[THE SEVEN] 4. Reducing The Cognitive Overhead Of Eating Well (i.e. Staple Meals)

Posted by Graham Ryan on August 30, 2020

THE SEVEN: Principles Of Nutrition For Slowing Biological Aging

This series is a distillation of our decades of researching, experimenting and generally obsessing over the question:

What is the ideal way to nourish a human body if the aim is to slow the progression of biological aging?

The strategies in this Seven Principles series are of limited value if the meals you're eating only occasionally follow the principles.

Using foods to legitimately transform the way your body feels and your brain performs is 100% possible, but for this to happen, eating according to these principles has to be an all-day, every day (or nearly every day) practice.

Reducing The Cognitive Overhead Of Eating Well

That being said, we’re definitely aware that this Seven Principles series contains a LOT of information.

If we had to consider each of these principles every time we wanted to prepare a meal, we realistically wouldn’t adhere to them ourselves most of the time.

Thankfully, we don't have to consider these principles with every meal. Using this Staple Meals approach, all of this obsessing is done way ahead of time and the meals are guaranteed to adhere to the Seven Principles.

Staple Meals: So Nutritious, So Delicious and So Easy

Preparing a nutritionally amazing meal doesn’t get much easier than this.

Following the steps outlined below, you’ll have a delicious, nutrient-dense meal that’s essentially guaranteed to be free of toxins and common allergens (and generally in under 20 minutes prep time).

Depending on the macronutrient ratio you’re aiming for, it’s easy to make your meal low- or (virtually) no-carb by excluding the starchy toppings like roasted root vegetables.

Each of the “bases” listed below has its own post, complete with prep instructions and recipes for some particularly pretty bowls we’ve made recently. Clicking on the links to these "base" recipe posts is a great place to start.

How to build your own bowls

1. Choose a Base

Oven Roasted Green Veggies (recipe post here)

Cauliflower Rice (recipe post here)

Salad Greens (mixed field greens, baby spinach, kale, dandelion greens, and arugula are our favorites. Much more flavor than lettuce!) (recipe post here)