“Align-Approved” Foods: The Complete Guide to Foods I Recommend You Eat
Which sources of carbs, fats, and protein should make up the majority of your diet?
As cliche as it may sound, you are what you eat. When you eat high-quality foods, your performance in your life will be higher quality. On the flip side, when you eat lower-quality foods, your performance in your life will be lower-quality.
The foods you eat dictate everything from your health and energy levels, to your confidence and self worth, how you interact with others, and how motivated you are to reach your goals. So, why wouldn’t you do your best to nourish your body with the foods that will set you up for success physically, emotionally, relationally, and professionally?
Most of us don’t know how.
That’s why in this article, I’m going to breakdown the foods I have seen to be most beneficial in my life, as well as the clients I have worked with, as well as the foods I personally aim to minimize and recommend others to do the same.
Fat: Which fats are best and which should you try to minimize?
Eating a diet high in fat can be extremely beneficial for your overall health. Fat is a great source of energy, regulates hormones and digestion, helps maintain a healthy metabolism, contains essential vitamins and minerals, aids in the process of burning unwanted body fat, and the list goes on and on.
With that being said, it’s important to keep in mind that all fats are not created equally. Consuming 20g of fat from olive oil is going to have way different affects on your body than, let’s say, canola oil.
So, what fats do I recommend consuming more of and which to consume less of?
Fats to include in your diet:
Olive oil
Coconut Oil
MCT Oil
Avocado Oil
Avocados
Grass-Fed Beef
Grass-Fed Ghee
Grass-Fed Butter
Olives
Nuts/Seeds
Nut/Seed Butter
Pasture-Raised Eggs
Cacao Butter
Full-Fat Coconut Milk
Unpasteurised, Unhomogenised Dairy
Pasture-Raised Eggs
Salmon
Sardines
Full-Fat Dairy
Fats to minimize in your diet:
Vegetable Oil
Canola Oil
Sunflower Seed Oil
Safflower Seed Oil
Corn Oil
Peanut Oil
Cottonseed Oil
Soybean Oil
Palm Oil
Margarine
Grape Seed Oil
Rapeseed Oil
The oils I recommend to minimize are “processed oils”. The issue with these oils is that they are extremely high in omega-6. While you do need some omega-6 in your diet, the average American is consuming way more than they actually need. The general recommendation is to consume a 1:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Although, studies have shown most people consume upwards to a 40:1 ratio. This means they are consuming 40x the amount of omega-6 their body needs.
When you over-consume omega-6, you trigger inflammation. This primes your body for weight gain, digestive/metabolic issues, and disease.
In today’s society, it’s almost impossible to eliminate “bad” fats from your diet completely. When you go to the store and start paying attention to the source of fat in your foods, you’ll be shocked by how many foods, including organic foods, contain the processed oils and fats we want to minimize.
Thats why I want you to keep this in mind: If a food contains 2g of fat sourced from processed oils, I probably wouldn’t stress too hard about it. But if a food contains 15g of fat sourced from processed oils, I might second-guess eating that food.
Carbs: Which carbs are best and which should you try to minimize?
While consuming complex carbohydrates in the right amount can help you thrive, simple processed carbohydrates can provoke weight gain, inflammation, metabolic issues, and disease.
In the body, all carbohydrates break down into sugar, or glucose. But not all carbohydrates cause the same chemical reactions within the body.
Processed carbs are stripped of all fiber, vitamins, and minerals, so they’re sent directly into the bloodstream when consumed. This drastically spikes your blood sugar and releases high levels of insulin. This switches you from fat burning mode to carb burning (and fat storing) mode.
Insulin works to balance your blood sugar. When you experience a sugar spike, insulin overcompensates by removing too much sugar from the bloodstream, resulting in low blood sugar. This tricks our brain into falsely believing you’re still hungry.
You then reach for more processed carbs and the cycle continues.
How do you avoid this from happening? Being selective on which carbs you consume in your daily diet.
