You don’t need to eat a big slab of meat every day to meet your protein needs. In fact, loading up on animal-based protein, especially from factory-farmed sources, can do more harm than good.

Studies show that an excessive amount of red meat can lead to increased inflammation, accelerated aging, and increased risk of chronic disease. One major culprit? A sugar molecule called “Neu5Gc,” commonly found in red meat. Your body sees it as a foreign invader, triggering an immune response that can lead to long-term inflammation.

Of course, you should always consult with your doctor before making any drastic changes to your diet. But for many people, plant-based protein can be a powerful alternative that’s packed with benefits like fiber, healthy fats, and anti-inflammatory polyphenols.

Plus, research has continuously shown that non-meat protein sources can be better for your health, longevity, and brain function. Here are six high-protein foods I love and recommend all the time — your body and brain will thank you.

Lentils are my top choice when it comes to legumes. They’re one of the most protein-rich legumes, with fewer calories than most. They’re also higher in resistant starch and prebiotic fiber, which feed your gut microbiome.

Pro tip: Soak or pressure-cook lentils to reduce lectins, which can impact or slow down nutrient absorption. You can add lentils to soups, stews, or homemade veggie burgers.

Hemp seeds are one of the rare plant-based proteins that contain all nine essential amino acids, making them a complete protein.

They’re rich in omega-3s, magnesium, and gut-friendly fiber. Just be sure to choose organic, cold-pressed hemp protein with no added sugars.

Pro tip: Trader Joe’s sells organic hemp protein power, which I like adding to smoothies. You can find hemp hearts at Costco — perfect on salads or roasted vegetables.

Native to Brazil’s Cerrado region, Barù nuts pack more protein per serving than nearly any other nut. They’re also full of antioxidants and fiber, and have a satisfying, earthy crunch.

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Pro tip: You can usually find Barù nuts at grocery stores, but if you don’t, try looking online. I love snacking on a handful daily. They taste like a cross between peanuts and almonds.

This blue-green algae is one of the most protein-dense foods on the planet (by weight, it’s nearly 70% protein). It contains iron, B vitamins, and a powerful antioxidant called phycocyanin that helps support brain and immune function.

Pro tip: Try adding spirulina to your smoothies or juices. You can also substitute it with chlorella, another nutrient-rich algae, in powder or tablet form.

Flaxseeds don’t get enough love, but they’re a fantastic source of plant protein, omega-3s, and lignans, which have hormone-balancing benefits.

When flaxseeds are in their whole form, you cannot digest their beneficial compound, so always choose ground flaxseeds.

Pro tip: I like to keep a bag of organic whole flax in the refrigerator and grind it as needed to ensure freshness (just like you’d only grind coffee beans right before brewing). Add to smoothies, sprinkle on salads, or try my cinnamon flaxseed mug in a muffin recipe for a quick, healthy breakfast.

Sick of quinoa or couscous? Sorghum is a protein-rich ancient grain with a subtly sweet, nutty flavor. One cup has 21 grams of protein (more than twice that of quinoa), and three ounces of sorghum has more iron than a serving of steak!

Even better? It’s a great source of polyphenols and one of the few lectin-free grains.

Pro tip: Use sorghum flour for gluten-free baking, or look for it in pasta form for a high-protein, plant-forward meal.

Dr. Steven Gundry, MD, is a former cardiac surgeon, founder of GundryMD, and author of the bestselling books ”The Gut-Brain Paradox″ and ”The Plant Paradox.” For over two decades, his research has focused on the microbiome’s role in chronic disease and longevity. He received his degrees from Yale University and the Medical College of Georgia, and completed his surgical residency at the University of Michigan. Follow him on Instagram @drstevengundry.

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Ever dreamed of taking a sabbatical from your career and traveling the world?

Jason Lee and his wife Katie did that when, in July 2024, they moved themselves and their son from Columbus, Ohio, to Taipei, Taiwan.

Jason and Katie, both 34, came up with the idea after they brought Forrest, now 6, to visit his paternal grandparents in Taiwan when he was an infant.

They spent eight weeks together while Jason took paternity leave and saw how special it was for his parents to bond with their grandson.

Jason tells CNBC Make It that during their tearful goodbyes at the airport at the end of the trip, “I just thought to myself, if I could make something happen where we could gift to [my parents] the extended amount of time that they could spend with this child, what a special moment that would be.”

At first he considered finding a way to move his career to Taiwan, until he realized he didn’t want to deal with its demanding work culture.

So, the couple decided to save up for a true career break so they could spend time with family in Taiwan without having to work.

The couple spent the next five years saving up for their sabbatical.

They timed it so Forrest would be in Taiwan for his kindergarten year, and decided to spend 13 months abroad to match up with the academic year, plus summer breaks, to get him back stateside for first grade.

