Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2602: The Top Meats, Fruits & Veggies for Muscle Gain & Fat Loss

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

The Top Meats, Fruits, and Veggies for Muscle Gain & Fat Loss Important context to consider when making this list. (1:04) Meat (3:20) Beef. Chicken thighs. Wild-caught salmon. Lamb. Fruit (14:32) Bananas. Blueberries. Apples. Veggies (22:18) Sweet potato. Beets. Broccoli. Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit MASSZYMES by biOptimizers for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP10 at checkout for 10% off any order. ** May Special: MAPS 15 Performance or RGB Bundle 50% off! ** Code MAY50 at checkout ** Mind Pump #1605: How to Get Jacked on a Budget Mind Pump #2450: The Smartest Way to Use Protein to Burn Fat & Build Muscle Conjugated Linoleic Acid benefits, dosage, and side effects Apple consumption is associated with a distinctive microbiota, proteomics and metabolomics profile in the gut of Dawley Sprague rats fed a high-fat diet Beetroot Juice for Strength Gains: It’s not just for Endurance Athletes! Broccoli and other cruciferous veggies can significantly lower cancer risks Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, we talk about the best foods, the top meats, fruits, and vegetables for muscle gains and fat loss. Now this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, MassSigns. These are digestive enzymes

that are made for fitness fanatics. Take them with your meals, break down your proteins into amino acids, break down your fats into fatty acids, get those carbohydrates to your muscles, ease digestive issues, improve your digestion. Go to MassSigns.com forward slash mind pump, use the code mind pump, get 10% off any order.

We also have a sale this month on some workout programs. MAPS 15 Performance and the RGB Bundle are both 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code May50 for the discount. Here comes the show. The three most important food groups for muscle gains, fat loss, and fitness, meat, fruits, and vegetables. Today we're gonna talk about the top foods in each category

if your goal is to look jacked, lean, fit, and healthy. Let's go. Hey-o. This is cool. Yeah, it is. It'd be fun to take this, you know, this reminds me of, remember, I tried to find this, I couldn't remember what book it was from Yeah, I think I said it was from an LL cool

Find that I could never find it But I always found this really helpful for my clients They say I used to print them off and so I had I just kept reprinting them So I don't that's probably why I don't remember the book very well But I just had this like great list for people of eat these foods all the time, eat these foods sometimes, eat this rarely. And so if the listener who's listening to this episode, obviously I see what foods you have on here,

if you made a conscious effort to kind of like target just however you wanna combo them, but eating from this list, this would be a pretty solid strategy. Now the context, let's paint the context first, is you know, because you could go with like the most, the most possibly healthy foods, you could also go with what's tasty,

you could go with what people will eat, you could go with what's available. Go with lowest calorie. All of that has to kind of come together, right? Because remember, we trained people for over two decades, and you could tell me, you know, ostrich meat is great for muscle gains, because it's high in salami or whatever. Or three servings of liver.

Yeah, but I've never had a client, first of all, I don't even know where to buy ostrich meat. Yeah, I was just thinking, where do I get that? Unless you're in Australia, I think they eat it quite a bit there. So I don't even know where to find it.. Yeah, I was just thinking, where would I get it? Unless you're in Australia, I think they eat it quite a bit there. So I don't even know where to find it. I don't know how it tastes. My clients wouldn't eat it.

So the point is, this has to be a realistic list. It has to be a realistic one. It has to be one that is also not super expensive. There are meats out there and fruits and vegetables that might be more expensive than others. Are people gonna actually do this? Can they afford it? Can they do this long-term?

Will they eat it? Those are all very important things to consider. And of course, what makes them also make this list in terms of, let's say muscle gain and fat loss or more health effects, all of that is good. The context in which helped us kind of pick these different types of foods. So we'll start with the meat category. Now, uh, if we were to look at different kinds of meats and rank the proteins that were in them, well first off I do want to say this, we are somewhat splitting hairs here when we're

talking about animal sources of protein. All animal sources of protein pretty damn high in quality okay especially if you compare them to you know vegan sources of protein. Legumes or what not. Yeah but I also think you preface that really well. Yeah. Like, because there's some things that aren't on this list that I eat for sure. But it's like when I look at the four that you chose, I'm like, okay, well, these are very common. There's a lot of recipes you can make with this. So it's not just, so we could make an argument on here like, oh, what about bison? I eat that, or veal.

