13 Brain Power Snack Foods

Snacking the right way is a must for the Limitless individual.

Snacking can make or break your mind-power lifestyle. The good news is that brainpower snacking is delicious, easy, and  affordable (in fact it may actually save you money!)

The Problem: If you are the typical Western workaholic this is how you eat (and mismanage your energy levels throughout the day)...

Skip breakfast as you are rushing out the door.
Pound coffee at the office.
Eat a big carb-heavy lunch.
Crash sometime throughout the afternoon.
Reenergize with more coffee, an energy drink, or a candy bar.
Power through the rest of the workday.
Then head home to a large dinner and relax after dinner.

This is NOT the lifestyle of a limitless individual - those larger meals cost more in the long run.

The Solution: You've probably heard before that it's better to eat more frequent, smaller meals throughout the day than fewer larger meals. Limitless snacking is the solution to this, snacking enables you to go a little lighter on the large meals since you are feeding your mind and body a steady supply of what it needs throughout the day. One of the reasons people in the Western world do not eat a limitless diet is that meals heavy in grilled meats, processed breads, fats, and processed carbohydrates make us feel "full." Many weight-loss experts would contend that the addiction to that "full" feeling is responsible for a lot of our society's obesity problem. By snacking continually you will be less hungry and will have the self-control to eat brain-healthy foods for your meals.

Update: As I've learned more about nutrition and anti-aging, I've grown "bearish" on snacking - that's an intentional pun because hibernating bears are an amazing example of how ketosis works, of why mammals, like us, don't need to be eating all the time. I do daily intermittent fasting, weekly 24-hour fasts, and when I do reach for a snack, it's goat yogurt. An interesting factoid from The Plant Paradox, one of my favorite diet books...

The best example of ketosis in action is a pregnant hibernating bear. She enters her den pregnant but doesn’t eat or drink for five months. During that time, she gestates her young, gives birth, suckles her cubs, and emerges from the den skinny but with all her muscle mass intact. If she didn’t spare her muscles, she couldn’t hunt for food for her cubs. But the most amazing feat of all is that she doesn’t urinate for five months. How does she do all this? She lives on the ketones from the fat that she stored for the winter. (p. 260)

So if you're going to snack, go keto-friendly... 

Limitless snack foods

Keto-friendly power bars

Pass on the fake healthy sugar-bomb power bars that can be found on the shelves of grocery stores and gas stations. Choose gluten and soy-free organic nutrition bars such as Bulletproof's keto-friendly Collagen protein bars, or HVMN's delicious and nutritious food bars.

Fruits and vegetables

Quite simply, fruits and vegetables make the most Limitless snacks. They are small, inexpensive, portable, and appetizing and can sit in a small container on your desk...

• Blueberries: You should buy a package of blueberries every time you are at the grocery store. Rich in a myriad of the essential phytochemicals your brain loves, Blueberries are one of the best mind-power foods on the planet. Try to get them local and organic. When blueberries are out of season, opt for cranberries, grapes, goji berries, blackberries, or cherries to get your brain boost. Avoid: dried, sweetened blueberries.
• Acai berries: Are another great berry to snack on!

Nuts

These are excellent for brain power and maintaining energy throughout the day. Nuts contain lots of protein, and fiber, and are rich in healthy fats. Nuts also contain plenty of vitamin E, which is essential to cognitive function. As a snack food, their convenience is hard to beat as well, they are very affordable, easy to store, and transport with you wherever you are snacking. Almonds are the king of Limitless nuts and should be purchased every time you are at the grocery store. Almonds are high in omega-3 and the essential DHA acids. Avoid: You don't have to eat raw, plain, unsalted nuts, but do avoid the ones with a lot of sweetening or seasoning blends. For those avoiding carbs, macadamia nuts are much higher in fat. Peanuts just aren't ideal; aside from the fact that many people are allergic, peanuts are a less healthy fat than many other types of nuts - maybe that's because peanuts are not actually a nut! They're a bit better than a candy bar, though.

These also make good snacks...

• Tomatoes: Good as a quick snack as well as a meal ingredient. Tomatoes contain Lycopene, an antioxidant that is good for your brain.
• Seeds: Seeds contain a lot of protein, good fats, Vitamin E, stress-fighting antioxidants, and magnesium (a great brain booster). Try sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseed, and tahini. Avoid: the highly-seasoned processed options.
• Beans: Beans are another great, super-affordable snack. Beans are loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. Beans provide a steady, slow release of glucose to your brain, which means energy all day without the sugar crash.

