Maximum concentration, even first thing in the morning? That's right! Performance food is the nutritional focus of the future: The increasing demands on mental performance and creativity, coupled with limited time, require a targeted diet.
This food trend will help you significantly increase your performance and concentration, thus noticeably improving your mental performance. Learn more about optimal nutrition for your brain here!
Table of contents
1. What is performance food?
This megatrend, also known as "performance nutrition," includes all foods that boost your concentration. While they won't make you smarter, they naturally contain nutrients that help you improve your mental performance and stamina. Among other things, you can use these concentration-boosting foods:
- boost your energy, both in sports and at work
- sleep better
- promote your regeneration
- Reduce stress
2. Megatrends Performance Food and Functional Food
The term performance food is often quickly associated with functional food , but it is not synonymous.
Performance food serves exclusively to enhance brain performance, whereas functional food contains additional ingredients that greatly benefit your overall health.
The Nestlé Future Study predicts a continuing megatrend for both food trends [2]. Three major trends emerged clearly from the survey on future eating habits up to 2030:
- Natural, regional food that is grown and prepared in-house using resource-saving methods.
-
Personalized nutrition based on the genetics of the individual, for example through previously
tailored to the blood tests performed . - Performance food will play a crucial role, especially for everyday meals and eating out.
In the future, food should no longer “just taste good,” but ideally provide additional health benefits and be a means of enhancing brain performance.
Eating will increasingly be less of a social event where meals are shared with family and friends. Instead, eating will increasingly occur on the go, at work, on the way home, or while exercising.
There's no time for extensive cooking and indulgent eating. What's needed is a quick meal, with ingredients that have a highly effective impact on performance.
Take-Home Message #1: Performance food naturally contains nutrients that help you boost your mental performance and stamina. In comparison, functional food also contains additional ingredients that significantly benefit your overall health.
3. Performance Food as a social phenomenon
Society is increasingly becoming a performance-oriented society. While physical labor was once required, people today increasingly have to do mental work.
The brain is challenged daily and expected to generate creative ideas and solutions. Naturally, nutrition must also be optimized to meet these demands. Due to the physical strain, people in the past primarily ate meals rich in carbohydrates.
Today, thanks to the abundance of nutrients, they pay particular attention to the micronutrients that support brain function. In addition to your diet, you'll find further focus tips here to increase your concentration.
Quick snacks for studying and concentrated vitamins for the brain are essential, and neither preparation nor consumption should take too much time. What matters is the added value for the brain and the body.
The key to performance nutrition is personalization: blood tests, DNA tests, and other examinations can determine your individual needs.
Your lifestyle is also crucial. Wearables can measure your stress level or physical activity, for example. You can then adjust your diet accordingly to get the most out of yourself.
But it's not just the right nutrition that enables you to give 110%. Many other factors are essential for your performance. The good news is, you have everything in your own hands. Start now and improve your performance.
4. How can you boost your brain?
The fact that certain nutrients and ingredients have a positive effect on brain performance and can therefore significantly improve your ability to concentrate and your memory has been studied for a long time.
In this field of research, for example, new scientific findings are constantly emerging about how you can improve your memory through nutrition.
Performance food offers the advantage of being easy to incorporate into your daily diet. Numerous studies confirm the impressive benefits of performance nutrition on cognitive performance. You can read more about healthy nutrition for your brain here.
Take-Home Message #2: Society is increasingly becoming a performance-oriented society. For nutrition, this means: It has to be quick, convenient for on-the-go, and contain all the essential ingredients in a concentrated form. Concentration-enhancing effects are especially essential.
5. The optimal nutrition for the brain
Which foods fall under the term "performance food"? Here's an overview of concentration-enhancing foods:
eggs
Eggs contain a lot of choline. You may already know choline as an important precursor to acetylcholine, the key neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.
Acetylcholine acts as a signaling molecule between neurons (the cells of your nervous system) and is therefore an important lever for communication. When communication functions smoothly, you can remember things better, have a better learning curve, and find it easier to maintain focus.
A study with 2497 healthy volunteers confirmed that regular consumption of eggs had positive effects on mental performance, reflected in better scores on numerous neurological tests [2].
Blueberries
These power berries give your memory the boost it needs. Not only do they contain a concentrated dose of vitamins, they're also rich in antioxidants.
And it's precisely these antioxidants that make these berries so powerful. Antioxidants are incredibly important in the fight against free radicals, which naturally form in your body every day, including your brain.
Before these can cause damage, Performance Food with a large amount of antioxidants effectively counteracts the process and protects your cells from oxidative stress.
In an animal study, a team from the University of Reading investigated the concentration-enhancing effect of a blueberry-enriched diet over 12 weeks. In fact, subjects were able to complete tasks faster on this diet than those without blueberries [3].
Green leafy vegetables
The darker, the better! Green leafy vegetables, such as kale, spinach, and lamb's lettuce, are definitely the heroes for your brain cells.
This is because it contains particularly high levels of zeaxanthin and lutein - both carotenoids that have been linked to an improvement in neurocognitive function in numerous studies [4].
You will also find a lot of important vitamins and minerals in green vegetables that provide additional support to your body.
The vegetables are perfect as performance nutrition in combination with other fresh vegetables and a little olive oil as a salad between meals.
This combination with fat allows all the important nutrients to be absorbed into your body, providing the energy that boosts your mental performance. By the way: Did you know that B vitamins are essential for your brain?