Venison, or. Yeah, yeah, yes, those are high on those things, but it's like, okay, is that a common dish? Yep. And if it's, so in other words, yeah, if you have this meat that you love that's not on this list, that would be included because it's splitting hairs, the difference, but.

Exactly, and we're always trying to communicate what people will actually do. Because when you train lots of people, you figure that out real quick. I'm not going to give it... Adherence is everything. Yes, it's everything. So that's what's real important. So when it comes again, animal source of protein, they're all pretty damn good, especially in

comparison to vegan sources. Animal source protein, very high quality on a gram per gram basis, and animal source of protein is going to be superior to other forms of protein. But the way that scientists will determine the effect of a protein or a source of protein on something called muscle protein synthesis. This is the synthesis of new muscle, right? You can measure protein synthesis in the body. Typically what you have are high amounts of leucine. This is like the anabolic amino acid.

If leucine is high in a source of protein, it tends to be more, for lack of a better term, anabolic, more effective for muscle gain. That's also the criteria that we're looking at. Making the top of the list is beef. Beef is, and it's extremely common, it's inexpensive, but it's high in leucine. It's one of the best sources of creatine you'll get from an animal source.

It's high in iron, zinc, B12, and then most important, of all of the sources of animal proteins that I can think of, I think most people would consider beef to be one of the tastiest. It's gotta be one of the most delicious. Tasty, it goes with everything. Yeah, you make so many dishes out of it.

There's so many dishes you can make from it. So I think too, I think this is always at the, and you can get, you didn't put this on here, but if you're somebody who's counting calories or you're concerned because you're maybe on a cut, you can easily manipulate the fat content. You can get a much leaner cut of beef or ground beef and you can do much higher.

And so, easily, an easy way to shave calories, let's say during a bulk or reverse diet, you eat the fattier cuts of ground beef. When you go to the cutting and you wanna reduce a few calories, you just simply switch the percentage down to a leaner. That's right And if you're looking for some people

You have a polymorphism or they're sensitive to saturated fat intake going from conventional beef to farm rate Excuse me to grass-fed beef Changes the fatty acid profile and can make a difference for some people now Now some people really need to avoid saturated fat, in which case you would look at maybe some other sources, but grass-fed beef is leaner per ounce, so a ribeye that's grass-fed is higher in protein, less in fat than a grain-fed or conventional type of beef. So it's leaner, less calorie, higher protein. It's like the holy grail right there.

Yep, and the fat is a better profile. It's more of the healthy fatty acids versus what some people would say would be the unhealthy version. But nonetheless, conventional beef is inexpensive. And you said it, Adam, like ground beef is cheap. You can buy it bulk, and you can get some pretty lean ground beef.

You can get as lean as, what's the leanest you can get? It's like 92%? Something like that's got to be the leanest, right? And then you could go as fatty as like 80%. So there you go, beef is at the top. And again, for nutrient density, it's incredibly nutrient dense. In fact-

Nutrient density, convenience, price, I mean it wins. In fact, when you look at people who are on the carnivore diet, which we don't recommend except for people who might have some really strong autoimmune type issues, the meat they tend to pick is beef because you could just eat it and you're probably not gonna be in a nutrient deficiency just by eating beef alone. Not recommended, but you could probably get away with it.

That's how nutrient dense it is. Next up, chicken thigh. Chicken thigh, very high quality protein. So glad you picked this and not chicken breast. Yeah. Well, because chicken thigh is isn't that it's not that much more higher in calorie an ounce per ounce you know basis, and it's way more delicious. Yes. Why would anybody eat chicken breast when you can eat chicken thigh? I mean how many more calories? I remember this was a really those that have been listening to the podcast for a long time have heard me share probably this story before,

but for years, even as a trainer, I just thought that chicken breast was what you were supposed to do. I just thought that was like, oh, you're dieting and you're trying to add protein and eat, oh, you eat chicken breast, chicken breast, chicken breast. I feel like that, there was like,

I feel like almost everybody thinks that's the route to go. I remember the first time that I compared, you know, head to head, chicken thighs and chicken breasts, and I'm like almost everybody thinks that's the route to go. I remember the first time that I compared head to head, chicken thighs and chicken breasts, and I'm like, oh wow, it's not that big of a difference. How many more calories? There was like 23 calories. It's a little bit more calories, a little bit more fat in it,

virtually almost the same ounce per ounce when it comes to protein, and so, and a million times better, especially if you're prepping. I understandably, I've brought this on the podcast before, and people always challenge it. million times better, especially if you're prepping. Understandably, I've brought this on the podcast before and people always challenge it. Oh, I make a great chicken breast.

I have this thing and they have this dish that they bake in the oven and they saute it and they do all the stuff. Try warming it up the next day. Yeah, yeah, how about prep 16 breasts for the week and then tell me how it is on day three reheated. And it ain't good, I'm sorry, it's not the same as chicken thighs because chicken

thighs you'll see it's that layer of fat sits around it. It's juicy. Yeah. There's something to these mutant chickens too that they take these huge breasts from and you see in the story like oh it's a big one. You'll buy it and it's like this is from like a hormone induced like mutant chicken. Well what happened was when the government went on their anti-fat crusade,

which most of it was misinformation, what farmers did is they took chickens and they bred the halyard to have huge breasts, because the breast is so lean. Skinless chicken breast is like no fat. So you have these mutant chickens with these bests. Have you ever seen one? But the thigh is like no fat. So you have these mutant chickens with these bands. Have you ever seen one? But the thigh is almost as lean.

It's not that big of a difference. It tastes way better. It's inexpensive. You can buy chicken thighs in bulk. And prepping them, that's what I do. That's how I get chicken thighs. I throw them on the grill and I have three, four days where I just do the last night.

Last night I grilled up a whole, I mean, I don't know how many pounds I did, but it tastes better. Again, what I liked you did with this list was you didn't just go calorie for calorie. It's an easy repeater, yeah. It's like, we have to consider adherence too. And I think that I've never had a problem

convincing my clients to consistently eat chicken thighs. I have, however, had people complain like, I don't know, I'm so tired of chicken breasts. They're so dry, I'm so bored, I get it. And chicken thigh, again, high leucine content, so it's a very anabolic source of protein, high selenium. And all the nutrients I mentioned with beef, chicken is relatively high as well,

maybe a little less than some of them, but also still pretty high. Next up, this is like a super food, wild caught salmon. And it has to be wild caught. The farm raised salmon has a different fatty acid profile. Toxins can build up in them, and it's not the same fish. It really isn't. If you eat wild caught salmon and farm salmon,

you put them next to each other, eat them, it's not the same. They don't even look the same. Are they less pink? Sometimes I feel like they die the they can't meet they Yep. Yep. So wild-caught salmon. I mean, it's it's leaner than farm-raised It's high in protein the fatty acid profile on salmon wild-caught salmon is amazing Yeah, like very high in omega-3 omega fatty acids great now in the past. You've heard me talk on the podcast about sardines I think sardines are great. I think they're so valuable their nutrient dense, whatever but You I'll get way more people who don't like sardines. Oh then salmon

Salmon is yeah, it's probably the most I guess most people would say that's probably the best tasting fish Mm-hmm of all the food even even I like it. Even you. It passes my test. Totally. And then last is lamb. Now lamb used to be hard to find. I remember, you know, when my dad told me this, when my parents came here from Sicily back in the late 70s, early 80s, my dad said it was tough. It was tough to find lamb. I found that you put this on your list. This is so the Sicilian in you. Yeah. Because that just wouldn't have made my list.

I would have put bison, ground turkey. I could think of a couple other things that would have made my list here. Well, here's why I put lamb. Yeah, yeah, sell me. Sell me on why lamb and not those. It tastes great. It's high in a fatty acid called CLA, conjugated linoleic acid. CLA is, I mean, it's been marketed

as the fat burning fatty acid. Yeah, I remember we used to sell supplements with that. They did. Now, this doesn't mean, so here's why taking supplements of it was stupid. You don't just add CLA to your diet and expect to burn body fat. What the studies showed though,

were if you switched out certain fats with CLA, even though you have the same calories, even though you have the same grams of fat, you're leaner and you have more muscle. It's the anabolic fat burning fatty acid, CLA. It's very high in CLA. Here's the other thing. Lamb, up until now, is very well raised and healthy. They tend to not be raising with conventional beef.

They tend to be very, it's a very healthy source of meat. And it's easier to find now. Like I said, when my parents came here, my dad said he'd have to go to Italian markets to find it. Now you can find lamb anywhere. Are there other meats, Sal, that are high in CLA? Or is that the most common? I'm not familiar with how.

Grass-fed beef is pretty good. Yeah, but we already talked about beef. But lamb is natural, it's always grass-fed. Lamb's almost always, I think it's always grass-fed if I'm not mistaken. So you're always getting a pretty well-raised piece of meat. And lamb chops are, we have lamb chops probably three days a week in my house, at least.

