How to Fuel Your Brain & Body for Optimal Performance
The war for your health is won or lost in your brain.
You must do everything you can to take care of your brain. To accomplish that, you need to be a Brain Warrior for yourself and the ones you love.
Become a Brain Warrior
Becoming a Brain Warrior is for those who, either out of desire or necessity, are serious about their health. It’s for people who want to look and feel their best for as long as possible and want to excel at work, school, and in their relationships.
Being a Brain Warrior is for those who want to leave behind a legacy of health rather than illness. The rewards of living a brain-healthy life can have far-reaching implications for you and even future generations.
One of the ways Brain Warriors can accomplish these goals is by getting proper nutrition.
Food is Fuel
Food is medicine or it’s poison.
You can’t exercise, meditate, or supplement your way out of a poor diet. – Dr. Daniel Amen
Getting high-quality nutrition is one of the most important ways to win the war for your health.
So, what’s the typical Brain Warrior’s diet? Eating a diet that’s 70 percent plant-based foods and 30 percent high-quality protein, with healthy fat mixed in, is extremely well-balanced. This diet restores energy, optimizes brain and hormone functioning, reduces the risk of illness, and often produces dramatic weight loss as a result.
To live right, you need to eat right. With a little forethought, you can eat better and get the proper nutrients your body needs.
Here are 10 simple nutrition tips that can help build and sustain your health…
Top 10 Nutrition Tips: Daily Fuel for Optimal Brain & Body Performance
- High-Quality Calories
The quality of your food is far more important than the quantity of it for getting healthy, losing weight, or preventing illness. Compare a 500-calorie cinnamon roll to a 500-calorie plate of salmon, spinach, red bell peppers, blueberries, and walnuts. One will drain your energy and the other will supercharge your mind and decrease your risk of accelerated aging.
- Drink More Water
Your brain is 80% water. Being dehydrated by just 2% impairs performance in tasks that require attention, immediate memory skills, and physical performance. It’s recommended that you drink half your body weight in ounces – for example, if you weigh 160 pounds, drink 80 ounces of water daily.
- Lean, Clean Protein
Protein should be taken in small doses at least every 4 to 5 hours, with each meal and snack. Consuming lean protein helps to stave off hunger. You’ll feel fuller longer and burn more calories when eating a protein-rich meal or snack than you will eating high-carb, sugar-filled foods.
- Get Smart Carbohydrates
The fastest way to lower insulin levels, balance blood sugar, curb cravings, and jumpstart weight loss is to decrease the amount of high glycemic, low-fiber carbohydrates you eat. Focus on smart carbohydrates, which are low glycemic and won’t quickly raise your blood sugar levels. Smart carbs are also high in fiber, such as those found in non-starchy vegetables and lower glycemic fruits like blueberries, pears, and apples.
- Focus on Healthy Fats
While it’s important to avoid fried fats, trans fats, and some saturated fats, cutting back on healthy fats can be harmful, because your body needs them for many crucial functions. For instance, your body uses healthy fats to build cells, support proper brain function, prevent oxidative damage, and manufacture hormones. Fat is required for your body to absorb and store certain vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, and you need a substantial amount of healthy fats (especially omega-3 fatty acids) in your diet.
- Eat from the Rainbow
Colorful plant foods have tremendous health benefits. It’s recommended that you eat natural foods from the full spectrum of colors and flavors, such as blueberries, pomegranates, yellow squash, and red bell peppers. Eating these foods can provide power-packed flavonoids, elevate antioxidant levels in your body, and help keep your brain young.
- Healthy Herbs and Spices
Herbs and spices are one of the few food categories that provide both nutrition and flavor. Hippocrates listed over 500 medicinal uses for herbs and spices that included ways to prevent illness and increase longevity. Herbs and spices contain so many health-promoting substances, it almost makes more sense to store them in the medicine cabinet than the spice rack.
- Organic, Whole Foods
In many cases, food can be as effective as, or even more effective than, pharmaceutical medications. Whenever possible, eat organically grown or raised foods, since pesticides used in commercial farming can accumulate in your brain and body. Also, choose hormone-free, antibiotic-free meat from animals that are free range and grass fed.
