Foods to Boost Brain Function and Foods to Avoid [OPINION]

Many people have made the switch to healthier lifestyles for various reasons. Some of these reasons include to lose weight, manage their diabetes, promote heart and gut health,  strengthen bones, and much more. But many people don’t realize the importance of how food can impact our brains.

The motherboard of our computerized bodies, our brain needs the most care and nourishment of all our organs combined. We try to take care of our skin, our bones, our weight, but many of us cease to take care of our brains.

Although our brain is quite smaller than the rest of our body, this organ requires a large portion of the energy that we consume through eating. I’ve found a few foods worth bringing to your attention because of their brain boosting benefits. It’s also good to know what to avoid because some foods could damage our brain health.

Spring has sprung and summer is right around the corner. Many of us are preparing our gardens for those beloved cherry tomato plants. These bright vegetables contain nutrients called carotenoids, which improve cognition and memory over long periods of time. Didn’t your mom every tell you most of the nutrients in produce are in the skins? Tomato skins are the source of a nutrient called Lycopene which protects your brain from depression-causing inflammation.  So by packing cherry tomatoes for an on-the-go snack, you could potentially boost your mood.

Spring and summer also provides us with an abundant amount of fruits you can easily find at your local grocery store.  The beautiful pigment in berries comes from Flavonoids which can help improve memory. Blueberries specifically are packed with fiber and both Vitamins C and K which improve motor skills and the brain’s learning capacity. This superfruit is one I will gladly put in to my son’s school lunch.

I was shocked to learn that one medium-sized orange contains the entire recommended daily allowance of vitamin C. Not only does Vitamin C protect the brain against age related decline, Vitamin C protects the brains from free radicals that could damage brain cells (NCBI). Will an orange a day keep the doctor away?

When people think of health they probably don’t think of fats. But in this case, many fatty fish are packed with omega-3 fatty acids which are packed with healthy benefits for the body and brain. The fatty acids protect the arteries that carry blood to the brain and lowers the blood pressure (HHP). Salmon in particular also contains anti-inflammatory properties and improves your brains alertness and memory.

That morning cup of Jo is also masked with brain healthy benefits because of its caffeine levels. Besides being more alert, caffeine also heightens mental functioning and helps to solidify new memories stored in the brain. Chamomile and Green Tea have also been proven to improve cognition (NCBI).

I dare to briefly talk about the coming Fall season which always provides our country with a copious amount of pumpkins. After a day at the pumpkin patch, and as you carve out those gourds, make sure you keep the seeds. Pumpkin seeds are filled with a variety of minerals to support brain function. Zinc and copper support nerve signaling while magnesium and iron promote learning and memory capacity, as well as alert processing within the brain.

Throughout every season, however, there are foods that pop up in our everyday life that scream ‘eat me’. But these foods are not your friend. Besides widening your waistline, these fat and salt laden foods can be severely detrimental to your brains health.

While many store-bought products have taken out the trans-fats, be mindful that this fat is also in the hydrogenated oil that some companies still use. Commercial muffins are notably high in trans-fats which gets it’s bad reputation from its cause of memory deterioration and over decrease in brain  function.

I don’t need to tell you that fried food is bad for your health, but here is just one more reason. Fried food not only clogs your arteries, it diminishes brain function and even increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It’s like a one-two punch to your brain after the fried food is done beating up your gut.

Finally, watch your salt intake. The  biggest culprit of sodium to volume product that we consume somewhat frequently is Soy sauce. High sodium consumption restricts blood from getting to the brain which can affect your focus, organizational skills and memory.

So when dining at your next sushi bar, request a sodium free soy sauce, since now most establishments offer that as an option. Otherwise, I was told that eel sauce is a good substitution because it tastes somewhat like Teriyaki.

What I’ve realized is that most of these foods are already within most diets or healthy lifestyles. These are foods that can easily be obtained, most require little to no preparation, they can be quite affordable when in season, and all of them have brain boosting benefits.

As a mother, I promote healthy eating in my household so I’m relieved to uncover foods that will promote not only my health, but my son’s health and his growing, maturing brain as well.