4 Superfoods You Need to Try for Gut Health, Blood Sugar, and Longevity Ep 134

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Hey y'all, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast.
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Because this episode is about food, of course I'm gonna be so excited because this is all about super foods you need to try.
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And I promise there are no gimmicks, just good science and whole foods in this episode.
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So if you want to see some of the things that I've got, then head over to YouTube and you can watch that there.
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So let's waste no time and dive right in.
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Okay, I seriously want to shout this from the rooftops.
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The first superfood that you need to try is oat bran.
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It is seriously the unsung hero of the oat world, if you will.
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In fact, if you're looking at this on YouTube, you can see the picture I took is literally in my kitchen, which is why it's terrible photography.
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I am not a good photographer at all, but I could not find any stock photos with oat bran.
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And you can see, like literally off of the product, oat bran has a creamy, soothing texture and a pleasantly nutty flavor that is remarkably satisfying.
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And let me tell you why.
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It is amazingly rich in soluble fiber.
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So the difference between insoluble versus soluble fiber, insoluble, creates more bulk in your stool.
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Sorry for everyone for talking about food, but that's what I like to do as a dietitian.
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I want happy guts, y'all.
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Happy guts.
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And then soluble fiber absorbs more moisture, so creates softness in your stool.
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So if you are somebody who's constipated, this is your new best friend.
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It's also rich in beta glucans and it's rich in protein.
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Y'all, there's seven grams of protein per third of a cup dry of oat bran, which is the equivalent of one ounce of chicken or one ounce of fish.
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So this is a truly fantastic food that's high in fiber and high in protein.
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And again, it is truly satisfying.
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So if you're somebody who struggles with cholesterol, seriously, this is your best friend because of that soluble fiber.
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It also helps stabilize blood sugar because of those wonderful beta glucans and protein and fiber, which in turn means that it satisfies your appetite.
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So if you're somebody who has a voracious appetite or even looking to do some weight management or even some weight loss, this is your new nutrient-dense, versatile friend.
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So, what is the texture like?
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It's very similar almost to grits, maybe not quite as coarse potentially as grits, although, of course, you can get grits uh cut to any different shape.
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But it has a richer flavor than just plain oatmeal.
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My favorite way to do this, I put water in there, put it in the microwave for about a minute, and I stir in peanut butter, about a teaspoon of molasses, and a little bit of cinnamon.
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And oh, it's delicious.
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This is like one of my favorite morning foods.
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Now, if you like savory, you can do that too.
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So just like oats, just like something like rice, it's like a blank slate.
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And it just wants you to give it some love.
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So savory, I would do this with maybe some diced breakfast sausage or diced breakfast ham, and maybe some sautéed onions, maybe some parsley, maybe some garlic, perhaps some scrambled eggs or some fried eggs on top.
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So just give it a try.
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Seriously.
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Where are you gonna find it, by the way?
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It's hiding because it's not super popular.
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It's not like oats or it doesn't have a large opportunity to, you know, be flashy and sexy, like a lot of the shelf space items that you're gonna see at the regular grocery store.
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This can easily be found online too, but it's typically gonna be on the bottom shelf by the oats, by the big containers of oats, or in the top shelf.
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And if you are somebody who cannot do gluten, they do come gluten-free too.
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All right, so that was food, superfood you need to try number one.
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Superfood you need to try number two is broccoli sprouts.
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What makes these amazing?
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It's this very specific compound.
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One of them is called myrosinase.
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It's in this family of vegetables called the brassica family.
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So in this brassica family is broccoli, cauliflower, kale, bok choy, brussels sprouts, cabbage.
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So anything that if you overcook it, it's probably gonna stink like sulfur, which is because it contains something called sulfuriphane.
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That's all the sulfur sulfur going out.
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So we don't want to overcook uh these foods.
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Collards is another one.
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There is this very specific sort of cascade coming from glucaraffinin using myrosinase as the enzyme to be able to help convert it to sulfurifane.
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Sulfuriphane is seriously a superpower, and we see this all the time in our longevity nutrition coaching group for which genetic testing is included.
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And what makes that so fantastic is learning about yourself and your genetic propensity for detoxification as an example.
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Sulforphane will help you detox or regulate some of your hormones as well.
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So it's great to have this information in conjunction with your genetic testing.
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Regardless, sulforaphane is not only anti-carcinogenic, it's anti-inflammatory, it's immunomodulatory, it's antibacterial, it's heart protective, it's brain protective.
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I mean, come on, y'all.
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This is like amazing.
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Now, specifically with broccoli sprouts, they are richer in that myrosinase enzyme than any other brassica, any other cauliflower, Brussels sprout, kale collared, then you can get your hands on by anywhere between 10 and 100 times more.
