Gain Wellness: 4 Nutrients Essential For Every Meal

Introduction: Four Essentials for Every Meal 0:00

Hey, guys. Dr. David Jockers here. And today I'm talking about four things I make sure I have in every meal that I consume. And so these are really important. If you understand this rule and this principle, you are going to get the most nutrients. You're going to have satiety. It's going to help reduce cravings. You're going to turn on fat burning and you're going to reduce inflammation in your body. So you have more energy and better mental clarity. So when I look at this, the first thing I always think about is where is my protein coming from?

That should be the first question you ask. And that could be let's say you're making a protein shake, right? It could just be like a powder, like a good quality, let's say whey protein, bone broth protein, collagen protein, plant based protein, whatever it is that you're putting in there for the protein source,

Protein: How Much and Why It Matters 0:58

that's great. You may even, you know, there's people out there that make protein shakes and they'll just use like, for example, raw eggs, right? that they'll actually put in their protein shakes. So that's great. That's, that's a protein source. You want to make sure you're getting enough protein. I recommend roughly about 30 to 40g of protein in every meal. Now, if you consume more than that in a meal, that's not necessarily a problem, especially if you're somebody that just needs more calories in general.

maybe you're, you know, a little bit larger. You've got a lot of muscle mass on you. You're very athletic. You're doing weight lifting. You might need 50, 60g of protein. That's totally fine as long as you're not doing that. And every single meal, you know, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. And so I talk about that in other videos, but you want to do something called feast or famine cycling, right? Where are you going? Periods of time throughout the day where you're not consuming food, particularly at night, like while you're sleeping overnight?

You consolidate your eating window. But protein is the first thing you should be thinking about. Where am I getting my protein from? I want to get roughly 30 to 40g, maybe more, depending on your body type. Okay, if you're smaller, not as athletic, don't have as much muscle mass. You're great with 30g, right? For some of you guys, it may even be hard to get 30g. You might be fine with 25, but that's kind of always the goal. I find that most people, when they're shooting for about 30g of protein, that really helps them have satiety.

It helps them with, maintaining lean body mass. You know, if you're young in your weightlifting, you're trying to build muscle mass. As you get older, it's harder to build muscle mass, but you want to maintain your muscle mass. So you don't want to go through what we call sarcopenia, where you lose muscle mass. And this is a really detrimental effect of aging, is that so many people, as they age, they have reduced protein absorption, meaning that they're not producing as much stomach acid. When they eat protein, they don't absorb the amino acids as effectively, and they're not doing any sort of resistance training.

And so they're not stimulating their muscle mass, right, or challenging their muscle mass. And so they lose muscle. We call it sarcopenia. They become more weak, frail. They can fall and break a bone. Right. So osteoporosis kind of goes hand in hand with sarcopenia. People experience higher levels of osteoporosis as they're also losing muscle mass. So if you consume enough good quality protein, that's going to really help prevent that and keep you strong, keep you agile as you're getting older. Right.

So protein number two is fat should be thinking about where am I getting my fat in this in this meal. Right. And good fat sources are going to be things like eggs. They're going to be things like grass fed butter. Right. And so you can find it at your grocery store, butter from grass fed cows or several brands out there that's got lots of conjugated linoleic acid in it. It's got lots of fat soluble nutrients, healthy fats that actually help your body burn fat for fuel. They actually provide a great, fuel source for your brain.

And the fatty acids make up the outer layer of every cell in your body. So grass fed butter is a great source.

Healthy Fats and Best Sources 4:08

Extra virgin olive oil. One of my favorite sources. Extra virgin olive oil. Fantastic for your body. Avocados, coconut oil, coconut products. You know, you can find coconut milk, things like that. Those are the best sources of fat. And you also want to get a little bit of omega three. So if you're eating like wild caught, salmon or something like that, you're going to get some omega three is good quality omega threes in as well. So fat you should be looking roughly about 30g of fat in each meal.

If you don't have a gallbladder, you have something like that. You just have fat malabsorption issues. Then you may get a little bit less right. Maybe 20g is good for you. You got to kind of find your threshold there. But I find that about 80% of our population does great when they get 30 to 40g of protein, roughly about 30g of fat, maybe more. Again, if you're young, you need higher amount of calories. You may look at bumping that fat up to 40, 50, 60g in a meal. Okay. But if you're, you know, the average individual, roughly about 30g of fat in a meal, healthy fats, that's what you're looking for.

Third thing is polyphenols, right? You may or may not have heard of that term, but I use it a lot right? When we're talking about things like, for example, dark chocolate, right? Dark chocolate is rich in polyphenols. It's amazing for your body polyphenols. Your gut microbiome will break those down and they'll actually create something called your olefins. Right. Or you know, these different post biotic compounds that help support the mitochondria in your intestinal tract. And by making the mitochondria in your intestinal tract stronger, more stress resilient, that actually helps reduce inflammation throughout your entire body, lowering your risk of diabetes, heart disease, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, right.

All these types of things. So where do we get polyphenols. We got to think about colorful foods, right? Colorful plant based foods is typically where we're getting these polyphenol oils now. Things like for example olive oil right. Extra virgin olive oil, one of the best sources of high quality polyphenols. You have things like olio canto, which has been researched and actually shown to kill cancer cells, you know, in vitro and things like that. And so, olive oils, great dark chocolate is great green tea.

