All ingredients

Vegetables

Nutrition data

Lotus root

Raw lotus root carries 44 mg of vitamin C, 556 mg of potassium and 4.9 g of fibre per 100 g. But it is almost always eaten cooked, so you do not take that 44 mg across intact.

Vegetables

Nutrition data

All three clinical trials on cucumber used extracts. The lipid trial used seed extract; the osteoarthritis trials used standardised extract. This site could not find a trial that fed cucumber, measured anything and compared against a control.

Fruits

Nutrition data

Olives

This site has not yet found a clinical trial that fed people olives themselves. The health evidence we have for olives is largely evidence about olive oil and the Mediterranean diet. What the fruit's own numbers say with confidence: 735 mg of sodium, 10.9 g of fat, and 8 mg of potassium.

Vegetables

Nutrition data

Bamboo shoots

Bamboo shoots contain taxiphyllin, a cyanogenic glycoside that poses a toxicity risk if they are not prepared properly. Boiling, fermentation and steaming reduce it. The composition itself is 27 kcal and 533 mg of potassium per 100 g.

Vegetables

Nutrition data

Eggplant

Eggplant has long been sold in Brazil as a folk remedy for high cholesterol, so it was put through two randomised trials. Both matched placebo. The 2004 trial stated outright that the placebo group changed the same way. The 25 kcal and 3.0 g of fibre per 100 g are real.

Vegetables

Nutrition data

Soybean sprout

"Aspartic acid cures a hangover" is a widespread belief, but this site found no randomised trial in people where feeding soybean sprouts changed a hangover measure. The 172 µg of folate, 15.3 mg of vitamin C and 13.1 g of protein are real.

Seafood

Nutrition data

Clams

11.3 µg of vitamin B12 per 100 g — 471% of the requirement. Sodium is 601 mg, and most of that salt ends up in the broth.

Grains & legumes

Nutrition data

Quinoa

Cooked quinoa holds 4.4 g of protein per 100 g. It does contain all the essential amino acids, but not in an amount that meets your protein needs.

Oils & fats

Nutrition data

Sesame oil

Saturated fat sits at 14.2 g, mid-range for a vegetable oil, and vitamin E at 1.4 mg is a tenth of olive oil's. Sesame oil earns its place on flavour.

Seafood

Nutrition data

Eel

23.3 µg of vitamin D per 100 g, the highest on this site. But it also carries 1,043 µg of vitamin A, in the form that has an upper limit.

Nuts & seeds

Nutrition data

Sunflower seeds

35.2 mg of vitamin E per 100 g — a handful covers 70 % of the daily requirement. That handful is also 175 kcal.

Seafood

Nutrition data

Tuna

Canned tuna in water packs 19 g of protein into 85 kcal per 100 g. But its omega-3 is one-twelfth of salmon's.

Dairy & eggs

Nutrition data

Egg

The advice to limit yolks because of their cholesterol has been overturned. What remains is choline, a nutrient far fewer people talk about.

Nuts & seeds

Nutrition data

Sesame seed

Whole sesame carries 975 mg of calcium per 100 g, far ahead of milk. Hull it and the figure drops to around 60 mg.

Meat

Nutrition data

Duck

More than half of duck fat is unsaturated. That argument, however, assumes you have removed the skin.

Grains & legumes

Nutrition data

Black soybean

It is genuinely excellent for protein and anthocyanins. The popular claim about hair, however, has almost no clinical support.

Vegetables

Nutrition data

Bitter melon

Bitter melon contains compounds that act somewhat like insulin. Results in human trials, however, are not consistent.

Seafood

Nutrition data

Sea mustard (wakame)

Its iodine and calcium made it a postpartum food. That same iodine is why thyroid conditions call for caution.

Meat

Nutrition data

Pork

Pork carries more than eight times the thiamine of beef. Which cut you choose decides the fat you get with it.

Meat

Nutrition data

Beef

Beef's heme iron absorbs at 15–35%, against 2–20% for non-heme iron from foods like spinach. The real questions are the cut and whether it is processed.

All ingredients

Lotus root

Cucumber

Green peas

Olives

Bamboo shoots

Eggplant

Soybean sprout

Clams

Quinoa

Sesame oil

Eel

Sunflower seeds

Tuna

Egg

Sesame seed

Duck

Black soybean

Bitter melon

Sea mustard (wakame)

Pork

Beef