Transcription
Dog god. I I should have trusted a true Italian. Whoa. She doesn't like me after I eat red onions. It's ready to serve.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Gut Instincts. I'm your host, Dr. Steven Gundry, and today we'll be jumping into the topic of salads. Now, it's a common misconception that salad is the healthier choice. But don't be fooled. That's not always the case. Some salads can really wreak havoc on your gut. It's just a matter of weeding out the less healthy options. I'll be ranking these from S to F. S stands for superfood, while F, well, means it belongs in the trash.
Before we get into it, make sure to hit that subscribe button and give this video a thumbs up if you're ready to help improve your gut health. Also, stick around afterwards. I'll be sharing my California chicken salad with you. Let us begin.
Okay, first off, potato salad. Where do I start to tell you how bad this is for you? First of all, potatoes are part of the nightshade family. They are loaded with lectins. Secondly, you're going to put plain old everyday mayonnaise on them. Mayonnaise is usually made from soybean oil in this country. Not exactly the healthiest food in the world. It ranks right down there with some of the worst salad that you can possibly have.
But fear not, let's talk about creamy broccoli sllo salad instead. Luckily, we're beginning to see broccoli sllo in lots of stores. It's basically cut like coleslaw. But here's the trick. Please, please, please get yourself avocado mayonnaise whenever you're making these sllo. And please, please, please, if you're going to sweeten the sllo mo like most recipes call for, please use alulose as your sweetener. don't have any alulose, monk fruits a good standin. But alulose is becoming readily available. You will actually get tremendous health benefit out of creamy broccoli sllo because broccoli after all is a cruciferous vegetable. Cruciferous vegetables really are some of the best foods for your gut.
The coal slaw that you buy at the store, unfortunately, is cabbage, which is great. It's a cruciferous vegetable, but it's been adulterated with regular mayonnaise, again, which is made with soybean oil. And there's usually a lot of sugar in it. Now, don't get me wrong, I love coleslaw. You can make coleslaw safe just like you made the creamy broccoli sllo safe, but you got to make it yourself. If you make it right, it's up here. If you make it wrong, it's an F and you're probably just going to go buy it from the grocery store and that's a no no.
A shaved asparagus salad. Now, raw asparagus is absolutely delicious and good for you. Asparagus actually contains a really cool soluble fiber called inulin. And inulin is one of the favorite foods of your gut buddies. But buy or beware, it's what you put on these salads that makes all the difference in the world. So get yourself genuine extra virgin olive oil and get yourself some really great vinegars. There are lots of vinegars. And if you've read Gut Check, you know that vinegars in general are one of the best ways to improve your gut health. So shaved asparagus salad with extra virgin olive oil and vinegars, that's a superfood.
A Greek salad. Believe it or not, I've had Greek salads in Greece, although they do have tomatoes, and they do have cucumbers. Interestingly enough, in both Turkey and Greece, the Greek salads are served with peeled and deseeded tomatoes and peeled and deseeded cucumbers. Why do they do that? Well, if you've been following me, you know that both cucumbers and tomatoes have large amounts of lectin, and they're primarily in the peels and the seeds. And isn't it amazing that these clever people are actually taking the peels and seeds out of these products? Beware, a Greek salad in the United States is a lectin bomb. Don't come near it. Go to Istanbul, you'll get the right one.
Papaya salad. Now, you see this quite a bit in some Thai restaurants, and they use green papaya, and that's the key. Green papaya are loaded with soluble fiber. In fact, your gut buddies think a green papaya salad is just about the best thing they can have. So, when I see a green papaya salad on a menu in a Thai restaurant, I'm almost always ordering it. It's a winner. Let's put that up as a superfood cuz again, we want to feed our gut buddies. And yeah, we want it to taste good, but we want our gut buddies to be as happy as our tongue is when it gets to them.
Similarly, many Asian Thai restaurants will serve a green mango salad. Same thing applies here. Papayas and mangoes when they're green are almost pure soluble fiber with very little sugar. So if you see a green mango salad, don't be turned off. It's actually more for your gut buddies than it is for you. So that one is also a superfood.
