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Submitted by Dr. Eric Li on Thu, 2008-08-07 18:07.
You may wonder how we select YBM Foods.  As explained on YBM Diet, the diet uses a careful selection of foods in: Raw Foods, Low GI Foods, Nutrition Dense Foods, Alkaline Forming Foods, and Supplements.
 
Here we'd like to talk more about nutritional density.  If we can eat the densiest nutritional foods, we can eat less calories, achieving caloric restriction without mal nutrition, which is the only scientific known method of extending lifespan and extending young and productive lifespan.
 
In studying nutritional value of foods, we mainly look at:
1. Food vitamins and mineral quality.  However, since this is very dependent upon where's the food grown - soil, organic/inorganic, climate, air, etc., it is difficult to draw general conclusions.
 
2. Caloric efficiency.  For every calorie we eat, we study the % that is due to protein, good fats, and good carbohydrates.  We also want less dietary cholestrol per calorie intake.   This is unique, because most food study compares foods of the same weight, for example, 1 gram of rice compared to 1 gram of nuts.  But this is wrong because they contain very different calories!  Here's a detailed YBM Basic Food Comparison Chart.  From the chart, we can draw the following conclusions:
 
i) For grains, flaxseeds, chia, wheatgerm, quinoa, oats, amaranth provide the most protein and good fats (unsaturated fats such as omega-3).  There's no dietary cholesterols in grains.  These are the grains we promote in YBM Diet in place of common grains such as rice and wheat. 
 
ii)  Generally, meat has the highest saturated fat, and cholesterol, even when we choose the leanest ones, but also highest in proteins. YBM Diet requires eating less than 2 meat meals/week.
 
iii) Egg is not efficient because it has very high cholesterol, fat content, and relatively low proteins compared with meat.  However, egg white is a pure protein source without fat and cholesterol.
 
iv)  Generally, fish is a better protein and fatty acid source than red meat.  In seafoods, cod, halibut, mahi mahi, monkfish, octopus, orange roughy, pollock, rockfish, scallop are the best fishes, high in proteins without  saturated fat.  Most other fishes and seafoods are also better source of proteins and fatty acids than meat.  Care must be taken eating shrimp and calamari because of high cholesterol. 
 
v)  Dairy products, such as milk, yogart, cheese, ice cream, generally are high in saturated fat. Therefore, except for nonfat raw milk, YBM Diet does not promote dairy products.
 
vi) Nuts are good source of monounsaturated fats.  Eating in moderation is healthy, especially raw soaked nuts. 
 
Hope this article gives you a good background in selecting nutritional dense foods, and a better understanding of YBM Diet.
 
 
 
 
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