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NeuroFlow, a behavioral health company, secured a $25 million growth investment led by growth equity impact investor SEMCAP Health, bringing its total funding to $32 million.
NeuroFlow’s cloud-based platform allows healthcare providers to track, assess and connect with patients between traditional office visits. The company also offers AI-driven clinical decision support with recommendations for the next steps for individual patients.
The Pennsylvania-based company will use the funds to expand its network and increase R&D investments to grow its platform. It will also increase its workforce in all departments.
“We’re excited to bring in a strong partner like SEMCAP to support our next stage of growth. This gives us the opportunity to meet the demand we are experiencing and to invest in a platform that helps deliver a happier, healthier quality of life for those across the spectrum of mental health needs. With this financing, we’ll focus on strategic hiring, R&D for the platform and the launch of a Spanish-language app,” James Kanka, NeuroFlow’s vice president of marketing, told MobiHealthNews in an email.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Last month, NeuroFlow announced a collaboration with CirrusMD, a startup offering on-demand, text-based telehealth, where CirrusMS would leverage NeuroFlow’s clinical decision support platform, patient engagement tools and intervention services.
In February, NeuroFlow announced a partnership with Aflac, giving the insurance provider’s employees access to digital mental health resources via NeuroFlow’s educational content service.
The 80/20 principle has been a centerpiece of the Primal Blueprint approach and philosophy since the beginning, but I still get comments and questions about it. In case you’re not familiar, the 80/20 principle suggests that in the context of a full and earnest commitment to making health-promoting choices, conforming with the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws 80% of the time will yield a solidly healthy result.
Many tell me how much they love the concept. It’s a feature that makes the Primal lifestyle possible for them. Others suggest that it leaves too much room for backsliding. Still others find it confusing—does it mean living 100% Primal only 80% of the time and partying it up that other 20%? Or does it mean living 80% Primal 100% of the time? (The answer is neither, as you’ll see.)
I love having these kinds of discussions within the community. Your perspectives help me to continue to grow and evolve my thinking even after all these years. So let me share my perspective on the 80/20 principle, and I encourage you to share your own thoughts in the comments as well. Just because I’m “the Primal guy” doesn’t mean I get to dictate how you interpret what it means to live Primally, nor how you embody these teachings in your own life. It’s obviously a general principle and, as such, it’s intended to mean different things to different people.
What Is the 80/20 Principle, And What Is It NOT?
In short, the 80/20 principle is a rule to make Primal doable in the context of the modern world. It’s a feature that makes the Primal Blueprint a fully achievable, enduring lifestyle that reconciles with the grind and disruptions of daily life.
Let me put it this way: the 80/20 principle is an acknowledgment that we’re adults who take full responsibility for every choice but occasionally find ourselves in circumstances that aren’t conducive to adhering fully to the Primal Laws. You should always have the intention to do your best, to aim for 100%. But you should not let your commitment to Primal living become a source of stress or anxiety, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up or throw in the towel when perfection isn’t possible.
You have agency and reasoning skills, so you should be able to make conscious compromises. Perhaps you’re on vacation and really want the experience of sampling the local cuisine. For you, it’s part of the adventure. You authentically choose within the 80/20 principle to make the most of your hard earned adventure. (Personally, this is my favorite manifestation of the principle.) Maybe it’s a special anniversary or family gathering. You don’t use the situation as an excuse to wildly abandon your commitment to health and longevity. You loosen the strings enough to find the best balance between short-term experience and long-term goals.
Sometimes the 80/20 principle is a matter of feasibility. Travel doesn’t always present the most ideal Primal options. A difficult period in your life (new baby, death or serious illness in the family) may temporarily disrupt your focus or ability to do all the good things you normally incorporate into your routine.
There are also the Primal ideals, especially when it comes to food. I know not everyone has ready access to or the budget for grass-fed beef, pastured butter, organic produce, or a wide diversity of produce year round. This is where that old saying comes in: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” The majority of the health benefits from Primal come from eliminating the grains, sugars, and nasty oils. Worrying about organic, local, and so on is the cherry on top. Likewise, if all you manage right now is walking and microworkouts, but you haven’t found a way to build sprints into your routine yet, you’re still miles ahead of the person who is still sedentary.
Sometimes you just have to do the best you can. It’s not a question of motivation or commitment but the influence of external conditions. Think of it as a cushion, not a cop-out, and focus on the big picture. Primal success is less about what you do at any one meal or single bout at the gym and more about what you do over the course of a given week or month.
And What Is It Not?
Most importantly, it isn’t permission to only shoot for 80% compliance or success. If you set out to make your Primal commitment 80%, guess what. It will likely fall well below that. If you set out to make your commitment 100%, you’ll probably settle in somewhere between 80 and 95%.
It doesn’t mean getting 20% of your calories from ice cream and the other 80% from meats and salads. The 80/20 principle isn’t about “cheating” 20% of the time.
It isn’t intended as a “get-out-of-Primal-free card” for flocking to grains, skimping on fat or protein, or ignoring a continuing sleep deficit.
It doesn’t mean you’re perfect during the week and then go on a bender on the weekend.
It doesn’t mean working out 10 months of the year and then taking two months off to veg on the couch.
It doesn’t mean picking your favorite 8 of the 10 Primal Blueprint laws and scrapping the other two.
And let me be clear: there’s nothing wrong with achieving 100%. If you find the Primal Laws easy to incorporate fully into your life, that’s cause for celebration, not concern. I would never suggest that you’re missing out on life because you don’t feel the need to indulge in conscious compromises. More power to you if you’re happy and fulfilled without them.
Is This the Same as the 80/20 Rule Diet?
Decidedly no, but I’ve gotten this question a fair amount, so let’s clear it up. When people talk about the 80/20 diet, they usually mean the eating strategy attributed to Australian nutritionist, chef, and personal trainer Teresa Cutter. In this approach, you are supposed to “be good” 80% of the time, but you are allowed to indulge the other 20% of the time within reason. No foods are off the table. It’s a “have your cake and eat it too” diet, and it’s very much NOT what the Primal 80/20 principle represents.
The Primal 80/20 principle isn’t a diet at all; it’s more of a mindset. It’s about giving yourself permission not to be perfect, not actually planning dietary excursions into your week. By the same token, the 80/20 principle isn’t carb cycling, alternate day fasting, or any other structured eating pattern. With those, the assumption is that you’re (mostly) sticking to Primal foods but eating at specific times or with certain macronutrient ratios.
And of course, the Primal Blueprint encompasses more than nutrition, so the Primal 80/20 principle does as well. All aspects of Primal living—movement, sleep, stress management, social connection, cognitive challenge—fall under the 80/20 umbrella. There are probably some aspects you’re closer to 100% on most of the time and others you struggle with. For me, the food part is easy, but I’ve historically struggled with the stress bit.
When Does the 80/20 Principle NOT Apply?
There are times when 100% compliance—or something close to it—is important. One example that comes to mind is when someone is using an elimination diet (autoimmune protocol, low-FODMAP, etc.) to explore chronic symptoms. Unless they are strict about eliminating and then systematically reintroducing potential trigger foods, the diet probably won’t be much use.
Another time when it makes sense to be stricter is during the transition to a keto diet. Ketosis is a notoriously fragile metabolic state. Eat a single high-carb meal or snack, and wham, you’re out. When you’re in the process of adapting to keto, it makes sense to be consistent for at least the first four to six weeks to facilitate the process. Even after that, there’s little wiggle room if staying in ketosis is important to you.
The Bottom Line
At its core, the 80/20 principle is a recognition that life isn’t totally predictable and that we’re not in Grok’s Kansas anymore. Denying that reality and trying to fit Primal principles perfectly into modern life can be like jamming a square peg into a round hole. The point of 80/20 is to release the pressure valve that comes with thinking that you are supposed to be perfect and that this Primal living thing should come easily all the time.
As the Primal Blueprint cements itself in your routine, it generally becomes easier (and more desirable) to live well above that 80%. That was my experience, and I can’t even count how many people have told me the same over the years. The Primal Blueprint comes naturally for me now because my entire lifestyle revolves around it and I’ve been doing it so long. It’s so much a part of my routine that I don’t often think about it except when I travel. It will become your normal as well, but the chance that you’ll always be the perfect Primal specimen are small. I’m not, and I’m fine with that.
I encourage everyone to focus on the process and the big picture, not simply the daily details. The Primal Blueprint is first and foremost about taking full responsibility for your life and health. No excuses, no guilt.
As always, thanks for reading, and keep the questions and comments coming!
About the Author
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.
Hey folks, Board-Certified Health Coach Chloe Maleski is here to answer your questions about becoming a health or fitness coach. Considering a career change or side gig? Ready to take your Primal knowledge to the next level? We’re here to cheer you on! Have a question you’d like to ask our health coaches? Leave it below in the comments or over in the Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook group.
Patrick asked: “Primal eating, combined with exercise, has changed my life. You could say it was my personal pandemic project—made possible due to working from home. I’m considering becoming a health coach myself but work in a totally different field (accounting). I have no experience with science, nutrition, fitness, etc., outside of reading blogs like this one. I have ZERO experience coaching. Any recommendations for getting started? Is the Primal Health Coach program suitable for newbies? How long does it take to complete? Do you cover the business side or just nutrition?
Hurray! So fantastic that you turned working from home into a life-changing, wellness-promoting project, Patrick! It really is true: Just a couple of years (or less) of consistent effort can change the state of our health and our life’s trajectory.
Fantastic as well that you’re eager to take what you’ve learned and achieved to the next level. The Primal Health Coach Certification is an excellent way to make that happen.
As a coach, I can attest that there’s a depth of knowledge that only comes from teaching and guiding others. Regardless of whether you make health coaching a new career, a side gig, or another project in self-learning and discovery, the training is transformative. Let’s take a look at your specific questions and cover the Primal Health Coach basics.
Is the Primal Health Coach Certification for newbies?
In short, yes! You do not need prior experience in coaching or prior knowledge of science or nutrition to enroll and succeed.
Many established healthcare professionals and others with similar backgrounds do complete the certification as a way to boost their knowledge, enhance their credentials, and better support their clients and patients.
