You are what you eat and adding the right foods to your diet can help you save money and live better. Feeling fatigued is a common experience, particularly during the work week. Often it can feel like a real struggle to get up in the morning, especially when Friday seems like years away.
Even if you are getting enough sleep and exercise (as I advocated in my two previous posts in the series on sleep and exercise), sometimes you feel like you need that extra boost. Perhaps you just want to maximise your productivity?
As I mentioned in the previous post being healthy can increase your income by as much as 28% and results in a wealth difference of $110,000 by the time you are 65. Therefore, eating well can translate into hard numbers and lifetime value.
Superfoods Can Enhance Brain Function And Boost Your Energy
There was one solution I found that did just this and centred around just three ingredients. This helped me get up in the morning and prepare for the working day, without even feeling like I wanted any coffee! Throughout the day I was less hungry and actually wanted to eat more nutritional things.
Diet and nutrition are commonly just associated with weight loss but eating certain types of foods can also improve your overall mental health and wellbeing. In this post, I’ll explain one easy way to introduce three superfoods to your diet, in addition to a few more health benefits such as:
- Reducing potential healthcare costs.
- Increasing memory and concentration.
- Reducing the amount of money you spend on non-nutritional food (e.g. chocolate).
- Increasing your productivity and performance
- Increasing your feel-good neurochemicals to improve your mood.
- Keeping you healthy as you age.
- Reducing stress and blood pressure.
- Decreasing your risk of diseases such as cancer.
You can find all the evidence to support the above statements in the post below. Just click on the links!
An Avocado A Day Keeps The Doctor Away
There is a wealth of information about the health benefits of avocados. They can help you maintain a lower BMI, increase your good cholesterol (HDL) because they are high in monosaturated rather than saturated fat.
Avocados are high in nutrients, antioxidants and can significantly improve the absorption of nutrients from other foods (e.g. carotenoid). Avocados are also high in cancer-fighting properties.
Consuming avocados can boost brain health and memory. The impact on the brain can go as far as to improve your mental health, reducing the risk of depression and increasing the feel-good neurochemicals of dopamine and serotonin. Avocados are a prime example, that not all fat is bad as we have been led to believe.
The list of health benefits goes on! Avocado consumption can prevent neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s because of the array of bioactive nutrients. They can also help you maintain your eye health because of the carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. Heart disease, gum disease, osteoarthritis, diabetes and liver damage are also a target for this miracle food. It’s pretty incredible really.
Avocados are packed full of vitamins C, E, K, and B-6, as well as riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, potassium, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids.
Blueberries For Brain Power
Blueberries have been found to improve cognitive performance, especially when it comes to memory, both short and long-term. There is also evidence that dark coloured fruits such as blueberries are neuroprotective because of the high amount of polyphenols. This means that Blueberries can defend the brain against damage, inflammation and oxidative stress, therefore protecting us against age-related decline and mental deficits.
Some other benefits include healthy bones, skin health, lower blood pressure, lowered risk of diabetes, healthy digestion and weight loss. This is all due to the high amount of vitamin A and C, along with folate, potassium, B6 and phytonutrient.
Kale To Make You Feel 11 Years Younger
Did you know that just one and a half servings of leafy green vegetables per day can give you the cognitive functioning of people 11 years younger? This is because of the high concentration of phylloquinone, lutein, nitrate, folate, α-tocopherol, and kaempferol which may help to slow cognitive decline with ageing.
Consuming kale is superb for overall vitality because it’s high in a plant compound called sulforaphane, which is responsible for the defence response of plants. It can beneficially affect cancer, boost heart health, and reduce diabetes by improving glucose control.
Plants high in sulforaphane (e.g. kale) should be eaten raw or lightly steamed to release optimal levels of sulforaphane. Overcooking them can result in a breakdown of the enzyme (glucoraphanin) required to release the beneficial compound (sulforaphane).
Kale is full of fibre, antioxidants, calcium, and vitamin K, among others. Even the chlorophyll in kale may have health benefits. It is also a good source of vitamin C and iron.
How To Blend These Ingredients Into Your Daily Routine
- 200g of blueberries
- 200g of kale
- 1 avocado
- 1 tablespoon of hemp & chia seeds
- Almond or Cashew Butter to thicken (one tablespoon should do)
- Add 2 – 3 pints of water to get the right consistency.
Until I left to go travelling, I used a Morphy Richards Soup Maker to create this amazing smoothie. Click here to check it out.
It might seem strange suggesting a soup maker, but it’s easier to clean, is multi-purpose and has a blade inside so you can spend less time cutting up your ingredients.
Final Thoughts On Nutrition and Superfoods
Nutrition was a key hurdle for me in terms of increasing my energy and productivity. It’s not something I focused on tackling for a long time. However, I did feel a noticeable difference when I started consuming more avocado, kale and blueberries. The mornings and the rest of the day felt much easier.
On my travels I’m always on the lookout for healthy food options such as the smoothie bowl below.
However, don’t just listen to my anecdotal evidence, there’s research out there to show that certain foods can improve your health and wellbeing. This can translate into your financial health too.
Let me know in comments if you love a good smoothie and what your recipe is? Have you felt any health benefits?
Advertisements help me to pay for and reinvest in this site, so if you decide to give the below ad a click thenthank you.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks