Action Item #3: Make the Healthiest Choices Across the Spectrum
Most of us aren’t hunters. Most of us can’t take days off from work to gather some edible bulbs and silently stalk a wild beast whose pursuit might not even end in a kill and meal. No, we are modern humans who go to work, who wield income rather than spears, who mosey on down to the grocery store when we need food. We have the luxury – and some might say burden – of choosing what we’ll eat and when we’ll eat it. But strangely enough, there was a sort of freedom in the way we obtained food in years gone past, wasn’t there? When we filled our bellies solely by what we could catch, grow, and gather, there wasn’t a whole lot of junk food sneaking onto our plates. No Twinkies, no double gallon jugs of soybean oil, no golden arches looming over you.
And so now we’re tasked with making healthy choices, whereas before healthy choices were all that existed. It’s great to have the freedom to choose, but we should try to make the right choices.
How do we do it? We make the healthiest choices across the spectrum of foods as dictated by circumstance, access, and finances. Let’s see how they rank, with 1 being “healthiest.” Start with the foods with the first spot and buy those when and if you can.
Red Meat (Beef, Lamb, Pork)
Red meat, along with seafood (and derivative fats), will likely provide the lion’s share of your calories. It’s probably best that you get the best stuff possible.
1. Grass-fed/grass-finished/pastured (pork) – Before organic and before local comes grass-fed and finished. While I try to buy beef from local providers – and usually end up doing just that – I’m most concerned that the beef I eat comes from animals raised strictly on grass. Even a few weeks of grain feeding can alter the nutritional content and fatty acid composition of the resultant meat, so grass-fed and finished is the absolute best. These needn’t be certified organic, but I’ve found that many grass-finished ranchers are organic in everything but name. You won’t find grass-fed pork, because pigs aren’t ruminants, but you can find pastured pork who are allowed to forage and often receive farm waste (milk, whey, fruits, vegetables). Note that “pastured” beef isn’t necessarily grass-fed and finished. Bones, organ meat, and tougher cuts like chuck and stew are less expensive – and arguably more nutritious – ways to incorporate truly grass-finished animals into your diet.
2. Organic – According to the USDA, organic beef must come from cows who were born and raised on organic pasture, must never receive antibiotics, must never receive growth-promoting hormones, must have unrestricted outdoor access, and must be fed only organic grasses and grains. So, yeah, grains. Note that there’s no mention of the breakdown between grains and grasses; it could be 80% grains and 20% grass and still qualify as organic. So, while organic is clearly preferable to conventional meat, it’s unlikely to be superior to grass-fed and finished meat without the organic label.
3. CAFO – Most meat you’ll come across in supermarkets and restaurants will be from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, where animals are treated like mere products and maximum productivity is prized above all – even if it means pumping the animals (and their meat) full of antibiotics, hormones, and pesticide-laden feed. The meat doesn’t taste as good, it’s less nutritious, and, at least in the case of pork, it’s extremely high in omega-6 fats.
Poultry and Eggs
For when you’re not eating ruminants. Dollar for dollar, truly pastured eggs might just be the best use of your money.
1. Pastured – A pastured chicken isn’t just free range, given a patch of dirt upon which to scratch and peck; a pastured chicken is given access to pasture, to grassland teeming with a smorgasbord of delicious insects, nutritious plants, and edible seeds. The best pastured poultry gets most of its calories from the pasture, with a few handfuls of chicken feed to round things out back at the henhouse. Since poultry (and every animal we eat) doesn’t create nutrients out of thin air, its nutritional content is determined by the nutritional content of its diet. A pastured chicken (or duck, or turkey, or any bird) tastes like a different animal altogether, probably because it’s living like its primary ancestor – the jungle fowl (PDF) – and its fatty acid composition bears that out (far less omega-6 than battery-raised birds). Same goes for eggs from the same birds.
2. Organic – Organic poultry gets outdoor access and organic feed. It receives no antibiotics, no drugs, and no hormones (although that’s true for all chickens, at least in the US). It does not get access to pasture, to bugs, or to edible grasses unless otherwise specified. It’s better than conventional poultry, but it’s eating corn and soy (albeit non-GMO, organic) just the same.
3. Free range – Doesn’t mean very much. It has access to the outside, but it’s just a dirt patch. All the food (which is just soy and corn, of course) is inside, so that’s where it’ll spend most of its time. At least it gets to walk around some, rather than being crammed in a cage.
4. CAFO – Avoid if you can, unless you like eating beakless, stationary, big-breasted birds with soybean and corn oil for fat.