That said, many others who join have little or no experience in the health and wellness space. Some are regulars here at Mark’s Daily Apple and simply want to take their Primal knowledge to the next level. Others, like you, are considering a career change that integrates what’s worked for them and how they earn a living.
Others don’t know much about Primal eating and living at all (at least not yet!) but are attracted to the growing field of health coaching and the possibility of launching a thriving business they can do from anywhere.
Not “just” nutrition
One thing that sets the Primal Health Coach Institute apart from similar programs is that we understand the importance of solid nutritional and lifestyle knowledge AND that those alone are not enough to succeed as a coach or business.
As you might expect, we cover Primal eating and living fundamentals, including the science behind why they work and how they can be tailored to fit clients with different needs and goals.
This includes nutrition, of course, but also the other 10 Primal Blueprint Rules. We dive deep into the what, how, and why—explaining the details while taking care to use clear language that you’ll be able to share with others. We also provide extensive resources, allowing you to take your learning even further if you choose.
Equally important, the PHCI provides more than a health education. We help you develop coaching skills and learn how to get a coaching business off the ground and keep it thriving. This well-rounded preparation is essential for standing out in the sea of coaches and helping your clients get real, sustained results.
Taking things one step further, we ensure our graduates can start making money as soon as they have their certification in hand by providing a wealth of resources, done-for-you templates, and even a ready-made coaching program. Rather than leaving you to “sink or swim,” we provide ongoing webinars, optional events, and masterclasses. We also have a tight-knit community of coaches who support one another on our mission to promote healthier, more vibrant living.
How long does it take to become a Primal Health Coach?
That’s up to you! The Primal Health Coaching Certification is an online program that you can complete at your own pace, making your way through the material anytime, anywhere.
Moving relatively quickly and completing one chapter a week, you could finish everything in 6 months. That said, there’s no rush, and the program is designed for flexible self-study. There is a lot of material to cover and digest, and the curriculum is robust—utilizing multimedia delivery modes and supporting diverse learning styles.
Even after completing all 23 chapters of multimedia materials and graduating, you retain lifetime access to the program and our Business Resource Center. Because we’re always adding new resources and content to stay up to date with the science, this is gold! It’s also a way for you to stay connected to PHCI faculty and thousands of students and grads.
What does the Primal Health Coach Certification Program offer?
I encourage you to head over to the Primal Health Coach Institute for full details on the certification, glowing testimonials, and next steps. Also check out the PHCI blog for insights into what coaching looks like and how to succeed in this expanding arena.
That said, here’s an overview of what you’ll receive.
The Primal Health Coach Certification Program offers the most in-depth and up-to-date ancestral health education in the world. We don’t just create health experts. We certify health coaches who are true catalysts for behavior change. And we make sure they have the business knowledge and marketing resources to go out in the world and change lives. The program includes:
Online course made up of 23 chapters of multimedia educational resources tailored for diverse learning styles, including videos, webinars, and supplemental eBooks
College-level fitness and nutrition education that covers the basics and way more
Business-building tasks and development projects to help you shape your business story, name, and niche, plus develop your product and set up a payment system (all before graduation!)
Practical experience developing your coaching skills, crafting your signature coaching program, establishing a 90-day marketing strategy, and writing your personal sales and enrollment script
Peer-to-peer training, coaching practice, and case studies
Training in language and liability issues to ensure that you stay within your legal scope of practice
Access to a private Primal Health Coach Facebook community, a valuable resource for community-based learning and building your professional network
Lifetime subscription to our Business Resource Center, an exclusive portal designed to help you launch your business and scale for maximum profit and impact
How to become a Primal Fitness Coach
I know you asked about our Primal Health Coach program, but that’s only one of the PHCI’s growing suite of offerings.
If Primal fitness is more your thing, you might consider the brand new Primal Fitness Coach Certification. This program can be completed on its own, or you could go all in and add it to your repertoire as a Primal Health Coach.
It offers the same high-level, well-rounded, multimedia educational experience but with a focus on preparing fitness coaches who are proficient in training clients to be fit for life. This functional fitness certification covers best practices for daily movement, strength-training and conditioning, HIIT exercises, sprinting, and more.
Take your Primal knowledge to the next level
Either of the above programs will prepare you to set up a thriving coaching business and help others transform their health and lives. And…even if coaching isn’t your calling, they are still an excellent way to deepen your knowledge and take your own wellness journey to the next level.
You’ll not only get a new layer of external accountability and positive peer pressure, but will be joining a likeminded community while learning to “be your own coach.” This alone makes the investment worth it.
Of course, working with a Primal Health Coach one-on-one is another excellent way to see results AND get a sense of whether becoming a coach is right for you. Visit myprimalcoach.com to learn more. I hope to see you on the inside!
Are you a Primal Health Coach Institute student or grad? Or thinking of becoming one? Let us know and drop other questions for me in the comments!
About the Author
Chloe Maleski is a board-certified Primal Health Coach and personal trainer with a Bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. She is also the Head Coach at myPrimalCoach, the premier online health coaching service designed to help you lose weight and take control of your health for life.
If you want to lose weight, gain strength and energy, sleep better, reduce stress, or manage chronic health conditions, myPrimalCoach can help. Take the myPrimalCoach health questionnaire to take the first step toward lasting health and wellness.
This quick and easy green bean casserole is the perfect addition to any holiday dinner. This recipe calls for Primal Kitchen’s Mushroom Gravy to help cut down on the preparation time. In no time you’ll have a warm and comforting dish that will compliment any meal. We keep things simple with onions and mushrooms, but if you’re looking to switch things up this recipe would be great with chopped bacon or bacon grease instead of butter.
How to make green bean casserole
First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then steam your green beans until they are tender. While they are steaming, prepare your crispy onions. Cut the onion in half and slice it into very thin half moons. Toss the onions in a bowl with oil, then add the almond flour, thyme and salt and pepper and gently mix until just combined.
Lay the onions out in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Give the onions a shake or toss and continue roasting until they are golden. I recommend watching them because they can quickly go from browned to burnt. Set aside while you finish the green beans.
Heat the butter in a large oven-safe skillet on the stovetop over medium heat. Once melted and bubbling, add the chopped onion and sauté until golden, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and allow them to cook for about 2 minutes, or until they are just tender. Pour in the Mushroom Gravy and coconut milk and bring the mixture to a simmer.
Strain the steamed green beans and add them to the skillet. You can also add some coconut aminos or even a squeeze of lemon if you’d like. Mix in the thyme, pepper and salt and let the sauce start bubbling again. Fold the green beans into the sauce and cook on the stovetop until the green beans are well coated in the sauce and the sauce thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, take the skillet out of the oven and spread the crispy onions on top all over the green beans. Place the skillet back in the oven for about 10 more minutes. The sauce the green beans are in should be fairly thick, and will further thicken as the casserole cools. Allow the casserole to cool slightly, then serve and enjoy!
This quick and easy green bean casserole is the perfect addition to any holiday dinner. This recipe calls for Primal Kitchen’s Mushroom Gravy to help cut down on the preparation time. In no time you’ll have a warm and comforting dish that will compliment any meal.
While the green beans are steaming, prepare your crispy onions. Cut the onion in half and slice it into very thin half moons. Toss the onions in a bowl with oil, then add the almond flour, thyme and salt and pepper and gently mix until just combined.
Lay the onions out in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Give the onions a shake or toss and continue roasting until they are golden. Keep an eye on them because they can quickly go from browned to burnt. Set aside while you finish the green beans.
Heat the butter in a large oven-safe skillet on the stovetop over medium heat. Once melted and bubbling, add the chopped onion and sauté until golden, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and allow them to cook for about 2 minutes, or until they are just tender. Pour in the Mushroom Gravy and coconut milk and bring the mixture to a simmer. Strain the steamed green beans and add them to the skillet. You can also add some coconut aminos or even a squeeze of lemon if you’d like. Mix in the thyme, pepper and salt and let the sauce start bubbling again. Fold the green beans into the sauce and cook on the stovetop until the green beans are well coated in the sauce and the sauce thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, take the skillet out of the oven and spread the crispy onions on top all over the green beans. Place the skillet back in the oven for about 10 more minutes. The sauce the green beans are in should be fairly thick, and will further thicken as the casserole cools. Allow the casserole to cool slightly, then serve and enjoy!
Notes
Instead of placing the skillet in the oven, you can also transfer the green bean mixture to a 9×13” casserole dish and bake it. I like baking it in the same skillet to reduce the number of big pieces of cookware to wash.
The cook time of the onions vary depending on how thick or thin you slice them. Keeping an eye on them as they are cooking will ensure they are crispy and browned but not burnt and inedible.
Prep Time:10 minutes
Cook Time:45 minutes
Nutrition
Serving Size:1/8 of recipe
Calories:242.5
Sugar:8g
Sodium:284mg
Fat:17.1g
Saturated Fat:7.1g
Trans Fat:0.12g
Carbohydrates:19.9g
Fiber:5.3g
Protein:6.3g
Cholesterol:7.6mg
Net Carbs:14.2g
Keywords: easy green bean casserole
About the Author
A food blogger, recipe developer, and personal chef based in Missouri, Priscilla specializes in low-carb, Paleo, gluten-free, keto, vegetarian, and low FODMAP cooking. See what she’s cooking on Priscilla Cooks, and follow her food adventures on Instagram and Pinterest.
I’ve been around for long enough to see health trends come and go, but cold therapy is one that has staying power. Humans have probably been using cold water to treat injury and illness, wake up their senses, and challenge their physical fortitude for all of human history. The modern obsession with cold plunges, cryotherapy chambers, and sitting underclothed in the snow doing controlled hyperventilation (a la “The Iceman” Wim Hof and his eponymous method of breathwork paired with extreme cold endurance feats) is just the newest iteration. There is something fundamental about the relationship between humans and the cold.
Of course, Grok wasn’t taking cold showers to stimulate his immune system or revive senses dulled by hours and years of participating in corporate drudgery. He was washing in cold rivers and wading into the ocean to trap sea creatures out of necessity. But the effect was the same as when we modern humans do a polar bear plunge in the icy sea—a stronger, more robust body.
