Keeping Your Brain Healthy: Brain-FX

What's for Dinner? Try the fish...

Dr. Antonio Convit, the medical director for the Center for Brain Health at the New York University School of Medicine, tells us that when it comes to memory, you are what you eat.

This post comes to us by way of Dr. Ellen Weber, Brain-Based Business Blog.

People speak often of feeding their brain and you hear people naming foods like fish as brain food. Dr. Convit illustrates how a healthy diet may help to cultivate and sustain your memory.

So if you’re looking for brain food … what should land on your plate…. Not surprisingly…  most foods we eat to strengthen our bodies are also good for the brain and for your well-being  too. Dr. Convit, described himself as a “modified vegetarian” who practices what he preaches….

His best advice is to stick to leafy greens, fish, and other foods that carry a low glycemic index.

Dr. Amen's 7 Steps to Feeding a Healthy Brain

In the past two weeks, I've featured Dr. Amen's article, Seven Simple Brain Promoting Nutritional Tips, from his book Making a Good Brain Great. Here's what else Dr. Amen is known for:

Daniel G. Amen, M.D., is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain-imaging expert who heads up the world-renowned Amen Clinics. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has won numerous writing and research awards.

He writes a monthly column in Men’s Health called “Head Check” and has published nineteen books, numerous professional and popular articles, and a number of audio and video programs.

His books include Making a Good Brain Great (Harmony Books; October 2005;$24.00US/$34.00CAN; 1-4000-8208-0), Preventing Alzheimer’s, Healing Anxiety and Depression, Healing the Hardware of the Soul, Healing ADD, and the New York Times bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. He is an internationally renowned keynote speaker and a popular guest expert for the media, with appearances on CNN, the Today show, The View, and other venues.

For more information please visit www.amenclinic.com.

Brain Foods: Healthy Snacks

This is the 7th and final step in Dr. Amen's book for promoting a healthy brain through food. For more complete information, get his book, Making a Good Brain Great.

7. Plan Snacks

I love to snack; just like to munch on things to get through the day. When snacking it is helpful to balance carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Since I travel frequently, I have learned to take my snacks with me, so I am not tempted to pick up candy bars along the way.

One of my favorite low calorie snacks are dried fruits and vegetables. Not the kind of dried fruits and vegetables stocked in typical supermarkets that are filled with preservatives, but the kind that just have the dried fruit and veggies. A company called Just Tomatoes, from Walnut, California (www.justtomatoes.com) makes great products. When you have dried fruit or veggies -- all carbohydrates -- add some low-fat string cheese or a few nuts to balance it out with protein and a little fat.

Patsi"s note: I love snacks too, but Dr. Amen just hit upon a key to healthy eating. Just about everything that comes out of a factory, i.e. supermarket packages, has unhealthy and artificial ingredients. This is such a bore. The whole point of snacking is to instantly gratify yourself! Yet it is true: be wary of what you are putting in your mouth. If it is in a package, it may not be healthy. If it is fresh, it probably is.

Brain Foods: Getting Fats & Liquids

Dr. Amen completes his list of 24 healthy foods you must have in your weekly diet. For more on his recommendations, look in his book, Making a Good Brain Great.

Fats
20. Avocados
21. Extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
22. Olives
** Salmon (also listed under protein)
** Nuts and nut butter, especially walnuts, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, pecans and almonds (also listed under protein)

Liquids
23. Water
24. Green or black tea

Brain Foods: Complex Carbohydrates

Here's Dr. Amen's list of healthy carbs for your brain in the 6th step series. This is the middle part of his list of 24 healthy foods you should incorporate each week into your diet.

Complex Carbohydrates
9. Berries -- especially blueberries (brain berries), raspberries, strawberries, blackberries
10. Oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit
11. Cherries
12. Peaches, plums
13. Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts
14. Oats, whole wheat, wheat germ -- oatmeal needs to be the long cooking kind as instant has a higher glycemic index since the manufacturer has broken down the fiber to speed cooking time and basically make it a refined carbohydrate. Same goes for bread, look for at least 3 grams of fiber. Remember unbleached wheat flour is white flour, it must say whole wheat.
15. Red or yellow peppers (much higher in Vitamin C than green peppers)
16. Pumpkin squash
17. Spinach -- works wonderfully as a salad, or a cooked vegetable, adds fiber and nutrients
18. Tomatoes
19. Yams
** Beans (also listed under proteins)

Healthy Brain Foods: The Proteins

Which proteins are particularly good for your brain? This list continues Dr. Amen's recommendations for step 6 in his series on promoting healthy brain through food and nutrition.

