Nutrition for Brain Health
“The research makes it clear: Diet plays a clear and determinant role in every aspect of brain function, literally shaping our thoughts, actions, emotions, and behaviors...If your job depends on your brain, it depends on your diet.”
Previously I talked about how to use exercise to improve your cognitive health, today we will have a look for the ways you can heal and rejuvenate your brain with diet.
But, before we talk broccoli and chicken, lets have a quick look at what happens to the brain as we age.
The brain depends on blood flow to deliver oxygen and nutrients for neuroplastcicty, and neurogenesis. This cerebral blood flow is delivered through tiny capillaries that surround the neurons . As we age, the brain naturally experiences hypoprefusion, which is a slowing of cerebral blood flow (interestingly ... women a little less so, heheh). This diminished blood flow is associated with cell injury, cognitive impairment and alzheimers. To quickly even the gender bias above, unfortunately women are more susceptible to alzheimers than men….damn! Scientists are still hypothesising why this is…….
…… Now, when there is any kind of interruption to this flow, your neurons can be killed or injured and that causes nerve damage and restricts blood flow.
Things like any kind of head trauma can hasten this hypoperfusion and damage. Aging can thicken veins, degrade capillaries, and a poor diet will hasten this degradation further. A poor diet causes high blood glucose, and high inflammation with an intake of vegetable oils, foods you may be allergic to, processed sugars and commercially raised meat.
What can diet do for your brain?
The brain is a very hungry organ.
It uses approx 25-30% of our daily energy intake. Its made of lipids (fats) and water, and it relies on what we eat to heal and rebuild itself. If your diet is low in fats for example, the brain is unable to build new cells and facilitate its neural pathway processes. Dehydration is also very important to avoid as well.
A lot of us are eating foods that inflame our bodies, such as processed starches and grain fed meat.
Putting petrol in first is a more efficient idea
To compound this we also tend to eat diets low in anti-inflammatory foods such as oily fish and green leafy vegetable. Like persistently putting vegetable juice in your petrol tank and getting frustrated that the car is not driving like it should. To state the obvious, cars need petrol (or electricity, thank you Tesla), and humans need a range of nutrients.
Most of us and yet looking at many diets you can see that this is not happening.
Fortunately a little know how and motivation to subtly change what we eat, should be all thats needed to give our brains the best chance of getting healthy and staying healthy.
Special mention to our second brain - THE GUT
The gut’s microbiome is basically our second brain, and more and more are we finding how important it is to our brain health. Many hormones and processes we thought were initiated by the brain are actually done by the microbiota in the gut. No wonder everyone is getting on the pre and pro biotic bandwagon. We need a healthy gut (happy bug colonies abounding) to have a healthy brain. The one influences the other.
“These hundred trillion bacteria that live within your gut are so intimately involved in your brain at a number of levels. They manufacture neurochemicals, for example. Things like dopamine and serotonin. They manufacture important vitamins that are important to keep your brain healthy. They also maintain the integrity of the lining of your gut.” - Dr D Perrlmutter
Feed the gut microbiome with fermented foods such as kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha and prebiotic foods, those high in fibre, garlic, dandelion greens, jerusalem artichoke.
What to eat for your brain
Fortunately its not that complicated to eat for brain health. If you make some small changes, you won’t have to wait till you are in the midst of a major health issue like onset dementia. If you wait till then, adjusting your diet will still make a vast difference.
If you aren’t interested in much detail, let me put this in a nutshell:
Vegetables good ………….
………….. Sugar bad
Why Vegetables?
Dr. Martha Clare Morris is an interesting lady. She is Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the Section of Nutrition and Nutritional Epidemiology in the Department of Internal Medicine, and Assistant Provost of Community Research at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago……….what a mouthful!
For the last twenty years she has been researching factors involved in the development of alzheimers as well as other health concerns for older adults. Her research found that people who ate the least amount of vegetables had the fastest cognitive decline, but that this slowed and cognition was even protected with higher intakes of vegetables.
Her research found that eating two or more servings of vegetables per day offered a statistically significant reduction in cognitive decline. Green leafy vegetables, in particular, were associated with slower decline, and people who ate green leafy vegetables at least six times a week exhibited much slower cognitive decline — researchers estimated it was like being 11 years younger in age…
Greens such as spinach and kale contain lutein and zeaxanthin. These two carotenoids are associated with faster learning speeds and applying learning and knowledge in older adults. This study showed that lutein increased thickness in areas of the brain associated with learning and slows cognitive decline in older adults.
Spinach and eggs anyone?
What about Fruit?
In her studies Dr Morris found fruit did not offer this protection, but berries did. Dr Richard Isaacs, Director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic, Memory Disorders Program, and Neurology Residency Training Program at Weill Cornell Medical College, also is a firm proponent of eating a diet full of vegetables and blueberries …thank goodness…I love a blueberry!
So all kinds of berries were protective with strawberries being the gold standard for Dr Morris and blueberries for Dr Isaacs.
Shingos Coffee Lounge - Shepparton Victoria, Australia.