Well, we've had a bunch of superfoods. Let's go for a non-s superfood. The famous pasta salad. Now, what could be better than that? pasta and maybe some zucchini, maybe some carrots, maybe some tomatoes. Pasta is pure sugar. I'm sorry. It is. And it's made from wheat. And our wheat is sprayed with glyphosate, Roundup. Even our regular wheat, non-GMO wheat, is sprayed with glyphosate. So, pasta salad is one really bad thing for your gut. End of story.
A Caesar salad. There's good news and bad news. First of all, you may see that the Caesar salad is loaded with croutons. And of course, that's what people want on their Caesar salad. The croutons, of course, are made of wheat and they are loaded with lectins. So, that's a no no to start with. Even my glutenfree and gluten intolerant patients are shocked when they still react to the Caesar salad in a restaurant. That's because most of the time the Caesar salad is mixed with the croutons before they put the dressing on. Even that little bit of gluten can really activate some of them.
Here's the bad news. A Caesar salad should be made from olive oil, some vinegars or andor lemon, and with some egg and parmesan cheese. Most of the Caesar salad dressings that you're going to get in a restaurant are not made with that. They're usually made from soybean oil, from any of the vegetable oils. And even if they are made with olive oil, it's the lowest grade olive oil that they can buy. The other thing that is possible, some restaurants still make Caesar salads at the table. It's a lot of fun to watch them, but more importantly, you can control what's going into your Caesar salad. And the good news is the croutons will arrive on the side long before they're put in. So Caesar salad can be a very healthy salad, but in America, it's usually a disaster. So I'm going to put it in the C category. Can make it yourself. It's really good. And we make Caesar salad quite a bit.
A cousin, Cobb salad. So, as you probably know, Cobb salad has basically chicken breast, avocado, bacon, cheese, and many times chopped tomatoes. I've seen actual Cobb salads made with peeled and deseeded chopped tomatoes. But the problem is that traditional Cobb salad in America is made from cheese from our American cows. It's not even cheese, quite frankly. It's made from boneless, skinless chicken breast. And that chicken breast is really not a chicken anymore. And and then it's going to be covered with usually a fake Rogueford or blue cheese dressing. If you got all of these ingredients the way they were originally intended, this was actually a really good source of food, but we've Americanized it, so it's unrecognizable as a health food. It's going down in the F category. Same thing.
We see this all the time. The California chicken salad. I'll say it one more time. Most of the time it's made with chicken that never saw the light of day. It's been fed corn and soybeans. It's almost always covered in a mayonnaise-based dressing. As healthy as this really sounds, in reality, it's a really high calorie, high bad fat, not very good protein for you. Now, just like the Caesar salad, you can make this safely by controlling your ingredients. And later in the show, we'll show you how to do this. So made properly, this can be a superfood, but the way most people get it, it's way down here kind of with the regular Caesar salad.
Seaweed salad. Now, this is a fun one. We're seeing seaweed salads more and more. Seaweed salad can be really good for you depending on the amount of sugar they have added. And you got to read the label very carefully because most people do not like the taste of seaweed. And so most places put a lot of sugar in their seaweed salad. But here's a fun fact. We cannot digest seaweed. We cannot break down the wall, the plant cell wall in seaweed. Only the Japanese have the correct bacteria in their gut that can break down seaweed. Where did those bacteria come from? Well, the Japanese eat a lot of raw seafood. And it turns out they swallow the bacteria that are in the guts of those fish. And the bacteria, as long as you feed them seaweed, they proliferate and survive. But without those specific bacteria, sorry to tell you, you are not going to get any benefit from that seaweed salad. You might enjoy it, but it's not going to give you the health benefit that you really think you're getting. Most seaweed salads have too much sugar. Most of us cannot benefit from seaweed because we don't have those bacteria in our gut.
Fun fact, how about a summer citrus salad? Now, notice it says summer citrus salad. You want to use fruit hopefully that's grown locally and in season. Having a citrus salad or a fruit salad in season is perfectly fine. I have nothing against fruit. What I do have something against is yearround fruit. You and your ancestors were never ever exposed to 365 days of fruit. It didn't exist in its place in the summer with the proper fruit. It's It's a bee, but it's not a superfood.
