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The Best Diet for Brain Health & Memory
The foods that we eat actually provide the structural bases, the building blocks of the very neurons that allow us to think over time. There are a lot of data now that indicate certain things that we can do, including certain foods that we should eat in order to enhance our brain function. Some of the most frequent questions I get are about food and the brain. Everybody seems to want to know what they should eat and what they shouldn't eat in order to have peak brain function to be able to focus and memorize things and so forth, and in order to maintain brain health over time because nobody wants to lose their memory or have troubles with cognition. Fortunately, there are a lot of data now from really good quality peer-reviewed studies that indicate certain things that we can do, including certain foods that we should eat and perhaps even some foods that we should avoid in order to enhance our brain function. And of course, when I say brain, what I really mean is nervous system function because how we are able to move and remember things, etc. Doesn't just depend on the neurons, the nerve cells that are in our head, it also depends on our spinal cord and the neurons that connect all the organs of our body. So in general, there are two categories of things that are going to improve brain health from the perspective of nutrition. The first category is the general category of things that we eat and avoid and things that we do and avoid doing that will modulate brain health and function. What do I mean by modulate? Well, getting quality sleep on a regular basis, making sure that you're socially connected, making sure that you're not depressed. All these things are vitally important to our overall health, and of course they will impact brain function, but they do it more or less indirectly. There are a few things that happen in sleep which directly benefit brain function and repair, etc. But today, I really want to concentrate not on the things that modulate our overall health, but rather the things that mediate brain health directly. And in particular, how certain foods enhance brain function, and we are going to talk about how we can change our relationship to food. Literally, how we can start to prefer certain foods that are better for us than others. So just briefly, I want to touch on the modulatory components because they are vital. First of all, getting quality sleep on a regular basis and ample sleep on a regular basis is the foundation of all mental health and physical health. There's no question about that. So I just want to make crystal clear that unless you're sleeping well on a regular basis, your brain will suffer. You won't be able to focus very well, learn very well, and indeed there are data linking poor quality sleep to dementia or at least exacerbating pre-existing dementias and things of that sort. So get your sleep in order. The other, of course, is cardiovascular health and exercise. The general prescription that's out there in the literature and I think is well supported is to get somewhere between 150 and 180 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week. If you choose to also use resistance exercise, that's great, but the 150 to 180 minutes minimum per week of cardiovascular exercise is crucial for heart health and heart health directly relates to brain health because the brain consumes a lot of oxygen and glucose and other factors that are delivered via the blood. So if your arteries are clogged up and you've got poor vascular supply to the brain in any region of the brain, your brain will suffer. So get cardiovascular health in order. Now with those two modulatory elements set forth so that we're all aware that they're there and they are vitally important. Now I'd like to turn to the elements that have been shown to be vitally important for directly controlling, for mediating neuron function. Neurons, of course, are nerve cells in the brain and there are other cell types too, of course, that will impact brain function, the most prominent of which are the so-called glia. Glia means glue, but even though for a long time people thought that these cells were just kind of holding things together passively, the glia play a very active role in the metabolism neurons in brain function and probably also in cognition, in thinking, and so forth. So what are the things that directly impact brain health and what are the foods that we can eat that will support brain health? Generally, when we think about neuron function and brain function, we default to a discussion about fuel, the fact that neurons use glucose, which is blood sugar, and that they require a lot of it. In some cases they'll use ketones, which we will talk about a little bit later, especially in people that are following a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet. But before we can even consider the fuels that neurons use in order to function, we have to talk about the elements that actually allow those neurons to be there and to stay healthy, what actually makes up those neurons. And that brings us to what I would argue is the most important food element for brain function, and that is fat. And that might come as a surprise, but unless one considers the water content of the brain, which is very high, a lot of our brain and a lot of the integrity of the nerve cells, the so-called neurons in our brain, and the other types of cells comes from fat. And that's because nerve cells and other cells in the brain have an external layer. It's what's sometimes called a double-layered membrane. It's essentially two thin layers that serve as a boundary between those cells, and that boundary is very important because how things pass across that boundary actually regulates the