Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen in Practice
A simple meal schema based on the Daily Dozen
Part 2 of Dr. Michael Greger’s book How Not to Die (a fascinating read on how diet affects chronic illnesses, for good or bad) consists of his guidelines for a whole-food plant-based diet. Those guidelines were a lifesaver for me when I switched overnight from the low-carb high-fat diet that I had followed in the mistaken belief that it would help my type 2 diabetes.
It was not helping — exactly the opposite. It’s true that on the LCHF diet, my blood glucose was low, but that was because I was eating virtually no carbs (including dietary fiber, a carb important for the health of the gut microbiome). But for people slipping into type 2 diabetes, the problem is not “carbs,” but refined carbs (spikes blood glucose) and animal fat (worsens insulin resistance). Once I learned that, I immediately switched to a whole-food (no refined foods) plant-based (no animal fats) diet.
The first problem I encountered was that I didn’t know how to plan a whole-food plant-based meal. Previously, I found planning a meal was easy: pick a meat, decide how to cook it, and then decide on the sides. With a meal that is all “sides,” I didn’t know where to begin or when the meal plan was complete.
The Daily Dozen helped by specifying the food categories that should be represented. Through experience I figured out a good sequence for a day’s meals. Chronobiology has shown that it’s good to eat a hearty breakfast and then reduce the amount consumed as the day goes on, with nothing eaten after early evening. This plan follows that design.
Update added at end of story.
The Daily Dozen and Number of Servings
The Daily Dozen offers a simple guide to achieve nutritional balance. I use ☐ to signify one serving. See the last section below for specific food ideas. This checklist is also available as a smartphone app. At first I found it difficult to remember to use the app, but now I find it quite handy — and even satisfying to check off the boxes. [Update: I created a shared Google Doc document of the recipe checklist that you can copy, download, or print.]
1. Beans: ☐☐☐
2. Berries: ☐
3. Other Fruit: ☐☐☐
4. Cruciferous Vegetables: ☐
5. Greens: ☐☐
6. Other Vegetables: ☐☐
7. Flaxseeds: ☐
8. Nuts/Seeds: ☐
9. Spices/Turmeric: ☐
10. Whole Grain: ☐☐☐
11. Beverages: ☐☐☐☐☐
12. Exercise: ☐
13. Mushrooms: ☐ [recent addition: see video]
How That Breaks into Meals
The following list shows how I check all the boxes in the Daily Dozen checklist (including exercise). Each food category listed represents one serving from that category.
I usually get “extra credit” because some foods check more than one box — for example, cooked kale counts both as Cruciferous Vegetable and also as Greens.
Breakfast
• Beverage (hot tea or coffee)
• Beans
• Whole Grain
• Greens
• Other Vegetables
• Flaxseed (ground)
• Turmeric
• Nuts/Seeds (usually unsalted walnuts or unsalted pepitas)
• Beverage (unsweetened oat milk)
plus
• 1 teaspoon amla powder
• 2 teaspoons dried mint
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper (aids turmeric absorption)
Snack
• Fruit
Lunch
• Beans
• Whole Grain
• Cruciferous Vegetable (1 tablespoon horseradish)
• Other Vegetable
•Fruit
plus
•1 tablespoon hot sauce
Snack
• Fruit
Dinner
• Beans
• Whole Grain
• Greens
• Berries
Beverages
• During the afternoon and evening I consume multiple servings of iced tea (white or hibiscus)
Exercise
• I do Nordic walking.
As the list indicates, my new starting point for each meal is Beans+Whole Grain. For lunch and dinner I then add either Greens or Other Vegetables. For breakfast I load it up by adding both Greens and Other Vegetables, along with Flaxseed, Nuts/Seeds, and Spices.
Lunch includes a tablespoon of prepared horseradish (from the refrigerated section—avoid the unrefrigerated horseradish on store shelves), though generally I have Greens (kale, collards, etc.) and/or Other Vegetables (broccoli, daikon radish) that count also as Cruciferous Vegetable. Still, by including a tablespoon of horseradish I know that I’m getting an ample amount of Cruciferous Vegetable.
Update: Here’s a recent recipe matched against the Daily Dozen.
Practical Advice about the Food Categories
Categories are listed here by the number of daily servings, with ☐ equaling one serving. For each category, I list foods I frequently eat.
I don’t use any added salt, and I avoid salty foods like sauerkraut, pickles, capers, and the like. When you stop using salt, your food will taste flat for a few days, but within a week your taste will adjust and the food will taste fine — and your body will thank you for the health benefit.
To cut meal preparation time, I cook food in batches, which I refrigerate. For a meal I take a portion of each as needed. Thus my refrigerator contains four containers of cooked food (labeled with food and date prepared, using masking tape and a fine-tip Sharpie): Beans, Whole Grain, Greens, and Other Vegetables.
Beverages — ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Serving: 12 ounces water, sparkling water, flavored unsweetened water (for example, La Croix water), tea (black, green, or white — for me mostly white), or coffee, but definitely not fruit juice.
