food
via How to of the Day on 3/10/11
Do you ever suffer from memory lapses (such as losing the main point of what you were just saying or misplacing your keys a lot) or from decreased awareness? Brain health is an important part of ensuring your entire well-being because thinking straight, and feeling in charge of your emotions, are a large part of what makes you feel happier, more fulfilled, and more able to cope with life. A brain impacted heavily by stress will cause all of your bodily systems to suffer in one way or other and too many free radicals (oxygen fragments or oxidants) damage the communication pathways in your brain, damaging brain cells one by one until you experience decreased alertness, slower reaction times, memory loss, and ultimately dementia or Alzheimer's disease.[1] 
Start young to protect your mind. Individuals are living longer now and while mental decline is common in aging, it may be slowed and reversed somewhat by enjoying a range of "brain foods". At the forefront of what is good for your brain are antioxidants, which are found in all fruits and vegetables, legumes, tea, chocolate, and wine.[2] So, put aside the worries and start proactively feeding your brain with foods that science has shown will protect it and will go a long way to helping you enjoy both longevity and quality of life.
Steps
- Consider how important better brain functioning is! Better brain functioning is about improving your memory and clear thinking, helping you to better manage and express your emotions, and maintaining your general health. In addition, good brain health helps you to maintain your relationships at their highest level as you'll be thinking clearly and feeling great, as well as doing your best to stay around loved ones longer by eating antioxidants for an anti-aging brain.[3]
- Better brain functioning also comes about when the brain is not confronted by stress, the ultimate "death sentence" for brain cells.[4] When you're stressed, anxious, tense, or blue, your brain is affronted by toxic chemicals and hormones such as cortisol, and this inhibits your ability to think clearly and to remember things.[5]
- Use certain supplements and foods as preventive measures to slow aging of the brain. Slowing aging and keeping your mental faculties sharp enough so that you can perform as well as someone who's up to 10 years younger can be done using brain foods.[6] The brain foods need to slow oxidation by mopping up the free radicals in your body as well as being targeted to specific needs within your brain. Try to get a good variety of brain foods in your diet so that you enjoy the different tastes and can eat with the seasons (which lessens costs and ensures freshness).
- Always see your doctor before changing your diet, or to discuss what nutrients might be missing from your diet and the ways in which you can improve your brain health.
- Eat selenium rich foods. Selenium is a trace mineral that has an essential role in ensuring good brain health, particularly as an anti-oxidant.[7] Studies have found that depleted levels of selenium result in poor memory, bad moods, and decreased cognitive function, while increasing selenium improves mood, clarity of thinking, and energy levels.[8] Eat selenium rich foods to get at least 55 micrograms (mcg) daily, as good for the brain:[9]
- Eat whole-grain bread – it has 10 mcg of selenium per slice.
- Tuna has 63 micrograms of selenium per 3-ounces.
- Brazil nuts have 270 micrograms of selenium per half ounce.
- Try making your own easy wheat and rye bread.
- Eat fish and fish oil. Fish contains selenium, vitamins A and D, phosphorous, magnesium and iodine (if marine fish).[10] Fish oil is the richest source of fat vital to brain development in unborn babies and infants.[11] Eat about 14 ounces (396g) of fish a week, three servings (each about the size of your fist). Fish oil is also available in foods fortified with DHA supplements.[12]
- Try one 320g can of fish with 1tsp. of wasabi this week.
- Eat vitamin B packed foods. B vitamins help to maintain the protective coating on nerves and are also responsible for helping the production of chemicals the nerves use to communicate.[13] Vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid help your neurotransmitters work efficiently, but it's not proven that B supplements directly benefits thinking (folic acid, 400 mcg; B12, 800 mcg, and B6, 40 mg). However, it has been noticed that mental performance can decline with lower levels of vitamin B and research continues into the usefulness of the B vitamins for fighting Alzheimer's.[14] Good food sources of vitamin B include: pork, sunflower seeds, enriched grain products, meats (turkey, lamb, etc.), seafood (steamed clams, bluefin tuna, sardines, etc.), enriched flour, chickpeas, potatoes, chicken, and bananas.[15]
- Eat foods with luteolin (LOOT-ee-oh-lin). Luteolin calms overactive immune cells (microglia), which can damage the brain and helps to lower plaque-forming proteins in the brain.[16][17] Eat celery stalks, especially celery hearts, as a top source of luteolin. You can also get mind-pampering luteolin from spinach, carrots, and olive oil.