Seafood
Seafood and the omega-3 fats, sea minerals like iodine, and other micronutrients it provides are essential. Even if you think you “hate seafood,” check out the lists below and I’m sure you’ll be able to find something you can enjoy.
1. Shellfish, farmed/wild; oily fish, wild; coho, farmed, barramundi – Wild-caught sardines, salmon, tuna, anchovies, mackerel, and herring have the highest levels of omega-3 and, except for salmon and tuna, they’re some of the most affordable fish around. Farmed shellfish are raised essentially like wild shellfish, attached to a fixed object and allowed to obtain sustenance from the ocean; they’re also the most nutrient-dense of the edible sea creatures. And although most farmed salmon is nutritionally inferior to wild, farmed coho salmon is actually quite reminiscent of wild coho. Barramundi is fairly high in omega 3s, about the same as coho salmon. In the wild, it’s omnivorous, but it does very well on a mostly herbivorous diet and needs far less fish meal than salmon while still retaining the omega-3s.
2. Canned oily fish and shellfish - Canned sardines, salmon, light tuna, oysters, mussels, and other fish from the first category are budget-friendly ways to eat healthy seafood. Just stick to BPA-free versions, to avoid the endocrine disruption.
3. Domestic catfish, trout, tilapia, crayfish; non-oily wild fish – While trying to farm wholly carnivorous fish is problematic and usually ends up producing an inferior food, replicating the diet of herbivorous fish is easier. In short, everything listed here is fair game, whether wild or farmed, especially if it’s domestic. Neither they nor the non-oily wild fish like cod are particularly high in omega-3s, but they’re all great sources of protein with decent levels of nutrients.
Vegetables and Fruits
Plants – both vegetables and fruits – form the basis of the Primal Blueprint way of eating. They don’t provide the bulk of calories by any means, but they provide volume and micronutrients. It’s important that you eat the most nutritious, less problematic types.
Growing Method
1. Local organic – The cream of the crop. Food from your neck of the woods grown with organic methods that doesn’t have to travel halfway across the country to reach you.
2. Local conventional – Less transit time means a more recent harvest date means more nutrition. Local ranks higher than anything grown remotely, even organic. Besides, many smaller producers like the ones you’ll run into at farmer’s markets use organic methods without the official stamp of approval from the government.
3. Organic remote – Produce grown without massive amounts of pesticides and herbicides applied tend to have higher levels of polyphenols, the plant’s natural methods of protecting against pests and other aggressors. Those same polyphenols are good for us, too.
4. Conventional remote with skin that’s inedible or easy to wash – If you’re going to eat conventional produce, you best try to stick to vegetables whose skins you peel, remove, or easily wash. Avocados, onions, asparagus – these are pretty safe, since you’re either not going to be eating the skin that’s come into contact with chemicals or you’ll be able to wash it effectively. For fruits, bananas, oranges, mangoes, pineapples, and kiwis are good.
5. Conventional remote with edible or hard to wash surfaces – Leafy greens, broccoli, bell peppers, and other vegetables whose surface area is eaten or too large to effectively wash should be eaten with caution or avoided altogether. Fruits with soft, edible skin, like apples, apricots, peaches, plums, pears, grapes, berries, and tomatoes are best avoided.
Vegetable Nutritional Value
1. Nutrient-dense – Beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, garlic, ginger, jicama, kale, chard, romaine, onion, peas, bell peppers, spinach and yellow squash are some of the vegetables with the highest levels of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial components (like soluble fiber) available. Base your meals and your shopping around these vegetables. Choose “heavy” vegetables, which in my entirely unscientific estimation, are more nutritious.
2. Less nutrient-dense – There’s nothing wrong with stuff like cucumbers, butter lettuce, or iceberg lettuce, but I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on them when there’s so many more intriguing and beneficial options available.
Fruit Nutritional Value
1. Good antioxidant levels, low sugar – All berries, cherries, prunes, peaches, apricots.
2. Good antioxidant levels, moderate sugar – Bananas, apples, figs, grapefruit, kiwi, pears, pomegranates.
3. Good antioxidant levels, high sugar – Pineapple, grapes, mangoes, melons, nectarines, oranges, papayas, plums, tangerines.
Nuts
Although all nuts are highly nutritious, they are calorically dense, and many of them are high in omega-6 fats. When you’re talking about a whole food high in vitamin E and magnesium like an almond or a hazelnut, a little omega-6 isn’t anything to worry about. But when those occasional handfuls of nuts become regular, constant occurrences whose caloric content begins to approximate that of entire meals, the omega-6 fats add up.
