Now, there’s multiple benefits from avocados. Studies show that when avocados are consumed with a meal, it dramatically increases the absorption of vitamins and minerals, and particularly that goes for a salad. You actually don’t absorb the vitamins and minerals in salads very well. But studies show in humans that adding an avocado into the salad dramatically increases the nutrient absorption of those vitamins and minerals. Who knew?
Just like olive oil, avocados are mainly monounsaturated fats, oleic acid. It’s the good kind of fat in avocados that actually might help a great deal when it comes to your heart health.
Another great perk of eating avocados is their lutein and zeaxanthin content, which many of you know really helps with eyesight. And more and more, we’re learning that it helps with heart health as well.
And shockingly, despite that avocados are mostly fat, they actually support weight loss. Studies have shown that adding an avocado a day to human volunteers improves weight loss as opposed to not having that avocado. Just remember, eating fat does not make you fat. So that’s why I recommend eating one whole avocado a day.
All right, so how are you going to eat that one avocado a day? Let’s talk about some of my favorite ways of eating them. Well, first of all, eat it plain. I like sprinkling a little salt and pepper on an avocado and eating it plain. Drizzle it With olive oil. You get the fat and the feeling of being full, and you get the benefit of the fiber in the avocado and the polyphenols that are in the avocado and the olive oil.
In fact, recently in Paris, I had a sliced avocado as my breakfast every day, and the waiters thought nothing of it. They didn’t go, “Huh?” And there it appeared, ready to go.
If you need more flavor, try adding some of my miso sesame dressing. You can find the recipe in The Energy Paradox or on my website, and it’s delicious on an avocado. So cut the avocado in half, take the pit out, put egg yolks inside the pit and pop it into the toaster oven or broil, and then drizzle it with olive oil and put some salt and pepper on it. Take your spoon, and that’s one of the best breakfasts you’re ever going to have. You’ll get all the lutein and the choline from the egg yolk. You’ll get all the vitamin E from the egg yolk, and you’ll double your benefits because the avocado will help you absorb all those nutrients.
Now, anytime you use an avocado with any other food, you can’t absorb those vitamins. So whatever you’re going to eat, put an avocado with it. On your plate, think of an avocado as your vegetable side dish. I know it sounds crazy, but you’re going to get a phenomenal mouthfeel from having that avocado.
Now it’s obvious, one of the best ways to use an avocado is to make guacamole. But most of the guacamole recipes have tomatoes and peppers, which are not exactly healthy. In fact, true guacamole is never made with tomatoes. And quite frankly, true guacamole is always-
Speaker 2:
And quite frankly, true guacamole is always made with peeled and de-seeded peppers. So it’s easy to do, and thankfully there’s a number of store-bought guacamole that you can get at Costco, that you can get at Trader Joe’s that doesn’t have the tomatoes added the way it’s supposed to be. You can use a dipping chip for guacamole. There’s now some new plantain dipping chips that are great. I personally prefer Belgian endive leaves as my dipping chip. So that’s an easy, easy way to get guacamole into your mouth. And don’t forget, guacamole in itself is great on whatever meat dish that you’re going to serve, whether it’s chicken, whether it’s fish, whether it’s grass-fed beef. Put some guacamole on it, you’ll absorb more nutrients anytime you use it. Here’s another way. These are my olive oil pearls that look like caviar, have the mouthfeel of caviar, and put them in the hole in an avocado scoop, the avocado and the olive oil pearls, it is a mouth-watering treat that once again gets triple the benefits of just olive oil into your mouth.
Well, I’ve been getting a lot of questions on social media about my favorite fruit, avocados. If you have any of my books, you know avocados are one of my favorite go-tos for health. So does it really cause weight gain, as you might have heard? And can you eat too much? Well, let’s dive right in with our myth-busting session. So avocados are full of fat and everybody knows that eating fat makes you gain weight. Now, where in the heck did this crazy eat fat, get fat theory come from? Well, it came about in the primarily seventies, and that was actually caused by some reports in the 1950s that fat, particularly saturated fat, was the cause of heart disease. And this was the famous seven-country study where there was a association with the amount of fat in a diet with coronary artery disease. And as you’ve seen in a lot of my books, this association does not prove causation.
