6 Nutrition Strategies for Boosting Mental and Physical Performance
In this newsletter we’ll explore six very specific and powerful nutrition strategies to enhance your mental and physical performance.
Takeways
Wild blueberries are nutritionally charged versions of the already amazing blueberry.
30/10 Breakfast Strategy puts you ahead of the game with just one meal. At least 30g of protein at breakfast should be automatic in your life.
Hydration is big business, but you just mostly need water.
Spinach needs better PR, but this under-hyped food should be eaten daily.
Let's get started...
This week we look at the power of 6 Nutrition Strategies that everyone should be putting into play in their life. Why settle for one-dimensional nutrition (e.g. focusing just on calories) when you can have your Nutrition in 3D (calories/macronutrients/signaling).
These 6 Strategies are simple AND foundational. Don’t skip them.
Let’s dig in.
6 Nutrition Strategies for Boosting Mental and Physical Performance
Over the years, I’ve worked with all-star level professional athletes and elite business executives. While they each had different definitions of success - one physically driven and the other mentally driven - they both wanted the same thing. Peak Performance.
Here’s the interesting thing, if you want to be at your best, you can’t uncouple physical and mental performance. This is why I called my executive clients my “corporate athletes.” The nutritional principles are actually the same. The difference between an NBA player looking to make their second All-Star team or an executive working to take his billion dollar tech start-up to the next level or me or you working to be the best in our lives is the consistency and intensity that these principles are applied to our days.
In this newsletter we’ll explore six very specific and powerful nutrition strategies to enhance your mental and physical performance.
Let’s see how you can transform your daily routine!
1. Eat Wild Blueberries
Wild blueberries are packed with antioxidants and nutrients that support brain health and reduce inflammation. They are easy to incorporate into your diet, making them a convenient superfood.
Regular consumption of wild blueberries can improve memory, cognitive function, and protect your brain from oxidative stress. This means sharper focus, better decision-making, and an overall boost in mental clarity. Everyday life erodes away at our brain’s innate ability through inflammation and oxidative stress.
A study published in Nutrients found that consuming wild blueberries daily for six months significantly improved cognitive performance in older adults. Participants showed enhanced memory and executive function, proving that these tiny berries pack a powerful punch for brain health.
Wild blueberries also pack a crazy amount of fiber - 6.2g per cup!! This fiber is key for digestive and immune function. The good bacteria in your gut feed on the fiber. Fiber is a prebiotic, it precedes bacteria growth by fueling the bacteria. This is different from a probiotic, which is the actual bacteria.
Let’s follow this thread of supporting immune health and gut bacteria a little more with wild blueberries. As noted above, wild blueberries have a very high antioxidant content. They get their deep purple/blue color from a class of antioxidants called anthocyanins.
These antioxidants are powerful but aren’t actually digested very efficiently by our body.
But the good bacteria love them. So the anthocyanins that aren’t taken up by our digestive system are passed along to the good bacteria in our digestive system. They eat them and then work conjunction with our body to better our health and performance
What You Can Do:
Add 1 cup of wild blueberries to your breakfast tomorrow. I like to mix them in my oatmeal in the morning. They go great with yogurt as well as smoothies.
2. Eat a High Protein Breakfast
Protein at breakfast is a keystone habit. My 30/10 strategy, which I think you should first implement at breakfast, centers on having at least 30g of protein and at least 10g of fiber at a meal. This optimizes muscle building and recovery as you start your day. Starting your day with a high-protein breakfast can also help stabilize blood sugar levels which for many people leads to more sustained energy levels. To perform at your best you need to harness the power of consistent energy, not ups and downs paired with intermittent hunger.
Research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2015 demonstrated that participants who consumed a high-protein breakfast experienced better appetite control and reduced cravings throughout the day. This supports the idea that starting your day with protein can have lasting benefits. I am consistently impressed at the persistent effects that morning protein has on optimizing high performance processes in our body.
What You Can Do:
Plan your breakfast for tomorrow to include at least 30 grams of protein. Try having 1 cup of non-fat Greek yogurt with ¼ cup shelled pistachios, and 2 tsp chia seeds, and 1 Tbsp of Synthesis protein. Mix it all together, add a little bit of water to achieve your desired consistency. Pair with your favorite fruit or a piece of whole grain toast.
3. Stay Hydrated (with Water)
Hydration has become big business. As this has happened, the idea of hydration has been morphed to support the commercialization of hydration. It hasn’t been morphed to help people stay hydrated or leverage the performance enhancing effects of hydration.
Proper hydration is essential for both physical and mental performance. Drinking enough water throughout the day keeps your body and mind functioning optimally. One of the greatest competitors of all-time, NFL great Tom Brady, held hydration as one of his essential daily strategies.
Staying hydrated is less about performance enhancement and more about warding off fatigue and reduced function. I personally notice differences in my mood and affect when I am properly hydrated vs. not.