Today, most of us enjoy (or rather, suffer from) round-the-clock thermally controlled environments. We’re rarely ever truly cold, not that bone-chilling, teeth-chattering cold where you wonder if you’ll ever feel warm again. Not unless we go out of our way to get uncomfortable. Many people claim to hate the cold, and I admittedly did my fair share of grumbling about having to face frigid mornings as a kid growing up in Maine. But as anyone who has taken the time to embrace the cold knows, once you get used to it, your body actually craves the cold. Like so many things that are uncomfortable in the moment, it’s good for you in the long run. Your body knows that on a cell-deep level.
At the same time, there is a lot of academic debate about the limitations of cold exposure and cold therapy. Promoters of cold water therapy say that it can boost immune function, decrease inflammation and pain, and increase blood flow. Skeptics wonder if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. Some go so far as to argue that it does more harm than good in certain circumstances. Let’s explore.
Types of Cold Therapy
I’d roughly break cold therapy into two categories:
Cold exposure to reduce pain, improve mobility, speed healing, or enhance recovery (acute effects)
Cold exposure for general health and longevity (long-term effects)
“Cryotherapy” is the general term for using cold (“cryo”) to produce health benefits, but you probably associate the word specifically with whole-body chambers that blast you with extremely cold air (typically between -200 and -300 degrees Fahrenheit, or -128 to -184 Celsius). That’s one way to access the benefits of chilling out. You can also
Apply ice packs or cold compresses to targeted areas of the body
Partake in ice massage, getting a rubdown with ice cubes or chilled implements
Use cooling sprays
Take cold showers or contrast showers (alternating hot and cold)
Cold water immersion, or dunking your whole self in very cold water, is popular among the ancestral health crowd and potentially the most beneficial form of cold therapy. This covers anything from your standard ice bath to jumping in a brisk mountain lake to joining your local polar bear club and swimming in frigid water in nothing but your skivvies. For a more controlled cold water immersion experience, you can purchase a cold plunge tank for your home, or go the route of my friend and longtime coauthor Brad Kearns and make your own DIY cold plunge out of a chest freezer!
I’d also put going out in cold weather slightly underdressed in the cold therapy camp. It may not be as actively therapeutic as the other methods, but it does a body good nonetheless.
How Does Cold Therapy Work?
Cold therapy falls under the umbrella of hormetic stressors—stressful stimuli that, when applied appropriately, produce adaptations that make us healthier and more resilient to future challenges. It’s the “that which does not kill you makes you stronger” effect.
The body doesn’t like to be too cold or too hot, preferring to stay in that “just right” zone. Hence, it will actively protect itself against big excursions outside its comfort level. When you expose yourself to cold—especially via cold water or air over your whole body—a number of homeostatic mechanisms kick into gear to keep your core temperature from dropping too low.
Blood vessels near the surface of the body constrict, a process known as cutaneous vasoconstriction. This pulls blood into the core and slows heat loss through the skin.
Stay in the cold water or air long enough, and you’ll start shivering, which produces heat.
Next comes an increase in non-shivering thermogenesis (“thermo”=heat, “genesis”=making). You’ve probably heard of brown fat, the mitochondria-rich, metabolically active fat that generates heat in baby and adult humans alike. Well, cold exposure activates existing brown fat and tells the body to make more brown fat to boot. This translates to increased metabolic rate. Besides producing heat, a sped-up metabolism might enhance recovery following workouts and injury. It’s also why some people argue that cold exposure could be the next big weight-loss breakthrough (a somewhat dubious claim I’ll discuss shortly).
Cold also stimulates the immune system, reduces oxidative stress, and triggers a host of favorable hormonal responses. For example, it increases norepinephrine levels, which decreases pain sensations, and ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), which helps the body respond to stress and regulate blood sugar and blood pressure.
Long-term, repeated exposures to cold improve cold tolerance, which is why those grizzled old-timers in the polar bear club seem to have no trouble jumping into the northern sea despite the ice and slush floating on top. The water literally isn’t as shocking to their systems.
Benefits of Cold Therapy
I’m a fan of cold exposure in general. My interest is mostly related to how it challenges you physically and mentally, making you tougher and perhaps extending healthspan and lifespan, though we can’t say for sure. There are people testing that hypothesis on themselves right now, but those results are decades in the making. In the meantime, I’m thoroughly sold on cold as a hormetic stressor that improves overall well-being.
There are other more immediate benefits too, and some areas where we get it wrong.
Recovery after exercise or injury
The image of a hardcore pro athlete getting into a metal trough of ice water after a big game or meet is burned into the cultural psyche. If you take a spill and twist an ankle or tweak your wrist catching yourself, your first impulse will probably be to ice the injury.
The inclination comes from a good place. Cold blunts pain and reduces inflammation and (sometimes) swelling. However, there is considerable debate about whether icing does more harm than good in the long run, with many experts arguing that you should skip it. I go into greater detail about icing injuries in a separate post, but for now consider that acute inflammation (not the chronic systemic type) is there for a reason. Trying to shoo it away more quickly than the body would naturally do on its own could actually delay healing or compromise the exercise adaptations that make you stronger in the long run.
That said, there are specific cases in which I would apply cold therapies. One is after an injury if the pain is severe and/or the swelling is great enough to potentially impair healing. Be aware, though, that icing can sometimes increase swelling. The second is for athletes who are doing multi-day events and need to deliver another good performance the day after a hard effort. Cold therapy can be useful for delaying the onset of muscle soreness and, perhaps most importantly, offsetting perceptions of fatigue, helping the athlete to believe they are rested and ready to hit the ground running again.
Otherwise, for athletes who want to expose themselves to cold for general health reasons, I’d recommend partaking in cold plunges or showers far away from the stimulus of workouts—at least several hours after. Besides blunting the adaptive response to workouts, if you have significantly raised your core body temperature during exercise, you don’t want to drastically and dramatically shock it with frigid temps.
Better immunity, less illness
Cold therapy boosts the immune system, stimulating white blood cells, anti-inflammatory cytokines, and natural killer cells that can fight infections and possibly even gobble up tumors. Now, I’m not suggesting that cold showers cure cancer, but there is the possibility that cold therapy could prove an interesting adjuvant treatment down the road.
One study of over 3,000 people found that those who took cold showers lasting between 30 and 90 seconds for a month reported 29 percent fewer sick days from work compared to those who did not take cold showers. Other researchers have found that cold water swimmers have fewer upper respiratory tract infections than their partners who don’t swim.
Get cold to lose weight?
There’s some evidence that cold exposure—even just staying in a cool room (62 degrees Fahrenheit, 19 Celsius) for a couple hours a day—can significantly increase metabolic rate and energy expenditure, leading to fat loss. Influential self-experimenters like author Tim Ferriss and former NASA scientist Ray Cronise swear by using cold to accelerate fat burning. Average people around the world credit cold plunges with helping them lose weight. What gives?
This isn’t just a tabloid hack. When you’re cold, your body expends a lot of energy to maintain homeostasis—up to five times normal resting metabolic rate in extreme cold conditions. Much of this comes from shivering, particularly in acute cold.
As I already mentioned, cold exposure also increases your body’s stores of metabolically active brown fat and dials up non-shivering thermogenesis. Simply having more brown fat on board won’t cause that stubborn white fat to melt away, though. You need repeated cold exposures to “turn on” that brown fat so it burns more calories to produce heat. Cold showers or cold plunges would theoretically need to become a regular thing (or just crank the thermostat down for a couple hours each day). Brown fat, when activated, also pulls glucose and fatty acids out of the bloodstream. More brown fat is associated with lower insulin levels and greater insulin sensitivity.
So there’s something to this idea that cold could facilitate weight loss. Still, I’d hesitate to put this in the forefront of fat reduction techniques. Even as drug companies are spending millions to develop pharmaceuticals to tap into the power of brown fat, ditching grains and sugars, increasing daily movement, and working on sleep and stress are always going to be the big needle movers when it comes to all aspects of health.
Better sleep
Speaking of sleep, many folks claim that cold showers at night help them sleep more deeply and soundly. I haven’t seen studies to back that up, but I would believe that cold showers kickstart the body’s natural nocturnal drop in body temperature that accompanies sleep onset.
This is something you could experiment with yourself. Try an evening shower where you start warm and gradually drop the temperature into a comfortably cool zone. I wouldn’t recommend jumping into an ice bath right before bed because that will spike your cortisol, which isn’t conducive to falling asleep. One exception is possibly for people who, for reasons of schedules or convenience, have to conduct their workouts close to bedtime and hence raise their body temperatures. One study found that male athletes who worked out at 6 p.m. and then hopped into cold water (56 degrees Fahrenheit, 13 Celsius) for 10 minutes slept better than athletes in a control, no cold water condition.
But wait, there’s more!
These are the main rationale for using cold therapies, but there are many more. Researchers are also interested in whether cold therapy improves cardiovascular health, sleep apnea, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression… one almost starts to wonder if there’s anything cold can’t do.
Bear in mind, though, that the degree to which cold therapy actually leads to desirable responses and adaptations depends factors including but not limited to
Type of cold therapy
Temperature
Duration
Age
Sex
Baseline health
That’s a lot of nuance to wade through. You can’t just throw a 10-pound bag of ice in your bathtub and assume all your problems will go away. For long-term benefits to accrue, cold exposure probably needs to become part of your regular routine. Much like meditation, you can get positive results from an occasional session here and there, especially when a new issue crops up in your life. However, the people who get the most out of it will be the ones who practice regularly.
Risks of Cold Therapy
I’m certainly in the camp of “cold exposure does some really cool things and generally makes us healthier and heartier.” Most people probably need less comfort in their lives, and cold showers, chilly winter walks, and the occasional cold plunge would do them a lot of good. Don’t be dumb about it, though. Our ancestors spent a lot of time and effort surviving the cold; the least we could do is respect it.
If you’re new to cold therapies, start small. Go for short times at moderately cold temperatures, and build up your tolerance and exposure gradually. Hypothermia is nothing to mess around with. When you go from an ambient temperature to very cold water, your body has a natural cold shock response that can be dangerous, especially for people with preexisting heart conditions. People who have any kind of cardiovascular issue will want to talk to their doctor before starting cold therapy, especially cold water immersion or cryotherapy. Likewise, for acute or chronic injuries, get advice from a pro who can help you craft a smart recovery protocol.