That's an Italian thing for sure. Is it? Lamb chops, everybody eats lamb chops. I don't think so, bro. Do you eat lamb all the time? Every three months or something. Yeah, I eat lamb once every six months maybe. Yeah, lamb's hardly ever in my rotation.

It's a very, very, very common meat. Doug, do you eat a lot of lamb? Not really. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's you bro. It's Italian, dog. Yeah, whatever. But I don't not like it and I think it's a- Ground lamb is delicious, by the way.

It's a fair, fair, yeah. Yeah, no, lamb is not always grass-fed, wow. Usually it is though, that's interesting. So I have yet to find one that, the ones I get are always grass-fed and I don't have to look for it. Let's get to fruit next. Let's talk about the best fruits.

Now with fruit, I put a combination of fruit in here and I added one that typically isn't in a category, in this category when people talk about food that's healthy, but I wanted to put an energy-dense fruit in here. In other words, what fruit would you eat if you wanted a good source of carbohydrates that was dense in carbohydrates? Bananas.

Bananas are great for that. Bananas are great. They're gonna work out. Yes, high in carbohydrates. It's like one of the highest dense fruit you can get. Potassium. Potassium is good in there. By the way, there's studies on blood pressure

that show that sodium is not that big of a different deal. It's actually potassium that makes a big difference. So for people with blood pressure issues, sometimes you see more potassium makes a big difference. But yeah, a banana is like, you'll get more carbs in a banana faster than you would with other sources, other fruit sources of carbohydrates.

So for people who don't eat, let's say if you eat paleo, and you need that source of energy, bananas. And they taste good. Yeah, I remember when I was super deficient with potassium, I was eating bananas and black beans and stuff like that. When were you deficient with potassium? When I had blood pressure issues. Oh, wow. Yeah, with my adrenal gland.

Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, anyway. Bananas are also the best fruit to use in a smoothie. It's a yes. Always add a banana. That is like a, I think a banana in any smoothie makes that smoothie 10 times better. Always.

Name the smoothie, add a banana. I don't care if it's a savory sweet one or it's a fruit like a fruit like a Tardy one you add banana in it makes it so much better Next up blueberries blueberries are a superfood. I would just say berries here I think berries in general cover that yeah hundred percent cover your bases this tipping this used to be like my go-to so the way we give I love when we give like General simple rules for clients. I used to give them on unlimited amounts of berries The amount so funny I would do the same thing

I'm living on you would never see someone overeat bear. No, you could already bananas because bananas are high Give you a lot of calories, but good luck eating that many berries like you that, that's in, and I just think, and that's all berries. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. But especially blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Yes. Those were the top ones. They're high in fiber. They're very high in fiber. It's actually high in antioxidants too. Yes. And calorie per, and like they're the one of the best too. Yeah, it was the easiest way, I remember you telling me this Adam, and I pieced it together, you know, after you said this, like oh way, I remember you telling me this, Adam, and I pieced it together after you said this, like, oh yeah, I remember that.

Like, you wanna get easy source of fiber? Oftentimes, with any more fiber in my diet, you can get some fiber from vegetables. Way easier to get them from blueberries. You get a decent amount. So really good for good health. Because you could put a bunch in a smoothie, like you're saying.

Like, you could do, in fact, I used to love this, and it doesn't sound like it would be good. Blueberry, banana, spinach, protein shake. You want a high fiber, somebody who's like having... Throw some peanut butter in there, just in sold. No, literally, for some reason the blueberries, banana and spinach really go well together and it's like, want to rock someone's fiber up, like that's like, these used to be my go-to smoothie to send to people and I think it tastes phenomenal too. And then it's, they're high, so blueberries are high in anthocyanins, which are any oxidants

that are just really powerful at reducing, you know, the oxidation that happens in the body. It's so powerful, Sal, like this is, the same stuff that, I mean, those of us that are probably in our 40s or more are familiar with Monte-Vie, which was so popular. And it was so popular. Acai berries.