When you are driving a car, you can go faster one of two ways. You can step on the gas or you can take your foot off the brake. Optimizing your hydration is the equivalent of taking your foot off the brake.
A 2014 study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that even mild dehydration can impair mood and cognitive function in young women. This underscores the importance of maintaining proper hydration for optimal mental and physical performance.
What You Can Do:
Drink a glass of water right now. Drink a glass of water with every meal. Carry a water bottle with you and drink 1 full bottle between meals. The more active you are, the more that you sweat, the more water you are going to need to drink. You don’t need electrolyte powders, you don’t need pH “balanced” water - just regular water. Drink it.
4. Snack on Nuts and Seeds
Snacking can often been seen as a negative habit. This is likely because most snack foods are ultra-processed, easy to over-consume, and full of empty carbs, salt, sugar, and fat. The right snacks make all the difference.
Nuts are the right snack for boosting mental and physical performance. Researchers from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands followed 2613 women for 5 years analyzing their nutrition habits and brain function. At the beginning of the study, the people with the highest nut intake were also the ones with better cognitive function (i.e., memory, speed, flexibility, and global cognitive function). Nuts and seeds are universally shown to be the healthiest foods that you can eat (bold statement, I know).
Nuts and seeds are rich in healthy fats, protein, fiber, and antioxidants, making them excellent snacks for sustained energy. They also contain essential vitamins and minerals that support brain function.
Consuming nuts and seeds can enhance cognitive abilities, improve heart health, and provide a steady source of energy. This means you'll think more clearly and feel more energetic throughout the day.
A study published in Nutrients in 2019 highlighted that regular consumption of nuts and seeds is associated with improved cognitive performance and brain health. This is due to their high content of omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and other essential nutrients.
What You Can Do:
Create the habit of having nuts at your afternoon stack. For me this is ¼ of pistachios (1 cup measured in the shells). Every time that you have oatmeal or yogurt, use that as an opportunity to give your meal/snack a boost with 2 Tbsp of ground flaxseeds or 1 Tbsp of chia seeds.
5. Eat More Leafy Greens
Like blueberries, nuts, and seeds, leafy greens are cognition drivers in just about any large population study on brain function. You probably didn’t need me to recommend that you eat more leafy green vegetables for better health.
Here’s where it gets good. Green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, and Swiss chard contain high levels of nitrates. These are the same compounds that have generated all the hype around beets and beet supplements.
Nitrates work at the level of our blood vessels to make them expand and increase their flexibility (flexible blood vessels are healthy blood vessels).
When our blood vessels expand, this leads to more blood flow. With that blood comes nutrients and oxygen. This benefits both our brains - more oxygen and nutrients to our brain helps it work better. It also benefits our muscles and physical performance - more oxygen and nutrients to our muscles lead to better physical performance.
What You Can Do:
1. Eating high nitrate vegetables as a core part of your diet, this will increase overall nitrate levels, and enhance the foundational level of blood flow that your body experiences.
Beets, spinach, cabbage, swiss chard, chinese cabbage, kale, lettuce
2. Eat a performance enhancing dose of high nitrate vegetables 90 minutes before training or physical activity where you need extra juice to your performance.
7oz of spinach will give you more than 500mg of nitrates. This is the level commonly used in research studies where performance enhancing effects are seen. Trying to eat this amount of spinach raw will be difficult (if you are trying to perform 90 minutes later) but cooking down via sautéing or steaming and you will be surprised how little food it is.
6. Limit Added Sugar
When you are fueling for peak mental and physical performance - the foods that you eat matter. As we’ve highlighted above, the foods that we eat matter beyond just the calories that they contain.
Foods with a lot of added sugar (>10g/serving) are generally lower in overall food quality. This means that you are just getting carbs/calories/energy.
To truly leverage the power of the foods that you are eating for better mental and physical performance you should always be trying to double tip.
Calories + Nutrients.
By limiting foods with added sugars, you are opening yourself up to other better food choices.This is the real power behind the advice to ‘limit food with added sugars.’ It isn’t that you are going to feel sluggish or experience an energy crash - that is unless you have +50g of sugar in one sitting.
A study published in Frontiers in Public Health in 2019 indicated that high sugar consumption is linked to impaired cognitive function and a higher risk of mental health issues. Reducing sugar intake can lead to better mental clarity and overall well-being. The driving force behind this association could very well be what the diet is lacking in people with a high sugar consumption.
What You Can Do:
Go on the offensive with your diet. Be rigorous about reading food labels and passing on foods that have more than 5g of added sugar per serving.
What are you eating instead. This is the key.
The one exception, training. If you are training hard and long, supplemental and sugary carbs may be needed. Fuel accordingly
By integrating these six nutrition strategies into your daily routine, you'll enhance both your mental and physical performance, leading to a more productive and fulfilling life. Start with one actionable step today and build from there!
Talk soon,
Dr. Mike