While scrolling through my twitter feed last night, I noticed that Brendan Brazier (professional athlete, author of the Thrive diet, and creator of Vega) was doing a free webinar on plant-based performance nutrition.
It was literally 15 minutes before the webinar was set to go live, but I jumped right on board without hesitation. Luckily, my plans for the night included catching up on blogs – so this was totally doable. A free seminar based on plant-based nutrition? Yeah, that’s right up my alley.
Not only that, but I’m also currently reviewing some Vega products (post to come later this week) – so I figured this would be an amazing opportunity to learn more about the line and philosophy behind it from the creator himself.
So, what did I learn? Well, here’s a little overview of what Brendan shared with us regarding his philosophy on performance nutrition.
1.) He emphasized choosing foods that are high net gain.
This basically means that we should eat foods that use less energy (during digestion), but that give more nutrients in return.
We can achieve this by swapping starchy, refined carbohydrates (breads, pasta, etc.) for foods that are easier to digest (fruits, pseudograins, etc.).
Whole foods give us more bang for our nutritional buck and take less energy to digest. Win, win.
Essentially, if you make good energy investments (with clean, whole, easy to digest foods), then you will get a good nutrient return – all while conserving energy.
What foods can you incorporate in your diet in order to get a high net gain?
- leafy greens (chard, spinach, kale)
- nuts (almonds, cashews)
- seeds
- pseudograins (quinoa, buckwheat)
- fiber-rich vegetables (carrots, broccoli, tomatoes)
- fruits
2.) Next, he discussed the relationship between stress, hormones, and weight.
Stress, as most of us know from experience, is hard on our bodies. When stress levels are high, it really takes a toll. Also, you may have heard that stress increases cortisol levels – which can cause several negative side effects.
Right. It increases cortisol. But what is cortisol? And how does is affect us? More importantly, how can we control our cortisol levels?
Cortisol is a hormone released by the adrenal glands. It’s released in response to stress. Small increases in cortisol actually have several positive effects (heightened memory, increase immunity, increased energy – to name a few).
The problem occurs when there is chronic stress and thus, prolonged release of cortisol.
Prolonged release of cortisol has several adverse physiological effects – decreased bone density, irregular sleep patterns, impaired cognitive function, lowered immunity, increased fat storage, and many more.
To be blunt, that just sucks, right? Most (if not all of) of us have everyday stressors that can’t be avoided – work, family, money, relationships.
Luckily for us, Brendan pointed out that roughly 40% of the average North American’s stress can be attributed to one thing – NUTRITION.
See, the thing about nutrition is that we can control it. We may not be able to control job-related stress, but we can control stress from food.
Let me break it down.
Overly-processed foods have very little nutritional value. Thus, our bodies have to work overtime to pull out what little nutrition is offered. This adds a lot of unnecessary and potentially avoidable nutritional-based stress.
Whole foods, on the other hand, are chock full of readily available (and easily digestible) nutrients. Therefore, our bodies don’t have to work very hard to harness their nutritional power. Consequently, they don’t increase our stress levels like convenience foods do.
So when given the choice – which would you choose? For me, there’s really no contest.
My thoughts?
As a health-conscious vegetarian, I already eat a diet heavily based on whole, clean, and plant-based foods. So while I’ve never actually used the term high net gain in terms of nutrition, the concept is not new to me.
I found the whole idea of nutritional stress to be extremely interesting. Before Brendan’s webinar, I had never even heard of the concept. When I think of stress, I think of external factors that can’t always be controlled.
The idea that our diet can cause significant stress makes sense though. This explains the reasoning behind the whole “eat crap, feel sluggish” phenomena. Personally, if I eat crap for a few days, I come out feeling less energetic and weighed down. That’s because my body is working overtime to get the nutrients it needs from the nutritionally devoid foods I filled it with.
Now, am I going to shun all forms of food that aren’t whole, clean, and plant-based? I’d love to say yes. I really would. But the truth is – I won’t. There will be times when I have pizza, cookies, cake, and other forms of junk food.
Is it stupid of me to still eat these foods on occasion even though I know they offer little, if any, nutritional value? Possibly. However, I believe that a healthy lifestyle entails moderation and balance. I’m pretty certain that if I tried to eat clean 100% of the time, I’d feel deprived. Feelings of deprivation would lead to over-indulging. And it'd be an unhealthy cycle that could be avoided with some cookies and pizza here and there. It’s the 80/20 rule in action.
However, I WILL choose plant-based foods most of the time. Because they honestly make me feel on top of my game. And who doesn’t want to feel on top of their game?
Your thoughts?
<3 Stefanie
A HUGE thanks to Brendan for offering amazing (and free) advice.
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