 Five foods that you should always have in your kitchen. I know life can get pretty busy and a busy schedule can often lead to very poor food choices. That's why I always keep these five essentials in stock and you should too. First of all, always have some dark bitter greens and lectin-free vegetables in your refrigerator. One of my favorite sayings is more bitter, more better. Interestingly enough, almost all long-lived societies have preferred very bitter greens in their diet, whether they're dark green leaves like arugula or Swiss chard or bok choy or radicchio, which many people call that Italian red lettuce, but is actually part of the chicory family. There are some great varieties of broccoli that are extremely bitter like broccoli rabe or broccoli rabe, and you can find it usually right next to the broccoli in most grocery stores now. More bitter, more better. The bitterness is a sign that there are lots of polyphenols in these products. And get used to that bitterness. Seek it out. The bitterness is what you're looking for. Also, one of my favorite sayings is if you eat dark green, you will become lean. Why? Because these polyphenols will uncouple your mitochondria. And we now know that the polyphenols in these dark bitter vegetables feed friendly bacteria, that polyphenols are some of the favorite prebiotics that bacteria need, and the bacteria in turn will turn these polyphenols into absorbable compounds that will uncouple your mitochondria. So it's always a great idea to keep these dark bitter vegetables in your refrigerator. And the great news is a number of these, if you buy them whole and please buy them whole, will keep for very long time at cool temperatures. In fact, one of the reasons that traditional cultures eat cabbages, which are also quite bitter, is that cabbages will store literally forever through an entire winter. So think of storageable leaves like cabbages, like radicchio, like bok choy. Those are the ones that'll keep in your refrigerator and they'll be ready at a moment's notice when you come home and need something to eat. Second, is certain nuts should always be available to you in your pantry. Nuts are a great way to get healthy fats and to help you feel full. Now, pistachios are one of my favorite and pistachios are the highest source of melatonin in a food that you can get. And melatonin is not the sleep hormone. People who've read Unlocking the Keto Code know that melatonin is actually the essential antioxidant in your mitochondria that protect your mitochondria from damage. Melatonin is an incredibly important protector of your brain, mitochondria. So have some pistachios. Macadamia nuts. Now, be careful with macadamia nuts. They're mostly mono-unsaturated fat. They also have a very cool omega-7 fat that's really good for blood vessel health and omega-5 fat that's good for blood vessel health. But if you're trying to maintain or lose weight, watch out for macadamia nuts. Walnuts. Walnuts are a great source of a short chain omega-3 fat called alpha-linolynic acid that is one of the best health promoters for uncoupling mitochondria that I've ever found. Study after study, particularly the Predomet study in Spain, showed that adding about a half a cup of walnuts to your diet dramatically improved memory in people 65 years of age or older. So my mix at my offices that every patient eats while they're waiting to see me is walnuts, macadamia nuts, and pistachios. Those are the top three. But there are others. Hazelnuts are great. Peely nuts. Many people think it may be the healthiest nut in the world. Check out episode 232 with Jason Thomas, the Peely Hunter, and see what we're talking about. Now, they're great pre-party appetizers. This is the season where we're always awash in parties and there are so many temptations. The problem is you're going to succumb to those temptations if you arrive hungry and if there's a drink in your hand. So what I do to prepare, and I actually did this last night, is I have a generous handful of my Gundry nut mix before we head to the party. I'm satiated. The alcohol is not going to be absorbed very quickly because my stomach is full. And then I'm not that interested in what is on the appetizer platters. There are some great nut butter alternatives. As many of you know, peanut butter is not a nut. Peanut butter comes from a peanut, which is a legume. They're loaded with lectins. The vast majority of us are sensitive to the peanut lectin. Almond butter is an okay alternative, but almonds have a lectin in their peel. There are several companies that now make peeled almond butter, and that's a go-to for many of my patients. But there are other alibi more expensive butters. Pistachio nut butter is great. Hazel nut butter is great. Peeling nut butter is great. Tahini, not from a nut from sesame seeds, is great too if you're looking for kind of that similar mouth feel as peanut butter. So get yourself some new spreads. Ditch the peanut butter. And please, if you're going to use almond butter, get the peeled almond butter that you can find in stores or on Amazon. 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 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 like oleic 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 like Belgian endive as your dipping chip for guacamole and you'll get a win-win. Alright, MCT oil. It ought to be in all of our pantries. MCT oil, as you know, is medium chain triglyceride oil. You're going to get all the benefits of a ketogenic diet by using MCT oil without the hassle. Because MCT oil is rapidly absorbed through the wall of your gut, goes directly to your liver and makes ketones regardless of what else you're eating. So you don't have to go through the trouble of eating a very high fat diet or a low carbohydrate diet or even doing long-term fasting to get the benefits of MCT oil. You should also have extra virgin organic olive oil. And please buy it in small glass containers because once you open olive oil, it will start to go bad. And you should look to use up this olive oil very quickly. That's why, as you know, my Gundry MD, a polyphenol-rich olive oil, is sold in small bottles so that you will use it up and it won't go rancid. Sesame seed oil. Get yourself some unsmoked, uncooked sesame seed oil, non-roasted sesame seed oil. We now have it available at Gundry MD. It's sourced from our same providers in Morocco that our olive oil is. It's another great addition to your diet and put it in salad dressings, pour it on vegetables. It'll add a great taste and it's loaded with fighters against these LPSs that get into your bloodstream and cause high blood pressure. Finally, dark chocolate. Have a collection of greater than 72% dark chocolate in your cabinet. Chocolate is loaded with polyphenols. Again, the higher the cacao content, the better it is for you. Have yourself one square a day. It's perfect for dessert, whether you want it or not. Look for stevia sweetened chocolate like lilies. Costco now carries a big bag of stevia sweetened chocolate chips by a company called Bake Believe. There are on the market alieolus sweetened chocolate. I'll mention one. I have no relationship with Gatsby chocolate is sweetened with alieolus. You can find it on Amazon. Check out my most recent episode all about the amazing benefits of chocolate to learn more. Recently, there's a new study making the rounds and this comes around every few years that there are levels of lead and levels of cadmium in chocolate. Somehow, this is exciting new news. Folks, we've known that there is lead and cadmium in chocolate ever since these levels have been measured. Do not let this fear-mongering dissuade you from the benefits that you will derive by eating dark chocolate. Study after study after study of people who have dark chocolate cacao in their diets. So, improved brain health, improved heart health, improved vessel health. So, please don't see this latest news about lead and cadmium in chocolate dissuade you from having chocolate in your kitchen and enjoying it every night. The next episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast is waiting for you now. Incredibly life-changing stressful events can have the effect of causing leaky gut in and of itself.