The CEO Diet - For High Performance, Energy & Focus

To enhance mental performance through dietary changes, first, we need to understand how the brain works. Our brain uses about 20% of the total oxygen circulating in the body and consumes more than 20 per cent of daily energy intake. Over 60% of the human brain is fat and contains 25% of the body's cholesterol.

Since the brain is such a resource hog, the foods we consume greatly affects brain function. Consumption of healthy fats provides structural material to maintain neurons. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for the transmission of information between brain cells. On the other hand carbohydrates (especially sugars) cause oxidative inflammation that forms arterial plaques from fats and cholesterol. This happens when excess carbs are consumed along with fats which are typical of modern diets. 

Since foods that are rich in sugars and saturated fats have been found to promote oxidative stress anything with a high amount of carbs is a strict no-no for a high mental performance diet. Sugary energy drinks might give you a momentary illusion of an energetic mind, but in the long term, they will reduce your mental performance.

The brain is also highly dependent on cholesterol and cholesterol metabolism and recycling in the brain is entirely fuelled by fats. In order to have a high performing brain, you need to consume copious amounts of healthy fats.

Most people would shriek at the thought of someone asking them to eat fat. After all, it seems so intuitive that FAT would make us FAT. However, if you start reading up on fat-loss science, you will understand why it is our hormones (and particularly insulin) that are key behind fat loss, not just calories, fat or cholesterol. Cholesterol is also important to produce hormones in the body like testosterone, estrogen, cortisol etc. 

Following are the fundamental tenets of a diet that will help you transform your mind into a performance powerhouse (This is not prescriptive advice. Consult your physician/dietitian before implementing any dietary changes) 

1. Low In Carbs - Remove all sources of refined sugar - Sodas, Biscuits, Cookies, Cakes, Icecream etc. Eliminate low nutritional value carbs - like white rice, pasta, white bread
2. Moderate In Protein - Ensure an adequate amount of protein intake with a complete amino profile. However, since proteins have a larger insulin response than fats, you should space out the consumption of proteins especially if you are on protein supplements. 
3. High In Healthy Fats - Increase the portion of healthy fats in your diet. Fats have been notorious to cause weight gain which could not be farther from the truth. In simple terms, the higher the insulin response of food (Carbs have the highest insulin response) lower is your body’s ability to use stored fat. So as long as you stay away from artificial hydrogenated fats, you will be fine. 

You should never implement a lot of dietary changes all at once. Most people have the tendency to go full throttle on a dietary regime and therefore end up seeing their bodies revolt to the new paradigm. Space out the changes in your dietary habits over a period of 3-4 weeks. 

In order to naturally maximize your mental performance, you can craft a personalized week wise transition plan like the one shown below

• WEEK-1: Cut out all sources of refined sugar. From sugar for your coffee to cookies or barfi, you can find a healthy substitute for all your guilty pleasures on www.ketofy.in
• WEEK-2: Gear to switch your energy source to healthy fats instead of carbs. Start by consuming a spoonful of GHEE or OLIVE OIL on an empty stomach. Cut down the carbs in your dinner by half which means not roti, rice or fruits. Start spacing out protein intake if you consume protein supplements. Increase the intake of dietary fibre by 30-40%. 
• WEEK-3: Start spacing out your morning intake of fat and the first meal that you consume, to around 3-4 hours. You will start seeing a miraculous impact on your bowel movement and your gut health. Start adding healthy sources of fat to your diet like Avocado, Nuts, Coconut oil, Olive oil, Fatty fish (salmon), Almond milk etc.
• WEEK-4: Replace your morning dosage of fat with a spoonful of MCT Oil. Gradually allow your body to adjust. Replace your cooking supplies with low carb variants like this low carb flour or these low carb noodles. Confine carb consumption just to your lunchtime and that too in moderate quantities. Dedicate one day of the week to lemon water fast where you consume nothing other than lemon water. 

The ultimate goal here is to allow your body to run on both carbs and fats and gradually increases the amount of reliance on fats. This paradigm is termed by some as the CEO Diet since it has been successfully adopted by a lot of high-performance CEOs and athletes. 

Aanan Khurma

Guest Author Aanan Khurma is the Co-Founder & CEO of Wellversed Health, a precision nutrition Company enabling production of customized clinical food products specific to health requirements of demography or an individual. Wellversed has a popular commercial health food brand called KetofyTM, which is a complete pantry of ultra-low-carb nutritious food products that help people feel more energetic, boost mental performance, become lean and stay healthy.