Is It All Just a Placebo Effect?
A lot of the excitement around cold exposure comes from personal anecdotes from citizen scientists around the world. It’s entirely possible that some of the touted benefits they’re experiencing are due to placebo effects. In fact, I’d bet on it.
And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. The mind is a powerful tool, and if it helps us get better just because we believe we can, that’s great. But even if some of it is a product of your own belief system, there are piles of studies showing actual physiological mechanisms that explain or predict the benefits of cold therapy. So no, it’s not just a placebo.
So what say you? Are you already incorporating cold showers, cold plunges, or winter swimming into your healthy lifestyle? If yes, what benefits have you noticed? If no, what’s holding you back?
About the Author
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.
Pre-workout is a commonly utilized and diverse supplement that may provide benefits to your workout via focus, energy, blood flow, and muscle gain. You may find ingredients like citrulline, beta-alanine, betaine, caffeine, and BCAAs, all of which are pretty common within pre-workout supplements. Although pre-workout is not a “one size fits all” supplement, we think there is a pre-workout for just about any need you may have. Pre-workout is one of the more commonly used supplements on the market due to its potential to help you push through gnarly workouts, or perform at the top of your game in your sport of choice.
Pre-workouts are versatile and have various purposes, whether it’s to help you stay focused or to deliver a gnarly pump — we took a look at some of the best pre-workout supplements on the market to build a list that may help you unlock your most successful workouts. This list includes some of our favorite products for building muscle, weight loss, value, and more. If you’re looking to kickstart your pre-workout journey or just want to switch your current pre- for one that may better suit their needs, we have you covered.
Best Pre-Workout Supplements
Best Pre-Workout Overall
To win our best overall spot, a pre-workout has to have high-quality ingredients, serious dosages, and delicious flavors to choose from. Huge Supplements hits all these marks with its 17 ingredient lineup.
Huge Supplements Wrecked
Pre-workouts — like this one from Huge Supplements — should provide the boost you need to get you through grueling workouts. Although each person may need something different from a pre-workout, Wrecked has checked almost all of the boxes. The ingredient list includes 350mg of caffeine, which is equivalent to almost four cups of coffee, and may provide energy and alertness. It also has ingredients that can help with blood flow in the form of 8,000mg of citrulline, 3,500 of beta-alanine (which can cause a tingly feeling), and 1,500mg of agmatine sulfate.
Wrecked contains 1,500mg of l-tyrosine and 600mg of lion’s mane mushrooms, which both may help with focus during your lifts. It’s all rounded out with a hit of 10mg of black pepper extract, which can help make all of these ingredients more absorbable by the body. With the four flavor choices — Peach Ring, Bomb Popsicle, Rainbow Burst, and Raspberry Mojito — the hardest thing you’ll do is pick the flavor that best suits you. The only downside to this supp is it’s only available in 20-serving containers, which means you’ll pay a higher price than some others on the market.
Huge Supplements whey isolate and concentrate blend has a minimum of 23 grams of protein per serving. It has the helpful addition of 5g of BCAA, which may help with better recovery.
Anyone who wants a robust ingredient list with high dosages. This product has 17 ingredients, and each one has an effective dosage (like the 8,000mg of citrulline).
Folks who want ingredients for focus, blood flow, and energy as this pre-workout contains ingredients that can help with all three.
If you’re looking for a highly caffeinated pre-workout, this one has two types of caffeine and is equal to almost four cups of coffee.
Huge Supplements Wrecked Might Not Be Good For
People who are on a budget or who like to bulk buy. At almost $2.50 per serving, this is an expensive pre-workout.
Anyone who works out later at night may want to avoid the high caffeine content here.
Folks who want a more fully stacked pre-workout that contains extras like creatine.
Huge Supplements pre-workout has 17 highly dosed and effective ingredients that may promote some seriously intense workouts. With tons of caffeine, ingredients for focus and blood flow, as well as tasty and unique flavor options, the only downside is that this high-quality formula is reflected in the price tag.
Best Pre-Workout for Building Muscle
Although most people tend to think of creatine or protein when it comes to building muscle, your pre-workout may have the ability to assist your goal to get huge. At least that’s true if you opt for Swolverine PRE.
Swolverine PRE
Swolverine PRE is a non-stimulant pre-workout that contains eight ingredients that are designed to delay muscle fatigue, provide a solid pump, and help you achieve muscle gains. This formula has 5,000mg of citrulline malate, which has been suggested in one study to improve athletic performance and to decrease muscle soreness after a workout. (1) The benefit of decreased muscle soreness means you’ll be back in the gym sooner and working out harder. Beta-alanine is well known for its tingly effect on the body. That’s because it is a vasodilator and may improve blood flow throughout your workout to deliver more blood to pump up your muscles — this formula has 3,200mg per serving.
With 2,500mg of betaine, this formula may also improve upper and lower body muscular endurance, which might allow you to work harder and increase your time moving heavy weight to build muscle. (2) The addition of the amino acids carnitine and taurine might be helpful for muscle growth as well, as amino acids are the foundation of muscle. This supp comes in a Mango Lemonade flavor, has 25 servings per container, but is still more expensive than some others on our list at around $2.00 per serving.
Best for Building Muscle
Swolverine PRE Should Be Good For
Those who are looking to gain muscle and want a pre-workout with ingredients like citrulline, betaine, and amino acids, which may help you achieve muscle growth.
Athletes who want a stim-free pre-workout.
Those who enjoy ingredients that may delay muscle fatigue will appreciate the 5,000mg of citrulline malate present.
Swolverine PRE Might Not Be Good For
Anyone who wants more flavors to choose from will want to look at other options.
Folks who are on a budget can find a cheaper option on this list.
Those who want to bulk buy their pre-workout as this product only comes in 25-serving tubs.
With a formula that has high dosages, ingredients that may help combat DOMS, amino acids which may help rebuild muscles, and blood-flow agents, this supp from Swolverine is a pre-workout designed with building muscle mass in mind.
For many, losing weight or burning fat is a top goal in the gym. Even if it isn’t your main goal, getting a little more shredded may sound pretty sweet to you. This pre-workout was crafted with potentially fat-burning ingredients like apple cider vinegar, chromium, caffeine, guayasa, capsicum, and grains of paradise.
It also includes amino acid l-carnitine l-tartrate, which has been suggested in studies to delay muscle fatigue, reduce muscle weakness, increase fatty acid oxidation, and provide antioxidant properties. (3) This formula also includes amino acid l-tyrosine, and coconut fruit powder (which may help with hydration due to its electrolyte content).
This formula has 400mcg of chromium, which has been linked to increased lean body mass and decreased body fat percentage. (4) While guayusa is very high in caffeine content, its effects may include a decrease in body weight, and lowered triglyceride content. (5) Although many may be wary of fat-burning products, Kaged has been third-party tested and Informed-Sports Certified, meaning this product is tested by a globally recognized standard as being safe for athletes.
This pre-workout comes in an Orange Mango flavor, and although it isn’t the most expensive pre-workout on our list, it still comes in at around $1.50 per serving, which isn’t the cheapest. If you’re looking for a supplement that will help you push through tough workouts, while aiding in your fat-burning goals, this may be a great option for you.
Best for Weight Loss
Kaged Clean Burn Should Be Good For
Those who want a pre-workout with eight potential fat burning ingredients like caffeine and chromium.
People who value third-party testing and want to be sure their pre-workout is safe to use as an athlete.
Folks who want hydrating ingredients in their pre-workout will like the coconut fruit powder added to this formula.
Kaged Clean Burn Might Not Be Good For
Those who are sticking to a budget can find a pre-workouts that costs less than $1.50 per serving.
Folks who want something outside of Orange Mango as a flavor option.
Athletes who are bulking do not need the potential fat burning ingredients here.
Losing weight doesn’t have to be boring and with Kaged Clean Burn, you can still enjoy a delicious pre-workout that won’t oppose your goals. It provides some traditional pre-workout staples, like caffeine and amino acids, along with potential fat burning ingredients, like chromium and apple cider vinegar.
Best Pre-Workout for the Money
This pre-workout is stacked with heaps of helpful pre-workout ingredients — like beta-alanine, BCAAs, caffeine, and electrolytes — to assist you while you crush your workouts. Two added perks: You have 11 flavors to choose from, and you’ll definitely get the best bang for your buck at this price point.
Transparent Labs Bulk
With 11 flavors to choose from and a boastable ingredients list, Transparent Labs Bulk is one of our favorite affordable pre-workouts for its effective and highly dosed ingredients. You’ll find some of the more common pre-workout ingredients here, such as 210mg of caffeine, 4,000mg of beta-alanine, 4,000mg of BCAAs, and 1,000mg of tyrosine. But you’ll also find less common but potentially very effective additions, like 25mg of astragin, which may help with better absorption.
You’ll find alpha-GPC in this formula, and studies have suggested that supplementing with alpha-GPC may increase levels of concentration and focus, making it a great addition to pre-workout supplements. (6) You’ll also find vitamins B3, B6, and vitamin D. Vitamin D is often used as a supplement to support bone health, but some studies have found it to be beneficial for muscular strength and postural health. (7). The formula is created with no artificial colorings, preservatives, or sweeteners.
The eleven flavors include Strawberry Kiwi, Sour Grape, Watermelon, Green Apple, Orange, Blue Raspberry, Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical Punch, Lemon Lime, Black Cherry, and Peach Mango. This only comes in a 30-serving size tub, which equates to around $1.60 per serving, but the high-quality of the product and long list of potentially effective ingredients make this a serious bang for your buck.
Best for the Money
Transparent Labs Bulk Should Be Good For
Those looking for high-quality pre-workout that has a loaded list of ingredients, like caffeine, beta-alanine, and alpha-GPC.
Customers who want a supplement that they’ll enjoy the taste of. This has 11 flavor options to choose from.
Anyone looking for a stacked pre-workout that won’t cost over $2.00 per serving. This rings in around $1.60 per serving.
Transparent Labs Bulk Might Not Be Good For
Athletes who want an unflavored pre-workout option.