Jason and Katie drew up the numbers and set a goal to save $60,000 for the move.

Jason says he viewed the goal like any household would save up for a home renovation project, and they used the You Need a Budget app to track their savings.

They set themselves up so their stateside expenses would be minimal while they were in Taiwan. Both of their cars are paid off, and the mortgage on the starter house they bought in 2016 is $1,200 a month. Jason says a friend is renting the house from them to cover their mortgage and leasing one of the cars while they stay.

As for their stay, they rented an apartment and spent months preparing their paperwork. Jason used his Taiwanese passport (he was born there and moved to the U.S. when he was 9), Forrest got his own Taiwan passport, and Katie obtained a spousal visa.

By the summer of 2024, Jason quit his job in sales, and Katie left her work at a nonprofit.

Jason says timing was important: Not only did he want to make sure Forrest had enough time with his grandparents and to adjust to kindergarten, but taking the leap was also crucial for himself, Katie and the grandparents.

“This is not something that can afford to wait,” Jason says. “If I don’t do this now, I will forever lose my 30s. And then when am I going to re-explore myself again? In my 40s? My 50s? By the time I retire in my 60s? I just didn’t feel like that was a good trade off.”

What’s more, he wanted to make sure that Forrest had time to interact with his grandparents while they are still in good health and mobile.

Overall, Jason says, “as I look back to this year and I think about all the trips we were able to do and all the memories we were able to make, it’s absolutely worth it.”

In addition to spending more quality time with family, Jason set a few personal and professional goals for himself for his sabbatical.

He says his career break has given him time and energy to focus on his physical and mental health, such as going to the gym, meditating, eating healthfully and working with a psychiatrist for the first time, thanks to Taiwan’s universal health care system.

With more mental clarity, Jason says he’s turned his attention to what he wants out of his career. Prior to his break, he says he put a lot of pressure on himself to have a high-performing sales year; when that didn’t pan out, it took a toll on his sense of self.

“The whole last 10 years, I’ve been dictating my career next steps not based on what I want, but based on what the world or LinkedIn tells me I should want,” Jason says.

He realized he felt pressure to continue climbing the corporate ladder to earn higher titles and more money. “I just realized how much of that has set me up for being unhappy, when I don’t prioritize myself or what I want.”

By March, he sat down with Katie with a big realization that once they returned to the U.S., they were OK with not chasing the same salaries they had before.

“I realized that our family doesn’t need to make as much or more than what we made before in order to be happy,” Jason says. “We are so happy right now, the happiest we’ve been as a family, and we are living our life on less than what we had before.”

The Lees have big plans for their return to the states.

“The plan was always to return in August, but surprise, we got pregnant,” Jason says.

The couple had discussed having their second baby during their sabbatical, given Taiwan’s high quality of birthing and post-natal care for families.

Katie gave birth to their daughter, Ruby, in early July, so the family of four will return to the states in October when she has a passport and is able to travel.

Jason and Katie say their first career-related priority is for one of them to secure a job back in the U.S. as soon as possible to make sure their family has health insurance coverage. Jason says he’ll consider taking a lower-paying job that affords more flexibility, like with a company that makes it easier to work summers remote in Taiwan.

Katie, meanwhile, has spent her sabbatical drafting business plans for two startup ideas, a vending machine business and a play cafe for kids and their parents or caregivers, and hopes to continue building out those ideas in the U.S.

As for their journey so far, “it’s just been so transformative for the family,” he says.

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By some standards, Angela and Brian are fulfilling the American Dream. 

The 52-year-olds were high school sweethearts, have been married for 28 years, raised four children and will soon be empty nesters. They have a net worth of $1.57 million, including nearly $900,000 invested.

But Angela isn’t satisfied with their life. 

“I just worry that life is passing us by, and we can be doing and spending more on life,” she wrote in her application to appear on author and self-made millionaire Ramit Sethi’s “Money for Couples” podcast. The couple joined Sethi for a recent episode, seeking advice to work through differences in their feelings around money. Their last names were not used.

“We never eat out. Vacations are once a year. He always thinks we are poor. I need someone to tell him that we are OK money-wise,” Angela wrote.

Brian disagrees. “I think she feels that we’re at a comfortable place financially right now for our plan going forward,” he said on the podcast. “I don’t see that. I think we just need more. I wish I would’ve started [investing] much earlier.”

Here’s Sethi’s advice for them.

Brian and Angela earn $188,000 a year and have $294,000 in debt between their mortgage and car payments. Their fixed costs account for 72% of their monthly income.

Sethi generally recommends these costs not exceed 50% to 60% of your income, but Angela and Brian have been paying extra on their mortgage, so they have some wiggle room, he said.

However, Brian and Angela’s most frequent financial disagreements revolve around relatively small money decisions, like groceries and dining out. 

