Power Foods
The Magic 13
by TC

I've had the dubious pleasure of eating lunch or dinner with hundreds —
maybe thousands — of bodybuilders, weight lifters, athletes, and figure
competitors and the undeniable truth is that almost all of them eat
like crap. Despite what they might think, a chicken breast and
some steamed rice is not a healthy meal, and that's what they eat most
of the time, occasionally substituting a potato for the rice. Sure,
it's a lot better than what most Americans cram down their gullet, but
it sure doesn't feed the machine. These assorted athletes and
wanna-be athletes are able to function adequately on their fowl dinner,
but that's because the body can take a lot of abuse. I remember reading
an article about a Japanese man who had survived for 15 months on nothing but popcorn. Think his nutrition was adequate? Well chances are yours ain't much better, bubba. My
diet has rarely been beyond reproach, but doggone it, I'm getting
better about it; a lot better. I've consulted the writings of our own
resident nutritionists — Berardi, Lowery, and Barr — in addition to
books like SuperFoods by Steven Pratt, M.D., and I've come up
with my own list of 13 "Power Foods." However, I didn't look at foods
as a nutritionist; rather, I looked at them from the perspective of my
training as a microbiologist. Each food was chosen because it
appears to have incredible, almost drug-like effects on human
physiology. While I make no guarantees (there isn't a nutritionist
alive who can), eating these foods often will quite likely change your
health and change your life. These are foods I buy each week,
usually on Sunday. I buy specific quantities and my goal is modest: to
finish off the amount I bought by the next Sunday. Maybe it's a little
sloppy or haphazard, but who the hell has the time to plan and prepare
each meal? My way is simple. And it works. Here are my
choices in no particular order, along with the reasons why I've
included them and the amount you should try to eat each week:

Broccoli In
1992, a study conduced at Johns Hopkins found that broccoli consumption
prevented the development of tumors by 60% and it reduced the size of
tumors that did develop by 75%. Clearly, broccoli, like Stacy's mom, has got it going on. Broccoli
contains more polyphenols than any other common vegetable. It also
contains large amounts of indoles, which are potent estrogen blockers. Other
super powers possessed by broccoli include an ability to boost the
immune system, build bones, fight birth defects, and to ward of
degenerative eye diseases. Ways to eat them: You
might want to consider buying broccoli sprouts when they're available
as they're 10 to 100 times more powerful than mature broccoli spears. To
eat them, use them in stir-fry dishes or puree them and mix them in
soup. Of course, there's always my way, which is to steam them and
serve drowned in olive oil and blanketed with red chili flakes. How much to eat: 1/2 to 1 cup daily

Wild Salmon Ordinary
salmon wear pocket protectors and study to be engineers. Wild salmon,
on the other hand, go to raves and listen to that crazy salmon music. Nahh,
I'm talking about eating salmon that were raised in the wild, like
Alaska. Farm-raised salmon are fed corn and grain and they develop
fatty acid profiles that aren't much different than most of our animal
food sources. In other words, the farm-raised variety is
woefully deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids, which is pretty much the
whole reason you'd want to eat them in the first place! Sadly,
most of the time when you order salmon in a restaurant, you're getting
the farm-raised variety. It's best to ask before you order. Most
of you are well aware of the beneficial effects of salmon oil, but
here's a mercifully brief refresher course in case you're not. Salmon
oil reduces the risk of coronary artery disease; controls hypertension;
controls inflammation; prevents cancer; prevents degenerative eye
diseases, and it may well boost your metabolism, making it easier for
you to lose fat. Keep in mind that the Omega-3 fatty acids in
fish are, obviously, marine based, and that the Omega-3 fatty acids
found in walnuts and flaxseed are plant based. As such, it's best to
include both kinds in your diet. Ways to eat it: Bake it, broil it, steam it. Or just buy Biotest's Flameout capsules. How much to eat: 24 ounces (3 8-ounce servings)

Grass-Fed Beef Most
of you probably know that the vast majority of beef in the US is
corn-fed. Hell, they advertise it like it's a good thing: "We have
corn-fed beef at $9.99 a pound!" Well it's not a good thing. Here's what I wrote about the subject in a previous article:
"Nowadays,
most cattle spend an average of 60 to 120 days in feedlots where
they're fattened up before being slaughtered. Obviously, most of us
know that heavily marbled beef isn't exactly part of a healthy diet but
there are other things going on that you need to know about. Feeding
cattle corn instead of grass drastically upsets the balance of
essential fatty acids found in their meat.
"The
modern American diet is criminally short on Omega-3 fatty acids and
these fatty acids, when consumed in optimal amounts, can potentially
prevent coronary artery disease, hypertension, arthritis, cancer,
diabetes, and various inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.
Conversely, the American diet is high in Omega-6 fatty acids. While
Omega-6 fatty acids are important to health, too, bad things happen
when the ratio of these fatty acids is altered; namely, the
aforementioned maladies.
"Many scientists guess
that man evolved eating an Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acid ratio of 1 to
1 from both meat and plant sources. An acceptable modern day ratio
would be approximately 3 to 1. Trouble is, corn-fed cattle, in various
studies, have exhibited ratios of 21 to 1, 11 to 1, and 20 to 1. Not
good. Grass-fed cattle, on the other hand, exhibit ratios of 3 or 4 to
1.
"Similarly, the meat from grass-fed cattle
contains significantly higher amounts of CLA, which supposedly lowers
the risk of cancer." I hope one part of that sunk in, the part about grass-fed cattle having a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 of 3 or 4 to 1. That
makes grass-fed beef about as good a food as wild salmon. And we weight
lifting people shouldn't forget that grass-fed beef contains relatively
large amounts of creatine. Maybe that's why we feel stronger when we
eat it. Lastly, grass-fed beef has a lot less saturated fat than corn-fed, and that in itself is noteworthy. Ways to eat it: What, I gotta' tell you how to make a steak? How much to buy: 24 ounces (3 8-ounce servings)