Those who work out later and want to avoid caffeine. This has 210mg of caffeine per serving.
Folks who are on a serious budget can find cheaper options, but you’ll likely compromise on dosage or number of effective ingredients.
Pre-workouts vary greatly in their quality and ingredient list. We love that this formula serves tons of potentially effective ingredients for focus, recovery, strength, and energy while maintaining a pretty fair price point. A bonus here is the lack of artificial ingredients in the formula.
Best Pre-Workout With Creatine
For those who are looking to gain muscle and strength, creatine is a go-to supplement to have in their stack. This pre-workout delivers all the desirables in a solid pre- while also providing a combined 5,000mg of two types of creatine to make sure no stone is left unturned in the quest for gains.
Kaged Pre-Kaged Elite
Kaged Pre-Kaged Elite pre-workout has their ingredient list organized by category — Pump & Performance, Power & Burn, Cellular Hydration & ATP Amplifier, and Energy & Focus — along with the list of vitamins and minerals at the top. In the pump and performance section, there are two types of creatine listed: 3,000mg of creatine monohydrate and 2,000mg of creatine nitrate.
Some people want to make the most of their pre-workout by making sure it provides more than just energy to motivate them. This pre-workout comes with creatine in its ingredient list, which is a popular and potentially powerful supplement that can help you gain muscle. One study suggested that the combination of creatine monohydrate and nitrate is superior to other types of creatine or nitrate and monohydrate on their own when it comes to improved bioavailability in blood and skeletal muscles. (8) Meaning, when the two are paired, they may be more absorbable and better utilized by the body in both blood and muscle tissue.
Creatine is well known in the fitness industry and often taken for its potential to effectively increase muscle strength and performance when paired with resistance training. (9) This pre-workout has a combination of 5,000mg of creatine along with other pre-workout staples like caffeine, citrulline, beta-alanine, and betaine, to name a few. It comes in a 20-serving size tub with plenty of flavor options, including Krisp Apple, Berry Blast, Cherry Bomb, Fruit Punch Glacier Grape, Grape, Orange Krush, Pink Lemonade, and Strawberry Lemonade. The price point is around $2.00 per serving, but with the addition of creatine, it’s more like two supplements in one.
Best With Creatine
Kaged Pre-Kaged Elite Should Be Good For
Folks who want a high-quality pre-workout with a dense ingredient list including creatine monohydrate and creatine nitrate.
Anyone who wants nine flavors to choose from.
Athletes who like stacked supplements will appreciate that this is a two-in-one combo of pre-workout and creatine.
Kaged Pre-Kaged Elite Might Not Be Good For
The budget-conscious won’t love this $2.00 per serving price tag.
People who want an unflavored option.
Anyone who prefers to take their pre-workout and creatine at different times of the day.
High-quality ingredients are a huge benefit of Kaged, but the fully stacked ingredient list that covers focus, recovery, pump, performance, and energy here has us sold. The 5,000mg of creatine — 3,000mg of monohydrate and 2,000mg of nitrate — make this an even more desirable product.
Best Pre-Workout Without Caffeine
Maybe you go to the gym at night, or you don’t like the feeling caffeine leaves you with. Whatever your reasoning is for wanting to avoid caffeine, this pick has you covered when it comes to an energy boost via 1,000mg of Siberian ginseng.
Swolverine PRE
Swolverine’s PRE pre-workout is a non-stimulant pre- that still offers a boost of energy through 1,000mg of Siberian ginseng. One study states that outside of providing natural energy, eight weeks of supplementing with Siberian ginseng may enhance cardiovascular and endurance capacity. (10) This formula contains 5,000mg of citrulline malate, 3,200mg of CarnoSyn beta-alanine, 2,500mg of betaine, 1,500mg of carnitine, 1,200mg of taurine, 1,000mg of coconut water powder, and 500mg of pomegranate fruit powder.
The only flavor this supplement currently comes in is Mango Lemonade. We think it’s delicious, but if you aren’t into Mango Lemonade, this may not be the pre-workout for you. It’s also a bit more expensive than our other picks costing over $2.00 per serving. But if you’re looking to avoid sugars, this has less than one gram of sugar in total and no added sugar.
Best Without Caffeine
Swolverine PRE Should Be Good For
Athletes who avoid stimulant pre-workouts, but still want a pick-me-up via natural energy sources like ginseng.
Those looking to avoid too much sugar, as this has less than one gram per serving.
Folks who want a pre-workout that contains potentially hydrating ingredients, like coconut water.
Swolverine PRE Might Not Be Good For
Those who want multiple flavor options will have to look elsewhere.
Folks who are on a tight budget can find other pre-workouts for a lower cost.
Anyone who wants a pre-workout that contains creatine.
Swolverine PRE pre-workout contains high doses of pre-workout ingredients like beta-alanine and betaine while delivering energy via Siberian ginseng — this ensures you’re stimulant-free but still not missing out on natural energy.
Best Pre-Workout for Running
When it comes to running, endurance, focus, hydration, and energy are some of the main factors you’ll want to consider when picking your pre-workout. This pick is specifically designed with athletes in mind.
Kaged Pre-Kaged Sport
Kaged offers a variety of different pre-workouts, and Pre-Kaged Sport is specifically formulated with endurance athletes and their needs in mind. This formula contains electrolytes in the form of 20mg of magnesium and 50mg of sodium, 500mg of coconut fruit water powder, and 2,000mg of taurine to help address long-lasting hydration throughout your long and sweaty runs. It contains 500mg of l-tyrosine and 180mg of caffeine, both added to potentially help with focus and energy.
They included ingredients such as 3,500mg of citrulline, which may help endurance and recovery. (11) This formula also contains 1,250mg of betaine, which may enhance blood flow throughout the body. (12) Lastly, present in this formula is 1,600mg of beta-alanine, which may delay muscle fatigue allowing you to run for longer. (13) Kaged Pre-Kaged Sport comes in 20-serving size tubs and is available in Blue Raspberry, Watermelon, Fruit Punch, Mango Lime, and Glacier Grape. This is one of our more reasonably priced options at about $1.25 per serving.
Best for Running
Kaged Pre-Kaged Sport Should Be Good For
Runners who want to potentially optimize their hydration with coconut fruit water powder and endurance with beta-alanine.
People who like consuming caffeine before their run will like the 180mg here.
Folks who want a plethora of fun flavors to choose from — there are five different ones here.
Kaged Pre-Kaged Sport Might Not Be Good For
Customers who like a bulk buy option won’t find that here.
Folks who want to avoid caffeine because they run later in the evening, or are sensitive to caffeine intake.
Those who prefer a pre-workout that is unflavored.
Kaged Pre-Kaged Sport is a solid pre-workout option for those who run long and often. With ingredients that prioritize hydration, focus, endurance, and energy, all at a reasonable price point, it’s hard to go wrong with this formula.
Strongest Pre-Workout
For some folks, the best pre-workout is the one with insane dosages and a stacked ingredient list. If you’re looking for something along those lines, you’ll want to check out Huge Supplements Wrecked.
Huge Supplements Wrecked
Huge Supplements pre-workout has one of the highest doses of ingredients we’ve come across on the market. Huge Supplements Wrecked contains 8,000mg of l-citrulline, 4,000mg of Hydromax™ glycerol powder, 3,500mg of beta-alanine, and 3,000mg of betaine. It includes 10mg of black pepper extract, which may help all of the other ingredients absorb better in the body.
Huge Supplements designed this pre-workout with focus, energy, power, and pump in mind, and their ingredient list doesn’t leave one of these objectives in the dust. The formula contains 350mg of caffeine, which is equivalent to almost four cups of coffee. Wrecked comes in four unique flavors — Peach Ring, Raspberry Mojito, Rainbow Burst, and Bomb Popsicle — and costs about $2.00 per serving. It’s definitely one of our more expensive picks, but the strength of the dosages, as well as the robust ingredient list make this a powerful pre-workout pick.
Huge Supplements whey isolate and concentrate blend has a minimum of 23 grams of protein per serving. It has the helpful addition of 5g of BCAA, which may help with better recovery.
Folks who want high doses of their ingredients in their pre-workout. For starters, this product has 8,000mg of citrulline, which is one of the highest citrulline dosages we have seen in a pre-workout.
Anyone who wants a pre- that contains high amounts of caffeine to get them pumped up. This supp has the equivalent of almost four cups of coffee.
Those who want a robust list of ingredients that are geared toward a multitude of benefits like energy, focus, pump, and power. The 17 ingredients here may offer these varying purposes in just one scoop.
Huge Supplements Wrecked Might Not Be Good For
Those who want a caffeine-free option.
Lifters who want creatine in their pre-workout.
People who prefer a wider variety of flavors. This product has unique flavors, but there are only four to choose from.
Huge Supplements Wrecked pre-workout powder has 17 effective ingredients that can help with pump, energy, focus, and power for gymgoers and elite athletes alike. These ingredients all come at pretty high dosages and the formula includes black pepper extract, which may make all of these ingredients more absorbable by the body.
Best Vegan Pre-Workout
If you’re vegan and looking for a pre-workout to get you pumped up for a lift, a hike, or your sport of choice, Gnarly Nutrition has a plant-based pre-workout designed with vegan athletes in mind. With only five ingredients — all of which are fully vegan — this formula is straightforward and fit for anyone who lives a plant-based life.
Gnarly Nutrition Pre-Workout
Gnarly Nutrition aims to bring you highly effective supplements with a limited impact on the environment via their sustainable packaging and fully vegan pre-workout ingredient list — even their BCAAs are listed specifically as vegan. Their pre-workout contains no artificial sweeteners or flavors, and is free from gluten and soy. This vegan pre-workout has 5,000mg of citrulline malate, which may enhance blood flow, improve muscle recovery, and increase nutrient delivery in the body. (14) It contains 4,000mg of branched-chain amino acids, 2,500mg of CarnoySyn beta-alanine, and 150mg of ginseng. This pre-workout comes in both caffeinated and caffeine-free versions, and includes 180mg of caffeine if you opt for one of the caffeinated flavors.