Carbs to include in your diet:
Roots (turnips, carrots, parsnips),
Tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yuca, cassava)
Nuts/Seeds (Yes, they contain carbs!)
“Fibrous” veggies (Dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, arugula),
Cruciferous veggies (Broccoli, radish, cauliflower, brussel sprouts)
Whole fruit
White rice
Quinoa
Chickpeas
Honey
Carbs to minimize in your diet:
Processed Carbs (Flour, Wheat)
Sugar
Dried fruit
Fruit juices
Corn
Just as sugar is dangerously addictive, the carbs I suggest to minimize are, too. They have a strong impact on the reward center in your brain.
Sugars (particularly when combined with fat) also provoke the release of dopamine, which is responsible for feelings of pleasure. Consuming processed carbs leads to high amounts of dopamine releasing in the brain.
If consumed too regularly, the brain becomes accustomed to this and “needs” simple carbs in order to feel satisfied.
And so the addiction begins!
While complex carbohydrates still break down as sugar in the body, they’re processed much differently than simple carbohydrates. They’re packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals which helps slows down the digestion process and keep blood sugar levels in balance by entering the bloodstream more slowly.
Always consuming carbs with fat and protein will also greatly help you avoid crazy blood sugar spikes.
Protein: Which protein sources are best and which should you try to minimize?
Rule number one for me when eating protein is prioritizing animal-based protein sources.
Here is a great explanation from my good friend, Max Lugavere, as to why:
“Animal-based protein contain all the essential amino acids our body needs, whereas the majority of plant-based protein doesn’t. But there are more reasons why I’m an advocate for animal-based over plant-based protein sources.
To get the same amount of protein from a plant-based food as you do from an animal-based food, you need to eat A LOT more calories.
For example, to get 20 grams of protein from nuts, you would have to eat about 550 calories. Whereas with chicken, you would only have to eat 100 calories. That is a HUGE difference.
Nuts are great – they contain healthy fats and micronutrients that our bodies need – but the idea that nuts are a good source of protein is silly. Almonds for example are 73% fat and only 14% protein.
.I consider something a “good source of protein” when it is actually relatively high protein while not having many tag-along starches + fats, and in that case nuts are a weak protein source. I’m not talking about the quality of protein in almonds vs chicken breast, but how much protein you can get without consuming a lot of extra calories.
There’s nothing wrong with the protein in nuts and seeds. You just have to be aware that it will take up A LOT of your fat macros if you try to consume most of your daily protein through nuts.
(To add to that, eating high amounts of nuts is also hard on your digestion. I always recommend sprouting your nuts prior to consuming to ease the effect it has on your digestive system. Poor digestion equals poor health. Do what you can to ensure you’re digesting your foods properly.)
We can also compare 20 grams of chickpeas to 20 grams of chicken. To get the same amount of protein from chickpeas as you would from chicken, you would have to eat about 400 calories as apposed to 100 calories from chicken. Plus, that 400 calories of chickpeas will also give you 70 grams of carbs…that’s right, 70!
I’m not dissing chickpeas, I’m just dissing them as an effective source of protein.
Now, let’s chat about plant-based meat substitutes.
Sure, they may contain the amount of protein you want, but what about the laundry list of ingredients? Grass-fed beef contains only ONE ingredient, whereas the “Beyond Burger” contains ultra-processed, questionable ingredients, including processed oils.
Plus, it also contains very little nutritional value other than protein which comes from a pea protein isolate.
Choosing 100% grass fed beef over the Beyond Burger just makes so much more sense to me. It not only contains protein, but it’s also loaded with vitamin B12, vitamin E, heme iron, creatine, zinc, omega-3 and 6 fats, and others. There are no added hormones or antibiotics.
Plus, the beef is also less expensive. And because this beef is 100% grass fed and finished, it doesn’t participate in subsidies the way grain finished meat does (industrial meat farmers get cheap grain feed).