If you sweeten the beverage, use erythritol rather than refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. I mostly drink unsweetened iced tea, either white tea or hibiscus tea, though I start the day with a pint of hot tea.
Beans — ☐ ☐ ☐
Serving: 1/4 cup hummus; or 1/2 cup cooked beans (black, pinto, chickpea, soy, kidney, navy, Lima, red, and others, including mixed beans), split peas, lentils, edamame, tempeh, or tofu. A bowl of split-pea soup would be a serving of beans.
I cook dried beans the easy way: Soak 1 lb dried beans in water with 2 teaspoons of salt for 8–10 hours (or overnight). Drain. In a pot (at least 2-quart capacity) dissolve 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) in 2 1/4 cups water. Add drained beans, cover, put into preheated 235ºF oven, and cook for 2 hours. (You could also use a slow cooker or instant pot.) The salt makes the beans tender by breaking down the pectin in the shell, and the beans absorb very little of the salt.
I was initially suspicious about using baking soda, but it does help significantly: beans turn out very tender. That’s now the way I regularly cook beans.
Whole Grains — ☐ ☐ ☐
Serving: 1/2 cup cooked intact whole grain: oat groats, hulled barley, wheat berries, whole rye, Kamut, spelt, emmer, farro, einkorn, red fife, etc.; or pseudo-grains like amaranth, buckwheat groats, quinoa, or chia seed. I recommend that you avoid grain that has been cut (steel-cut oats, pot barley) or polished (pearled barley, white rice) or smashed (rolled oats, barley flakes) or pulverized (foods made from flour such as bread, pasta, bagels, English muffins, pancakes, tortillas, boxed cereals, and so on).
All grains follow the same recipe: Add 1 cup intact whole grain to 3 cups boiling water, reduce heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook until the grain has absorbed all the water. Depending on the grain, that takes from 1 to 2 hours or more — just continue checking from time to time. The water level’s easy to see. Toward the end, stir the grain to make sure the water’s all been absorbed. I use a timer to remind myself to check on it.
Once the grain has cooked, put it into a storage container and refrigerate. This step makes the starch resistant, so digestion takes longer and thus lengthens satiation.. Then for each meal take a portion and eat it hot or cold with whatever accompaniments you want. I usually use 1/3 cup for a serving.
The pseudo-grains (quinoa, amaranth, etc.) use a different proportion of seeds to water (generally 1 part seed to 2 parts water) and cook more quickly. Rinse quinoa before cooking to remove the bitter coating of the seeds.
I do not eat rice or corn in any form (steamed, chips, popped, cakes, etc.) because I’ve found those tend to spike my blood glucose levels.
Fruit Other Than Berries — ☐ ☐ ☐
Serving: 1 medium fruit or 1 cup cut-up fruit or 1/4 cup dried fruit. It took me a while to realize that this is easy if I keep a good selection of fruit on hand. I now have a basket that holds apples, citrus fruit (navel oranges, tangerines, lemons), pears, and (in season) persimmons, peaches, plums, nectarines, and so on.
Watermelon is a good source of lycopene. I avoid bananas and grapes: insufficient nutritional punch. Note on apples and pears: Eat all but the stem.
Useful note: make a fruit-fly trap and keep it near the basket.
Greens — ☐ ☐
Serving: 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked greens, either a single green or a combination of greens: cabbage (green, red, savoy, or Napa), kale, collards, spinach, chard, dandelion greens, mustard greens, tung ho, bok choy, turnip greens, Brussels sprouts, romaine, leaf lettuce, watercress, endive, radicchio, chicory. Note that many of these count both as a green and as a cruciferous vegetable.
I rinse greens thoroughly and shake off excess water or dry in a salad spinner. Then I mince the stems, chop the leaves, and cook in a little liquid, often with a splash of vinegar. Cook to the degree of tenderness you prefer. Even if you just wilt the greens, they are safe to eat. (Unlike undercooked meat, undercooked vegetables are not a parasite risk.)
Other Vegetables — ☐ ☐
Serving: 1 cup raw leafy vegetable; or 1/2 cup raw or cooked non-leafy vegetables. Important note: a serving can consist of a single vegetable or a mix of vegetables. I prefer a mix, so the batch I cook has a variety. I usually cook them just al dente — it’s not as though I’m cooking pork.
I always include allium (garlic, leeks (including the leaves), spring onions (including leaves), scallions (including leaves), shallots, red or yellow onion, sweet onion). Usually I use garlic and another allium.
I also use some of these: diced beets, tomatoes, tomato paste (no salt added), chopped asparagus, diced eggplant (Japanese, Italian, Indian), diced carrots, chopped celery, chopped green beans, chopped sugar snap peas, snow peas, chopped red/yellow/orange bell pepper, finely chopped chiles (jalapeño, habanero, serrano, Anaheim, poblano, banana, Thai (green or red), New Mexico green chiles), chopped or sliced mushrooms (white, crimini, oyster), diced bitter melon, diced squash (summer squash, zucchini, chayote squash).