The formula comes in three flavor options — Strawberry Lemonade, Mango, and Caffeine-Free Strawberry Lemonade. You also have the choice between a 30-serving size can or five individual travel sticks to take hiking, camping, or on the go. It is sweetened with stevia leaf powder and gets its coloring from beetroot powder. If you choose the 30-serving can, you’ll pay around $1.40 per serving, while the to-go sticks cost about $1.50 per packet.
Best Vegan
Gnarly Nutrition Pre-Workout Should Be Good For
Anyone who wants a vegan pre-workout that is also naturally flavored, contains no artificial sweeteners, and is soy and gluten free.
Athletes who value both caffeine and caffeine-free options for their pre-workout.
Those who like sustainable packaging. This comes in a can and Gnarly aims to be fully plastic-free by 2025.
Gnarly Nutrition Pre-Workout Might Not Be Good For
Anyone who likes more flavor options will have to look elsewhere — there are only three flavors here.
Folks who prefer to buy in bulk as this is only available in five to-go packets or a 30-serving can.
Gnarly takes sustainability and its supplements seriously. This is a pre-workout that will suit the lifestyles of vegans, gluten- and soy-free folks, and anyone who cares about sustainability. Their pre-workout has solid ingredients and dosages, and sports a pretty great price tag.
Best Tasting Pre-Workout
This pre-workout has delicious flavors, and sometimes that can be the most important factor to get you hooked on your favorite supplement in your stack. Legion has caffeine and caffeine-free options with 17 and six flavor choices to choose from for each, respectively.
Legion Pulse Pre-Workout
Enjoyability can be a significant factor when it comes to taking your supplements regularly. With Legion Pulse Pre-Workout, great flavors won’t be an issue. This formula comes in a caffeine option with 17 flavors to choose from, and a caffeine-free option with six flavor choices. The caffeine version comes in Fruit Punch, Strawberry Margarita, Apple Cider, Arctic Blast, Frosted Cranberry, Blood Orange, Blue Raspberry, Blueberry Lemonade, Cherry Limeade, Grape, Green Apple, Mojito, Pink Lemonade, Sour Candy, Tropical Punch, Watermelon and Strawberry Kiwi.
The caffeine-free option comes in Grape, Sour Candy, Blue Raspberry, Tropical Punch, Fruit Punch, and Green Apple. Both the caffeine and caffeine-free versions are made from 100 percent natural ingredients and contain 2,500mg of betaine, 3,600mg of beta-alanine, 8,000mg of citrulline malate, and 300mg of alpha-GPC. These are all effectively high doses compared to many other pre-workouts on the market. This is one of the more expensive options on our list at around $2.25 per serving. It’s good to note that this pre- is sweetened with sugar alcohols and stevia leaf if you’re actively avoiding either.
Best Tasting
Legion Pulse Pre-Workout Should Be Good For
People who want diverse flavor options. Legion offers 17 flavors in their caffeinated version and six in their caffeine-free formula.
Athletes who like the choice between a caffeinated or caffeine-free pre-workout. Legion has both options available.
Folks who are looking for a pre-workout that is 100 percent natural with no artificial flavors or colors.
Legion Pulse Pre-Workout Might Not Be Good For
People who are on a budget as this is around $2.25 per serving.
If you’re looking for an unflavored option, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Anyone who avoids sugar alcohol or stevia leaf, as both are included in this formula.
Legion Pulse Pre-Workout is a versatile supplement offering both caffeinated and caffeine-free versions, as well as a wide range of flavor options for both. The fact that it’s 100 percent all-natural makes this pick an even bigger score.
Best Pre-Workout for Men
If you’re looking to pack on muscle, as it’s safe to assume many men are, this pre-workout has 17 clinically dosed ingredients to help support energy, focus, power, and pump for optimal gains.
Huge Supplements Wrecked
This formula from Huge Supplements contains 17 potent ingredients aimed towards supporting you while you crush weights and get huge. This supp has ingredients like 3,000mg of malic acid, which may enhance endurance and delay muscle fatigue allowing you to work out longer. As men tend to be taller and have longer limbs, this can be helpful to fight any early onset fatigue some men may experience. (15) It also contains a whopping dose of 8,000mg of citrulline, which may help with exercise performance and better recovery, getting you back to the gym faster. (11)
This formula also contains 350mg of caffeine to potentially keep you alert, focused, and energized through your intense lifts. Huge Supps isn’t skimping on any of the other common pre-workout ingredients either, like 3,500mg of beta-alanine, 600mg of lion’s mane mushroom powder, 3,000mg of betaine, and 1,500mg of tyrosine. Wrecked comes in four flavors — Raspberry Mojito, Peach Ring, Bomb Popsicle, and Rainbow Burst — and costs around $2.50 per serving.
Huge Supplements whey isolate and concentrate blend has a minimum of 23 grams of protein per serving. It has the helpful addition of 5g of BCAA, which may help with better recovery.
Men who need a pre-workout that contains ingredients that may help them build muscle will like the addition of malic acid and citrulline present here.
Guys who want a serious dose of caffeine as this has 350mg, which may help with focus, energy, and alertness.
Folks who want high doses of their pre-workout ingredients, such as the 8,000mg of citrulline and 350mg of caffeine per serving here.
Huge Supplements Wrecked Might Not Be Good For
People who want a wider variety of flavors to choose from. This supp only offers four.
If you’re looking for a cheaper option you may find others on the market.
Anyone who works out later or is caffeine intolerant, as the caffeine content here is the equivalent of almost four cups of coffee.
If you’re in the market to put on muscle (as many men might be), and you’re looking for a pre-workout that will assist you, Huge Supplements Wrecked has your back. They made this pre-workout with focus, energy, pumps, and power in mind, and each ingredient plays a different role in helping you bust out hard workouts, recover, and get back in the gym for your next lift.
Best Pre-Workout for Women
This pre-workout is specifically designed with women’s needs in mind. With some main staple ingredients like beta-alanine, tyrosine, and caffeine, as well as some less common, but effective ingredients, this is a pretty sweet women’s pre.
Powher Pre-Workout
Powher Pre-Workout has some important staples we like to see in pre-workouts, like 2,000mg of beta-alanine, 500mg of tyrosine, and 100mg of caffeine, which is almost the same amount as a regular cup of coffee. It also has some less common staples, but solid ingredients, like beetroot powder, which may help with blood flow, coconut water, which may help with hydration, and vitamins B6 and B12, which add a micronutrient punch. The addition of B6 and B12 may be especially important for women who take oral contraceptives as one study suggests that these levels may be affected by birth control use. (16)
Powher pre-workout was designed side by side with registered dieticians and is formulated as a pre- for women specifically. It comes in a Pink Lemonade flavor and costs around $1.80 per serving. They also have the option to buy two tubs, which gets you free shipping in the US and UK. Or, if you opt to buy three tubs at once, you get a fourth tub for free, free shipping worldwide, and a 90-day money-back guarantee. Regardless of which one you choose, Powher may be the pre-workout you’ve been looking for.
Best for Women
Powher Pre-Workout Should Be Good For
Women who want a pre-workout specifically designed with them in mind.
Athletes who enjoy tried and true pre-workout ingredients, like beta-alanine and caffeine.
Folks who want a pre-workout with the addition of B6 and B12, which may be especially helpful for women on birth control.
Powher Pre-Workout Might Not Be Good For
People who want a wider variety of flavors to choose from. This supp only offers Pink Lemonade.
For those on a budget, you will be able to find a cheaper option available on this list.
Anyone who is looking to avoid caffeine altogether.
If you’re in the market for a pre-workout that is specifically designed for women, this is an excellent option, boasting many classic pre-workout ingredients, like beta-alanine and tyrosine. It also contains some less common, but noteworthy ingredients, such as vitamins B6 and B12, which may be important for women on birth control.
What Are The Benefits of Pre-Workout
There are many reasons people opt to take a pre-workout. Although they aren’t all designed with the same goal in mind, the various formulas offer assistance for potentially better focus, energy, pumps, growth, and performance. You’ll find ingredients like citrulline, betaine, beta-alanine, caffeine, and BCAAs , all of which are fairly common in pre-workout formulas. Below, we detail some of the benefits a pre-workout may provide.
Blood Flow
Some people love the feeling of the “pump” that is associated with a good workout. The pump is actually blood that is entering the muscles and making it feel bigger and “swole”. (17) Ingredients that may help with blood flow or the “pump” in pre-workouts include a nitric oxide booster, beetroot, or even the addition of beta-alanine, which gives some people a tingly feeling in their body.
Focus
Whether you work out early in the morning, need a pick-me-up after a long day of work, or just need a little extra love in the focus department, a pre-workout can often help you remain alert and keyed in on your performance. Caffeine may be a good ingredient to look out for if you’re wanting better focus or cognitive attention, as well as mushroom supplements, or ginseng (for a decaffeinated potential brain boost). (18)(19)(20)
Recovery
Preemptively taking care of your recovery needs can put you ahead of the game. Recovering after intense workouts or sports performance can set you up for success moving into your next workout, help manage muscle soreness, and even potentially aid in muscle growth and increased strength. Many pre-workouts contain BCAAs, which are three amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) that have been suggested to decrease DOMS. (21) Creatine is another ingredient that has been suggested to speed up recovery time between sets and between workouts by mitigating muscle fatigue and promoting faster recovery. (22)
Energy
A boost in energy may be just what you need when it comes time to workout. Day-to-day, energy levels fluctuate, and a pre-workout may come in handy when you’re feeling a little drained. Ingredients to look out for when you’re seeking energy from your pre include caffeine, ginseng, or Rhodiola Rosea, all of which have studies concluding that they may provide energy and help fight fatigue for the user. (23)(24)(25)
Strength
Not every pre-workout will contain strength-based ingredients, but there are some that may fall under this category. One of the main ingredients to look out for is creatine, which may have strength and weightlifting performance enhancing properties. (9) Another study suggests that supplementing with whey protein, amino acids, and vitamin D — the latter two of which are both common pre-workout ingredients — has positive effects for strength, as well as increasing fat-free body mass when paired with resistance training. (26)
What To Consider Before Buying Pre-Workout
When picking the right pre-workout to assist you, you will want to consider a few factors. Each person will differ in their needs and what they want to get out of a pre-workout, so we recommend you think about your goals, budget, dosage needs, micronutrients, and flavor preferences before buying.