electrical activity of neurons, which is the way that neurons fire and communicate and keep you thinking and acting and doing all the good things that those neurons allow us to do. And those membranes are made up of fats, but they're not made up of the fats that are around our belly, around the other organs of our body, they're not made up of storage fat, they are made up of structural fat, and maintaining the so-called integrity of that structural fat, meaning the health of those neurons is going to come in large part from the foods that we eat. This needs to be underscored. What I'm saying is that the foods that we eat actually provide the structural basis, the building blocks, of the very neurons that allow us to think over time. And, as I mentioned earlier, the fat that makes up those neurons in other nerve cells is different than the other types of fat in the body. So what type of fat is it, and what should we eat in order to support that fat and those neurons? And the answer is the so-called essential fatty acids and phospholipids. Now, those are more or less the same thing, but I just want to make a very large literature, very crystal clear. Essential fatty acids can include the so-called EPA variety or DHA variety. You hear about omega-3s and omega-6s. Most people are getting enough omega-6s from their diet. Not everybody, but most people are getting enough omega-6s. However, most people are not getting enough omega-3s in their diet to support healthy brain function in the short and long term. I've talked before about the benefits of elevating the levels of omega-3s in one's diet for sake of offsetting depression and for enhancing mood. And indeed, there's a wealth of literature now pointing to the fact that ingesting at least one or two or even three grams per day of EPA form of essential fatty acid can have effects, positive effects on mood and well-being, that are at least on par with some of the major antidepressant treatments out there, but without similar side effects to those antidepressant treatments. And that for people that are already taking antidepressants, that supplementing with one to two to three grams of EPA, essential fatty acids can actually allow a lower dose of antidepressant treatment to be used and still be effective. So that's depression, but just in terms of maintaining normal cognitive function in people that aren't depressed, the EPA's and omega-3s seem to play a very important role. Of course, you can supplement EPA's through various fish oils and it could be liquid fish oil or capsule fish oil. Some people, if they're not interested in eating fish for whatever reason, they're allergic or for ethical reasons, they can take krill oil. If they don't want to use krill oil, they can use algae and other forms of EPA. However, I think it's clear that one can get a lot of EPA from the proper foods. And it turns out that those foods, not surprisingly, don't just contain high levels of EPA, but they also contain other things that are beneficial for brain health. So what are foods that are high in omega-3s that we should all probably be consuming, at least on a daily basis? The number one is fish, so things like mackerel and salmon and herring and oysters and sardines and anchovies and perhaps the heavyweight champion of EPA's per unit volume is caviar. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not eating a lot of fish. I'm not eating a lot of caviar. I can't remember the last time I had a caviar unless it was sprinkled on a little bit of sushi. I'm not a big fish eater. Personally, I will from time to time, but that's one reason why one might want to supplement with EPA's from another source. But also, EPA's are found in chia seeds and walnuts and soybeans and other plant-based foods. You can look these up online and you'll immediately see that there are a lot of sources of EPA's. And many of the foods that I listed off might be appetizing to you. Some of them might be unappetizing to you, or some of them you might be sort of neutral about. But it's very clear that eating foods that are rich in omega-3s and/or supplementing with omega-3s to get above that 1.5 grams and ideally up to 2 or even 3 grams per day of EPA can be very beneficial for cognitive function in the short and long term. Later in the episode, I'm going to talk about how to actually change your relationship to particular foods so that foods that you don't particularly like, you can actually start to like more. And that might be important for those of you that are thinking mackerel, sardines, I'm making this face because frankly, those are not foods that I naturally like. But again, I want to emphasize that you don't have to consume fish and animal products in order to get sufficient EPA's. You can get them from plants, but I do believe, based on the quality peer-reviewed research, that everybody should be striving to get a minimum threshold of at least a gram and a half of EPA's per day one way or the other. The great thing about omega-3s is that they are also thought to be beneficial for things like cardiovascular health. And although there's some controversy there as to whether or not 2 grams or 3 grams or 6 grams is ideal for cardiovascular health, I think the bulk of evidence points to the fact that getting sufficient omega-3s in the diet is going to support cardiovascular health. Certainly not the only thing people should be doing to support their cardiovascular health aerobic exercise and so forth being important also, but it does seem to support cardiovascular health and in doing so supporting brain health. However, what I'm emphasizing is ingestion of omega-3s to support the very cells within the brain that make up our cognition that allow for cognition and for movement and memory and all the other marvelous things that the brain does. [Music]