And in fact, the seven countries that were selected were cherry-picked, and I won’t go into that, but fat got evil. And in the 1970s, the McGovern Commission, Senator McGovern, the former presidential candidate, hosted a commission to have US dietary guidelines. And they were very impressed with the seven countries study, and so US dietary guidelines said, “We should avoid fat, period.” Fat has nine calories per gram versus four calories per gram of sugars or proteins. So in terms of weight, fat basically has twice the amount of calories as weight of protein or carbohydrates. So on the surface, that might look like something that’s important. On the other hand, we now know after the failed experiment of low fat diets that in fact calories are not calories. What do I mean by that? Both carbohydrates and proteins cause an elevation in your insulin production, and if you listen, you know that insulin is the fat storage hormone.
Fat on the other hand, does not raise insulin, so that just eating fat doesn’t activate fat storage, whereas eating carbohydrates or protein can potentially activate fat storage. The second thing to remember is that we, when all these dietary guidelines were developed, no one knew about the microbiome. No one knew what foods the microbiome might want to eat, and how much of the food and calories that you were eating and ingesting might potentially be eaten by your microbiome instead of passing on to you. So avocados have a great fat, which is a monounsaturated fat, oleic acid, which just so happens to be the predominant fat in my favorite fat, olive oil. So you get a benefit of oleic acid, but avocados are rich in fiber. Fiber is what feeds the good gut bacteria. That’s what they want to eat, and they take those calories from themselves.
Lastly, there’s really good clinical trials that show eating an avocado a day compared to not eating an avocado a day makes you lose weight. Plus, adding avocados to anything you eat, particularly salads and vegetables, show that you will increase the absorption of polyphenols and other vital nutrients if the avocado was not there. So avocados give you a tremendous health boost anytime you eat them. There’s almost no sugar in an avocado, even the fact that it is a fruit. It’s actually a single-seeded berry, and avocados are pretty easy to find. Now, a lot of people say, “How can you recommend avocados? They’re really expensive.”
Yeah, but if you think about what most of us spend on a cup of coffee every day, or a coffee drink or an energy bar, the energy and benefits that you would get by spending that on an avocado is vastly superior to what you’re currently spending things on. Plus, buy avocados in bulk. Get them really green. I was at Costco yesterday and I actually bought myself another bag of avocados. Some of the discount stores sell avocados. Buy them in bulk, keep them in the refrigerator until you want to ripen them, and you can keep them for an extended period of time. I actually have three green avocados in my refrigerator that I put there before I left for Europe a few weeks ago, and they’re still in perfect condition and ready for me to eat. So don’t be afraid of buying avocados in bulk where you can actually save some money.
Now, can you eat too many avocados? Well, quite frankly, you can eat too many of anything, and we’re going to talk about that in one of my other lectures. But it’s very difficult to gain weight eating avocados. For one thing, they actually are very filling, so try to get yourself an avocado a day. If that’s impossible, go for a couple, three a week. Try to put them, whenever you’re going to have salads, vegetables, try to put them in there. I like to sneak them into foods. You remember in the Plant Paradox, my green smoothie uses a half of an avocado. It’s great for increasing the thickness of any smoothie you want. Believe it or not, in the Plant Paradox Family Cookbook, we have a popsicle recipe using avocados. In our cookbooks, we have a avocado ice cream that is absolutely fantastic. The other thing you can do is make hummus with pressure-cooked chickpeas, and blend in avocado to give it an even better creamy taste. So there’s so many ways to get avocado into your diet.
Speaker 1:
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry Podcast. If you did, please share this with family and friends. You never know how one of these health tips can completely transform someone’s life when you take the time to share it with them. There’s also the Dr. Gundry Podcast YouTube channel, where we have tens of thousands of free health insights that can help you and your loved ones live a long, vital life. Let’s do this together.