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Like these are rock stars.
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Broccoli sprouts are seriously rock stars.
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On that note, if you're like, oh my gosh, I cannot stand sprouts, because if you've never heard of a broccoli sprout, there are a lot of microgreens out there.
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And you're probably most familiar with something like alfalfa sprouts.
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So there are, again, lots of different types of sprouts.
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Broccoli sprouts just happens to be one of them.
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But if you're like, no way I'm eating those sprout things, that is just beyond my pay grade.
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And but you will eat something like broccoli or cabbage or whatever.
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If you are cooking them, make sure to either very lightly cook them and even better, add a little bit of mustard seed, which helps retain that sulfuriphane production dramatically.
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So a little pro tip there.
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Now, these broccoli sprouts, they're very easy to grow on your own.
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You can buy kits of them on the internet.
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You can also purchase them already made at your locals' farmers market, at your local grocery store, although they are a little harder to find.
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But if you're in the Raleigh area, they are in the Raleigh Farmer's Market.
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And if you just Google microgreens producers, you will pop up with wherever you are in the country or wherever you are, wherever you live, you will be surprised, hopefully, that there are some really great microgreen producers out there.
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And they are the folks who you want on your side.
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So when I've gone to the Raleigh's farmer's market and met the gentleman at the farm stand there, he literally has pallets that he has in his backyard in his shipping containers of microgreens, and he literally chops them right there in front of you, puts them in the container, and off you go with super fresh broccoli sprouts.
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This is very important that you try to have fresher because fresher is better in most cases, but certainly in this case.
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You can put them on a salad, you can throw them in a wrap, you can put them in a smoothie, but be sure that you consume it pretty quickly.
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So, like within a half an hour to get all the benefits of that myrosinase and sulfurifane.
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Alright, so our third buddy on the block that we're going to try is fava beans.
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So it truly is the new pulse on the block.
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So hopefully you're eating beans because they are such super powerhouses.
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But there's some really promising research, promising research that's coming out as plant-based peptides.
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You've probably heard of things like collagen peptides.
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Well, this one is plant-based peptides derived from the fava bean.
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So there's a very specific compound that's been developed.
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It's called Peptic.
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It's in a currently in a designs for health protein bar that if you are part of my strength training crew on Monday and Wednesday morning, I bought some and had everybody try it.
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So it's interesting that it's being researched right now to fuel strength and recovery.
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So kind of some interesting things that are coming out there.
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If you don't want to try it as PeptaStrong, then just try it as the actual bean.
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And honestly, you can use them in any application.
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You would use something like pinto beans.
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You can throw them on a salad, you can make them into things like refried beans.
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You can put them into three bean salads.
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I mean, the list goes on with beans.
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I hope you are eating beans in some way, shape, or form.
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They're so insanely high in fiber, they're more filling, and they're just a great food all around.
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All right, last one on the list is Jerusalem artichoke, or some of you may know them as sunchokes.
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So you can see this great picture here.
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They kind of look a little bit like a ginger root.
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Uh, obviously, they don't taste like ginger, but the Jerusalem artichoke is one of the primary natural sources of inulin.
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So that's a prebiotic.
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And if you don't remember what a prebiotic was, I will send you back to our gut health podcast, which explains the difference between probiotics and prebiotics.
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So prebiotics support gut health by stimulating the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria as well as short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which is one of your main sources of fuel for your intestine.
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And this is coming from the actual food, not the isolated inulin that you might see in things like prebiotic sodas these days.
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So, other potential benefits of this is that it can regulate your cholesterol or your lipids, it can regulate your blood sugar, help with weight management, support anti-inflammatory measures, and even support things like iron absorption, which happens in the level of the gut, helps to regulate constipation, and even regulating mood support.
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Because think about it, if in your gut you're creating most of your neurotransmitters, that is going to be so beneficial for both your brain and your mood.
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So the texture is kind of crunchy.
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It's a little bit, I would compare it to sort of like a water chestnut.
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Really great on raw applications, like you can slice them up and put them on salads, you can put them in wraps, you can put them on sandwiches, and they're great on things like um like cooked, like you would do a water chestnut, but just know that the texture will soften a little bit.
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So it just depends on how you want it.
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All right, so those are your four superfoods that you need to try.
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And I am, of course, dying to know how did it go?
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What did you think?
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Do you need some support?
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And hey, I tried oat bran and it was too thick, or how do I make it thinner?
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We've got the tricks for you, so I want to hear all about it.
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And also, do you want to hear more episodes like this?
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So shoot us a DM over on Instagram or head to our webpage, to the contact us page.
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So at the endurance edge on our Instagram and Facebook page.
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And I hope this helps and let me know what you think.
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Thanks again for listening.
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See you guys next time.