Diet
614 protocols, ranked by how often the world’s top health podcasts mention them.
- Hydrate First Thing in the Morning
Drink a 16-ounce glass of water in the morning before coffee; Andy says he implemented this and felt much better from hydrating first thing.
▶ 1 - Eat a Healthy Breakfast
Choose a healthy breakfast rather than something less healthy; prepping breakfast ingredients the night before can help, such as cutting up asparagus for an omelet in advance.
▶ 1 - Individualize Diet Pattern to Microbiome Response
Diet response is highly individual: some people do better on heavily meat-based, low-plant diets, while others do much better on plant-based diets with few meat or animal products.
▶ 1 - Avoid Beer and Other Grain Alcohols During Puberty
Alcohol, particularly beer and other grain alcohols, is flagged as potentially increasing estrogenic activity; especially advised against during puberty.
▶ 1 - Avoid Caloric Sports Drinks During Exercise
Avoid sports drinks containing caloric sugar during exercise; in the studies discussed, ingesting one immediately flattened growth hormone levels.
▶ 1 - Avoid Carbohydrates at First Meal
At the first meal, avoid carbohydrates to keep epinephrine levels higher; example meal pattern given is protein with salad, such as meat and salad or fish and salad.
▶ 1 - Vegetables at Dinner
Include vegetables at dinner, for example alongside rice or other foods.
▶ 1 - Avoid Sugar During a Fast
Anything involving sugar, especially simple sugars, can potentially break a fast.
▶ 1 - Choose Healthier Foods
General dietary recommendation to deliberately choose foods that are better for you instead of more reflexive, less healthy options.
▶ 1 - Avoid Big Meals Close to Bedtime
If eating within 90 minutes to 2 hours of sleep, keep it small rather than having a big meal.
▶ 1 - Avoid Caffeine During Phase 3
Avoid caffeine during phase 3, described as roughly 16 to 24 hours after waking, to support sleep and neuroplasticity.
▶ 1 - Avoid Salty-Sweet Processed Foods
Avoid the salty-sweet combination in processed foods because it can drive overconsumption and bias cravings toward more processed foods.
▶ 1 - Be Flexible With Food for Social Connection
Sometimes eat foods you would not most want in the moment in order to support social connection and flexibility.
▶ 1 - Find the Diet and Nutrition That's Right for You
General recommendation to identify a personally suitable diet and nutrition approach as part of supporting wellbeing and reducing long-term stress.
▶ 1 - Ensure adequate zinc, magnesium, and D3 intake
Make sure you're getting adequate zinc, magnesium, and vitamin D3; framed as a takeaway from deficiency literature indicating that deficiencies can reduce testosterone and estrogen/steroid hormone levels.
▶ 1 - Hot Caffeinated Tea or Coffee for Immune Support
If an infection seems to be coming on and caffeine is used rarely as a spike rather than chronically, hot caffeinated tea or hot coffee may improve immune function via increased adrenaline release; drink water alongside it to avoid dehydration.
▶ 1 - Caffeine Toward the Tail of a Learning Session
Use caffeine later in a learning or focus session rather than before it to help prime plasticity around the learning episode.
▶ 1 - Avoid Chronic Daily Coffee if Anxiety-Prone
Based on evidence that habitual coffee drinking can bias brain connectivity toward anxiety even when caffeine is not being actively ingested.
▶ 1 - Avoid High-Fat and High-Sugar Comfort Foods During Chronic Stress
Avoid the stress-driven tendency to seek high-fat and high-sugar comfort foods during periods of chronic stress.
▶ 1 - Use Licorice for Travel Wakefulness
Licorice may be used strategically while traveling to promote wakefulness at a destination because of its cortisol-elevating effects; timing should be managed carefully to avoid creating two cortisol peaks in one day.
▶ 1 - Blueberries
Mentioned as a small food he may eat earlier in the day.
▶ 1 - Eat Carbohydrates to Blunt Excess Caffeine or Stress
If overstimulated from too much coffee or stress, eating carbohydrates can raise blood glucose and blunt the effects of caffeine, cortisol, and epinephrine; bread was given as an example.
▶ 1 - Drink Water in Healthy Amounts
Stay hydrated, but avoid excessive water intake; ingest water in healthy amounts.
▶ 1 - Homemade Sauerkraut
Make your own truly fermented sauerkraut from cabbage, water, and salt if you follow the protocol carefully; improper preparation can allow somewhat dangerous bacteria to grow.
▶ 1 - Kombucha
Use kombucha as a fermented food; it can be made at home with a SCOBY and is described as super simple to make.
▶ 1 - Limit Alcohol to No More Than 3-4 Standard Drinks Every 2 Weeks
Do not exceed three to four standard drinks every two weeks; one huge glass of wine may equal about five standard drinks. Alcohol significantly increases aromatase and can reduce LH/FSH and testosterone.
▶ 1 - Eat Well
Super-agers and Blue Zone-style populations are described as eating well as part of daily life rather than extreme dieting.
▶ 1 - Whole Foods and Nutrient-Dense Foods
Prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods rather than fixating on any single Mediterranean-diet component.
▶ 1 - Avoid Chronic Caloric Excess or Restriction
Aim to eat enough, but not too much; both chronically excessive and chronically insufficient energy intake were described as harmful, including associations with smaller brain volume.
▶ 1 - Polyphenol-Rich Foods and Drinks
Consume antioxidant polyphenol sources such as berries, coffee, tea, and chocolate for potential brain-related benefits.
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