Split avocado sitting in front of a bowl

Superfoods That Give You the Most Bang for Your Buck

Ideally, food is your "medicine." It's certainly one of the best preventive strategy I can think of, and getting more raw organic foods and healthy fats in your diet are key considerations.

However, while any type of whole food is better than none, some choices can give you more bang for your buck than others.

March 20, 2017 | Source: Mercola.com | by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Ideally, food is your “medicine.” It’s certainly one of the best preventive strategy I can think of, and getting more raw organic foods and healthy fats in your diet are key considerations.

However, while any type of whole food is better than none, some choices can give you more bang for your buck than others.1

For example, while lettuce is a staple in most people’s homes, even if they don’t eat a whole lot of vegetables in general, and many may even spend the extra money on organic lettuce, there are far more cost-effective ways to get higher quality nutrients into your diet.

Below are 17 of my personal favorites in no particular order, with some added cost-saving and nutrition-boosting tips thrown in along the way.

1. Wild-Caught Alaskan Salmon

Research suggests eating clean fish like salmon, sardines or anchovies once or twice a week may increase your lifespan by more than two years and reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 35 percent.2

However, the devil’s in the details, and when it comes to salmon, it’s quite crucial to buy the right kind.

What you’re looking for is wild-caught Alaskan salmon. Steer clear of all farmed and genetically engineered varieties.3 Virtually all salmon marked “Atlantic salmon” comes from fish farms, and researchers have shown farmed salmon may be one of the most toxic foods in the world.

Levels of healthy omega-3 fats are also reduced by about 50 percent in farmed salmon compared to wild salmon, due to the use of grain and legume feed.

Canned salmon labeled “Alaskan Salmon” is a cost-effective way to buy salmon, as it is far cheaper than whole salmon steaks. If you’re not a fan of salmon, you can get many of the same health benefits by eating anchovies or sardines, ideally canned in water rather than olive oil, as inferior grades of olive oil are typically used.

2. Avocado

In addition to being an excellent source of healthy fats, avocados also have other unique health benefits, including enhancing your body’s absorption of nutrients and inhibiting production of an inflammatory compound produced when you eat beef.4

They also contain compounds that inhibit and destroy oral cancer cells,5,6 and being very high in potassium avocados will help balance your potassium to sodium ratio.

Avocados are one of the safest fruits you can buy conventionally-grown, so you don’t need to spend the extra money for organic ones. Their thick skin protects the inner fruit from pesticides.

Another cost-saving measure is to keep them refrigerated. If you buy unripe avocado in bulk when they’re on sale, storing them in the fridge will significantly slow down the ripening process and save a bundle.

Simply place however many you want to use within the next day or two on the counter, and they’ll rapidly ripen.