1. Low omega-6 content – Macadamia nuts reign supreme on this account.
2. Moderate omega-6 content – Almonds, pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts.
3. High omega-6 content – Walnuts and pecans.
Supplemental Carbs
These are exactly that – supplements with which to address a deficiency. If you’re a hard-charging athlete who trains daily, then you might need some supplementary glucose to function best. If you’re not, though, you may not need these supplements on a regular basis.
1. Tubers and other starchy vegetables – Sweet potatoes of all kinds, potatoes of all kinds, and winter squash like butternut or acorn are all carb-dense and nutrient-dense, making them great sources of both supplemental carbs for athletic purposes and of minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients.
2. Wild rice, quinoa – These pseudo-grains are gluten-free and relatively low in other plant toxins, especially if you soak and ferment them using traditional preparation methods. They’re fine ways to add more glucose to your diet.
Dairy
If you’re tolerant of it, dairy can be a fantastic source of fat, protein, and nutrition. Stick to grass-fed and finished, or at least pastured, dairy products for the superior nutrition (CLA, vitamin K2).
1. Raw, fermented, full-fat – Think kefir, yogurt, and skyr (although it’s low-fat, it’s traditionally served that way). Raw, fermented, full-fat dairy from a trusted, pastured supplier makes for the most nutritious, best-tasting, least-problematic choice. Fermentation takes care of most of the lactose, thus eliminating a potential agent of intolerance, while providing added probiotic benefits.
2. Raw, full-fat – Think butter, cream, whole milk. Raw dairy is more nutritious, it’s fats less damaged, and the full fat content is necessary for proper absorption and presence of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A and K2. Plus, full-fat dairy contains the most CLA.
3. Organic, non-homogenized, full-fat – Sure, it’s pasteurized, but at least the fat globules haven’t been damaged after undergoing high pressure homogenization treatment. The fat-solubles will be mostly intact.
Well, that should get you started for your next shopping trip. Be sure to revisit Action Item #1, where I detailed what not to buy, plus Action Item #2, where I explained how to shop and what fats and kitchen staples to buy, then let me know if you have any further questions on food choices in the comments. Take care and Grok on!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Why are prunes and plums listed separately under different sugar contents? Prunes are just dried plums, and as such should contain more sugar by weight, no? So why are prunes categorized as low sugar and plums as high sugar?
every time these issues come up, of course the costs related to buying good food comes up as well – historically we are paying the absolute least for food (% of budget) than any time in recorded history!
to get a little perspective, google (copy and paste):
Re-thinking the Appropriate Cost of Food
(at Daiasolgaia)
I think it’s important not to eat too much meat/seafood though – I aim for three meat-free days a week, which is easy for me but I know some people might find that challenging.
can you comment, amy, on why you would think not eating too much meat/seafood is important and what is the rationale behind your reasoning?
Although the primal diet advocates eating full-fat meats, I think some people have a tendency to be a little overzealous. I did the calculations for protein intake based on my lean body mass and it comes to about 4 ounces of meat a day, which is only about the size of a deck of cards. If I’m eating eggs, nuts, full-fat yogurt, on a regular basis, I really don’t need much meat as a protein source. Of course, it’s tasty and if I’m shopping right, the fats are great, but that may be what Amy meant. I had a friend who went paleo – I had dinner with him one night and he ate 4 6-inch sausages (which I’m guessing were 6-8oz each) and nothing else. Unless he’s only eating every couple of days, that’s just a huge amount of food.
why is it a huge amount of food? that sounds pretty reasonable to me for dinner.
Josh, so 2 lbs of meat and nothing else is a good idea? Maybe if you’re planning on not eating anything else for a couple of days, or if you are an ocelot.
My point (and probably Amy’s) was that the primal diet still stresses balance and variety and is not just about the glories of meat.
MarkA – saying the sausage is a huge amount of food and saying that only eating sausages and nothing else is bad are 2 different statements. you didn’t see what else your friend ate that day. i eat somewhere in the range of 1-2 lb of meat daily and i am in the best shape of my life. i also eat other things, but some meals are pretty much a plate of meat.
and what calculations gave you 4 oz meat daily? i don’t recall a meat intake calculator on this site. if you’re using something from the FDA and then trying to reconcile that with a diet based on primal principles, it isn’t going to work. remember the FDA paradigm: fat is bad and carbohydrate fueling is good. now remember the primal paradigm (which has a lot more physiological logic behind it): high quality animal and other natural fats are the ideal source for energy for humans and should be the primary fuel. so yeah, the FDA probably says 4 oz of meat is a good idea, but i don’t see why you’re trying to insert that recommendation which was born out of flawed logic into a healthy diet born out of physiological logic.