You've probably heard of catechins or SGC, right? Epic galactic attachments, EGCg.

Polyphenols and Fiber for Lower Inflammation 6:34

so that's a polyphenol. You also have, polyphenols in blueberries, raspberries. We find them in, oregano. Right. Tumeric. Right. All these different spice and herbs and colorful types of foods. Right. Tomatoes have lycopene, right? That's a, a polyphenol. Right. So there's these polyphenols. So we're looking for lots of color in your meals. Get some colorful vegetables, herbs, things like that. Extra virgin olive oil, you know, some dark chocolate. Right. That's great. That's going to add these polyphenols to drive down inflammation.

And oftentimes polyphenols go along with fiber. Right. And fiber helps to actually grab toxins in your intestines right. That are pushed out by bile which comes from your liver and your gallbladder. Your liver produces the bile gallbladder stores it, right. It pushes it out to help emulsify fats that are in your diet. So again, you got to have the fats and then the fiber right in the, in the, that you're eating. The plant based fiber helps grab the toxins and helps escorted out through your feces.

Right. So good quality fiber is something you're looking for, particularly soluble fiber, things that you're going to find in avocados and different vegetables, fruits and vegetables in general. So if you're focusing on getting some good colors in your, in your meal, you're typically going to get the fiber that you need. Right. So fiber is fantastic for your body. So these are the four keys right here protein fat polyphenols and fiber. This fifth one is optional but it says fermented right. So getting some sort of fermented food or beverage you could do something like taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in your water before your meal.

And that's actually been shown to reduce your blood sugar response. And insulin response that you have when your body when you consume food by up to 40%. Right. So it helps stabilize your blood sugar. You're also providing acetic acid and enzymes. Acetic acid is a post biotic post. Biotics are something that bacteria produce that have a therapeutic effect on our body. They help reduce inflammation. They help strengthen our, intestinal lining, making it more resilient to stress. So apple cider vinegar is a great one.

You might do something like sauerkraut or kimchi or pickles, right? We all heard of pickles. And so you can get some good quality pickles. Organic pickles. I know my kids love pickles, right? And so have that with your meal. And that's a fermented cucumber. You're getting the enzymes. You're getting, you're getting the post biotics that are produced there to help bring down inflammation. You're also getting fiber with that as well. So that's great. Cabbage when you ferment cabbage and you produce something like sauerkraut, for example, there's a unique, post biotic that's produced.

We call it vitamin you. Right. And it's really powerful as an anti-cancer agent. So sauerkraut is fantastic. You can even just drink the sauerkraut juice as an example. And that can also help you. Now, I would say the fermented element isn't necessary for a good, anti-inflammatory meal. That's not necessary, but it can be. It can be very advantageous, right, to even bring down inflammation, blood sugar and insulin response even more. Right? So add in that fermented when you're able to. But really focus on these four right here protein fat polyphenol.

So again colorful plant foods one I didn't mention was like green leafy vegetables arugula you know watercress different things like that rich in polyphenols. So protein fat polyphenols fiber. Some people do really well on a high fiber diet, meaning that they do great when they're getting like 15 20g, 30g of fiber in a meal. Other people don't do well, they that actually concentrates them or gives them more gas and bloating. So they might do better with 5 or 10g, you know, or something like that.

Fermented Foods and Final Takeaways 10:35

Ten grams or so. So you got to kind of find where your fiber threshold is. I think of it like a bell curve. Some people over here on this side do great with high amounts of fiber. They feel better. Some people do do well with kind of a medium or a medium range. Let's say, you know, 15g in a meal and then other people do better with a little bit less, maybe, you know, 10g or 5g. Some people, for a period of time, maybe a short period of time, even actually need to pull out fiber right now. I don't recommend that long term.

But this is why some people do great on a carnivore diet where all they're eating is meat, right? And they do great with that because they're on this side of the bell curve, where for a period of time they're just going to do better without fiber. Right. But ideally we're adding that back in and trying to find a good threshold where we're able to get some of this beneficial fiber, beneficial polyphenols without you know, promoting more inflammation in the gut with actually, creating really healthy, resilient gut lining.

Right. And so if we're on a no fiber diet for too long, we become more sensitive when we do actually add in fiber and our gut doesn't respond as well. So we only want to do that for a short period of time if necessary. Not everybody needs to do that only a small percentage of people and then gradually add fiber, try to find, you know, the fiber threshold for you that seems to work best for you. And then stick there, right? Get the colorful foods, get the protein, get the fats, add in some fermented, whether it's, you know, drink like apple cider vinegar in your water.

You know, there's coconut water kefir for example. It's fermented coconut yogurt, right? That's another fermented foods. Right. So it's, fermented dairy. So organic yogurt, is great. My body thrives on organic yogurt and, you know, and then there's pickles and things like that. So try to figure that out, you know, and if you follow these principles and just kind of look at how you can tinker it for yourself and how you respond best, you are going to thrive. This is going to keep your inflammation down.

This is going to keep you strong, healthy, keep you very mentally active, keep your brain function at a high level and your energy at a high level. So hopefully you guys got a lot out of this video. Be sure to subscribe to our channel for future videos like this. Be blessed everybody!