The Top 5 Foods You Should Always Be Thinking About

Hang on a second — I’m not suggesting you walk around all day thinking only of these foods. But when you’re out for dinner, at the market, or about to raid the fridge to put a meal together, there are some big concepts and food categories you should have a good, confident sense of. Call it a grounding, call it anything you want.

Here are 5 foods to consider.

Leafy Greens

Without a doubt, the more you can get these into your diet, the better off you’ll be. I’m talking about things like spinach, chicory, arugala (rocket) — just anything that’s big, green, leafy, and darker than your average head of iceberg lettuce.

Lots of people have trouble coming up with ways to cook leafy greens, mainly because they’ve associated them with flavorless, joyless meals normally eaten at a comune out in the woods with no access to salt. You don’t have to do this. Trust me.

Take a look in any Italian or Spanish cookbook — a huge part of their cuisine depends on braising, steaming, or sauteeing green vegetables. Any good Italian restaurant will serve “contorni”, side dishes which are just straight up vegetables. And trust me, if these weren’t delicious (thanks to a bit of salt, olive oil, and red pepper flakes), the Italians wouldn’t be eating them.

Complex Carbohydrates

You should always be trying to replace your simple carbs with more complex ones. If you stick to this simple equation, it’s pretty easy. That means going for whole grain bread instead of the white stuff, or cooking various grains (like long-grain, wild rice) instead of the instant stuff.

Is it more difficult? Sure, a little bit. But there are some simple ways you can get around, say, the extra length of time it takes to cook long grain rice — pre-cook big batches of it, but cook it half-way. That way, when it’s time to start a recipe where normal white rice is concerned (let’s say you’re making a risotto or something), you can take your half-cooked long grain and substitute it for the exact same effect, only double the health benefits.

The other key thing about complex carbs is that by concentrating on them, you automatically exclude overly refined carbohydrates, which are by definition not complex, and don’t help you much. Sure, a plate of pasta won’t kill you, but it won’t do much for you, either.

Fruit

Fruit is fundamental regardless of its health benefits — we should be eating lots of it, no matter what.

But the real reason I want you to concentrate on fruit is because of its sugar content. No matter how hard we work our bodies, how good we get in terms of shape, we’re always going to want a snack sometimes. No one is immune from this. And a sweet snack is no different. That’s why good fruit is so fundamental to have around — if you just decide to buy it instead of any sort of sugar-filled, junk products, you’ll be able to deal with your body asking you for sugar without losing it.

Good Fats

We all need fat. Just make sure it’s good. This rule is super-simple, which is why you should always be able to refer to it quickly when making food decisions.

An example: you’re buying some tuna. At home, you’ve got some extra-virgin olive oil, one of the best fats in the world. This can of tuna comes in “olive oil”, but there’s another one next to it which is “natural”, packed in water. Which one do you get?

Go for the natural one. No one really knows what the quality of tuna-can olive oil is like, and you can bet your ass it’s probably not extra-virgin — chances are it’s been chemically treated and a lot of the great things about olive oil’s omega-3s have been lost.

Remember — avoid saturated and trans fats. This means most of those products with just “vegetable oil” on them should probably be off your list.

Quality Protein

Of course, you’re going to need protein, especially if you’re building up your muscles. But make sure the protein you’re buying is actually good for you. Try to avoid cheap, low-quality cuts of meat — not because they don’t contain protein, but because they probably contain other stuff (antibiotics, whatever else they give to a quickly and badly-raised cow) that you’d be better off avoiding.

While it’s not a 1-to-1 analogy, the idea of “good/bad” protein is similar to “good/bad” calories. Just because a product has protein on it doesn’t mean it can automatically fulfill your protein requirements — when you’re serious about your diet and nutrition, you need to be serious about the quality of what you’re putting in your body.