Goals
Depending on what your goals are, your needs for pre-workout ingredients will vary. If you’re most concerned about getting a solid kick of energy before your lifts, you’ll want to opt for a densely caffeinated pre-workout that may provide the energy you need to power through. Some people will be more focused on achieving an excellent pump and better blood flow, which may be potentially increased via vasodilators, like beetroot or citrulline. (11)
Credit: Nico Cuervo / Shutterstock
Others may be honing in on recovery, or strength and size, which would lead them to opting for a formula with creatine, BCAAs, or even vitamin D. (26) Whatever your reasoning is, you’ll want to choose a pre-workout that contains the ingredients that will aid you in your end goal.
Budget
When you add a supplement to your stack, you want to make sure that it will fit into your budget. There are so many pre-workouts on the market, and they range widely in price per serving. The ingredient list, dosage, and servings per container will all affect the overall price of the supplement. Our list here ranges between price points of around $0.50 to over $2.00 per serving, leaving some wiggle room between the two prices to find the sweet spot that works for your budget. If you opt for a pre-workout that has a robust ingredient list, you may end up paying more than you would for one with a less robust list. You may also see prices vary based on some factors, like whether the pre has an all-natural formula, contains additives, or offers high dosages.
Dosage
Dosage is the amount of each ingredient that is present in the supplement. It’s always a good choice to look at the grams or milligrams present for each ingredient to understand how it might affect you. Caffeine is a great example of this. One cup of coffee is equivalent to about 90mg of caffeine, so if you’re looking for a small pick-me-up, 100mg or less of caffeine might do in a pre-workout. If it’s been a long day and you need more caffeine to help you get through your workout, you may opt for something that has 300mg plus, as some of our picks on this list contain.
Micronutrients
Pre-workouts aren’t necessarily known for their micronutrient content, so it’s safe to say you shouldn’t rely on a pre-workout to meet your dietary requirements. However, some of the pre-workout supplements on the market do include some vitamins and minerals in their formula. Electrolytes are more common than other types of micronutrients — in pre-workouts, these come in the form of calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Some pres may include various B vitamins, as well. If micros are an important factor to you, you’ll want to look at the nutrition label on your pre-workout, or potentially consider adding a multivitamin to your supp stack.
Flavor
If you don’t enjoy the taste of the pre-workout in your stack, it’s less likely that you’ll use it on a consistent basis. Whether you want a pre-workout that is flavored, unflavored, powdered, or liquid, enjoyability is key. Be sure to check the flavors (and the ingredients used to create those flavors) in any blends you are eyeing before making your final decision.
How We Chose Our Picks
We considered a multitude of factors when building this list to ensure all readers could find the helpful information they were looking for. We weighed the things like ingredients and price, but more on the specifics below.
Formulation
Formulation is a major component to how we choose what pre-workouts make it on our list. We try to make sure we have caffeinated, as well as caffeine-free options for those who prefer a stim-free pre-workout. We also think about types of ingredients, dosages at which these ingredients come in, and things like vegan formulation. We have several factors to consider, but most importantly, we want to deliver a diverse list of pre-workouts that have integrity and that we have personally studied to make sure they are reliable supplements.
Credit: UfaBizPhoto / Shutterstock
Sweetening agents are something else we take into consideration when making our picks. Some people opt for natural sugars only, while some don’t mind artificial sweeteners. We wanted to make sure those who have strong feelings on artificial sweeteners had all-natural options, while also providing picks for those who place higher value on other factors over the sweetening agents used in their pre-workout.
Dosages
We work to choose supplements that have proper dosages of their ingredients to make a noticeable impact on your workouts. Although there is an “effective” dosage of each ingredient, there are some that go above and beyond that minimum effective dose. We chose supplements that have a range of dosages, to make sure there is a fit for everyone.
For example, some of our picks contain high doses of creatine or caffeine, while other picks don’t have them at all or have more minimal dosages. Another example is the doses of citrulline on this list: We included solid pre-workout picks that offer between 3,500mg and 8,000mg of citrulline — all numbers in this range are safe to take, but choosing a higher vs. lower dose will depend on personal preference and goals, which is why we included both. And of course, please speak to a physician before deciding the dose that’s right for you.
Price
Price can be one of the most important factors when it comes to adding a supplement to your stack. We make picks based on quality and integrity, but price is something we take into consideration to make sure there’s a pick for each budget. Our prices on this list vary from around $0.50 per serving to over $2.00 per serving. There are several factors that go into a price point for a supplement including ingredients, dosages, servings per container, and whether or not the formula is organic, all-natural, or contains fillers.
Wrapping Up
Whether your goal is to stay focused, attain a sweet pump, produce better blood flow, increase your energy, or assist with muscle growth and workout performance, a pre-workout can be a helpful supplement to take. Pre-workout supplements vary in ingredients, dosages, flavors, and price, and knowing what you’re looking for in your pre is key.
If you’re looking for an energy boost, opt for one of our picks with a high dose of caffeine. If you’re more focused on your pumps, a large dose of citrulline may help. Before hitting the market, decide what your top priorities are, and keep an eye on every ingredient list in your search. Adding a pre-workout supplement to your routine shouldn’t be harder than maxing out your squat, so let this list guide you to your perfect pre-workout match.
FAQs
Do I need a pre-workout to have a good workout?
A pre-workout is never a necessity. If you need an energy boost, better focus, or help with recovery, a pre-workout can be a helpful and fairly inexpensive tool — but you do not need it to succeed.
What is the most important factor in picking a pre-workout?
This will vary person to person. Each pre-workout has its unique characteristics that make it better geared toward one goal over another. If your main focus is having enough energy to get through a workout, a pre- with added caffeine will probably be best for you. If you’re most concerned with offsetting DOMS, you may want something with BCAAs included. Pre-workouts are not one-size-fits-all supplements — they require the user to know their needs and pick their formula accordingly.
Who should be using pre-workout?
The short answer here is anyone who thinks the ingredients in a pre-workout (like caffeine, betaine, beta-alanine, citrulline, etc.) may help them reach their goals in the gym or in their sport of choice. We feel there is a right pre-workout for everyone, and if you have any questions or concerns, it’s best to check with your doctor or healthcare provider before adding a pre-workout to your stack.
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Gonzalez AM, Trexler ET. Effects of Citrulline Supplementation on Exercise Performance in Humans: A Review of the Current Literature. J Strength Cond Res. 2020 May;34(5):1480-1495. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003426. PMID: 31977835.
Bloomer RJ, Farney TM, Trepanowski JF, McCarthy CG, Canale RE. Effect of betaine supplementation on plasma nitrate/nitrite in exercise-trained men. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2011 Mar 18;8:5. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-8-5. PMID: 21414230; PMCID: PMC3066115.
Berti Zanella P, Donner Alves F, Guerini de Souza C. Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on performance and muscle fatigue in athletes and non-athletes of different sports: a systematic review. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2017 Sep;57(9):1132-1141. doi: 10.23736/S0022-4707.16.06582-8. Epub 2016 Jul 5. PMID: 27377257.
Gough LA, Sparks SA, McNaughton LR, Higgins MF, Newbury JW, Trexler E, Faghy MA, Bridge CA. A critical review of citrulline malate supplementation and exercise performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2021 Dec;121(12):3283-3295. doi: 10.1007/s00421-021-04774-6. Epub 2021 Aug 21. PMID: 34417881; PMCID: PMC8571142.
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Guest NS, VanDusseldorp TA, Nelson MT, Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Jenkins NDM, Arent SM, Antonio J, Stout JR, Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Goldstein ER, Kalman DS, Campbell BI. International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and exercise performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2021 Jan 2;18(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s12970-020-00383-4. PMID: 33388079; PMCID: PMC7777221.
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Research presented at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference demonstrated that eating breakfast cereal, frozen foods and soda could lead to cognitive decline and increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.1 The researchers were encouraged that the data confirmed past information demonstrating nutrition has a significant impact on brain health.
NOVA (a name, not an acronym) is a food classification system that organizes foods according to the extent they are processed.2 Studies assessing the impact of ultraprocessed foods regularly use this system. Ultraprocessed foods are industrial formulations with five or more ingredients, including sugars, fats, salt, stabilizers and preservatives.
These are ingredients that are only found in ultraprocessed foods and are not commonly used in culinary preparations. The purpose of these is to “imitate sensory qualities” with ingredients that either enhance flavors or disguise undesirable taste in the final product. Many ultraprocessed foods also go through industrial processes for which there is no equivalent in the home, such as molding, extrusion and preprocessing for frying.
Multiple studies have demonstrated that the amount of ultraprocessed food consumed in the U.S. is high. One 2016 study3 found 57.9% of calories study subjects consumed were from ultraprocessed foods. Another 2018 study4 found that 58.5% of calories consumed from 2007 to 2012 came from ultraprocessed foods. An 18-year study5 published in 2021 found the average consumption of ultraprocessed foods rose from 53.5% in 2002 to 57% of the diet in 2018.
As a side note, one prospective study conducted in France6 and published in 2019 in JAMA Internal Medicine7 found something significantly different. In 44,551 participants, only 14.4% of their diet in grams was ultraprocessed food.
Yet, despite this dramatic drop, the researchers also found “a positive association between increased ultraprocessed foods consumption and all-cause mortality risk.” Researchers noted that the study’s participants were already “more health conscious than the general population,” which might lead to less consumption of ultraprocessed foods and lower mortality rates, and that this study’s results should not be generalized to other populations.
Even so, the fact that ultraprocessed foods make up 14.4% of the diets of “more health conscious” people should send a message that ultraprocessed foods are being consumed in historic amounts.
Against this backdrop of mounting scientific evidence8 that ultraprocessed foods increase your risk of disease and early death, organizations like the American Heart Association promote a plant-based diet including “convenient meatless foods you like, such as veggie burgers and vegetarian microwavable meals, on hand for a quick, meatless lunch.”9
The current meatless, plant-based burgers are the very definition of ultraprocessed foods. For example, Impossible Foods has filed 263 global patents on food10 and as Seth Itzkan, cofounder of Soil4Climate wrote:11
“Impossible Foods should really be called Impossible Patents. It’s not food; it’s software, intellectual property — 14 patents, in fact, in each bite of Impossible Burger with over 100 additional patents pending for animal proxies from chicken to fish.”