Okay, it's time for a quick quiz. Here are two facts and one lie about salad. Can you guess which one is the lie? Number one, the world's largest salad was made in 2012 and weighed over 41,000 lbs. Number two, lettuce belongs to the sunflower family. Number three, Caesar salad has always been legal to consume. Ready? The answer is three. In the late 1990s, California enacted a health law that prohibited the sale of foods containing raw eggs. making Caesar salads illegal. However, the law was revised and the issue was resolved by 1998. That's why now you can see a Caesar salad back on the menu.
Okay, let's get back to it. Nishwah salad. My wife and I spent a lot of time in the south of France and Nishwa salad is named for Nice. It's actually got a lot of good ingredients, but some mischievous ingredients. It usually has some chicken. It usually has egg. It usually has green beans. So, the green beans are a bean and beans have lectins. And it usually has a lot of olives and it usually has tomatoes. The tomatoes are a nightshaped family. They have lectins as well. The olives are great for you. The eggs are great for you. Usually, there's tuna. Hopefully there's tuna, but we see in a lot of restaurants that they substitute chicken because it's cheaper. But the traditional niswah salad has tuna. This is something you can push the bad guys away. But in general, this is not the world's healthiest salad either. So, same thing. If we make a nishwa salad with olives and tuna, pastured eggs and lettucees, they can be safe, but get rid of the other stuff. How's that?
Oh, here's everybody's favorite Chinese chicken salad. We've got shredded chicken and we've got all those wonderful crispy wontons and this wonderful kind of sweet and sour dressing. Who wouldn't want that? Me. The wontons should immediately put alarm bells going off in you. These are made from wheat and gluten, and you don't want that at all. That sweet and sour dressing usually has a lot of sugar and almost always the oil is one of the bad oils, the vegetable oils. So, as much as that a delicious delicious salad, most of the time in a restaurant, it's not your go-to. I know you want it, but it's not good for you. Darn it.
How about a chef's salad? Well, a chef's salad is very similar to what we've been talking about before, but it usually has cucumbers loaded with lectins. It usually has tomatoes loaded with lectins. It's got some egg. We'll take that. It usually has some pale white chicken that really doesn't even look like chicken. Most of the time it's processed chicken, which is even worse. And then it usually has cheese that is usually kind of shredded American cheese. In short, if you take all this stuff off and then get some olive oil and vinegar, it's probably pretty good. But most of the stuff on here, I am good friends with many professional chefs. They would never eat a chef's salad. F.
Waldorf salad. Well, now we've got a chance. So, the Waldorf salad was named after the Waldorf Hotel in New York City, and it has a few interesting things. So, it's got apples, it's got walnuts, it's usually got some celery, and it's got some greens. Again, depending on the dressing that is available or that you choose to make, this can actually be a really good go-to salad. It's got a lot of good stuff, not a lot of bad stuff, except you got to know where the dressing came from. So, I'm going to put that up in the C category. These things can go right on up depending on how you control the dressing, and that's always something you have to think about.
Ooh, tangy macadamia sllo. Same sort of thing here. So slaw is usually cabbage or any other cruciferous vegetable like broccoli sllo. Macadamia nuts are really delicious. They're mostly oleic acid, the monounsaturated fat, but they also have this kind of secret fat in them that doctors from the Cleveland Clinic actually have shown really helps prevent heart disease in your arteries. Lots of good stuff in there as long as you control the dressing. So, I'm going to I'm going to put that up in the B category. That's a good start.
Butternut squash salad. A squash, unfortunately, has elect. Butternut squash has a lot of sugar in it. So, even though that sounds like a great idea, I have my patients really be wary of butternut squash because of the fact it's a lectin containing food and that it has a lot of sugar. Other than that, there's usually kale with it. There's usually red onions. Great. Pick the butternut squash out. You'll be fine. So, I'm going to I'm going to put that up in the B category.
