Health-Conscious Lifters, What Are Some of Your Staple Foods?

Hi everyone

I’m looking for ways to diversify my diet a little bit because it’s becoming more and more boring to force-feed myself with foods I’ve been eating for the past months! I’m looking for some of the more unknown/overlooked things.

It’d be great if we could list some foods that have good macros, don’t lack micronutrients and aren’t fully devoid of calories. You don’t have to provide lots of foods. Just your staples. The ones you’d recommend the most. Easy, healthy, convenient.

I’ll start:

Obviously all lean cuts of poultry, fish and beef, right?

Red/green/black lentils. They average 23g of protein, 40g carbs and almost no fat while providing lots of micronutrients and a balanced amino-acid profile. Did I mention fiber?

Chickpeas/beans/peas: Same as lentils but lower carbs depending on the variety

All foods mentioned have low Glycemic indexes.

What fish can you guys recommend?

I make a lot of Flounder. It’s doesn’t smell or tasty fishy like Cod or Salmon, which is good if you take it to work…

Rockfish is very good, but expensive.

I love Salmon. Lots of protein and it tastes amazing. Its not too expensive and it is easy to cook.

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Lately I’ve been making a seafood Stir-fry. I get the packs that have chunks of salmon, basa, calamari and prawns, fry that in olive oil than throw in some green veges and carrot/sweet potato noodles. You can swap the vege noodles for regular Asian noodles for more carb less fibre variety. Takes about 10min from getting stuff out of the fridge to sitting down to eat.

Animal fat is good as well and a nice change from dry, less tasty lean cuts of meat. Unless you are 3 weeks away from a bodybuilding show, I cant see it affecting your diet too much.

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Basa’s a great fish if you can find it. Octopus is pretty tasty if you’re willing to put in the prep time. You can also get calamari pretty cheap, and that stuff is delicious

I like baked tilapia.

Hemp seed, blueberries, cauliflower and spinach (raw)

Basa, Nutrigrain, sourdough rye, crumpets, chocolate syrup, oats, milk, any lean meat (5-10 g fat/100 g)

I do eat it from time to time but I wouldn’t call it a staple at all.
animal fat isn’t really the greatest. lots of saturated fats. Not saying you should totally stay away from red meat… Just reduce consumption if health is of concern.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! Interesting stuff

With respect, this is mostly outdated thinking re: saturated fats and red meat.

I did not state that you should fully stop eating saturated fats.
I am aware of the most current studies and even those do not have 100% certainity yet.
However it is proven that diets very high in saturated fats are counterproductive.

If most of your fats come from animal sources, you’re likely to eat too much saturated fat.
Current studies agree that a balance between the two sources is likely ideal
Therefore my stance on reducing consumption of red meat.

The ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat in a lot of meat is pretty favourable.

Saturated Fat Phobic

One of the biggest problems is the continued vilification of Saturated Fat by individual who lack knowledge in this area.

Research continues find that there is NO coorelation between Saturated Fat and cardiovascular issues.

Secondly, Saturated Fat is necessary for hormonal production, testosterone. That means low intake of Saturated Fat ensures low testosterone levels.

A good article regarding the need and benefits of Saturated Fat is…

The Truth About Saturated Fat

It was written back in 2010 by John Meadows. Meadows crendentials “Certified Strength and Conditioning Speicalist” and a "Certified Sports Nutritionist from the International Society of Sports.

6 Key Benefits of Saturated Fats

1 – Saturated fats positively affect hormonal function.

2 – Saturated fats help your tissues retain omega-3 fatty acids better and help convert omega-3 to its final usable form (DHA).

3 – Saturated fats strengthen our immune system.

4 – Saturated fats strengthen the liver.

5 – Animal fats contain fat-soluble vitamins and allow for their uptake.

6 – Saturated fats help your cholesterol profile and can help you live longer.

Ketogenic Diet

Due to a metabolic condition, I began the Ketogenic Diet a year and a half ago.

My fat intake is 210 to around 260 grams of fat a day. Roughly one third of that fat intake is Saturated Fat.

My Lipid Blood Panel profile was good and only got better with my High Fat, High Saturated Fat intake.

The Omega 6 Fat Issue

What research continues to demonstrated is that the over consumption of Omega 6 Fats are one of the greatest issues for Americans. Your diet may well have that issue.

Benefits vs. Risks of Omega-6 Fatty Acids

“Benefits of Omega-6. We know inflammation negatively affects our health and can exacerbate and even cause disease. In fact, most chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease, are highly inflammatory.”

Take Home Message

As per Alywn Cosgrove (Strength Coach), “No one ever got dumbber from reading a book (research article, etc).” That meaning you need to upgrade you knowledge base by investing more time in reading the current research rather that spewing out the dogma of inaccurate outdated data.

Kenny Croxdale

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If your mind is made up on this, I am unlikely to change it and best wishes, but I will leave you with this: I am a PhD-level cardiovascular disease epidemiologist and the director of biostatistics for a division of cardiology and cardiac surgery, so I too am relatively “aware of the most current studies” - and I will merely comment that much of the original data which “proved” that saturated fat was/is unhealthy were based upon badly flawed research and data analysis.

If you would like me to comment on specific studies, feel free to post them and I will explain why, if I have time (can’t promise that I’ll do it immediately over the holidays, but I will sincerely try to get to them).

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Thanks a lot @KennyCrox and @ActivitiesGuy
I really appreciate the writeup! Seriously.

I must’ve read the flawed studies then. And I can’t seem to find the one I just recently read but upon further reading there really are no signs of saturated fats and adverse health effects.

I really wonder how that got into my head…

Thanks for clearing it up everybody.

I am not surprised that it got into your head - it was prevailing dogma for many years.

It is a (relatively) recent sea change in thinking, the acceptance that maybe saturated fat is not the cause of deleterious health effects (although some foods containing saturated fat are not great for you) and that other confounding factors may have inflated the appearance of a causal relationship that falls apart upon closer examination and more rigorous statistical analyses. Bit of a correlation/causation problem.

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Derelict sheeple

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Pretty much the entire world thought it at one point, so don’t worry about it.

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They sound horrible. Saturated Fats! Like a big wet slab of goo working its way to your heart.

That’s why people don’t like them.