According to Impossible Foods their ingredients are derived from plants.12 In other words, they are not plants, just derived from plants, in the same way that soy protein concentrate, seed oils and corn chips are naturally derived from plants. Although the ingredient is “plant-derived,” it doesn’t account for the processing used before it reaches the final form.
Study: Cognitive Decline Linked to Ultraprocessed Food
The study presented at the International Conference in San Diego looked at 10,775 people living in Brazil over an eight-year period. The data showed that there was a correlation between an individual’s “high consumption” of ultraprocessed food and a decline in memory and executive function.13,14
However, instead of using 50% or 60% of the daily caloric intake of ultraprocessed food as high consumption, this study defined high consumption as “more than 20%.” This could mean a mere 400 daily calories for women or 500 calories for men. Lynetta Smith is a clinical dietitian with Citizens Memorial Healthcare in Bolivar. She commented on how meal planning and eating foods prepared and cooked at home could help prevent cognitive decline, saying:15
“There’s a beautiful synergy in our foods, and when we look at dietary patterns that have particular cognitive benefits, they’re ones that have also had a lot of research for cardiovascular benefits.
As people take time to prepare healthy meals at home, it’s a cognitive activity: You have to come up with meal plans, you have to think about your ingredients and measuring and preparing them in a way that uses them well, so you’re using your budget well. Often with meal preparation, you’re working with others so you get that social factor that goes into our brain health.”
Dr. Jean Guan, a geriatrician with CoxHealth, pointed out16 that while the study analyzed the effect of frozen food on cognitive decline, it didn’t mean that frozen foods were inherently unhealthy. She offered the advice of preparing large amounts of heart-healthy foods and freezing them in individual portions. Although it’s still a frozen meal, it’s not manufactured or ultraprocessed frozen food.
The loss of cognitive function was not insignificant. In the study,17 men and women who ate the most ultraprocessed foods had a 28% faster rate of cognitive decline and a 25% faster rate of decline in executive function as compared to those who ate the least.
One of the study’s scientists pointed out to CNN that in Brazil, up to 30% of the total calorie intake comes from ultraprocessed foods. This is nearly half the amount recorded in the U.S. Additionally, the researcher noted that ultraprocessed foods make up 56.8% of the British diet and 48% of the Canadian diet.
The study did not identify whether there was a dose-dependent effect. In other words, they only looked at whether eating greater than 20% of the daily caloric intake in ultraprocessed foods would affect cognitive decline. If a person ate nearly three times that amount, would the rate of cognitive decline be greater?
The Effect of Ultraprocessed Foods in One Month
Dr. Chris Van Tulleken, BBC television presenter of “What Are We Feeding Our Kids?”18 was curious about how ultraprocessed foods affect the body. Over a one-month period the 42-year-old increased his daily intake from 30% of ultraprocessed products to 80%, which mimicked how 20% of the U.K. population eats. By the end of four weeks, Tulleken experienced a myriad of changes, including:19
Poor sleep
Heartburn
Anxiety
Sluggishness
Low libido
Unhappy feelings
Hemorrhoids (from constipation)
Weight gain of 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds)
“I felt 10 years older, but I didn’t realize it was all [because of] the food until I stopped eating the diet,” Tulleken told the BBC.20 This is significant since the physician recognized that he had purposely changed his diet, and yet he did not recognize that feeling 10 years older after only four weeks was associated with the food he was eating.
This may help explain how difficult it might be to convince others that the way they’re feeling is related to the chemicals they are consuming. These were the symptoms that Tulleken identified without any testing. During the one-month period, he also underwent several measurements that demonstrated there were significant changes from only four weeks of eating ultraprocessed foods.
Brain scans showed the diet had created new links in the brain from areas responsible for rewards to areas that drive automatic and repetitive behavior. This is a similar neurological response to individuals who consume classically addictive substances, such as alcohol, drugs and tobacco. The scans showed that the brain changes Tulleken experienced in four weeks were not permanent.21
Yet, it is not possible to make the same assumption if an individual follows a diet high in processed foods for months or years. Tulleken also pointed out “if it can do that in four weeks to my 42-year-old brain, what is it doing to the fragile developing brains of our children?”22
Ultraprocessed Food Triggers Hunger and Disease
Tulleken found that he ate approximately 500 more calories each day during that month.23 This information was consistent with the results of a study24 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in which the researchers compared two diets that were matched for macronutrients, sugar, salt and fiber content.
The difference was that one diet was 80% ultraprocessed products and the other was an unprocessed diet. The group ate the ultraprocessed diet for two weeks and then switched to the unprocessed diet while they were admitted and monitored at the NIH Clinical Center. When participants were eating the ultraprocessed diet they ate more carbohydrates but not more protein and they gained approximately 2 pounds.
During the two weeks they ate the unprocessed diet, they lost 2 pounds. The researchers also measured hormonal biomarkers responsible for feeling hunger and satiety, finding that while participants were eating the ultraprocessed products, ghrelin, the hormone responsible for hunger, increased and leptin, the hormone responsible for feeling full, decreased.
Tulleken had the same experience as his ghrelin level increased by 30% during the month that he ate ultraprocessed foods and he found himself craving food more often and eating more quickly.25
As Tulleken experienced, and many studies have shown, eating a diet high in ultraprocessed foods increases your risk of obesity. This in turn increases your risk for many serious diseases, including:26
Premature death
Changes in cholesterol levels
Type 2 diabetes
Stroke
Heart disease and high blood pressure
Gallbladder disease
Low quality of life
Sleep apnea and breathing problems
Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety
Osteoarthritis
Many types of cancers
Pain and difficulty functioning
Ultraprocessed Food Seed Oils May Drive Cognitive Decline
Data from the featured study showed that despite eating enough calories, participants experienced a decline in cognitive function. The key factor in this study was the consumption of ultraprocessed foods, also called junk food. A major component in the production of junk food is vegetable oil27 and vegetable and seed oils are high in the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid (LA).28
Historically, it has been noted that as Americans consumed greater amounts of vegetable and seed oil high in LA, there was an increase in the concentration of LA in subcutaneous fat tissue, which correlates with an increase in the prevalence of asthma, obesity and diabetes.29
Additionally, the buildup of LA in fat tissue and platelets is also linked to coronary artery disease (CAD). By comparison, higher levels of omega-3 fat in platelets are inversely associated with CAD, which is compelling evidence that LA promotes heart disease.30
I believe the primary factor behind many diseases in the Western world relates to the high consumption of LA and this is the basis of a book I am currently writing. While many understand the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is very important, it’s important to realize that LA damages your body’s ability to generate energy in the mitochondria.
Depending on the organ, your mitochondria work better with different kinds of fatty acids. Your brain prefers the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).31 When there are higher amounts of LA than EPA and DHA, it can damage the mitochondria and trigger apoptosis.
In addition to cell damage, your brain is a high-energy consumer. While it makes up only 2% of the body’s weight, it uses up to 25% of the energy.32 This combination of high energy consumption funneled through the mitochondria and damage to the mitochondria by LA may be a key factor in the development of cognitive decline associated with the consumption of ultraprocessed foods.
Ultraprocessed Foods Trigger Additional Damage
Past studies have linked ultraprocessed foods with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome, obesity, high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. The basis for these metabolic changes may reside in the negative effect junk food has on your gut microbiome. Reasons for the change in your gut microbiome are likely related to the lack of fiber in junk foods33 and the high levels of refined sugar — something the French scientists also noted in the study I cited earlier.34,35
A diverse gut microbiome is better able to support a healthy immune system. Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London, found this to be increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Writing in The Conversation, Spector says:36
“As well as mounting a response to infectious pathogens like coronavirus, a healthy gut microbiome also helps to prevent potentially dangerous immune over-reactions that damage the lungs and other vital organs. These excessive immune responses can cause respiratory failure and death …”
A 2021 animal study37 demonstrated that ultraprocessed foods also influence skeletal development. There were two study groups: One received a diet similar to the standard Western diet and the other a standard rat diet. The results revealed that weight gain was lower and total body and leg lengths were also significantly shorter in the experimental group when compared to the control group.
Although the experimental group was underdeveloped, the animals ate significantly more calories. This suggested that the ultraprocessed diet stunted growth, but it was not related to a caloric deficiency. The researchers also examined the vertebral and femoral bone properties and found that the animals in the experimental group had inferior bone parameters when compared to the control group.
The findings indicated there was an increased risk of fracture from poor bone development. Although this animal study demonstrated poor structural development during growth before sexual maturity, it’s important to note that bone formation continues in a human until peak mass is achieved from age 30 to 40 years.38 This raises the additional question of how ultraprocessed foods could affect the risk of osteoporosis in older adults.
Scientific evidence continues to mount demonstrating the multiple negative effects that ultraprocessed foods have on health. The link to cognitive decline is yet another nail in the coffin. It is crucial to eliminate junk foods from your diet. As you consider the looming food shortages and choices you make to stock up on shelf-stable food, also eliminate ultraprocessed foods from this list. The food choices you make have an enormous impact on your health and resilience.
The 80/20 principle has been a centerpiece of the Primal Blueprint approach and philosophy since the beginning, but I still get comments and questions about it. In case you’re not familiar, the 80/20 principle suggests that in the context of a full and earnest commitment to making health-promoting choices, conforming with the 
Hurray! So fantastic that you turned working from home into a life-changing, wellness-promoting project, Patrick! It really is true: Just a couple of years (or less) of consistent effort can change the state of our health and our life’s trajectory.
This quick and easy green bean casserole is the perfect addition to any holiday dinner. This recipe calls for 
I’ve been around for long enough to see health trends come and go, but cold therapy is one that has staying power. Humans have probably been using cold water to treat injury and illness, wake up their senses, and challenge their physical fortitude for all of human history. The modern obsession with cold plunges, cryotherapy chambers, and sitting underclothed in the snow doing controlled hyperventilation (a la “The Iceman” Wim Hof and his eponymous method of breathwork paired with extreme cold endurance feats) is just the newest iteration. There is 