Walnuts People
who eat walnuts have fewer heart attacks. One study actually found an
inverse relationship between walnut consumption and all deaths. I
don't know how a walnut could keep you from being hit by a runaway
streetcar, but I do believe it's one healthful little nut. Walnuts are
one of the few rich sources of plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha
linolenic acid), thus complimenting the animal-derived Omega-3 fatty
acids we get from another Power Food, salmon. They're also high
in plant sterols, which reduce cholesterol. Combine that with their
arginine-powered ability to keep the insides of blood vessels smooth
and you can understand their effect on heart health. In
addition to all that, they're the nut with the highest anti-oxidant
activity, and they contain rich amounts of magnesium and copper, two
minerals that are typically deficient in the American diet. Ways to eat them: By the handful, on top of a pudding made out of Metabolic Drive, or on top of a salad. How much to eat: 8 ounces (1-ounce or one small handful a day)

Olive Oil Hell,
if it were socially acceptable, I'd go to the bar and order a whisky
with an olive oil chaser. That's how much I like this Power Oil. A
health study in 2005 compared the effects of different types of olive
oil. The first type, "extra virgin" contains the highest amount of
polyphenols, while the other olive oil was a lesser blend containing
one-fifth the polyphenols in the first type. Those using the
extra virgin olive oil on their bread exhibited a marked increase in
arterial wall elasticity, while those that ate the lesser stuff
exhibited no change. Lesson learned: use extra virgin olive oil. Aside from making arterial walls more elastic, olive oil has many of the same benefits that walnuts do. As
far as bodybuilders and figure competitors are concerned, adding olive
oil to your meals is a necessity in that most of us, in an attempt to
balance out our fat intake, have increased saturated fatty acid intake
and Omega-3 intake while neglecting monosaturated fats like olive oil. While
other oils contain their fair share of monounsaturated fats, olive oil
is the king with 72% of its fatty acid compliment being monounsaturated. Want
to control your food intake and lose fat? Steam some vegetables and
drown them in olive oil and red chili flakes and serve with your
favorite cut of meat. This simple act, done 5 to 6 times a week, will
melt the pounds off. Ways to eat it: By the tablespoon, on a salad, in a Metabolic Drive shake, or poured over your steamed vegetables. How much to eat: 3 Tablespoons a day

Blueberries If for some reason, you stubborn person you, were to only eat one food from my list, this is the one I'd recommend. This
humble little berry contains a greater number of antioxidants than any
other known fruit or vegetable. Just one serving contains more
antioxidants as five servings of carrots, apples, broccoli, or squash. Just a couple of years ago, the Journal of Clinical Nutrition
found that people who ate one cup per day had a perpetual increase in
the amount of antioxidants in their blood. Maintaining this physiologic
state, they guessed, probably plays a big role in the prevention of
cancer, cardiovascular disease, and degenerative eye diseases. There's
also a study that's probably of particular interest to readers of this
site: people who ate large amounts of blueberries every day performed 5
to 6 percent better on tests of motor skills than a control group. Ways to eat them: Buy
them dried, fresh, or frozen (they're not a crop that's heavily treated
with pesticides, which is often of concern when buying dried fruits). Turn
them into a jam and spread them on toast. Throw them into the blender
with your Metabolic Drive. Mix frozen ones into your oatmeal. How much to eat: 1 cup a day

Flaxseeds Flax
seeds are, bar none, the best source of plant-derived Omega-3 fatty
acids. Including them in a diet that contains reasonable amounts of
saturated fats (about 30% of fat intake), reasonable amounts of olive
oil and walnuts (about 30 to 40% of fat intake), and a combination of
plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids and animal or marine based Omega-3
fatty acids (grass-fed beef and salmon) along with a modest amount of
Omega-6 fatty acids is probably the perfect prescription. In
addition to being a rich source of plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids,
flaxseeds also contain fiber, protein, and magnesium. Ways to eat them:
Make sure you grind your flaxseeds — the nutrients are difficult to
absorb from the whole seed. Once they're ground, store them in small
airtight jars and sprinkle them on your oatmeal, your salad, or into
your Grow! shake. How much to eat: About two tablespoons a day. That means you can grind up about a half-cup at a time.

Pumpkin I
don't expect you to go out every October and hoard pumpkins. Canned
pumpkin is available all year round and the canned version is actually
more nutritious than the raw version. What makes pumpkin so
cool is its synergistic blend of phytonutrients. In fact, pumpkin
contains the richest supply of carotenoids known to man. These
carotenoids are suspected to modulate immune responses, enhance
cell-to-cell communication, and protect against various cancers. One
carotene in particular — alpha carotene — is even suspected by some to
slow aging. While you might assume that pumpkin is glycemically
incorrect, you're probably thinking about the pumpkin puree that Granny
uses to make her pies. Pure canned pumpkin, on the other hand, has only
42 calories a half-cup, along with 5 grams of fiber, which is more
fiber than most breakfast cereals. Ways to eat it:
Mix a little in with Metabolic Drive and some Jell-O Instant Sugar-Free
Fat-Free Pudding Mix and blend in skim milk until you get the desired
consistency. How much to eat: 1/2 cup 3-4 times a week