Phytonutrients and Zoonutrients

Remembering to get phytonutrients
Remembering to get phytonutrients i.e. plant nutrients can be hard precisely because they are largely left out of the typical American diet. (aka S.A.D. or Standard American Diet)

I was just watching the Joel Furman "Eat to Live" program rerun on PBS last night for the 1000th time this month. His main point is a good one: a big cause of overeating and obesity is the lack of phytonutrients (plant nutrients) in the foods we do eat. He gives the examples of a piece of white bread or chicken which have zero/nearly zero phytonutrients, whereas broccoli or kale have over 100 times more. Also, many types of cancer have been linked to a severe deficiency in phytonutrients.

Furman made a really good point, that you can eat a huge burger and fries and a soda, be totally full, but still be starving for phytonutrients.

It make me get back to making sure I get enough plant nutrients. I personally like sea plants much more than regular salad bar stuff. Many of the "superfoods" are types of seaweed/algae like spirulina and cholorella which are truly powerhouses. The new ANDI and ORAC scores are really good tools to figure out what plant foods you like are also high in phytonutrients.

Dr. Furman also mentioned the acronym GOMBBS: Greens, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Beans, Seeds. These are the most nutrient-dense foods, he says.

I used to get a lot more phytonutrients when it was easy, I remember at some jobs in the past there was a salad bar at work and every day I threw down a big salad full of phytonutrients--and my weight was easier to control. Then in other years, while I didn't get have a salad bar I ate at Subway every day and would get a footlong with literally every possible veggie topping, from onions to olives to tomatoes, etc. so it was basically a huge salad on a sandwich (I had to stop eating at Subway when I went gluten-free).

So now I am left with no salad bar and no Subway. For a while I have been eating nearly every day at those Peruvian "Pollo" rotiserrie chicken places, which have Yuca/Cassava and cole slaw which are both good for you. I actually will drive across town just to get the yuca and the cole slaw. Cabbage has a high ANDI score of 481 out of 1000, I realized I actually crave cole slaw (which is mostly cabbage) and eat it every day.

So I'm back to finding more easy ways to get phytonutrients, like a big spoon of spirulina, a side of black beans, a few mushrooms, etc. A little salad with nutrient powerhouses is a lot better than no salad.

Don't forget about zoonutrients
There are a lot fewer people talking about "zoonutrients" per se, but they are crucial as well. Only a miniority of people should even consider being vegetarian. Milk, eggs, whey protein, meat, fish all have tons of micronutrients beyond just protein and fat. Here are a bunch:

calcium - no plant source has anywhere near the calcium of milkcarnosine and carnitine - two key muscle amino acids found only in meatglycine - a key amino acid found in giant amounts in pork skins, of all things, and also chicken breast and egg whites
COQ10 - this stuff sells for $50 a bottle but you can get it free by eating rare red meat
creatine - especially in red meat
alpha-lactalbumin and lactoferrin in whey protein
growth factors IGF-I and IIcertain essential sugars
good cholesterol - in raw or lightly-cooked egg yolksType II collagen - found in chicken cartilage - this stuff is actually sold as a supplement, definitely eat the cartilage of a chicken (end of the leg and breast bones)