Having just started going Primal in earnest for the 21 day Challenge, I went to my local supermarket (here in the UK, Sainsburys one of the higher end players supposedly)to buy supplies for a BBQ as there were lots of non primal people. I normally buy high quality 95% Pork Sausages from the premier range as I thought they were ‘Meaty’, when I read the label I was shocked to find a huge list of other stuff in the 5% 1. Wheaty Bread Crumbs, 2. Soy-something, 3. Chemical sulphate stuff I had no idea about what the hell it was.
OMG thought I, burgers next, they had wheat, and stuff in too! I should not have been shocked but the little round pie chart of traffic light nutrients tells me nothing I need to know but CW proportional nutrients and the 6pt ingredients list tells me to avoid the super market aisle.
Crazily I usually go to a local butcher but now I am so paranoid I am going to have to ask him if he puts anything ‘extra’ in his burgers and sausages – which since he won the Country Side Alliance Butcher of the Year for our region last year will probably offend him lots – but I am spooked and I need to trust where I get my meaty goodness from.
Oh I learn! Next years BBQs will be Grok Fest-astic, and the non Primal crowd will cope I am sure. And notice to Supermarkets every where – I am not buying your chemical laden meat products any more I would rather be up all night making my own or give the money to my local trusty Butcher Pete The Meat (Yes he is called Pete and Yes the shop is called Pete the Meat)!
Not sure what the state of ground meats is like in the UK, but in the US it’s pretty easy to find bulk ground beef (not burger patties) and pork sausage with no fillers. (On a side note, the vast majority of e. coli outbreaks in the US have been from pre-formed patties or the pre-packaged plastic tubes of ground beef). There’s a grocery chain in the southwestern US that grinds and stuffs all their own sausage on-site, so you can actually see them doing it if you’re there at the right time of day. They usually have at least one or two types of sausage on sale for $2.99/lb, which I think is very reasonable (Sunflower Market, which was just purchased by Sprouts Market).
For ground beef, if you aren’t sure of the source, you can get a pretty cheap meat grinder for home use and grind your own beef – just by large cuts at cheaper prices, grind and freeze for later use.
In the UK Ground meats are from the butchers or even the supermarket on the whole, in that they are ground meat only. Sausage meat seems to be the big issue. Otherwise it is when you want to buy a product made out of them that the fun starts with added grain and rusk and other unpronounceable stuff.
I think I am going to buy my ground meat and then turn it into Burgers myself. I am still going to try to find sausage meat with no bulking agent before I resort to buying a grinder but I have a feeling I will be posting about how much I love my new meat grinder very soon.
Great heirarchy of goodness Mark. Thanks for posting this!
There is something elitist and luxurious about primal eating/living that rubs me the wrong way.
that’s because you have need well-conditioned to believe that we are veg-carb eaters – the trick is sadly on you and many others who have been led away from your genetically appropriate foodstuffs – to cheap industrialized ag products where the corporate interests can make a bundle selling you high profit, low cost food-like substances.
…BEEN well conditioned… (damn fingers…)
Elite: A group of people considered to be the best in a particular society or category.
Luxury: The state of great comfort
Sounds great – sign me up!
Not really. Just thinking about where I come from. Single parents or two parents working multiple jobs, poor neighborhoods, poor schools, access to shitty grocery stores. Its fine not to eat grains, and get more exercise but telling people to walk around barefoot, or in a certain type of shoe eat grass fed this organic that, oatmeal and rice (things that make food spread) and to a farmers markets, co-ops and grow all your own produce etc…or demand people give up certain comforts in life to do this( work more, give up your interner, your tv, use candles instead of electricity, quit a job, give up your car, because if you dont do it this way you arent doing it right. I think
it rejects a segment of the population. Thats off putting to me. I knew a girl in college that had an absolutist moralistic viewpoint on food and she thought she was on a higher plane of existence than everyone else (as displayed by some people that apply egotism and moralism to their food life choiced), she ended up losing a terrible amount if weight, getting sick, and dropping ou t because she couldnt “eat” anything. Not the cafeteria food, not the crappy grocery store food. There was no organic and no grassfed this and whatever. And she would still preach about her superior food choices.
Great article! It really is all about making the proper food choices! It can be done with diligence and dedication.