Nuts and seeds
Another snack for studying is nuts. They contain numerous trace elements , antioxidants, and valuable omega-3 fatty acids, which provide your body with significant benefits!
Strictly speaking, it's the omega-3 fatty acids that boost your memory. The dry mass of your brain consists of approximately 60% fatty acids, including 30% of the essential omega-3 fatty acid DHA .
These fatty acids not only help with inflammation in your body, but also with the transmission of signals between nerve cells.
This was confirmed by a clinical study conducted by the Charité Berlin, which demonstrated an improvement in human memory performance when taking omega-3 fatty acids [5].
A source rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as nuts, is therefore a must in performance food. Everything you need to know about omega-3 fatty acids can be found here.
High-quality fats
Fat carries flavor and should therefore be a staple in your performance nutrition. As an added benefit, it supports your mental power!
Healthy fats for your brain include olive oil, MCT oils, fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids (e.g., salmon, mackerel, herring, eel), and various nuts and seeds. As you can see, the selection is vast. But what are the differences?
MCT oils are a good ketogenic energy source for the body. Their characteristic medium-chain fatty acids can be used by your body as fuel. Your brain, in particular, harnesses this power. Perfect for your rocket launch! MCT oil supports you in achieving your ambitious goals and overcoming challenges.
Take-Home Message #3: There are many foods to choose from to help you focus. This variety allows you to supply your brain with important nutrients.
In addition to individual foods that boost your concentration, there are complex foods that contain all the key ingredients for your mental performance in high concentrations. Here's an overview:
- Snacks
- Shots
- Bar
- Supplements
- Drinks
Because one of the main criteria for performance food is that it has to be quick to consume. Calories are a secondary consideration. Of course, you can also chop up your own vegetables, make your own muesli, or blend a smoothie.
But in everyday life, there's often simply not enough time for that. Therefore, the form of these performance-enhancing foods is suitable for consumption on the go.
The composition of the ingredients also aims to maximize their effects as much as possible. To enjoy the many benefits of valuable ingredients in combination, you should focus on these foods and supplements:
- The combination of turmeric and pepper is unbeatable. The curcumin , found in turmeric, is better absorbed thanks to the piperine in the spice granules, thus achieving a much higher bioavailability than in its pure form. A study by St. John's Medical College in Bangalore even found a 2,000 percent increase [6].
- The popular "Bullet Proof Coffee" is also a performance food that's probably already an integral part of your everyday life as a biohacker. Ketones, as a power source, provide your memory with the fuel you need to give 110%.
6. With this COFFEE you start your day PERFECTLY!
- For restful sleep and the associated regeneration of body and mind, a combination product made from natural ingredients plus the sleep hormone melatonin is ideal. It helps you fall asleep and recharge your batteries. Learn more about its other benefits here.
- Is caffeine an important ingredient in the morning to help you get out of bed? This ingredient is found not only in coffee, but also in green tea. But green tea has one advantage over morning coffee: L-theanine! This can help counteract the well-known negative effects of caffeine. This powerhouse offers you many benefits [7]. Why not try a fresh cup of green tea in the morning?
More about caffeine & L-theanine
7. Conclusion
It's usually a combination of different nutrients that achieves the desired brain boost. Concentration, energy, and regeneration – all of these can be influenced by performance food. You can increase your mental performance with performance nutrition first thing in the morning.
Combined with regular exercise, fresh air, and plenty of water, you'll definitely be perfectly equipped to face any challenge and get even more out of yourself!
Because success begins in the mind. We want to accompany you on your journey to giving not just 100%, but at least 110%.
Your goals determine your path. Do you want to not only optimize your nutrition for your mental performance but also receive personalized product recommendations? Do you want to receive coaching tips on energy that you can implement right away? Then start our Performance Coach now for free.
Start Performance Coach now for free
8. Sources
[1] Nestlé Germany (2017) [https://www.nestle.de/zukunftsstudie]
[2] J, T Association of dietary cholesterol and egg intakes with the risk of incident dementia or Alzheimer disease: the Kuopio Ischeemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/105/2/476/4633950#110355186]
[3] Williams CM, El Mohsen MA, Vauzour D, Rendeiro C, Butler LT, Ellis JA, Whiteman M, Spencer JP (2008) University of Reading, Reading. Free Radical Biology & Medicine. Blueberry-induced changes in spatial working memory correlate with changes in hippocampal CREB phosphorylation and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. [ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18457678]
[4] Lindbergh CA, Renzi-Hammond LM, Hammond BR, Terry DP, Mewborn CM, Puente AN, Miller LS (2018) University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Journal of International Neuropsychological Society. Lutein and Zeaxanthin Influence Brain Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial . [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28695791]
[5] Külzow, N (2016) Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Natural dietary supplements for the prevention of Alzheimer's dementia. [ https://www.charite.de/service/pressemitteilung/artikel/detail/omega_3_fettsaeuren_wirken_nachweislich_positiv_auf_das_alternde_gehirn/]
[6] Shoba G, Joy D, Joseph T, Majeed M, Rajendran R, Srinivas PS (1998) St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India. Planta medica. Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9619120]
[7] Kahathuduwa CN, Dassanayake TL, Amarakoon AMT, Weerasinghe VS (2017) University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Nutritional Neuroscience. Acute effects of theanine, caffeine and theanine-caffeine combination on attention. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26869148]
