6 Foods I Recommend Eating Every Day For A Long Life: A Doctor Explains

So as the list of foods I tried to fit into my daily diet grew, I decided to make a checklist. Here are six I try and eat daily:

By beans, I mean legumes, which comprise all the different kinds of beans, including soybeans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils. While eating a bowl of pea soup or dipping carrots into hummus may not seem like eating beans, it is. You should try to get three servings a day. A serving is defined as a quarter cup of hummus or bean dip; a half cup of cooked beans, split peas, lentils, tofu, or tempeh; or a full cup of fresh peas or sprouted lentils. Though peanuts are technically legumes, nutritionally, I've grouped them into the nuts category.

A serving of berries is a half cup of fresh or frozen, or a quarter cup of dried. While biologically speaking, avocados, bananas, and even watermelons are technically berries, I'm using the colloquial term for any small edible fruit, which is why I include kumquats and grapes (and raisins) in this category, as well as fruits that are typically thought of as berries but aren't technically, such as blackberries, cherries, mulberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Common cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, collards, and kale. I recommend at least one serving a day (typically a half cup) and at least two additional servings of greens a day, cruciferous or otherwise.

Everyone should try to incorporate 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds into his or her daily diet, in addition to a serving of nuts or other seeds. A quarter cup of nuts is considered a serving, or 2 tablespoons of nut or seed butters, including peanut butter. (Chestnuts and coconuts don't nutritionally count as nuts.)

I also recommend ¼ teaspoon a day of the spice turmeric, along with any other (salt-free) herbs and spices you may enjoy.

A serving of whole grains can be considered a half cup of hot cereal such as oatmeal, cooked grain such as rice (including the "pseudograins" amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa), cooked pasta, or corn kernels; a cup of ready-to-eat (cold) cereal; one tortilla or slice of bread; half a bagel or English muffin; or 3 cups of popped popcorn.

But there's no need to be obsessive about the list. On hectic travel days when I've burned through my snacks and I'm trying to piece together some semblance of a healthy meal at the airport food court, sometimes I'm lucky if I even hit a quarter of my goals. If you eat poorly on one day, just try to eat better the next. My hope is that the checklist will serve you as a helpful reminder to try to eat a variety of the healthiest foods every day.