- Eliminate Potential Allergens
If you really want to get and stay healthy, it’s critical you start choosing foods that serve your health and lose the ones that steal from it. It’s recommended that you eliminate wheat, dairy, corn, soy, processed foods, all forms of sugar and sugar alternatives, food dyes, and additives from your diet. Many people find that when they eliminate gluten (such as wheat, barley, and rye) from their diet, their stomach and brain start functioning better.
- Try 12-hour Fasting
For breakfast, be sure to include some healthy fat in your meal to prevent cravings later in the day and to help you better absorb your vitamins. Throughout the day it’s critical to eat healthy food and never allow your blood sugar to get too low. It’s also important to fast for at least 12 hours each night, between the last meal in the evening and the first in the morning (begin fasting at least 3 hours before bedtime).
In addition to quality, whole foods, it’s also vital to get daily allowances of high-purity nutrients. The three supplements BrainMD recommends for supporting optimal brain function is our scientifically formulated multivitamin, ultra-pure fish oil softgel, and high-potency vitamin D3.
Best Daily Essential Vitamins & Supplements
NeuroVite Plus
According to recent studies, more than 50 percent of Americans don’t eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day – the minimum required for your body to get the nutrition it needs. In an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers recommended a daily vitamin for all adults to help prevent serious illness.
BrainMD’s NeuroVite Plus is the first and only daily multivitamin that contains over 50 vitamins, minerals, and plant extracts developed through clinical studies. NeuroVite Plus was formulated to provide whole-body wellness with additional key brain-healthy nutrients. It provides advanced nutrition in a way that far surpasses big box store or drugstore multivitamins.
Learn more about NeuroVite Plus.
Omega-3 Power
Research has found that omega-3 fatty acids are essential for optimal brain and body health. According to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, having low levels of omega-3 fatty acids is one of the leading preventable causes of death. It’s recommended for most adults to take between 1 to 2 grams of high-quality fish oil (with generous amounts of EPA and DHA fatty acids) per day.
Sourced from pelagic, short-lived fish species (anchovies, sardines, and mackerel), the fish oil in Omega-3 Power undergoes the most advanced purification process in the supplement industry. It is produced in a facility recognized by the FDA and certified for its GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices). To ensure purity, Omega-3 Power is tested by independent labs to ensure lack of rancidity and for over 400 potential environmental contaminants, including mercury, lead, and other heavy metals; PCBs, PBBs, dioxins, furans; and a diverse range of other organic pollutants.
Learn more about Omega-3 Power.
Vitamin D3 5000
Often called the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D is best known for building bones and boosting the immune system. It’s also an essential vitamin for mood, memory, and brain health. The current recommended dose for vitamin D is 400 IU daily, but most experts agree that this is well below the physiological needs of most individuals and instead suggest 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily.
BrainMD’s Vitamin D3 has 5000 IU, which is significantly more than the average vitamin D supplement on the market. Research shows that increasing daily intake to 5000 IU per day can produce long-term benefits. Vitamin D3 promotes healthy mood, cognitive function, immune response, cardiovascular health, muscle and bone strength, and many other incredible benefits.
Learn more about Vitamin D3 5000.
For optimal wellness, fuel your brain and body with these high-quality foods and ultra-pure supplements. It’s the healthy way…the Brain Warrior’s way!
At BrainMD, we’re dedicated to providing the highest purity nutrients to improve your physical health and overall well-being. For more information about our full list of brain healthy supplements, please visit us at BrainMD.
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I’m looking forward to becoming healthier by following your suggestions. I haven’t really ever taken good care of myself in any aspect of my life. After reading your articles and deciding to order the vitamins, I am for the first time going to make it my resolution. I’m going to send you comments on my progress. I feel certain that Ill be on the road to a new and better lifestyle. I just have the feeling after reading all about vitamins, diet and practices, I’ve found someone whom I can trust at brainMD. Its clear that you have put the best to work ,so as to help individuals get the best they can get to optimize great health. Thank you so much
Sincerely,
Mary j Cothren
Hello Doctor.. Are there nutritional supplements that have the same effect as beta blockers to treat performance anxiety?