Acai berries, which when you look head to head next to blueberries, it's almost identical. It's a blueberry. Right, so and there was. Brazilian blueberries. Yeah, so there was all kinds of positive things that they had tied to that juice that you're getting that when you have blueberries. Yes, yes, yes. But yeah, there's like anti-aging effects from these

antioxidants. Anytime you hear studies or you talk about antioxidants, and if you want to just really easy way to boost your antioxidant content, by the way, supplementing with antioxidants, not a good idea. Getting them from food, it seems to have a different effect. But if you want to boost your antioxidant intake, reduce inflammation, reduce the damage that stress can cause to your body, you just go reach for blueberries. I think blueberries don't get the credit they deserve because they're so common. So people just don't realize that they have a superfood available to them easily at the

grocery store. We go through a ton of blueberries at our house. A ton of blueberries. Oh, for kids, are you kidding me? That's the snack. I throw blueberries, like the go-to snack for my son, Greek yogurt with blueberries on it, with a little sprinkle of granola on it,

he thinks he's eating some sort of a treat. It's a high protein, high fiber, good antioxidant, such a great snack for kids, and myself. I mean, it's one of my favorite snacks to have too. Yeah, next up, and I wanted something in the middle, right, something that was a decent amount of fiber, you know, that had some good nutrients in there, but also had some energy density, right?

Because blueberries, if you wanted enough, you wanted to get a lot of carbs for a workout from blueberries, good luck. You'd have to eat like a bucket of blueberries. You could do with bananas, but I wanted something in the middle, apples. Apples don't get a lot of credit because they're so common.

It's another go-to for me, yeah. Yes, and they've got a decent amount of fiber. There are soluble, insoluble forms of fiber in there. There are compounds in apples that you will see often in fiber supplements because of the gut health promoting benefits. They taste good, they're convenient. It's like a go-to food. Bananas get bruised.

Blueberries, you have to keep them in a baggie, they get smashed. Apples are pretty damn versatile food. What's the highest source of fiber? Is it pear? I think a pear is up there. Pretty high, but yeah, no, I think apples is more common. And I mean, I have apple trees in my backyard. It's super convenient.

I think that's where the apple wins. To me, that's the best argument for it. It's simple. You could throw it in a bag. You could throw it like, it's like, you don't have, they're hardy. You can carry it and eat it at the same time. You're not gonna make a mess.

You're not gonna have a peel afterwards. It's not gonna be- And peanut butter too, it's great. Yeah, exactly. You know that's actually- it at the same time. You're not going to make a mess. You're not going to have a peel afterwards. It's not going to be- And peanut butter too. It's great. You know that's actually- I do that to everything. You know that's actually Katrina's favorite snack. Apple and peanut butter.

Apple and peanut butter. That's how I stave off a lot of sweet. That's her. She'll take that over a dessert. Justin's like, I better not eat candy. I'm trying to lose weight. I'll eat 500 calories. I was going to eat like 1,000 calories of peanut butter.

I eat, Joe, I remember I had to try to calm that down. Bro, it gets me every time. When she'd get into her like her diet phase and she'd be like trying to lean out and be like, we might want to come back on the peanut butter now. The rest of the diet is pretty good. I said, but let me tell you if you actually measure that peanut butter, it really is the peanut butter. It's not the apple, right?

It's the apples are relatively low. Yeah. But if you do, if you'd be doing a gobs a tablespoon. But like I said, it's nice and in the middle, right? There's a fiber in apples called pectin. Pectin, and it's like 30% of the fiber, I think, that's in apples. That is very beneficial for gut health. And like I said, if you find a fiber supplement,

gut health fiber supplement, oftentimes they add pectin to it. That's what you get in apples. I didn't know that. And apples are high enough Yeah in energy to where if you're an athlete it'll make a little bit of a difference again It's not as nutrient dense from an energy perspective as bananas, but it's not like blueberries, but my favorite and you bet you brought up pears I love pears. Here's the problem with pears. They're they're messy messy. Yeah, they're really messy juicy apples are super convenient

This is one of my favorite things I would tell a client if they're traveling, what can I bring with me to eat? I would give them some other sources and one of the foods would be an apple. Cause you pick it up, eat it, it's clean, you hold it in your hand, no problem. Little traces of cyanide on the outside. What's that, oh is that the apple seeds? Yeah, that's true.

All right, let's get to vegetables. So again, we're gonna start with a nice energy source of vegetables, one that's gonna give you energy, it's gonna fuel your workouts, especially if you're performance-driven. Sweet potatoes, love sweet potatoes. They're starchy. That's considered a veggie?

It is, it is. It is a vegetable. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're a great carbohydrate source. They're starchy, high in fiber, high in beta carotene, which, you know, converts to vitamin A in the body. Here's why I picked a sweet potato

over a traditional potato, I love potatoes too. But in my experience, clients, if they eat too much potato, sometimes it would give them gastro distress. Sweet potatoes seem to be gut friendly. They seem to be really easy to digest. What's the definition of a vegetable? Is it grow in the ground? Is that what defines it?

