Eating Note

What is found that the good tasting food (like chips or soda, for example) taste good in the moment but harm one’s health and promote diseases while food typically not viewed as good tasting (e.g. spinach or broccoli) actually help one’s health in the long run. Food usually tastes good because it has either salt, sugar, or fat; things not naturally found in the wild and promote survival to our ancestors since food was sparse in their time. As a result, those humans who favored these foods tended to live longer and pass on their preferences to their offspring, including us today. Processed foods are high in all three of these things and are thus good tasting. However, these foods take advantage of our ancestor’s preferences hardwired in our brains and make us eat things that contain ingredients that are known to harm the body.

Also, what we eat affects how the brain functions which in turns shapes how we think and perceive the world.¹ There is nothing permanent about who we are, we readily change in response to the environment like when eating food or circumstances in life. People who eat foods rich in nutrients show lower levels in depression and reduce the amount of free radicals in their mind (improves brain performance).¹ In contrast, people who eat foods low in nutrients and high in refined sugars promote deficiencies in brain function¹ and can even lose the connections in their brain.²

The writer noticed that foods that are processed have high number of ingredients and lists those items that are looked for when seeing if the food is unhealthy. Look for items that are hard to pronounce, a rule of thumb is that they are unhealthy and not worth buying. Unhealthy foods have…

• Artificial Flavors
• Food Colorings (e.g. Yellow 5)
• Palm Oil
• Unbleached Enriched Flour
• Bleached Enriched Flour
• Hydrogenated Oils
• Butter/Margarine
• Preservatives
• Sucralose (sugar substitutes)
• Refined sugars (bleached sugar)
• High sugar content

Knowing thus, one can now select foods high in quality as a method to improve brain function which in turn improve themselves. The writer shares foods that help the brain (high quality):

Foods that help the Brain³⁴

• Blueberries (blood flow to the brain)
• Green Tea/Matcha (energy, slow release of caffeine)
• Dark Chocolate/Cocoa (blood flow in the brain)
• Avocados (rich in folate)
• Leafy Greens (memory, short term and long term)
• Fatty Fish (omega 3 fatty acid)
• Flaxseeds and Nuts (omega-3, fibre, protein, vitamin B1)
• Whole Grains (blood flow)
• Beans (stable energy for brain)
• Pomegranate Juice (anti-oxidants)
• Water (efficiency of brain)

If one wants to improve the brain further, there are supplements called nootropics that serve this idea. Among some of the popular ones that can be bought online or in stores. Conduct some research on these to see how they might affect you and seek a physician if you have any doubts about taking them or if they will interfere with any current medications you are on right now.

Supplements that help brain⁵⁶

• Fish oils (including krill): DHA/EPA, defense for brain aging
• Resveratrol: helps the hippocampus, better spatial memory
• Phosphatidylserine: could slow effects of brain aging, improves thinking/memory too (more research though)
• Acetyl-L-carnitine: alertness and memory (for people with brain deficiencies)
• Ginkgo biloba: memory and concentration (writer takes!) (mixed results in studies though)
• Creatine: memory/thinking (for people who are vegetarian/vegan)
• Bacopa monnieri: thinking/memory
• Rhodiola rosea: reduce brain fatigue (more research though)
• S-Adenosyl methionine: for people with depression
• Choline: memory (writer takes!)

Hope this helps with healthy eating for the brain and body!

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