Lean Protein

1. Fish -- Salmon (especially Alaskan Salmon caught in the wild, farmed fish is not as rich in omega-3-fatty acids), tuna, mackerel, herring (also listed under fats)
2. Poultry -- chicken (skinless) and turkey (skinless)
3. Meat -- lean beef and pork
4. Eggs (enriched DHA eggs are best)
5. Tofu and soy products (whenever possible choose organically raised)
6. Dairy products -- low fat cheeses and cottage cheese, low fat sugar free yogurt and low fat or skim milk
7. Beans, especially garbanzo beans and lentils (also listed under carbohydrates)
8. Nuts and seeds, especially walnuts (also listed under fats) -- Great recipe: soak walnuts in water and sea salt overnight, drain and sprinkle with cinnamon (natural blood sugar balancer) and low roast 4 hours at 250 degrees -- makes them easier to digest.

Healthy Brain Foods: Think Rainbow

This is a great list of the best foods for your brain I have seen yet. Dr. Amen and his book Making a Good Brain Great have done the research for you; now it's up to you to eat right for a healthy brain. How hard can it be?

6. Pick Your Top 24 Healthy Foods and Put Them in Your Diet Every Week

In order for you to stick with a “brain healthy” calorie restricted nutritional plan you must have great choices. I am fond of the book Super Foods Rx by Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews. It lists 14 top food groups that are healthy and reasonable in calories.

I am going to add several other choices that are especially good for the brain. Choose between these 24 foods each week. They are healthy, low in calories, and help us reach the goals of consuming powerful antioxidants, lean protein, high fiber carbohydrates and good fat.

The American Cancer Society recommends five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Mixing colors (eating from the rainbow) is a good way to think about healthy fruits and vegetables. Strive to eat red things (strawberries, raspberries, cherries, red peppers and tomatoes), yellow things (squash, yellow peppers, small portions of bananas and peaches), blue things (blueberries), purple things (plums), orange things (oranges, tangerines and yams), green things (peas, spinach and broccoli), etc.

Healthy Brain: Get Off the Fad Diets!

This 5th step from Dr. Amen is my favorite, because he tells it like it is, or should be, and puts fad diets in their place. It's all about balance if you want a healthy brain.

5. Balance Protein, Good Fats and Carbohydrates

Given the weight issues in my family, I have read many of the diet programs popular in America. Some I like a lot, others make me a little crazy. The idea of eating protein and fat only, avoiding most grains, fruits and vegetables may be a quick way to lose weight, but it is not a healthy long term way to eat for your body or your brain.

The best thing in my mind about the Atkins Diet and its many clones is that they get rid of most of the simple sugars in our diets. Diets high in refined sugars, such as the low fat diets of the past, encourage diabetes, tiredness, and cognitive impairment. Yet, to imply that bacon is a health food and that oranges and carrots are as bad as cake seems silly.

The more balanced diets, such as The Zone by Barry Sears, Sugarbusters by H. Leighton Steward and a group of Louisiana based physicians, the South Beach Diet by cardiologist Arthur Agatston, and Powerful Foods for Powerful Minds and Bodies by Rene Thomas make sense from a body and brain perspective.

The main principles to take away from these programs is that balance is essential, especially balancing proteins, good fats, and good carbohydrates. Having protein at each meal helps to balance blood sugar levels; adding lean meat, eggs, cheese, soy, or nuts to a snack or meal limits the fast absorption of carbohydrates and prevents the brain fog that goes with eating simple carbohydrates, such as donuts. At each meal or snack, try to get a balance of protein, high fiber carbohydrates, and fat.

Your Brain & Fats: Step 3

Here's the skinny on fats from Dr. Amen's book, Making a Good Brain Great.

3. Fish, Fish Oil, Good Fats and Bad Fats

DHA, one form of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, makes up a large portion of the gray matter of the brain. The fat in your brain forms cell membranes and plays a vital role in how our cells function. Neurons are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids. DHA is also found in high quantities in the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye.

Research in the last few years has revealed that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help promote a healthy emotional balance and positive mood in later years, possibly because DHA is a main component of the brain’s synapses.

Patsi's note: This is simple: eat fish and thrive. It's not always easy to eat fish, so take a daily fish oil supplement. Your brain will love you for it!

Food as Brain Medicine: Step 2

This is Dr. Daniel Amen's 2nd step for keeping your brain healthy, from his book: Making a Good Brain Great:

2. Calorie restriction

Substantial research in animals and now in humans indicates that a calorie-restricted diet is helpful for brain and life longevity. Eating less helps you live longer. It controls weight; decreases risk for heart disease, cancer, and stroke from obesity (a major risk factor for all of these illnesses); and it triggers certain mechanisms in the body to increase the production of nerve growth factors, which are helpful to the brain.

Researchers use the acronym CRON for “calorie restriction with optimal nutrition,” so the other part of the story is to make these calories count.

Patsi's note: This may be the hardest of all to keeping your brain healthy. But the research is clear: not only do you have to cut back calories to look and feel better, but a low calorie diet promotes healthier neurons. Furthermore, sugar has deleterious affects on the brain. The good news is that skinny is smart. The bad news is that it's so hard to say 'no' to eating! Your choice...