#116 | Dr. Casey Means' 25 Healthy Habits: Part 1 - Nutrition
A collection of the best hidden gems, mental models, and frameworks from the world’s top thinkers; to help you become 1% better and live a happier life ❤️
Hello curious minds 🧠
A good book changes the way you think and act.
A good book is a treasure you will return to time and again.
A good book is hard to find.
In Good Energy, Dr. Casey Means shares 25 habits that can guide us from understanding the theory to actionable steps. I am excited to share these habits with you and slowly adopt each one. These habits are grouped into 9 categories:
Nutrition
Movement
Sleep
Stress, Relationships, and Emotional Health
Meal Timing and Habits
Light
Temperature
Ingested Toxins
Environmental Toxins
In this newsletter, I will be focusing on the 8 habits for Nutrition category.
🚀 If you are new here…
Hi, I’m Ryan 👋🏼 I am passionate about lifestyle gamification 🎮, which it’s just a fancy way saying I approach life like a video game, designing my character intentionally, and strive to level up every day. I am obsesssssssss with learning things that can help me live a happy and fulfilling life.Every Sunday, through The Limitless Playbook newsletter, I share 1 actionable idea from the world's top thinkers 🎯
Oh, and fun fact: I am a PhD candidate in AI 👻 I am deeply interested in how AI can help us 10x the way we live, learn, and thrive; so expect me to share some cool AI tools, insights, and research 🤖
🏥 8 Nutrition Habits
The first three habits focus on what to cut out of your diet. The other 5 habits guide us toward what we should include. I have listed all the specified ingredients from the book.
For me personally, the first three habits seem to be the hardest, especially with the overwhelming number of processed foods in the market. The first step is awareness and once we are mindful of what we are including in our diets, we can slowly work towards incorporating these habits.
Eliminate refined added sugars
Eliminate all foods, drinks, and condiments with refined or liquid sugars.
This include the following names:white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, demerara sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, honey, molasses, agave nectar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, glucose, dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, galactose, maltodextrin, lactose, caramel, barley malt, rice syrup, date sugar, beet sugar, invert sugar, and golden syrup.
Read all labels for any “added sugars” and do not buy any products with them.Eliminate refined grains
Eliminate all foods with ultra-processed refined flour or grain.
These include:all standard breads (white, wheat, and whole wheat), rice (white and brown), pasta, bagels, tortillas, crackers, cereals, pretzels, doughnuts, cookies, cakes, pastries, pizza crusts, waffles, pancakes, croissants, English muffins, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, and muffins.
Ingredients on packaged food might include:wheat flour, all-purpose flour, self-rising flour, bread flour, cake flour, pastry flour, whole wheat flour, semolina flour, farina, durum wheat flour, spelt flour, barley flour, rye flour, rice flour, oat flour, or buckwheat flour.
Eliminate industrial seed oils
Eliminate all foods, drinks, and condiments with refined industrially manufactured seed oils.
These include:soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grapeseed oil, and any oil that says “hydrogenated”.
Refined seed oils are found in a wide variety of foods:many store-bought salad dressings, mayonnaise, hummus, dips, potato chips, peanut butter, corn chips, crackers, granola bars, cookies, pastries, muffins, doughnuts, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, fish sticks, frozen pizza, french fries, packaged popcorn, tortilla chips, cheese puffs, snack mixes, vegetable chips, canned soups, instant noodles, cakes, brownies, pancakes, waffles, butter alternatives, packaged muffins, cookies, croissants, biscuits, and roasted nuts.
Eat over 50 grams of fiber per day
Track fiber intake daily and aim to get 50 grams per day or more from food sources.
If you are not used to getting 50 grams of fiber, it might cause bloating or stomach upset. As such, start small and slowly ramp it up towards 50 grams of fiber per day.
Best sources to maximise fiber are beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, and certain fruits.Eat three or more servings of probiotic foods per day
Aim to get three or more servings of probiotic-rich foods that do not have added sugar every day.
Sources include yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, tempeh, natto, kvass, and apple cider vinegar. Make sure that any yogurt and kefir is unsweetened and says “live active cultures” on the label.While kombucha is a probiotic-rich food, read the label very carefully. Most commercial kombucha brands are now using excessive amounts of sugar or fruit juice to sweeten, making conventional kombucha more like a soda than a health drink. The brand with the lowest sugar on the market I have found is Lion Heart, with just 2 grams of sugar per serving. Kvass (e.g., from Biotic Ferments), a fermented drink that uses vegetables (like carrots or beets) as the carbohydrate source for fermentation, is a fantastic alternative to kombucha.
Increase omega-3 intake to a minimum of 2 grams per day
Aim to get a minimum of 2 grams (2,000 mg) of omega-3 fats each day.
A tip from the book: I always keep cans of wild-caught fish from Wild Planet in my pantry and add the fish on top of salads or on flaxseed crackers for a quick and nutritious snack. I like to keep seeds and nuts handy and sprinkle them on top of all my meals for an easy and delicious way to boost my omega-3 intake.
If choosing to use omega-3 supplements, buy from a high-quality source like WeNatal, Nordic Naturals, Thorne, or Pure Encapsulations.Increase antioxidants, micronutrients, and polyphenols through plant diversity
Incorporate thirty different types of organic plant foods into your diet each week, coming from organic or regenerative fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, herbs, and spices.Of these thirty different types per week, eat at least two servings of cruciferous vegetables per day. These include broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy, arugula, watercress, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, radishes, horseradish, rutabaga, kohlrabi, and cabbage.
Chop cruciferous vegetables and let sit for thirty to forty-five minutes to activate a key Good Energy component, sulforaphane, and make it more heat stable.Eat at least 30 grams of protein per meal
Aim to eat 30 grams of protein at each meal, for a total of at least 90 grams of protein per day.
If using protein powders, choose organic and/or grass-fed or regenerative (if animal-based) with minimal ingredients, no added sugars, no colourings, no “natural flavours” or artificial flavours, no gums, and no ingredient names you aren’t familiar with. I like Truvani, Equip Prime Protein (Unflavored), Garden of Life Grass Fed Collagen, and Be Well.
I am always curious about what others are passionate about and what they are currently working on. Hit reply and share what’s keeping you busy these days. I would love to learn!
With love,
Ryan O. 🎮
😈 Connect with me on:
🎬 YouTube, 🐦 Twitter, 👨🏻💻 LinkedIn, 🌍 Personal Website, and 📸 Instagram