Angela does the shopping and financial management, so she has a good idea of what they can afford, the couple told Sethi. But Brian constantly nitpicks her purchases. Angela wants to go out to dinner or drinks more frequently, but Brian almost always says no.

“We’re living too little of a life, is the problem,” Angela said. Sethi agreed, and said the shrinking “didn’t happen all at once. It happened $2 at a time.” That’s the “hidden cost of decades of frugality,” he added.

It’s wise to live within your means, no matter your income. But Brian’s frugality, including his resistance to spend on things that will make his wife happier, seems to come at the expense of their relationship, Sethi said.

“First, you [budget] for a reason. Then, you do it out of habit. And sometimes, you start to believe you don’t deserve anything else,” Sethi said. “It goes beyond saving money on coffee. And sometimes in situations like this, you start to realize how narrow your life has become.”

While Angela would like to retire in the next five years, she fears Brian will feel like he needs to work “till he is 80,” she said.

Sethi walked the couple through retirement projections to show how their investments could change if they decide to put away more each month or retire later. But he warned that the financial logistics won’t matter so much if they can’t get on the same page about how they want to spend their time and money.

“The two of you have so many different options,” Sethi said. “But I don’t think any of it happens if you’re not actually connected, starting right now.”

In addition to showing them that they can afford the date nights and some of the immediate travel Angela would like to do, Sethi encouraged Brian to initiate planning nights out so he can get as excited about a date as Angela. And when Angela asks him to try a new restaurant or activity, “sometimes we just have to say yes and our feelings change later,” Sethi said.

Brian agreed he needs to “not give in, but compromise,” he said. “I think I need to be a better husband and compromise and rebuild the foundation of this relationship.”

Even if it’s small things like going out for coffee, planned activities together will help the couple start “getting those adventurous feelings back,” Sethi said.

They’re currently on track to have nearly $1.5 million in investments if they retire in five years and could see that value surpass $2 million if they wait 10 years. But either way, they are able to afford reasonable outings and activities, he told them.

“Whether it’s joining a group together or trying some new stuff, that brings you way closer,” Sethi said.

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Personal finance consultant Michela Allocca made some financial sacrifices in her 20s, and she has no regrets.

At age 30, Allocca has a net worth of more than $700,000 according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. In her experience, you sometimes need to make temporary sacrifices to stay grounded financially, even when it feels like everyone else is spending, she says.

“We act like not having these things in our early 20s means we’re never going to have them,” says Allocca, the Chicago-based author of “Own Your Money.” But often, “they’re status signal things,” rather than things people “genuinely and sincerely care about,” she tells CNBC Make It.

Holding off on certain expenses early in her career helped her stay on track financially, Allocca wrote in a recent LinkedIn post that detailed four financial habits she avoided in her own early 20s. Here are those habits, and what she did instead:

1. She didn’t travel a lot

The social pressure to travel in your 20s can be strong, whether to become more worldly or simply because it seems like everyone else is doing it, says Allocca. Many young people take big trips right after college, often with little thought about whether it’s affordable because they believe, “well, money will always come,” she notes.

Even a budget-conscious trip can cost $1,000 to $2,000, an expense that’s particularly hard to justify early in your career when you’re earning a low salary, says Allocca. A single trip can cost as much as an entire month’s rent: Gen Z spends an average of $1,600 per month on rent, according to data published in January by credit firm Experian.

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When Allocca was 22 and earning $60,000 per year in Boston, flights in particular felt expensive relative to her income, so she focused on taking affordable, domestic trips, she says. While she began taking bigger trips by her late 20s — including a recent visit to Japan — she says they were planned and budgeted for well in advance.

While she now travels on her own terms, she says it’s “both normal and OK” for people in their 20s to hold off until they can afford the expense. “If I am going to go on a vacation, it has to be something that I actually want to go on, not because I’m feeling pressured to go somewhere,” she says.

2. She didn’t live alone until she was 27

Whether it was sharing one bathroom with three other roommates or moving back in with her parents during the Covid-19 pandemic, Allocca chose not to live alone for most of her 20s.

“I was able to continue to save, on average, about $1,000 a month because I wasn’t dumping all my money into rent. And that actually really helped me get ahead” on investments, she says.

Social media can create unrealistic expectations for what early-career earners can afford, says Allocca. In large cities like San Francisco or New York, residents need to earn more than $100,000 annually to keep rent below the commonly recommended 30% of their budget, according to a Zillow report published in May.

“I feel bad for Gen Z, because their perception of what’s normal at their age is so warped,” she says. “There’s all this [online] pressure for young people to live in a high-rise or live alone in these major cities, and it’s just not reasonable.”

At age 27, Allocca finally decided to live alone in a nicer apartment with more space and amenities. She needed a home office, and by that point, knew her income could support a roughly $1,000-per-month rent increase without derailing her financial goals, she says.

