Nutrition and Your Brain

Keeping an eye on your nutrition plays a big part in living a healthy life. That's because of the powerful impact that food can have on your brain health. Here are 10 ways to ensure that your food choices can support your healthy habits, and how to get the biggest bang for your calorie buck.

• Eat high-quality calories as it will lead to high-quality energy output.
• Drink water. The brain is 80% water. Be wary of drinking too many calories and dehydrating beverages: avoid soda, energy drinks, diuretics and alcohol. As a general rule, consume 50% of one’s weight in ounces of water daily.
• Eat high-quality clean protein. It stabilizes energy. Protein provides building blocks for neurotransmitters. Free-range, grass-fed hormone and antibiotic-free fish, lamb, turkey and chicken, beans raw nuts, high-protein veggies like broccoli and spinach.
• Eat smart carbohydrates. Low-glycemic, high fiber carbs that don’t elevate blood sugar.
• Eat 25-35 grams of fiber daily. It decreases ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates appetite. Fiber slows food absorption, reduces bad cholesterol and heart disease, and can lower cancer risk. Sugar increase inflammation and erratic brain cell firing. It’s implicated in aggression and interferes with certain minerals. People with low blood sugar are vulnerable to making bad decisions.
• Eat healthy fats such as salmon, avocados, walnuts and green leafy vegetables.
• Eat from the rainbow. Purposely eat natural foods of many different colors to keep the brain young because they boost antioxidants, which play an important role in mental health.
• Cook with brain healthy herbs and spices like cloves, cinnamon, oregano, sage, thyme and turmeric.
• Make sure food is clean. Avoid artificial colors, sodium benzoate, and foods with the highest levels of pesticide residues. When possible, eat organic.
• Check for food sensitivities such as gluten, dairy and MSG.
• Use food to heal the mind. A Mediterranean diet has been associated with lower levels of depression and dementia.

• Serotonin is the “don’t worry, be happy” neurotransmitter in the brain and is involved with mood stability, sleep regulation, appetite, and social engagement. It can be boosted with certain smart carbohydrates, such as sweet potatoes, steel-cut oats, apples, cherries, red peppers, cantaloupe, and sweet corn.
• Dopamine is the “let’s get it done” neurotransmitter and involved with motivation, emotional significance, relevance, pain, and pleasure. It’s found in protein-rich foods that decrease insulin, such as meat, beans, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, high-protein vegetables and protein powder.
• Acetylcholine, involved in learning, memory, and association, can be boosted by including liver, eggs, lecithin, milk, salmon and shrimp.
• To boost GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is calming, stabilizing, and grounding includes whole grains, bananas, broccoli, nuts, lentils and green tea.

• The gut is our “second” brain. It’s loaded with nervous tissue and is in direct communication with our real brain.
• The gut has a single epithelial layer and is the interface between the external world and body.
• It performs the initial metabolism and transformation of food.
• It provides structural defense, so when the mucosal layer breaks down, there are problems. It can be compromised by stress, drug use, diet, environmental chemicals, gut flora imbalances, and genetic predispositions.
• The gut has 100 trillion microorganisms, and to be healthy, there must be the appropriate relationship of 85% good bugs and 15% bad bugs.
• When out of balance, physical and mental illness can occur as a result.
• Things that can decrease healthy gut criteria include certain medications, stress, sugar intake, artificial sweeteners, food allergies, toxins like bactericidal chemicals in water, pesticides, heavy metals, alcohol, infections, chemo and radiation and high-intensity exercise.
• Antibiotics in food pose the greatest danger to gut bacteria.
• Adding beneficial flora can help make vitamin K and biotin, improve digestion, detoxify, remove estrogen from the body, modulate immunity, control pathogens, and aid nutrient absorption and metabolism. They can also help with allergies or intolerances, regulate hormones, synthesize butyrate that protects the intestine cells from abnormal growth and protect against colon cancer.

Care you will love.