Winter squash (delicata, kombucha, butternut, buttercup, ambercup, acorn, carnival) I usually cut into pieces and roast after removing the seeds, which I toss with a little oil and roast with the squash. Spaghetti squash is also good: cut it in half, seed it, and roast it, then remove the “spaghetti” with a fork. Spaghetti squash skin is like a shell: inedible.
I avoid potatoes in all forms (chips, baked, hash browns, french fries, etc.) because I have found that potatoes spike my blood glucose.
Cruciferous Vegetables — ☐
Serving: 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish (from the refrigerated section); or 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked broccoli, broccolini, rapini (broccoli rabe), romanesco broccoli, Chinese broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (red, green, savoy, Napa), Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, bok choy (including baby bok choy, Shanghai bok choy), turnip, rutabaga (Swedes), turnip greens, watercress, mustard greens, mustard seed, kohlrabi, arugula (rocket), watercress, radish, daikon.
Berries — ☐
Serving: 1/2 cup fresh or frozen. I usually buy frozen mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries).
Flaxseeds — ☐
Serving: 1 tablespoon, ground (because whole seeds resist digestion). I grind the seeds with a little electric whirling-blade grinder just before I add them to my breakfast mix.
Nuts/seeds — ☐
Serving: 1/4 cup unsalted walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, pepitas, sunflower seed, hempseed; or 2 tablespoons nut butter made raw from raw nuts and without salt, sugar, salt, or other additives. I eat them by themselves or mixed with Berries or Greens or Other Vegetables or Whole Grain.
Spices — ☐
Serving: 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (always — and I use 1/2 teaspoon) plus other salt-free herbs and spices: minced fresh turmeric, minced ginger root, dried mint, Ceylon cinnamon (never cassia cinnamon), ground cloves, oregano, Mexican oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, dried basil, curry powder, ground chiles (ancho, chipotle, Chimayo, cayenne), ground cumin, amla powder, and others.
I use pepper sauce, and because I minimize my salt consumption, I pick brands with low sodium content.
Exercise — ☐
Serving: 90 minutes of moderate activity or 40 minutes of vigorous activity. If you run, bike, or walk for your cardio exercise, take a look at GPS Odometer. I’ve found it useful to track my walk time, distance, and speed. I keep a spreadsheet of those because I like to see my progress.
Strength-training exercise is also advisable. For the elderly, strength training minimizes frailty.
Update
Serving size adjustment
I quickly found that for me, a 1/2-cup serving of beans/lentils or of cooked grain was just too much, so I cut that serving size to 1/3 cup and later to 1/4 cup.
After gaining some weight, I cut back on meal size (easily done, since I routinely measure each serving). The new serving sizes I used:
• 2 tablespoons of nuts/seeds, beans/lentils, or cooked whole grain,
• 1/3 cup greens, and
• 1/3 cup other vegetables.
That’s to lose weight. When I reach goal, I’ll first increase greens and other vegetables to 1/2 cup and see how I do, and then try increasing beans/lentils and cooked whole grain to 1/4 cup.
Breakfast
I drink a pint of hot tea and eat three pieces of fruit. I usually eat a tangerine, a pear, and an apple, but in summer, I’ll swap in-season fruits like peach, pluot, and plum. Occasionally, I’ll eat a dragonfruit or some such. I now also eat a chia-seed pudding (with cocoa, walnuts, and other goodies), which is exceptionally rich in antioxidants. (I eat avocados from time to time, but I count those as “other vegetable” rather than “fruit,” which is handy but inaccurate.)
Lunch
Around 12:00 or 1:00. I’ll eat a meal of nuts/seeds, beans/lentils, cooked grain, greens, and other vegetables, using serving sizes listed above. This meal also includes 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, about 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed (using an electric spice/coffee grinder), 1 teaspoon amla powder, and 1 teaspoon Bragg’s nutritional yeast (that brand being a good source of B12).
Dinner
Around 4:30 I’ll have the final meal of the day: beans/lentils, cooked whole grain, greens, and other vegetables, using the serving sizes already listed.
Sometimes for lunch or dinner I will make a salad (generally using red cabbage as the greens) with bean/lentils and grain along with scallions, daikon radish, sweet bell pepper, mushrooms, and so on. I generally mix in a teaspoon of Bragg’s nutritional yeast, and make a vinaigrette or use one that’s pre-made.
I don’t eat anything after 5:00pm. During the afternoon and evening I drink iced hibiscus tea, or sometimes iced white tea.
I now use a small amount of salt in cooking. My salt intake had dropped too low, with the result that I was occasionally getting woozy. [Update: The wooziness had nothing to do with salt, as it turned out. Instead, the problem was that I needed a pacemaker, which I got. I do get salt via the brine I use in making fermented vegetables, but otherwise, I use an iodized salt substitute, based on potassium chloride.]