What's it? We talked about this before. It's a culinary classification. So it's like fruits and seeds. I mean, they're two bird seeds. Fruits always have seeds. That's how you know it's a fruit or, that's the difference, right?

I think so. Yeah, a fruit will always have seeds. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the seeds. Yeah, that's why tomato is technically a fruit. But what's the classification of a veggie? We talked about fruit, Doug. I don't remember talking about veggie. And because for some reason, sweet potato did not.

Well, because you think of it as a starch. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's, like I said before, it's a culinary classification. Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, those are basically vegetables. Yeah, and if, but sweet potatoes,

neither of those is it? It's a root. It is a root. It grows in the ground. Yeah, yeah. All right, well there you go. Sweet potatoes, so I don't know about you, so Adam, did you ever find clients who,

if they ate too many regular potatoes, they would get a little bit of bloating, but sweet potato easier to digest? I mean, I just had, people enjoyed sweet potato better. One of the things that's awesome about sweet potato, if you compare it to potatoes, in my opinion, and at least recommended clients, is potatoes need something on them.

It's hard to eat a potato, baked potato, dry. Oh, just with salt. Yeah, but I can eat a sweet potato dry. Yeah, good point. Nothing on it. Throw that in the, and just the juices from it. Yeah, you're right.. I can eat a sweet potato dry. Yeah, good point. Nothing on it. Throw that in the, and just the juices from it. Yeah, you're right. And I can eat a sweet potato with nothing on it.

Sure you could add butter, sure you could do some things with the sweet, but I can eat a sweet potato plain. Nothing on it. But for me personally, with my clients and myself, if I eat sweet potatoes, it is like the most, it is such a great, you know, not just easy on my digestion,

it's almost like a pro gut health food for me personally when I eat some potatoes. So I noticed that about them. All right, next up, here's something a lot of people, I don't know, some people eat them, they're easy to find. I included them because they're pretty awesome in terms of how they affect the body from a performance standpoint, and that's beets. Beets boost nitric oxide and performance. In fact, you see a

lot of beet supplements now for endurance. And there's studies on this. Beets will improve your endurance and they'll improve your nitric oxide levels or the stuff that dilates your blood vessels gives you the pump type of deal. way better. Way better than pro pump supplements. Aren't all the pro pump nitric oxide supplements derived from beet juice? No, they'll put, no, but some of them will now put

you know, beets in there, right? Oh, okay. But they have, they have high amounts of nitrates where they actually get turned into nitric oxide in the system. So beets, like if you want to lower your blood pressure, increase your blood flow, get better erections, because yes it does that as well,

better athletic performance, then eat beets, eat beets. Now personally, I hate the taste of them, but I put them in here because I don't like the taste. So how would you serve that, like a powder and then put it in a drink? Nah, you just eat them. They're so good on a, I feel like they're so good on a salad, you don't like them like that. You could eat them straight They're so good. I feel like they're so good on a salad.

You don't like them like that. You could eat them straight, but I mean, I'll eat them straight. By the way, warning, eat a lot of beets and you could see yourself peeing red the following day. I learned that the hard way as a kid. Did you know that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you can actually get that to happen.

I was like, ah. It was just the beets. Add that with some asparagus, you'd be really freaked out. Oh boy. Lastly, broccoli. I know it's not that exciting. Broccoli is easy, inexpensive, good for the digestive system, very high in sulforaphane, which is lots of research now going into this compound. It's in that smell, but it's really good for you.

It's anti-cancer. The anti-cancer effects of that compound are pretty remarkable. There's a lot of studies and data coming out now talking about sulforaphane and its benefits for the body. Now that being said Sal, is it not one of the more common vegetables if you have an intolerance to a vegetable? Isn't it that common because of the stems on it? Some of that, I've heard of that part. If you eat them raw or not well cooked. So here's a little trick for people. Sometimes eating too many

vegetables will cause bloating and gastro issues. Boil the hell out of them. You're the one that taught me that. I never, like you boil, I remember you used to boil it, like really boil it down. Like right on the borderline of almost soggy. Oh yeah. And you get a bowl of it and you have no digestive issues whatsoever. That's such a good hack, you know. Totally. And you add some olive oil to that and some salt, absolutely delicious. So there you have it.

Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump with Stefano Adams at Mind Pump. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance,

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