Coffee
Coffee appears to play a protective role in the risk for MS, alzheimers, Parkinson’s and perhaps even early mortality. This maybe partly due to its role in reducing inflammation that is associated with reduced cognition. We certainly are all aware of its stimulating effects which is in its ability to block an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, adenosine. Adenosine can reduce mental stamina and make you feel tired. It also activates our Nrf2 pathways that fight off oxidative stress and protectactivate our Nrf2 pathways, helping to fight off oxidative stress and protect against neurodegenerative diseases,
This study showed that by drinking 3-5 cups a day in midlife had a significantly lowered chance of getting Alzheimers and dementia by a HUGE 65%.
The sweet spot seems to be 2-5 cups a day. So make it organic and put that kettle on!
Green Tea
High-dose green tea extract was found to scavenge oxygen free radicals, enhance antioxidant potential, decrease lipid peroxide production, and reduce oxidative DNA damage. The high-dose group had better spatial learning and memory than saline-treated rats.
Eggs
Eggs contain lutein and choline. Choline is of particular importance for your neuronal membranes and is the precursor to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine is important for learning and memory, as well as deep sleep. Some of the drugs approved to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, a fatal memory disorder, work by boosting levels of acetylcholine in the brain.
Unfortunately our bodies are only able to produce a small amount of choline so its very dependant on dietary intake.
Chocolate
The theobromine and polyphenols in chocolate correlate to better cerebral blood flow, improved cognition. Just make sure you eat a quality chocolate source at least 70% cacao bean and preferably higher, like 85% with low sugar.
More frequent chocolate consumption was significantly associated with better performance on the Global Composite score, Visual-Spatial Memory and Organisation, Working Memory, Scanning and Tracking, Abstract Reasoning.
Water
Our brain is mostly water, with fat coming a close second…enough said!
Kind of. Being an electrical system, the brain needs adequate water to function efficiently. The brain will react to even the smallest amount of dehydration which can cause brain fog, faitgue, dizziness, confusion and brain shrinkage. So drink those 8 glasses at least, a day. Go for quality water high in minerals and natural electrolytes where possible.
Fats
Here we need the good oils found in avocado, olive oil, MCT oil, quality fish oil. The brain can only rebuild itself with the right equipment and that is fats. Make sure your fats are from good sources and bear in mind the change that some fats go through if they become overheated such as olive oil. It will quickly become rancid and inflammatory when heated, so just save it for salads and dressings.
Protein
Quality protein is important and as we age we need a little more. It doesn’t appear as important before the age of 65 (check the research of Dr Longo), but after that, make sure to get a few serves in a day. Animal protein should be grass fed and free range. This is particularly important with red meat. Grain fed cows have meet that contains a large amount of omega 6 which is essential but not in large amounts. Grass fed cows have meat that is rich in th perfect ratio of 6 to omega 3.
“... you are what you eat ate. Yes, that’s right: you better think twice about whether your steak ate grass vs. GMO corn, your chicken ate bugs vs. herbicide-laden grains or your fish ate worms vs. pieces of other dead fish ground up with fish farm meal. Nowhere is this truer and more applicable than when it comes to fueling your brain”
Now its very important to know……
……… What to Avoid
Ideally you would want make sure your diet has none of the following:
Vegetable oils
Heated nuts and seeds
Processed sugar (always check the sugar levels in the ingredients of foods. There are a lot of hidden sugars lurking around)
Grain fed meat and farmed fish (full of omega 6, have an omega 3 capsule with these if you must eat them to balance the 6:3 ratio)
Processed starches and grains
I hope this article will inspire you to take control of your brain health and those around you.
Knowledge is power.
Don’t let the above doesn’t overwhelm you with information and do’s and don’ts. Keep it simple, its never to soon to increase your brain health. Remember Alzheimers starts more than 10 years before diagnosis is made.
Have a look through your pantry and fridge. Take note of what you are regularly eating and see how many of the mentioned foods you are there. Try writing down it down in two columns and see how it measures up. Are there more ‘avoid’ foods? More ‘eat more’ foods?
The beauty with that little exercise is we that we know where you and your household are at now. Each day,
incorporate more brain health foods and less of those to’ avoid’ foods.
Especially if you are currently feeling in a healthy state, you can take your time with this and not be too militant. If you or a loved one is experiencing brain fog, early signs of cognitive difficulty, or is right in the midst of dementia, then try everything you can to improve the food choices you make for yourself and others. Please bear in mind I am no doctor and please run any major changes past a doctor and get an ok first. For example, if you are on blood thinners then increasing fish oil can be hazardous as that also thins the blood. So you need to make sure.
I’ve included an easy PDF printout you can stick on your fridge to help remind you of what choices are best. Please download and use that if you would find that helpful.
If you have any questions at all contact me or comment below. Check out my regular updates and tips on my Facebook page too and its another great place to message me :-).
Next blog will be on supplements that have been shown to improve brain health.
Further Good References:
Books that may interest you:
Genius Foods, Max Lugavere
You Can Fix Your Brain, Tom O’Bryan
Deep Nutrition, Dr Cate Shannahan
Longevity Diet, Dr Valter Longo
Brain Maker, Dr David Perlmutter
Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power, Dr Lisa Moscow