- Eat foods containing carotenoids and flavonoids, which can slow mental decline due to aging.[18] Eat dark, leafy greens, spinach, kale, collard or mustard greens; have three or more servings per day.
- Enjoy blueberries. These remarkable little fruits can do wonders for your brain and are reputed to protect against inflammation and oxidation, two processes that age your brain cells and that are associated with Alzheimer's disease.[19] These berries are thought to be so good that they've even been termed "brain berries".[20]They are thought to improve short term memory, so fill up on them![21]
- Try blueberries raw or thawed.
- Eat foods rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is another antioxidant that is considered able to lessen the chances of getting dementia or Alzheimer's.[22] Eating just 1 ounce (30 mg) of nuts or seeds a day, or taking a supplement of 200 to 400 IU daily along with vitamin C, can help improve your vitamin E levels; note that it works most effectively when taken with with vitamin C.[23] Vitamin E is found in such foods as sunflower seeds, sweet potato, kale, wheatgerm, and vegetable cooking oils.[24]
- Try making sunflower seed muesli bars.
- Try adding more turmeric into your diet. Turmeric helps to activate genes that keep your brain clear of waste build-up that causes inflammation that weakens or destroys brain cells.[25] Population studies have revealed a lower incidence of Alzheimer's in the Indian population where turmeric is much used.[26] Use turmeric (17 milligrams daily of the spice) found in yellow mustard (about a teaspoon of mustard).
- Learn how to include more turmeric in your diet.
- Improve your omega-3 intake. Omega 3 is excellent brain food, providing the high DHA fatty acid that is needed to improve mental clarity and halt memory loss and dementia.[27] Oily fish (salmon, whitefish, tilapia, catfish, flounder, mahi mahi, trout), fish oil, walnuts, and flax seeds (linseed) are all good sources of omega-3.[28] Look for wild-caught saltwater fish.
- Try a flaxseed smoothie.
- Try food supplements and vitamins that may make your memory stronger (but do talk to your doctor if you're taking a statin drug, such as Lipitor or drugs for nerves and brain):[29]
- Aspirin improves circulation and decreases in arterial aging – a major cause of memory loss – for people who take 162 milligrams (mg) of aspirin a day.
- Acetyl L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid are thought to have a role in enhancing brain health by improving mitochondrial activity, reducing decay, and enabling higher neurotransmitter function, as a result of animal research, but it's not proven in humans.
- Ginkgo biloba, antioxidant supplement, 120 mg daily thins blood can help with blood vessel disease (but stop taking it before surgery), and may help to improve cognition.
- Huperzine A increases levels of acetylcholine to transmit information between nerve cells, 200 mcg twice daily; your doctor should adjust the dose with other drugs.
- Phosphatidylserine seems to strengthen cell membranes and nerve sheathing, protecting nerve transmissions; making up 70 percent of cell membranes, levels with age drop causing brittleness, 200 mg daily.
- Coenzyme Q10, an antioxidant, lessens inflammatory damage, protects against Parkinson's (neural disease from trauma, viruses and genetics), 100 mg twice a day (some research says 300 mg four times a day is even better).
- Try these generally recommended brain foods:[30]
- Nuts containing monounsaturated fats keep your arteries clear, and as precursors of serotonin boosts mood, one ounce of nuts a day is just right (more is calorie overload.) An ounce is about 12 walnuts or 24 almonds.
- Unsweetened cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and other produce with red, blue, or purple hues for phenolics, anthocyanins, which appear to protect brain cells from neuro damaging oxidation and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Soybeans contain heart- and artery-healthy protein, fiber, and fats, 1 cup of soybeans a day.