3. She didn’t splurge on clothes

Allocca took a minimalist approach to her wardrobe in her early 20s, often buying the same pieces in different colors and sticking to a few signature shades so everything was easy to mix and match, she says. She shopped mostly at inexpensive stores like Primark and Old Navy, she adds.

“When you have a general color scheme, you can match your clothes easier,” says Allocca. “It also helps eliminate the paradox of choice.”

Her approach kept her clothing costs low. “I wasn’t prioritizing shopping as part of my budget,” Allocca says. “If I did need to buy something, I was going to those really inexpensive stores so I could get the least expensive version possible.”

Today, she uses the same principles for what she calls a capsule wardrobe of “elevated basics” — versatile pieces that work with most of what she already owns, she says. She’s now more willing to spend money on better quality that she knows will last for years, she adds — like a roughly $450 cashmere sweater that’s currently the most expensive item in her closet.

4. She didn’t pay for convenience

In her 20s, Allocca avoided spending on things she could easily do herself. When her walk to work was about 30 minutes, she’d make the trip on foot rather than paying for a ride or public transit, she says.

“I didn’t take any unnecessary Ubers, I never ordered delivery,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

Many people justify convenience purchases by thinking “my time is so valuable.” Allocca didn’t see it that way, she says: “The time that I was saving, I wasn’t doing anything valuable with it. So what difference does it make if I spend the 10 extra minutes to go walk and pick up my dinner?”

She only ordered out from restaurants within walking distance, she notes. “If I’m not willing to go pick it up, then I’m not ordering it out, I’m cooking at home” she says. “To me, it’s creating some parameters around, ‘Is this reasonable?’”

Even today, Allocca rarely allows herself to pay for convenience, and only in “extenuating circumstances,” she says — like paying for delivered groceries after coming home from a long trip. By consistently avoiding most convenience costs, from rides to delivery fees, she says she’s freed up around $200 per month.

When paired with her low rent, that money “made a big difference” in her ability to save in her 20s, she says. And while she sacrificed some comfort in her 20s, “when I look back at all of these things, I don’t have any regrets,” she says.

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If you ask Donna Morris, there’s one behavior that’s the ultimate red flag an employee won’t get far in the workplace: when someone is a “Debbie Downer.”

Morris, 57, has been executive vice president and chief people officer at Walmart since 2020, helping shape the employee experience of 2.1 million workers since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to her current role, she spent 17 years at Adobe in a variety of leadership positions — and throughout her career, she’s learned a thing or two about red flags in the office.

“Nobody wants [to hire] a Debbie Downer,” Morris tells CNBC Make It, adding that this kind of person is “constantly negative. You know they’re going to show up [and] they’re going to bring the problem, never the solution. I like people who bring the problem and a suggestion for how they might resolve [it.]”

A “Debbie Downer” can also be someone who’s a naysayer, sharing negative opinions about others’ ideas and goals, or regularly being a hindrance to new projects and perspectives. This could make it difficult for them to make the connections needed to climb the corporate ladder, or for their bosses and managers to trust them with new projects.

If your co-worker has this character trait, they’re “only going to support you to a restricted limit,” Juliette Han, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist, told CNBC Make It in June 2023. “They need you to stay within a short leash, and might discourage you from meeting new people in the company or going after new projects if it doesn’t benefit them directly.”

That doesn’t mean you should practice toxic optimism, pretending everything is fine when your team is facing difficult circumstances, for example. It’s unnatural and unrealistic for someone to be happy all the time, Morris says. Similarly, a continuous negative spiral could be a signal that you’re in the wrong job or company, she adds. 

There are a couple attributes that separate the most highly successful employees to those who fall short, says Morris.

She thinks highly of workers who “deliver what you are expecting at the time that you’re expecting,” she says. “You’re better to deliver early than to deliver late, and you’re better to deliver more than less.”

“Another green flag is they’re open to opportunities, and they put their hand up to take on more,” she adds. “Or they bring a problem with the remedy or request help in a timely manner, as opposed to the house is on fire.”

You can show you have this kind of team player, self-starter attitude by offering help even when you’re not asked for it, like volunteering to mentor the new intern or pitching an idea that solves a problem your boss has been dealing with.

Demonstrating radical intellectual curiosity, like researching a new AI tool or a new software your competitors are using, then sharing your findings with your boss or manager, also goes a long way, according to Michael Ramlett, CEO of global data intelligence firm Morning Consult. 

And if you’re willing to help your colleagues along the way, acting as a mentor and sharing the things you’ve learned, that’s the icing on the cake, Morris says.

“People who you see are actually helping others [are a] total green flag.”

Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn from three expert instructors how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off the regular course price of $67 (plus tax). Offer valid July 22, 2025, through September 2, 2025.

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