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Energy drinks taste like life, feel like fire, and look like Norman Reedus. But that says little about whether they’re healthy or not. What kind of deal are we making? What’s their true cost?

Most foods can be healthy if you prepare them properly. For example, consider french fries. You could make them by slicing up potatoes, tossing them in olive oil and spices, and baking them in the oven. Or you could order them at a fast-food restaurant, where they’ve been deep-fried and heavily salted. The first method is healthier than the second. This true of other popular junk foods, such as potato chips. In both cases, the issue isn’t the potatoes; it’s the preparation.

Getting more controversial now, consider the “health food” aisle of the grocery store, filled with sweet potato and quinoa chips. Remember, the potatoes were never the problem, it was the preparation, and many of these foods are processed just as heavily as regular potato chips.

In most cases, as a rule of thumb, when you can, it’s better to buy individual ingredients and prepare them yourself. Here’s how:

1. Prepare balanced meals: combine protein, nutritious carbs, healthy fats, and fibre. When you combine different categories of healthy foods, you get a wider variety of macronutrients and micronutrients. Digestion tends to be smoother. And you often get some cool extra benefits. For example, soluble fibre helps you regulate your blood sugar and blood lipids.
2. Blending and grinding are fine. Feel free to blend up smoothies or grind your meat. Sometimes blending and grinding can make foods easier to digest, allowing you to eat a bigger and more abundant diet. Perfect for bulking!
3. Trim excess fat: the fat found in meat is relatively high in saturated fat. Most people could stand to eat less saturated fat. You could eat less meat, buy leaner cuts, or cut the fat off yourself.
4. Rinse canned foods: you can rinse canned foods to drain away some of the sodium. Mind you, you may also drain away some of the other nutrients. This one’s up to you.
5. Use healthy cooking methods: stewing, baking, grilling, steaming, boiling, poaching, broiling, or slow cooking.
6. Use healthy cooking oils. Avocado oil makes for a great default. It’s nutritious and handles high temperatures quite well. Great for pan frying. Extra-virgin olive oil works well if you’re drizzling it onto your food or cooking at lower temperatures.
7. Season your food with herbs and spices: enhance the flavour of your meals using herbs, spices, and seasonings like pepper, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cilantro, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, and vanilla. These foods tend to be quite nutritious, and many of them offer interesting health benefits. For example, garlic is fantastic for blood flow and heart health (study, study).
8. Use healthy toppings: parmesan, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sliced nuts, dark chocolate chips, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, pickled onions, and honey.
9. Use sauces: mustard, homemade mayonnaise, chimichurri, salsa verde, hot sauce, and squeezed lime.
10. Use dips: hummus, tahini, tzatziki, bean dip, baba ganoush, salsa, and guacamole.

There are also quite a few meals that don’t demand much preparation. You can dip apple slices into peanut butter, add some fruit to cottage cheese, or mix frozen berries and dark chocolate chips into Greek yogurt.

Probiotics are the “good” bacteria that provide health benefits when consumed. They do this by helping us build a robust gut microbiome, which improves digestion, reduces inflammation, and protects us against harmful bacteria (study, study, study).

The best sources of probiotics are fermented foods. This is still a fairly young field, so it’s hard to say which foods are the “best.” We do know that a more varied microbiome tends to be healthier, though. So if you can, try to pick a few foods from this list:

1. Yogurt: yogurt is made by fermenting milk, making it a rich source of probiotics. Look for yogurt containing live and active cultures. Opt for plain, unsweetened varieties. Our favourite is Greek yogurt (which boasts a higher protein content).
2. Kefir: kefir is also made by fermenting milk, similar to yogurt. However, it’s thinner, making it easily drinkable, and it tends to be even richer in probiotics. It can be made from cow, goat, or sheep milk, as well as non-dairy alternatives like coconut milk.
3. Sauerkraut: sauerkraut is made from fermented cabbage. It’s a rich source of probiotics and other nutrients, including fibre, which is also great for your gut. Look for unpasteurized sauerkraut in the refrigerated section.
4. Kimchi: kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made from fermented vegetables like cabbage and radishes combined with spices. It’s rich in probiotics, fibre, vitamins, and minerals.
5. Miso: miso is a Japanese seasoning made from fermented soybeans. It contains a variety of probiotics. It’s often used to make miso soup or as a flavouring in other dishes.
6. Tempeh: tempeh is a high-protein food made from fermented soybeans. It’s rich in probiotics and can be used as a meat substitute in many recipes.
7. Natto: natto is a Japanese dish also made from fermented soybeans. It’s a good source of probiotics and is particularly high in vitamin K2, which most people could use more of.
8. Pickles: pickles are made by fermenting cucumbers. Look for the pickles with live cultures in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

Aim to eat 1–2 servings of probiotic foods per day. Even better if they’re two different foods from the list.

Here’s where things get interesting. Probiotics are just one part of the picture. According to Dr. Justin and Erica Sonnenburg, two of leading gut-health researchers from Stanford University, you can also strengthen your microbiome by eating a nutritious diet, minimising your intake of junk food, consuming plenty of fibre, and exercising.