All right. Here's here's one I love to talk about. Everybody knows Capritzi salad. What you don't know is originally Caprii salad was made with bou mozzarella made from water buffaloos. Most of the water buffaloos in Italy are in the Naples region. They thrive there. They're a totally different milk than cow's milk. Second, the original Capritzi salad. The peels and seeds were removed from the tomatoes. So, it was bou mozzarella. It was peeled and deseeded tomatoes. It was basil. And basil is part of the mint family. I'm a huge fan of basil. And then you drizzle it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Funny story, we were eating at a restaurant that we love in New York City. I can say the name is run by a woman who is from Florence originally. A lot of really good food that you can eat there. A lot of food that will kill you, but they had Caprice salad on the menu. Love a Capritzi salad, but there's no way that it's going to be made the right way, even here. So, I ordered a different salad, which was cabbage based. Next thing I know, the people sitting next to us, out comes this salad. And it's boufo mozzarella. It's peeled and deeded chopped tomatoes. And it's balsamic vinegar and olive oil and basil. God, I I should have trusted a true Italian would actually know how to make a Caprii salad. As much as a true Caprii salad is fabulous for you, our Caprii salad in most restaurants gets an F. I'm sorry.
Now, for a quick recap, there are some really super salads out there. And two of them, interestingly enough, are made from green fruits. And green fruits, which when they're ripe, have tons of sugar. But green, your gut buddies just think they're fabulous. And kleslaw, if you make it properly, is actually really good for you. And broccoli saw is great for you. these salads, the fruit salad, summer citrus salad, the squash, butternut squash salad on kale with red onions, throw the squash away and it becomes really good for you. Be careful about other salads because of the salad dressing. If you control the salad dressing, if you control the lack of croutons, you can make these sorts of salads really good for you. the Waldorf salad, the Nishwah salad, the uh Caesar salad, the California chicken salad, and we'll see that in a minute. And then the rest of these guys, sorry, seaweed salad, you can't digest it unless you're from Japan and Japanese. I I just said I'm so sorry, the Capritzi salad isn't any good for you. Potato salad, please. Pasta salad, same reason. Again, the chef's salad, the Cobb salad, all of these salads, the dressings are really one of the problems and the vegetables are the problem. And that is my gut instinct.
Now, as promised, I want to share one of my favorite recipes. It's my California chicken salad. And not only is it healthy for your gut, it tastes great, too. All you'll need is two ripe avocados, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, one lemon, a teaspoon of sea salt, a cup of pasture-raised shredded chicken, one red onion, I'm going to use about a half, three celery ribs, minced, a/4 cup of fresh parsley, minced, and a cup of leafy greens. Today, I've got a real treat. This is fris. That's a chory family. Interestingly enough, I have never had a salad in a restaurant in the south of France or in Italy that doesn't have one, two, or three types of chory in the salad. That's because chory contains inulin, which feeds your gut buddies exactly what they want to eat.
First, you'll take your avocado and mash it in a bowl. And you're just going to mash it up. We'll start there. It's going to get juicier as we go along. Then you're going to add a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Don't be shy if you want more. Then you're going to put in the juice of one lemon. And this will actually help you mash up that avocado. Then you're going to add teaspoon of iodized sea salt and the shredded chicken. Now, this is a whole red onion, but since we've kind of cut back on the avocado, I'm going to use about a half of that. This is a personal preference. My wife doesn't really like red onions, but red onions are actually the best of the onions. I have a lot of patients who actually react to white onions, but red onions actually have that color comes from polyphenols. And as most of you know, red onions are really the mildest. All right, let's add in the celery. And again, we're going to use about half of the celery. And parsley. I'm a huge fan of parsley. Parsley has a number of healthpromoting, gut friendly ingredients. Try to get the Italian parsley, the broad leaf parsley. It's available in a lot of stores now. If you can't find that regular parsley, it'll do, but the flavor profile of the Italian parsley is much better. Okay, so we've mixed that all up and then put it on the bed of again whatever lettuce you want. This works great on butter lettuce that you spread out, but quite frankly, try to start seeking out chory family vegetables cuz it will really do your gut a favor. Perfect. If you want, you can dress it with lemon wedges to really set off the dish. And then it's ready to serve.
So, if you enjoyed this episode of Gut Instincts, don't forget to subscribe and hit that like button. Let me know in the comments which salad you'd like to try. Eat smart, feel great. I'm Dr. Gundry and I'll see you in the next video.
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