Can you really feed your brain?

Absolutely, you can. The easiest and maybe even the best way to support your memory and cognitive skills is to incorporate the right foods into your diet. 

What is brain food exactly?  It’s food rich in nutrients known to help you focus and support your critical thinking skills, both now and in the future by nursing your neurons and avoiding the ravages of chronic inflammation.

Here are 8 ways you can feed your brain:

1. Walnuts – coincidentally, what looks like a brain, is great for your brain. With a very high concentration of DHA, an Omega 3 fat, these nuts are effective antioxidants that help optimize brain function and repair. Research shows that consuming walnuts results in lower blood pressure and better stress response.

2. Curcumin – specifically turmeric, the spice that acts like a powerful anti-inflammatory helping increase growth hormone levels that your brain need to generate new neurons and connections. It’s also been found to help reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s and depression. Ancient Ayurvedic medicine knows a thing or two about effective herbal medicine.

3. Dark chocolate – Yes, for once, it’s not “too good to be true”! The dark, rich treat we all love is actually very healthy and loaded with free radical fighting compounds like polyphenols, flavanols and catechins.  Resulting improvements in blood circulation means more oxygen for your brain. 

4. Spinach – Plenty of spinach in your diet helps keep you aware and alert as you age. Yet another powerful antioxidant in your arsenal may reduce the effects of free radicals over your lifetime, helping you fend off cognitive decline.  In the lab, rats fed diets rich in spinach, learned and remembered better, enough to prompt interest in further human studies.

5. Cold water ocean fish – Rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, and essential because your body can’t manufacture them on its own, every cell in your body benefits from enriching the lipid layer in its cell walls. The problem is toxins, ubiquitous in all the earth’s oceans, limiting recommended consumption to no more than two times per week.  To fill in the gaps and still get your daily requirements, Dave’s Best Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil, is designed to give you the purest form of EPA/DHA, derived from environmentally sustainable sources.

6. Coffee – Well known as brain fuel, the caffeine in coffee competes with the neurotransmitter that makes you sleepy (adenosine). As these effects are blocked you become more alert, energetic and focused.  Serotonin, your feel-good chemical is also boosted by drinking coffee, enough to effect positive feelings and help fend off depression.

7. Red meat – Steeped in controversy, yes, but red meat is a critical source of B12, touted as the healthy aging brain vitamin. Studies show that keeping your B12 vitamin level optimized helps fight brain shrinkage, depression and memory problems.  All forms of cognitive decline may benefit from eating foods rich in B12.

8. Eggs – Get crackin’ for breakfast! Egg yolks are rich in choline, an important micronutrient that helps your nerves talk to each other.  It also supports the function of acetylcholine, an anti-aging neurotransmitter.

Incorporating these 8 foods in your diet sets you up for a healthier, more vital brain. We’ve said it before but it bears repeating, your brain is 70% fat and needs fat, specifically Omega 3s. 

Unfortunately, the foods richest in Omega 3s, deep water ocean fish, are contaminated by mercury, cadmium, lead and plastics found in our toxic oceans.

To avoid poisoning yourself, limit your servings of fish to two per week and supplement with Dr. Dave’s Best Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil to face the world with better focus, memory and moods, all the days of your life.