Dr. Rhonda Patrick is one of the world’s leading experts on health, nutrition, and anti-aging.
Dr. Patrick’s career has included aging research at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. She also trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, where she investigated the effects of micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) inadequacies on metabolism, inflammation, DNA damage, and aging and whether supplementation can reverse the damage.
She did her graduate research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where she studied the link between mitochondrial metabolism, apoptosis, and cancer.
Dr. Patrick now runs the popular site FoundMyFitness.com, where she is a leading authority on all things health, including exercise, nutrition, fasting, genetics, heat and cold stress, sleep, stress reduction, and more.
Quite simply when Dr. Patrick talks, I listen.
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Dr. Patrick has a great podcast of her own, but recently she joined Lewis Howes on his School of Greatness podcast. During their interview, which lasted more than an hour and a half, Dr. Patrick shared the top 4 foods and 3 supplements people should consume every day.
In fairness, Dr. Patrick recommends a diverse diet filled with lots of fermentable fiber (foods such as blueberries, nuts, mushrooms, dark leafy greens, onion, garlic, etc.). But Howes pressed her to keep it simple if people just want to follow a basic diet and eat the same things every day.
She said if people simply eat these 4 foods every day, they would be setting themselves up for very good health:
Wild Alaskan Salmon
Wild salmon is very high in EPA and DHA, the Omega-3 fatty acids strongly linked with improved brain functioning, cardiovascular health, and reduced inflammation in the body. If you are going to eat animal products, fish and in particular wild salmon should be at the top of your food list.
Dark Leafy Greens
Dark leafy greens are the next superfood Dr. Patrick recommends because they are loaded with vitamins and minerals that are hard to get from other foods. Dark leafy greens are rich in vitamins A, B, C, E and K, and contain an abundance of antioxidants, fiber, iron, magnesium, folate, potassium, and calcium. If Dr. Patrick had to choose just one dark leafy green to eat, she’d recommend sautéed kale.
Avocado
Avocado is the third food on Dr. Patrick’s daily list. Avocados are abundant with healthy monounsaturated fat, fiber, vitamins and minerals. In fact, they even have more potassium than bananas.
Blueberries
Blueberries round our Dr. Patrick’s Top 4 list. Another brain food, blueberries have numerous proven health benefits and are the king of all antioxidant foods. Blueberries contain high amounts of fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and many other nutrients.
Dr. Patrick combines avocado and blueberries in her daily smoothie, which is a great way to check off multiple foods on her list.
By the way, if she could add a 5th food, it would be broccoli sprouts.
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On the topic of food, and since it is an area of hot debate, Howes asked Dr. Patrick if a vegetarian or vegan diet is healthier than a diet that includes meat. Dr. Patrick said numerous studies have shown that vegetarians outlive meat eaters, and in particular have lower rates of cancer. But there could be a healthy user bias, because vegetarians tend to lead healthier lifestyles overall. In fact, when you account for those other lifestyle factors – things like smoking, obesity, or drinking too much – Dr. Patrick says mortality is actually the same among vegetarians and meat eaters.
Red meat also often gets lumped in with processed meat, which undoubtedly is harmful because of the processing with nitrites. Meat eaters do seem to have higher levels of the hormone IGF-1, which promotes growth throughout the body. This can be problematic in the case of cancer and is perhaps why low protein diets have been shown to blunt the growth of cancer. However, if you are exercising – and in particular strength training – then the IGF-1 can more effectively move to your brain and muscles, which is where you want it.
So overall the question of eating meat or not is a complicated one, but meat is a good source of micronutrients and Dr. Patrick believes meat can be part of a healthy diet if you are active and exercising (and not obese).
If you do choose to eat meat, Dr. Patrick says the best ones to choose are (in this order):
Fish
Poultry (which she mentioned is actually associated with having a lower epigenetic age)
Red meat (organ meats like liver are especially rich in nutrients)
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Howes also asked Dr. Patrick about the vitamins and supplements she recommends people take every day. Based on the evidence, she recommends the following 3 supplements:
Multivitamin
A multivitamin acts as an insurance policy to ensure you are getting adequate amounts of all vitamins and minerals. Dr. Patrick didn’t mention the brand of multivitamin she takes, but it has been reported she uses O.N.E. Multivitamin.
Fish Oil
Dr. Patrick also recommends a high-quality fish oil every day. Fish oil has the beneficial Omega-3s EPA and DHA mentioned earlier when discussing wild salmon. Taking a fish oil supplement is especially important if you do not eat much fish. I personally take Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega 2X which has a high dose of both EPA and DHA.
Vitamin D
The final daily supplement Dr. Patrick recommends is vitamin D. Healthy levels of vitamin D are essential for overall health, especially for the cardiovascular system, cognitive functioning, and for reducing inflammation. However 42% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D (a deficiency that impacts about 1 billion people worldwide). It has been reported that Dr. Patrick takes this vitamin D supplement from Thorne Research.
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For better health overall., Dr. Patrick says the best two areas to focus on are micronutrients and exercise. She says if you get the right micronutrients from your food, you will be eating healthy. And exercise is incredibly important for cognition and neuroplasticity.
Hopefully these simple daily recommendations help you maintain or improve your overall health.