Lastly, plant-based protein lacks Vitamin B-12 and I cannot stress how important this vitamin is for your overall health and wellbeing. When you become deficient in B-12, you can develop anemia, which means your body does not have enough red blood cells to do the job, making you extremely weak and tired. Plus, it can damage your nerves, as well as affect your memory and thinking.
If you are on a vegan/vegetarian diet, I highly suggest doing your research on B12 and ensuring you are supplementing properly.”
Protein to maximize in your diet:
Grass-fed Beef (Streak, Ground)
Pasture-Raised Turkey (I love turkey slices from the deli!)
Pasture-Raised Chicken (Thigh, Breast, Ground)
Pasture-Raised Eggs (I also love liquid egg whites!)
Grass-Fed Bone Broth
Greek Yogurt (Full-Fat Greek Yogurt gives you a great mix of healthy fats + protein!)
Grass-Fed Collagen
Wild-Caught Salmon
Roe
Wild-Caught Mackerel
Organ Meats
Protein to minimize in your diet:
Conventional meat/eggs/dairy (non-grass-fed/organic animal protein sources)
Soy products
Vegan alternatives
If you can buy these protein sources organic/pasture-raised/grass-fed, that’ is always best! If you can’t, don’t stress. Eating grilled chicken that is conventional is going to be WAY better than eating fried chicken or no protein at all.
Why I recommend avoiding conventional animal-products is because they contain higher levels of omega-6 and greatly increase your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. As I stated previously, too many omega-6’s sets you up for inflammation, weight gain, and disease.
Also, I suggest prioritizing pasture-raised/grass-fed over organic if you can’t find both. If you can’t find either, I recommend paying extra attention to reducing your processed carbs/fat intake to balance your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
Finally, if you buy any canned food, be sure it’s BPA-free.
How do you optimize these foods?
Let’s say you’ve incorporated/minimized the foods I listed above, what comes next? Here are four steps I recommend for optimizing the food you’re consuming…
1. Eat a balanced meal.
When structuring your meals with the foods listed above, I recommend including protein, fat, greens, and fiber to each one of your meals (greens and fiber will be pulled from the approved carbs list above).
When you combine protein, fat, greens, and fiber into each meal, they work together to balance your hunger hormones and to prevent a spike in your blood sugar levels – meaning, you won’t feel hungry again an hour after drinking this smoothie.
When you combine high-quality sources of protein, fat, fiber, and greens, you should feel full for around 4-6 hours – no energy crashing, no craving foods, and no thinking about when you’re going to eat next! You’ll feel 100% full and satisfied, and have the energy you need to perform at your highest capacity.
2. Hold off on carbs.
I also recommend holding off from consuming dense carbohydrates (rice, roots, tubers), until much later in the day. Consuming high-protein, high-fat foods throughout the day will not only prevent blood sugar spikes, it will keep your mind mentally sharper, and once your body adapts, you’ll feel like you have much more sustained energy.
3. Intermittent fast.
Lastly, I recommend practicing intermitted fasting daily, or as often as possible. This does not need to be a long, dramatic fast. Even a fast as simple as 12 hours has shown to provide immense value.
I personally try to hold off from eating until around 12 or 1pm, although I do not recommend starting off with this protocol.
If you are new to fasting, start with a daily 12 hour fast. Once you feel confident with this timeframe, you can increase by an hour and repeat.
For women, longer daily fasts are not always recommended. I would pay attention to hormones, energy levels, mensural cycle, and weight to monitor whether or not the longer fasts are working for you. Many women thrive off of a simple 12-13 (maybe 14) hour fast daily.
4. Be picky with your sourcing.
As I mentioned above, you are what you eat.
If you are eating low-quality foods with low-quality ingredients, your performance and health and will also be low-quality.
If you are eating meat that came from a cow who lived exclusively off of soy and corn, yet soy and corn is a food you try to minimize in your diet, you are doing yourself and your health a disservice.
There is no significant difference between you eating the corn and soy directly and the cow eating the corn and soy and then you eating the cow.
I dive deeper into this topic with Anya Fernald on the Align Podcast. Listen here.
