The Best Things You Can Eat

Praise for The Best Things You Can Eat:

"Kudos to David Grotto! The Best Things You Can Eat is well-organized and loaded with food as medicine pearls. Your blueprint to good health is provided in this gem of a book."

"Dave Grotto does it again! A master at making good nutrition easy to understand with a healthy serving of great foods and lots of fun."

Praise for 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life:

"An encyclopedia of foods with lifesaving benefits."

"For the millions of Americans tired of hearing about 'what not to eat,' this book is a refreshing and enlightening guide to improving your health by adding delicious foods to your diet. Dave's simple explanations for why these foods are potential 'life savers' makes the book enjoyable to read, and the recipes bring the science to life on your plate."

"Dave Grotto has written a book that is as fun and fascinating as it is practical. I heartily recommend 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life as a marvelous resource for anyone who cares about their health and loves food."

"101 Foods That Could Save Your Life is a great book to have on the shelf."

"As a dietitian and food lover, I'd say this book should be opened in every kitchen."

Praise for 101 Optimal Life Foods:

"You are holding a powerful book in your hands. David Grotto is one of the best authorities on health and nutrition in the United States today, and he has written a groundbreaking guide for you to live your ultimate, optimal life."

"This book gives you 'food for thought' about ways to use food to aide digestion, decrease inflammation and even improve your mood. Dave Grotto's simple nutritional solutions for common health conditions can easily become a part of your overall wellness routine."

" . . . Bonus for mid-life women: A great outline of what foods keep your skin looking youthful . . . Favorite part: The comprehensive index; find exactly what you're looking for in seconds! . . . "

"The world needs more dietitians like David—he loves food and nutrition. Your copy of 101 Optimal Life Foods can be your best medicine."

For those of you who don't know me, I am better known as Hungry Girl, which is the name of my free daily email service dispensing tips, tricks, food finds, recipes and information about weight loss, dieting, making smarter food choices, and in general navigating eating in the real world. In addition to daily emails, I appear regularly on TV in my own show on Food Network & Cooking Channel and have a series of Hungry Girl books. I am also a TREMENDOUS fan of David Grotto. When I introduce myself, I often say, "I'm not a nutritionist, I'm just hungry." But when I need the advice and expertise of a top Registered Dietitian, I know where to go.

Americans have a love affair with lists. Whether it's the annual Forbes list of the world's richest people, Consumer Reports' list of the safest family vehicles, the U.S. Social Security Administration's yearly and much-anticipated release of the top baby names in the United States, or a random blogger's list of his favorite songs of the year, we love poring over rankings. They're a constant presence in newspapers, magazines, and press releases, and on talk shows (think David Letterman's daily Top Ten List) and a favorite source of content in the blogosphere, where they spread virally through e-mail and social media, providing great fodder for cocktail parties, family dinners, and even spirited arguments. The enduring popularity of lists is driven by our insatiable curiosity to know what's on them. Who wouldn't want to have a peek at a list of the "1001 Places to See Before You Die"?

Sneak-a-peek: I'm not going to make you wait to find out how the movie ends. Turn to the beginning of each list and bam . . . there it is! Here's your list of top foods in each category, with their respective common serving size and exactly how much of the featured nutrient is contained within a serving.

Honorable mentions: Don't you want to know which foods were at least in the running for the top spots in the list? What if you don't care much for some of the foods that made it to the Top 7? Maybe number 8 or 9 will do just fine for you. No worries—I've got you covered.

Best food groups: A theme may run throughout the list that you are interested in. For example, high-potassium foods generally fall within the fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy categories for foods.

What is this nutrient/condition and why is it so important? This section gives a basic overview of the nutrient or the health challenge. Deficiencies are noted and health conditions that may develop as a result of the deficiencies are addressed.

Did you know? These are great factoids, tidbits, or fascinating scientific findings about the nutrient, food, or health condition that is being featured.

How much is enough? This section takes all the guesswork out of what's recommended for your good health, whether it's an amount of a certain nutrient, or how many servings of fruit should you eat each day, sorted by age and gender.

Too much! When it comes to nutrients, more is not always better. More can be potentially dangerous if it exceeds an established upper level. This is generally more of an issue with dietary supplements than it is with overdoing a nutrient from food alone.

Supplement it? Are dietary supplements available that might help bridge the gap? What form do they come in? This section provides basic information and recommendations for supplements, but I recommend that you should always seek the advice of a registered dietitian or other qualified health professional when it comes to determining what supplement is right for you!

For each individual food featured in a list, you will find the excellent and good sources of nutrients the food or beverage supplies and study-based benefits the food offers, plus interesting information about the food itself, such as country of origin, varieties, and food lore.

Shocker food! This is the "Whoa . . . I wasn't expecting that" kind of a food. Some shockers include choices that are not the healthiest foods in the world, though they might be high in the featured nutrient. Case in point—chocolate! I think you will be surprised at how often chocolate appears throughout the book—I don't know about you, but I'm really happy about that! The cocoa powder in chocolate is amazingly healthy, but scarfing down a bunch of candy bars at one sitting wouldn't be. As with a good many things, moderation is the key!

I turned to the latest and greatest permutation of the USDA database number 24 as the authoritative guide for determining which foods reigned supreme for each of the thirty-three lists of vital nutrients. When I first began my research, I thought this section would be pretty easy to put together, as I assumed the USDA had already done the legwork and ranked foods in some sort of logical fashion. I had experience with lists of nutrient-rich foods found in other diet and nutrition books, and on the Internet, which were derived from the same database used for this book. So I thought that the only advantage of having a book like mine would be to have all of the lists together in a handy-dandy reference guide. But then I noticed something odd when I started putting together my first list on potassium. The number one highest potassium food featured on the USDA number 24 reference list was 1 cup of tomato paste! Huh? I thought, "Who sucks down a cup of tomato paste?" Maybe it was a glitch. I hurriedly skimmed to the second food on the list, only to find an equally useless recommendation for ¾ cup of frozen orange juice concentrate! Double huh?! "What do you do with frozen orange juice concentrate besides reconstitute it? I could see already that this was not a level playing field for the health professional or consumer.

Why write such a book? Is this compendium just for those list junkies out there who crave to be the first among their friends to know who the real food winners and losers are? Well, if this describes you, get ready for some disappointment. Let me be clear. There is no such thing as a "loser" in these lists. What separates first place from first runner-up in the first thirty-three lists is a bit of subjectivity amid the objectivity of the hard numbers. As I discovered during the research process, such factors as soil condition, growing season, time of harvest, and how long foods are stored can all affect the nutrient content of foods. Also, first place and first runner-up may be separated by as little as a tenth or even a hundredth of a milligram. I also chose to feature seven top foods of each category just to give you some choice. What if beef liver comes up as the number one source of vitamin B₁₂ but you hate liver? Wouldn't you be happy to know that a 3-ounce piece of salmon would more than meet your daily needs for this nutrient? Well, of course if you hate salmon, too, you still have five more foods, plus the honorable mentions. When you come to the "Best Fruits" and the "Best Vegetables" lists, you will find that they are a bit more robust than the other "Best" lists—in fact, there are twenty top foods in those lists, to be exact. Reason? It truly is impossible to narrow down produce lists to a top three or five, due to their extensive nutrient content of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.

It is important for you to know that besides being an author and a clinician in private practice, I also do paid spokesperson work for commodities and brands that are in line with my nutrition philosophy. It is also important for you to know that no one has paid directly or indirectly for placement in this book. Foods sank or swam based on their own natural talents and I let science be the judge.