Chocolate

Despite its mass commercialization, chocolate is a natural fruit byproduct. Organic dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants and has some caffeine in it. Additionally chocolate boosts your serotonin (another powerful "feel-good" chemical), this is why people joke about being addicted to chocolate. Dark chocolate is also rich in fiber (remember, fiber = healthy cardiovascular system = healthy brain.) Avoid: sugary, processed milk chocolate candy bars. Cacao Nibs (or Cacao Beans) are a tasty natural chocolate snack that is high in phytochemicals and antioxidants your brain loves. Pick up a bag of Cacao Nibs and grab a handful when you are craving a candy bar.

Sorbet – Looking for a healthy dessert alternative to ice cream to satisfy your sweet tooth? A sorbet is a frozen dessert made with sweetened water, fruit, and sometimes wine. Want more brainpower? Try adding almonds to your Sorbet like they do in North Africa! 

A tasty brainpower beverage recipe from our friends at BrainReady.com...

We've found it easiest to just mix a large spoonful of 100% organic cocoa powder with a bit of espresso, organic unsweetened soy milk and some cinnamon, even a sprinkle of cayenne red pepper...yes, cayenne pepper!) in the morning (and sometimes again in the afternoon) to make a drink not unlike what the ancient Aztecs used to make: it's one tasty, brain & body-fueling drink that gives you your pure cacao bean dose without the sugars and milk fat, you get your protein from the soy milk, brain-enhancing (and blood sugar-stabilizing) cinnamon, a little brain-enhancing caffeine from the espresso and theobromine (plus more) from the chocolate, and a digestion, brain-enhancing and respiratory-enhancing kick from the cayenne pepper.

Tea

While not a snack, freshly brewed tea can be good for your brain and give you a mental boost as you need it. Freshly brewed tea contains catechins, a type of antioxidant. Green tea is the best, drink it with stevia, not artificial sweeteners. If you are a tea connoisseur and looking for the best of the best, find some genuine Matcha green tea, a stone-ground Gyokuru Japanese tea. This is the tea that monks have used for centuries before going into 12-hour straight meditation sessions. It has the effect of calming and focusing while stimulating at the same time. Sounds pretty Limitless to me!

Excelerol

 

4.0

Category: Nootropics & Anti-Aging

Dream Matcha Green Tea

 

4.0

Category: Nootropics & Anti-Aging

CONSCIOUS1™

 

4.8

Category: Nootropics & Anti-Aging

Matcha DNA Green Tea

 

0.0

Category: Nootropics & Anti-Aging

QUANTUMiND - Nootropic

 

4.8

Category: Nootropics & Anti-Aging

Snacking the wrong way...

Unfortunately, the grocery stores, gas stations, and kitchens of the world are filled with a lot of tasty, yet terribly unhealthy snack foods. The prime suspects are corn syrup and sugar-heavy snacks. As a general rule of thumb, the more ingredients a food has in it, and the more difficult to pronounce those ingredients are, the worse it is for you.

Negative effects of this kind of snacking...

• The energy-high/crash effect leads you into a productivity lull.
• Heart problems - the trans fats in these snacks over time hurt your cardiovascular system's ability to deliver blood to your brain.
• Diabetes and obesity.
• The employees who stock and produce these kinds of foods are apathetic (at best!) about their jobs, these kinds of foods are frequently expired, poorly handled, and unsanitary.
• The increased expense of processed snacks.
• Overall bad effect on the brain. High sugar levels in the brain have been linked to a number of bad psychological conditions such as schizophrenia.

A cautionary word on chocolate
The section above on chocolate may have you thinking...

Lots of snack foods are high in chocolate, so as long as it has chocolate, it should make for a brain-healthy snack, right?

Wrong. Most candy and chocolate bars contain not only low levels of cacao bean compared to the other unhealthy ingredients such as sugars, milk fat, artificial flavorings, and so on - but the quality and processing of the cacao used in these products are often of little health benefit due to everything from alkalization (AKA "Dutch-process cocoa") to refining and processing and over-roasting the healthy elements right out of the beans.

Snack foods to avoid

• Sugary bars and candy.
• Pastries and breaded snacks - yes, even "organic" crackers and crunchy breaded goodies.
• Fried snacks - everything friend.
• Greasy snacks.
• Cheap, packaged, processed snacks.

A word on "cheating"

Most of the dieticians and nutritionists we interviewed agreed that it's rare that people eat all good stuff all the time. It's okay to have a "cheat day" as long as it doesn't become an entire day of unhealthy binge eating. As you switch your mind and body over to better consumption habits your desire for unhealthy, yet delicious foods will subside.

I mentioned that fruits and vegetables actually make some of the best snacks - which vegetable is the very healthiest? That would be the avocado. But, not all plant-based foods are healthy, in my book review of The Plant Paradox, I itemize what you should be eating and what you might want to avoid...