- Tomato juice and spaghetti sauce contain folate, lycopene, and other nutrients to keep arteries young, 8 ounces of juice or 2 tablespoons of spaghetti sauce a day.[31]
- Olive oil, canola oil, nut oils, fish oils, flax seed, avocados contain heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. Twenty-five percent of daily calories should be healthy fats. Plant oils are far healthier for the brain than saturated fats, so prefer peanut, sunflower, peanut butter, and other polyunsaturated oil sources too.[32]
- Real chocolate (at least 70 percent cocoa) increases the release of dopamine and provides flavonoids, which keep arteries young, one ounce a day (to replace milk chocolate).
- Grapes and tea contain resveratrol which has both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that can ward off dementia and protect brain cells.[33] The catechins in tea may also work in tandem with resveratrol for boosted protection.[34]
- Pomegranate juice has been shown in laboratory studies to improve mental functioning.[35] The fruit is just as good too.
- Garlic and ginger work as antioxidants and are easy to slip into lots of your favorite dishes.[36]
- Avoid processed foods. Just as there are "brain foods", there are "brain drain foods" that are best avoided except as special treats. These foods include fatty and processed meats; cakes, cookies, and pastries; trans-saturated fats (cookies, baked goods, etc.); and saturated fats such as butter.[37][38] High sugar diets are not good for brain health – research has shown that a lot of sugar decreases the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that develops new brain tissue, and very low BDNF levels have been linked with depression and schizophrenia.[39]
- Adjust your eating habits as you age. As you go through the different stages of life, your need for antioxidants and other nutrients changes as the years do. Changes in taste, appetite, and things such as having less stomach acid and less saliva as you grow older mean that you will experience food differently, and your nutrient needs will also change.[41] And the amount of antioxidants you need as you age increases dramatically with each passing decade, to counteract the actions of the free radicals, so you need to build up the antioxidants in your body to protect the brain, and this supply must be replenished daily.[42]
- If you remember one thing out of all this, it is eat less and healthier as you age. That way, you can't go wrong!
Video
Tips
- Good fats (omega-3 fatty acids) found in fish, nuts and seeds help the brain, helping keep your arteries clear help your neurotransmitters and reduce depression, and help to stop artery clogging and begin reversing it.
- Many find that a correct intake of Omega 3 (a natural blood thinner, blows coumadin away) negates the need for a daily aspirin.
- Consider powdered "whole food" vitamins, sold as "compounds", or "formulas"; people asking you "what are you taking"? makes the taste all worth it.
- There are excellent, inexpensive compounds of brain vitamins available, also.
- Exercise is a crucial parallel step with a good diet to ensure that your brain remains healthy. Keep up a moderate and regular exercise regime throughout your life.
Warnings
- Always review dietary changes and dietary expectations with your doctor or other relevant health professional.
- Keep informed. There are new studies coming out regularly and new compounds, processes, and warnings are issued when new discoveries are made. Keep an eye on reputable health websites, journals, and magazines; government health websites are good sources for reliable information.
- Saturated fats cause clogging of arteries to your brain, increasing risk of stroke.
- Unfortunately, in a review of multivitamins defects were found in over 30% of the multivitamins selected for review (70% were okay). And many products exceeded tolerarances on upper limits for certain vitamins or minerals. Problems found in the multivitamin reviews include:[43]
- Three of four popular children's multivitamins reviewed were too high in vitamin A.
- One men's multivitamin was contaminated with lead and another had too much folic acid, associated with doubling the risk of prostate cancer.
- One general multivitamin had no more than 50% of labeled folic acid. Another was missing 30% of the calcium versus label.
- A senior's, a prenatal, and a women's multivitamin each had only 44.1%, 44.3%, and 66.1%, respectively, of the labeled vitamin A.
- A vitamin water had 15 times its stated folic acid, so drinking one bottle would exceed the tolerable limit for adults; less than half a bottle would put children over the limit.
- A pet multivitamin was contaminated with lead and another had only 46% of its vitamin A and 54.7% of its calcium.
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