 The five foods you need to buy organic or else, buy organic. You've heard me say this a thousand times, to avoid those nasty, health-harming herbicides like Roundup by buying organic when it's feasible for your budget. In fact, I have an entire video dedicated to the evils of this poison and how to avoid it, titled, The Number One Worst Ingredient Hiding in Your Food. But the good news is, you can actually save quite a bit of money on your grocery bills knowing which items you absolutely need to buy organic in which you don't. So let's talk about the ones you don't need to buy organic if you're trying to save some bucks. The rule of thumb is, if it has a shell or a peel that you're going to get rid of and you can throw it out, then you should be okay to buy non-organic. For example, avocados. You should be okay because you're going to throw the peel away. Walnuts and most nuts for that matter, melons, onions, yams, pomegranates, passion fruit, all of these you're usually going to get rid of the peel so that whatever might have been sprayed on them and certainly something could have been sprayed on them, you're going to toss it. Now, with foods that have shells and peels, the less you have to worry about buying organic. Now one might argue that the nutrition in the organic version of these foods, like an avocado or a walnut, might be better. But believe it or not, there are contradictory studies comparing organic versus non-organic produce. And while some studies do show an increased content in polyphenols, and as you know that's really important, other studies have really failed to find a significant margin in these. So in these sorts of foods where you're going to throw away or peel the surface off, buying non-organic is where you can save some money. Okay, now here are my top five foods to buy organic no matter what. Mushrooms, berries, cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, and lectin-free flowers and grains like millet and sorghum. We're really seeing more and more lectin-free flowers come on the market and it's actually really exciting to see. We're seeing sorghum flower, we're seeing tapioca flower, we're seeing tiger nut flower. And most of these you want to try to buy organic. You've probably seen that almost all oats in this country, including organic oats, have glyphosate, which is actually really scary. So you're not going to eat oats anyhow. But the point remains, you really want to try to find organic safe lectin-free grains when you're going to use them to bake. Because the odds are, if they're not organic, they have traces of glyphosate, which you want to avoid. Now there's certain of these flowers that should be safe if you don't buy organic. Like coconut, like cassava, like arrowroot, things that grow underground, like tiger nuts. So those flowers should be particularly safe because you're in general not going to contaminate them with glyphosate. Now almond flower, the big mistake that I see people make is they're buying ground almond flower, not blanched almond flower. As many of you know, almonds unfortunately have a lectin in their peel. And so many times I see people who are using almond flower without getting blanched almond flower. And that's really important. So organic almonds don't have to worry about that so much because you're going to throw the shell away. But make sure you take one more step and take the peel away before you use almond flower. So same way it goes with oils. You want to find for the most part organic olive oil as your main source of oils. Why? Because pesticides are sprayed on olive trees. In fact, in many places of the world there's a funny little bug that is growing into olives. And Italy has outbreaks of these every few years. It doesn't look bad for this year but this year's crop is pretty much decimated because of the heat wave and there may be very little olive oil. But try to buy organic olive oil that way you know because those olives are picked off the tree and squeezed and make olive. So anything that's been on the olive is going to be in your olive oil. Same way with coconut oil. You don't have to worry about coconut oil because the haul is going to be removed. Sure, it's great if you see organic coconut oil and most of the time that's what you see but if you don't see it, don't panic. Same with perilla oil. Perilla oil, most that I've seen are organic. It's unusual for perilla crops to be sprayed with pesticides. So that's what you do with oils. Finally, when we're talking about produce with peels and shells, there are a few foods you actually should eat the peel because of their incredible nutrients. Let's talk about citrus first. Believe it or not, some of the best ingredients, nutrients in citrus are actually in the white pith. That's the stuff that you peel off and throw away. The pith contains large amounts of polyphenols and also phytonutrients, including a compound that you've heard about curcitin, sometimes pronounced curcetin, that is present in the pith of citrus. It's also present in the peels of apples and it's also present in onions. As many of you know, curcitin is actually one of the strongest antihistamines there is without producing any drowsiness. There's some evidence right now that curcitin is protective against COVID. So eat the peel, the pith of the citrus. The other part of citrus is the actual peel and it is loaded with a compound called d-limonine. D-limonine is one of the best liver protectors there is. In fact, I have d-limonine in one of my products to support the liver. How do you get that? Well, you can certainly have some of that peel and eat it by comquats when they're in season. Comquats, you get the whole package. You get the citrus fruit, you get the pith, and you get the peel in a really tasty package. Slice them up whenever you see them, put them in your salads. It's a great way to get all these nutrients. Kiwis. Kiwis, believe it or not, are probably the lowest glycemic fruit that you can eat. Great news. They're packed with fiber, but fun fact, the polyphenols are concentrated in the peel. So, by organic kiwis, chop the ends off and then eat the peel. Eat it like an apple or slice it up. It takes a couple of times to get used to that fuzziness, but you'll get the benefits of a load of polyphenols and you'll amaze your friends. Now, pistachio. As you know, I'm a huge fan of pistachios because of their melatonin content and their polyphenol content. But I have many patients. In fact, I just saw one yesterday who go on pistachio binges because I say they're so good for you. And when you buy shelled pistachios, it is really easy to overeat them. Here's the trick. Buy pistachios in the shell. Buy them roasted and salted. I don't care. Buy them raw. Peel them. There's a little kind of paper thin thing that's left inside the shell. Sometimes it's attached to the nut. That little shell piece is actually the highest concentration of polyphenols that anybody's ever measured. So it'll slow down your eating if you crack your pistachios and take the time to dig that little piece out of there, that little thready thing, and eat that as well and you'll get a double bonus from the benefits of pistachio. And one more quick note about vegetables. Now especially when folks start out on my eating protocol, people tend to overdo it on cruciferous vegetables, which can sometimes suppress thyroid function, particularly when you're going all in on cauliflower and broccoli and bok choy and Brussels sprouts and cabbage. In fact, just this week in different parts of the country, I saw two patients who pretty much had switched over to a full cruciferous meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and both of these individuals had suppressed their thyroid function. Now their thyroid levels were perfectly normal, but we could pick up that their thyroid was struggling. And it's an easy fix. Don't go all in on any one class of foods, particularly the cruciferous vegetables. Most of you will not be harmed by this, but I've seen it enough that a word of warning. All right, that's it for the day. The important organic vegetables that you need to buy and the ones you don't have to worry about. See you next week. I think you're going to love this one. One of the easiest fibers to add to your diet is inulin. And inulin is present as a powder, it has a slightly sweet taste. You can put it in your smoothies, you can add it to your vegetables.